Thailand Voice

If you go to Thailand on holiday, you will most likely find that the local food is one of your highlights. You will find this both delicious and cheap. Here are some of my favourite Thai food dishes. 1. Tom Yum Egg Noodle with Red Pork (baa mee tom yum) 2. Egg Noodle …

For the past three days, Samut Prakan City has been submerged under seawater for three to fours hours during the high tide period. Both Samut Prakan and Bangkok are gradually sinking into the sea. Floods are becoming more common every year. Traffic in Samut Prakan City…

Every year in October there is a big temple fair in Samut Prakan. It is the most important annual tradition for the people in our province. It is called the “Phra Samut Chedi Fair” and lasts for 12 days and 12 nights. It is an event that we all look forward to as there …

A Thai official (R) walks past an anti-AIDS campaign poster displayed at the Thai Ministry of Public Health in Bangkok on September 24, 2009. An experimental AIDS vaccine has for the first time cut the risk of infection in a ‘breakthrough’ in the quarter-century battle against the deadly epidemic, researchers…

Hardly a week goes without someone sending me an email out of the blue via www.thai-blogs.com . Very often it’s just an old friend/acquaintance of mine whose found me blogs by chance, then occasionally an email concerning an old blog of mine. Rarely, however, do I get an email as touching as…

This is continuing my interview with Peter Robinson, who is probably better known in Thailand as “Phra Farang”, the foreign monk. (Click here for part one.) Peter spent ten years as a monk before finally disrobing in order to spend more time with…

One of the best books about Buddhism in Thailand is undoubtedly “Phra Farang: An English Monk in Thailand” by Phra Peter Pannapadipo. Even if you are not interested in becoming a monk yourself, his vivid description of his ten years as a foreign monk in Thailand …

Thailand is in big trouble again. Its tourism industry was already facing disaster last year with the prolonged airport closure. Things looked like it was starting to get better but the situation has just been going from bad to worse. This year Thailand has received a lot of negative press from the …

Suang Puangsri, 38, cleans his home in Uttaradit province, 600 km (373 miles) north of Bangkok September 4, 2009. Suang has adapted his house to live with his unusual pets, about 4,600 scorpions, as part of his atonement after serving the creepy crawlies on the menu…

A plainclothes policeman arrives at the scene of a bomb attack in Thailand’s Yala province, about 1,084 km (674 miles) south of Bangkok September 4, 2009. A bomb in a pick-up truck exploded in Thailand’s southern Yala province on Friday, killing a policeman and wounding 10 villagers, police said, the latest deadly blast in a region plagued…

A 74 years old man in Sisaket Province has been living in a hole for the past 30 years. He only emerges to take a bath and use the toilet. The hole is only 1.5 meters by 2 meters and 2 meters deep. (Matichon Online) More Thailand pictures can be found at

Currently docked at Klong Toey Port, the MV Doulos, is visiting Thailand again and welcoming all bookworms until August 23rd 2009. The MV Doulos is the world’s oldest active ocean-going passenger vessel, according to Guinness World Records. She was built in 1914. Doulos has …

On Friday morning, customs officials at Suvarnabhumi Airport invited us to a press conference to see the 2,000 kilos of ivory that they had recently seized. The shipment came in from Uganda and Kenya and include 316 pieces of tusks which were…

I think spring rolls are a favourite appetizer for many people. In Thai it is called “poh pia tod”. The ingredients do vary but in our picture below you can see, spring roll sheets, mungbean noodles, chopped garlic, minced pork, bean sprouts, white…

(Click here to read about the boat trip to Sakhla) Sakhla Village (ban sakhla), in Phra Samut Chedi District of Samut Prakan, dates back to the late Sukhothai period. Its original name was “Ban Sao Kla” which refers to the women of the area that bravely fought off the Burmese…

Look, but don’t touch – these Thailand ‘pretty girls’ could be on a scammer) Once known as the Land of Smiles, pitiable Thailand is now turning into the world’s most infamous Land of Scams – and this year in particular we have been inundated again and again and…

This is one of my favourite curries that I cook every now and then. It is Chicken and wax gourd curry or “gang khua fak gup gai” in Thai. You cook it in much the same way as other red curries but there is an…

Well, just a short while back I decided on the spur of the moment to pack our bags and get a short flight to somewhere…… and that somewhere was to be Penang Island in Malaysia. The wife, Su, and I went to Hong Kong over the Songkran holidays in April, …

In Thailand, one of the cheapest places to buy and eat food is by the side of the road. These are the mobile stalls which vendors wheel to their locations every day. Sometimes they might leave the cart there and then bring…

In an old guidebook to Bangkok, dating back about 150 years, the writer mentioned a “Red House” on the East bank of the Chao Phraya River exactly 2.3 miles south of Paknam. I have read quite a few contemporary accounts by travellers from the 19th Century that described their first …

One of the historical legacies of Samut Prakan Province are the Fortresses along the river from the Gulf of Thailand all the way up to Bangkok. At various times through history, going back as far as the Ayutthaya period, there has always been forts here of some description. Many fell into ruins…

There are an increasing number of foreigners who are marrying Thai women or Thai men. And according to our ThailandQA.com Forums , there are also many people coming to Thailand to attend weddings as guests as they are asking questions like “What do we wear to a Thai wedding” and “What gift do we give…

Campaign against Alcohol Abuse in Observance of the Buddhist Lent (04/07/2009) The Ministry of Public Health is joining forces with public and private organizations in launching a campaign against alcohol abuse, marking “No Alcohol Day,” which coincides with the start of the three-month Buddhist Lent, or Buddhist Rains Retreat. Known in …

I have to admit I am not a very diligent traveller: I don’t dive very deep into my guidebooks. I usually enjoy ancient monuments, temples, ruins and other buildings for their atmosphere and architectural beauty, not for the tales from olden days that they tell to an eager listener. I cannot imagine what life must…

The Thai dish this week is Deep-fried Prawn in Red Curry or “chu-chee koong tod”. The word “chu-chee” comes from the sound when you put something into hot oil. If you don’t have prawn you could use fish, pork or chicken…

On July 1st, Scouts from schools all around the country took part in celebrations marking the anniversary of the foundation of Scouting in Thailand. In Samut Prakan, the governor, Mr. Kwanchai Wongnitikorn, and the head of the Education Area Office 1, Mr. Yongyuth Sapcharoen, presided over …

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, right, and Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, left toast each other after a signing ceremony held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Wednesday, June 24 , 2009. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, Pool) China’s Premier Wen Jiabao (L) and Thailand’s …

One of the jobs I have to do at the school is to look after the foreign teachers. This term we have four new teachers fresh off the boat. The teachers are staying in a townhouse belonging to the school. Their contract is only for this term though a …

“He fought like a man so he could become a woman” – Still from the Thai movie Beautiful Boxer Thailand here has many-a glorious site to feast ones eyes on, besides just a million temples, two million taxis and three million noodle soup stalls we have the one…

THAI TAKES By PHILIP GOLINGAI IF YOU had ever wanted to slap Sondhi Limthongkul, the co-leader of the yellow-shirted movement that gained international notoriety when it shut down Bangkok’s two airports last year, now’s your chance. “Slap my face with your shoes… Read full story >>>

Stories on Human Rights , which includes Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Mobile Men , will screen at the Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto. I had a chance to view all 22 films in the United Nations/European Union omnibus last month in a screening in Bangkok with Apichatpong present at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand . It’s a … Read full story >>>

On 24 May 2009, I attended the first of two days of the “People’s Alliance for Democracy Assembly” at Rangsit University. Its main purpose was to assess the political situation and prepare a decision about whether to turn the social movement, at least partially, into a political party or not. With my… Read full story >>>

I have a couple of things to say about comments on this blog. First, a few readers have e-mailed me saying they made comments on the blog, but their comments never appeared. It thought it was pretty odd, because I hadn’t seen their comments in my moderation queue, and I do… Read full story >>>

As am busy it is difficult to devote many resources to find out what the problem is, but from a limited search it does not appear to be a blogger/blogspot problem (there are always Blogger comment problems). It may be a template issue which will resolve itself because of a switch in code by … Read full story >>>

Han ten Brummelhuis, King of the Waters: Homan van der Heide and the Origin of Modern Irrigation in Siam , Leiden, KITLV Press, 2005. pp. xvi, 409 This important work of scholarship breaks new ground in the history of Siam’s political economy and the transfer of technology that took place in Southeast Asia … Read full story >>>

The Cannes Film Festival is over and all the awards have been handed out, with nothing but mixed criticism for Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s Nymph , the lone Thai film in the festival’s “official selection”. But last night, Thai news reports led me to search for more Thai films at Cannes in the online catalog… Read full story >>>

We were sitting peacefully in the office here when all of a sudden there was a huge crash above our heads. Running outside, we found nothing. Whatever it was was still on the roof. We climbed up and saw this fruit 'boulder' sticking out of a hole the size of … Read full story >>>

Some of you have probably already heard about Pongsathorn Wattanabenjasopha, the 12 year old school boy that committed suicide last week by jumping from the 6th floor of our school building. It was front page news last Friday in all the Thai newspapers and on television as well…

My post on the administrative history of Pattani has found at least one reader very interested into the topic. He has even digged out an old map dating from the time of the 1909 boundary treaty between Siam and the United Kingdom … Read full story >>>

Think before you drink, before you write…. The average Thai village girl looks upon a visit to the big city shopping mall as a rare treat, window shopping, a low cost meal and a discounted sale bargain being the order of the day. An iced coffee … Read full story >>>