Greg, Author at Greg to Differ

The Stunning Furniture of the P. Tendercool Workshop

A few years ago I wrote a story for CNN Travel about a cool little soi that had an antique studio, an art gallery, and a store that sold amazing tables. Were it not for the constant 30° heat, it would be easy to think you were in a lost corner of New York. I got know the owner of the table store over the years, and recently was afforded the opportunity to drop by his studio to see some of his new creations. I know what you’re saying – tables don’t seem that exciting, but […]

Greg2016-11-17T15:47:53+00:00Asia, Bangkok, Thailand|0 Comments

Bangkok/Thailand vs. Tokyo/Japan

Every high school kid has an idea for a dream career that probably won’t come true. My friends wanted to be singers or dancers or actors or film directors (I went to a performing arts school, obviously), but my dream was a bit odd. I wanted to move to Japan and live in a little hut and learn how to make swords. Surprisingly, sword-making isn’t easy to learn in small-town Canada, so I made up for it by taking Japanese language courses, reading Japanese history books, and studying Japanese martial arts (stop laughing, I was surprisingly good). At […]

Greg2016-11-17T15:47:53+00:00Asia, Bangkok, Travel|15 Comments

My Secret to Dealing With Bangkok’s Constant Protests

As it does on a seemingly regular basis, Thailand’s protest season has started up again. As of today, the prime minister is in an unstable position and facing threats and calls for her to step down; boisterous, abusive mobs on both sides of the political divide are making threats to individuals and sometimes even attacking them for completely fabricated reasons; mobs have stormed several government ministries; and there’s a general air of uneasiness and behind-closed-door-edness in the air. This kind of thing has been going on for years now, and used to really upset me. I used to […]

Greg2016-11-17T15:47:53+00:00Bangkok, Current Events, Politics, Thailand|0 Comments

Can Thailand’s Tour Guides Save Themselves?

After living in Bangkok for so long I sometimes forget how lost I was when I first got here. As I wrote in 2001 when I first arrived: “Walking down streets I can’t remember past landmarks I don’t recognize to order food I can’t pronounce.” But now that I’m comfortable here all of that is forgotten – except when I travel out of Thailand. If you relish the raw unfamiliarity of making it on your own in a strange land, more power to you, but I got that out of my system a long time ago. Now when […]

Greg2016-11-17T15:47:54+00:00Bangkok, Thailand, Travel|9 Comments

Meanwhile, in Bangkok: Sports Shirts for Perverts

If you’ve been following the recent spate of Nazi-themed controversies in Thailand, you’ll understand when I say that the Land of Smiles often has a less-than-firm grip on the concept of political correctness. Not that that’s always a bad thing – sometimes it’s downright hilarious. Often, the best canvas for this horrifying/brilliant mashup of ideas is t-shirts, such as the one I covered in a previous post about “wiping love on her face”. My friend today spotted another classic one while wandering through Central Rama 9. […]

Greg2016-11-17T15:47:54+00:00Meanwhile in Bangkok...|0 Comments

Learning Thai from a White Guy

It’s no secret that my Thai is embarrassingly bad. I mean, I can get through the day without using English and can usually get my idea across in broken Thai, but after 12 years it should be much better. To put it in perspective, if I met a guy in Canada who had lived there for 12 years and spoke English at the same level I speak Thai, I’d think he was retarded. I could blame it on the fact that every job I’ve had has used English as its operational language, or that every Thai friend I […]

Greg2016-11-17T15:47:54+00:00Education, Language, Thailand|16 Comments

Bangkok’s Biggest Graffiti

Another week, another bike ride. Following on my previous post where I mapped (probably) all of the future rail routes in Bangkok, I decided to have a bit of fun and get creative with my next ride. Well…more creative than normal. Making routes around Bangkok in Google Maps is something that I really like doing – it’s a matter of using the map view to find a rough route from A to B, and then zooming in to refine the route using satellite view and street view to find short-cuts and obstacles you can’t see on […]

Greg2016-11-17T15:47:55+00:00Bangkok, Biking, Transport|0 Comments

Visiting a Thai Hospital for a Quick Stitch-Up

So as I often do, I headed out for a bike ride with some friends today. I was going to meet them at Wong Wian Yai BTS station and take a new route down to the Gulf of Thailand for a bit of exploring and hopefully un-rained-on riding. However, as luck would have it the trip ended up being cancelled before it even started and I ended up laying on a gurney in a hospital getting stitches in one of the most cringe-worthy places you can imagine that’s not on your torso. I’ve been in Thailand so long […]

Greg2016-11-17T15:47:55+00:00Bangkok, Biking, Health, Thailand|0 Comments

The Hidden Art in Thai Script

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not really in a position to be writing about the nuance and flourish of the Thai language, but as I continue to slowly force my way through the thick membrane of ภาษาไทย (the Thai language) into its gooey center (sorry for that disturbing metaphor), I keep noticing cool little details and shortcuts that make me appreciate the language even more. Case in point – I was in a meeting at work the other day and happened to look at the tissue box on the table and noticed that the Thai […]

Greg2016-11-17T15:47:55+00:00Language, Thailand|0 Comments

Meanwhile, in Bangkok: Those Are Some Hairy Legs, Ma’am

I don’t think there’s any way I can write this without sounding slightly sexist, but I’m going to throw it out there anyway for discussion. It’s probably more of a cultural issue, come to think of it, but let me pose a query: do you think women should shave their legs? It’s an open-ended one, for sure, and one’s answer will probably take on shades of culture, femininity, pride, sexual politics and even religion, depending on who answers. Be that as it may – the culture I grew up in was one where a woman with hairy legs […]

Greg2016-11-17T15:47:55+00:00Asia, Bangkok, Culture, Meanwhile in Bangkok...|15 Comments

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