Thailand: Best blogs from the Land Of Smiles

Back in the Land of Smiles (only in spirit, unfortunately), I've been browsing through a few of my favourite blogs. There are plenty more quality writers where these came from, but here are a few to be going on with. More another time...


A special mention for "Thai Girl" (which is the title of the first of his books, referring to his partner, and doesn't indicate the gender of the writer). Andrew Hicks is a natural storyteller, with a hint of scepticism running through his blogs - all of which are really good and witty reads, with some excellent photos. I've read "My Thai Girl and I" (the sequel); couldn't put it down. Andrew is trying to raise funds for his local school at the moment, and if you read this entry, you'll understand why. All offers of assistance much appreciated. Great effort Andrew...

Ben - "The Thai Pirate" - has a ton of info, nice photos, blogs regularly, and a quirky style. Love the variety, love the thoughtful, in-depth comments.

Hoo Don of "Beyond the Mango Juice" has a Jack Daniels style all of his own. Invariably funny, a bit mad, and somehow manages to keep up a regular and unique blog despite spending a fair bit of time Beyond the Mango Juice, rather than in it. Makes you feel you're right there with him - which is what story telling is all about. Great stuff. Self-deprecating at times, the emotion just pours through...

The blog written by Mike 'the TEFL Don' of My Thai Friend is a great way of learning about the Thai induction process for would-be expats. A dry, down-to-earth style, not afraid to let you have his opinions on most things, what you see is what you get. Has me hooked...

I wish Kevin of "Riff Raffles" hotel in Pattaya would blog more often. A better insight into the downside of cross-cultural relationships and business partnerships you would be hard pressed to find. Yet he still retains a sense of humour. Great blog writing that he describes as a continuation of his book. Not read Riff Raffles (the book) yet, but I certainly will do one day...

Factual and political stuff more your thing? Richard Barrows "thai-blogs.com" is hard to match. He covers pretty much everything. Loads of advice, tons of info from politics to tourism to cookery, you name it. And his last blog is on a particularly sensitive and daring topic. This alone is well worth a read for all visitors to and guests in Thailand, even relatively old-timers.

For politics alone, the Bangkok Pundit is the first with the news, and he has some pretty strong and occasionally risky opinions of his own. Few pics, heavy going at times, but THE source of info if you want to read between the lines of what is really going on in Thai politics. Not an easy task. Don't bother if you're not a political animal, it's pretty specialised stuff mostly.

Finally - for today - BangkokDan of Absolutely Bangkok. Love his posts sometimes, hate them on other occasions, Dan's "carefully opinionated" (sic) takes on life in the Big Mango - from politics to women to... just about everything under the tropical sun... are definitely worth a regular browse.

PS before I'm accused of sexism... there are some blogs I'll be mentioning soon written by the fairer sex, and their exclusion from a mention above is entirely coincidental - really!