Phi Ta Khon festival
If hundreds of people wearing lurid, ghoulish masks with schlongish noses and shaking giant wooden phalluses doesn’t sound like a family friendly event to you, then you’re clearly not from my family and you’re not getting an invite to my next party. I’d been desperate to see the Phi Tha Kon (ผ’ต“โขน) “Ghost Mask” festival […]
Koh Libong – unexpected island idyll
Travelling in coastal Thailand during the rainy season is risky: it might bucket down for days, cities can flood, many businesses close shop, and if the sea whips up boat journeys can be dangerous. Despite this, we’d booked a few nights at Anantara’s Si Kao resort in Trang Province. We planned to use the hotel […]
The Rong Island at the right time
With all this talk about ASEAN integration and the AEC (ASEAN Economic Community), you’d think that driving a Thai vehicle into Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar or Malaysia would be easy – but it isn’t. As we approached the Cambodia border down a narrow finger of Thai territory, we still weren’t sure if we had all the necessary documents. […]
European ski trip
There’s an old joke about Americans’ whirlwind tours of Europe: Son: Where are we Dad? Dad: (consulting itinerary) Well it’s Tuesday, so this must be France. It’s funny. But it’s not really a joke at all. With so few vacation days, Americans tend to overdo their schedules and under do their understanding. As a […]