City Sport
Farangutans knocked out After a long unbeaten run the Chiang Mai expat team finally came undone at the hands of the municipality’s PE college team. The undermanned foreign team battled hard throughout the 90 minutes. Defense was stalwart as usual and the game remained 0-0 up until the 70th minute when James J slotted in a pass from James F _ both of whom would go on to miss their penalties in the … Continued
Community Services
The Mission House is a Christian organisation offering a genuine service in both English and Thai to Chiang Mai. Their focus is on helping foreigners settle into Chiang Mai and offer many wonderful homes to rent. The Mission House supports and works in partnership with a number of Christian organisations and churches within Chiang Mai & Chiang Rai. Contact; Janta, The Mission House: jantawinte … Continued
What’s Happening?
Now – 4th February ART EXHIBITION @ 2nd floor, Central Airport Plaza 053 999199 ext 1300-8 Thaivichitsilp Art School’s art exhibition including a fashion show, painting and gardening demonstration. Now – 9th February ABSTRACT REALITY @ Galerie Panisa 053 202779 Come see the art exhibition ‘Abstract Reality’ by Auxchanok Chirakul Mondays – Saturdays, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. 12th February – 6th April EXHIBI … Continued
Surfin’ Lessons
The next great leap forward in internet technology is handheld devices. And in this respect Thailand, I’m afraid, is still putting its boots on. Not for nothing was the phone launch such a big deal, within a couple of years we’ll all be surfing ‘on the go’ when 3G and WiMAX are rolled out. Just imagine, a tourist on the back of an elephant in Mae Rim could be searching Google for an evening restau … Continued
City Vibes
Artist: Amadou and Mariam Album: Welcome to Mali Rating: Amadou and Mariam flex eclectic in this joyous adventurism. A riot of Malian pop textures and western influences, this album captures a festival folk spirit of a continent and layers it with the sonic templates of European ingenuity, a real pin ‘n’ mix of salubrious styles. Damon Albarn pops in on the album’s opener and offers sophisticated … Continued
A Retiring Attitude
In case of an emergency here in Thailand you might try calling 191, the emergency number. You may or may not get an answer and if you do, you’d better speak pretty good Thai. As a ‘plan B’ you may want to develop your own ‘who you gonna call’ network. Make sure anyone you live with knows what to do in case of an emergency. Knowledge of CPR wouldn’t hurt nor would basic first aid. Make friends with … Continued
Your Say
[right]Your say is an open forum for you the reader to express your opinions. Write to: editor@chiangmaicitylife.com, subject: Your say. Letters can be on any subject and priority will be given to letters under 200 words.Letters may be edited for clarity or conciseness. Name and contact details must be supplied.[/right] [right][/right] Two-Tier Toe Rags In the November issue of Citylife it was sta … Continued
This is Thailand
For those of you with any questions regarding Thailand, Thai culture, history, tourism, laws, rules, food, nightlife, sub-cultures, dating; generally anything as long as it is relevant, we have a panel of three experts who will respond to your enquiries. Email: james@chiangmaicitylife.com. 1.Do you know if those cheap copy sunglasses you can buy everywhere are bad for your eyes? James: According t … Continued
Citylife In House
This year’s popular garden party will launch Citylife’s second year initiative to help erase Chiang Mai’s carbon footprints. This year we encourage active support from readers and local businesses to become part of our important campaign. A percentage of stall income will be donated to the 200 Club which is raising funds to purchase veterinary facilities for local dog charities and elephants in Ma … Continued
Cultural Insight
After the departure of Driver in about 1615 we know of no farang visitors to Chiang Mai for the next two hundred years. For many years Chiang Mai was a complete blank to the west. The one definite fact, all seem to have agreed, was that there was a great lake – Chaammay Lake, the famous geographer Herman Moll called it on his c.1700 map of India beyond the Ganges – from which flowed, so it was tho … Continued
Chiang Mai on the www
[right]This colume is to keep you abreast of the latest websites which Citylife has produced, introducing you to the ever-increasing presence of Chiang Mai online.[/right] It’s a tough business, this legal business. If you have ever shaken your head, pulled out your hair, collapsed in despair and generally had trouble with red tape and officialdom in Chiang Mai, then fear not, help is but a … Continued
You Think you Can Dance!
February, 2009 Chiang Mai has long been a town where the only form of dance practiced was of the Thai traditional slack-wrist genre that you may have first seen in the banned movie The King and I. You can still find those porcelain dolls doing their hand shimmies at various joints throughout the city, you can even learn how to do it yourself, but if, like 99 percent of the world, you think it’s ra … Continued
Speed Dating
February, 2009 I arrived at Tara Bar, more nervous than any normal first date. Romantic ballads played in the background as I took my place for Chiang Mai’s first ever speed dating event. Can anyone find love in eight minutes? For that was all the personal time allocated per date. I thought it would be impossible to find a connection so quickly, but found that three to four minutes is all it takes … Continued
City Buzz
With the cheapo, bug-laden guesthouses becoming something of a dying breed, Chiang Mai is now awash with guesthouses and hotels that go by the name of ’boutique’. The Castle is a far cry from the dank guesthouses of yesteryear, and remarkably different from the ubiquitous Hang Dong-designed masses, though the rooms are furnished with teak furniture, flat screen TVs and air-con. What’s most impress … Continued
Befuddled@Kaam Pen Thai
Now, we all know what khwaam pen Thai means. You learned this in your Thai language class, right? But just in case you were absent that day, it means ‘Thai-ness’ – all things Thai, all those things which have you stumped to this very day. Or maybe not. Perhaps in your very first week you were so eager to get a handle on this, you ran right out and purchased the all-time favourite read, Thai Ways b … Continued
Think Park
Varisa ‘Gift’ Passakornnatee is a bright 24 year old graduate in theatre design from St Martin’s School of Arts in London. She is also the daughter of the founder of the Oishi empire: hundreds of Japanese buffet restaurants throughout Thailand, frozen foods, water, green tea and a host of other products and services. Gift returned to Bangkok six months ago and begged her father to find her a space … Continued
Bad Vibrations
February, 2009 On my first day back from the holidays, Children’s Day, I was enjoying a quiet bowl of noodles down one of the Nimmanhaemin soi. From the distance, what started as a distant strumming sound suddenly roared into the most thundering of crescendos, ending in an almost sonic boom, sending fellow patrons around me into a flutter and setting off car alarms up and down the street. It was t … Continued
The Month of Love: Readers tales of true love
February, 2009 It was a cold evening in February, and the express train to Dover was rattling through the frozen Kent countryside, carrying me to the ferry boat for Ostend, where I would board a sleeper for snow-bound Munich in southern Germany. With a squeal of brakes, the train made an unscheduled stop at Tonbridge. The door of my compartment flew open and two expensive suitcases were flung in, … Continued
KOREA: Land of the Mornign Calm
February, 2009 Korea is a land defined by its contrasts. It is a country where one generation grew up ploughing crops by hand and living by the light of oil lamps, the next, never knowing a time when computers and high speed internet were not available on every corner. Where neon lights and golden rice fields exist side by side and where traditional mud and straw restaurants sit in the shadows of … Continued
Editorial
Having gone to school and uni in six countries (seven if you count Scotland) I have spent my life bidding farewell to friends. The fact that since I was a wee tot, my social life in Chiang Mai has involved mixing with expatriates also exacerbates this unfortunate situation. Being fairly happy go lucky, I tend to become attached to people rather easily, but through repeated, and so often heart wren … Continued