I’ve never been to Thailand, but I get second-hand knowledge about living and traveling
there from my sister-in-law, who taught English in Bangkok awhile back. Just yesterday we were looking at old photos
from her travels in Thailand. When I finally get around to visiting myself, I know I’ll want to have further
discussions with her, as well as read more about the diverse cultures and traditions of the Thai people.
Now, of course, there are many great guidebooks to study up on this stuff, but I often prefer communicating directly
with others who have been or live in a place I’m traveling to. I like to poke around and find several opinions on a
particular location, festival or accommodation. This can take more time, but in certain cases it is an absolutely vital
step in the travel planning process. Websites like Thai-Blogs are great for
doing this kind of direct research. Here are a few of the helpful first-hand reports by “people with a love for
Thailand” that I found on this collaborative blog:
99 Things Not to Miss in Thailand
American-based Thai blogger V. Oakley Boren posted her expanded version of a list that first appeared in the October
2004 Sawasdee, Thai Airways inflight magazine. She added her own comments and broke down the list into five posts. Here
is the fifth, which has
links to the first four, for easy navigation.
The Phuket Vegetarian Festival
Blogger Kitjar Sukjaidee shares his thoughts on this religious celebration, and explains the Kiu Ong Tai Yeah
rituals that take place all over southeast Asia during this annual festival.
Salatpak Festival: Northern Culture in the South
This northern festival is the tradition of the Lanna. A blogger who has been living in Thailand for over two years
finally makes it to this celebration and shares stories and photos. The comments are cool to read too, because those
who know the Thai culture well tend to weigh in with their knowledge on customs (in this case sitting cross-legged) and
clear up misinformation that expats or travelers may have.
Thai-Blogs co-founder Richard Barrow shared his list of top favs from the street and also did a longer post on each
of the ten dishes. Here is the one on
Pad Thai.
A great place to start on thai-blogs is the
highlights page, that has an organized
list of the posts sorted by topic for easy searching on a particular custom. Also, just a quick FYI: you don’t have to
live there to be a guest blogger, but they do have
guidelines for who can contribute to the
site.