Practicalities
March in Bangkok Is Not a Travel Month and the Air Quality Is Why
The worst air in the world is a four-week window every spring, and it is predictable, it is regional, and one city is genuinely fine while another is not.
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Street Food
Thai Fruit Has a Calendar and Showing Up in the Wrong Month Is a Waste
Mangoes do not have a season, they have four, and they run north to south. A month-by-month guide and the dish that is genuinely worth the trip.
Slow Travel
Hua Hin Is Two and a Half Hours From Bangkok and It Is Quiet on Purpose
A proper beach town eighty minutes from the city by bus, a two-hour train with a carriage full of bicycles, and a weekend market that runs out of food by four.
Practicalities
The Thai Hospital Is Not What You Are Afraid of and the Bill Is Not What You Fear
A private hospital in Bangkok is closer to a good hotel than a hospital, the doctor usually speaks English, and the thing to arrange before you fly is a guarantee of payment.
Money & Costs
The 30+30+30 Lease You Are Being Sold Is No Longer Legal
A Supreme Court ruling in March 2025 killed pre-agreed lease renewals, and a crackdown on nominee companies followed. What a foreigner can actually buy now.
Practicalities
You Cannot Legally Fly Your Drone on a Two Week Trip to Thailand
Dual registration, a million baht of insurance and a fifteen day approval, and all of it has to be done after you land. The drone is the easy part.
Slow Travel
Chiang Mai Is One of Asia's Best Cycling Cities and Almost Nobody Knows
Hundreds of long-stay riders, proper road bikes for hire, a mountain an hour away and a coffee-shop scene built around it. The catch is the timing of the day.
Practicalities
Bringing a Cat to Thailand Is Easy and Bringing a Dog Is a Six Week Project
A fifteen digit microchip, a rabies jab after the chip, a ten day certificate and a permit you cannot get until after you land. The rules are strict and the sequence is everything.
Street Food
Get to Damnoen Sadeu by Six and Eat Breakfast Among the Traders
The largest food market in Southeast Asia shuts its kitchens before the tourists arrive. Forty baht gets you the best breakfast in Bangkok.
Street Food
In Southern Thailand the Question of Halal Food Does Not Arise
Bangkok has a specific handful of streets. Three thousand kilometres south, ordinary food is halal and nobody is asking. The interesting version of the question is in the middle.
Temples & Culture
There Is No Surname in Daily Use and There Is a Whole Vocabulary of Respect
You will be known by one name, addressed by a title, and the title changes with the person's age and their relationship to you.
Street Food
Thai Desserts Are Mostly Things You Have Never Eaten
Nine of the ten best Thai desserts have no English name at all, which is why nobody outside the country orders them.