THAISiDE|PRAJUMSOOK.COM

I have been quiet again for a whole week. I am sure some are happy for this… I have been keeping myself busy doing many different things, one being spending more time with my niece Nong Ja. This means my blog gets neglected a little. I have been slowly catching up on blogs I like to read and finding a few new ones I enjoy reading.

The tragic news over the weekend of the two speedboats that collided near Koh Samui brings back bad memories of my own boat trips. I think just about every time I have been on a boat in Thailand I have always worried about overcrowding and the seemingly lack of life-jackets. There are of course laws in Thailand which limits the number of people

The three most important holy days of the year for Thai Buddhists all include the word “Puja,” which means to pay homage. Asanha Puja commemorates the day the Lord Buddha preached his first sermon. Makha Puja marks both the occasion when 1,350 of the Buddha’s disciples gathered without prior notice and listened to the Buddha elaborate some of his most important teachings in a sermon, as well as the day he foresaw his own death and attainment of Nibbana (Nirvana). But the most auspicious of the three is Visakha Puja, which simultaneously commemorates three important anniversaries in the life of Siddharta Gautama, the Lord Buddha: his birth, his enlightenment, and his death

Erawan Erawan National Park Often more resembling a bank holiday weekend at the public swimming pool than a tranquil beauty spot, Erawan is still one of most stunning places in Thailand. Each of the seven tiers of the waterfall are quite swimmable, complete with carnivorous fish, cooling turquoise colour waters and thronging masses of local sightseers. Avoiding going there on a bank holiday or weekend can be a good strategy. The waterfall itself is well worth dedicating a whole day to, each tier of the waterfall is impressive in its own right and completely different giving the experience of seeing 7 waterfalls in a day.

I must warn you that this post contains the pictures of a young girl who was killed in a car/motorbike accident and was plastered on the front page of one of Thailand’s newspapers. The pictures are saddening and could be extremely upsetting for some . The pictures are graphic; I do not condone them but want to draw attention to the terrible standards of the Thai media. I am currently making a new website that is dedicated to exposing these pictures and newspapers and will also have a petition online to present to the Thai government to put a stop to this.

Today marks the 69th anniversary of the battle with the French on 17th January 1941 near the island of Koh Chang. In dispute were some of the territories in Indochina that Thailand wanted to claim back. Although the Thais fought bravely, they lost two torpedo boats and the warship HTMS Thonburi was badly damaged

Anywhere Thais discover the last potential paradise, the sea life will die. While the resort I stayed boasted of its abundant wild sea creatures that visit the jetty in the mornings, the next resort to the right just a hundred meters away was spear fishing the life out of the blur sting ray that ventured to the wrong place at the wrong time. The Thai guy, crouched low on the jetty platform, long spear in hand