Showing 431 - 440 of 441
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.
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.
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.
It's a Nice Day for a white Wedding
Brunch, Andrew Biggs, Published on 07/02/2010
» Last week I attended the wedding in inner-city Bangkok of a former staff member and her long-term boyfriend. I should have been happy, but I wasn't.
What's in a name? Plenty in this country
Brunch, Andrew Biggs, Published on 17/01/2010
» There is a building not far from my home in salubrious Samut Prakan that I happen to pass whenever I take a shortcut to Sukhumvit Road. It's a boring, designless concrete factory or shop or something or other. And out the very front, in very big letters, is the name of the business: "NEWISH GERMS".
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.
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.
A very weighty matter
Brunch, Andrew Biggs, Published on 24/01/2010
» I caught my dear friend Evil Neil going through his New Year's presents last week as I paid him a visit in his office.
It's just not cricket (I Wish)
Brunch, Andrew Biggs, Published on 03/01/2010
» I write this from a dark corner of my bedroom in my mother's holiday unit in Marcoola, Queensland, a room to which I have retreated in order to escape the scourge that infects this otherwise idyllic Australian holiday I'm enjoying this week. It's cricket, and I can't escape it.
An ode to the service industry
Brunch, Andrew Biggs, Published on 10/01/2010
» This is a column for my Thai readers only. That's because I want to teach them a lesson about their service staff. I want to make a complaint and I want Thais to sit up and take notice. Simply put ... what on earth has happened to good ol' service these days? I'm talking about restaurants.