How to Tell Time While Traveling in Thailand

Telling the Time in Thailand. Traveling in Thailand, many misunderstandings come from their very different way of telling time. Here's a guide to the 4 time segments used by Thais.

Songkran Water Festival for Thai New Year

The 3-day festival of water throwing to start the Thai New Year in Bangkok, Thailand.

Loy Krathong Festival of Lights on Bangkok Canal

The Loy Krathong Festival Celebrated on the San Saeb Canal in Bangkok

About this Blog: From Yahoo Travel Writer to Here

As Yahoo has closing its doors on Voices Travel and shut down its whole Voices site, I have moved many of my travel articles here. Most of these are about Thailand, Malaysia and the rest of Southeast Asia. I am living in Bangkok for my 10th year, and I have spent extensive time in Kuala Lumpur.
Bookmark this site, so you can come back as articles are added.

Guide Style
Most of these were written in a guide format, because I wrote them for Yahoo's travel guide. New posts will likely be less formal.

If you have any questions or comments, please use the contact form on the side.  I am happy to help travelers with any questions.

You can also use the "categories" in the side column, to find related articles.

All the photos were taken by me. I hope you enjoy the posts.

Thai Monk Ceremony: My Friend Becomes a Monk in Bangkok

A few years ago I had a chance to watch one of my good Thai friends become a monk.  The video below shows a good part of the ceremony.

How to Learn to Read and Understand the Thai Language

Languages like Thai, Laos, Khmer and Burmese have their own unique alphabet. It may look daunting at first, but it's much easier than it looks, and even easier than Chinese or Japanese. This is because Thai actually is an alphabet, just as our abc's fit together to form words. You can learn the sound each letter represents, and form words. Just as we combine letters like c, a and b the Thai have คั and บ. It's a logical alphabet. Here are some tips to learning the Thai language.

Tips on How to Learn to Read Chinese

The Chinese language is not as hard as it looks at first glance. The system of writing does have a method to its madness. In written form it can be read by all Chinese, even though many dialects confound speaking and understanding the Chinese language. All Mandarin dialects, Taiwanese, and even Cantonese use the same basic system of writing. This makes it the most widely written and read language in the world. It's worth learning to read the Chinese language, or at least learning how to read some of it.

10 Do's and Don't While Traveling in Thailand

What to do and "don't do" in Thailand:  many customs in southeast Asia can cause embarrassment for travelers.  Here is a list of 10 things to observe while traveling in Thailand.