Why buy a foreign language dictionary when one doesn’t speak a word of the language in question? When it’s as fun to read as Peter Constantine’s Japanese Street Slang (2006, ISBN 13 978-0-8348-0250-6), that’s when. First published in 1992, the book has never been out of print, and even has a 2011 edition (we found […]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the 'By Country' Category
WoWasis field test review: the world’s greatest travel pen, Sharbo Zebra SBA1 pen/pencil
As travel writers, we here at WoWasis have some pretty heady requirements for a writing instrument. We need a reliable pen, but also need a pencil to write notes in the back pages of books we’re reviewing. It’s got to be small, in order to fit in any pocket (we carry it everywhere, all the […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis field test review: the Inova X5 lithium-powered LED flashlight
The Inova X5 flashlight is the one we carry everywhere. Here’s why. A flashlight is one of those travel items that you never seem to think of until you need one. And we here at WoWasis always need one when we’re exploring old jungle temples and ancient Buddhist caves at dusk. Our flashlight requirements are […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis field test: the durable, inexpensive Nokia 1280 phone for Asia
The Nokia 1280 is a durable, inexpensive, and well-designed phone that we recommend, especially for use in Asia
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis travel clothing, accessories, and gadget reviews: why we field test
Here at the WoWasis Travel eStore, we like to rigorously test the items we promote. We wear them, use them, and beat the living hell out of them. We’ve had shirts shredded by African bush thorns, cameras sullied by Javanese volcanic dust, phones wrecked by falls. We even had a shirt destroyed by sulfuric acid fumes […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis on Thai nightlife: Texas Lone Star in Bangkok closes for good
Bangkok’s venerable Texas Lone Star Saloon closed its doors this week for good. A Washington Square institution since 1985, the bar actually had its beginnings in the late 1970s, when George Pipas opened the Texxan Bar on Patpong Road. The ‘Lone Star,’ as most people referred to it (it was actually spelled Lone Staar on […]
Read the rest of this entry »Bachelor in Bangkok: Khun Lee on short-times, long-times, and freebies
To pay or not to pay, that is the question. No, I am not misquoting Shakespeare but referring to the dilemma of being a womanizer in Bangkok. Do you look for a regular girlfriend, or just pay for short term relationships? Worse yet, do you pay a lady for short term love and then pay […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘Common Core: Thais and Americans’ by John Paul Fieg
Westerners in Thailand who employ Thais know what a challenge that can be. And conversely, Thais working for Western expats often find relating to their direct reports is sometimes more difficult than the job itself. The beauty of John Paul Fieg’s A Common Core: Thais and Americans (1978, ISBN 0-933-662-80-7) is that it examines core […]
Read the rest of this entry »Why can’t bad-smelling foreigners smell themselves?
The Good Manner: Advice on Thailand from WoWasis’ Pa Farang This week’s dilemma: Bad-smelling foreigners can’t smell themselves Dear Pa Farang, In a recent blog post, it seemed as though WoWasis ripped through the farang community, somehow saying that the majority of us smell bad. What wasn’t said was that many deodorants and anti-perspirants have […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘History of the Mongol Conquests’ by J.J. Saunders
In this relatively short (191 pages) but powerful narrative, J.J. Saunders makes an effective argument that the series of Mongolian invasions of Europe and Asia, beginning in the early 1200s, was a major factor in shaping both European culture and Asian religions for centuries to come. The History of the Mongol Conquests (1971, ISBN 0-8122-1766-7) […]
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