This is Thailand
1. What do I do here if I have a computer problem, a virus or some other kind of problem? James: If you can’t fix it yourself you can take it to Icon Plaza, one of the buildings on the left side of the moat after you’ve gone through the traffic lights at Central Kad Suan Kaew heading into town. There’s a little shop on the bottom floor called IT System, Tel: 081 681 1515 who will fix your computer … Continued
Chiang Mai a Creativity City
Chiang Mai, primarily depending on agriculture, tourism and handicrafts, has in recent years – as if you haven’t noticed – begun to reinvent itself somewhat as a much more modern, cosmopolitan city with a more diversified industry. The city has given rise to numerous media, IT, digital design and software companies, as well as a veritable tsunami of small start-ups, especially around the Nimmanhae … Continued
The Climate Change Summit
The sun is setting at the world’s summit meeting on Climate Change in Cancun. At least two TV journalists came down to the beach to do their closing pieces. The conference is not over just yet. But close enough. At the meeting venue, the blame game has started and it is not going to be over until the wee hours of the morning. It seems the meeting did live up to expectations. Low expectations. Howe … Continued
Community Services
• Charity Christmas Cards 200 club, Citylife Chiang Mai Magazine, AA insurance and Rachamankha Hotel have teamed up to create a set of five Charity Christmas Cards. Every package contains five different designs. 250 baht per package. 100% of the money goes to the Elephant Clinic. ON SALE NOW [while stocks last!] at the Citylife office, Rachamankha Hotel, The Rim Hotel, AA Insurance offices [Meecho … Continued
World Tourers visiting Chiang Mai
Jean and Nathalie left France 18 months ago with a route in mind that will take them around the world in four and a half years, through 40-50 countries. Number 24 on the list is Thailand. When 44-year-old Nathalie Constantin and her husband, 50-year-old Jean, reach Chiang Mai in November 2010, they have many kilometres behind them. Traveling in a motor home, they have gone from their home in Franc … Continued
A Retring Attiude
Looks like somebody else wants to be my wife. Wait; let me put that another way. Looks like someone tried to steal my wife’s identity. We had heard about identity theft in Thailand but never thought that we would be hit. My wife has an expat sounding last name and a Thai sounding first name, obviously a Thai married to a foreigner. We wonder if that may have made her a target. Here’s what happened … Continued
Your Say
• 27 Years I like to read your magazine but finding it is difficult. I hope you will be able to send me some copies of your magazine to help me pass the time. Plus I am looking for a pen pal, please try to help me. My only contact with the outside world at present is by reading copies of your magazine. I feel I don’t have anybody inside or outside the prison that I can speak to and I feel very alo … 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. Hi. Just wondering, as the second hand book shops here don’t often sell books that have just come out, is … Continued
A Chorus Line, Custard and a Bush
The word ‘spirit’ has its root in the old Latin word ‘spiritus’ which means breath. I am familiar with the word describing something that in itself may not have a physical manifestation but represents a way of being or an ethereal power. So I started to wonder what the spirit of the Daring family was. “Whisky?” suggested Mrs. D when I asked her. Not the answer I was looking for but an excellent su … Continued
Spiritual Predictions
What time of the year could be more suitable for a fortune telling than right now? Entering a new year marks a new beginning for many. Some, on the other hand, refrain from accepting the concept of time as we know it. “Time exists only for humans,” says Diana Manilova, a Russian psychic now settled in Chiang Mai. Our grasp of time as something linearly flowing and thus measurable might be nothing … Continued
Lifting Your Spirits
As if riding an invisible horse, Deborah Knight swings her entire body back and forth and up and down all at once in one smooth, continuous motion. She makes it look so easy. Limbs dangling loose, head rocking rhythmically to and fro, hips energetically shaking and both feet planted solidly on the wooden floor. These movements are meant to shake awake the energy at the base of her spine. “It is an … Continued
A Retiring Attitude
A lot of people choose Thailand as a place of retirement because of the very good and inexpensive medical treatment one can get here. And lately spa and herbal treatment centres have become a booming business. But what about treatment for those little nagging aches and pains and other bothersome physical problems that fall just below the level of needing to see a doctor? Thailand has some answers … Continued
The Life of Wine
You can’t judge a wine by its label… or can you? Ever stood in front of the shelf at your wine retailer dazed and confused at the wallpaper of labels only to give up and ask for help? Ever bought a bottle of wine purely because you liked the label? Ever refused to try a wine on the grounds that the label sucked? Most of us would answer yes to all. Like food labelling, beer, spirits, perfume and … Continued
Your Say
• MSG Uncertainty In Citylife September 2010, I was very interested to read the article by Julia Shiplett ‘The taste of uncertainty: What’s hiding behind MSG.’ In this article Julia states, ‘Despite years of research and studies on the effects of processed glutamate on our bodies, data is by and large inconclusive and anecdotal.’ Sadly this is not true. I cite just one reference: www.life-enthusia … 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. A friend of mine will be coming to Chiang Mai in about two months, and he wants to have some really good c … Continued
Just One More for the Road
Hello. My name’s Phil and I am a bagoholic. The first stage of recovery is admitting there is a problem. So for the record, I am addicted to bags. Not handbags or suitcases, but for years, I was on an obsessive quest for the ultimate travelling bag that served both business and pleasure. Being a bagoholic is the same principle as an alcoholic except your liver tends to be safer even if your back i … Continued
The Horror
The morning stroll to work, under the canopy of fruit trees fragmenting a perfect azure sky, squirrels above me doing the high wire dash, sunshine smacking down on the street, the merry cobbler busy at work looks up and says sawasdee as he always does. The office garden is sparkling, still not dried off from the heavy rains during the night, while the staff are sitting picnic style around dishes o … Continued
Community Services
• 01 Charity Christmas Cards 200 club, Citylife Chiang Mai Magazine, AA insurance and Rachamankha Hotel have teamed up to create a set of five Charity Christmas Cards. Every package contains five different designs. 250 baht per package. 100% of the money goes to the Elephant Clinic. ON SALE NOW [while stocks last!] at the Citylife office, Rachamankha Hotel, The Rim Hotel, AA Insurance offices [Mee … Continued
The Collectors
The Doll Collector Nataphol ‘Tor’ Sinsaduak has been collecting (mostly) Barbie dolls for a decade. He has over 1,000 in his collection (though, only brought 300 to this photoshoot), some of which cost him a Barbie-gasping 10,000 baht. “I love dolls,” he says, “I love dressing them, I love playing with them. I didn’t have many friends when I was young.” Tor works for Thai Airways when he’s not han … Continued
Fear and Loathing in Farmville
If you aren’t genetically predisposed to obsessive compulsive disorders (OCDs), such as the seasonally filmed and unintentionally comedic Tourette syndrome, or the recently televised – UK, Channel 4, ‘Girls on the Pull’ – Trichotillomania (excessive hair pulling), then you might count yourself fortunate. Though it seems an ‘irrational’ ‘obsessive’ ‘repetitive’ ‘excessive’ model of behaviour throug … Continued
Community Services
01 The Informal Northern Thai Group 12 October: A Tribute to Edward Rose. If you cannot attend and would like to write in a message for the tribute please send it by email to one of the organisers below and your message will be read during the programme on the evening of the tribute. For more information, please contact Pete at pfreeouf@yahoo.com or Jack at snowgoose@fastmail.cn. 02 Dog of the Mon … Continued
A Retiring Attitude
This happened the other day on one of those ubiquitous Chiang Mai red taxis. A westerner got on and asked (in English) to go towards the university. When he got off he approached the front passenger-side window and handed the driver’s wife 10 baht and began to walk away. The wife stopped him and said that the fare was 20 baht. He yelled back that he knew the cost of a ride and he didn’t want to be … Continued
Your Say
• Classical Mistake A small correction to one of Nick Hanlon’s choices of the greatest pieces of music written as printed in ‘City Talk’ in the September edition. ‘Ode to Joy’ is a poem that was written in 1785 by German Friedrich Schiller. The most famous musical setting was by Ludwig Van Beethoven sometime before 1824 which he used in the final movement of his 9th Symphony (The Choral). It is no … 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 where in Chiang Mai I can get electronic goods fixed when they are not under warrantee? I have … Continued
Mirror, Mirror, on the wall…or wardrobe…
“Enough! It will do you good and I can’t do it on my own” said Mrs. D with a resolute look on her face. “You are coming.” “Ooh la la” I said in a vague attempt at lightening what had been a somewhat tense discussion. It failed and I knew that I was losing the argument. I couldn’t see what good ballroom dancing would do and wasn’t going to give up without a fight. “Darling, you could do it on your … Continued
Culture Shock
What is culture? It’s certainly something not easily definable, it’s negotiable – when it suits us – and it’s unashamedly versatile. Nevertheless, we live within it, and occasionally die for it; we argue for its global ascendancy in the pub and cry for its plight when it moves on without us. Culture is a well worn word these days in Thailand as the government’s grip on the nation loses its strengt … Continued
Condos Taking Over The Jungle
From her house in Chang Khian, a north western Chiang Mai neighbourhood at the foothills of Doi Suthep, it takes only minutes for Wanpen Saetia to walk down to the vast, grass covered field where a big new building project is soon to be constructed. The Building Control authorities say they have already given permission to put up three out of the four 7-story condos that are planned to accommodate … Continued
Talking it Over
Rather than stretching out the same conversations about traffic, pollution and ‘noise’ with the same old friends and cquaintances, coming to pretty much the same old conclusions and doing absolutely the same old nothing about it, the editorial team thought it might be time for me to branch out and meet some folk with mono-syllabic names to discuss Chiang Mai with. We chose three urbanites: Pradd, … Continued
Community Services
01 The Informal Northern Thai Group Tuesday 14th September: Hunting Northern Thailand’s Snakes on a Motorbike A talk and presentation by Sjon Hauser. For more information please call 053 117 319. 02 Care for Dogs – Dog of the Month – Penny “Hi, I’m Penny! I’m a real sweetheart!” This little lap dog is so pretty and adorable! She desperately needs some tender loving care but if nothing else, a litt … Continued
A Retiring Attitude
An expat friend came to me the other day telling me about a problem he had at an immigration check point. “Everything was in order”, he said. “I was polite and did nothing wrong. But the immigration officer wouldn’t give me my visa and ended up throwing my passport at me. Those people are just idiots.” Well, after questioning my friend a little further, I found that there was a little bit more to … Continued
Your Say
• Whistling Dixie I recently read in the Bangkok Post that the ‘QuietBangkokGroup’ (www.quietbangkok.org) had started a campaign titled ‘Whistle Free Zone.’ This was to make people aware of noise in Bangkok, especially whistles blown by security staff at hotels, condominiums and office blocks. This campaign has been so successful that management at many of these places has provided their guards wi … 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. Today I saw a creature in the garden, which is similar to what English people call a ‘wire worm’. That is, … Continued
The Life of a Modern Dog
They came down one by one: guitar, drums, vocals. Meandering through the lobby and plonking themselves down on the sofa opposite us, the ‘fathers of Thai indie/alternative rock’, aka, Modern Dog, in turns, revealed how life plays out as a Thai rock star. The band have sold more than two million copies of their five studio albums, and have had scores of number one singles, including three from thei … Continued
The Life of Wine
Dom Perignon (Circa 1638-1715) was the first of the Benedictine Order to experiment with cork as closure for bottles of sparkling wine (later to be known as Champagne). Before then hardwood stoppers were used to seal large open neck vases and casks as a crude method of wine preservation. For years now the wine industry has been debating over the ultimate closure for wine. The traditional closure, … Continued