Tag Archives: nature I was in Japan several years ago with three other reasonably well-travelled adults. We had arrived into Tokyo late in the evening and were tired and hungry. We went to a shiny restaurant of chrome and formica across the road from the hotel and were met at the door with a “Hai!”, given menus, and shown to […]  “How long does it take to get to the school?” I asked Khru Apichart who had just turned off a minor road into an even more minor road. “About 45 minutes,” he replied. Then, with a twinkle in his brown eyes, he added: “Twenty minutes when I don’t have passengers!” He was very proud of […]  Luxurious resort accommodation in developing countries offers up some interesting dilemmas. On the one hand, development for tourism brings money and job opportunities into otherwise under-developed communities. On the other hand, it highlights the contrasts between the have-very-littles and the have-a-lots. The Bintan Resorts complex, on the north coast of Bintan (Negeri Segantang Lada), the largest of Indonesia’s […]  Some people are larger than life. James Harrison Wilson Thompson, more commonly know as Jim, or even ‘Lord Jim’, is one such person. He is, amongst other things, credited with single-handedly revitalizing the commercial Thai silk trade. An Office of Strategic Services (OSS; precursor to the CIA) operative during the second World War, he resettled in […]  The New Year’s period is a time of celebration around the world. Although Songkran in April is the ‘traditional’ New Year in Thailand and is still celebrated in its own inimitable fashion, the transition from December 31st to January 1st is formally recognised as the start of the new year and is cause for parties, […] |
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