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Getting around Thailand
I recommend traveling Thailand by train or by plane. Buses may be faster than the train, but your personal movement is more restricted, and you have to deal with traffic when entering and leaving cities. There is a train line that runs all the way from Chiang Mai through Bangkok and down to Malaysia before…
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What’s it like to visit the southern Thai Islands and Peninsula?
Phuket, Pataya, and Hua Hin All of the above are party towns dominated by overage men looking for barely legal women to keep them company. Phuket, in particular, felt like a Las Vegas run by Russian mobsters, and I left after one night. Pataya is not much different, and Hua Hin is a smaller scale…
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What to do in Bangkok
Bangkok is a delightfully bi-polar city. There are fully automated air conditioned sky trains to whisk you from the airport into town or past the giant modern shopping centers, and just around the corner from the centers you’ll find corrugated tin shacks built over sewage channels. It’s not for everyone, but I love that these…
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Ayutthaya, Thailand, the former capital of Siam
Thailand’s former capital is an easy day trip from Bangkok. It’s a great way to get away from the teeming traffic of Bangkok. The relaxing 1.5 hour train trip sets the tone for the sleepy town. I actually spent a couple days here. When I arrived, they were having a huge festival, but this is…
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Things to do in and around Chiang Mai, Thailand
Chiang Mai is the cultural center of Thailand offering great sites and food. There are plenty of cooking classes to instruct you on creating your own Thai delicacies. My class started with a visit to the market, then we got busy making four dishes that we each chose from a list of options. If you’ve…
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Origins of things
I remember sitting at a picnic table on the outdoor patio of my office building about 20 years ago. This was heyday of the first dot com years, when breathing was the only qualification you needed to get a job with a startup company. I had landed a position at CNET, already a demonstrated leader…
