Tag Archives: market

“Eating, sleeping and shopping.” If you ask a Thai to name the country’s three favourite pastimes, this is what they will tell you. “Chatting” (คุยกันเล่น) comes a close fourth. As a general rule, Thai people value relaxing and having a good time. I was reminded of this on our recent visit to Koh Samui. When […]

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“By the way, you DO have your passports with you, don’t you?” our guide asked (in Thai) after the van we were in had pulled away from our hotel. At least, that is what I finally figured out she had said – by which time we were already five or ten minutes down the highway. Negotiating […]

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Asian markets are such a wonderful miscellany of contrasting colours, smells, sights and sounds – and nowhere is this more true than in Cambodia’s second largest city of Battambang. Dark corners hide from both the distorting light emitted by flickering fluorescent tubes overhead and the burning glare of sunlight streaming in through openings in the […]

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“Try to focus on one thing – it could be one colour, one idea, any one thing, really,” instructed our photo-tour guide Gavin Gough. “Don’t just wander around taking pictures of everything!” Now, I have enormous respect for Gavin, Bangkok-based travel photographer and teacher extraordinaire, but I was about to head into Yaowarat, Bangkok’s Chinatown, […]

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Money trees for sale!  Why should I be startled? Morning markets in Asia are a jumble of surprises – people and products rubbing shoulders in unexpected combinations.  The morning market in Attapeu, southeastern Laos is a great example: a treasure trove where the nails are next to the make-up and crayons; where you can buy live […]

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