Giving a Face to the Egyptian Protests

As I watch the Egyptian protests continue to unfold and reach new levels of upheaval, I keep thinking of the people I met in the country along the way.

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A Return to Normalcy in Bangkok

In a foreign concept that doesn’t sit well with the Western mind, Bangkok has reverted to normalcy in just under a week. Mai pen rai, or "no worries," we’ll survive. The large mall complex (the same shopping centers that were rendered shut for nearly a month) around Ratchaprasong has reopened, the BTS SkyTrain and MRT have resumed service and people are bustling about the city as though last week's crackdown were nothing but a distant memory.

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Photo of the Week: Bangkok Burning

May 19 saw the worst violence Thailand has seen in nearly two decades as the Royal Thai Government handed down orders to crackdown on the red shirt anti-government protesters that have been occupying the city since mid-March. I watched the day’s events unfold from a safe distance in a friend’s apartment-cum-expatriate refugee camp not far from mine, which offers an iconic view of the Bangkok city skyline.

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Celebrating My Layoff Anniversary

One year after being laid off, I’m sitting and reflecting on one of my worst weeks ever…from Bangkok, Thailand. I’m nearly five months into travel, living in Bangkok and show no signs of slowing down. Turns out, losing my job was the best thing that could ever happen to me.

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Deadly Clashes Continue in Bangkok

Over the last two days, much of central Bangkok has been turned into war zones. Militia lines the streets, snipers have taken position on rooftops and rounds of live bullets have been fired and grenades lobbed into the streets, with no signs of things coming to an end.

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Could Technology End Our Desire to Travel?

According to a recent article published in the English newspaper, The Telegraph, the travel industry could be in trouble as technology evolves. Findings from a recent study state that more children will be less apt to travel in the real world because it can so easily be accomplished in a virtual world. The findings come from a study commissioned by travel firm LastMinute.com and the Future Foundation titled “The Future of Free Time,” which followed trends in Japan.

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When the Traveler Becomes the Tour Guide

The Grand Palace isn’t what made me fall in love with Bangkok (let’s be real, I’m still not even sure I know what I was looking at), nor was it the crowded 4-Island snorkel trip that made Krabi feel like my personal paradise. So I abandoned all original plans and decided to show my guest the more “real” side of Thailand and what it is that makes the country so special to me.

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Red Shirts and Wet Shirts: A Thai New Year

Songkran is a three-day holiday from April 13-15. Its most obvious celebration — aside from visiting wats, paying respect to the family and cleansing the Buddha — is the throwing of water. It has since evolved into one of the biggest water fights in the world. People line the streets armed with Super Soakers, garden hoses and buckets of clay to smear on faces of passersby. It's been really interesting to see how the holidaymakers and the protesters have interacted.

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My Long Weekend Back at Home

In an unintentional escape from the red shirts’ violent clashes in Bangkok this past weekend, I’m just getting back to the city today after a long weekend at home in New York… I mean, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on a visa run.

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Red Shirt Protests Turn Ugly in Bangkok

The political upheaval is brought to us by two opposing camps: the red shirts and yellow shirts. Both groups are driven by Thaksin Shinawtra, the former prime minister of Thailand, who was ousted by the military in coup in the fall of 2006. While the red shirts support him, the yellow shirts do not.

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