If you pick up a tourist brochure, or look at a website, or even talk with one of the expatriates who live there, you’ll keep stumbling on the phrase “paradise” used to describe Pattaya. On arrival the casual observer may be a little mystified by this. The beach is rubbish, the whole town is concrete and there’s sleaze on a truly dumbfounding scale. Koh Phi Phi this ain’t. Yet the town has the highest concentration of expatriates outside Bangkok and sees two million visitors every year (second only to Phuket). So what draws people to this seaside resort town, just to the southeast of Bangkok?

Tags: Jomtien,Paradise,Pattaya,Walking Street
Categories: Pattaya
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A golden brownish leaf floats in the early morning breeze from a teak tree towering high above the road that climbs through Khao Yai National Park. I watched it drift; its graceful descent to the tarmac caught by sunlight filtering through the trees. Its descent became my marker. Could I speed up just a mite to catch the leaf before it touched the tarmac? I didn’t, but in those few seconds I knew why cycling, of all sports, fascinates me the most. You concentrate on small matters, like finding the strength to round the next bend or climb a mountain road. As you travel in slow mode a destination shares its secrets.

Tags: Bangkok,Bicycle,Khao Yai,Thailand
Categories: Bangkok
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One of the great attractions for nature tourists visiting Thailand is the diversity of environments extending across mountain peaks, lowland rainforests, mangroves, coral reefs, farmland and urban jungles. Within a day, or even a few hours travel, one can easily make the transition between these places and witness natural marvels large and small.

For wildlife enthusiasts no group maintains interest and pleasure more than birds. While special efforts are required to see in the wild charismatic species such as elephants and primates, birds are found across the entire spectrum of environments from pristine to severely degraded areas.

Tags: Birds,Outdoor,Thailand,Wildlife
Categories: Thailand
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Introduction
For more than 2,500 years, the religion we know today as Buddhism has been the primary inspiration behind many successful civilizations, the source of great cultural achievements and a lasting and meaningful guide to the very purpose of life for millions of people. Today, large numbers of men and women from diverse backgrounds throughout our world are following the Teachings of the Buddha. So who was the Buddha and what are His Teachings?

Tags: Buddha,Buddhism,Rebirth,Thailand,Truth
Categories: Buddhism
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On the left side of the main highway towards Samut Prakarn is an awe-striking image of a three-headed elephant almost the size of a football field. The new structure, said to be as tall as a 14-story building, is creating a stir among people in the province and in nearby Bangkok. But the stir has nothing to do with the distinct honor of having the world’s biggest elephant relief sculpture. Or with the fact that it is home to a vast collection of priceless arts and antiques built over the years by one of the country’s most avid antique collectors, Mr. Lek Viriyaphant, otherwise known as founder of Ancient City, another awe-inspiring cultural shrine located further down the road.

Tags: Elephantine,Museum,Samu Prakarn,Sukhumvit,Thailand
Categories: Bangkok
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This is a Book Review!

Can you make a good “publication” better? Yes you can, and this, the updated and upgraded ‘e-book’ CD from Yves Masure, previously called the Thailand Lexicon of Cultural History, but now re-titled as Thailand Digital Travel Guide and Lexicon, is better than before. For starters, the CD now gives you a choice of three languages – English, Dutch and French, as well as being more ‘user friendly’ with its internal links.

Tags: Buddha,Digital,eBook,Gift,Guide,Photo,Travel
Categories: Thailand
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Pattaya – Reputed to be the two best dive destinations in the area are a pair of shipwrecks: the Hardeep and the Bremen. But the Hardeep is numero uno. It sunk in 1942. This 40 metre long freighter from Indonesia now rusts in peace some 25 metres below the surface, between the isles of Samaesan and Chuang. For divers who enjoy a heady dose of fear along with adrenalin, you can now explore inside the hulk. Best of all, wrecks attract an abundance of fish and coral. The two aforementioned islands are also wealthy in hard and soft corals. For beginners Koh Kruk is the prime spot, and for middleweights its Koh Rin, replete with boulder-strewn swim-throughs.

Tags: Diving,Koh Tao,Pattaya,Phi Phi Islands,Similan Islands,Thailand
Categories: Thailand
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Pattaya lies 150 kilometres to the southeast of Bangkok, less than two hours by road, and stretches for some 15 kilometres along the Eastern Seaboard. Thailands’s largest resort, shares the coast with traditional fishing villages, other resorts such as Bang Saen and Rayong, new industrial centres, the towns of Chonburi and Sriracha, and the port and naval base of Sattahip. Pattaya beach is a palm-fringed, sandy bay with a view of coral islands on the hoizon. Nearby are other cliffs and other bays, while inland, the region is rich in agricultural products including sugar cane, tapioca, rubber and fruit trees.

Tags: Bangkok,Jomtien,Ko Larn,Pattaya,Thailand
Categories: Pattaya
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This is a Book Review!

This week I was presented with yet another book about life in Thailand, and a side oflife that most of us would publicly shun. Written by Derek Sharron, My Name Lon – You Like Me? (ISBN 974-92721-5-3, publisher Bangkok Book House), claims to be a true story following the life and (mis)fortunes of Lon, a girl from Esarn.

In essence, at age 13, Lon runs away from her family in the province of Ubon Ratchathani and comes to Bangkok. To be able to do this, she steals some money from her family home, and that almost sets the tone for this book. Lon explains this saying, “I had nothing, therefore I had nothing to lose, so I ran away.”

Tags: Girl,Lon,Pattaya,Prostitution,Sex,Thai,Thailand
Categories: Thailand
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The cosmopolitan capital of Bangkok is home to Asia’s first dental spa offering aromatherapy and relaxing foot, body and head massage in an avant garde spa-style setting as part of the dental treatment package. Most patients shudder at there mere though of a visit to the dentist. Time spent in the waiting room is an anxious and traumatic experience. The monotone whirring and hum of the dentist’s drill typically heard in the waiting room heightens the element of fear as patients vividly “re-live” memories of their last session in the dentist’s chair.

Tags: Asia,Bangkok,Dental,Dentist,Spa,Thailand
Categories: Bangkok
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