Showing 1 - 10 of 12
A lesson in development
Life, Peerawat Jariyasombat, Published on 16/01/2017
» On a windy day in Busan, South Korea, I stood before a small valley where the Gamchoen Culture Village is located. Streams of tourists tirelessly roam the community where colourful tiny houses pack the entire valley, as well as a nearby hill.
Off the tourist trail
Life, Peerawat Jariyasombat, Published on 26/05/2016
» While most tourists are always rushing to get to the islands, Trat town remains peaceful and easy to explore. Every long weekend, drivers are waiting patiently in a line to spend their time on Koh Chang, though it takes more than two hours to get on the ferry, and another hour to get to resorts.
Bordering on mass tourism
Life, Peerawat Jariyasombat, Published on 24/09/2015
» In the near future, tourists could find it easier to explore the border towns of Thailand and Laos when checkpoints and transportation links are widened for tourism.
Loei's scary secret
Life, Peerawat Jariyasombat, Published on 14/05/2015
» As well as ghosts, spirits and things that go bump in the night, the Phi Khon Nam festival in Loei also reveals the modest side of local tradition.
Chiang Kham casts its spell
Life, Peerawat Jariyasombat, Published on 24/07/2014
» Many Bangkokians would be hard put to find it on a map and for long-distance motorists the small northern province of Phayao is nothing more than a convenient pit stop on the road between Lampang and Chiang Rai. So it is hardly surprising that only a handful of tourists ever make it as far as Chiang Kham, 76km from Phayao town, the capital of a largely agricultural district which borders our neighbour to the northeast, the Lao PDR.
Thainess, anywhere but here
News, Peerawat Jariyasombat, Published on 07/05/2014
» Last month I visited Jinghong, the capital of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture. Situated at the southern tip of Yunnan province, the southernmost district of China, Jinghong’s atmosphere is not “Chinese” as we’re familiar with; it looks and feels more like Thailand.
Thai To Tai (in less than a day)
Life, Peerawat Jariyasombat, Published on 24/04/2014
» In the southernmost corner of Yunnan, which is itself the southernmost province of China, the age-old traditions of the Tai Lue people continue to flourish. Speaking a language closely related to Thai, this ethnic minority also lives in many parts of northern Thailand, with particularly large communities found in the provinces of Phayao and Nan.
Under the Tuscan sun... Oh, wait, this is Thailand
Life, Peerawat Jariyasombat, Published on 17/09/2013
» If you regularly roam around Thailand you may have noticed rapid changes in the trendy attractions in recent years, with many stylish places mushrooming and quickly disappearing. And because of this, Thailand is in danger of losing an important part of its identity.
Caravan to the land of Laos
Life, Peerawat Jariyasombat, Published on 20/12/2012
» Getting all the way to the Plain of Jars by car is no longer beyond the bounds of possibility.
One Pai is enough, please
Life, Peerawat Jariyasombat, Published on 14/11/2012
» One morning sipping my brew at a coffee shop in Chiang Mai's remote Mae Chaem district, which has the potential to be developed into a tourist destination, patrons at the table next to me asked their friend, a local politician, whether there are plans to turn Mae Chaem into a new Pai, the popular tourist hang-out in neighbouring Chiang Rai province. I almost spilled my coffee. I wished they were just kidding.