Thai’s love sanook ( fun ) and nothing provides more sanook than a good holiday, even if it’s a borrowed one. Halloween fits the bill amazingly well and in certain areas of Thailand like Pattaya it is celebrated just as well as in the West. While you won’t find children going door to door looking for tasty treats you will find a great party atmosphere where dressing up is all part of the nights fun for adults and kids alike.

In the past Pattaya has gone all out for Halloween with parties and concerts at Bali Hai Pier as well as costume contests but this year seemed rather subdued with little fan fare to mark the day. The Hard Rock Cafe had two nights of parties but the final night on Halloween didn’t seem to be too festive, the bar was full but the party atmosphere didn’t seem there. Just across the street from the Hard Rock the city of Pattaya put on a small costume contest with live music that was fun for a little bit.

The real fun though usually happens on Walking street with falang and Thai’s alike dressing up and having a great time.

I spent the night walking around town from the Hard Rock Cafe all the way up to Walking Street and found more than a few people in the Halloween spirit as you can see below.

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You can see over 600 pictures of Songkran around Thailand in the Songkran Gallery

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There is something about children at play in Thailand that takes me back to when I was a kid.  Rural Thailand for children isn’t much different than when I was growing up in the States during the late sixties/early 70′s. There weren’t computers or cable TV and our parents didn’t have a lot of money to buy us all the toys we wanted, but we made do. We would spend hours playing with card board boxes, wrapping paper tubes and string that became forts, swords and bows. We had the best toy of them all, our imaginations.

All the kids I have seen playing n rural Thailand have pretty much the same imagination and can play for hours with some paper and a few small toys. Their counterparts in the west are already getting fat watching TV, playing on computers and their favorite gaming system.

It seems to me that the children of Thailand are quite a bit more healthy than their counterparts in the West in more than a few ways. It will be interesting to see where these children are in 20 years compared to the children of the West. The rural Thai children may not have all the advantages that a child growing up in the west does but they aren’t too bothered by what they don’t have.

It seems with all the new technology we are making our children lazier in the West while at the same time putting much more stress on them. The children of my generation had it good and did just fine without all the gadgets kids have today. We were more social, less careful and definitely more thoughtful. Sure, we did stupid things and have the scars to show for it but we were living or lives, not wasting time in front of a screen.

Hopefully their imaginations stay with them and they help to build a better Thailand one paper airplane at a time while considering the plight of those poor disadvantaged children in the West who are coming to the conclusion that one to many Twinkies and too many video games haven’t done much to help them in life. The bigger hope is that they can remain children as long as possible before having to take on the responsibility of family, as all Thai children do much sooner than they should.

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If you’ve spent any amount of time in Thailand you’ve no doubt seen it being played in all manner of places by Thai’s and probably wondered to yourself just what exactly are they playing? well, if you haven’t already guessed they are playing Thai chess. Makruk is one of the most popular board games in Thailand today and it’s estimated that over 2 million Thai’s play on a regular basis.

Makruk is a direct decedent of the 6th century Indian game of  Chaturanga which is regarded as the common ancestor of all chess games. Makruk is the only variant on chess that is played today that most closely resembles the Indian game of Chaturanga.

While Makruk looks slightly similar to it’s Western cousin that’s where the similarity ends as the majority of the pieces move differently and the board isn’t set up exactly the same which makes for a much more challenging game. When looking at the Thai Chess pieces you’ll probably only recognize one piece right away and that would be the Knight, which is the only piece that looks and moves exactly the same as it does in Western Chess.

The Bia ( Pawn ) Starts off on the third row of the chess board instead of the second row as in Western chess. The Bia can only move one space forward at a time except when taking another piece which is done diagonally. Once the Bia moves three squares forward,  to the opposing players Bia square,  it is promoted to a queen unlike in western chess when a pawn needs to go all the way over to the opposite end of the board.

The Rua ( Rook ) moves exactly as it does in western chess which is  as many squares as you want vertically or horizontally at a time. Because Thai chess is played a little differently than Western chess the Rua becomes a much more powerful piece if still in use at the end of a game.

The Khon (  Bishop ) can move one square diagonally in every direction or one square forward. In Thai chess the Khon is used primarily to protect the Khun ( King ) and plays a much more important role towards the end of a game.

The Khun ( King ) moves exactly as the King does in Western chess. One square at a time in any direction.

The Met ( Queen ) can move diagonally in every direction but only one square at a time. as in Western chess the Met is a very important attack piece as well as protection for the Khun ( King ).

The Ma ( Knight ) moves exactly as it does in Western Chess. Two steps in one direction and then one step perpendicular to that movement, or one step in any one direction and two steps perpendicular. It jumps over any pieces in the way.

The game is played on an un-checkered 8×8 square board. The opening set up is very similar to Western chess except that the white King and Queen are reversed and the pawns start off on the third row of the board. The object of the game is also the same as Western chess which is to checkmate the King.

One of the most  interesting, and also confusing,  aspects of the game are the counting rules. When the last pawn has been removed from the board the counting rules come into play. At this point checkmate must be made within 64 moves or a draw is declared. When a new piece is captured the counting starts over again.

The disadvantaged player does the counting and may also stop the counting at any time. When the last piece that is not the king is captured from the disadvantaged player the counting will start again and will be determined by the amount of major pieces left on the opposing players side. Such as:

• If there are 2 rooks left: 8 moves
  If there is 1 rook left: 16 moves
  If there are no rooks left, but there are 2 bishop: 22 moves
  If there are no rooks left, but there is 1 bishop: 44 moves
  If there are no rooks or bishops left, but there are 2 knights: 32 moves
  If there are no rooks or bishops left, but there is 1 knight: 64 moves
  If there are no rooks, bishops, or knights, but queens: 64 moves

If checkmate hasn’t been reached in the required amount of moves then the game is declared a draw. The counting is maintained by the disadvantaged player out loud and as stated before the disadvantaged player can stop counting all together or not resume counting when a piece is taken. All rather confusing and steeped in much debate throughout the chess playing world.

I’ve played Makruk ( Thai chess )quite a few times now and have lost miserably all of those times before counting ever became a problem.  If you like chess then you might find Makruk right up your ally. You can click the link below if you would like to try your hand at a game against a computer.

Makruk ( Thai Chess ) online

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The great thing about Thai music is the fact that it all gets the Karaoke treatment which means lots and lots of videos to be had. Which also means that you can find tons of Thai music on YouTube. While some Thai performers such as Tata Young prefer to record their material in English most bands record strictly in Thai.

The Thai language being tonal is much like a musical language as it is but when you hear the language in song it really becomes much more. I’m sure there would be quite a few that might argue that point with me but I find Thai music to be absolutely amazing and every bit as good as any other music being made in the world.

Since I’ve been listening to a lot of Thai music today while tightening up the back end of the blog I thought I would share some of my favorite Thai bands with you.

The first band up is called Me and the singer has a beautiful voice, she’s quite easy on the eyes too.  The next band up is called Big Ass, how can you go wrong with a band named Big Ass…They rock. After them we have a band named Peacemaker who are very chameleon like as they can go from very soft pop to very hard rock easily and they do both well. Last but not least is Kratae, she is a very cute pop singer that I enjoy a lot. I’d be very polite around her though because before she was a pop singer she was a professional Muay Thai boxer!

Enjoy.

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I’m not a small man by any means but I’m not nearly as large as she would have you believe when she put’s on my pants and parades around laughing. Keep in mind she weighs all of 110 pounds soaking wet. At least I keep her amused.

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Thai’s love Sanook ( fun ) and no place epitomizes fun for Thai’s like the Karaoke joint.  Karaoke has always been hugely popular amongst Asians but it never really caught on in the west. I’ve always been of the mind that that is a good thing. It just never seemed like fun to me to go to a place where grown men and women get drunk and sing Phil Collins songs…then again I never want to be drunk, or sober for that matter,  and hear Phil sing either.

In Thailand you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a karaoke club. They are attached to restaurants, bars and even mini marts. If you want to sing there is a karaoke club to accomodate you any time night or day from Bangkok to Nakhon Phanom.The only place I was reasonably sure that didn’t have a karaoke club was on the family farm in Nakhon Phanom, I was proven wrong when an impromptu party broke out one night and the karaoke computer and sound system appeared on the front lawn.

As much as I’ve always hated the idea in the west I’ve found the karaoke places in Thailand to be a great source of fun and good times but you have to adhere to these 3 rules. You must bring at least 3 Thai women with you, you must order at least 2 bottles of whiskey and you have to sing at least 2 Thai songs no matter if you know the language or not.

You see, going out for karaoke isn’t something you do half hearted for an hour or so until something else comes up. No, karaoke is an all night affair complete with meals if it is done right and if you follow the rules and bring at least 3 Thai women there is no doubt that it will be done right.

The photos contained herein were taken the last night of my stay in Pattaya last trip at one of my favorite karaoke houses just off of Pattaya Klang. The place is called Singing Paradise and features a full service restaurant and karaoke bar in the front and private karaoke houses in the back that you rent by the hour. You get your own personal attendant with the house that will help out with finding songs and reboot the equipment as necessary as well as take food and drink orders.

Inside the little private houses there is usually some comfortable furniture, a table or two and the karaoke setup which includes a T.V. and sound system. And, of course,  a hard drive with at least 2000 Thai songs on it. There is usually a few western songs to choose from but not too many and yes, there is usually a Phill Collins song or two included.

The Karaoke night we had on the family farm included all the essentials with all the neighbors showing up with food and drink. Much singing and dancing was done but since it was an older crowd most of the songs were older as well.  I never thought I would be one to have a great time with karaoke anywhere in the world but if you live in Thailand, visit,  or plan to visit Thailand make sure to add at least a night of karaoke to the agenda. I promise you that you will have a night to remember.

The video’s below are probably going to spell my doom if a certain Thai woman named Pookie see’s this but I’ll take the chance. The first was recorded at Singing Paradise in Pattaya and the second at Karaoke night on the family farm in Nakhon Phanom.

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