Asia – Page 4 – Tom Vater

Tom Vater, Author & Traveller

November 12, 2015November 12, 2015tomLeave a Comment

Tom Vater has a dream job: as a travel and guidebook writer, he constantly explores Asian roads to get the details right and inspire others to start their own adventures. Writer Marco Ferrarese, author of seminal punk rock novel Nazi Goreng, recently interviewed me about my early travel exploits in Asia. Read the full story […]

A Life Lived On The Road

August 12, 2015August 12, 2015tomLeave a Comment

A slightly worn version of myself nicely captured by the inimitable Viraj Singh at Ta Prohm, Cambodia a couple of weeks ago. Been on the road for so long, 20 + years, that travel has become a permanent state of mind, all experiences are thankfully transient and most reflections turn into stories that continue to […]

Thailand’s Island hideaways in The Sunday Times

July 29, 2015tomLeave a Comment

The Sunday Times has just re-published my Thai Islands hideaway feature. If you have a subscription to the paper you can read the story here. If you don’t, you can see the same story in The Daily Telegraph. The feature also ran as a photo story.

My catalogue of field recordings from Asia at The British Library.

July 23, 2015July 23, 2015tomLeave a Comment

Between 1995 and 2004 I recorded several hundred hours of music and sounds from Asia for The British Library’s National Sound Archive – material from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, The Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Pakistan, India and Nepal. I recorded mostly the music of minorities and musicians in remote rural locations. I released several CD collections of […]

The Monsoon Ghost Image – Detective Maier rises from the ashes of Exhibit A

July 16, 2015tomLeave a Comment

I am 40000 words into Monsoon Ghost Image, the third Detective Maier Mystery. Following the mismanagement and eventual bankruptcy of my publisher Exhibit A, Detective Maier went to ground after The Cambodian Book of the Dead and The Man with the Golden Mind. Now he has a new case. Maier is back. The final […]

Better late than never – my guide to Thai New Year in The Daily Telegraph

April 21, 2015May 1, 2015tomLeave a Comment

I was away in the Himalayas for most of this month and missed Thai New Year – Songkran which took place from 13thto 16th April. I did however, just prior to leaving, put together a guide to the festivities in The Daily Telegraph, so here. belatedly, is my run down and if you are researching […]

Crime Wave Press in The South China Morning Post

April 21, 2015April 21, 2015tomLeave a Comment

Ysabelle Cheung reports on my publishing imprint Crime Wave Press this week. My friend and partner in crime Hans Kemp provides the clues to the scene of the crime. Read the full article here.. It’s always too late for someone.” That’s the enigmatic tagline of Hong Kong-based Crime Wave Press, a two-and-a-half-year-old publishing company with […]

British Library holds a significant collection of Lao material – including unpublished recordings of remote populations by Tom Vater

March 11, 2015March 11, 2015tomLeave a Comment

Hmong Lao Khaen player in Vientiane 2001 The British Library holds a small but significant collection of Lao material, consisting of manuscripts, rare printed books, periodicals and post cards, mainly acquired after 1973. However, the oldest items in Lao language date back to the 19th century. The earliest book about Laos is in Italian and […]

Tom Vater on Travel Talk Asia

February 1, 2015February 1, 2015tomLeave a Comment

I am interviewed this week on Travel Talk Asia about travel writing and my journalistic career in Asia for the past two decades. Hope there are some interesting insights on the craft and a life well lived. Thanks to Trevor Ranges for suggesting I come on the show. Listen to the full interview here. Photograph […]

Crime Wave Press at Georgetown Literary Festival

November 30, 2014November 30, 2014tomLeave a Comment

Crime Wave Press are at the Georgetown Literary Festival today, having a great time. I had not been to Penang, Malaysia for a decade, so the festival is a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with the city which has come a long way in the last years. Also great have been encounters with a number of […]