Slow Travel
Farm Stays Are Cheap Because the Work Is Real
You are not a guest at a rural homestay, you are a seasonal labourer with a ceiling fan. That is why it costs a tenth of a beach hotel and why it is worth more.
Temples & Culture
The temples worth the journey, and the etiquette that matters.
Temples & Culture
Getting Invited to a Thai Wedding Is a Good Reason to Learn Three Words
A Thai ceremony is not a service you sit through, it is a sequence you participate in, and the participation is optional in a way that would horrify a Western registrar.
Money & Costs
Silk Is the One Thai Thing You Should Buy and Almost Nobody Does
Thailand is one of the few countries on earth where the silk is genuinely handmade and genuinely worth buying, and the tourist price for it is about four times what it costs.
Temples & Culture
Most Hill Tribe Tours Make You Part of the Problem
The Karen, Hmong, Akha and Lahu villages in the north were resettled, relocated and turned into tourism over about thirty years. Knowing that changes which tour you book.
Practicalities
Nobody Tells You That the Loudest Bar in Thailand Is Also the Safest
There are three scenes in Thailand and they are nothing like each other. One of them is loud, chaotic, and staffed entirely by women who will stop you making a mistake.
Slow Travel
Thonburi Is the Half of Bangkok That Has Not Been Sold Yet
The west bank of the river is older, weirder, cheaper and better than the side everyone photographs, and it is fifteen minutes on a boat from the Grand Palace.
Temples & Culture
Ten Days in a Temple Is Harder Than Ten Days of Anything Else I Have Done
You will wake at four, you will not eat after noon, and on the last morning you will understand something and then go back to your life. Here is how the thing works.
Temples & Culture
For Nine Days, Most of Phuket Eats No Meat and Some of Them Put a Knife Through Their Face
The strangest thing on this island happens in October, it is centuries older than the tourism, and it is worth a great deal more attention than it gets from people who photograph it.