Jun
4
2010
She sits in a bamboo chair in the steaming Bangkok heat, slim and elegant in a long skirt and a black sleeveless vest. Her eyebrows are delicately plucked, her ears pierced, her hair long and wavy. She turns and smiles sweetly. She has been a woman for less than a fortnight.
Jun
1
2010
Serious Australian, British and European chefs have presented high-end Thai food in restaurants from Sydney to London to Copenhagen. Chefs of all nationalities have long been seduced by the delicate balancing art of Thai food – the interaction between the salty and sour, sweet and spicy veins of flavour that inspire Thai food devotees. Rarely, …read more
May
24
2010
Fabio Polenghi was killed by a burst of gunfire in Bangkok. Wounded in the lower abdomen, he was rushed to hospital on the back of a motor-scooter. The Italian freelance photographer had been in Thailand for three months on assignment for a European magazine and, like so many others, he was on the spot to …read more
May
22
2010
After nearly ten tumultuous weeks of protest, Thailand’s anti-government activists have been thoroughly routed, their sprawling encampment in Bangkok’s retail heart seized, their tents and stages dismantled, and their strident demands officially set aside.
May
17
2010
URBAN warfare raged through Bangkok last night as antigovernment protesters skirmished with the military and a protest leader warned of a coming civil war. Streets outside the protesters’ fortified encampments in Bangkok’s commercial heart — designated ‘‘live-fire zones’’ by the military on Saturday — echoed with the rattle of gunfire and small bombs as the …read more
May
5
2010
Leaders of Thailand’s anti-government protest movement last night cautiously welcomed Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s five point reconciliation plan, but criticised his planned election date of November 14. The leaders said Mr Abhisit had no right to set an election date, merely to dissolve parliament, but they conceded negotiations with the government had begun, potentially leading …read more
May
3
2010
THE blood-soaked Vietnam War made war correspondents famous, sent them mad, wounded them, and killed them. Reporters and photographers risked death and mutilation for a key photo, or an eyewitness account of a battle. They could see as much combat as they could endure, they could hitch helicopter rides to hot landing zones; they could …read more
Apr
27
2010
Helen and Nathan Groves’ honeymoon suite is simple, to say the least. Two airport benches pushed together. A thin foam mattress laid over the top. Two small yellow pillows emblazoned with promotional logos, and a couple of thin tartan blankets. The whole contraption shoved up against a wall in the cavernous and windowless basement of …read more
Apr
25
2010
Thousands of anti-government protesters were braced behind fortified barricades of car tires and sharpened bamboo staves in central Bangkok Sunday night in anticipation of an imminent assault by security forces. The leaders of the so-called Red Shirts protest movement had ordered their followers to abandon their signature red attire for ordinary clothes so that they …read more
Apr
17
2010
Thaksin Shinawatra’s face is on their red T-shirts. His voice, broadcast on loudspeakers at their encampment in Bangkok’s upmarket shopping district, has been in their ears. His words are on their banners. But is his money in their pockets?