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7 07, 2010

A Morning with the Tourism Authority at Ratchprasong

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:29+00:00Bangkok, Current Events, Politics, Thailand|0 Comments

The Thai government has been working overtime in the wake of all the red shirt mayhem that went down a few months ago to reassure everyone that all is well and things are back to normal. Of course, looking at the big picture and the deep social scarring left from the protests it might be a bit of a misnomer to say things are 'back to normal', but on the surface (where most tourists reside), things look pretty regular. However, businesses are still hurting, so to help drum up interest in the Ratchprasong area (where most of the fires and shootings took place), the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) organized a special press tour of the affected area, which I was lucky enough to be invited to.

30 06, 2010

Five Things I Wish I Knew About Thailand Before I Got Here

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:29+00:00Bangkok, Culture, Thailand, Tips on Visiting, Travel|0 Comments

After a few years as an expat, you look back on your first days/weeks/months here and smile. Or cringe. Usually cringe. The amount of mistakes and cultural boo-boo's you make in your first foray into fitting into a new culture is often the source of much guffaws for Thais, and - hopefully - act as benchmarks for the progress you've made in adapting to living in the Land of Smiles. However, hindsight is 20/20, and I was thinking recently about a few things I wish I had known before I came overe here. It could have saved me a few grief-filled afternoons, but... then again, I wouldn't have some of the cool stories I do. At any rate, here are my top five things I wish that I had known before I moved to Thailand.

18 06, 2010

Meanwhile, in Bangkok: Shirts to Shock Parents With

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:30+00:00Meanwhile in Bangkok...|0 Comments

I've grown quite fond of the crazy t-shirts that one can find wandering Bangkok's forgotten malls and hidden shopping dens; they offer everything from cutesey Japanese manga characters to X-rated slogans and pictures. Although shirts in my size (XL to XXL depending on which brand it is) rarely have anything cool on them, I'm still able to find the odd gem with a pithy slogan or cool picture (except my "On the Eh Team" Canadian flag t-shirt which I had to order online). But what really makes the whole thing pop is that a lot of times, Thais don't seem to understand the subtle meaning of their shirt's slogan. Or, like this girl, they do, and just don't give a crap.

2 06, 2010

Bangkok’s Darwinian Filters

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:30+00:00Bangkok, Culture|0 Comments

Life in Bangkok tends to shatter many preconceptions that many foreigners have; that's a given. One that’s most often seen is how loosey-goosey some standard guidelines of day-to-day existence can be over here when compared to back home – simple things like how close you can comfortably get to moving traffic, the cleanliness of restaurants, or where children are allowed to play. After a while here, the elasticity with which these rules are enforced become second nature, but every so often I get a reminder of how anally-retentive and just plain stupid we in the west can be. Like the following true story of this woman who put a bit too much faith in technology.

1 06, 2010

Bangkok in a Bun: How a Weird-Ass Treat Symbolizes the City’s Awesomeness

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:30+00:00Bangkok, Food, Thailand|8 Comments

There’s a lot of strange things to be found in Bangkok, from the driving ‘rules’ to the cultural norms to the variety of food. For first-time visitors it’s usually exhilarating, confusing and draining all at once, and rarely is it boring. It’s hard to imagine what could accurately depict all the intangible pieces of Bangkok’s jigsaw as a single image, but it struck me the other day that the closest I could come was one of Bangkok’s favorite treats – and something that makes absolutely no sense to us foreigners the first time we see it: the Bangkok ice cream sandwich.

22 05, 2010

On Bangkok’s Curfew… and Snacks

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:31+00:00Bangkok, Current Events, Politics, Thailand|0 Comments

As you likely know, Bangkok has, for the past several nights, been under curfew. This isn't something I've experienced since I was about 15 years old, so to say it was a bit odd is an understatement; knowing that you'll likely be arrested by the army if you're outside after 9pm is the adult version of a kid running home at sunset to avoid the monsters that come out after dark. Seeing the city asleep has been very strange. Normally buzzing with the sound of cars, motorbikes, music, food and general city sounds, the city is quiet and lifeless. Standing on your balcony looking out out across the blinking lights, I felt a bit like Will Smith in I Am Legend, but without all the abs.

14 05, 2010

The Role of Twitter in the Bangkok Protests

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:32+00:00Bangkok, Current Events, Politics, Technology, Thailand, Web Media|0 Comments

Well, despite my vow to avoid writing about politics, here's another post about the situation in Bangkok. As the redshirts tear up the city, again, and the army tries to beat them into submission, again, it's like some sick version of Batman vs The Joker - neither side wins, everyone loses, wash, rinse repeat. I don't mean to crack wise - the situation is tense, deadly and will have long-term repercussions for the entire country. Being stuck amid events like these is not something that us North Americans are used to, and I've written before about how it changes your perceptions of reality. It also really opens your eyes into the machinery behind situations like this, most notably the machinery of how information is distributed and consumed. In this regard, it's been a salient - although deadly - crash course in the power of Twitter.

4 05, 2010

5 Surefire Ways to Get Punched in the Face in Thailand

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:32+00:00Bangkok, Culture, Politics, Thailand|0 Comments

Thailand’s oft-hapless Tourism Authority has always done a good job of pushing Thailand as ‘The Land of Smiles’. The problem with this, of course, is that anyone who reads a few paragraphs of sanitized TAT-approved copy arrives in Thailand thinking that everyone is running around with grins so big that their heads are splitting open. Of course this is not the case – Thailand has jerks and thugs just like any country, and the ‘Thai Smile’ can often be nothing more than a mask for some serious emotional distress. With this in mind, be wary of what you do and say, because while Thais certainly love to smile, they aren’t shy about giving someone his comeuppance, if they deserve it.

21 04, 2010

How Expat Life Changes Your Perceptions of ‘Normal’

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:32+00:00Asia, Bangkok, Culture, Politics, Thailand|0 Comments

From a sociologist’s point of view, traveling to (and living in) a strange culture is akin to taking off your clothes and jumping butt-nekkid into a cold mountain lake. It strips away any notion of comfort that you may have had and gives you a new perspective on yourself, your surroundings, and the world you inhabit. Thailand certainly has this effect on one as well, as I expect living in or visiting most any country would, but in some very interesting ways. There are many short-term changes - things that most people recognize during their first week, month or year - but there are also a surprising amount of long-term changes that sneak up on you.

12 04, 2010

A Tragedy in Bangkok, and the Opportunities it Brings

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:33+00:00Bangkok, Current Events, History, Politics|0 Comments

As I mentioned in my previous post about the red shirts, I usually avoid writing about politics for two reasons: 1) the situations often evolve too quickly for my sporadic man-child comments to be of any use, and 2), I'll be the first to admit it - I'm not so smrt in the politics department. However, I am affected by what's going on, and it has serious implications for the future of Thailand. So, instead of adding to the flood of theories of what happened and opinions on what will happen next, I thought I'd just put out a few thoughts on how a regular dude feels all caught up in what's going on.