Destination: Bangkok
Travel Song of the Day: ‘Passage to Bangkok’ by Rush
by Jim Benning | 07.16.09 | 1:53 PM ET
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Yahoo! BuzzFinding Trouble in Asia: Let Us Count the Ways
by Julia Ross | 06.09.09 | 4:31 PM ET
Is it me, or has it been a surreal few months for Americans in Asia? Guidebook writers and State Department travel monitors, take note: a few new travel “don’ts” have entered the lexicon. To recap, here’s what we know not to do next time we journey East.
Asia’s Food Vendors: A Plus for Work-Family Balance
by Julia Ross | 05.28.09 | 1:38 PM ET
I’m not a parent, but I’ve sympathized with two sisters and plenty of friends who bemoan the constant time stresses on working parents with young kids. Grocery shopping and cooking rank high among parental time-sucks, of course, so a Thai curator’s recent comment to the New York Times that Bangkok’s ubiquitous food carts “provide a vital support system to people who work, especially couples with children” got me wondering about the benefits of raising kids in Asia.
Interview With Lawrence Osborne: ‘Bangkok Days’
by Frank Bures | 05.27.09 | 11:10 AM ET
Photo by Christopher Wise Frank Bures asks the author about why Thailand is so hard to capture in words and why its sex trade isn't really about sex
Expat Tales: Wanderers, Starving Artists and Dissolutes
by Julia Ross | 05.06.09 | 3:10 PM ET
Novelist Malcolm Pryce rounds up his top 10 expat tales with heavy representation from Asia and the Pacific: novels and journals on Vietnam, Thailand, Tahiti and Sri Lanka make the cut.
Eurocentrics will appreciate Pryce’s inclusion of the Thomas Cook European Railway Timetable, but, for Asia travelers, the money quote can be found in his description of Bangkok: “The city is, in fact, a combine harvester for the ex-pat male heart.” Something tells me that line will come to mind next time I’m walking through Patpong.
Interview with Newley Purnell: On Bangkok’s Political Crisis and Travel to Thailand
by Julia Ross | 04.20.09 | 5:04 PM ET
Bangkok is still reeling from the violent “red shirt” protests that swept the city last week. Though protesters surrendered to the government on Tuesday, an assassination attempt against a prominent protest leader on Friday kept Thais on edge. Several countries, including Britain, Australia and China, issued warnings against travel to Thailand last week, and a state of emergency remains in effect.
I emailed Bangkok-based journalist and World Hum contributor Newley Purnell to get his take on the situation and its impact on local tourism.
Cut to the Quick
by Alexander Basek | 02.03.09 | 11:34 AM ET
Where’s my cheap rate? Price cuts at hotels are not as common as you’d think these days. Many properties are afraid that when the economy bounces back, they won’t be able to raise their rates to pre-econopocalypse levels. So, the savings come in the form of add-ins: hello, bottle of cheap champagne that’s a “$30 value”! Hotels in warm destinations—where they count on Northeast winters slowly driving locals insane—are notorious for this little game.
The flip side is the rate cuts are plentiful in destinations that aren’t typical winter holiday hot spots. Take Bangkok, where prices were falling last year thanks to a low-level hum of bad news and unrest at the airport. Couple that with the economic downturn and voila! Specials like the COMO Metropolitan Bangkok is offering: a $260 a night room for $99. Similarly, rooms at the LeBua at State Tower, another luxury property with great views of Bangkok (and balconies!) prices out to $140 a night over a weekend in March with a 30 percent discount offer. Even the Four Seasons is $200 a night with a system-wide third-night-free deal. Yes, there are cheaper hotels in Bangkok, but the value for these prices is staggering. When I stayed at the LeBua last fall, the staff was so eager to please they would have wheeled me to my room on a hand truck if I had let them.
Of course, Bangkok is a tougher weekend getaway than St. Croix, but what’s the matter with a little jetlag on vacation?
Morning Links: Sex and Romance in Rio, Chaos in Bangkok and More
by Michael Yessis | 01.28.09 | 8:50 AM ET
- Love this graphic of anatomical terms that most sound like exotic vacation destinations. I’m booked for the Fissure of Rolando.
- Cole Hamels loves Sydney.
- Giant waves battered cruise ships in the Bay of Biscay. Photos at the Daily Mail.
- GOOD rightfully thinks trains need some more support—and more money—on Capitol Hill.
- Inside the quest for alternative jet fuels. Black vomit nut, anyone?
- Another great Time Zones piece: “The Beautiful Chaos of Bangkok”
- Sex and Romance in Rio: Seth Kugel looks at the relationships between male tourists and female locals. Some background on the story.
- A Fugu mishap in Japan injures seven.
- Have you read “the world’s best passenger complaint letter”?
- An Alaskan entrepreneur wants a license to sell booze on his Fairbanks shuttle bus. His goal: To make enough money so he can hire another shuttle bus driver and join the mobile party. (via Fark)
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On Asia: Points East
by Julia Ross | 01.22.09 | 1:56 PM ET
iStockPhoto If this is indeed the “Asian century,” count me as an early adopter. I’ve quit two full-time jobs to explore the world’s most diverse continent, and they were the two best decisions I’ve ever made. To an Asia hand, the lavender fields of Provence might be pleasant, but it’s the chanting of novice monks, the mystical tinkling of the gamelan, a bowl of spicy dan dan noodles that really get the blood pumping. I’m drawn back, again and again, and I don’t know if I’ll ever kick the habit.
My (unlikely) introduction to Asia began in arid, post-Soviet Uzbekistan in the late ‘90s. As soon as my conference in Tashkent wrapped up, I hopped a bus to the Silk Road city of Samarkand, where blue-tiled madrassas dazzled against an azure sky. They were like nothing I’d seen, a window into an ancient time when Tamerlane traipsed across the steppes.
Morning Links: Warrior Monks, Sustainable Fuel, ‘The Big Belch’ and More
by Valerie Conners | 01.02.09 | 10:02 AM ET
- Pico Iyer reflects on the the cultural rituals and celebrations a new year inspires, and his own “makeshift rites.”
- Three days of small earthquakes—more than 250, total—rattle Yellowstone National Park.
- The aforementioned tremors lead Garrison Keillor to observe that it “suggests to me that the Big Belch is overdue,” and when it comes, he’d “rather be in Paris.”
- Bangkok police are investigating the nightclub fire that killed dozens of people, including many foreign nationals. Eyewitnesses claim fireworks may be to blame.
- Air New Zealand hopes to up the eco-friendly, sustainable fuels ante with its first successful test flight of a passenger plane powered in part by vegetable oil.
- Multi-toed cats, rejoice! The iconic descendants of Ernest Hemingway’s cat, Snowball—and a popular Key West tourist attraction—will not be forced off the Hemingway House property.
- A Muslim family was kicked off an Air Tran flight after passengers complained the family’s conversation seemed suspicious. Though the FBI cleared the family of wrongdoing, AirTran refused to rebook their tickets.
- A daunting slump in tourism sent one Chinese town’s officials to seek the aid of a group of marketing-savvy warrior monks. Reflecting on the situation, one local vendor offered this enduring wisdom: “If you burn incense, they will come.”
Bangkok’s Airport ‘Creaks Back to Life’
by Valerie Conners | 12.03.08 | 10:19 AM ET
The international airport here has slowly started the process of reopening, after anti-government protesters who had camped there for a week called off their demonstration following a court’s decision to ban the prime minister from politics and dissolve the governing party. Flights have begun to arrive at the airport, though authorities still estimate it will take days before some 230,000 stranded visitors will be able to leave the country.
Bangkok Airport Closed by Protests*
by Eva Holland | 11.25.08 | 4:36 PM ET
Thai authorities have canceled all flights at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport as riot police face down protesters inside the terminal, the New York Times reports. More than a few travelers are affected: Suvarnabhumi is the 18th busiest airport in the world.
* Update, 9:45 PT: According to Reuters, reports from various Bangkok media have been “confusing” but indicate as many as several bombs have exploded outside the airport, injuring up to a dozen people.
I Have $6,000 For a Trip to Asia and the South Pacific. Any Tips?
by Rolf Potts | 08.21.07 | 11:16 AM ET
Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel
Sorrow in the Land of Smiles
by Jim Benning | 09.27.01 | 1:00 AM ET
On the streets of Bangkok Jim Benning faces a confounding reaction to the terrorist attack on America
Terror in America: A Letter From Thailand
by Jim Benning | 09.13.01 | 1:01 AM ET
By Jim Benning
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