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] Holiday Garden Hotel and Resort http://www.holidaygardenhotelandresort.com Citylife designed the web site for this charming Huay Kaew hotel and resort last year and featured their site in the October 2007 edition of this magazin … 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: jantawint … Continued
Surfin’ Lessons
For starters, to go surfing you need a decent board, or in this case broad…er broadband that is, and it might sound a little obvious but here in Chiang Mai you get broadband and band aids. The suburban internet services do leave a lot to be desired and their reliability is woeful. City dwellers are a little luckier but those of you out in the moo baan no doubt have a frustrating time, so here’s a … Continued
City Vibes
Artist: AC/DC Album: Black Ice Rating: AC/DC has been smashing guitars since 1973 and has sold over 200 million records. ‘Black Ice’ arrives eight years after their last release and heralds a reinvigoration of their classic sound and the thumping hedonism of the 1980 classic ‘Back in Black’. The distinctive vocal rasp of front-man Brian Johnson channels a furious energy into the band’s songs and l … Continued
Love Precepts
January, 2009 The ‘Growth Industry’ Website 40over40.com states that 40% of men over the age of 40 experience Erectile Dysfunction (ED). And 65% of men over 65 are prone to penile flaccidity. Author David Friedman dubs impotence as “a growth industry”. The aforementioned statistics are relevant to Thailand – ‘Country for Old Men’ – where the expat population is predominantly men aged 40 plus. Life … Continued
A Retiring Attitude
I wake up to lots of forwarded emails in my inbox. I almost never forward them on, but the other day I got one that I thought might be appropriate for others to read. So I forwarded this email on to all the ‘mature’ (read ‘older’) people on my email list. STROKE IDENTIFICATION A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within three hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke … Continued
What’s Happening?
Now – 6th January DAD & ME @ Pongnoi Art Space 053 329 305 [email protected], artspace.trickthink.com Art exhibition by Monrudee Thiensart Tuesdays – Fridays 1 – 6 p.m. and Saturdays – Sundays 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Now – 28th February WOVEN WISDOM @ The Patricia Cheesman Collection Gallery www.studio-naenna.com Come see a collection of masterpieces from the Studio Naenna Archives 5 – 7 p.m. until … Continued
Ten Years Ago January 2009
Citylife (which changed its name from the Chiang Mai Newsletter in 2002) has been in publication for over seventeen years. Let’s look back at what we wrote 10 years ago. January 1999: The Chiang Mai Newsletter bar is now officially open to anyone who may be interested to pop in to meet us or other business people in Chiang Mai. We are open every Friday after work for a few hours and finish … Continued
Your Say
[right]Your say is an open forum for you the reader to express your opinions. Write to: [email protected], 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] Citylife, I write in relation to an item in the Nov edition _ the interview w … 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: ja[email protected] 1. I don’t understand the law that restricts buying alcohol during the weirdest times. Can you explain why th … Continued
City Sport
[right][/right] In the Chiang Mai cricket league, the Chiang Mai Colts and U.N. Irish Pub played at the Gymkhana Club in early December. Thanathit Jiraphanthawong (Tong) opened the batting with Peeravat Duangthip (Gun) and they compiled a rapid 50 before Gun was dismissed for 17. Tong continued his merry way to a chanceless 70 before being caught at point, off the bowling of Nick Hanlon. Newcomer … Continued
Editorial
I remember the exact moment when the 1997 Asian financial crash hit me. I was in Israel, still trying to get a job a year after graduation and still relying on the largess of my parents to survive. The cheque always arrived regularly in the mail and I wasn’t particularly desperate to earn a living, never having done so before. Then one day in early 1998 I received a phone call from my father to in … Continued
City Buzz
This elegant modern coffee shop serves great baked goods during the day and morphs into a hip pub during the night. With comfy furniture and a relaxing atmosphere, this is a great place for time out. Their private garden and free WIFI make it the ideal place during the day to sit back with a book or a notebook. We love how the lights are dimmed at 7 p.m. and baguettes and coffee cups swiped … Continued
Niue . . . Unbelievable
January, 2009 This tropical island of Niue, a 3.5 hour flight northeast from Auckland, population of approximately 1,500, is the fourth smallest independent country in the world and sits in the centre of a triangle bounded by the Cook Islands, Tonga, and the Samoas, sitting smack in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean. There are no shopping malls, cinemas, karaoke bars, casinos, or mass tourism. … Continued
Where to go for Children’s Day
Children’s Day is on the 10th of January, and is taken very seriously by Thailand’s children who get to go to their favourite destinations, stuff their faces with ice creams and candies and generally rule the roost for one day of the year. So if you are scratching your head with indecision about where to take your children, here are some popular spots for Chiang Mai’s little ones. 01 Mae Sa Valley … Continued
Prisoner: Cell Block Latte
January, 2009 I wasn’t at all sure how well I would cope with my time in prison. Thai prisons have a dreadful reputation for not being very pleasant at all; and I found myself being sent to one on some trumped up charge of being able to write. I felt scared and alone. I had heard the stories of overcrowding -something like 250 people crammed into a six-foot by four-foot cell with no beds and just … Continued
New Year Resolutions 2009
January, 2009 Save money, lose weight, get fit, eat healthy, work harder, work fewer hours, be happier, love more, read more, travel lighter…whoever we are, we always seem to need to be better. For most of us much of these self imposed disciplines are gratuitously mumbled and soon forgotten. Perhaps once a year, traditionally, we make a list, fuel our determination, and spend a few days…weeks, or … Continued
Photo of the Year
Citylife organised our first Photo of the Year competition in 2008. We received over 280 submissions from over 80photographers. Thank you for all of your interest, and support and a huge thanks to our sponsors for the great prizes. 2009’s competition will be open to submissions in February when we will announce the year’s theme. [right][/right] First prize: 10,000 baht cash Photographer: Ch … Continued
The Art of Being Alive
The Greeks had an idea that all people could be identified by one of four humours, or what we’d now define as temperaments. After imbibing the knowledge of his cerebral forefathers, Plato and Aristotle, a philosopher called Galen came up with this idea: we humans will always fall into one of these categories: Choleric; Melancholic; Sanguine; Phlegmatic. Don’t reach for your dictionary, here’s the … Continued
Slip of the Tongue
January, 2009 “The People Power Party was disillusioned (dissolution)!” I recently announced with glee to a group of friends who promptly burst into hysterics. It took a minute or two to realise that I had, once again, committed my most reticent (persistent) and embellishing (embarrassing) of linguistic sins – Malapropism. For those who have never encountered Mrs. Malaprop, she is the wonderful ch … Continued
Cultural Insight
Thai chronicles and history tell us little of Lanna in the years after the 1558 Burmese conquest. Richard Hakluyt, in his Voyages tells the story of Ralph Fitch, merchant of London, who, in 1586, travelled overland from Pegu in Burma to Chiang Mai, a journey of twenty-five days. ‘Jamahey,’ he wrote, ‘is a very faire and great town, with faire houses of stone, well peopled, the streets are very lar … Continued
Office Politics
In the beginning, when PAD stood for the termination of Thaksin’s government through peaceful means, I would have proudly worn a yellow shirt (had it not clashed with my skin tone). I admired their dogged digging of the government’s wrong doings and their startling exposés of the depths of depravity of the then administration. We were up against something so insidious and so far reaching that I fe … Continued
Ten Feet Under
January, 2009 The 600 million baht Chiang Mai Zoo Aquarium, conceived during the days of Thaksin Shinawatra, is a joint venture between the Thai government and the Australian firm MarineScape. Boasting all sorts of ‘…in the world’ claims including the longest fresh water tunnel in the world at 66.5 metres, the longest underwater tunnel in the world at 113 metres (though rather deceptive as it is a … Continued