Showing 1 - 10 of 23
Hedgehoppers in search of good news
Roger Crutchley, Published on 01/02/2026
» Being the very first day of February it would have been nice if there was some good news worth celebrating, but unfortunately nothing immediately springs to mind. Cheerful news is an increasingly rare commodity these days. It all seems to be gloom and doom and hardly portends a joyful 2026. It can get a bit wearying grappling with news reports featuring contradictions, cover-ups and cock-ups, often accompanied by half-truths, prevarications and porky pies. But this is the world we now live in.
A cheap room with a precious view
Roger Crutchley, Published on 02/02/2025
» I have just spent a month in Chaiyaphum and during that time visited Loei province and the Mekong River town of Chiang Khan on the border with Laos. It prompted memories of my first trip to Loei many moons ago.
It was the Year of the Happy Hippo
Roger Crutchley, Published on 29/12/2024
» Well, we've just about scraped through 2024 although there have been dodgy moments. Most of us will probably be happy to see the back of the Year of the Dragon.
'Amazing Thailand' just won't go away
Roger Crutchley, Published on 13/10/2024
» I must confess to groaning just a little this week upon seeing the headline "Amazing Thailand is back". I am not sure it ever went away. We were informed that next year we are in for "Amazing Thailand Grand Tourism Year" with the aim to attract more than 40 million visitors to these sunny shores. That's all a bit scary.
You can look, but please don't touch
Roger Crutchley, Published on 01/09/2024
» When we were kids, most of us heard the words "don't touch that!" from our parents if we were in the presence of something breakable and possibly valuable. That's probably what a father wishes he had said when he took his four-year-old son to a museum in the Israeli city of Haifa last week.
Asterisk more than just a footnote
Roger Crutchley, Published on 09/06/2024
» In the ladies golf major tournament last weekend one of the top American amateurs was 15-year-old Asterisk Talley. I don't recall ever coming across Asterisk as a name before. Apparently her mother is Greek and the word asterisk in Greek means "little star". So it would seem quite an acceptable name for a baby.
Taking a dip in Hua Hin a long time ago
Roger Crutchley, Published on 14/04/2024
» It is not often I can remember what I was doing five days ago let alone 55 years, but a moth-eaten diary confirms that on April 14, 1969 I was in the Thai resort town of Hua Hin. A brief explanation is necessary.
Sleeping on the job at 36,000 feet
Roger Crutchley, Published on 24/03/2024
» There was a rather bizarre story which emerged recently of an Indonesian domestic flight on which for half an hour both pilots were fast asleep at the same time.
A painful ride with a certified horn honker
Roger Crutchley, Published on 04/02/2024
» Despite the frustration of sitting in endless jams, I've always felt Bangkok motorists display remarkable restraint when it comes to using horns. Unlike many cities in the world it is rare to hear a chorus of angry car klaxons. Things are admittedly a bit different on the provincial highways with buses and trucks not averse to giving a blast on their air horns with the clear message "Get out of the way."
A curious place to find 'Lady Liberty'
Roger Crutchley, Published on 09/07/2023
» A headline which caught my eye in last Sunday's Post was "Highway 12 to economic heaven" with a report concerning the rich potential of this route which stretches west to east from Tak on the Myanmar border to Mukdahan, just this side of the Mekong River from Laos.