My Thai

Finding Cheap Flights To Bangkok

2008-03-02T07:46:00.003+07:00

There are plenty of airlines flying to Bangkok, but how to be sure you're getting the best deal? Flight comparison site Kayak (or Kayak UK if you're in the UK) provides a good starting point for finding the cheapest flights to Bangkok. There's also useful advice in this article - Cheap Flights: Where To Find Them Online.

Bangkok Apartments Guide

2008-01-06T01:02:00.000+07:00

Just put together a new website called Apartment-Bangkok.com which is aimed at giving a quick guide to renting an apartment in Bangkok. It follows on from my previous article Finding Cheap Long Term Accommodation in Bangkok.

Recently on Travelhappy

2006-10-05T13:24:00.000+07:00

Here's a round up of the various posts I've been writing on Travelhappy, broken down by country. Bangkok gets its own category as I am still living here at the moment. One article I want to highlight is Seven Reasons To Go Travelling Solo
which got picked up by social news site Reddit.com, which meant that thousands of surfers came to read it, which was very gratifying. I'm planning to write a couple more articles like this with some more helpful advice.

Bangkok

Ballardian Bangkok

Bangkok Cafes - Chocoholic

Bangkok Google Map

Bangkok Hotels With Free Wireless Internet (Wi Fi)

Bangkok Hotels: The Davis Bangkok

Bangkok Lonely Planet: New Edition

Bangkok Pubs: The Dubliner

Bangkok Restaurants: Crepes And Co

Bangkok’s New Suvarnabhumi Airport Opens

Best Cheap Hotels In Bangkok

Free Wireless Internet Access in Bangkok

Hotels Near The New Bangkok Airport

Cheap Long Term Accommodation In Bangkok

Long Term Cheap Bangkok Accommodation - Belleville Apartments

Nancy Chandler Bangkok Map

Taxi Prices From The New Bangkok Airport To Bangkok And Pattaya

The New Bangkok Airport - How To Get There And Away

Things To Do In Bangkok: Bangkok Bike Rides

Things To Do In Bangkok: Bangkok's Green Spaces

Things To Do In Bangkok: Longtail Boat Canal Klong Tour

Things To Do In Bangkok: The Grand Palace

Things To Do In Bangkok: The Reclining Buddha of Wat Po

Things To Do In Bangkok: Three Sixty Bar, Bangkok Millennium Hilton

Things To Do In Bangkok: Vertigo: Bangkok’s Sky High Sunset Bar

Thailand

Thailand Backpacking: A Quick Guide

Thailand Discussion Forums

Medical Tourism In Thailand

Thai Military Coup In Bangkok: A Personal View

Is Thailand Safe?

HOW TO install a Thai SIM card in your mobile phone

Thailand Airport Departure Tax To Increase

Thailand Meditation Retreat

Thailand Visa Overstay Goes Up to 500 Baht A Day

Thailand’s Royal Cat Park

The Best Map Of Bangkok

Anantara Resorts - Luxury Hotels In Thailand

Themed iPod To Celebrate The King Of Thailand's Diamond Jubilee

Thai Silks And Textiles Museum

Koh Phi Phi Post Tsunami

Nicholas Cage in Thailand for Bangkok Dangerous

Phi Ta Khon Festival, Thailand: Ghosts And Spirits Festival

Prasat Hin Phimai: Refuge of The Angkor God-King

Myanmar

AirAsia Now Flying to Yangon, Myanmar (Burma)

Secret Histories: Finding George Orwell in A Burmese Teashop - Emma Larkin

Travelling in Myanmar

Cambodia

Angkor: Heart Of An Asian Empire

Cambodia's Tomb Raiders Threaten Country's Heritage

Last Chance To Eat Crispy Spiders In Cambodia?

The Lost Executioner: A Story Of The Khmer Rouge: Nic Dunlop

China

China Inc.: The Relentless Rise of the Next Great Superpower

China's Speciality Penis Restaurant

Chinese Symbol Tattoos

Japan

Teaching English In Japan: A Quick Guide

Japan Love Hotels

Miscellaneous

Komodo Dragons and Seven Thousand Islands

Engrish Tshirt Fun

New Delhi Tour Guide - If You Can Find Him

Perhentian Islands, Malaysia: A Quick Guide

Slum Tours In India

Lonely Planet Borneo

Sony Ericsson 750i review: the perfect travel phone?

Spam Giftset, South Korea

Interview with Lonely Planet founders Tony and Maureen Wheeler

Exmouth, Western Australia

Extreme Eating: Banned Foods From Around The World

Travel Packing Tips

Travels In North Korea

Tuk Tuk From Bangkok To Brighton

Uncensored, But Only Just: The Da Vinci Code In Thailand

Volunteer Thailand: Help The Gibbons!

Want To Become A Travel Writer? Read This First

Where To Find Cheap Airline Tickets

Thailand Backpacking: A Quick Guide

2006-07-21T17:26:00.001+07:00

I've been writing a fair bit about backpacking in Thailand over on my travel blog Travelhappy during this year. I've just published a long article called Thailand Backpacking: A Quick Guide which gives a handy summary of most of the things I think are worth seeing and doing in Thailand when you're travelling here. Follow the link for more.

I've also been writing a fair bit about Thailand on my scuba diving blog Divehappy.com. Here are the most popular posts about Thailand from Travelhappy and Divehappy:

Tiger Temple Thailand

Best Cheap Bangkok Hotels (and don't forget to check out the complete list of Bangkok hotels you can browse and book online)

Things To Do In Bangkok

Whale sharks in Thailand - Where To See Them

Best Scuba Diving Sites in Thailand

Koh Tao - an introduction

Thailand Diving: Similan Islands liveaboard, April 2006

There's even more useful travel information about Thailand at TripAdvisor, including 1000s of opinions from other travellers about what to see and do.

Thai Monks

2006-01-16T13:03:00.000+07:00

Talking with Greg in the pub the other night. He's a couple years younger than me but has lived in Thailand for the last four years, has a Thai fiancee and also speaks the language pretty fluently. Hence his understanding of Thai culture is a lot more than mine simply because he's a lot more involved with it. We were having a spirited, booze-fuelled conversation about Thai monks Becoming a Buddhist monk is an institution which all Thai men are expected to do even if only for a few weeks - it's a symbolic ritual of entering into adulthood and it also makes your parents very proud.

Inevitably, as Greg pointed out, some monks fall far below what's expected of them. I took umbrage with this, defending their place in Thai society and their importance - not necessarily what Greg was arguing against, but I bent it to my needs all the same. We went back and forth over this for quite a while - the argument culminated with me wailing, "But I just want monks to be nice!"

Not, perhaps, my finest oratory moment.

If you want to read something more considered about this, there's my review of Phra Farang, a great book about how a British businessman became a Buddhist monk in Thailand.

More on Thai monks:
Spike | Google | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Wikipedia
Open Directory | Technorati: Thai monks

What would it be like to live in Burma?

2006-01-09T15:49:00.000+07:00

The Bangkok Post has been carrying an ad for the last couple of days advertising for an native speaking English teacher to go and work in an international school in Myanmar. The position is for 5 months, possibly longer. No mention of which city the school is based in. My girlfriend Lindy is an experienced English teacher - having taught English in Japan, Thailand and Korea) - and we were discussing the possiblity of her applying for this job. (We were talking via MSN Messenger as she's currently teaching English in Korea throughout this month).

I suggested it to her as a bit of a joke, but the pair of us were quite taken with the idea. We reckoned that living and working in Burma, even for five months, would be scary but undeniably interesting. Access to anything was a big question - it's unlikely we could use the internet to stay in touch with Friends or keep this blog updated because most international sites are blocked; we probably wouldn't even be allowed to take our laptops in. That sort of disconnection is very disconcerting. On the other hand, five months off the grid could be very restorative, and of course, the chance to live in Burma and see a little of how people live - and have some surreptitious conversations about people's ideas for the future - would be a unique one. It's unlikely to happen, but it's an intriguing idea.

More on teaching in Burma:
Spike | Google | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Wikipedia
Open Directory | Technorati: teaching in Burma

Please Make Christmas Stop

2006-01-09T01:28:00.000+07:00

It's January the 8th but it seems in my local branch of the Au Bon Pain cafe, it's Christmas forever. The decorations may finally have gone, hung at the perfect height to whack my cranium every time I went to place my order, but Christmas's rotting, soulless corpse still moulders within this place in the form of the shop's background music. Before Christmas it was Norah Jones on infinite loop, which faded suitably wallpaper like into the background - but for the Christmas period it's been Christmas carols. Christmas carols sung in some vile jazz-lite jaunty style, full of fake emotion and over-expressiveness - "Santa shooby dibbity Claus is coming to shwaddy waddy townwwwwn shooby shooby do" - and pitched at just the right volume and tinniness of speaker to bore into my skull like a freshly unwrapped Black & Decker from under the tree. It's relentless - as soon as one stops and blessed silence descends, a rendition of Silent Night that is anything but starts up and sends me running for the cafe's garden. Better to deal with 35 degree heat and traffic noise than that.

Unsurprisingly, I hate Christmas. Or rather, I suffer it, because it's hard to avoid. Living in Thailand certainly helps dispel all chance of Chrismassy weather, which is a good start. But the Thais make up for it by festooning every public surface with festive baubles. I don't even care about the god awful Christmas decorations whose only saving grace is that they present an interesting fire hazard - but the music; please please please, for the love of God, stop the Christmas music. This idea that there has to be shrill tinny loud musak accompanying every activity - eating, walking, shopping - is the bane of my existence. And at Christmas, that reaches its pinnacle. It's why I can't stand Christmas either at home or here - besides all the usual reasons, it's the sodding music that finishes me off.

I often wonder how the staff cope with this in the background. They must blank it out, otherwise there would be a mass suicide behind the sandwich counter after the first three days of the festive season. And indeed, Christmas in Thailand is a weird affair because, while it provides a great excuse for a piss up and holiday along with New Year's Eve, it also represents the worst aspect of monoculture. It's a holiday wholly constructed and popularised to generate more money for big business. Disconnected from Buddhist culture as it is, there's not even a pretence of religiosity or significance to Christmas in Thailand - it's simply a time to buy stuff and consume more.

My girlfriend and I headed to Borneo for Christmas last year, expectant that a predominantly Muslim country wouldn't be indulging in such gaudy gluttony. The impeccably dressed staff of the elegant hotel we'd splashed out on greeted us wearing Santa hats. You just can't win.

More on Christmas in Thailand:
Spike | Google | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Wikipedia
Open Directory | Technorati: Christmas in Thailand

2005: A Year In Bangkok

2006-01-07T08:36:00.000+07:00

My summary of last year. Late, as ever, posting this. It feels like a thousand years ago when we first moved to Bangkok. I think that's a good sign...

Lindy and I lived in Bangkok in January 2005, moved to Hua Hin for a couple of months and then moved back to Bangkok where we've lived ever since. (I've written about my impressions of the city previously in The Big Mango, Going Underground and Bangkok Shock, and there's also my reminiscences of arriving in BKK for the first time three years ago as a terrified backpacker).

We went back to Khao Lak in February, six weeks after the tsunami, and dived with our friends at Phuket Diving Safaris in the Similan Islands. That dive trip led to me getting my big break with Asian Diver magazine, where I wrote about how the Similans' dive sites had escaped major damage in the tsunami. Subsequently I made dive trips for the magazine to Lankayan in Borneo in March, Koh Lanta in April and Pattaya in November.

I also got some freelance work from The Nation newspaper here in Bangkok after an editor spotted my Plain Of Jars article online. I've written about my friend Dan's volunteer company Starfish Ventures, diving in Borneo, the spectacular Buddhist statues and temples of Sukhothai and also the exquisite FCC Angkor hotel in Siem Reap, the Cambodian town near to Angkor Wat.

I returned back to the UK during August to see friends and family - Lindy sadly had to stay in Thailand due to work commitments. It was a real shame, because England was having a spectacular summer. My parents and I spent several happy days driving around Dartmoor, going to country pubs and admiring the bleak, beautiful tors and valleys. Being a Florida girl, the three of us reckoned Lindy wouldn't have seen anything quite like it. My dad and I also went scuba diving together on the wrecks of the James Egan Layne and the Scylla that lie just off Plymouth. My dad's a life long diver and something of an authority about shipwrecks around the Devon coast. For him it was a pretty special moment, finally getting to dive with his son on the James Egan Layne. For my part, I'm just glad I didn't embarrass myself using a drysuit by doing a feet first ascent...

The highlight of the year was my parents visiting Lindy and me in October. We took them to Angkor Wat, then back to Koh Lanta and all around Bangkok and out to the tiger temple in Kanchanaburi. It was such a thrill to be the unofficial tour guide and to show them so many of the places that make Thailand magical for me. The fact that my parents and Lindy got on well, not having met before, was a pretty huge relief too. Just prior to my parents' arrival, Lindy's friends Katie and Todd had come over from the States to see us as well, so we had a full month of travelling around. I can't wait for other good friends of mine to come and visit from the UK.

In November, my good friend Paul arrived from the UK to live in Bangkok, here to do legal research about South East Asia. He and his girlfriend Rachel are two of my oldest and best friends, and to have them living here in BKK - just over the road! - just seems completely surreal. I've met a lot of fascinating people this year - Chris Moore, Emma Larkin, Nic Dunlop - and become good friends with several more. Underwater photographer extraordinaire Jez Tryner and I hit it off as soon as we met and we've already worked together on several articles for Asian Diver and are now looking to collaborate on something more chunky. Lindy and I also managed to slope off for a long weekend in the bewitching city of Hanoi this month, a gastronaut's dream town for sure.

For me, the defining thought about 2005 is that it's the year where I finally knuckled down and started being serious about doing the stuff I care about. So far, it's working - I've managed to get my independent travel, South East Asian scuba diving and travel photo websites all up and running as well as keeping Spike going. By actually getting stuff out there, even if I'm not 100 per cent happy about the quality of writing or the look of the webpage design, I feel a lot happier. I've realised I get bored so quickly that I have to write immediately, even if it's sloppily, otherwise my brain just moves on. Plus I also seem to be developing an early version of Alzheimer's as I go blank everytime I try to call anything beyond my immediate past. Hence the need to write everything down, fast, now.

In 2006, it looks like we'll be moving to Tokyo for four months from May as Lindy will be taking up another English teaching job in Japan. I'm a bit concerned about the cost of day-to-day living there and whether she'll wind up beating me to death if we're living in a tiny apartment for that long - but I'm already getting excited about returning to Tokyo. After that, we're not sure. I'd like to come back to Bangkok - I need the stability of being anchored in one place to work most effectively. On the other hand, it might turn out that we stay put and don't got to Japan at all. Either way, I'm looking forward to what happens next.

Bangkok Guide Book Banned In Thailand

2005-12-31T15:06:00.000+07:00

The guidebook Bangkok Inside Out has recently been banned by the Thai Ministry of Culture, citing it as portraying a negative image of Thailand's capital city. The book is a glossy photo-led overview of Bangkok in the 21st century, providing an alphabetised take on every aspect of urban Thai life in the metropolis, from the amulets that every Thai wears to alms-giving to ladyboy cabarets, all the way through to shopping and the city's notorious sex trade. The chapter about Patpong, Bangkok's sex strip, was deemed as particularly offensive. (Publishers Equinox have cleverly made this Patpong chapter available as a free PDF download for readers to see for themselves what has caused such a fuss. They also have a complete round up of the various reviews of the book and the articles about its subsequent banning).

Bangkok Inside Out is not a guidebook per se - it's more inspirational than practical, a bit like Very Thai, another great photobook that explains Thai customs and lifestyles. If it references Bangkok's go-go bars and massage parlours, it doesn't celebrate them - and indeed, a cursory browse of the books available at any branch of Asia Books, Bangkok's biggest bookshop, will turn up a slew of titles that unabashedly chronicle the exploits of sex tourists and sexpats alike. Check Sex, Lies And Bar Girls as an example. I don't have a problem with these sort of books being on sale - but they do make the Ministry Of Culture's decision to insist on Bangkok Inside Out's removal from all shelves under threat of prosecution all the more baffling - a wholly arbitrary decision.

Asia Times has its original, glowing review of Bangkok Inside Out, plus the eloquent response from its two authors to the book's banning. Here's hoping that the ban will be rescinded early in the New Year.

Bangkok Inside Out is still available to buy from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

More on Bangkok Inside Out:
Spike | Google | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Wikipedia
Open Directory | Technorati: Bangkok Inside Out

Thailand's Tiger Temple

2005-12-31T03:00:00.001+07:00

Over on Travelhappy I recently published an article about the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi, a couple of hours drive from Bangkok. Tigers rescued from poachers live within the temple grounds, looked after by the monastery's monks - who also let tourists have their photo taken with the tigers and even touch them. It's a tourist destination that's not been without controversy, but seeing these tigers up close and personal is quite spectacular. Full report and photos at Travelhappy.

Nikon D70s: The Tokyo Connection

2005-12-29T15:29:00.000+07:00

Nikon D70s buying update: I wrote recently how I was about to take the plunge and buy a Nikon D70s camera here in Bangkok. Well, since then, I have continued to procrastinate, concerned I might find it cheaper elsewhere. What's upset my original calculations is that it looks like we're moving to Tokyo for several months in May next year.

A Nikon D70s costs around 46,000 baht in Thailand. The Nikon D70s costs around S$2115 in Singapore (as I found in on the Expansys Singapore site), which is around 44000 baht, but then you have to figure in the cost of the flights down to Singa. (Although you get a 5 per cent rebate at the airport on electronics when you leave the country, which would be very helpful). As you can imagine, electronics can be very cheap in Tokyo, especially if you buy secondhand: this thread about buying a Nikon D70s in Tokyo on Gaijinpot.com was very useful - the prices they quoted were Y90,000 second hand to Y125,000 brand new - that's around 43,400 baht, which could provide some hefty savings...

On the other hand, if I buy the Nikon D70s in Tokyo and it breaks after I left the country (I'll probably be back in Thailand when we leave Japan), will that cause a nightmare for servicing?

I think this is going to end up with me going berzerk and paying well over the odds for the camera just to get the decision out of the way...

More on Nikon D70s:
Spike | Google | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Wikipedia
Open Directory | Technorati: Nikon D70s

Khan Kluay - Thailand's first animated movie

2005-12-29T11:16:00.000+07:00

Great article in the Bangkok Post yesterday about Thailand's first animated movie, Khan Kluay, about a very cute looking elephant. The article focuses on the film's building process, discussing how difficult it is to animate elephants, who are the film's principal characters. Director Kompin Kemgumnird, who previously worked on Ice Age:

""Doing an animated movie about elephants was never going to be easy," Kompin said. "In Ice Age we had only one elephant as the main character, but the animators had to work very hard to make it look natural."

"When I was an animator at Walt Disney and Bluesky Studio there were over 300 animators in the team, but we have only 100 animators working on this project, not to mention that we had to deal with a large number of elephants," he added.

As a result he is proud of the teams effort in almost completing the project in two years.

From his experience he knew that it was difficult to make an animation feature - even in professional studios with all the high technology equipment and software. However in Thailand, he said, it was even more difficult as equipment, experience and budget were all below what you would find in the US."

The film itself revolves around Khan Kulay's search for his father and becoming a war elephant, so it seems to be focussing on telling something of Thailand's history too, with the Burmese in their traditional role as the villains:

"The story begins with the young Khan Kluay living with his mother and the herd in deep jungle during the Ayutthaya era. Naughty and enjoying his freedom, Khan Kluay is also curious about his missing father so one day he decides to leave his safe haven to search for him. This is when his journey begins.

The mission to find his father turns out to be a big adventure for the young elephant, one that will prepare him to follow in his father's footsteps and become a war elephant. Soon after leaving the herd he stumbles into a Burmese army camp, hoping to find his father.

At the camp, he first meets the young future King Naresuan, who later helps him escape. However, he is caught by Ayutthaya soldiers and trained for battle. In time he will become one of the greatest war elephants in the battlefield ever.

Khan Kluay became the war elephant of King Naresuan and was on the battlefield when the Great King was duelling with the Crown Prince of Burma. After winning the battle, King Naresuan named him Chao Phraya Prab Hongsa.

The movie shows the love and friendship between the elephants as well as the relationship between elephants and humans, something that has been a part of Thai society for hundreds of years."

There's little other information about the film online that I can find - the Khan Kluay official site gives a taste of the main characters, but the text is all in Thai. Still, it'll be interesting to see how the film pans out - I just hope they do a English subtitled version.

Previously: Star Wars and the King Of Thailand

More on Khan Kluay:
Spike | Google | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Wikipedia
Open Directory | Technorati: Khan Kluay

Volunteer Work In Thailand

2005-12-28T17:35:00.000+07:00

The Bangkok Post published a great article yesterday listing numerous Thai charities, big and small, that require help, both financially and also practically. If you're travelling to Thailand and looking for a chance to volunteer or just want to give a little of your beer money to a good cause, have a look at this list and choose one that's good for you. These sort of grass roots projects deserve support because they're run by people who are directly involved with those that need the help.

I've written about volunteer work in Thailand before with my friend Dan's company Starfish Ventures. Even before the tsunami, there were hundreds of volunteer projects that needed help; now, a year after the tsunami, there are many more.

[Other stuff I've written on the tsunami: my first post the day after the tsunami happened; the stories of how my friends escaped the tsunami; my return to Khao Lak in January 2005; and going through a tsunami warning on Koh Lanta in April 2005; and my thoughts about the first anniversary of the tsunami.

I've also written articles for Asian Diver magazine about diving the Similan Islands and Koh Lanta after the tsunami, which are reproduced on my scuba diving site Divehappy.]

More on volunteer work in Thailand:
Spike | Google | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Wikipedia
Open Directory | Technorati: volunteer work in Thailand

Angkor Wat Guides Online

2005-12-24T14:21:00.000+07:00

A few months ago I blogged about an enterprising Cambodian guide at Angkor Wat who had put together a basic website to advertise his services and was using Google Adsense to promote it as well. It's a great indication of how the Net can be used to leapfrog traditional - and costly - methods of marketing to connect entrepeneurs in developing countries direct to customers. It's not a small amount of work to get the page set up and get it written in English too, which usually involves the help of some sympathetic backpacker. I'd love to find out how effective these sites have been in boosting their business.

Anyway, in my original post I'd cleverly lost the website address of the guide I was talking about - however, I've recently found two of them - this Angkor Guide on Geocities and another Angkor Guide on Livejournal. If you have any experience dealing with these gentlemen, please let me know. (chris@spikemagazine.com)

Meanwhile, over on Travelhappy, I've recently written up Angkor Wat: A Brief Guide ,which is a mix of practical tips for exploring the temples and bits of the historical background. You should also check out Angkor Wat: The Definitive Guide, the free book you can download about Angkor which provides loads of sterling information about these amazing places.

Cheap Flights Across South East Asia

2005-12-24T00:50:00.000+07:00

Budget carrier AirAsia are expanding their routes again next year, according to The Nation: "Internationally, the airline will operate routes to Luang Prabang, Vientiane, Rangoon, Kunming, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Jakarta, Dhaka and Manila. Other cities will be included in our long-term plans.”

Meanwhile, AirAsia plans to add more flights to those already operating from Bangkok to Xiamen, Singapore, Phnom Penh and Macao.

Tassapon said the airline would operate at least two new domestic routes, including Bangkok to Krabi and Surat Thani. AirAsia will be the first low-fare carrier from Bangkok to Krabi, scheduled for the end of next February with two flights a day, then to Surat Thani. Most domestic routes will also see more flights added to meet market demand."

This is fantastic news for travellers, providing even more great destinations at affordable prices.

More on cheap flights:
Spike | Google | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Wikipedia
Open Directory | Technorati: cheap flights

Teaching English In Thailand

2005-12-16T14:53:00.000+07:00

One way to make some cash while you're travelling is to teach English as a foreign language. Thailand is in constant need of native English speakers because it's part of their national curriculum - kids are learning English from an early age through Thailand. A lot of the time, you don't even need a formal TEFL certification. My girlfriend Lindy is an experienced TEFL teacher and has written a first hand account about Teaching English In Thailand over on my other site Travelhappy with loads of practical info about how to go about looking for a job, work visa requirements, benefits and pitfalls. She's also written two further articles in the same format - Teaching English In Japan and Teaching English In Korea.

More on TEFL teaching:
Spike | Google | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Wikipedia
Open Directory | Technorati: TEFL teaching

Best Bangkok Restaurants

2005-12-04T14:01:00.000+07:00

Nikon D70s: Where To Buy In Bangkok

2005-12-04T14:00:00.000+07:00

[Update: I did eventually buy a Nikon D70s and I've written an overview on Travelhappy of buying a digital camera in Thailand, including comparing prices for SLRs and compact cameras between Thailand, the USA and the UK].

I'm currently steeling myself to buy a Nikon D70s digital SLR - I've long wanted a proper camera with buttons and twisty lenses and things, and the Nikon looks like it will do me perfectly for many years, provided I don't drop it. I've got numerous trips coming up over the next few months and my trusty Canon IXUS 400 is on its last legs, so now I want to have a crack at taking better photos around Thailand.

As it looks as if I will be staying in Thailand for the next year, on and off, I want to buy it here so I can easily get it fixed under warranty if necessary. As such, I found a very useful thread on Photo.net about the best places to buy cameras and camera film in Bangkok. These sorts of personal recommendations are really handy. The retail price for the Nikon D70s with lenses here in Thailand is around 46000 baht, which is about $1100 - cheaper than Amazon USA, which is my benchmark for online shopping bargains. Singapore tends to be cheaper for consumer electronics, but Nikon's prices seem to be pretty similar worldwide from what I can find - and certainly, with shipping costs from anywhere else, it's going to get more expensive. I found this useful review of the 18-70mm lens that comes bundled with the D70s too. If my nerve doesn't fail me, I'll probably get it before Christmas...

More on Nikon D70s:
Spike | Google | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Wikipedia
Open Directory | Technorati: Nikon D70s

Bangkok Transvestites Steal By Spitting

2005-11-15T10:55:00.000+07:00

"Members of a Bangkok transvestite gang have confessed to concealing strong sedative pills under their tongues and spitting them down the throats of their victims while kissing, causing them to pass out so they can be easily robbed, police said." Reuters full story. Just be careful out there...

More on Bangkok transvestites:
Spike | Google | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Wikipedia
Open Directory | Technorati: Bangkok transvestites

Puerile Web Reference Of The Day

2005-11-13T13:46:00.000+07:00

Spotted in the Indonesian Commercial Newsletter: "State-owned cement maker PT Semen Padang has exported 109,800 tons of cement in bulk including 37,000 tons to the United States..."

More on Semen Padang:
Spike | Google | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Wikipedia
Open Directory | Technorati: Semen Padang

What Time Is It In The World?

2005-11-12T13:53:00.000+07:00

This is genius. Click anywhere on the world map at gchart.com and it will tell you what the current time is in that country, plus the international and area dialling codes. I'm forever getting confused whether we're 7 or 6 hours ahead of the UK here in Bangkok, and the US timezones throw me completely. Now I'll never have to worry about it. Great stuff.

More on world time:
Spike | Google | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Wikipedia
Open Directory | Technorati: world time

The Horror Of Booking A Hotel Room Online

2005-11-12T11:49:00.000+07:00

The net is great for one-shot travel services, like booking a budget airline seat with Easyjet. You know what to expect from the moment you go online to book the flight to the moment you get off the plane at your destination. We all know what a plane does so there's no expectations to manage there.

Similarly, if you're booking a hotel with a specific chain, like the Hyatt or Hilton, then it's pretty easy to choose a room, look at the photos, read the info, and feel generally assured by the brand name that you're going to get something decent for your money. Similarly, using airfare aggregators works well because all airlines are pretty similar - it's an almost identical product offered by lots of companies who compete on price or service.

Where the net breaks down with travel is in managing complexity. Take finding a hotel room in an unfamiliar city when you can't afford to stay at the Hilton, which I tried to do recently for Hanoi in Vietnam. I want to take my girlfriend there for a romantic weekend but we're pretty poor right now...so, off to the Net to find me a bargain hotel.

Search for "Hanoi hotels" on Google and you'll get scores of aggregator hotel sites like hotelclub.com or tripadvisor.com. That theoretically saves me some time. But... they all feature different hotels. And they don't have clear information about each hotel. The photos are tiny or non-existent. It's not clear which photo is of the superior room and which one is of the deluxe room. And sometimes you can find the same hotel at different prices on two different sites. In short - there's no definitive travel site to which you can go.

Straight away, the user is plunged into a stressful and complex situation. We all want to get the best deal, but now we're stuck schlepping between sites trying to find the best value for money, but on this site the photos are better while on that sire it's cheaper. Then there are customer comments, which I personally place great store by in terms of judging a hotel. But there needs to be a volume of comments for them to be useful. Hotel listings are usually so lacking in basic photos of each of their room types and facilities, that I have little confidence in any of them. It's frankly shocking that in 2005, hotels still allow themselves to be represented online like this. Bottom line - selecting a hotel can become an arduous, time-consuming process.

Even when you do select the hotel, most aggregator sites only provide very limited direct booking i.e. you can't purchase your room there and then. You have to go through a laborious process of sending your application in and being informed by email 24 hours later whether or not you've got the room. This causes even more stress, especially if you're trying to book during a peak time. After going through the laborious process of selecting a hotel, you're then told you can't have it.

I've recently suffered a couple of shocking online hotel bookings where the actual booking process was quite smooth but when we arrived at the hotel on both occasions we found it to be a building site. Or rather, one was a building site and one hadn't been fully rebuilt adter being damaged in the tsunami last year. Was there a single mention of this on either aggregator site I booked with - one of whom was Expedia? No. Was there any mention by the real, human staff I talked to by email to make my booking about this? No. No doubt the aggregator would blame it on the hotel for not notifying them, and the hotel would blame the aggregator for not asking for updated information, but, frankly, I don't care. I don't care about the chain of command of how I book my hotel. All I know is I've paid good money upfront and I'm standing in the middle of a building site. [N.B. Expedia offered a US$25 voucher as compenssation when we complained, which was frankly insulting].

So, what can be done? The fact that Google and Yahoo seem to be about to make major moves into the travel sector bodes well for whittling down this complexity. It strikes me the aggregators need to be aggregated - if you look around at these sites, you soon realise it's the same handful of databases that are underlying virtually all of them. Get all those together on one site would help.

But the most crucial part is also the least sexy part - making sure all the information on the site is up to date and comprehensive and leaves no room for confusion about what you get for your money and what your room looks like. Because if the customer feels secure that they know what they're getting, they are much more likely to buy. Hotels need to stop the "will this do?" mentality they seem to have towards representing themselves online and go the extra distance to reassure visitors. What pains me here is that it's easy for hotels to ensure this information is in place - all it requires is a bit of thought from people at the hotel and the aggregator to see their own online offerings from the customer's perspective and how they use it. This rehacking and enhancing of existing services should be the definition of Web 2.0. Forget mashups and other prettily useless applicatons - let's worry about how to get all the right information to the user in an easily digestible format.

Perhaps travel aggregation needs to be approached from a different angle, because aggregator sites are all pretty awful anyway. Perhaps someone like Google or Yahoo needs to take on the Herculean task of building a centralised, global hotel booking database that creates the information about hotels itself rather than relying on the hotels themselves to provide poor photos and copy. If Amazon can take millions of store photos for A9, it seems to me that the idea of a giant hotel database from Yahoo or Google isn't so farfetched. Perhaps it would start off as a meta-aggregator and then shape and replace the info in its own mould over time. Perhaps it would be Internet Connected Components, bringing together several services into one wholly integrated model, This is in part what aggregators are doing already - but a new version needs to continually pare down the information on offer. Provide less sources but more quality information. I don't need infinite choice, I need 5 good choices I can trust.

Moreover, if Google or Yahoo could provide a booking engine that is super simple for individual hotels to plug into and offer direct booking, the shift in online booking revenue would be vast. Add to that engine the usual customer comments and Flickr like photo sharing of that hotel, and you start to get to something interesting.

Most importantly, it's got to be simple. The problem with most aggregator sites at the moment is that they are a barely controlled riot on the webpage. Kayak.com's relatively new offering is a lot easier on the eye, but it's an exception. Usually, there are so many options and links, most of which that go through to another aggregator partner or whatever. There's very little tailored help with solving a specific query. I want a hotel search like Google's front page. I want to be able to go a site and type in "Hanoi", "$60 or less" and the dates I need, and get back a list of the Top 10 rated hotels in that price range by customers and by the aggregator staff themselves, with nice big clear photos of each room and the bathroom, all the location details, breakfast, facilities etc, and then press a big red button saying Buy Online Now!. And I also want a guarantee that if I get there and they are drilling large hole in the room next door, that I am going to get a full refund and an upgrade to compensate me for my inconvenience. All the hotel has to do then is deliver on what they've promised me on the webpage. Which shouldn't be difficult, because that's their business.

Web users need a travel site they can trust to give them the right information and the best deals to ensure they get what they pay for. It's a very simple concept that clearly needs a lot of effort to execute properly - the only baffling thing is that it hasn't happened already. There must be thousands of people just like me who get frustrated at trying to find and book a hotel bargain online - and a huge amount of money not getting spent in the process.

[End note: I am now going to try something technologically clever. I'm going to link to Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble and see if he notices this post by picking it up in his RSS feeds. Mr Scoble has written some great stuff recently about disruption and influentials in the tech industry - I'm hoping he might notice this post, agree with some of my points and wave it under someone's nose at MSN. Worth a try...]

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Kamala Beach, Phuket: Watch Out

2005-10-12T10:08:00.000+07:00

Just back from a somewhat bizarre weekend in Phuket, staying on Kamala Beach at the Kamala Bay Hotel and Resort. The picture of the resort on Expedia depicts a pristine beach and hotel with sun brollies - perfect for a long weekend getaway. The reality is a shit strewn building site replete with piledrivers and buzzsaws at work all day. It's classic "holidays from hell" material.

I've been a cheerleader for tourists returning to Phuket and the Andaman coast, and every beach on the island now looks as if the tsunami never happened. Except for Kamala, which looks like the tsunami happened yesterday. The hotel itself has two lovingly tended pools but the first two floors of the building are still wiped out. It is, in short, a disaster zone. I can't see how the locals are going to get the beach back to its pre-tsunami state before the end of the high season in March. The local paper, the Phuket Gazette, coincidentally carried a story about the criticism the Kamala governor has received for not restoring the area quicker - and with good reason. I don't know what the reasons for the delay are - and perhaps there are good ones - but the bottom line is that Kamala Beach is not where you'd want to spend your holiday on Phuket this year. Similarly, Expedia need to pull their finger out and ensure their pages are updated. A website is no more use than a travel brochure unless the people running it are keeping the information fresh. I certainly won't be using Expedia again for the simple reason I can't trust them.

There is one silver lining - in Kamala village, just set back from the beach, is the fantastic and very reasonable Same Same restaurant, which feels very upmarket - air conditioning, lacquered furniture and Thai food that's been cooked with care. The restaurant is run by Arna Kornrien, a very friendly lady who also offers free Internet access for customers too. It's certainly worth dropping by there for lunch. I can only hope Kamala Beach gets restored to its former glory soon so local businesses like hers get a chance to properly thrive rather than rely on refugees from their own hotel like us.

More on Kamala Beach Phuket:
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Phuket Vegetarian Festival - Self Mortification A Go Go

2005-09-25T12:01:00.000+07:00

Next month I've got friends and family visiting me here in Thailand, and I'm busy organising my itinerary for what to show them of the country. One of our first stops will be Phuket in early October, but we're not going for sun and sand. The Phuket Vegetarian Festival is one of the biggest religious annual festivals in Thailand, and its name belies the fact that some of the rituals which take place at the temples involve quite spectacular (and gruesome) acts of self-mortification. Ostensibly possessed by the gods, adepts pierce their tongues, cheeks, and other parts of their anatomy with sharp implements, apparently feeling no pain and causing no injury. The festival itself is important because it's a time of purification and cleansing - those taking part abstain from eating meat, sex and quarrelling, which, coupled with each day's celebrations, helps them make a fresh start. The entire festival climaxes with a spectacular firework display. There's more about the history and purpose of the festival at the official site phuketvegetarian.com and phukettourism.org

The festival is held in the 9th lunar month of each year, which for 2005 means the festival runs between the 2nd to the 11th October this year. Be sure to check the schedule on the official site to find out which shrine is the centre of the rituals on each day.

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Koh Phi Phi Dive Camp

2005-09-09T16:20:00.000+07:00

Just been commissioned by Asian Diver to write something on the Koh Phi Phi Dive Camp, which was set up on Koh Phi Phi here in Thailand to help restore the island to its former glory in the wake of the tsunami. The team of volunteers there, both Thai and foreign, have made huge strides in cleaning up both on land and underwater - now is the time to go before the tourist hordes return.

Thai newspapers have been reporting that tourist trade still remains critically low in Phuket and along the tsunami-affected coast, despite the fact that virtually all areas have been restored to normal. Even in Khao Lak, the worst affected region, the 5 Star Le Meridien hotel is re-opening in October. Around the multinational companies in Thailand, there are scores of Thai-owned businesses that rely on tourism to function. They just need the tourists to come back.

Still got two filed articles waiting for publication at AD - my visit to Koh Lanta (which involved the best dive of my life); and my environment piece on Lankayan island in Borneo. Once they're in print, I can put them up here.

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