The Footpath Files

Stories

  • A River Runs Through It

    A River Runs Through It

    Founded on one side of the Chao Phraya, Bangkok is a city both by and of the river. Due to the expansion of the greater metropolitan area over time, the Chao Phraya no longer runs along one side of the city, but rather, right through the middle, in what is now South East Asia’s largest… Read more

  • The Cabinet of Aspirations

    The Cabinet of Aspirations

    Mounted against a wall in one of Bangkok’s oldest houses, situated in a museum that was itself a former palace, is a curious display of a home in miniature — a still life of hopes and dreams. This time capsule in the guise of a dollhouse was once owned by Chao Chom Liam, a concubine… Read more

  • The Shack On The Water’s Edge

    The Shack On The Water’s Edge

    Certain places attract the weary traveller. Like moths to a flame, the source of this pull is typically within proximity to either a notable attraction or to a transportation link, or both. If this place conveys a cheap and cheerful ambience, all the better. If it is also blessed with a view that combines water, a… Read more

  • The Book Slave

    The Book Slave

    Bangkok is never short on anything ‘new’. If there’s a trend, this city surely feels that pulse beat sooner than most other places. ‘New’ however, does not always last. So when you find yourself living in a city as long as I have, an increasing attachment to the things that do endure grows steadily over… Read more

  • 60 Years of Flavour Memories on Sukhumvit

    60 Years of Flavour Memories on Sukhumvit

    What does the term old school mean to you? Does it embody something old fashioned, out of date and conservative? Or does it evoke respect for things from an earlier era — traditions wrapped in nostalgia with a hint of cool? It depends on who you ask and their perception of what the phrase is… Read more

  • The Motorcycle Diaries

    The Motorcycle Diaries

    “This is not a story of heroic feats, or merely the narrative of a cynic; at least I do not mean it to be.” Those are the opening words penned by Ernesto Guevara to his best selling memoir posthumously published in 2003. My story is not comparable in scale to his epic motorcycle journey along… Read more