Surfin’ Lessons
‘Christmas is coming the geese are getting fat’…oh how good old Buddhist Thailand loves a shopping festival! And every year the evil internet is slowly eroding the fun of Christmas shopping, unless of course you dangle tinsel over your monitor, and play those monotonous kids choir Christmas carols from itunes while you shop online. Last year $100 billion dollars was spent in the US alone with the … Continued
City Vibes
Artist: Dizzee Rascal Album: Tongue N’ Cheek Rating: Dizzee Rascal is a charismatic London grime artist who has had a short but notable career. Rascal won the Mercury Music Prize in 2003 for his debut album, Boy in Da Corner and has since proffered two admirable follow-ups, all injected with a creative youthfulness and a mastery of the broken beat. On Tongue N’ Cheek, Rascal veers away from his gr … Continued
A Retiring Attitude
‘Snowbirds’ is a term used in the U.S. and Canada for retirees who flee the cold winters of the northern regions to warmer locales like Florida, Arizona, and Mexico. There is also a European species of snowbird who heads for Mediterranean climes. Today there is a new breed of migratory snowbirds that travel a lot further in their quest for an endless summer. More and more expats come to Thailand d … Continued
Cultural Insight
Starting in the 1970s the north of Thailand underwent rapid and fundamental changes. Rutted laterite tracks turned into superhighways; ox carts were replaced by pick-up trucks, buffaloes by Japanese tractors; electricity and with it television sets, entered the remotest village. The borders of Thailand to the north, for so long closed, are now open, so that Lanna is no longer a dead end but a gate … Continued
City Sport
• FOOTBALL A seven a-side football tournament was held at Prem in November hosted by the Prem Football Academy. Teams from all over Chiang Mai got involved in the two day competition. On the fist day the teams were split up into four leagues of four teams. Only two teams from each league would go through to the knock-out stage the following day. Farangutans put in two teams. Captain Lee stated tha … Continued
Community Service
01 Informal NorthernThai Group Tuesday, December 8th at 7.30 p.m. : ‘Universal Health Care in Thailand’. A talk and presentation by Joseph Harris. For more information please call 053 117 319. 02 Tour de Thailand – Charity Ride Join hundreds of other cyclists on Tuesday December 8th for the first leg of a charity ride that begins in Chiang Mai and ends in Phuket, 2,300kms and 22 days later. Chiang … Continued
City Buzz
Not far from Tha Pae Gate, this eccentric little place combines the creativity of a variety of artists, architects, designers, local artisans, and astrologers (Feng Shui) while mixing eastern and western cultures through abstract ideas and concrete techniques. Each of the twelve different box-shaped gallery rooms features an individual artist’s interpretation of their Chinese zodiac sign _ Rat, Ox … Continued
An Interview with David Unkovich, a Chiang Mai Cartographer
David Unkovich, 56, born in Australia of Croatian extraction, has been in Chiang Mai so long it’s perhaps possible he doesn’t know who the Culture Club is; he missed out on microwave dinners, crimped hairstyles and Max Headroom. . . a well-timed exodus you might wonder. Citylife spent the day with him, doing what he does best, riding through the mountains. 10.30: Hire new Kawasaki ER6 and follow U … Continued
The Lanna Deception
“Yes, what is Lanna?” pondered ajarn Vithi, a remarkably youthful looking man for his sixty plus years, as he fiddled with some slides at his office in the Faculty of Arts, Chiang Mai University, “most people are vague about that . . . It’s become so commercialised, people have lost their way.” Vithi Phanichphant, a dedicated historian and highly respected authority on northern Thai culture is as … Continued
Special Scoop: Rawee Waree Resort & Spa
It’s difficult to imagine a more serene location in Thailand than the lush and verdant valley of Maetaman where the new Rawee Waree Resort and Spa is situated. Only a forty minute drive from downtown Chiang Mai, through to Mae Taeng, and into a blissful pocket of nature you will find a place where elephants and buffalo roam the quiet streets. Afforded the benefits of pristine geography, hardly tou … Continued
Reclaiming Space
Formerly a rubbish-filled, forgotten corner of Lanna International School is currently being transformed into a lush organic garden. The garden will be surrounded by walls done in adobe – an ancient, natural building technique that will enable you to actually build almost cost-free mansions out of dirt. [right]by Hakan Jakob Kosar[/right] Up until August this year a neglected corner of Lanna Inter … Continued
Your Say
[right][/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. • Different Folks, Different Strokes Congratulations on your Pink Issue (Oct … 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. Who do we turn to or what recourse do we have when a medical, surgical, dental, rehabilitative procedure g … Continued
Editorial
Christmas has come early for 82 Thai families who will be having a fantastic December this year; the recipients of Habitat for Humanity’s Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project: The Mekong Build 2009. The week-long event was a roaring success and now 82 families will be living in a wonderful new neighbourhood, which they helped to build. Christian or not, I am sure they are grateful for the Christ … Continued
Mightier than the Sword: an interview with post feminist writer and thinker Kham Phaka
Lakkana Punwichai, 37, looks like the woman next door. She has the typically lithe and perfectly compact female form, her face, while attractive, would probably not turn heads, and her casual attire is testament to the fact that she really isn’t particularly bothered about impressing anyone. Arriving for the interview, she accepts my wai and, wasting no time, immediately starts talking…as I scramb … Continued
The Gospel According to Dudeism
BOOK I 1. Longtime residents of Chiang Mai might recall an article I wrote here a few years back about a religion I started called ‘The Temple of Earth’. I have to confess now that it was rather a failure. Turns out it’s easy to start a religion, but not so easy to get people to believe in it. Perhaps I should have arranged a few phony miracles, or at least taken out some ads in Citylife. 2. In re … Continued
Expat Housewives
Is it all chatty coffee mornings, lingering lunches and pretty pedicures? The reality of the lives of these, dynamic rather than desperate, housewives couldn’t be further from their stereotypes. Meet a group of women who live in Chiang Mai’s version of Wisteria Lane – a beautiful moo baan with Doi Suthep as a backdrop – where children have weekly sleepovers, neighbours help themselves to each othe … Continued
Special Scoop: Jin Design
“Whoa . . . another big night, another wild party. The afternoon early winter sunlight just crept in through the window and woke me up. Party over, nothing lasts forever. You take a group of friends, personalities, colours, you add to that a few drops of Johnny Black, a splash of Jack, mix it all up, and voila, in your ‘bowl’ you have perfection. What you get with the right ingredients, the right … Continued
The Eternal Farang
Dovan Daniel (Daniel to friends), like so many of us, is used to being referred to as ‘farang’ in his daily life here in Chiang Mai. And, also like many here in Chiang Mai, he has been called foreigner in many languages, having lived most of his life outside his country of birth. Since he is very experienced when it comes to expat life, and since his life story is quite interesting, I sat down wit … Continued
The Prachenskys
Nikolaus and Sherry Prachensky are a fascinating couple who own a couple of equally intriguing businesses. Niki, as he prefers to be called, is a distinguished looking 53 year old who speaks with a gravelly voice, laced with his Austrian accent on passions du jour; sometimes a vocal proponent for healthy lifestyles, waxing poetic about meditation and qigong, at other times he loves nothing more th … Continued