City Buzz
• Cosmos Café & The Bottle Shoppe Open less than a month, is Cosmos Café, a sophisticated yet intimate bar with dark mood lighting, subtle wall water features and a modern open-style kitchen. The menu features 29 different cocktails ranging between 95 _ 220 baht as well as an extensive, but affordable, wine, beer and finger food list. Bang for bucks value is excellent as a large … Continued
What’s Happening?
• ARTS & EXHIBITIONS Now – 5th June BUTTERFLIES ARE FREE @ Tita Gallery Chiang Mai 053 298 373 and tita@cm.ksc.co.th Anupan Pluckpankhajee devotes himself to art with a new dimension of using it as a therapeutic treatment. ‘Butterflies Are Free’ is his first art exhibition in Chiang Mai. Now – 9th May THE LADY STORY @ The House and Ginger 053 419 011 Exhibition called ‘The Lady Story,’ by Att … Continued
Community Services
01 • Informal Northern Thai Group 10th May: A screening of a documentary on The Secret War in Laos and Twisting Buddhism through the Christian Lexicon: ‘Ordination’ by Louis Gabaude will be shown. For more information please call 053 117 319 or gabaudel@loxinfo.co.th. 02 • Vocational Certificate @ CMU Since the spa industry has such a well known role in Southeast Asia, Language Institute, Chiang M … Continued
City Sport
• CRICKET One of the world’s biggest amateur cricket tournaments was another resounding success in April, with teams coming from all over the world and loads of our local lads and lasses taking part. Supporters and those just after a few drinks and a laugh also turned up for the yearly event that never fails in its objectives. Unfortunately this year none of the amateur Chiang Mai teams made it pa … Continued
Mazda MX-5 Anyone?
We start with something from the ‘Big Book of Jokes for Eight Year Olds’: “Why didn’t the skeleton go to the dance? He had no-body to go with.” Thank you very much. I’m here all week. There are times though, when I feel like that. Not in a bad, old joke kind of way (although Mrs. D might disagree) but I am sure that my body is not the one I’m supposed to have. Mine is young, fit and full of energy … Continued
City Women
After months of anticipation, morning sickness and an ever growing bump, Ella May was born on 3rd March. Luckily, the birth was relatively quick, but as is usual in my world, it was not without incident! It was a typical Thursday afternoon in March; a heavily pregnant lady and her mother trying to escape the midday heat by traipsing around Tesco for last minute supplies. There I was happily baggin … Continued
Aquarium: Adventures in Chiang Mai
We’ve all heard of Chiang Mai’s famous Aquarium known as South-East Asia’s largest living museum. Now at the aquarium you can experience the amazing feeling of feeding a cownose ray. This unique species which mainly inhabits the Atlantic Ocean, is a beautiful and peaceful creature and a must see for any aqua-phile. It’s absolutely fascinating to observe the group of rays gorge on the little pieces … Continued
TEDx Doi Suthep
Somewhere in your inbox crammed with viral ‘world’s funniest’ videos of cats dancing to death metal and granny punch-ups you may find you have also been the recipient of the rather heady TED videos, where world renowned thinkers and savants from the streets discuss their ideas in front of an audience of a hundred people and you, the online viewer. TED is a non-profit organisation that’s been aroun … Continued
The Thai Health Care System
Over the last 30 years Thailand’s health care system has expanded to cover all Thai nationals in any part of the country for relatively little cost or even for free. Health care centres and hospitals now reach the remotest parts of the country rendering the days of shamanic rituals as a healing process all but unheard of. Nevertheless, the present health care system in Thailand has more than its f … Continued
Chiang Mai Researchers Cure ALL Disease!
At the end of February, the National News Bureau of Thailand (NNT) jubilantly released the following headline: Thailand successfully produced the world’s first vaccine against dengue fever. This was an announcement deserving of attention. The mosquito-transmitted dengue fever (known as ‘break bone fever’ for the excruciating pain the infected suffer) affects 100 million people worldwide annually, … Continued
Alternative Health in Chiang Mai
Residents and visitors to Chiang Mai can not escape familiarity with Thai massage. They have probably seen foot reflexology posters and brochures for aroma therapy in their guesthouses and coffee shops. Chiang Mai is, however, also home to many more unique and esoteric alternative health options, many of which are practices derived from ancient Chinese or Thai medicine. Proponents of these practic … Continued
Abortion in Thailand
Late last year the discovery of more than 2,000 foetuses in a temple publicly revealed an uncomfortable and unsurprising truth: each year, abortion is a reality for tens of thousands of women and their partners in Thailand. Although there is a lack of definitive data, conservative estimates suggest that well over 300,000 abortions occur every year here. This is an extrapolation based on known case … Continued
Special Scoop: The Chiang Mai Cleaning Company
Boring isn’t it! The word and concept is plain boring and has the personality of a wet fish. Who wants to clean, who even knows how to ‘clean’ and why should we when we live in one of the world’s most amazing cities with a smorgasbord of activities to get ones teeth into daily. Well, as much as we loathe the word and its relevance to our survival as hygienic homosapians, we have to in some shape o … Continued
City Vibes
Artist: Bibio Album: Mind Bokeh Rating: Having spent an evening indulging in the very best of Boards of Canada and copious amounts of fine Scotch, it dawned on me that their work has never been equaled. Well, Bibio, who releases on the same imprint as BoC, is making some solid attempts at reaching their lofty heights of excellence. More vocal driven than BoC, Bibio utilises similar downbeats soake … Continued
Chiang Mai on the WWW
www.holidaygardenhotelandresort.com www.holidaygardenhotelandresort.com Holiday Garden Hotel & Resort, Chiang Mai is located within walking distance to the bustling Nimmanhaemin Road and only a short 5 minute drive from the city centre. Situated at the base of Doi Suthep mountain, Holiday Garden Hotel & Resort is surrounded by lush tropical gardens and a large swimming pool, creating the … Continued
Citylife In-house
Citylife Next Issue: The Indochine Issue Citylife, partnering with our media associates in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, will bring you interesting articles and information of where to go and what to do in some of South East Asia’s most exciting cities. CityCard A lot of people have been asking about what will happen next with the CityCard campaign after its expiration on 31st March 2011. We have st … Continued
Your Say
• Hilton Missives My name is Anuchit Phonboon (Apple). I am from Sisaket, but now I live in Bang Kwang Prison. Every month I look at Citylife. My favourite part is ‘City Events’. If my English was better I am sure that I would enjoy all of Citylife. Citylife is helping me with my English. Thank you and please continue sending us Citylife. A Happy Reader, Anuchit Phonboon (Apple) • Quaking in our B … Continued
The Life of Wine
Before I bang on about what a brilliant grape Riesling is I would like to answer a question I was asked recently: How do you tell if a bottle of wine is corked? And, if it is, what do you do about it? Right. If it smells wrong and it tastes wrong after the cork is popped, a lot of the time, it’s corked. Humans have the ability to pick up the tiniest fraction of TCA – the contaminant which causes w … Continued
This is Thailand
1. Where can I get a polygraph test done in Thailand? James: Orion Investigations provides polygraph services. The cost is 10,000 baht per person. They would need a deposit of 50% of the fee and a background to the information which needs verifying. They do not offer these services for verifying faithfulness in a relationship or other private matters. They only offer these services for business re … Continued
The Best of Both Worlds
Last month I wrote about motorcycling in Thailand, so perhaps a logical sequel to that article is the taboo subject of Death. As Benjamin Franklin said, ‘Nothing is certain in life except death and taxes.’ Even if you dodge a few taxes, even Houdini couldn’t escape death. The essential elements of life are birth, health and sickness, and death; and nobody realises this fact like medical doctors, n … Continued
Out in The City
A fierce argument has been raging on the internet. Indignant feet have been stubbornly stamped and pearl necklaces have been shaken fit to break. The subject that has caused this incandescent mass debate: ‘Is attraction to ladyboys a gay thing?’ Chiang Mai has a fair share of these transgendered ‘Lola’ folk who evoke envy from Thai women and much confusion generally. So who is attracted to ladyboy … Continued
Trans-Man: transcending gender
[i]”I’m trying to find myself, here…In one direction is a Thai girl…In the other, a farang boy. In one direction is a tom….In the other, a transgender man. I’m here at the intersection of tom, trans and Thai…waiting. I don’t know if I should say kha, or krap. I don’t want to gender myself so I hesitate to speak. I want to be polite but I’m silenced by language.”[/i] – Opening dialogue from … Continued