The huge vessel drifts past our bank then disappears downstream like a fiery ghost. Another boat, of equal intricacy and size follows, then another and another. In Thai these are known as rua fai, although English approximations like “illuminated boats” or “fire boats” hardly do justice to these spectacular, artistic …
Then the Janus-faced joker of tourism wandered into town. Starting with a trickle of savvy Bangkokians in search of something more authentically Thai than mega-malls and franchised life, the word spread that here was a piece of heritage that hadn’t yet been slam-dunked with T-shirt stalls and market kitsch. “Yes, …
2 Blue smoke curls languidly above the huts as though from an opium pipe (until a generation ago, the preferred nightcap around here). Pigs squeal uneasily, catching a whiff on the wind not of poppy but fried pork. A four man band — oboe, drum, gong and cymbal — dins …
‘This is the only place in world that you’ll find hoi lord.” says our guide Panada. She leads us along a row of restaurants almost as unique as the straw shellfish itself. The twenty or so spidery structures in bamboo, perched high on pylons above the waterfront mangroves, are thronged …
