THAISiDE|PRAJUMSOOK.COM

A sudden crackdown on farang residents has seen unannounced police visits to addresses previously provided by foreign residents to Thai immigration. The officers handed over forms for completion, with a list of questions asking for detailed personal information to be provided.

The forms, in Thai only, require that the farang give a full physical description, including:
Skin [...]

Home for the next six months in Chiang Mai, although I have some misgivings about the colour. My first thought was that I hope it doesn’t give the local katoeys (ladyboys) the wrong idea… but then, perhaps the Thais don’t have the same colour stereotypes as we Westerners? After all, his Majesty was photographed leaving [...]

Nearing the summit of a climb near Chiang Mai Thailand. This shot was taken on a Thai Hill Tribe Trek in Northern Thailand.

Image 1: Supplementary incising of a poppy capsule with a three-pronged scalpel. Yao who have worked elsewhere compare the intensity and delicacy of the task with embroidery.
Off-farm and Beyond Ockham in the Northern Thai Highlands: Further Philosophising on Opium, Overseas Aid and the Applied Anthropology of Tropical Agricultural Development
Douglas Miles (Anthropology, James Cook University, ex [...]

Khao SoiMany travellers to Thailand’s Northern Provinces aquire a taste for the seemingly defty thick noodle soup known as “Khao Soi“. Khao Soi is a thick, reddish-orange opaque soup with noodles and chicken. It has an extremely tangy zing to it, and one of the high points is the sprinkling of additional fresh raw vegetables, [...]

The battle lines are drawn, in the ongoing fight over Thailand’s grotesque lèse majesté laws. It’s “Western” democracy versus “Thai” culture. In contemporary political discourse, after all, ”culture” is just about the only word whose international currency rivals democracy’s. To be sure,  culture commands more respect than the “dictatorship” and “oppression” it is frequently invoked to mask. As [...]

One of the most colourful festivals taking place at the moment in Thailand is the Lantern Festival in Hat Yai. The Thai slogan translates as “colours of the south”. It is running between 14th and 28th February 2009. This is the third time that they have organized the festival at the Hat Yai Municipality Park. [...]

Another place related with Somdet Ya, the mother of King Bhumiphol, is her royal villa in the north of Thailand. Located on a hilltop halfway between the town Chiang Rai and the Thai-Burmese border in Mae Sai, this villa was one of the most favorite residence places of the Princess Mother. The hilly landscape reminded [...]

The characteristics of Thai houses in the Central Plain are as follows: High floor level allowing an average height man to walk with clearance above his head and another floor of about forty centimetres below the main floor as to allow free ventilation and sitters on the main floor to hang their legs in comfort. [...]