Showing 141 - 150 of 441
A strange tale of crabs, birds, elephants, buffalo and a lamented sea turtle
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 26/03/2017
» Recently I found myself in Surat Thani at the early-morning wet market. "Let's buy some crabs," my school director had said the night before. "We can release them into the river to make merit." My school director is regular in her efforts to tam boon or "make merit" as the vague English translation happens to be.
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?
Thailand 4.0 hits a dead end
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 12/03/2017
» Last Tuesday the inaugural Thailand International Business Awards were held in a glittering ceremony at the Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit, celebrating innovation and excellence in local businesses.
A slap in the face for hopes of an egalitarian society
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 19/03/2017
» My heart goes out to Anusawn Chirapongse, the high-ranking government official who inflicted grievous bodily harm on a Greyhound Cafe waiter. "Grievous bodily harm" may be a little over the top. After summoning the waiter, Mr Anusawn slapped him after he gave a deferential wai, bent down and said: "Yes, Pa?"
Suffer the little children
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 15/01/2017
» It's the morning after Children's Day. It is testament to how deeply I am entrenched in Thai culture that I hardly bat an eyelid when Children's Day comes around. There was a time when on hearing of an impending Children's Day I would throw up my exasperated hands and exclaim: "We have a Children's Day in this country? Whatever for?"
Out for the count
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 29/01/2017
» I met Owen on my recent trip to Nakhon Phanom, a border province way, way up in the far Northeast. Owen is eight years old. He's in Grade 4 at the local primary school. Owen sat with his mother and when the novelty of having a farang in the house started to wear off and conversation waned, I turned to Nong Owen and asked in Thai:
One banana, two banana, three banana, four ...
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 05/02/2017
» It was a perfect storm of diseased relatives and lovers. The first phone call came at 5.30am, so early that my consciousness was battling the effects of sleep and three quick Chardonnays prior to bedtime.
Buddhist signs point wrong way
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 12/02/2017
» The billboard rises, like a Buddhist temple, up ahead on the right-hand side of the airport highway. "BUDDHA IS NOT FOR DECORATION," it shouts at me alongside a decoration of a Buddha's head with an ugly red cross on top of it. Why desecrate a Buddha's head with an ugly red cross on a billboard that tells us not to desecrate Buddhas?
A lesson from the deep south
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 19/02/2017
» Anubal Narathiwat is one of the largest primary schools in the provincial capital of Narathiwat, the southernmost province of Thailand, right on the Malaysian border. Every morning at 8am assembly, the 1,437 children in Years 1 to 6 line up in front of the flagpole and sing the national anthem.
A difficult birth for new skincare fads
B Magazine, Andrew Biggs, Published on 22/01/2017
» There was a time when, on returning to Thailand after a trip home to Australia, I would dole out small assorted gifts and souvenirs to my staff. This is an established tradition in Thailand and one any expat working here, legally or illegally, should abide by.