Bangkok Days

Author: Lawrence Osborne
Publisher: North Point Press
ISBN: 1429957328
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 283

Book Description
A PASSIONATE, AFFECTIONATE RECORD OF ADVENTURES AND MISADVENTURES IN THE WORLD'S HOTTEST METROPOLIS Tourists come to Bangkok for many reasons—a sex change operation, a night with two prostitutes dressed as nuns, a stay in a luxury hotel. Lawrence Osborne comes for the cheap dentistry. Broke (but no longer in pain), he finds that he can live in Bangkok on a few dollars a day. And so the restless exile stays. Osborne's is a visceral experience of Bangkok, whether he's wandering the canals that fill the old city; dining at the No Hands Restaurant, where his waitress feeds him like a baby; or launching his own notably unsuccessful career as a gigolo. A guide without inhibitions, Osborne takes us to a feverish place where a strange blend of ancient Buddhist practice and new sexual mores has created a version of modernity only superficially indebted to the West. Bangkok Days is a love letter to the city that revived Osborne's faith in adventure and the world.

Encountering the City

Author: Jonathan Darling
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317143957
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 252

Book Description
Encountering the City provides a new and sustained engagement with the concept of encounter. Drawing on cutting-edge theoretical work, classic writings on the city and rich empirical examples, this volume demonstrates why encounters are significant to urban studies, politically, philosophically and analytically. Bringing together a range of interests, from urban multiculture, systems of economic regulation, security and suspicion, to more-than-human geographies, soundscapes and spiritual experience, Encountering the City argues for a more nuanced understanding of how the concept of 'encounter' is used. This interdisciplinary collection thus provides an insight into how scholars' writing on and in the city mobilise, theorise and challenge the concept of encounter through empirical cases taken from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. These cases go beyond conventional accounts of urban conviviality, to demonstrate how encounters destabilise, rework and produce difference, fold together complex temporalities, materialise power and transform political relations. In doing so, the collection retains a critical eye on the forms of regulation, containment and inequality that shape the taking place of urban encounter. Encountering the City is a valuable resource for students and researchers alike.

Bangkok

Author: Barry Bell
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 9781861891570
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 186

Book Description
"Using direct observations of the surrounding landscape and the tangibel artifacts of the city, its topography, streets, temples and other stunning architectural monuments, Barry Bell carries out a progressive investigation into Bangkok's urban sensibility and its central mythologies - the more mysterious perceptual realms of allusion and illusion, arguably the real Bangkok, implicitly present within its deceptive exterior. In spite of the knowledge that, for many people, order seems alien to the city, the author searches for conceptual coherence. He strives to link the city's hectic urban sensibility to its more elusive and hidden character - the dream of Bangkok that is prompted by angelic allusions"--P. [2] of cover.

Notable Encounters

Author: Chris Adams
Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 1644160714
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
The author characterizes the book as a memoir, entitled, Notable Encounters. As such, he has diligently documented his recollection of dozens of memorable special people that he enjoyed the unique opportunity of meeting over the years of his professional experiences. Many of the names of those whom he had the pleasure of meeting are easily recognized, while others are introduced to the reader for the first time. Beyond identifying and characterizing his meeting opportunities and the interaction with those encountered, he has for the benefit of the reader, provided an in-depth biographical background summary of each personage. As such, his treatise serves also to recall history, significant times and events in many instances. A number of those whom he had the pleasure of meeting became friends for life, while other introductions were the first and last. An interesting perspective that he also introduces in the opening of his writing is one of the history and importance of the handshake. He characterizes that virtually every encounter, greeting, or meeting between two people is initiated with a handshake. The handshake, a practice that has existed in some form or another for thousands of years, most often engaged upon an initial meeting or greeting. The purpose of clasping hands""to convey trust, respect, balance, and equality. Join Chris Adams in encountering, exchanging handshakes and engaging some noteworthy and incredible personalities along his life's journey.

Uneasy Military Encounters

Author: Ruth Streicher
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501751344
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 291

Book Description
Uneasy Military Encounters presents a historically and theoretically grounded political ethnography of the Thai military's counterinsurgency practices in the southern borderland, home to the greater part of the Malay-Muslim minority. Ruth Streicher argues that counterinsurgency practices mark the southern population as the racialized, religious, and gendered other of the Thai, which contributes to producing Thailand as an imperial formation: a state formation based on essentialized difference between the Thai and their others. Through a genealogical approach, Uneasy Military Encounters addresses broad conceptual questions of imperial politics in a non-Western context: How can we understand imperial policing in a country that was never colonized? How is "Islam" constructed in a state that is officially secular and promotes Buddhist tolerance? What are the (historical) dynamics of imperial patriarchy in a context internationally known for its gender pluralism? The resulting ethnography excavates the imperial politics of concrete encounters between the military and the southern population in the ongoing conflict in southern Thailand.

Study Encounter

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ecumenical movement
Languages : en
Pages : 584

Book Description

Thailand's Best Street Food

Author: Chawadee Nualkhair
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 1462922147
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 169

Book Description
"To be fortunate enough to visit Thailand--to eat in Thailand--is a deep dive into a rich, many-textured, very old culture of flavors and colors ranging far beyond the familiar spectrum." --Anthony Bourdain Thailand is known for its incredible street food and specialty stalls. With the help of this book, visitors can experience the very best of streetside dining. Writer, food blogger, and Bangkok resident Chawadee Nualkhair guides you throughout the country--recommending everything from popular favorites to off the beaten path must dos. Divided by region, Nualkhair successfully debunks the myth that Bangkok is the only place to find great Thai street food. By eating her way across the country, from Phuket in the south to Chiang Mai in the north, she ensures all travelers will have a tasty, authentic experience. Nualkhair draws on her vast experience to provide essential tips on and logistic help in locating the best street food stalls, including: An introduction to and pronunciation guide for common ingredients and dishes Directions to each location Street maps for each area Serving options Ordering tips Seating and bathroom facilities Photos of the best dishes This edition has been updated and revised, and includes 11 new street stall recommendations. In case you want to recreate your favorite finds at home, this book also includes 12 recipes for popular dishes, adapted for Western kitchens and ingredients.

22 Walks in Bangkok

Author: Kenneth Barrett
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 1462913806
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 448

Book Description
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The Ambiguous Allure of the West

Author: Rachel V. Harrison
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501719211
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293

Book Description
The Ambiguous Allure of the West examines the impact of Western imperialism on Thai cultural development from the 1850s to the present and highlights the value of postcolonial analysis for studying the ambiguities, inventions, and accommodations with the West that continue to enrich Thai culture. Since the mid-nineteenth century, Thais have adopted and adapted aspects of Western culture and practice in an ongoing relationship that may be characterized as semicolonial. As they have done so, the notions of what constitutes "Thainess" have been inflected by Western influence in complex and ambiguous ways, producing nuanced, hybridized Thai identities.The Ambiguous Allure of the West brings together Thai and Western scholars of history, anthropology, film, and literary and cultural studies to analyze how the protean Thai self has been shaped by the traces of the colonial Western Other. Thus, the book draws the study of Siam/Thailand into the critical field of postcolonial theory, expanding the potential of Thai Studies to contribute to wider debates in the region and in the disciplines of cultural studies and critical theory. The chapters in this book present the first sustained dialogue between Thai cultural studies and postcolonial analysis.By clarifying the distinctive position of semicolonial societies such as Thailand in the Western-dominated world order, this book bridges and integrates studies of former colonies with studies of the Asian societies that retained their political independence while being economically and culturally subordinated to Euro-American power.

Field Guide to the Mammals of South-east Asia (2nd Edition)

Author: Charles Francis
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472934997
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 418

Book Description
A fully revised and updated second edition of the only comprehensive guide to the mammals of South-east Asia. From large mammals such as the elephant, bears, big cats, dolphins and whales to monkeys and badgers to bats, civets, rats and shrews, South-east Asia is one of the world's richest regions in terms of mammal diversity. Species new to science are still being described regularly, though there is increasing pressure on all of its wild mammal populations. More than 550 species are covered in this comprehensive guide. Each species account includes key identification characteristics, habitat, behaviour, distribution and status, and many are accompanied by line drawings of footprints and details of anatomy, or other aspects of identification. Beautiful colour plates depict nearly all species and their variations, while accompanying range maps provide up-to-date information on distribution. This field guide is essential for any naturalist or traveller visiting this special corner of Asia.