Categories
Bangkok Thailand

Self-Promotion: My New WSJ Scene Asia Story on Hip Bangkok Nightlife

I have a story about hip Bangkok nightlife over at The Wall Street Journal‘s Scene Asia.

The piece is called Bangkok’s Creative Watering Holes, and begins:

What looks like a saloon entrance leads to a low-lit cavern, and up the wrought-iron staircase, a sultry woman croons along with a jazz combo.

Downstairs, the well-heeled crowds sip elaborately crafted cocktails, seemingly unconcerned with the blacksmith tools scattered about.

This is a typical after-hours scene in Bangkok, or more specifically, Thong Lor, one of the City of Angels’ most cosmopolitan neighborhoods. A world away from the backpacker dives of Khao San Road and the city’s less salubrious red-light districts, the area—based around Sukhumvit Road’s Soi 55—offers edgy watering holes, craft brews on tap and pop-up music nights that cater to locals and expats alike, proving that it’s possible to have a night out in Bangkok without recreating “The Hangover Part II.”

Categories
Misc.

Hillary Clinton’s Laos Visit: News Round-Up

Here are a few stories about Hillary Clinton’s visit to Laos today:

The AP touches on the U.S. “pivot” to the region, Southeast Asia’s strategic importance, and the ongoing effects of unexploded ordinance in Laos, among other issues:

Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Laos in more than five decades, gauging whether a place the United States pummeled with bombs during the Vietnam War could evolve into a new foothold of American influence in Asia.

Clinton met with the communist government’s prime minister and foreign minister in the capital of Vientiane on Wednesday, part of a weeklong diplomatic tour of Southeast Asia. The goal is to bolster America’s standing in some of the fastest growing markets of the world, and counter China‘s expanding economic, diplomatic and military dominance of the region.

Elsewhere, Bloomberg reports:

Hillary Clinton became the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit Laos in 57 years today, and plans to push for more studies on a $3.6 billion hydropower dam on the Mekong River opposed by neighboring countries.

The Wall Street Journal said yesterday:

Hillary Clinton’s visit to Laos on Wednesday will be the first by a U.S. secretary of state in 57 years, and it comes at a crucial time: The small, landlocked nation is taking on growing importance as it is pulled deeper into China’s orbit.

The trip to Vientiane, following a stop by Mrs. Clinton in Hanoi, reflects U.S. efforts to rebuild alliances in Southeast Asia at a time when Beijing is rapidly expanding its influence in the region.

Laos, a small, landlocked nation, has fewer residents than New York City, with a population under seven million. It also has the smallest economy in Southeast Asia, with annual output of about $7 billion, versus about $125 billion for Vietnam, its eastern neighbor.

But Laos has significant untapped mineral resources and a growing consumer market. It is also becoming a more important player in some of the region’s geopolitical issues, especially tensions over territorial rights in the resource-rich South China Sea, where China, Vietnam, the Philippines and several other countries have overlapping claims.

There’s also a blog post at The Hill from Rep. Michael Honda. And there are stories from the BBC and AFP.

Categories
Thai politics Thailand

Joe Gordon Pardoned

Just briefly: Joe Gordon (backstory here) has been given a royal pardon. The AP reports today:

An American sentenced to two and a half years in Thai prison for translating a banned biography about the country’s king and posting the content online has been freed by a royal pardon, the U.S. Embassy said Wednesday.

Joe Gordon was convicted in December for translating excerpts of the book “The King Never Smiles” from English into Thai. The punishment was a high-profile example of the severe sentences meted out here for defaming Thailand’s royal family, an issue that has raised concern about freedom of expression in this Southeast Asian kingdom.

There are also stories from Bloomberg, Reuters, the BBC, and AFP.

Categories
Links

10 Links

Some Thailand-related, some not:

  1. The Worst Marriage in GeorgetownThe New York Times Magazine
  2. Clinton Visit Puts Spotlight on South China SeaThe Wall Street Journal
  3. Asean Reaps Rewards As Clinton Counters China — Bloomberg
  4. Wary Neighbors Turn Into Partners in a Quickly Developing Southeast AsiaThe New York Times
  5. Transfer of Value — Monday Note
  6. Englands of the Mind: The sound. The fury. The mediocrity. — Grantland
  7. A Bit of Rural Thailand Amid Bustling BangkokThe New York Times
  8. We’re getting wildly differing assessments — SCOTUSblog
  9. The Kingpins: The fight for GuadalajaraThe New Yorker
  10. Video embedded above and on Vimeo here: “The Higgs Boson Explained” (Via A).

(Previous link round-ups are available via the links tag.)

Categories
Thailand

Self-Promotion: My New WSJ Southeast Asia Real Time Story on Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport

The story is here, and begins:

There could be more complications ahead for travelers flying through Bangkok.

Runway repairs at the Thai capital’s overcrowded Suvarnabhumi international airport have caused delays in recent weeks, with a power failure that temporarily affected the facility’s air traffic control system – causing further holdups – the most recent concern.

Now, in a bid to ease congestion at the six-year-old facility, the Thai government is urging some budget airlines and other carriers to shift their operations away from Suvarnabhumi to Bangkok’s old international gateway, Don Mueang airport – the same airport that was shut down by massive floods late last year.

Categories
Thai politics

Thai Politics Update: Constitution Court Case and Assessing Yingluck’s First Year

Here are a few recent Thailand-related stories I wanted to point out:

Embedded above and online here is a recent Al Jazeera story on the anniversary of Yingluck’s election — and what the future might hold in store for her.

Elsewhere, Reuters reported earlier this week:

With the help of her photogenic looks, disarming personality and popular appeal, Thailand’s first female prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, has helped maintain a fragile peace since being swept to power in a divided country one year ago.

The political neophyte, who leapt from running a boardroom to governing the country in less than three months, has surprised critics and reassured investors by rebounding from devastating floods and building ties with the top brass of a military entrenched in Thailand’s rough-and-tumble politics.

But the honeymoon might not last much longer and the reason for that lies with her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a former premier whose political machine catapulted her to power.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg has a story today on the Constitution Court hearings:

Thailand’s Constitutional Court opens hearings today to determine if allies of fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra can rewrite a charter ratified after the army ousted him in 2006, raising the possibility of street protests.

The court last month ordered Parliament to halt consideration of an amendment that would establish a body to rewrite the constitution until it decides whether the process complies with the current charter. The ruling may undermine plans by the party of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin’s sister, to change the document to increase the power of elected politicians over appointed judges and bureaucrats.

And The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday on the case:

Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra faces the possibility her party could be dissolved, just one year after her landslide election victory.

The Constitutional Court is scheduled to hear arguments Thursday on whether the methods used by her Puea Thai (For Thais) party in attempting to amend the constitution—written after the military overthrew Ms. Yingluck’s elder brother Thaksin Shinawatra in a 2006 coup—are illegal.

And finally, for more nitty gritty on the case, see this Bangkok Post story today:

Fifteen people will take the stand when the Constitution Court holds its two-day inquiry beginning today into the legality of the government-sponsored charter amendment bid.

The charter court has finalised the lists of people who will appear in court _ seven from the complainants and eight from the defence, said Constitution Court spokesman Somrit Chaiwong yesterday.

Categories
Thailand

Off Topic: A Remarkable Motorcycle Helmet

2012 07 02 moto helmet

File under: The centrality of sanook (สนุก), or fun, in Thai culture.

I saw this motorcycle taxi driver’s helmet yesterday and simply had to snap a pic.

The guy had quite a menagerie of figures hitching a ride on top of the old brain bucket, from aliens to crocodiles to what looks like a kung fu-practicing lion.

Fantastic.