City of Bangkok: Social Unrest, Poverty, Dazzling Nightlife
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Endless Socialite Options From restaurants to clubs to shops and malls, Bangkok takes the edginess of Berlin, the fanciness of Tokyo, and the culinary and fashion genius of Paris, rumbles it all together and spits out this colorful, playful, mesmerizing ball of progressive design goodness that, yeah, might make you say it’s a top city. Specifically, Bangkok’s take on the BED Club from Miami, housed in a spaceship, definitely leaves an impression, as does the city’s host of restaurants ranging from leopard-spotted Dream Bangkok to the pristine Greyhound.
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When we evaluate modern city life and the urban landscapes in which we enmesh ourselves, it is important to remember that a shared space, a city, is what we make of it. Hippies have made Portland their paradise. Others, because of the rain, may say “Screw Portland!” And Boston? Well, let’s not go there. But you get the picture. I guess Bangkok makes sense, because we at Fast Company love desi …
See the full article from “Fast Company”
Streets of Bankok: Janell Rardon and Kimberly Quinley walk through the streets of Bangkok, Thailand. The two friends met through church, and have continued their ministry work separately and now together again for The Gathering.
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Woven web: These hand woven leather bags are made by young women who have been rescued from sex slavery rings and forced prostitution. Learning this trade helps provide an income for their families. These bags as well as other totes and jewelry pieces will be on sale at The Gathering.
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In 2009, Quinley asked Rardon to fly across the globe to speak at an international women’s retreat. After speaking in front of representatives from more than 20 countries, Rardon was asked to come back to Thailand just two weeks later for a Christmas outreach luncheon hosted by the Evangelical Church of Bangkok.
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Quinley and Rardon walked the slums of Bangkok.
Lufkin woman serves 4 months in Bangkok working as missionary
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Edwards taught at the Baptist Student Center in Bangkok, Thailand. The school is a partnership between the Thailand Baptist Association and the International Mission Board in the U.S. Although it is a Christian school, most of the students were Buddhist, Edwards said. Students are required to be at least 15 years old to attend, and most were “professional people” such as doctors, lawyers, college professors and so on, she said.
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On Fridays, Edwards and the volunteers would work with children at the Bangkok Refugee Center, teaching them how to read and speak English. Edwards also met with a woman who was teaching skills to prostitutes to lift themselves out of poverty.
“Many are sold into prostitution by their families, even when they’re just children. The only way they can get out is to work their time out or buy their freedom,” Edwards said. “They’re in pretty much a hopeless situation, but we try to give them hope. We tell them about Jesus’ love, and they ask ‘Do you think he could love me?’”
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Edwards said she found adjusting to life in Bangkok to be “quite easy.”
SEATTLE — A retiree from Seattle already imprisoned in Thailand is facing federal sex tourism charges on allegations that he bought sex from girls as young as 11.
Glenn Richard Allen, a 63-year-old raised in the Seattle area, was indicted in U.S. District Court earlier this month by a Seattle grand jury.
Federal authorities claim Allen was caught with 200 to 300 DVDs showing himself sexually abusing Thai children at his condominium in the resort town of Pattaya City, located outside of Bangkok.
Thai authorities investigating child prostitution in the country arrested Allen, a Canadian-born U.S. citizen, in 2007 alongside two British men and a Finnish citizen. Several girls identified Allen as having paid them for sex; four victims are identified in charging papers.
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The indictment follows a similar action recently taken against 59-year-old Kent resident Craig Thomas Carr, who was arrested in Cambodia and charged in U.S. District Court with sex tourism-related crimes. Prosecutors in that case contend Carr paid for sex with Cambodian children.
See the full article from “KVAL”
After the Bloodletting: Bangkok Tries to Return to Normal
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Just across the street is a rather more decorous building, the private residence of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. The proximity of the Thai leader’s home to a glorified brothel – not to mention the attendant street vendors selling grilled fish, iced coffee and chili-spiked papaya salad to Gion’s working ladies – exemplifies the easy contrasts of this city of 10 million people. Bangkok, wrote author Alec Waugh in 1970, “has been so loved because it is the expression of the Thais themselves, of their lightheartedness, their love of beauty, their reverence for tradition, their sense of freedom, their extravagance.”
But now with Bangkok reeling from Thailand’s worst political bloodletting in decades, Gion is shuttered, a golden gate drawn across the parking lot so often filled with BMWs and Mercedes. On May 19, army troops cleared out the so-called Red Shirt protesters from the rally site they had occupied for two months. At least 15 peopl …
See the full article from “APA”
Lasting damage? Protesters stand behind a barricade of burning tires in Bangkok this week. Photographs: Jerry Lampen/Reuters and Sukree Sukplang/Reuters
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Many foreign governments still have travel warnings, and the images of horror on the streets of Bangkok will linger beyond the news cycle, particularly when people are trying to decide where to take their next exotic holiday. There is fear among hotel workers, taxi drivers and others reliant on tourist money in the city that this could be a difficult one to recover from. The Land of Smiles has lost a lot of goodwill during the past few months of protracted unrest. People don’t want to gamble the success of their honeymoon on whether or not the airport in Bangkok is open.
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Thais are bewildered about what happened to their Land of Smiles. But with typical pragmatism, they take their bulldozers and remove the hulking, scorched barricades surrounding Bangkok’s heart.
See the full article from “Irish Times”
Foodies can enjoy Thaifex food Fair 2010 in Bangkok with Travelchacha.com
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* Ratchaprasong is full of shopping malls; most top designer’s brands are available with local products, food for all tastes, massage parlors.
* Jim Thomson house is the important place to visit which exhibits the lifestyle & art of Thai people in former times. Nightlife of Bangkok is famous for night sightseeing, dance & theatre performers. Siam Niramit theatre, watarun Ratchwararam
The same range of choice applies to the accommodation options all over town, from high end international chain hotels to family run guesthouses; demands of all travelers are met. In terms of wellness and relaxation – Bangkok has recently seen a huge development of city Spas and Wellness centers, in addition to the long established Thai massage centers.
Foodies can enjoy Thaifex food Fair 2010 in Bangkok with Travelchacha.com
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Home … a Red Shirt carries a fan after returning to Chiang Mai from Bangkok.
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Many armed themselves with catapults and wooden clubs but also, in some cases, with automatic weapons and grenades. Dozens were killed in Bangkok in recent days, but Mr Somphong said he did not know how many of those who died came from Udon Thani. He said the deaths would inspire more resistance. ”We won’t give up; we will keep fighting for democracy,” he said.
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That feeling of difference is reinforced by the fact that Isaan is the poorest region of the country, with low levels of literacy that lead some into low-paid work in Bangkok as maids, drivers of spluttering three-wheeled motorcycle taxis known as tuk-tuks and, for many women, as prostitutes.
The perception that a Bangkok elite looks down on them as crude and uneducated exacerbates a sense of injustice over the 2006 removal of Thaksin, who was in power for five years.
Bangkok, May 28 : Fearing a large-scale outbreak of terrorism, Thailand’s Army has stepped up its surveillance to prevent another Red Shirts-type of uprising.
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According to the Bangkok Post, some Red Shirt politicians, who have connections in the three southern border provinces, could hire insurgents from the lower South to launch attacks in Bangkok.
The concerns have prompted intelligence authorities to monitor the movements of suspected insurgents, especially those who are already in Bangkok.
One incident, which led the army to fear possible terror attacks was a car bomb at the Poseidon massage parlour car park on Ratchadaphisek Road in Bangkok on April 4, the source said.
While the army is preparing for the possibility of violence, the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation favours ending the curfew in Bangkok and other provinces tomorrow.
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Bangkok and 23 other provinces are under curfew from midnight tonight to 4am tomorrow.