New Mandala

Lots of Thai and English language coverage today of the “blue-blood ladies” who met (at RCA, no less!) to “air their disapproval” of the PM and his recent comments about a “charismatic figure”.  �
This is an interesting development and one that has many sub-texts.  The claim that only the RCA restaurant would host their gathering is particularly noteworthy.

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Chiang Mai in the wet season is a stranger place than normal.  All the trappings that make it a “must-see” destination remain but it is empty…empty of the tourists who haunt its lanes and bars and markets.  And who keep the economy ticking over.
Walking around town, the tuk-tuk drivers keep up their pleas for custom.  [...]

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This is a blog from the field, from a lowland northern Thai village. The rice growing season is getting under way. The seedling beds have been planted; the fields have been ploughed and the bunds dividing the fields have been repaired. Over the next few days teams of exchange labourers will start to descend on [...]

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