Why I Avoid One Thai Road When we planned our road trip to the coast of Prachuapkirikhan last year, it should have been simple. Travelling from anywhere near Bangkok there’s an obvious route that online maps will tell you to follow, and it looks perfectly reasonable and logical on the screen of a smartphone. Instead, … Read more
How We Survived Thailand’s Big 2011 Flood Yesterday there was a six-lane highway outside our front gate. This morning it had disappeared beneath a fast-moving brown river. Within minutes, water was exploding under the compound wall and racing towards our house. We had just enough time to climb upstairs and watch our world disappear. Some … Read more
The Mekong River: Where Myths, Monsters and Mystery Still Flow During my years of exploring this intriguing country, some of Thailand’s greatest mysteries have taken me to remote temples, forgotten villages and hidden mountain forests. But every traveller has one journey that remains unfinished. Mine leads back to the Mekong and what many consider it’s … Read more
A Dog, Micky Mouse and 3000 Holes A Geological Mystery and… Mickey Mouse? On one of my earlier trips to the far northeastern edge of Thailand, where the country kisses the border of Laos along the mighty Mekong River, I found a remote place where the earth suddenly gives way to an almost alien landscape. … Read more
Are These Sea Gypsies Really Dolphins? No doubt some of you have visited the so-called Sea Gypsy islands in Surin National Marine Park in southern Thailand, or at least you may have heard of it. But there are some things utterly unique about these former seafaring nomads which is like something out of a sci-fi … Read more
Kukrit Pramoj A Man of Literature And Politics Few figures in modern Thai history have cast as long, vibrant, and deeply complex a shadow as Mom Rachawongse Kukrit Pramoj. He was a prince by blood, a bohemian by nature, a fierce political tactition, a master storyteller, and a man who held the fragile heart of … Read more
Legend of the Banana Tree Ghost If you’re like me and enjoy driving out into the rural provinces of Thailand, away from the flashing neon of the cities and deep into the emerald agricultural heartlands, you will eventually encounter a bizarre anomaly. A modern highway will stretch perfectly straight for many kilometers, only to suddenly … Read more
The Chaotic World of Thai Buffalo Racing For over 150 years, this unpolished, high-octane rural carnival has turned Thailand’s most peaceful beast of burden into a high-stakes drag racer. Welcome to the Chonburi Buffalo Racing Festival. Yes there is such a thing, it’s wild and crazy in every sense, and if you play your cards … Read more
The POW Surgeon Who Cheated Death I’ve always found it remarkable that when we stand among the quiet forests and mist-covered hills of Kanchanaburi today, it’s almost impossible to imagine the suffering that unfolded here in 1943. Yet these peaceful mountains became the route of the infamous Japanese Death Railway where thousands of Allied prisoners … Read more
A Sunset, a Sea View… and a Thai Wine? Hi Folks, Imagine sitting on your hotel balcony as another glorious Thai sunset paints the sky in shades of orange and crimson. A gentle sea breeze drifts past while you relax with a glass of wine in your hand. It’s a wonderful way to end a … Read more