Thailand Voice

A last-minute goal by Javad Nekounam allowed Iran to put the Thai team out of its misery last night as the Land of Smilers went down 1-0. That will be the end of the Asian Cup campaign for another cycle and probably marks the beginning of the end … Read full story >>>

The radio news hour from MCOT, which is aired daily from 7-8 a.m., generally closes with some kind of thought for the day (although these are often recycled regularly if considered to be particularly useful or if whoever gets to choose them… Read full story >>>

The Thai people have always had a love for football. However, until recent years, the only leagues that they followed were the ones in the UK and the rest of Europe. Now the Thai Football League has a loyal following with a much greater interest from both the print media and Thai …

Maybe it is just a coincidence but there is another story portraying the Thai people (the little people, that is) as violent: this time, it comes from the King’s Cup match at Supachalasai Stadium, during which fighting apparently broke out on and off the pitch. The match was between Muang Thong United and… Read full story >>>

According to Suthep ‘Einstein’ Thaugsuban, as reported in the Bangkok Post : “The deputy prime minister said the Thai judicial process was the best in the world and the people should not believe the rumour.” I remember Tom Robinson singing ‘British police are the best in the world …’ but I imagine he… Read full story >>>

The Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C.  Southeast Asia Programme is organising a seminar titled “ Governance and Rule of Law in Malaysia and Malaysian Legislative Initiatives ” on 24 February 2010. Dr. Jamaludin Jarjis, Member of Parliament and Malaysia’s Ambassador to the United … Read full story >>>

The Bangkok Post: It is “saddening” for a rumour to have been spread with intent to damage public confidence in the judicial system ahead of the Supreme Court’s verdict on the 76-billion-baht assets seizure case against former prime minister Thaksin Read full story >>>

The weekend saw the end of Muang Thong Exhibition Centres/Kirins from Asian Big Cup after they were beaten on penalties in Singapore by the Armed Forces (described, in a slightly bitter story which is the newspaper downstairs but I cannot find online as ‘a failing club with zero … Read full story >>>

One of the biggest stars of the Luktung music scene in Thailand is Tai Orathai. Thai Orathai, born Orathai Kapdam on March 27th 1980 in Ubon Ratchathani has a beautiful captivating singing voice that has made her popular not only in Thailand Read full story >>>

When I was revamping the code to create the list of the most common subdistrict names , I noticed that I accidentally included more subdistrict than the 7255 listed in the annual statistics from DOPA . These were subdistricts already abolished , or planned … Read full story >>>

Not terribly surprising but Denmark spanked Thailand 3-0 in the last round of the highly ‘coveted’ King’s Cup, while Poland (or some time of people playing as Poland while the first team was probably busy elsewhere) knocked off Singapore 6-1. As a result, Denmark finished top with three wins, Poland second with… Read full story >>>

When I checked for information on the district names in Chiang Mai which are present in the geocode list, but do not exist (yet), one result was that I became alert on the forthcoming creation of Galyani Vadhana district . But actually this was not the only thing I found, the second was a… Read full story >>>

Hardly a day goes by when I don’t discover something more about Jack Reynolds, Bangkok’s ‘grand old man of letters’ and author of the novel, “A Woman of Bangkok”, whose life I’ve been researching. Yesterday I posted in my story below some more pictures… Read full story >>>

Sometimes, some explanantions just defy all rationale as the PRD reports: The Royal Thai Air Force has passed a procurement request for new F16 jets worth 23 billion Baht to the Defense Ministry to be proposed to the Cabinet tomorrow.Air Force… Read full story >>>

The 40 th King’s Cup tournament has kicked off in Nakshon Ratchasima with a victory for Thailand over Singapore . The ten-men Thais, wearing their ‘unlucky’ yellow shirts, were reduced to 10 men when Teerathep Winothai was sent off early in the second half but shortly thereafter got the only goal of the game… Read full story >>>

Suthon Sukphisit in this week’s column in the Bangkok Post writes about the Vietnamese community at Ban Yuan (er, House of the Vietnamese) in Samsen. Specifically, he talks about the food available in and around the community early on a Sunday morning – the time is relevant … Read full story >>>

It seems that my information that I received regarding Nok Air only flying three times a week was perhaps not correct. The latest info from two different people is that they will indeed fly three times a day the same as … Read full story >>>

The Chiang Mai Mail, in addition to covering local news and politics, also has sections on sport, entertainment, social scene and local business as well as a classified section. Whilst containing much of interest to the tourist, the strength of the Chiang Mai Mail is providing news and information to the large expat … Read full story >>>

The case against the 76 billion baht of assets seized from Thaksin and his family in regarding to what Thaksin did to benefit Shin Corp is coming to a conclusion with the verdict due at the end of February. By all accounts, all the money will be seize. The claims against Thaksin are outlined from … Read full story >>>

The King’s Cup kicks off in Nakhon Ratchasima on Sunday and will feature not just Thailand but also Denmark, Poland and Singapore. Not sure what kind of sides Denmark and Poland will be able to put out but I imagine that Singapore … Read full story >>>

Khun Pruek Bupphakham, executive vice-president for commercial affairs for Thai Airways, has been fined 100,000 baht for his part in the Wallop scandal in which 400 kg of excess baggage was smuggled from Japan into Suvarnabhumi and through Lost and Found to avoid … Read full story >>>

สมุทรปราการ เอฟซี กับ นราธิวาส เอฟซี วันอาทิตย์ที่ 29 พย. 2552 SAMUT PRAKAN FOOTBALL CLUB: The final match of the season took place on Sunday (29th November 2009) at Bang MOD Stadium in Thonburi. The match was between Samut Prakan FC and Narathiwat FC. The final score was 0-0. …

I suggested the ither day that Bryan ‘Robbo’ Robson would have to address the problem of Thai players occasionally thinking they were not quite as good as they like to think they are – and now, after just three days of nationalist … Read full story >>>

Must-resist-angry-bad-tempered-blog-about-behaviour-of-certain-people-from-certain-countries-when-travelling-by-budget-air-carrier. Must-resist. Must … Read full story >>>

It’s the big match on Saturday evening – Singapore v Thailand in the first of two games as part of the qualifying group for the forthcoming Asian Championship (speaking of which, congratulations to the Pohang Steelers as club champions of Asia – do remind me to tell you my amusing Pohang Steel story one day)… Read full story >>>

Well, I have not been silenced by the Secret Hand nor fallen in front of a barely-moving but still potentially unsafe train. Instead I have been in Khon Kaen and have been a little busy with work – I did try to post once but technical problems prevented it going through… Read full story >>>

Published in the Royal Gazette on November 6 was the 6th amendment of the Tambon council and Tambon administrative organization act (พระราชบัญญัติสภาตำบลและองค์การบริหารส่วนตำบล ฉบับที่ ๖). Since only one point in the long legal text was changed I tried to translate it and document the change here. Section 58/2 now reads as follows… Read full story >>>

Oh dear, oh dear: just when it looked like Thai football was moving forwards into an era of respectability, it is plunged into disrepute once more. First, new Bryan Robson manager presided over a couple of matches at a four team tournament… Read full story >>>

UPDATE: Thai Foreign Ministry statement in English on recall of Thai Ambassador is available from here as PDF Last night, Hun Sen appointed Thaksin as an economics advisor and Thaksin accepted today. Earlier this morning, Suthep said it was within Cambodia's right to do so, but this afternoon the government changed … Read full story >>>

Charn Jullamon, Thai charge d’affaires, Riyadh, in a letter to the editor published in the Arab News: With reference to Gwynne Dyer’s article, “Thailand crisis is the result of democracy” (Oct. 25), I wish to inform you that some paragraphs and the… Read full story >>>