thegreglowe.com

Thai football bolstered by ‘God,’ Africa and a former politician in Isaan

Robbie Fowler isn’t the only football talent heading to Thailand. A new initiative plans to make Buriram a driving force in the development of The Beautiful Game

By Greg Lowe

Global football fans were rightly surprised earlier this month when legendary English player Robbie Fowler announced his signing with Muangthong United, a Thai Premier League team.

Though Thailand welcomed “God” with cheers, Australian football aficionados likely spat the dummy when last week he took a swipe at the A-League and his former team, Perth Glory, telling reporters, “Thai players have more technical skills than the Australian [players].” Read more…

Apathy and a generally lackadaisical approach to life has, yet again, prevented me from uploading stuff to the blog here for quite some time. Fortunately today, to avoid to more pressing work, I’ve decided to take a break from laziness to post three recent pieces I wrote for the lovely Karla at CNNGO.com.

Most recently, I did a roundup of four excellent home delivery food services in Bangkok that are well suited for idol souls like myself: Meals on gourmet wheels: Expat entrepreneurs spark Bangkok’s delivery-only dining scene

Wai Art recently reappeared on the scene after a two-decade hiatus, setting itself the task of giving young Thai artists more access to public exhibition space: Wai Art: Finally, a lifeline for Thailand’s emerging artists

Finally, for those “real people” out there who don’t live near Thong Lor or Ekkamai and thumb your nose at the yipsters and their oppressive clique, venture over the Chaophraya River to Thoburi where a number of attitude-free bars and clubs have started to spring up: Where to party on Bangkok’s west side

It’s been a while since I’ve uploaded the site. Recently I secured an eyewitness account of the March earthquake which devastated parts of Burma for The Guardian.

Having lived in Thailand for almost a decade, I’ve had numerous irritating experiences involving financial advisors cold calling me at work. Recently, I discovered that cold calling is against SEC regulations and there’s a very easy way to report the tossers who refuse to take no for an answer. Read more about this in the piece I wrote for CNNGO.com here.

In March I had the privilege to moderate the first screening of Living with the Tiger, a documentary about children living with HIV/Aids in Thailand. It’s one of the most empowering and uplifting films I have seen on the matter. But it also packs a mighty punch and drives home the message of how social attitudes toward people infected with the virus need to change. Read the piece at CNNGO.com here.

Most of Thailand’s English speakers have had run-ins with these telephone stalkers. Here’s how to put a stop to the cold calls for good
By Greg Lowe

It would plain wrong to accuse all so-called “independent financial advisors” operating in Thailand of being low-life, scum-sucking, rip-off merchants; heels who divide their time between skanking people out of their hard-earned cash and selling grannies.

So let’s be fair and accurate: I’m only talking about 90 percent of the IFAs that I’ve had dealings with in Bangkok.

I’m sure there’s at least a handful of decent professional firms out there that offer sound investment advice, operate according to strict ethical standards and, as a result, have a growing list of happy clients who willingly recommend their advisors to friends. But then, they’re not the tossers who keep cold-calling you at work and refuse to take no for an answer, are they?

Read more…

A bitter-sweet documentary about HIV-infected orphans in Lopburi chips away at the social stigma associated with the virus in Thailand
By Greg Lowe

One of the things that struck me most about “Living with the Tiger” was the realization I have never laughed so much while watching a documentary about children living with HIV/AIDS.

That’s not meant to sound callous. It’s just that the film features many genuinely funny moments. And by showing the HIV-infected orphans from the Baan Gerda community in Lopburi as normal children, “Living with the Tiger” starts to chip away at the enemy in its sights — the social stigma associated with the virus in Thailand.

Over the course of three years, the children are shown going about their daily lives: generally horsing around and acting like monkeys. After all, that’s what kids do best.

Read more…

Part of The Guardian’s recent feature: Natural disasters? Floods, earthquakes, landslides: 2011 is a year of disasters. Bill McKibben asks: are we to blame?

March: Magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck about 30 miles north of Tachileik on the Thai-Burma border
Human cost: At least 75 dead; more than 110 injured
Economic cost: Not yet known
Survivor’s story: Sai Noom Khan (not his real name), 23, Tachileik

I was with my wife watching television when a loud knocking started suddenly. The room started to shake and all our photos fell off the wall. It was terrifying. I had never experienced an earthquake before.

I was worried the house would collapse, so I grabbed my wife by the hand and we ran. We ran outside, but the ground was shaking so much it was hard to stand up. It lasted only about 40 to 50 seconds.

We live on the top of the mountain, so there wasn’t too much damage. Since the earthquake, everyone’s been sleeping outside. It’s cold, but we’re too scared to sleep indoors.

Yesterday I visited the villages of Tarlay and Mong Lin, about 30 miles away. They were devastated. I was told more than 100 people died there.

Greg Lowe

Read the full story here.

Though the city has potential, there are some huge road bumps that ensure it will never be enjoyable or safe for cyclists. Unless you’re a lemming

by Greg Lowe

I was having a conversation with someone in the pub the other night who explained that Thai for cyclist, “khon ki jakayaan,” also loosely translates into “lemming” — a breed of death-lusting gerbils with a reputation for diving off cliffs onto pointy, jagged rocks.

This was an astonishing revelation. I was totally hooked by the discussion, until the said bar fly-cum-linguist pointed out other alleged synonyms for our velo-centric friends such as “Guardian reader” and “toss pots.”

At this stage I realized my leg was being yanked, but why let a bad joke in a fictitious conversation that took place in a pub that doesn’t exist get in the way of things?

The point is there is something eminently suicidal about cycling in Bangkok and that grim reality is a tragedy.

Read more

Let’s face it. Valentine’s Day can be a miserable affair. Watching love-struck couples flit about is grating, especially if you’re single and missing out on the action.

Too often, you get ripped off at restaurants and pay over the odds for a mediocre meal notable only for a wilting rose on the table and a cheap heart-shaped box of chocolates.

In Bangkok, however, it is possible to both shun V-Day’s saccharine stereotypes and have a ball with your respective belle or beau at the same time.

Last week I had the pleasure of checking out Gaggan’s, a recently opened restaurant that takes a progressive approach to Indian cuisine. The chef, Gaggan Anand, has trained with Ferran Adria and his team in Spain, bringing back a host of mindbending techniques that he is applying to his national fare.

Read my review on CNNGO here.

Well, okay, this posting is a little bit late, but better late than never.

The websites for two publishing projects I worked on are now live, check out BizarreThailand.com for excerpts from veteran feature writer Jim Algie’s book Bizarre Thailand: Tales of Sex, Crime and Black Magic, which takes a look at the some of the darker and just plain odd aspects of Thailand.

It’s a great read and was recently reviewed by Christopher G Moore.

He said: “My first impression was this would be a book that you would dip into. That wasn’t the case for me. I read this collection of articles from cover to cover with admiration for the way Algie was able to keep my concentration and focus on subjects that I thought that I knew inside out.”

TTO magazine also ran an extract in this month’s issue.

Log on to the site to see photos from the book, outtakes and other exclusive content, as well as the latest reviews.

Buddhist Temples of Thailand: A Visual Journey Through Thailand’s 40 Most Historic Wats is the first coffeetable book to explore temples from across Thailand and make use of commissioned photography.

It was put together by Joe Cummings and Dan White, who drove 12,000 km on his motorbike to shoot all the temples for the book.

Manote Tripathi, arts editor at The Nation recently reviewed it, he said: “Without real affection for the monasteries and the monks and understanding of their complex symbolic worlds, he [author Joe Cummings] couldn’t possibly have written with such accuracy and passion.

This is the kind of book that will set you off on a temple trail, a journey that will most likely be rewarded with not just solace, but a fuller awareness of Buddhism as a cornerstone of official Thai thinking.”

Keep up to date with my publishing projects here. Three new titles are upcoming and I’ll let you know more about them in the next couple of months.