Author: tom

Tom Vater is a (sometimes) best-selling writer and freelance journalist, working predominantly in Asia for the past 25 years. He has published more than 20 books, including 4 crime fiction novels. *** Check out Tom’s gritty, eclectic crime fiction: The Devil’s Road to Kathmandu, first published in 2006, currently available in English and Spanish. The Detective Maier Trilogy: The Cambodian Book of the Dead (2013), The Man with the Golden Mind (2014) and The Monsoon Ghost Image (2018) His new collection of novellas, Kolkata Noir is out with Next Chapter soon. *** Besides his fiction, Tom has published more than twenty non-fiction books, including the highly acclaimed Sacred Skin with photographer Aroon Thaewchatturat, and the more recent Burmese Light with photographer Hans Kemp. In 2014, he published Cambodia: Journey through the Land of the Khmer with long time Lonely Planet photographer Kraig Lieb which became Cambodia’s bestselling illustrated book in 2018. Tom is the co-author of several documentary screenplays, most notably The Most Secret Place on Earth, a feature on the CIA’s covert war in 1960s Laos. Tom has published numerous guides to Thailand and Cambodia for Reise Know How and for Moon Books, and he is a Daily Telegraph destination expert. His article are published in The Wall Street Journal, The Times, The Guardian, Nikkei Asia, Marie Claire, Geographical and many other publications.

Siem Reap, reinventing the arteries of Angkor, in Nikkei Asia

August 31, 2022August 31, 2022tom

Cambodia’s once-thriving tourist town rises from the ashes of COVID-19. My latest story in Nikkei Asia. SIEM REAP, Cambodia — For nearly 20 years, the magnificent Angkor monuments in western Cambodia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, have been a magnet for millions of international travelers. As the tourists poured in, Siem Reap, the town closest […]

A forest saved? – Cambodia’s Phnom Tamao Protected Forest escapes logging but faces an uncertain future, in Eco-Business

August 31, 2022August 31, 2022tom

A protected nature reserve was spared complete destruction when Cambodia’s prime minister stepped in after a public outcry. Replanting has begun to restore the forest – but with saplings that could be for a timber plantation. On 1 August, 2022, excavators began tearing down parts of the Phnom Tamao Protected Forest, an area of 2,300 hectares […]

A Thai pop star uses her music to critique her homeland, in The Economist

August 1, 2022August 1, 2022tom

Known for her “dystopian pop”, Pyra has been driven out by Thailand’s conservatism The video is captioned “UGLY TRUTH ABOUT THAILAND”. Peeralada Sukawat—better known by her stage name, Pyra—looks into the camera and rolls her eyes. “Bangkok babies in Mercedes,” she raps over looping drums and a synth beat. “Rich gets richer, poor gets poorer,/Inequality’s […]

Asia’s coral gardener, in Eco-Business

June 27, 2022June 27, 2022tom

The world has lost half of its coral reefs in 30 years. Malaysian oceanographer Anuar Abdullah has developed a simple, yet effective way to restore coral. He tells Eco-Business that no reef is the same, and successful reef rehabilitation depends on cooperation with local communities. Over the past 30 years, more than 50 per cent of […]

From France to Thailand on foot – Western couple find global trek changes perspectives, in Nikkei Asia

June 24, 2022June 24, 2022tom

My latest story in Nikkei Asia follows a Canadian/French couple who set out to walk from Europe to Australia to remind the world that travel is more than a commodity. They sometimes walked up to 14 hours a day, got lost in the jungles of Laos and were involved in a fatal bus crash in […]

Southeast Asia’s sinking cities: can they be saved?, in Eco-Business

June 7, 2022June 7, 2022tom

Climate change is just one of the causes of severe flooding in Jakarta and Bangkok. Subsidence and over-construction also contribute to the slow drowning of these and other Asian capitals. There are solutions, but they are hampered by lack of funds, politics, cultural issues and obstructive legislation. Read my latest story in Eco-Business.

Pleasures of the Flesh – and the Mind, in The Economist Podcast

June 1, 2022June 24, 2022tom

A museum tells the history of one of Bangkok’s notorious districts – Patpong has hosted artists, spies, serial killers and sex workers. “There’s a lot more to Patpong than sex,” Michael Messner says. The district lies east of the Chao Phraya river in Thailand’s capital city; two parallel streets host night markets, bars, clubs and […]

An interview with Thailand-based musician Hugo: “What kind of person wants to be in power?”, in Roadbook

May 31, 2022tom

I interviewed the fantabulous pop star Hugo for Roadbook the other day… Hugo Chakrabongse Levy is a warm, otherworldly, and handsome presence – a man of bell-bottom trousers, ornate shirts, wide-brimmed hats, and hand-rolled orange-flavoured cigarettes. He’s also a rock star. Born in the UK, Hugo, as he’s known, attended school in London until he […]

Pleasures of the Flesh – and the Mind, in The Economist

May 28, 2022June 24, 2022tom

A museum tells the history of one of Bangkok’s notorious districts – Patpong has hosted artists, spies, serial killers and sex workers “There’s a lot more to Patpong than sex,” Michael Messner says. The district lies east of the Chao Phraya river in Thailand’s capital city; two parallel streets host night markets, bars, clubs and […]

Thailand has cannabis fever, in Eco-Business

May 20, 2022May 20, 2022tom

… but how green will the kingdom’s ganja trade be? In July, Thailand is set to remove cannabis and hemp from the country’s narcotics list. Eco-Business explores the likely environmental and social impacts of the cannabis trade in the first Southeast Asian country to legalise weed. Thailand’s high-end hotels serve cannabis cocktails, spas work with cannabis […]