Thailand Blogs – June 2010 Review
June was the best month ever for Beyond The Mango Juice with the site reaching record highs for both visitor hits and pageviews. My Google Analytics dashboard revealed 4,013 visitors and 8,018 page loads but most pleasing was the site bounce rate for June registering a lowly 59%. I’m well pleased with those statistics and Beyond The Mango Juice is slowly creeping toward my end of year target of 5,000 visitors a month.
Creepy crawlies are on Malcolm’s mind as rain hits Wang Pho in Kanchanaburi Province and insects that come with it, come out. Scorpions, gigantic black millipedes and flying termites appear with the rain in Winged Things From Hell from Retired in Thailand and Loving It. Even a small cobra decides to take refuge from the rainfall by sleeping the night on Malcom’s front porch. Scary.
When it comes to talking about sex, Thai people are actually quite shy. Of course, there’s always the odd exception as Mike Rose and My Thai Friend (photo right) found out to their amusement. Grab your binoculars and zoom in on Thai People Are Really Quite Shy? and read about a young couple who are spotted near some disused buildings getting a little too wrapped up in each other’s emotions.
June saw a continued lack of rainfall in Thailand and the threat of a severe drought started to grip the country, further delaying the start of the rice growing season. Life in rural Thailand takes a trip to the Phu Chong Na Yoi National Park on the border with Cambodia and sees the alarming effects the dry spell is having. Drought in Thailand has photos of the normally free falling Huai Luang waterfall where the wash has stopped flowing.
Thai Life in Phana takes a trip back to December 2008 with a very interesting post, Hmong villages in Lao PDR. The Hmong are a minority ethnic group of whom many fought against the communist Pathet Lao in the Laotian Civil War (1953-1975) and were singled out for retribution when the Pathet Lao took over the Laotian government in 1975. Subsequently thousands fled to Thailand to seek political asylum. Lawrence recollects his visit to two Hmong villages where returnees had resettled. The post has some great photos and also documents a very strange Hmong New Year courting ritual.
The iPhone is the smartest of all smartphones and if yours is the apple of your eye, then get over to Women Learning Thai…and some men too where Catherine has put together an absolute gem of a post on iPhone’s Thai alphabet and word apps. The post is crammed full of reviews on over 20 iPhone Thai language applications and its content could not be bettered by Apple themselves. Learn Thai on Your iPhone: Thai Alphabet and Vocabulary is the new testament for Thai language apps on the world’s best selling smartphone.
If you’re a regular type of guy you’ll love football, music and pretty women. Thailand, Land of Smiles combines all three in Thailand + World Cup = Perfection. This one’s a short post with a big hit in the shape of beautiful Thai women singing and dancing in a video of Thailand’s World Cup theme song Go La La (Game of Life). If you love your women having beautiful smiles and lovely legs you’ll love this song.
Camille continues his good food guide to Koh Samui with The Picnic Basket in Bang Rak, the second coming. The Picnic Basket’s owner Paul decided to sell his restaurant but after closing for a couple of weeks had a change of mind. Camille reviews the diner which is popular with locals for its great western food, and if you’re heading out to Koh Samui then check out this one on Camille’s Samui Info blog.
Siam Rick and Behind the Noodle Curtain touch on the subject of ladyboys in Thailand. Rick looks at the good side and the bad of Thai ladyboys and recalls one incident when he fell victim to a ladyboy pickpocket. The post also includes a link to Bangkok commentator Stickman who met up with and interviewed six Bangkok ladyboys. Get two posts for one with Rick’s Stickman talks to ladyboys and asks ALL the questions.
John from expat Udon Thani once again draws upon his vast experience of Thailand and offers advice to those who live outside of the country but need to get money to their partner in the Land of Smiles. John favours telegraphic transfers (wire transfer) for occasional money transactions and ATM withdrawals for more regular amounts. John lays down some tricks and tips in keeping the cost of your money transfers to a minimum in send money to udon thani/Thailand.
My pick of June from Jonny Foreigner may have you rubbing your eyes and taking another look at the post title. Football: Thailand Officially World Number Two might give you a good reason to grab another lager and in doing so you’ll be halfway to the answer. A poll by drinks giant Heineken placed Thailand second in a survey to find out the total amount of time blokes spend watching, playing, reading and talking about football each day around the world. England came out top and Thailand beat Brazil into second place as Heineken’s poll reveals some surprising football fan statistics.
If you are planning a first time visit to Bangkok then it might literally pay to head to Thailand Musings beforehand. Steve’s post Bangkok Cost of Living has guidelines to current living expenses in Bangkok and covers housing, utilities, food, transport and everyone’s favourite, entertainment. This one’s a budget buster for those who know very little about the City of Angels.
Finally, an explanation….I’ve switched off the comments box for this review because I sometimes feel the linked blog authors feel obliged to drop a comment in as a thank you. I can assure you there’s no need to do so and I only hope you all get a little pleasure out of this review by reading something you may have missed before. As always your comments are very much appreciated on my regular posts. Enjoy.
