During the last 2 weeks I went to some one way trips with different student groups. They had to plan and execute those tours as part of their tourism management studies here at the college. A great chance for me to see them in action and to see some more of the north-eastern part of Thailand. One of our destinations was “little Italy” – Palio in Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat).

palio - korat - nakhon ratchasima

Palio is a small little ‘city’ that is built in ‘Italian style’. Many Thai people are quite amazed by the so called european style and beautiful buildings. If you have ever been to real Italy it is, of course, far away from the real deal. Nevertheless it is nice to see some beautiful buildings and roads without traffic.

little italy in thailand - palio

When you look at Palio from the outs...

Welcome to the first post in the ‘typical thai food’ category. After quite a while here int he land of smile I feel confident to give you some information about typical food and common dishes in Thailand.

We start this section with one of the most original and basic thai dishes available. Ga Pow. Ga Pow refers to very basic ‘rice with some meat and stuff’. It is usually extended with the kind of meat you prefer. So Ga Pow Moo would be Ga Pow with Pork (moo) or Ga Pow Gai with chicken (Gai). Also sometimes available: Ga Pow Nya (Beef). Nevertheless the last one is not that common and widespread.

Thai Food - Ga Pow Moo Kai Dao

A further add on to the basic ga pow dish is the fried egg on top of it...

This is a post for the newbies to Thailand and Thai food in particular. It is a very short but useful tip so try to keep it in mind:

ALWAYS KEEP SOME EXTRA RICE UNTIL THE END

extra rice in thailand - life saver

A huge variety of dishes in Thailand is served with rice. I bet you already knew that or found it out yourself. And a lot of dishes are quite spicy as well (yeah, Thai style!). Even if you are used to spicy stuff from home or really like it I bet you will come across a dish once in a while where you will be glad to remember this advice. Spare some rice until the end!

Some dishes tend to show their full spicy power after you ate a lot and when you are almost finished or when you drank to much or..or…or….it is not always the first contact that might kill you. Remember that...

or what the heck is Lanna?

When I first went to Chiang Mai I thought it might be a good idea to check out hostels beforehand.  So I spent some time online and checked out the usual hostel comparison sites.While doing so I came across one special word over and over again. Lanna! Almost every guesthouse or hostel was “lanna style”. At first I was quite surprised to see this word since I never saw it before. Due to the fact that almost every guest house or hostel named itself “lanna style guesthouse” I very quickly supposed it can’t be anything special though.

Despite all prejudices Lanna turned out to usually refers to the northern Thai kingdom that was founded in Chiang Saen but was mostly centred around Chiang Mai and lasted from the 13th to 18th centuries...

Thailand. Land of Smile and land of traditions. A country where you can hear the national anthem every morning and every evening on the radio. A land where every school day starts with praying and praising the king. A land that is so proud of it’s traditions, temples and heritage….is about to change. And besides the believes of many old people, that is not a bad thing.

Lets start this post with 2 pictures of our students….

tradition in thailand

students free time thailand

See the difference and where I am coming from? I mean sure, it is basically everywhere there same. Kids play nice at home (or like here at school) and then rock their freetime. Nevertheless it seems a little different or more extreme over here in Thailand...

Today I happened to see the “Best High Tech Dance Contest 2011″. Best High Tech is an electronic store here in Thailand and hosted today its first local dance contest. This won’t be exactly the type of event I’d plan to visit but since some of my students asked me if I could come and watch them perform I tried my best to figure out how to go there (wasn’t that easy with google maps in thai – since it did not show me my goal in the english version).

Short before going there I met some of our cheerleaders at the college and they told me they will participate at the dance contest as well. So in the end I happened to see two different groups with students of me in it. Great

sexy to s @ best high tech dance contest 2011

The first group was “Sexy to S” (not sure if the S stands for Sascha thou...

I wouldn’t go as far as Britney back in the days and say that my loneliness is killing me but sometimes it comes close. Well at least it kills some of the joy of being here in the land of smile.

Usually it is pretty hard to be alone here in Thailand. That’s part of the culture. Most Thai people never go anywhere alone. Dinner, school, holidays….going alone is considered to be sad and simply not thai-like. “You know, Thai people care about each other” is what was said to me quite often during my first months here when I asked why everybody is afraid of going somewhere on their own.

loneliness abroad in thailand

Nevertheless you can feel quite alone even though you never really are physically alone...

The polls closed hours ago, the counting comes more and more to an end and EXIT polls have already been declared wrong. Nevertheless it seems that at least the estimated winner stays the one everybody has expected to be.

Before talking to much about politics I have to say that you are not allowed to talk good or bad about different parties iin Thailand during election time. If you do so you can face dramatic charges (prison). That’s why we (bloggers, twitter users, etc.) have to be a little careful in what we are saying during this time. But right now the ballots are closed, so lets see what happened today…

The first estimations have suggested a landslide victory for the Pheu Thai party and Miss Thaksin (sister of the former PM who now lives in Exile in Dubai)...