asia
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Beyond the Bamboo Curtain Over the next eleven days I’ll walk you through the daily drama and deep‑drawn camaraderie at Khun Yai’s charred cottage. Some scenes echoed what I already knew about Thai culture; others caught me completely off‑guard. A Fire‑Frenzy at Dawn Khun Yai’s house went up in flames this morning. I learned of the blaze…
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Beyond the Bamboo Curtain – In today’s short story, Tim is rapidly learning how Thailand differs dramatically from America. What are your experiences with Thai builders? Let us know in the comments below; other readers will benefit from your advice and views. I saw Tim and Somsee for lunch today. Work on his house is progressing well. They’ve…
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Does Thailand accept second-best? Is there too much mai pen rai here? “Beyond the Bamboo Curtain” takes a look in today’s post. Why the tools we rely on often fall short—and what that says about global tech hierarchies I drive a Mazda. The quality is okay, but I was stunned to find that the same…
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Look Behind the Bamboo Curtain and you’ll often be surprised by what you find. Things are seldom what they seem in Thailand. The carpenter had left some papers on top of a corner cabinet he’d almost finished building. He’d put away his tools, cleaned where he’d been working, and was making ready to go home.…
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What do readers think of today’s episode of Behind the Bamboo Curtain. We’d all like to know your views in the comment box below. Today, Sunantaa told me that Kitaloo, her one year old puppy, had been killed in a road accident. He had escaped from their fenced garden. Unusually for a Thai, she was…
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Beyond the Bamboo Curtain: Quality and Cheating in Thailand. All these posts are true and verified. Collected my brush cutter from the repairer today. I’d returned it for an oil leak and starting issues three weeks ago. One week later, same problem. Today, they said they’d finally sorted out the issue. Still wouldn’t start. I…
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Behind the Bamboo Curtain: The Quiet Art of Thai Neighbourliness Being neighbourly—particularly towards foreigners—is different from what we have in the West, where we usually keep our neighbours at a distance, at arm’s length. We may help them if they are close friends. We’ll acknowledge them when we meet. We may like them, we may…
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Derek’s true story of his time in Thailand is also recorded in more detail in my book Escape to Thailand, available at all on-line bookstores. If you want a discounted, or even a free copy, visit my website http://www.mattowensrees.com or drop me a line at mattowensrees@proton.me The book and this post, the last part of…
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To make cultural points in the “Beyond the Bamboo Curtain” series, and to make the story more interesting for readers, I often give examples of true stories from other cultures. Different nationalities have different senses of humour. I recall being in a UK pub one overcast day in winter. A few of us were sitting…
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Beyond The Bamboo CurtainThe curtain is lifted on Thai Immigration Busy day at Chiangmai Immigration. Not easy to find a parking spot and even more difficult to get a seat. Rules and regulations are not standardised in Thailand. Each government official interprets them differently. Requirements for documentation at Immigration vary from office to office. Applies…