Irreverent, informed and downright eclectic books and reportage from Southeast Asia and beyond
British newspaper The Guardian reports that the Jarawa, a tribe of Andaman Islanders who number just a few hundred, have been coerced by Indian police to dance naked for tourist ’safaris’. Unfortunately, this has been going on for many, many years.
When I visited the Andamans in 1997 and 2000, Indian [...]
I have just published a feature on Thailand post floods tourism in the Daily Telegraph.
Bangkok: After the deluge, back in the flow is now online.
Read the full text here.
The image on this page was taken by me during the height of the floods and did not run with this story.
I also write a [...]
As I am currently the Daily Telegraph’s Bangkok expert, I will be taking part in a live web chat on Southeast Asian travel destinations on Wednesday the 7th of December from 12.30-2pm. London time of course.
Another golden oldie, that old chestnut, the Phuket Vegetarian Festival, which I covered in 2005 for Fortean Times and several other publications.
Never mind the flash resorts, sleazy bars, high rise condos and MacHolidays on offer on Thailand’s largest and most overdeveloped tourist island. Phuket also has culture. Every year, men and women have their faces [...]
Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.
The trailer of Camera Camera (2009), a documentary film by Malcolm Murray, about the nature and effect of mass tourism in Laos, offers an intriguing glimpse of the Land of the Million Elephants and the million backpackers that travel through it.
Who said the camera never lies, one might as oneself, as one looks at one [...]
I published the following story about Provence, a wine growing region in southern France a couple of years ago. At the time of writing, I was just getting to know the protagonists of the text. I stayed in touch with all of them. Eric Bouletin continues to grow excellent wine and Junko Takase continues [...]
Sorry, this entry is only available in Deutsch.
That’s what a policeman asked me and a friend, as we were photographing the medieval-looking barricades, constructed of sandbags, sharpened bamboo poles, barbed wire and car tires, which one has to pass to get into the Ratchaprasong area, Bangkok’s up-scale and shut down shopping district.
It’s like stepping into another country, another world. Downtown Bangkok, according [...]
7am, Sai Daeng Beach, Ko Tao, Thailand.
The tourists are still slumbering peacefully in their bungalows and the reef in front of the beach lies placid. It’s not much of a reef, most of the coral has died – blame unregulated tourism and global warming.
But here I am, quietly swimming out into the warm, clear water, [...]