Blogs from Thailand, Asia - page 13

People wash up on foreign shores for many reasons – opportunity, sanctuary, happenstance, adventure, love, vacation or in my case, a dependent spouse visa. While tourists come and go, ex-pats (ex-patriots) settle in and take root. In Thailand, most ex-pats are from neighboring countries. Some are permanent ‘migrant’ workers, some are bigwigs of international corporations, and some are things in between. Then there are the Westerners, who also run the gamut and number somewhere between a couple hundred thousand and a million. Over the years, a fair few of these have ended up with Thai wives. The malls are full of heavy jowled, thinning haired, sagging belly, tattooed, flip flopped old white men holding their high-heeled, smartly dressed, 15-year younger wives’ Louise Vuitton monogrammed purses while window shopping at the new Gucci store. While these fellows ... read more

As the door closes on the cacophony of the street, there is the sound of tinkling water and the smell of lemongrass. A smiling lady with kind eyes wais (bows) and hands me a thick menu. On the first several pages are soothing images of herbal compresses, gold masks, aroma oil rubs, body scrubs, and head and foot massage packages. It isn’t until page 4 that the human spatchcocking is finally pictured – suspiciously buried beneath all the smiles and the spa treatments. This is the only indication of what ‘traditional Thai massage’ entails. They don’t warn you about what’s coming. It all starts innocently enough. They take your shoes, wash your feet with a green herbal exfoliant, and lead you into a dim room divided by heavy curtains into several smaller ‘rooms’. In each, there ... read more

Due to the pandemic, most travelers suffer from being forced to stay at home as a safety precaution. This pandemic caused a lot of canceled travel and stress to explorers and wanderers. Several years have passed and my spirit is still hoping that I can go back to Thailand again in the future. My first visit to the Kingdom was superb. I traveled a lot and was able to visit a lot of places and enjoy authentic Thai dishes. The second time around I was able to experience the Northernmost part and the neighboring countries.... read more

Thailand Lunch by the pool at the Siam InterContinental with Tiger Tops' owner One trip to Bangkok was in August...in sweltering heat. Rose took tours while Ron was in sales meetings. She was wilting and grateful to return to the air-conditioned Siam InterContinental. At its pool we had lunch with Jim Edwards, Owner of Tiger Tops in Nepal, and his Nepalese secretary Uma. The next day we all went to the newly opened Ancient City, one hour south of Bangkok. When Ron worked for Thai International, the Station Manager always met us so we didn't have to clear Immigration or Customs. Transfers from the airport to the downtown hotels should take 30 minutes, but took an hour due to the mind-boggling traffic. Many drivers sat to the right of their seat to allow room for the ... read more

Although I didn't want to leave Langkawi or the boat in the shipyard, we were forced to leave to renew our visas as we haven't left Langkawi island for 2 years during Covid lock downs and restrictions. Anyway, I set off with Brent and Doni and we were off to Phuket for a couple of weeks. It started with PCR test at the doctors on the island before flights, tests on arrival at Phuket Airport, we were entering on 'The Sandbox'. We had to wait on test results before we were allowed to leave hotel but they came through pretty rapid, then it was time to head out to play. It's been a while since I was in Phuket and actually I've never stayed over in Patong as it's the busiest but not now which is ... read more