Tagged: around the world

city skyline of bangkok at night, seen from Vertigo, Bangkok.

Vertigo, Bangkok

This is the view from Vertigo, the aptly named, open-air bar which sits on the sixtieth floor above the Banyan Tree hotel, Bangkok. And I...

curving white spiral walkway inside Bangkok Centre for Art & Culture

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...

Pink and yellow leopard's head with tuk-tuk, Bangkok

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!!!"

"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

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 at an easel, using his trunk to paint. Mae Sa camp, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

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...

Z petting sleeping baby tiger, Tiger Kingdom, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

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,...