Tinder, Sailor, Hooker, Pimp
A prostitution and sex trafficking ring operated on the outskirts of a U.S. Navy base in Bahrain and may have involved 15% of the sailors stationed there.
Thailand
Fiction Pick of the Week: "Floating"
The physical and sociological effects of climate change in Thailand.
Into The Dark
The inside story of an improbable team of divers, a near-impossible plan and the rescue of 12 boys from a Thai cave.
Best Article Sex Religion Travel
A Pilgrimage of Sin: Booze, Bombs, and Hookers in Islamic Thailand
A travelogue through the contradiction-rich and predominantly Muslim Southern Thailand.
How Thailand's Most Notorious Prison Became a Fight Club
The Muay Thai fighters of Klong Prem.
How The Pirate Bay Four Dodged Swedish Justice—For a While
Convicted and facing jail time plus a crippling fine in Sweden, the founders of the torrent site The Pirate’s Bay have scattered across the world towards new lives: fatherhood in Laos, a junkie’s life in Phnom Penh, and start-up work in Berlin.
Fighting + Otherwise
A travelogue of a three-month tour of Muay Thai boxing camps in Thailand. The author, 28, died in a hit-and-run shortly after returning to the U.S.
The Place to Disappear
On Bangkok’s Khao San Road.
Thailand's Moment of Truth: A Secret History of 21st Century Siam
Andrew MacGregor Marshall, a longtime Reuters reporter based in Thailand, resigned and forfeited his ability to enter the country in order to report on the revelations about the Thai royal family and military contained within the Wikileaks “Cablegate” dump.
Thailand has the world's harshest lèse majesté law. Any insult to Bhumibol, Queen Sirikit or their son Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, is punishable by three to 15 years in jail.
The cables reveal a toxic power struggle between elected officials, the military, and the monarchy, with the huge shadow of exiled telecommunications billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra looming over the country’s post-King Bhumibol future.
The impending end of his reign has sparked intense national anxiety in Thailand. King Bhumibol's son and heir, Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, has a reputation for being a cruel and corrupt womanizer. A notorious video showing a birthday party for his pet poodle Foo Foo -- who holds the rank of Air Chief Marshal -- has been widely circulated in Thailand; in it, the prince's third wife, Princess Srirasmi, dressed only in a thong, eats the dog's birthday cake off the floor while liveried servants look on.
Editor’s Note: Marshall’s findings will be published as a 4-part series, hosted here by the permission of the author, and re-publishable through a Creative Commons license. His writings on the topic have already reached near book length, for a good overview, see Marshall’s introduction in Foreign Policy.
Wikipedia: Ananda Mahidol
In 1935, a nine-year-old living in Switzerland became the King of Thailand. He would return to his homeland a decade later, and within six months he would be found shot to death in his bed. Though three servants were executed for the crime, a mystery endures.
Thoughts on Thailand
What exactly is going on politically in Thailand?
