Smiling Albino

Whether you're preparing for your adventure, currently enjoying it or reminiscing years later, food for the soul is always a good thing. These picks can be enjoyed while overlooking the Mekong River, lazing on a stunning beach, riding the plane or lounging on your couch at home. Here are some books, movies and music we enjoy and hope you will too.

Reading

Just for Fun

• Bangkok 8, by John Burdett - A twisting tale of a half-Thai police officer trying to solve a murder on the streets of Bangkok.
• The Big Mango, by Jake Needham - An American is summoned to Bangkok on a mysterious mission to find missing Vietnamese money.
• Tea Money, by Jake Needham - Another enjoyable detective tale set in the Kingdom.
• The Judgment, by Chart Korbjitti - A depressing look at the affect peoples' ideas of another can have while providing a fascinating look at life in a small Thai village.
• Bangkok Babylon, by Jerry Hopkins - A longtime Bangkok resident exposes the country's most interesting foreign residents.

The People/Culture/Country

• Lonely Planet Thailand, by Joe Cummings - The world's best selling travel guide - tonnes of great info and the author's a really nice guy.
• Very Thai, by Philip Cornwel-Smith and John Goss - Everyday Popular Culture, A very fun book that covers pretty much every quirky area of Thai culture and society - great pictures too.
• Bangkok Then and Now, by Steve Van Beek - A nice picture book comparing old pictures of the fast changing capital with ones of today.
• Culture Shock Thailand, by Robert Cooper and Nanthapa Cooper - A nice, light, quick introduction to all things Thai.
• Thai Ways, by Denis Segaller - A long-term expat's explanation of quirky things Thai. Quite a fun read.
• Phra Farang - An English Monk in Thailand, by Phra Peter Pannapadipo - As the title suggests, a British man's transition to becoming a Thai monk.
• Touch the Dragon - A Thai Journal, by Karen Connelly - A Canadian woman's journal from her one-year living at Denchai, a northern Thai farming community when she was 17. Won the Governor General's Award in Canada.

• The Story of Tongdaeng, by His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej - An illustrated biography of Tongdaeng, the King of Thailand's favorite dog.
• Thailand in Figures, by Alpha Research Co. Ltd. - Full of every possible stat about the Kingdom you can think of and then some.
• Lanna Renaissance, by Joe Cummings & Luca Tettoni - A visual exploration of Thailand's northern 'Lanna' design and its modern day resurgence, accompanied by great text.
• Democracy, Shaken & Stirred, by Win Lyovarin - A wonderful look at Thailand's democratic path told through the voices of two old men.

Doing Business

• Working with the Thais, by Henry Holmes and Suchada Tangtongtavy with Roy Tomizawa - Full of great insight into why Thais do the things they do and how foreigners puzzle them equally too.
• Start up and Stay up in Thailand, by Roy Tomizawa - A look at how to start a business here via analyzing 13 case studies.

Music

• There, by Thee Chaiyadej - Thailand's sweetest voice combined with acoustic guitar and soft piano.
• King Size, by Silly Fools - One of Thailand's best rock acts really nails it with this offering.
• The Red Album, by LOSO - A favorite band of most Thais dish out their greatest hits.
• Super 3 Cha, by Carabow - There's simply no better known rocker in Thailand. Carabow has been rocking the Kingdom for more than 20 years. These are his greatest hits.
• Music composed by His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej - An accomplished musician and composer, pick up one of his many CDs for a true Thai experience.
• That Song, by ModernDog - Considered Thailand's premier 'new' rockers, their stuff is pretty good.

Film

• Man with the Golden Gun (1974) - James Bond is chasing Scaramanga, this time through Bangkok and on the Andaman Sea.
• Beyond Rangoon (1995) - Set in 1988, Beyond Rangoon takes us to Thailand's lesser known neighbour of Burma, a region once recognized as the wealthiest and most ravishing in all of Asia but which, by this point in time, had all but gone up in the flames of political suppression.
• The Killing Fields (1984) - An American citizen is trapped in Cambodia during tyrant Pol Pot's bloody "Year Zero" ethnic cleansing campaign, which claimed the lives of two million "undesirable" civilians. A chilling tale of modern genocide.
• Bridge over the River Kwai (1957) - British soldiers are forced to build a railway bridge for their WWII Japanese captors, unaware of an allied mission to blow it up.
• The Beach (2000) - Okay, not a great movie but it was shot at Maya Bay on the island of Ko Phi Phi. Leo!
• Anna and the King (1999) - The classic tale of an British woman's 'relationship' with Rama IV, Thailand's fourth king of the Chakri Dynasty.
• Ong Bak (2003) - Thailand's Tony Jaa rips it and them up. This guy does all his own stunts, there are no computer effects and he's touted to be cinema's next Bruce Lee.