Showing 11 - 20 of 26
Unplugged in Gadget Mad LA
Brunch, Andrew Biggs, Published on 18/04/2010
» America has gone iPad crazy. I know. I'm here witnessing it first-hand. No clever observances about Thai life this week. It's hard to write a breezy column about the nuances and idiosyncrasies of Thai life when the country is descending into anarchy and mob rule.
A gem of a story: Part II
Brunch, Andrew Biggs, Published on 11/04/2010
» This is part two of an exciting story which started last week on this very page. Normally I have no time for readers who miss a week of this column, but if for some unfathomable reason you did, here is a brief synopsis:
A Gem of a story
Brunch, Andrew Biggs, Published on 04/04/2010
» The recent decision to close down Sanam Luang for renovations has sent me on a trip down memory lane, reminding me of a day when I went there deliberately to get ripped off. Sanam Luang is the last remaining large tract of land in central Bangkok that hasn't been cemented over to make way for shophouses selling car parts or cheap cloth which, upon coming into contact with an errant cigarette, quickly introduces you to the perils of self-immolation.
The dark side of Thailand
Brunch, Andrew Biggs, Published on 28/03/2010
» There is an ad on Thai TV at the moment for a product that whitens your armpits. That's right. Your armpits. That's all; nothing else. You think I'm joking, but I'm not. It's an ad for a roll-on deodorant, but the main thing is not that you smell nice. Rather, your underarms will be white.
Plain bloody minded
Brunch, Andrew Biggs, Published on 21/03/2010
» Last Tuesday we witnessed the spectacle of a couple of thousand largely under-educated, but probably very nice, country folk spatter their blood at the gates to Parliament House. A Brahmin priest dressed in unflattering white danced and chanted and painted evil curses in blood on the four corners of the House. As the sun went down the red shirts went back to their camping ground at the Royal Plaza, and I went home wondering if they were remaking Monty Python here in Thailand.
A man and his Motor Mouse
Brunch, Andrew Biggs, Published on 14/03/2010
» Imagine my surprise last week when a mouse stuck its head out of my car air-conditioner. It was late at night in the car park of Channel 3. It seems this little mouse had made a home in my car for more than a few days, which would explain the scuffling and shuffling heard on and off by yours truly this past week. Thank goodness it was a mouse and not the onset of schizophrenia.
A testing time for students
Brunch, Andrew Biggs, Published on 07/03/2010
» Many years ago I ran an English public speaking contest for Thai high schoolers. Students wishing to compete had to send in cassette tapes of their three-minute speeches to the magazine where I was editor, so we could choose the best 10 for competition day. Dozens and dozens of tapes came rolling in, and so one Monday we set aside the entire day to listen to them.
No sex please, We're Thai
Brunch, Andrew Biggs, Published on 28/02/2010
» As I write this, a Thai soap opera is going on in the background on my non-flat television. A handsome man in a dirtied shirt is staggering and holding a gun. He is clearly distressed - not through any acting talents, god forbid, but his shirt isn't tucked in and that's a dead giveaway in any Thai soap. His hair remains perfectly combed, and facial features remain as rigid as those of a khunying shuffling out of an Emporium botox clinic.
Lasting Friendships can be a tall order
Brunch, Andrew Biggs, Published on 21/02/2010
» I was having a solitary lunch last Tuesday with my dear friend Evil Neil when a phone call came out of the blue. A phone call on my cellphone, that is. Regular readers are cognizant of Neil, a helpless victim of corporate cellular phone advertising who changes his phone as often as we eat somtam, and who, with every new device, plasters Superglue between it and his ear so that it's permanently stuck to his head - hence my "solitary" lunch with him last Tuesday.
My favourite Valentine's day
Brunch, Andrew Biggs, Published on 14/02/2010
» Valentine's Day is special for me - I first came to Thailand on that day in 1989. But there was another Valentine's Day in Thailand that turned out to be the most memorable in my life. It is not the most "sanook" story I have, but I am going to tell it to you anyway.