Filed under: Culture, Expat life, Fun, Nightlife, Outside Thailand, People | Tags: Bangkok, beauty, Beer, bread, BTS, carrots, Chang Beer, clothes, cons, Europe, European beer, expats, food, happy hour, Heineken, Ireland, Irish bars, Khao San Road, light skin, London, maps, prostitutes, prostitution, red light district, Singha beer, skytrain, Sukhumvit, Sukhumvit Road, sunburn, Thai, Thai business, Thai culture, Thai food, Thai language, Thai people, Thailand, tourism, tourists, vampires, weather, Western food, women, work
Nice tan!
Everybody needs somebody… to look down on, and few lifeforms get less respect than the lowly tourist. In Bangkok, they are easy to spot – bright pink skin, dripping in sweat, wearing a Chang Beer T-shirt and scratching their heads over folding maps and the BTS ticketing system. Tourists are naïve, vulnerable, confused and trusting – everything that the noble expat is not! But to the average Thai conman and opportunist, every foreigner is a potential tourist, and to every tourist, anyone of their same colour is likely one of their kin. But the resident farang is a wiser, nobler and all-round higher class of foreigner, and we must flaunt our status with our behaviour and habits. However, this is something that can only be cultivated over time, with experience – unless you consult my handy guide to…
10 WAYS EXPATS CAN AVOID BEING MISTAKEN FOR TOURISTS
Filed under: News, Thai news, politics | Tags: Thailand, newspapers, Thai politics, Thai news, News, Bangkok, Bangkok Post, politics, anti-government protests, UDD, Abhisit Vejjajiva, democracy, elections, trains, Phahon Yothin, MRT, subway, Silom, taxis, military, soldiers, hotels, skytrain, BTS, commuting, war, civil war, United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, Red Shirts, army, Sala Daeng, Chit Lom, Ratchaprasong, Rama IV Road, thai elections, Khattiya Sawasdipol, Seh Daeng, terrorists, terrorism, Dusit Thani Hotel, singing, dancing, barbecue, photos
Red Shirts on Silom Road
Front-page headlines from the past few days in the Bangkok Post which are in no way an exaggeration.
The anti-government protests by the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD), or “Red Shirts”, have been going on for two months now, and friends and family back home who’ve seen dramatic news footage have enquired about my safety, to which I had always replied that “it looks much worse than it is”, and that I was completely safe so long as I stayed away from the demonstration zones.
Not anymore. (more…)
Filed under: Expat life, International news, media, News, Nightlife, People, Thai news | Tags: Amsterdam, Bangkok, bars, beggars, bikinis, blogs, Blythe, Britain, BTS, child brides, child prostitution, corruption, crime, Culture, Daily Mirror, David Carradine, death, Disney, editor, gay, go-go bars, Google, hoaxes, Hollywood, hostess bars, hostesses, hotels, ID cards child sex, investigative journalism, Iraq, Iraq war, journalism, journalist, law, London, magazines, Mark Ebner, market, massage, massage parlours, Maxim, media, media law, men's magazines, middle-aged, movies. holidays, MRT, murder, Nai Lert Park, Nana, Nana Hotel, Nana Plaza, News, newspaper, Nightlife, North Korea, Pacific, Pacific islands, paedophilia, Patpong, Patpong Market, Pattaya, Phnom Penh, Piers Morgan, press, prostitution, red light districts, rickshaws, sex, sex games, shopping, skytrain, slums, Soho, Soi Cowboy, soldiers, subway, suicide, Suvarnabhumi airport, Swissotel, taxis, Thailand, Times Square, tourism, tourists, websites
Journalism 101: Never let the facts get in the way of a good story
As I work in the press, I’m always quick to defend journalists, especially against the stereotype that they “make things up”.
It is true, though, that facts can be shaped to fit an agenda, and also that whenever there are two or more sides to a story, a journalist can take whichever side best fits his remit. But they can’t simply make things up.
For a start, it’s against the law. If a newspaper prints a story about a person or event, and cannot prove that it is true if required to do so, then it will face penalties.
Take, for example, the 2004 case of the Daily Mirror‘s publication of photos which apparently showed British soldiers abusing an Iraqi captive. Desperate for a sensational scoop, The Mirror didn’t check the authenticity of the pictures, which were later proven to be fake. The result – editor Piers Morgan was fired.
So, a publication really can’t “make things up” without risking personal, political or financial repercussions. However, that’s not to say it never happens. While I may be quick to defend the press against this stereotype, at the same time I am quick to criticise journalists who do contribute to it.
