South East Globe – Tom Vater

Let’s Visit Burma – Tom Vater on the pros and cons of tourism in Burma

November 7, 2010September 15, 2012tomLeave a Comment

As the Burmese generals celebrate another well-deserved victory today – no, not the election results which are a foregone conclusion, but the staunch support the regime receives from China, India and Thailand, while European and American businesses are doing their best to get around sanctions so that, they say, Myanmar does not become a province […]

Tom Vater reports for the Southeast Asia Globe: Postcard from a War Zone

June 25, 2010June 24, 2010tomLeave a Comment

The 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 […]

Sousath Phetrasy – Child of a Secret War

December 5, 2009April 7, 2010tom8 Comments

I was saddened to hear that Sousath Phetrasy, the owner of the Mali Guest House in Phonsavan in Northern Laos, died, in his late 50s, on 25. September 2009. A brilliant and troubled man, Phetrasy was an unlikely veteran of the CIA’s secret war in Laos in the 1960s and 70s, the agency’s largest campaign, […]

LONELY AT THE TOP – Tom Vater commemorates the death of David Carradine in Bangkok

June 12, 2009April 7, 2010tomLeave a Comment

In The Great Railway Bazaar, published in 1975, best-selling travel writer Paul Theroux described Bangkok as “a hugely preposterous city of temples and brothels”. More than thirty years later, first time visitors to the City of Angels could be forgiven for thinking that Theroux‘s analysis is as valid today as it might have been then, in […]

Das Tätowierfest im Wat Bang Phra, ThailandFrom the Archives: Tom Vater on the Wat Bang Phra Tattoo Festival in Thailand

March 9, 2009November 23, 2018tomLeave a Comment

Der illustrierte Ganovenkonvent – Übersetzt von Walther Schütz Uaaahh! Der Mann stürmt genau auf mich zu, sein Gesicht ist knallrot, verzerrt in tausendfa¬chen, mir nicht bekannten Qualen. Seine bloße, tätowierte Brust glänzt vor Schweiß. Er schreit him¬melwärts, speit Gift und Galle, aber er läuft geradeaus immer vorwärts, auf mich zu. Sein Gruß gilt unbekannten Teufeln. […]