Category Archives: Thailand

Valentine’s Day got more  than the usual bad press this year  – or maybe I have too many cynical people in my circle at the moment, so it was more noticeable. It’s not that I am a particular fan of Valentine’s Day myself. My childhood memories of pressing out punched cards from a sheet of light […]

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Last October, we were heading off on a much-anticipated short trip to Thailand’s North. Ask any Thai about the northern cities of Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai, and they will tell you that they are: “very beautiful! There are many temples.” A non-Thai friend of ours in Bangkok asked what we would see at our […]

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I love the concept of a “new year”. I always have. As I said this time last year, I like to regard the period between New Year’s Day and my birthday, which follows closely after, as a time of quiet contemplation – to look back over the accomplishments (or otherwise) of the year before, and make some decisions […]

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In Thailand, architecture – especially temple architecture – is the highest form of art. The architect’s ability to combine beauty of form with functional utility; to plant a building in the ground and send it soaring to the heavens – is respected and revered. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that two recognised Thai visual […]

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Far up in the hills of  the Golden Triangle, in the Mae Chan region of Chiang Rai Province in Thailand, there is a temple where the monks do their morning alms rounds not on foot, but on horse-back, and where kickboxing (Muay Thai) practice is as important a part of their daily routine as meditation and chanting […]

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