Thais take their food, fun, music, drinking, dancing and conviviality very seriously. Nightlife venues run into the thousands. So don't conclude that the following glimpse of three very different neighborhoods is in any way exhaustive. The surface has been barely nicked. What can be said is that these are three long-running neighborhoods that will deliver sanuk (fun) wanderings and meetings with ordinary, chatty Thai ...
* All about Thai caves—The Nation
"Discovered" may not be the most accurate term. Frequently, local villagers have known that a cave existed, but they had never ventured very far within because they feared ghostly occupants or lacked proper lights and equipment. The recent teams of foreign cavers therefore have often found themselves to be the first people to enter an underground chamber with a 15-metre high roof or to see a thousand-year-old flowstone resembling a frozen waterfall.
* Prostitution in Thailand: Her fate, or choice?—Apa Insight Guide Thailand
By far, most patrons in Thailand are Thai men, yet foreign johns also fuel the demand. They not only come on sex tours from Europe, Japan and Malaysia. There are also conspicuous communities of middle-aged and elderly Western men who live in Pattaya, Phuket and Bangkok solely for the availability of cheap sex, child sex and younger wives. Many make a living by teaching in English schools.
* Striking oils—Sawasdee
Citrus hystrix is one homely fruit. The size of a handball, it has the lumpy wrinkled surface of a green brain. No Thai will profess to eating it. It’s too bitter and “strong” smelling.
* Not the usual Namstalgia tour—The Nation
Since visitors today still find Hanoi shabby with the lingering odor of soviets, it's interesting to read that in all of Vietnam, Downie found the appearance of this city transformed the most in the span of a few years. The wood-fueled buses disappeared, private cars and shops multiplied, outdoor lights were installed, and clothes became brighter and more fashionable.
Susan J Cunningham 