For those willing to spend 200 baht taxi fare and travel a few kilometers west of the Pin Klao bridge, one of Bangkok’s more fascinating museums awaits. Founders Anake and Wanna Nawigamune have here compiled a lifetime’s worth of everyday objects found —until the last decade or so — in homes, barbershops, candy stores, and […]
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Bangkok Silom standoff continues as Crime Detection Division investigates grenade death
Amidst discussions for a possible end to the Silom standoff, UDD red shirts’ barriers were raised even higher, Thai troops bivouacked at the Sala Daeng BTS skytrain station, and the Central Institute of Forensic Science’s director Dr. Porntip Rojanasunan paid a visit to the building where an M79 grenade killed a protester earlier in the […]
Read the rest of this entry »Remembering the wild sexual world of writer Cleo Odzer
Comparatively few WOWasis women readers browse Thai bookstores in search of books relating to Thai adult-themed nightlife, but those who do are often surprised to find a well-researched book on the life encountered on Patpong Road, expat writer Cleo Odzer’s Patpong Sisters (ISBN 1-55970-372-5). Odzer held a Ph.D. in anthropology, and spent three years living the […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: Boye De Mente’s ‘Women of the Orient’
Many men have loved exotic women from the Orient, but few have written as passionately on the subject as adventurer Boye De Mente, in his small but encyclopedic Women of the Orient (1995, ISBN 0-8048-1880-0). Here, he chronicles the habits, looks, and proclivities of women from six Asian countries, China (Hong Kong & Taiwan), Japan, Korea, […]
Read the rest of this entry »Morlam music: an Isaan pastiche of city and country
Morlam music, an infectious, riotous urban music originally from the Isaan northeast, is one of the predominant Thai musical genres you’ll find in Bangkok today. With its raging organ ostinados, high-flying guitar riffs, and rap-like vocal phrasing, morlam can be heard in street stalls, Thai bars, and taxi radios and VCD (video CD) players. A […]
Read the rest of this entry »Bombs fly on Silom as Bangkok Skytrain station becomes target for terror
M79 rocket grenades exploded in and near the Sala Daeng skytrain station last night, killing 3 and injuring dozens. The target was the “multicolored” group of protestors demonstrating against the red-shirted United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship’s (UDD) group at Bangkok’s Ratchaprasong intersection. UDD leaders have denied the attacks originated from their ranks, although it […]
Read the rest of this entry »Bangkok Hotel closures provoke more worry for beleaguered Thai tourism industry
The downtick of Thailand’s tourism business that started with the yellow-shirted People’s Alliance for Democracy’s (PAD) closing of Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport in 2008 has continued unabated with the red-shirted United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship’s (UDD) protest at Bangkok’s Ratchaprasong intersection in 2010. The Bangkok Post reported on April 21 that the InterContinental Bangkok and […]
Read the rest of this entry »Bangkok Taxi Cockpit: a drive to distraction?
Check out the cockpit of the taxi meter I just took from Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. He’s got a morlam vcd player going all the time so he can watch TV while he drives (it was a neat Siriporn morlam live show, too). His visors are loaded with other VCDs so he can select others […]
Read the rest of this entry »Red Shirts play a waiting game in Bangkok
An uneasy rest formed at the corner of Silom and Rama IV roads in Bangkok, as several thousand Red Shirts, supporters of the deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, were faced down by soldiers and police, armed with tear gas and live ammunition. As police and military lined the southern side of Silom between Rama IV […]
Read the rest of this entry »Tours and Treks
Our fellow travelers live for Tours and Treks. They can make or break a vacation, so share your touring, trekking, hiking, diving, and ambling here. From mountain top, to island hopping, to deep sea diving, to gallery crawling, we all share this passion when traveling!
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