City Buzz
Down a dark soi off Chang Peuk Road is an eyebrow raising new venue which would sit pretty comfortably on any capital city’s main avenue – trendy, modern, chic – Metro is a self-styled metrosexual hangout. As young men gyrate upstairs at Adam’s Apple, Metro hopes to bring the straight and gay community together in a trés chic little space serving finger foods, cocktails and beers. Hip stude … Continued
Riding School for Autistic Kids
In the distance a voice booming from loudspeakers rallied the troops, I heard the drums roll as soldiers march around the compound, then all went quiet. Suddenly a young boy’s gleeful scream pierced the quiet. An incongruous sight, a five year old boy was playing football with his father, not something I was expecting to see in an army base. As I approached, he looked at me quizzically, assessing … Continued
The Power of Words: 110,000 baht raised in Italy for orphans in Thailand
Words can, and often do, affect action. Forty two year old Gianluca Maynardi-Araldi a retired Italian Muay Thai coach and a self confessed collector of Citylife for over 15 years, asked us to bring this story to the readers in the hope it might encourage others to take action. Gianluca Maynardi-Araldi and Gianluca Chiloiro, both avid Muay Thai fighters, have been friends for years. Maynardi-Araldi … Continued
Plastic Hazards
In the heart of a quiet village off the Chiang Mai-Fang Road in Mae Rim, a few kilometres from ‘Baan Kwai’ Buffalo House, close to resorts, schools and housing projects, a plastic recycling factory is located, fronted by walls tall enough to obscure the view of the plant. On closer inspection Anothai Plastic is a sea of synthetic junk, seemingly of every mould, bails stand bulging with buckets, bo … Continued
What’s Happening?
2nd July ART GURU OFFERING CEREMONY @ Chiang Mai University 053 944 805 Faculty of Fine Arts, Chiang Mai University will host the Art Guru Offering Ceremony on Thursday 2nd July, 8 a.m. – noon. The Offering Ceremony includes a traditional Lanna parade, an array of local music, a blessing ceremony for first year students and more. 24th-26th July THE 11TH HHK IN THE NORTH @ Floor 2nd, Central Plaza … Continued
City Sport
The Farangutans have seen little action lately, it seems there are few teams out there willing to do battle against the expats. Suthep United are one of the teams on good terms with the Farangutans and in mid June they played each other in what proved to be an exciting match. Although the foreigners held the younger team at bay for much of the game in the last quarter they ran out of gas, allowing … Continued
Community Service
The Informal Northern Thai Group has been hosting a series of monthly talks since 1984, usually about aspects of Thailand, SE Asia and Asia. They are held at the Alliance Francaise on Charoen Prathet Road starting at 7:30 p.m., usually on the second Tuesday of each month. Everyone is welcome! Tuesday, July 14th at 7.30 p.m. Kevin Moore will talk about the immediate impact and the aftermath of the … Continued
Chiang Mai on the WWW
This column is to keep you abreast of the latest websites which Citylife has produced, introducing you to the ever-increasing presence of Chiang Mai online. website : www.chiangdaoelephantcamp.com Chiang-Dao Chiang Mai Elephant Training Center, founded in 1969, was one of the first elephant camps in Chiang Mai. This month, with the help of Citylife, they have launched their first website. Unlike t … Continued
The Person behind the Persona: Dr. Howard C. Graves Jr.
Walk into a party in Chiang Mai and the first thing one notices is either the booming baritone of Dr. Howard C. Graves Junior as he blows kisses, flutters his fan and croons “darling” at all and sundry, or the flamboyantly resplendent silk robes of all colours and hues draped over his six foot frame, as he glides around the room. “If I walk into a room and no one notices me, from my standpoint, I … Continued
Perfect Women
As foreigners, it seems the closer we get to the core of Thai society, the more confused we become, our attempt at immersion is often met with failure. There are those who jump right in, exchange vows with virtual strangers, only to realise that they have fallen down a rabbit hole, then there are those who learn the language and try to adapt slowly, but more often than not, in both cases, truly un … Continued
Surfin’ Lessons
Crickey, the internet can be a fantastic waste of time. I worked out the other day that by the time I’m 70 I will have spent 7800 hours of my life on Facebook. An app I had found while aimlessly surfing the site worked that out. It used up two more hours of my precious life. To be sure, social networking can be described as an overwhelming pointless pre-occupation that has gripped man and womenkin … Continued
City Vibes
Artist: Green Day Album: 21st Century Breakdown Rating: I haven’t been a Green Day fan since their 1994 blitzkrieg ‘Dookie’ which was a wild slice of post-punk cackling swaddled in dense Americana. Since then I haven’t given a flying stuff about Green Day, until now, fifteen years after ‘Dookie’ had me jarring my teenage neck on a lager stained dance-floor in East Anglia. The reason for my renewed … Continued
Ten Years ago
Our cover story in July 1999 was on the opening of the Chiang Mai University Small Animal Hospital, which was fairly exciting at the time. However, our main feature, ‘Spin me a Web’ is about the excitement of the then-newish internet and our publication’s first foray online with our website, www.chiangmainews.com, still the number one English language site in the north of Thailand today. Excitedly … 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] German Humour Now I as a Kraut don’t have a sense of humour but just been leaf … 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. What happened to prices of things, beer and smokes mainly? And why have they gone up by so much? James: Ex … Continued
Editorial
For millennia, man has mulled over the greatest issues of our times. Whether it be the formation of the perfect form of governance, the cohabitation of state and religion, the strategies of warfare, colonisation and imperialism, the rights of the individual, and in more recent years, environmental preservation and rejuvenation, religious fanaticism, health and pandemics…the list seems never ending … Continued
A Retiring Attitude
I had put off going to the dentist for about a year and a half. It isn’t only the exorbitant amount American dentists charge. It is the way they are always putting me down for not flossing correctly or for brushing too hard. But that lower molar was crying out for attention so I got a recommendation for a good Chiang Mai dentist and I went to check it out. The first thing I had to do before walkin … Continued
Cultural Insight
Who am I? What am I? For a Thai person the position is clear. You can have Thai nationality, san chaat, but you may be of Chinese race, chua chaat. But anyone with three generations of Thai citizenship behind them, automatically becomes chua chat Thai. Presumably this applies not only to Chinese but also to Indians and farang. The Chinese have assimilated easily into Thai society as they look simi … Continued
Dodgy & The Kings of Counterfeit
It’s raining, naturally, and a drenched man with a stunning tan walks into a dank pub in some monochrome mill town in Northern England, his purple and black shell suit reflects in the eyes of the stoic drinkers. He drops a suitcase on the floor while spectators crowd round, as he opens the tattered box he says, “Lacoste ara tenner a pop; proper good Rolexes: twennie-five, and these Tags: twennie; … Continued
Client Chit Chat on Citylife’s BIG 18
It has been wonderful working with the Citylife team over the years and to see how the art team has evolved. Ah, the joys of updating the artwork up to the last minute to make sure every thing is perfect. Citylife’s close contact with the expat community has kept Studio Naenna and our customers up to date on all aspects of Chiang Mai. I would like especially to congratulate Citylife on the Carbon … Continued
Quick Glance through Past Issues
Citylife, now well into its eighteenth year, has, in a remarkable way, grown as Chiang Mai has grown. The first edition of what was then-not-so-succinctly called ‘The Free Chiang Mai Newsletter and Advertiser’ appeared in March 1992, with a horrible picture of Chamadevi on the front page. (The reason we celebrate our anniversary in July is because it was July 2002 when we changed the publication’s … Continued