Showing 1 - 10 of 58
Something's brewing
Spectrum, Nanchanok Wongsamuth, Published on 15/01/2017
» A fortune teller suggested Puripong Suthisopapan and his business partner focus on selling beer when they opened their Be Right Back restaurant in Khon Kaen over a year ago. Starting only with one refrigerator, most of the beer they sold was illegally home-brewed as Thai law prohibits small-scale brewing.
The price of PromptPay
Spectrum, Nanchanok Wongsamuth, Published on 08/01/2017
» Manaschuen Kovapirat considers herself the average user when it comes to online banking transactions: on a monthly basis, she uses her bank's mobile application to transfer money to her mother and to donate money. She does online shopping and prefers to transfer money online for transactions less than 100,000 baht. On some occasions, when she's out with her friends and doesn't have enough cash, she pays them back via online banking.
Failing the lecturers
Spectrum, Nanchanok Wongsamuth, Published on 20/11/2016
» At Thepsatri Rajabhat University, a lecturer was locked out of his office after exposing alleged corruption involving the budget allocated for a field trip. His three staff were moved to other roles, and this semester his classes were reduced until he had no students to teach. Nowadays he goes to the university in the morning and signs his name, fearful he will fail his performance assessment.
When pigs fly
Spectrum, Nanchanok Wongsamuth, Published on 13/11/2016
» Sakaseam Sripolreun takes pride in the wild boars he bought three years ago from a poacher in Khon Kaen's Phu Wiang district. Said to be the most beautiful strain in Thailand with a large chest, elegant posture and slim face, they are highly resistant to diseases and can live on scrap fruit and vegetables, making them easy to raise.
Photojournalist in the eye of the storm no more
News, Nanchanok Wongsamuth, Published on 09/10/2016
» The horrible traffic jams, the disgusting air and the "sh*tty" place at Khao San Road were the reasons that German photojournalist Nick Nostitz hated Bangkok when he first arrived in 1989. Arriving as a backpacker carrying a surfboard, the 21-year-old wrote in his diary that "I will never come back to this awful place".
Struggling industry leaves reporters squirming for survival
Spectrum, Nanchanok Wongsamuth, Published on 25/09/2016
» The journalists had spent the whole morning learning how to breed earthworms, lobsters and growing sunflower sprouts. By noon, Somruedee Polkhaw left the farm with two bags of sunflower seeds, two packs of soil, three bottles of worm castings tea and a black plastic tray. The starter kit cost her around 300 baht -- enough to test the waters before she considers whether if it's worth a sideline job.
Forest clampdown hurts poor
Spectrum, Nanchanok Wongsamuth, Published on 11/09/2016
» For the past 39 years, Anutas Pleeta's family have made a living out of growing para rubber on their four-rai plantation in the southern province of Phangnga. By this time of the year, the trees would have been ready for tapping and Mr Anutas would have had more money to support his family of five, who currently live off an average income of 45,000 baht per year -- less than half the daily minimum wage -- from rubber grown on another six rai of land.
Lip service: there's a pucker born every day
Spectrum, Nanchanok Wongsamuth, Published on 28/08/2016
» Plastic surgeon Chamnong Chirawichada has seen quite a few lip reduction cases during the past 15 years at his practice. But nothing has baffled him as much as the trend for thin lips shaped like buffalo horns which has emerged in Thailand -- and only Thailand -- in the past few years.
Where hope has vanished
Spectrum, Nanchanok Wongsamuth, Published on 21/08/2016
» It was the spot where the villagers had found the chequered loincloth of missing land rights activist Den Khamlae a week earlier. Banjong Sanitnit, Den's brother-in-law, stopped at a nearby tree. He lit six incense sticks and poured rice whisky into a clear plastic cup so that it was a quarter full. And then he prayed.
Fancy a job? You might get shot and it takes five years to earn full pay
Spectrum, Nanchanok Wongsamuth, Published on 07/08/2016
» Forest ranger Warak Ngernyu and his eight colleagues were on foot patrol on the morning of July 10, 2013, when they saw the wheel tracks. Sensing that the tracks would lead to wood poachers, the team followed the trail for four hours until they reached the suspects: three Khmer-speaking men sitting on rocks.