Eclectic crime fiction & informed, irreverent non-fiction from Asia & beyond
Getting there is half the fun, they say. That’s what I thought, when the Iranian policeman squeezed my pants hard at the border crossing with Pakistan.“You smuggle anything?” he barked, leanng in as I smelled his stale breath..Two shady Baluchi men were lingering outside the roadside shack, revving the engine of their sports car. They […]
Continue ReadingMy latest reportage is a long read on the island of Koh Phangan in Thailand, with eye witness accounts going back to the 1940s. I arrived on Koh Phangan on March 17th 2020 to update a German language guidebook on the Gulf islands. A few days after my arrival, the update was canceled, thanks to […]
Continue ReadingMy latest story with Laure Siegel in the Nikkei Asian Review from our temporary lockdown sanctuary, Koh Phangan in Thailand. KOH PHANGAN, Thailand — In the late afternoon sun, a long line of sandals snakes down the beachfront road in Thong Sala, the main town on Koh Phangan, a tourist island in the Gulf of […]
Continue ReadingRituals. Killers. Wars. & Sex.: Tibet, India, Nepal, Laos, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka & New York Gripping, absurd, tragic and resplendent – a correspondent’s life on the margins of victory, tragedy, death and sex. I can’t recommend this book enough to anyone remotely interested in the seamier and bloodier side of recent Asian history and […]
Continue ReadingMy latest feature with Laure Siegel for the Nikkei Asian Review – Japan’s love affair with Alsace grows stronger. After 150 years, French region continues to attract Japanese companies “If a Japanese company wants to get off the ground in France, it will move to Paris,” says Japanese entrepreneur Kentaro Kitajima. “If it wants to […]
Continue ReadingMy latest article with Laure Siegel in the Nikkei Asian Review looks at how women enter the motorcycle taxi workforce in Bangkok, a traditionally male bastion. With fewer and fewer job opportunities for unskilled Thai women, riding a motorcycle taxi remains one profession that promises a degree of independence and freedom. Read Bangkok’s ‘motorcycle mamas’ […]
Continue ReadingJournalist Laure Siegel, photographer Dom Pichard and myself produced 16 pages of features in this month’s edition of RISE TATTOO, France’s #1 tattoo magazine on the 5th International Nepal Tattoo Convention and the Nepali earthquake which took place during the convention weekend in late April. The reportages included a portrait of hobo tattooist Chris Powers, […]
Continue ReadingThe conflict between the Thai government and the Red Shirts – the former backed by a lose interest group that includes the military, royalists, part of the capital’s business community and right-wing fringe elements, commonly known as the Yellow Shirts, the latter a growing and motley collection of often paid supporters of fugitive former Prime […]
Continue ReadingTom Vater und Fotografin Aroon Thaewchatturat haben für MERIAN die Bergvölker Nordthailands besucht. Die entstandene Reportage Das Leben der Anderen ist jetzt online bei MERIAN via Spiegel-Online zu lesen.
Continue ReadingIm Februar 2010 erscheint das neue MERIAN Magazin Thailand – alles über das auferstandene Paradies nach der Flutkatastrophe. Die schönsten Strände und Buchten, die pulsierende Großstadt Bangkok mit seinen “Floating Markets”, unberührter Dschungel und jahrtausende alte buddhistische Tempelanlagen – Thailand ist atemberaubend. Fünf Jahre nach dem verheerenden Tsunami sind die meisten Schäden beseitigt, wenn auch […]
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