Let's play Bangkok monopoly
What would the Bangkok edition of the Monopoly board game look like?
Recently I was asked to play the Thai edition of the game, first produced in 2005, but I was disappointed to discover that the game is not based on Bangkok, but on Thailand, with the likes of Samui, Phuket and Pattaya dotted around the board
The skytrain to nowhere
I've stumbled upon one of Bangkok's darkest secrets
Are you like me, one of those weary sky-train passengers, looking at those gleaming new BTS stations and wondering simply, when?
B2K
Postbox letter from Mike Thompson
As an Asian American who has been back to visit Thailand several times, I’ve noticed many changes over the years.
Life on the ocean wave
Getting out and about on the mighty Bangkok rivers
As both a non-swimmer and someone who listens to far too many stories of people falling into polluted Bangkok waters, I've made avoiding boat travel one of my missions in life. Perhaps it was time to conquer the fears that had built up inside me for so long.
Apartment-hunting
Looking for digs and the hell of the lower Sukhumwit
I'd been all over the internet in an attempt to compile a list of suitable locations. Some websites I even got redirected to three times. It's amazing how difficult it is to locate independent websites amid the jungle of real estate portals and listings of serviced apartments way over my budget. It's even more difficult to find somewhere that will rent for just a month.
The mass transit factor
Where do they go and what do they know?
Ajarn takes a look at the Bangkok underground and sky-train systems. How has the average Bangkok teacher's life improved since the systems started operating?
An inconvenient truth
Bangkok environmental issues
Bangkok had its own initiative to reduce global warming a few months ago. Governor Apirak called on everyone to switch off non-essential lights from 7 to 7.15 pm one weekday evening. This small-scale, almost insignificant campaign supposedly decreased the amount of CO2 or carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by a staggering 143 tonnes.
A bit of culture part one
Loud music and slouching
Now let me first get one thing straight. I like Thailand and I like Thai people. They are very friendly and I usually don’t mind their strange behaviour and views. They say it’s culture. It’s not a problem for me, but the question is: can you handle it? With ‘you’, I mean the newly arrived farangs who are still in the so-called honeymoon period and think Thailand is heaven on earth
