Back in 1999, we here at WoWasis drove 4000 km through South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. We broke down in soft sand up to our axels in the bush with lions nearby, got an accidental fill-up of diesel 200 km from the nearest Kalahari town, and did it all while driving solo in a […]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the 'Politics' Category
WoWasis book review: ‘Take China: The Last of the China Marines’ by Harold Stephens
Harold Stephens, author of Take China: The Last of the China Marines (2003, ISBN 0-9642521-8-X), maintains that the book is a novel, but in actuality it’s a memoir, his autobiographical tales of serving with the U.S. Marines, transitioning from the end of World War II to mainland China. He’s changed the names, but it’s all […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘The Vets’ … Hong Kong and Bangkok intrigue by Stephen Leather
British novelist Stephen Leather has written an amazing body of fiction books centering on Southeast Asia. In The Vets (1993, ISBN 978-0-340-59770-5), he includes Hong Kong in the mix, in a fast-paced thriller that displays his knowledge of HK prior to its takeover by the Chinese as well as his understanding of the powerful mainland […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘The Solitary Man,’ Golden Triangle adventure by Stephen Leather
We’d imagine that comparatively few of our WoWasis readers have served time in their nation’s prisons. Fewer have served in overseas prisons. And fewer still in the legendarily filthy prisons of Thailand. And that’s why so many people just love to read about them. From shit-encrusted holes in the floor that serve as toilets to […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘The Chinaman,’ Vietnam and IRA adventure by Stephen Leather
One of the goodest bad guys in the annals of fiction would have to be Nguyen Ngoc Minh, the protagonist of author Stephen Leather’s The Chinaman (1992, ISBN 978-0340-58025-7). And right, he’s not Chinese, but rather a former Vietnamese military man that ended up in England, running a Chinese food take-out business. Life was good […]
Read the rest of this entry »Easy to die in Thailand if you’re not a VIP… man denied an ambulance is proof
In Bangkok, all of a sudden you have a stroke and an ambulance is called. You’re a photographer there to cover a news story. Everyone in the medical profession knows that it’s critical to get you to the hospital within an hour, before you begin to lose brain function that will soon be unrecoverable. You’re […]
Read the rest of this entry »Thailand Corruption Watch: Thai civil servants hopelessly in debt, so watch your pockets
Westerners doing business in Thailand frequently complain about the bribes they have to pay for many government-related services. Thais pay them too, but there’s a two-tiered structure, and farang always pay more. It what will surprise no one, it was reported in the January 9, 2013 issue of the Bangkok Post that Thai civil servants […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: ‘The Ideal Man: The Tragedy of Jim Thompson’ by Joshua Kurlantzick
Here at WoWasis, we believe that there are at least two schools of thought on how best to live the expatriate experience in Asia. One we call “ping-ponging,” bouncing back and forth between one’s mother country and Asia. Regarding Thailand, one advocate who lives part-time in the U.S. states, “I go to Thailand, and after […]
Read the rest of this entry »Sharia follies continue in Indonesia’s Sumatra with proposed banning of face-forward female motorcycle riders
Ignorance remains bliss in Indonesia’s Aceh province in Sumatra as the city of Lhokseumawe has proposed a Sharia law that would ban female motorcycle passengers from riding face-forward. Deeming the position “improper,” according to the mayor, women now must ride side-saddle. Sumatra recently banned tight trousers on women, as reported in an article appearing in the […]
Read the rest of this entry »Bangkok traffic to get worse, fast, with new car-buying program now in force
Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s new first-time car buyer program, while solidifying future votes, will add an estimated 1.3 million vehicles to Thailand’s streets, much of it in already overcrowded Bangkok. It’s already being called a transportation nightmare, where gridlock slows incoming traffic to an average speed of 16.5 km per hour. A brainchild of […]
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