Smiling Albino

Bangkok’s Newest Living Museum – Lhong 1919 is a Trip Back to 1850s Siam

Bangkok is a fascinating place, but back in 1850 – when it was the capital of Siam, as Thailand was then known – it was even moreso. Despite being an exotic, far-flung city that was slowly opening up to the modern world, Bangkok was still fairly insular in its trade policies, with heavy taxes on […]

Bangkok Then and Now

Bangkok’s history is fascinating. There’s nothing we love more than getting lost in its spaghetti-like maze of streets and alleys that have been worked and reworked since before the city was founded in 1782. As Smiling Albino calls Thailand home, we have a special affinity for the steamy, huge, wonderfully complex capital. Indeed, one of […]

Naga Fireball Festival

The Naga Fireball phenomenon takes place every year around the full moon at the end of the Buddhist Lent in October on the Mekong River between Laos and Thailand. Are the fireballs produced by the Naga, a large mythical Serpent living in the river, or can science explain the rational behind them? It has yet to be determined.