That’s the subject of my first Globorati post. Go and check it out.
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Welcome Back, Don Muang!
Bangkok’s old airport, Don Muang, was set to reopen Sunday to help ease congestion at the city’s troubled new international airport as its taxiways and main terminal undergo repairs, officials said.
They said Don Muang will handle some Thai Airways domestic flights and all routes for domestic budget carriers Nok Air and One-Two-Go.
“During the initial period of service resumption, Don Muang will handle about 140 flights daily,” said Kulya Pakakrong, acting president of Airports of Thailand, which runs both airports.
Bangkok’s new US$3.8 billion (€2.9 billion) Suvarnabhumi Airport was intended to be Southeast Asia’s leading air transportation hub. But it has been plagued by a host of widely publicized problems, including cracks in taxiways, a shortage of toilets, dozens of design flaws and a long list of corruption allegations.
(Thanks for the link, Khun B.)
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A Long Weekend in Udon Thani
A and I recently spent a long weekend near the town of Udon Thani, in northeast Thailand. Here’re some pics.
The countryside.
The house and pool.
A with the friendly ladies who cooked our meals. Cuisine from Isan — this region of Thailand — is particularly flavorful and spicy, so every meal was an absolute delight.
Whole fried fish and som tam.
A with lunch — krapow.
Khao pad — fried rice.
Stir-fried morning glory.
Larb.
One afternoon we took a small motorbike — a 100-cc, four-stroke Honda — out for a spin. A filmed this three-minute video, and I polished it up and added a soundtrack.
Click on the image above or go watch it on YouTube.
For additional pics, check out the whole photoset.
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Asia’s Top Five Craziest Buildings
![The Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, N. Korea [not my image]](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/152/428776769_1c6bf808ec_m.jpg)
Hi, all. I’m back.
I have a story at Tripmaster Monkey today about Asia’s craziest buildings. Enjoy (and leave a comment at the bottom of the article, if you like).
I won’t be posting anything here until Wednesday of next week.
See you then, my friends.
(Image via.)
![MetroNaps [not my image]](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/184/421868543_fb29fd4bd2_m.jpg)
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“50 States in a Week’s Vacation”
Barry Stiefel visited all 50 U.S. states in a week’s vacation. Wow.
(Via.)
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Overland from Laos to Vienam — By Vespa
![Vespa [Not My Image]](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/153/414608710_cd96eeb024_m.jpg)
Great story — and images — from New Mandala (which, by the way, is an excellent blog about Southeast Asia):
The Vientiane Scooter Club recently conducted its annual rally from Laos to Vietnam, a journey which saw many of its members rediscover their origins. A group of urban middle class Lao nationals of Vietnamese and Chinese descent, the club members are driven by a desire to find their own authentic place in Lao society.
The club is one of a few new social groups to have emerged in recent years along with greater economic and cultural liberalization in Laos. On their rallies through the countryside they spread a road safety message and donate equipment to rural schools on a painstakingly restored fleet of forty-year-old Italian Piaggio Vespa motor scooters.
(Emphasis mine.)
(Related: the Vespa rickshaw.)
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Carpe Manana
The BBC News’s Kathryn Westcott:
At noon on the dot, punctuality will make its debut in Peru. Lateness will be a thing of the past, or so its government hopes.
Sirens will blare and church bells will ring to remind 27 million Peruvians to synchronise their clocks with time set by the Peruvian Navy.
Fed up with the nation’s reputation for poor time-keeping, the government is promoting the benefits of being on time in a campaign called “la hora sin demora”, or “time without delay”.
Businesses, government institutions and schools will be urged to stop tolerating “hora peruana” – which usually means about an hour late.
President Alan Garcia is renowned for his good timekeeping, and he believes that the laissez-faire attitude of his countrymen harms national productivity and deters foreign investors.
The concept of “manana,” literally “tomorrow” in Spanish but usually meaning some indefinite time in the future, is common to Latin America.
Its nations often score badly in global surveys on punctuality. Time is seen in a much less rigid way than in for example North America and more industrialised countries.