Showing 1 - 10 of 14
Where charity flows freely
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 13/10/2019
» In late August and into early September, flash floods ravaged the rural Northeast of Thailand.
Eternal struggle of the tourist city
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 20/05/2018
» This week your correspondent is unable to make any casual observations on Thai life owing to the fact he is 8,823km away.
The colour of money
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 08/04/2018
» One morning this week, in the seaside town of Ban Chang, Rayong, two major life events occurred simultaneously at the local temple school. One was raucous, the other full of trepidation.
Set the wheelchairs of change in motion
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 18/03/2018
» Anybody doing business in Thailand has horror stories about red tape. Not a day goes by where I am not responsible for felling at least one tree from somewhere deep within a national park. Page after page, I sign the bottom of these utterly useless photocopied pages, in triplicate, one after the other, all the time either contemplating life or how to end it all and put myself out of this bureaucratic misery.
Resigning is for quitters
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 18/02/2018
» The truth and the military make strange bedfellows. This is not, necessarily, a savage indictment on Thailand's current military regime. It's true of any military. When ranked from most important to least, qualities such as courage, fortitude, strategy, strength and unity are considered characteristics way, way more important to the military than trifling, annoying tenets such as truth and honesty and, let's be frank, democracy.
Wheelchair warrior takes on skytrain
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 10/09/2017
» Two major events shaped the life of Manit Intaraphim. One was falling asleep at the wheel. The other was a bad bowl of corn soup. The first occurred early one Monday morning more than two decades ago as he was riding his big bike to work. The ensuing crash broke his spine and put him in hospital for 12 months. He was a paraplegic at the age of 24.
Pull up to the bumper
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 09/04/2017
» On busy Rama IV Road, my driver explodes in a mighty chortle. "Well, would you look at that," he says, pointing to the pickup truck in front of us. In the back seat I look up from my position, documents in my lap, crunching numbers. It's been a stressful morning, especially since the numbers in question are the latest lottery results, and my ticket has come nowhere near the 6 million baht first prize.
A skytrain to deafness and brain death
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 05/03/2017
» That unexpected fire at the Thai-Belgian flyover caused havoc with inner-city traffic on Wednesday. That was the evening of Sundowners, the monthly meeting of Austcham (the Australian Chamber of Commerce) at the Grand Hyatt Erawan. It was also the evening Austcham was having its presidential elections, but how to get there?
How I became a top twit
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 27/11/2016
» I am at the end of my little English lesson. Are there any questions? "What does 'womaniser' mean in English?" tweets one young lady. That certainly came out of the blue. On this overcast Tuesday afternoon I was expecting something a little easier to answer, such as the difference between "house" and "home" or how to translate kreng jai into English.
The strangers of kindness
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 29/12/2013
» It's Christmas and New Year and you don't want to read anything too heavy or moralistic; I'll leave those to the political editorialists and the Vatican.