Daniel and Sara live in Sweden. They come to Bangkok every couple of years, but they might very well know this city better than Elenka or I know Toronto. We flew up for the weekend to visit these two wonderful Swedes who'd recently returned from a tour of North Korea. They'd booked us a room next to theirs at the Siam II Guest House and then took us on a whirlwind tour. We walked from one park to another in search of paper mache pandas (see photos); too...

 Elenka and I took the overnight VIP bus from Bang Niang to Bangkok. Big mistake! The seats are uncomfortable; they serve no food; and it's expensive.  We'd booked the Chatrium Riverside Hotel, the same place we stayed the last time we were here, after our Indonesian experience. This time around we booked a regular room overlooking the river. When the clerk took us to our room on the 8th floor I pulled the drapes open and jumped back.  "This will nev...

  It's got to be unsightly, for staff and guests alike, to have a couple of backpackers come walking into the lobby of their luxury hotel. But there we were anyway, grimy shoes with dirtier feet inside them, sweat-soak shirts and filthy rucksacks. When Elenka plunked down a copy of our reservation it didn't matter to the desk clerk what the hell we looked like, money talks in Bangkok. We'd wanted to wash away our memories of Bali and the Chatrium se...

I remember a cartoon in a men's magazine from the 70's. It had a caricature of a naked ventriloquist with a clownish hand puppet covering his private parts. The puppet lamented "Aw gee, do we have to have sex again? I always throw up at the end."We weren't in Bangkok 20 minutes when I caught my first glimpse. Ellen was at the exchange counter buying Thai Baht when they walked by. He, a 75 or so year old white man. She, an 18-20 year old Thai woman. In...

Ho, Ho, Ho and I'm not referring to Santa Claus. By 1968, around 45,000 US troops had been deployed in Thailand. The nation was a staging area to conduct bombing missions in Laos and North Vietnam. The economy flourished. It created new and varying markets - one being prostitution. And believe you me, its alive and well. In 2008, this third generation workforce (now 200,000 strong) will celebrate its 40th anniversary. Ellen says "its disgusting". I'll not...