Imagine Peace
Junior remarked the other day, “I do hope the shirt war doesn’t start again while we’re in Bangkok.” And my mother asked me over the...
EscapeArtistes Blog
If Bangkok was a Colour…
If Bangkok had a colour, it would most definitely be pink. Hot pink. Like a bar girl’s brassiere, or those gorgeous metallic fuchsia and violet...
"Mum! FEET!!!"
It is amazing how fast children adapt to and internalise the conventions, taboos, the social norms and etiquette of another culture. And not just by...
At the Orphanage
Our first volunteering stint as a family brought us to Baan Kingkaew orphanage, a home for orphaned children aged from three months to six years...
Sweet Charity? On Volunteering
I have an aversion to the idea of volunteering overseas which dates back to a hospital bed in small town Mali. It wasn’t the extended...
Elephant Artists
Elephant artists? Painting elephants? Now, like baby pandas, that’s something you don’t see every day. The pachyderms of Maesa Camp work with an incredible concentration....
Seeing the Light
There’s a brilliance about the light in the medieval temples of northern Thailand. It glints off mirrored mosaics, gold buddhas and gilded towers, off gaudy...
A Tiger Petting Zoo
A petting zoo — with tigers? Truly, only in Thailand! But few children would pass up the chance to pet, stroke and cuddle a real,...
Western-Thai Dating: A Driver’s Guide
One of the most consistently entertaining aspects of the courting ritual indulged in by ageing Western men and much younger South-East Asian women is the...
Ecotourism? My *rse
Monday morning sees us in Chiang Mai, for centuries capital of an independent state, sometimes Siamese, other times Burmese, now the hub of northern Thailand....