The sharper edge to traveling in Asia

Archive for the 'Business' Category

WoWasis travel product review: the indestructible Maruman Sept Couleur diary notebook

Travel notebooks are one of those things that you never think about unless you have a bad one. Then you curse it every day. Today’s WoWasis review is about a notebook with blank ruled pages, the kind of thing you use constantly when you travel. You take notes, set itineraries, write down addresses, staple business […]

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Bangkok protests dealing massive financial blow to tourism businesses in Thailand

Although the PDRC (People’s Democratic Reform Committee) protests that have blocked major intersections in Bangkok is only ten days old, it has cost Thai businesses millions of dollars in tourist revenue. And it started being felt in early January. Talk to any business, like we here at WoWasis did, and you’ll hear a similar tale […]

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Why rice is fueling the latest Bangkok protest

Regarding the series of beefs the 100,000 street protestors occupying Bangkok are voicing today, perhaps the most difficult for westerners to grasp is the rice pledging fiasco.  Here are the salient issues simplified, from a WoWasis perspective. Traditionally, Thailand has been a major world exporter of rice. Wanting to raise the price by lowering the […]

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Bangkok to be shut down Monday: another coup coming?

Although the major media appears reluctant to discuss it, Thailand may be in store for yet another government coup d’etat within days. All the signs seem to be leading to it, and it’s understandable that the media would be reluctant to fan the flames of revolt. Nevertheless, the situation could be ripe as events march […]

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Dunkin’ Donuts blackface poster in Thailand raises ire with NGO Human Rights Watch

Dunkin’ Donuts Thailand is being called on the carpet by the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) for creating an advertising poster showing the CEO’s daughter in blackface, advertising a “charcoal donut.” Blackface comedy has been a staple in Morlam shows all over Thailand for decades, but it seems that the venerable doughnut institution crossed the […]

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Why is my expensive Thai hotel is ripping me off with a 10% dining-in service charge?

The Good Manner: Advice on Thailand from WoWasis’ Pa Farang This week’s scam unveiled: My expensive Thai hotel is ripping me off with a 10% dining-in service charge Dear Pa Farang, I routinely stay at one of the top Western hotels in Thailand, and eat frequently at its top restaurant.  Each time, a 10% “service […]

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WoWasis book review: ‘Confessions of a Yakuza’ by Junichi Saga

At one point, former Yakuza Ijichi Eiji came into physician-writer Junichi Saga’s world as a patient, and thus began a series of conversations than turned into the memoirs  that became the remarkable book Confessions of a Yakuza: a Life in Japan’s Underworld (1991, ISBN 978-4-7700-1948-6). The narratives detail the path taken by Eiji to become […]

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Tourist complaints increase in Japan as Nikko’s historic sites are renovated

Japan is undergoing renovations of major historical buildings all over the country, but in the eyes of many visitors, it’s most apparent and frustrating in the city of Nikko, two hours north of Tokyo. Shrines and Temples of Nikko is a UNESCO World Heritage site consisting of two Shinto shrines and one Buddhist temple (Futarasan […]

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“Big girl” brothel busted in Tokyo: WoWasis asks why?

We needed to put “big girl” in quotes (rather than putting “big girl brothel” in the title), because word has come from Tokyo that the Makkasu Bodi (Max Body) brothel-to-go has been busted by Japanese police. The business catered to gentlemen that like their women big, or “like explosive boobs and asses,” said a police […]

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Japan’s bullet train-air fare wars a bad portent to California’s high speed rail success?

Although California voters recently approved a high speed rail system from San Francisco to Los Angeles, it appears to be slowly unhinging as a result of mounting labor costs as well as the inability to predict how many people will actually use the system. Japan, who produced the first national bullet train system (Shinkansen) is […]

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