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[Oytopikos]

A LONG WALK WITH HOPE

A 60-year-old woman has started walking from Udon Thani to Bangkok, pushing along her 20-year-old Down Syndrome daughter in a cart.

Pornpimol Rue-opart said she has no relatives in Udon Thani after her husband died.

So she would like to return to stay with her relatives in Bangkok and find a way to make her living and taking care of heir helpless daughter.

She said she could not afford the travelling cost so she decided to walk.

She has walked for three days at the average speed of 11 kilometres a day and has not yet exit Udon Thani.


The Nation (24-09-2014)

BANGKOK – A 60-year-old homeless woman who was found walking for three days on a highway to Bangkok with her Down syndrome daughter received help yesterday after attention was called to her plight.
Pornpimol said she and her daughter were kicked out of their home

Pornpimol said she and her daughter were kicked out of their home

Pornpimol Reu-opat was pushing a cart carrying her 22-year-old daughter along the highway between Udon Thani and Khon Kaen provinces when reporters spotted her and brought the attention to her story.

Pornpimol said she and her daughter were kicked out of their home, which belongs to her dead husband’s family, so with no other hope she set out on a 527-kilometer walk to the capital, where she hoped to find help from long-lost relatives.

The mother and daughter arrived Bangkok today aboard a free train after reporters contacted the nearest train station. Pornpimol said she had previously tried to board a free train before deciding to walk, but officers did not allow her to take her daughter’s cart on board.

The two are now in the care of Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, who will find them a proper shelter and help search for their relatives, Khaosod reported.

“The organization will make sure they receive basic welfare. The mother will receive her first monthly cash support from the government in November while her daughter will continue to receive the disabled fund support,” said Ramrung Subansaeni, president of One Stop Crisis Center. “The organization will also contact a hospital to help with her daughter’s condition.”

But is the government’s help enough?

A senior citizen aged 60 to 69 receives THB600 monthly welfare support in disbursements which increase by THB100 every 10 years. Meanwhile, her daughter is receiving THB500 in assistance each month from the government to get by, according to Pornpimol.

By – Bangkok Coconuts, Khoasod

[Oytopikos]

Thailand, to combat bad Thai food around the world, creates robot ‘e-delicious’ tasting machine



Before she was ousted from office by a military coup in May, Thailand’s prime minister pushed an interesting initiative through government: To use robots to banish the world of bad Thai food. Apparently, as she traveled the world on various diplomatic missions, she was constantly bombarded by pale imitations of real Thai food — and I’m sure we can all agree, there’s nothing worse than being forced to consume a bastardized version of your country’s quintessential cuisine. Now, the first stage of the prime minister’s initiative is finally here: A robot that tastes your Thai food, and then compares its taste and smell against pre-programmed “standard” definitions of popular Thai dishes such as tom yum soup or green curry. Yes, the Thai government has created a database of how an authentic national dish should taste.

Thailand’s former prime minister (the country is ruled by a military coup at the moment) Yingluck Shinawatra had obviously had to suffer through one dodgy green curry too many when she enacted the initiative. Now called Thai Delicious, the program’s sole task is to raise the overall quality and authenticity of Thai food around the world — but primarily in foreign countries, where key ingredients for Thai cuisine, such as tamarind and galangal, are often substituted for other inferior ingredients.

The Thai Delicious program involves a few different efforts — a smartphone app for finding officially sanctioned recipes, an official logo/sticker that can be used if restaurants stick to authentic recipes — but by far the coolest is the e-delicious machine. As the name implies, this machine takes a small cup full of the dish to be tested, and then gives it a score out of 100 — with 100 being the most legit tom yum soup you’ve ever tried. “Normally we say that anything lower than 80 [percent] is not up to standard,” Nakah Thawichawatt, a Thai businessman who is trying to commercialize the machine, tells the New York Times.




The e-delicious machine has 10 sensors that measure smell and taste, generating a unique fingerprint (signature) for each sample of food that passes its digital maw. The exact tech specs aren’t available, but apparently Thawichawatt is trying to sell them for $18,000 a piece, so presumably the sensors are fairly advanced. Generally with electronic tasting, there are electronic sensors that work just like the taste buds on your tongue, measuring the quantity of various taste-giving compounds, acidity, etc. While these electronic sensors can’t actually tell you how something tastes — that’s a very subjective, human thing — they are very good at comparing two foods scientifically.



Once the sample has been tested, the e-delicious machine compares its chemical fingerprint against the fingerprints/signatures of Thai recipes that have been authenticated by the Thai Delicious program. The closer the match, the higher the score. Unfortunately, because the machine only gives a rather “dumb” score out of 100, it can’t tell you what exactly is wrong with a dish — only that, in some nebulous fashion, it’s not quite right. There are lots of reasons that a dish might not taste quite right — from substituted ingredients due to local availability, through to dumbing down for less adventurous foreign palettes — so it would be nice if the e-delicious could provide a bit more detail.

Still, the e-delicious machine is a good start. I can’t count the number of times that a Thai or Chinese friend has told me that the food we get in the US or UK is nothing like the stuff they make back home. Of course, by now we’re so used to the Western versions of pad thai that an authentic version would probably be offensive to our senses — but still, it would nice to have the choice of visiting a restaurant that is robotically guaranteed to be truly authentic.

And then, of course, why stop there? Why not use a robotic taster to make sure that your Texan BBQ actually tastes like Texan BBQ? Or caesar dressing, or sriracha sauce, or fish and chips…

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/191047-thailand-to-combat-bad-thai-food-around-the-world-creates-robot-e-delicious-tasting-machine

[halfway inn]

DSI's FIRST FEMALE CHIEF

DSI's first female chief endorsed by the cabinet



BANGKOK 29-10-2014

Deputy permanent secretary of justice Mrs Suwana Suwanjutha has become the first female director-general of the Department of Special Investigation since its establishment 12 years ago.

She was nominated by Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya and her nomination was endorsed by the cabinet on Tuesday.

As the first female chief of the DSI, Thailand’s version of FBI, Mrs Suwana is no stranger to this organization.  

Back in 2002 while assuming the post of an inspector-general, she also concurrently was named acting deputy chief of the DSI and a year afterward she was named an advisor to the DSI chief Pol Gen Sombat Amornvivat.

In her capacity as the deputy permanent secretary of justice, Mrs Suwana was head of a justice task force overseeing the DSI and the Forensic Medicine Institute.

Mrs Suwana’s appointment was intended to ease resistance among staff within the organization against another policemen taking the rein of the department.

Her predecessors at the DSI are Pol Lt-Gen Noppadol Somboon, the first DSI chief, followed by Pol Gen Sombat Amornvivat, Sunai Manomai-udom, Pol Col Thawee Sodsong and Mr Tarit Pengdit.

[halfway inn]

CHEATING AT AN EARLY AGE

81% of Students in Thailand Admit Cheating at an Early Age



BANGKOK: 09 -11- 2014

Dishonesty in Thailand sprouts roots at an early age – with 81 per cent of youths admitting they cheat in exams and 63 per cent saying they signed a class attendance form for an absent classmate, a new study has found.

And what’s more, it is behavior that most of respondents did not regard as seriously wrong.

About 25 per cent of students said they were comfortable with bribing a driving test officer to get a license, according to the study by the Khon Thai Foundation and market research company GFK Thailand.

Under the Khon Thai Monitor 2014: Youth Today program, 4,000 people aged 15-24 in 21 provinces were surveyed over five years up until February 2014 in a bid to better understand their lifestyle, attitudes, behavior and needs.

The results will be officially announced on November 20 at Bangkok’s Sukosol Hotel.

The study found that family, friends and teachers were key influences to the values of respondents, while 78 per cent of the 90 per cent of respondents who admitted to being under stress said they stressed about their studies.

Some 99 per cent of youths defined success as getting a good education and a well-paid job.

Social media has a big impact on their attitudes and behavior, with them spending about four hours a day chatting with friends, getting news and playing games – which is just a little less than the time spent at school.

As a result, face-to-face interactions have been significantly reduced.

The respondents had a limited understanding of “active citizenship”, as they mainly focused on their own surroundings rather than the larger community.

However, they want to contribute to Thailand’s development but think they are too young to drive change and didn’t know how to contribute.

Almost 15 per cent of respondents are involved in some active citizen activity, with five people selected from that group so their motivations could be studied.

The common characteristics are that they are socially-minded and positively contribute to society; they respect other people; have positive role models; follow rules and social norms; strive to improve society; think for themselves and act on those thoughts; follow current affairs; and actively participate in extracurricular activities.

The study provided key recommendations based on what the respondents had said in a bid to develop a culture of young people being active.

How to make youths active:

They include the promotion of the family institution and good parenting, corporations promoting a work/life balance and the government supporting social welfare programs that boost interaction among family members.

The media – especially online – should help raise awareness, provide knowledge on and promote active citizenship among the young.

Further studies on the younger generation should be conducted to find out what drives active young people, while identifying the obstacles the face to being active and taking programs as good active citizens.

Positives like civic education and educational policies that promote a better understanding about active citizenship and motivate and inspire young people should also be carried out, the study said.

As kick-off activity, the foundation and GFK Thailand developed an engaging active citizen fun quiz for the young to do via Facebook, in order to educate and raise awareness about active citizenship.

The foundation’s definition of active citizenship is as follows:

– Personal: Being kind and mindful of society;

– Society: Contributing to society including respecting social rules and helping develop a community;

– National: Engaging and participating in national/political affairs including voting and actively following national news and developments;

– Environmental: Conserving and developing the environment including recycling and planting trees;

– Values: Having good values, including possessing a democratic mindset, respecting human rights, displaying good ethics and appreciating cultural diversity.


The Nation

[halfway inn]

SEX OFFENDER ARRESTED IN UDON THANI

British man arrested in Udon Thani for sex offences in the UK



UDON THANI:

A British man, wanted for 17 counts of sexual violation and molesting girls under 14 in the United Kingdom, was arrested on Tuesday at a local school in Kumphawapi district in Udon Thani where he worked as a teacher, Immigration Bureau commissioner Pol Lt General Sakda Chuenpakdee said yesterday.

Suspect Robert David Hastings, 61, initially told police that he had been in Thailand since 2005 and, had a Thai wife.

He went on to say he had returned to the UK to sort out his assets before settling here.

He told police he had contacted UK police about the arrest warrant which they insisted he return to face.

However, his claim of having no money and request for financial aid didn't get any reply until he found out during the arrest that he was wanted in Thailand as well.

He most recently entered Thailand via the Nong Khai Immigration checkpoint and has documents to work as a language teacher at the school until March 31 in 2015, Sakda said.

[halfway inn]

Greece has nothing to lose by heading for the exit

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Greece-has-nothing-to-lose-by-heading-for-the-exit-30253493.html

The Nation
07 February 2015

[thailandgr]

'THAILAND IS NOT A SAFE PLACE FOR JOURNALISTS WHEN THE ORGANISED CRIME IS BACKED BY THE PEOPLE RUNNING THE COUNTRY'.

This is Paul John Hayward. He was in his early twenties when he hit Bangkok.  Now he is now in his late 30s and a millionaire many times over.

But he has no money in the bank and no credit or charge cards, and he believes he is untouchable.

Hayward, from Birmingham, England, believes he is living proof that in Thailand crime does pay and he mocks the long arm of the law. So far he has been proved right.

He drives flash cars and owns property in Bangkok, Hua Hin, and Phuket a yacht. He wears Armani shirts and has had a personal trainer called Delux.

He has invested many of his millions in the Thai sex industry. But anybody searching will not find his name on many documents.

He has spread his cash across three continents.

But you can find him at his kingdom – Nana Plaza – or at Bangkok’s ‘Q’ Bar of one of the many nightclubs, go-go bars and brothels which have sprouted from his Hospitality Venture Group – Eclipse Group of companies. Sometimes he just cannot help being 'hands on'.

His cash comes from fraud on an international scale, massive fraud. boiler room fraud, Wolf of Wall Street Fraud, call it what you will.

Simply put, it’s the business of cheating people out of their life savings.

Hayward is charming, brutal and dangerous.  He dates Thai models from an agency the boss of whom is an ‘advisor’ to the Royal Thai Police, and has been reported to have used a knuckleduster on a young foreigner who dated ‘his girl’, though he is married with three Thai children.  Hayward is the premier British ‘Wolf of Bangkok’.

Stephen Birt/Sharpe

He is also known as ‘the animal’, but as a loader he was the ‘voice of perfect reason’ and took people down for millions selling them worthless shares in barely existent or non-existent companies.

He has the power – as usual backed by high cash payments – to have police in South East Asia have people who cross him set up and arrested for such things drugs and rape.

One such case was that of Stephen Sharpe (aka Birt) who quit the Bangkok boiler room scene and wrote a document about Hayward called ‘A Painted Picture’.

McCleary brothers - made to look bad by Thai police the real kidnappers

Just like the American McCleary brothers, James and John, who got 18 years for the alleged kidnapping of  Mark Hutcherson, a boiler room king from Georgia, Canadian Stephen Sharpe also tried to ‘whistle-blow’ but was betrayed in the process.

He had to flee the country but stupidly chose the Philippines where he had been offered a job by a company called Sparta Matrix. Manila is Asian’s second ‘boiler room central’.

Sparta Matrix was just another boiler room and Hayward was able to have Sharpe arrested for drugs and the rape of a 17-year-old girl.

The frame up on those charges was so obvious that that even the Philippines Human Rights Commission has called for the arrest and jailing of the police officers. But the Philippines is equally if not more corrupt than Thailand and nobody is holding their breath.

Hayward is not worried about the Thai police or Army. He boasts he has them in his payroll.  Last year a victims group of people, who had between them lost over US$20 million, said they sent an intermediary to a Thai Army General who was protecting Hayward to mediate with him.

They reported back that the General was entrenched. It was business. They would need to make a better offer if they wanted to deal. They could not meet his price.

In fact Hayward – and other bosses of what are known as ‘boiler rooms’ have also been protected by several elements of the Royal Thai Police.  And since 2001 when the Brinton Group was raided no boiler room boss has spent more than a few hours in custody.

Possibly the most visible evidence of that is the Nana Entertainment Plaza in Bangkok where off duty police from Lumpini Police station in Bangkok provide security. Nana Plaza is of course one of Bangkok’s two premier spots for Thailand’s sex tourists. Technically of course it's all illegal in Thailand. But its tourist dollars.

Front page of cover story for the London Times 2 by Andrew Drummond

Hayward’s Nana Plaza company owns the master lease and sub-lets the go-go bars, and ‘short time rooms’.

You won’t see Hayward’s name on the company, just nominees. The actual land is owned by FICO an Indian Thai conglomerate with whom Hayward initially did a deal through his ‘Eclipse Management’ company.  I will go into detail on this in other stories.

At this stage I perhaps need to say that in reports of my departure from Thailand earlier this year in the Bangkok Post, Sydney Morning Herald and Guardian there was reference to threats against me and my family.

These threats came from Paul John Hayward. They were delivered by John Kealy former boss of the Brinton Group.

Readers of this site will know that I have provided fairly comprehensive coverage of the boiler rooms in Bangkok.

This causes them heartache, and hard cash, particularly when we reveal which particular scam they are running at the time.

Suckers Bar Nana Plaza!

We have also caused them to close down their VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) communications system (now re-opened under another company) but I have always baulked at naming either Paul Hayward or his American colleagues and counterparts Mark Hutcherson and Glendon R Bullard.
In the middle of last year they started making overtures to buy out this site.

‘Just name your price. Why create hassle for yourself when you can walk away with a large sum in your hand,” was the way it was put to me by John Kealy in phone calls. “You know these people can do anything."

He added rather ominously: “Look Andrew. This is your get out of jail free card. Previously it was just hospital.”

Kealy

John Kealy, former boss of the Brinton Group, who now runs the Dubliner Bar in Bangkok, had always been Hayward’s go between and also a messenger of bad news from other BR operators in Thailand.

I have of course spoken to Hayward a year or so earlier, when he boasted that to all intents and purposes he did not exist and told me of his plans to ‘ upgrade’  Thailand’s tourism sex industry.
The calls late last year were the most ominous I had received from Bangkok’s boiler room bosses. Kealy was talking about ‘really angry people’ and using such phrases as ‘Andrew. You’re a nice guy . I’m just trying to protect you.’

Then, following the ‘get out of jail free card’ threat, I started receiving messages from the Royal Thai Police Crime Suppression Division 1. This is the group which had been raiding boiler rooms and never actually catching any bosses.

Philip Bean

The messages asked me to come in and see them. They were interested in tackling the boiler room issue. They had spoken to the US authorities, who were on-board they said. They were enthusiastic.

I had no intention of going to see this unit or anybody at the CSD for that matter.

The CSD had been giving me the run around for years. There was no reason to trust them - especially after the 'Mr.Bean's Holiday' incident, reported here and here. Philip Bean, a Texan received threats from the CSD after whistle-blowing on boiler rooms and at the airport was told never to come back to Thailand.

But I did check with the US authorities in question.

 In no way were they on-board. ‘Keep away’, they advised.

From Bangkok Post

The officer who wanted to see me was Police Colonel Akkharawut Limrat who died of a broken spine after allegedly ‘falling from a high place’ during the Royal Central Investigation Bureau – Crime Suppression Division corruption scandal which broke in Bangkok in November.

In a massive anti-corruption probe the core centre of the Thai police were being charged with extortion and bribery on a massive scale.

The head of the Central Investigation Bureau General Pongpat Chayapan and scores of officers were being publicly paraded and humiliated for massive corruption, involving oil deals, logging, animal trading, illegal logging, cash for positions.

So wealthy had they become that they had to buy houses to store their riches, it was claimed.

By the end of December the CSD had already been gutted of 80 per cent of its officers.
Unfortunately this did not make my position any safer. This investigation was not initiated by the army but by the Royal Palace. And the main protection for the boiler rooms has always been the army.

It has also become clear from new within the ‘industry’ that under military control Thailand’s infamous boiler rooms are raising the game again.

Departure from Thailand

On the third week in December, I received a phone call. The call merely advised me to move with my family as our position and welfare were not safe.  I do not usually take threats seriously. But I knew the call was genuine as the caller was one of a few I trusted whose information had always been good.

Had I been alone I might have considered staying. But I am a single father with three children aged, 2, 5, and 7.  Thailand is not a safe place for a journalist when the criminals are in league with those calling the shots.

Within 24 hours I left my home in Bangkok with my children. There was little time to say goodbye to my friends. We crossed the Cambodian border in January. We took only what we could carry.

Currently we are now all safe in the United Kingdom in Royal Berkshire.  My children no longer have the wonderful Karen Burmese nanny who has raised all my children including my youngest son since he was just a few months old.  But they are adapting well.

The UKVI refused their nanny a visa twice. She had volunteered as a friend to help me and applied for a general visit visa even though she had been planning to go back home to Hpaan in Karen State to open a pharmacy or clinic and I planned to help her with it.

Her visa was refused on the grounds that they UKVI suspected she might work ‘paid or unpaid’.

She then applied for a nanny visa. She is registered nurse. This was then refused on the grounds the UKVI did not believe she would only stay six months. The kids never even had a chance to say good-bye to May.

So to all those who have written to me.  Yes. I have to say to the many people who have written in - the UKVI really is brutal and inhumane.

Thai military escort convicted American extortionist Drew Noyes through Suvarnabhumi airport while on bail

Military dealing with British businessman selling cleansing programme for Bangkok's canals

http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2015/03/organised-crime-and-why-i-left-thailand.html

[halfway inn]

5 YEARS OF BAILOUTS: THE GRIM LEGACY OF GREECE'S CRISIS

Wednesday, 06 May 2015

Wednesday May 06 marks five years since Greece voted in its first bailout deal in the face of violent popular















ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The sculpture shows a shabbily-dressed man slipping off what appears to be a graph, an economic index perhaps, that is crumbling under his feet. His mouth is distended in something less than a scream, more than a cry.

It's clearly not one of Greece's classical marbles depicting the wars and gods of old — in fact, it's the first public monument about the country's harrowing experience of economic depression.

The resin-and-fiberglass piece, by 22-year-old Tasos Nyfadopoulos, is named "Crisis" and speaks of a country trying to cope with a collapsing economy.

"It is extremely important to provide a voice for the human beings behind the numbers, who have a real story to tell that goes beyond statistics," Nyfadopoulos told The Associated Press.

The sculptor worked on the project for four years and donated it to a southern Athens municipality, where it stands beside a busy highway linking the city center with the southern beach front.

"Art must turn the collective experience of the crisis into an image, so that people can remember what has happened, and question every decision that has been taken in their name without their having being consulted," Nyfadopoulos said.

Wednesday marks five years since Greece voted in its first bailout deal, a day after violent popular protests left three dead.

The act was followed by years of turmoil in which the country tried to overhaul its economy in the midst of a downturn as brutal as the Great Depression.

But after a myriad budget cuts, a million lost jobs, 250,000 closed businesses and nearly 240 billion euros ($267 billion) in rescue loans, the country is once again on the brink of default and relations with its creditors are worse than ever.

Moody's rating agency said Monday that Greece is, despite all its savings efforts, still the fourth riskiest sovereign bond issuer, behind Ukraine, Venezuela and Argentina, all which have either defaulted on their debt or are perilously close to doing so.

It's clear that the creditors — Greece's fellow euro zone member states and the International Monetary Fund — underestimated the problem and miscalculated how to fix it:

—In 2010, the bailout lenders had forecast Greece's economy would return to growth in 2012.

It only emerged from recession late last year, and is predicted to fall back into it this year.

—They had predicted unemployment would ease to around 15 percent by 2012.

Not only did it not fall, but it kept rising, peaking at around 28 percent in 2014 and currently at 26 percent.

—Debt was scheduled to fall to 141 percent of GDP in 2014, but it actually rose to 177 percent, even after inflicting severe losses on private bondholders in 2012.

—An initial plan to sell off state assets aimed to raise 50 billion euros ($55.6 billion) by 2015.

It has so far raised just 3.1 billion euros.

One cause for the bad performance is that it is hard to cut debt at a time when the economy is shrinking, as Greece's creditors had asked it to do.

But successive Greek governments have also done too little, experts say.

They were too slow to change the way the economy and political system work.

Because the public sector was spared cost cuts, the private sector suffered the burden of recession.

Greece's Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research think tank noted in a report that the country made significant progress in healing public finances between 2010 and 2013.

But that progress petered out late last year, when early elections were called for January.

The report said state revenues undershot targets in early 2015 and if the trend continues, "it is very likely that significant fiscal problems" will emerge.

In a nutshell: despite all the sacrifices of the past five years, the pain is not over for Greeks.

The new radical left-led government was elected in January with a pledge to protect Greeks from more budget cuts.

But creditors have not taken kindly to its hard line and insist they will pay no more rescue money unless Greece promises to make more reforms.

The uncertainty is again hurting Greece's economy.

The EU this week slashed its growth forecast for Greece this year from 2.5 percent to just 0.5 percent.

If Greece gets no more rescue loans, the country may soon have to choose between paying pensions and state salaries or servicing state debt.

Defaulting on debt could launch a chain reaction culminating in its exit from the euro zone and a Greek financial Stone Age, where the import-reliant country could barely afford key goods and commodities with a new, devalued currency.

Berenberg bank analyst Holger Schmieding said that after "three months of pointless posturing, the new Greek government has finally entered into serious negotiations with its creditors."

He said the debate is no longer mostly about debt, but rather reforms that will boost growth, allowing the country to service its debt in the long term.

"Accordingly, labor and pension reforms are now among the major bones of contention," he said in a note Monday.

He sees a 30 percent chance of "Grexit" — of Greece exiting the euro zone.

The Economist Intelligence Unit placed the risk of Grexit at 40 percent.

The EIU's Joan Hoey said a deal may still be possible, because the euro zone is averse to taking incalculable risks and Greek public opinion strongly favors staying in the euro.

Hoey warned, however, that even a last-ditch agreement by the end of June, when Greece's bailout ends, would not necessarily resolve the problems underlying Greece's membership in the euro zone.

The currency union lacks a common fiscal policy, and weaker members are unable to improve competitiveness through the traditional tool of devaluing their currency.

Back on the beach-bound highway, Nyfadopoulos rejected the notion that his sculpture of a man slipping off an economic index was necessarily gloomy.

"You can think of the man as escaping and breaking free of this situation, or as a suicide," the artist said.

"It's up to the observer."

[halfway inn]

Thailand: 4 Places to Get Off the Beaten Path

November, 25, 2016

Thailand has always been a favorite destination for travelers from all over the world, made popular for pristine beaches and exciting nightlife.
Travelers tend to explore areas such as Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket and it’s surrounding islands.
Although these destinations have many wonderful offerings for foreigners to experience, they are often times overrun with tourists and tourist traps.
As a general rule, I enjoy spending time in a high volume tourist area about as much as I enjoy sitting in traffic in Los Angeles.
This is why I always try to get off the beaten path and find places that are still left unspoiled.

My favorite places to travel are the places that tourists rarely visit, where I can connect with a part of the culture that most traveler’s don’t get to see.
I love to interact with locals, enjoy food that is unique to the place I’m visiting, and soak up the culture of the region.
It can sometimes be a difficult task to find these places in this day in age.
Thailand offers many incredible regions to visit, each rich in history and culture, many of which are not overrun by tourists.
A recent assignment sent me to the Northeastern area of the country, where I felt I was able to discover the true Thailand, and not just the glossy tourist hot spots.

If you are heading to Thailand, these are the four places you must visit for an authentic experience.

Sakon Nakhon

Sakon Nakhon is the area known to be the summer palace of the Queen.
It is also home to the Queen’s Royal Project.
This project was put in place to help the less fortunate people of Thailand in more rural areas develop skills to improve their quality of life, generally related to improving talents arts and handicraft.
As I walk the expansive lush green property at Queen Sirikit Sericulture Center in Thailand, I am blown away at all of the hard work that goes into the making of Thai silk.
On my last visit to Bangkok, I was sure to have custom clothing made for me out of the beautifully crafted silks.
Thai silk is an extremely popular good in Thailand, and silk goods are a popular souvenir from a visit to this country.
On this trip, instead of just purchasing the coveted material, I was able to experience each step that goes into the process of creating the silk.

At Queen Sirikit Sericulture Center in the area of Sakon Nakhon visitors are able to view each step of the process to gather the raw materials.
As I move throughout the facility, I learn that the silk worms are raised, fed and cared for until they make a cocoon.
These bright yellow cocoons, with the live silkworms still inside, are eventually boiled and cocoons are almost magically spun into a silk thread by the skilled women of the center.
If you are brave enough, you can even eat a silkworm!
After experiencing the entire process and the dedication that goes into the creation of the raw material, I leave with a better appreciation of the finished product, and a better understanding an connection to the product and the area of Sakon Nakhon.

Udon Thani

As I sit on a boat in the middle of Borneo, Indonesia, I am surrounded by people from all over the world, including many Indonesians.
A fellow travel writer innocently asks me who has better food, Thailand or Indonesia.
Forgetting my surroundings, I quickly blurt out “I think that Thai food is the golden standard for Asian cuisine.
It’s everything, sweet, savory, spicy.”
Oops. I’m surrounded by Indonesians on a press trip in their country.
I quickly backtrack and praise Indonesian cuisine, but it’s too late, I have spoken the truth.
Thai food is well known throughout the world for being some of the most flavorful.
Many of the Thai dishes that the world is familiar with have come from the Northeastern region of Thailand.
If I could recommend only one place for authentic Thai cuisine it would be the Night Markets in Udon Thani.
As I wander the food stalls in the night market, I am completely spoiled by my surroundings.
Everywhere I look, every scent that I inhale is deliciously unfamiliar.
The authenticity of the food that is placed in front of me is thrilling, and my mouth begins to water.
The food at this night market Udon Thani is without a doubt the best Thai food I have ever tasted.
Plates of larb (a meat salad), green papaya salad and whole fish filled my table.
The best part was that there were no other travelers or tourists in sight.
I leave with a smile, satisfied to have not only have found incredible food, but also an authentic local experience, free from tourists.

Ban Chiang

In a tiny shop in the small town of Ban Chiang, I am inspecting a gorgeous handmade indigo shirt.
As I am about to consider haggling over the price of 2,000 Thai Baht (Around $60 USD), I begin to reconsider.
Although haggling is something that I am very good at when shopping foreign markets, next to me are the women who make these clothes.
One woman working here is well into her 80’s.
I watch as they skillfully turn the blue string into a piece of art.
I realize the clothes that are hanging all around me require an acute attention to detail take a painstaking amount of time to create.
They not only take great care, but the clothing takes skill to produce.
Do I haggle? Well, just a little.
I offered 1,600 and the owner meets me at final offer of 1,800 Baht.
More than fair for the quality of the product I now possess.
This piece is a great representation of how my time was spent in Northeastern Thailand, and will make a great gift for my mom.
The modern city of Ban Chiang was the base for the American Air Force during the Vietnam conflict.
The big draw to this area now is the Ban Chiang Archeological Site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The site and the museum are intriguing for any history buff, as many of the artifacts are over 4,000 years old.
This site has been declared the most important pre-historic settlement in all of South-East Asia, as it presents the earliest evidence of farming and use of metals. A
 bonus of getting off the beaten path, is that the archeological site and the museum are nearly empty from pushy tourists.
This allows something that is rare when traveling in this day in age, the enjoyment of a UNESCO World Heritage Site with some peace and quiet.

Nong Khai

I have just stepped onto the streets of the Indo-China market in Nong Khai, I couldn’t help but walk slowly to take it all in. It’s picturesque.
Everywhere I look is exactly what I had always imagined Thailand to look like before I had visited the bigger cities of Bangkok & Chaing Mai.
A middle-aged woman is wearing a rice hat and selling freshly grilled bananas.
Nearby, another woman is selling grilled eggs on a skewer.
An interesting snack, I have to stop and try.
As I wander through the market, I cross to the other side of the shops where there is an river walk.
It’s nearly empty, a nice break from many of the bustling cities I visit as a traveler, cities that are always too crowded to enjoy.
Next to me is the Mekong river, and it divides Northeastern Thailand and Laos.
I think to myself “Maybe I should visit Laos for a few hours”, intrigued about the possibility of walking across the border for the experience and to possibly eat a Laotian meal for lunch.
I don’t go, as there is too much to experience on this side of the river.
Nong Khai is a must-visit Thai town.
It is most well known for the Indochina market, friendship bridge, which connects Thailand and Laos, and the large Vietnamese influence in the local cuisine. Nong Khai a unique town due to the influence from neighboring countries.
Many of the products from Laos and Vietnam pass through this area, giving the town of Nong Khai characteristics that won’t be found in other areas of Thailand.

Although Thailand receives many tourists each year, Northeastern Thailand is a hidden gem.
No matter where your travels may take you, get off the beaten path.
Find hidden treasures; the places most tourists are unaware or unwilling to go.
The experiences you will have will create more rewarding and unique memories.


By: Valerie Joy Wilson
Travel Expert, Travel Host & Journalist