Which way home?
Published in The Nation on 19 July 2001
When should I go home? Is it goodbye when I no longer appreciate the feeling of personal safety here, the affordable public transport, the laid-back national attitude? When I tire of the cheap massages, manicures and mangos? Maybe it will it be the prevalance of sleazy bars, being seated next to one too many dumb girlfriends at dinner, or the barking soi dogs that finally get to me....more

No need for nirvana in paradise
Published in The Nation on 5 July 2001
It?s the tenth set of squats that sends a ripple of rebellion through the class. There are murmurs and soft but indignant groans as people try to catch each other?s eyes before rolling them behind the teacher?s back....more

Cutting through red tape
Published in The Nation on 21 June 2001
"No! I don't want any of your stupid little dangly conical hats. I didn't yesterday, I didn't this morning when I passed you, and I didn't when I passed that woman selling the exact same thing five metres back there. Thank you." ...more

The grass is always greener
Published in The Nation on 3 May 2001
Until landing at swish, efficient Changi airport last weekend, I never realised that Don Muang was such a dump. Sure, I've gone to other flash spots from Don Muang before, but usually they've been further away - there's been a few drinks and a nap between my hazy memory of the Thai immigration officials taking half an hour to stamp my overstay receipt (in between watching death wrestling), and the sudden reality of whatever gleaming transportation hub I'm ejected into. The glow of the present tends to rub off on the past....more

Thailand, the Italy of Asia
Published in The Nation on 5 April 2001
A little piece of Italy lived in our home every Thursday night when I was growing up in Australia. Dinners were Mum's spaghetti bolognaise (spag bol in Australian); it was our one night's respite from meat and three veg, except for Sundays when we'd eat McDonalds, tinned soup or cheese on toast (whatever Dad could handle)....more

Keeping back with the Jones'
Published in The Nation on 22 March 2001
Anyone who's been backpacking has heard or participated in these sorts of conversations. Not the ones where you compete to see who got to that small town in Vietnam when the children still cried to see a strange face on the street, or who arrived at that beach in southern Thailand before it had a single bungalow on it and you could live there on free pineapples and coconuts....more

Dogs, dumpers and a damsel in distress
Published in The Nation on 22 February 2001
Our apartment lies a good few hundred metres from a main road, so to the casual observer, it seems remarkably peaceful for Bangkok. It's not....more

The perils of sitting in a dentist's chair
Published in The Nation on 1 February 2001
The tears erupted as soon as I saw the long chair, surrounded by shining, sharp instruments whose only possible purpose could be pain. My fear surprised me. I'm normally quite tough when it comes to pain - I was one of the few girls in my peer group who could handle using an Epilady when it hit the shelves during my teens. Haven't heard of it? That's because it was some sort of medieval torture device dressed up as a modern way of removing hairs from your legs. It had a revolving spring that caught hairs between its coils before ripping them out, follicle and all. It didn't last long....more

All material copyright Samantha Brown 1997-2005