If you are looking to go somewhere cosier than Glow’s dance floor on a Friday night, you can always head to one of Thailand’s world-famous pubs. No, I jest.  Pubs are like pizzerias or taquerias in Bangkok – keep your expectations low, your stomach empty, and you will be pleasantly, if not moderately, surprised. German … read the full post

The stars — and moon — are moving into alignment to bring Bangkok some of the worst flooding in fifty years. October 16 will see a spring tide (a tide that is higher than normal because of the position of the moon) that causes the Chao Phraya river to stop draining towards the sea, while … read the full post

It’s a nasty surprise that most travellers only find out when they arrive, but bank-owned automatic teller machines (ATMs) in Thailand charge 150 baht per foreign transaction. The fee can add up to quite a hefty burden if you were planning on withdrawing money in small amounts, daily. It might not seem like much, but … read the full post

A few days ago, my friend from the States asked me, “Does Bangkok have coconuts?” At first, I thought he was making a subtle innuendo. “That’s my deal breaker,” he explained. If there were no coconuts in his city of residence, he would consider relocation. I thought about his question for myself, and came up … read the full post

Whenever I get to a new city, I immediately realise there are about 10 million mysterious things going on. Confusion escalates as I suddenly remember I never looked up how to get around town or whether or not I could drink the tap water. To avoid that type of confusion when you roll into Bangkok, … read the full post

The Food Factory is a food hall located in the Huay Kaew branch of Central shopping mall — but possessing a slightly more imaginative name than you might expect for Central. Now the food offerings aren’t frankly the most imaginative, but it does have several advantages: cheap prices, bilingual menus, it’s clean and bright and on … read the full post

Thai food gets a lot of props overseas — it’s almost ubiquitous now in North America, Europe and Australasia, but what doesn’t get much play are Thai desserts. Thai desserts are not always immediately recognisable as dessert — strangely wobbling gelled cubes, green “noodles” floating in a bowl of white liquid, bright orange strips, threads, … read the full post

On the basis that you’d assume no news was good news there was no news yesterday – which is good news! Although water had spread out to areas further from the river over the last couple of days levels are now happily down right across Chiang Mai. Worarot and night bazaar areas and west of … read the full post