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18 06, 2009

Some Amusing Reading – “A Description of Siam in 1829”

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:46+00:00Asia, Culture, Education, History, Religion, Thailand|0 Comments

thumb4 If only I was as interested in history in high school as I am now, I may even have passed a class or two, instead of getting stared at by teachers bewildered as to how I made all the way to 16 without killing myself in a tragic fruit accident. At any rate, it's a topic that sure interests me now, and one that I occasionally give a boost by doing some reading. I thought it would be neat to put up some snippets of a letter that I just finished titled A Description of Siam in 1829 by Frenchman Barthélemy Bruguière. I normally stick to more 'accessible' fare (coughArchiecough). but had some time to kill, and ended up really getting into it. It's an interesting - and slightly funny - read.

14 06, 2009

A Bangkok Good Time for $10 or $1,000 – the Choice is Yours

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:47+00:00Bangkok, Tips on Visiting|0 Comments

thumb3 With the recent release of ECA's Cost of Living survey, many people have been surprised to learn that some of the most expensive cities for expats to live in are not what you'd expect. For instance, Tokyo, Japan is #2, second only to Luanda, Angola. Angola?! Indeed, there are many cities on there that you wouldn't expect to find, and our beloved Bangkok comes in at 28th on the list of the most expensive cities in Asia. In terms of cost, Bangkok is a bit of a bear to figure out, but it's one of the things I love - a great night out can cost you a few bucks, or set you back several thousand, depending on what your tastes are.

9 06, 2009

The Conundrum of Thai Education

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:47+00:00Culture, Education|0 Comments

thumb2 I saw an article in the Bangkok Post yesterday and it inspired me to write this rant post. The headline read "Obec queries benefit of repeated classes", Obec being the Office of the Basic Education Comission, which oversees the rules and regulations that govern the Thai education system. I'll include some quotes below, but essentially the article said that making kids repeat courses if they fail is unfair because it makes them feel bad, and doesn't have any real benefit anyway. Good Lord, someone call the Wah!mbulance. Having done my time in front of a class in Thailand, I thought I'd chime in with some thoughts.

4 06, 2009

Thoughts on Piracy in Thailand

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:47+00:00Bangkok, Politics, Pop Culture, Technology|0 Comments

thumb1 No, not the type where heavily armed Somolian teenagers try to board 330-foot long oil tankers from an inflatable dinghy with a cake-mixer motor. Rather, I'm talking about the type where you can buy fake name brand stuff for really cheap! Everyone knows that Thailand is one of the best countries to buy worst offenders when it comes to selling fake stuff. Thailand has recently seen a crackdown on illegal goods vendors, ramped up as a direct result of a United States Trade Representative report saying, essentially, Thailand sells pirated goods, so they're bad. Here's my thoughts on piracy in Thailand...

2 06, 2009

Meanwhile, in Bangkok: T-shirts Not to Wear to a Wedding

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:47+00:00Meanwhile in Bangkok...|0 Comments

T-shirts with cool slogans on them have become quite the hot little item in the past few years. Be they funny, cool, geeky, dirty or cute, it seems that you can find your voice no matter what socio-economic bubble life has shoehorned you into. Luckily, Bangkok's endless street markets are a great place to find some very funny examples. Although many of them are made by Thais with a very weak grasp on what makes a t-shirt statement 'cool' (my favorite - a picture of a potted plant with the words 'Spaceship One', swear to God), most are really neat. Some make you laugh, some make you go 'Awww...', and some - like the shirt below - make you go "WTF?"

29 05, 2009

The Changing Face of Bangkok – 1970 vs 2009

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:47+00:00Bangkok, History|0 Comments

thumb1 I've talked about the subject before, but for some reason I have a strange fascination with comparing Bangkok today to Bangkok of old (of yore?). In such a dynamic, crazy, haphazard city that rushes forward while dragging giant piles of the past, it's endlessy interesting to juxtapose what is with what once was. In other words - dude, things change fast. While browsing the excellent site 2Bangkok.com, I found a link to another excellent site, ThaiVisa.com, which had a discussion going on in one of its forums about pictures of Bangkok throughout the decades. Two caught my eye - firstly, because I know this particular area so well, and secondly, because the change is so severe.

25 05, 2009

Is That Résumé Legal? In Thailand, Probably.

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:47+00:00Asia, Thailand|5 Comments

help There are many, many things in Thailand that make you do a double- or triple-take when you see them for the first time. Your brain says, "There's no way that'd be allowed back home!" But then you realize that TIT (This is Thailand) and not everything works the way it does in the motherland. And not even crazy stuff like police bribes or mobs shutting down airports - I'm talking about little things. Dudes hanging from a rope painting the side of a building... secretaries in high heels walking on rutted sidewalks oblivious to buses whizzing by six inches away... construction workers in flip-flops... pit-stains at board meetings, etc. Another thing that's likely to jump out at you if you stay here long enough is the info you're expected to divulge on a resume.

5 04, 2009

An Afternoon With a Tea Master

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:48+00:00Asia, Culture, Food|3 Comments

Like many big cities with a strong 'crossroads' element, Bangkok is a place where cultures, personalities, and histories merge into one big socio-economic stew. There exists almost unlimited opportunities to see things you've never heard about; experience things you've never thought of; and talk to people you never would have met otherwise. It's a hell of an opportunity to learn some pretty cool stuff. At a recent lecture at the Siam Society, I met a gentleman named John Toomey, an American who is, ahem, steeped in the ancient and intricate tea ceremonies of Japan and Korea. He very graciously invited myself and a few others to his house to take part in a tea ceremony, and this is how it went down. A warning - if you don't really dig tea or cultural nuance, this post might be a bit long for you.

27 03, 2009

Meanwhile, in Bangkok: Daylight Loaning Time

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

After a while here, you get used to 'Thai Time', which is really just another way of saying 'always being late'. Granted, the unpredictable traffic throws a particularly nasty kink into things, but I've lost count of how many times I've thought I'd have the whole movie theater to myself, only to have 75% of the audience pile in 15 minutes after the movie starts (and don't even get me started on the glacial pace that Thais amble around the city). That's just the way things work, and you get used to it. But when I was walking down Sukhumvit 22 the other day, I noticed a peculiar sign on the window of a shop that seemed to give me an extra hour every day.

24 03, 2009

The Internet’s Golden Rule

Greg2016-11-17T15:48:48+00:00Technology|0 Comments

cam Remember when you could hide that naughty Polaroid of your hunny-bunny in the back of a closet with all the dirty notes and ball gags, and it would stay hidden until you deemed necessary? Me neither, because I'm not into ball gags (on Amazon.com, really?!), but the point is - in today's wired world, it's very hard to keep anything secret; usually, once you hit 'enter', it's out there for the world to see. I was reminded of this the other day when a normal and totally unscandalous tweet that I had sent via Twitter (see Greg To Twitter at right) ended up on one of my e-friend's web pages. It served to remind me of the golden rule of the internet: act as if everything you type, tweet or create will be seen by the one person you don't want to see it.