With my wife Chompooh dancing at the Oun I Rak Festival in Ronse (Belgium), I took the opportunity to test a few new items in my photography kit. Do take a look, the pictures are available… Read More

It’s been a while. I know. Ever since my lovely wife Khwantippa arrived in Belgium, I’ve haven’t had a lot of time to write my blog. Both because of living on cloud 9, and… Read More

Opening her luggage after her arrival, it was fairly apparent that some serious shopping needed to happen. Moving to Belgium, her fear of not having Thai food available had gotten the better… Read More

Last Saturday (31/03/2018) we attended the colorful opening of Samai Thai Take Away in Kontich. Owner’s Mai and Damiaan treated friends and family to a preview of the authentic Thai fo… Read More

One of our favorite date night types in Thailand is visiting a hot pot restaurant. MK and Hot Pot Buffet are fine but if we have the choice, we always opt for an authentic Isaan-style hot po… Read More

In my research towards Kuman Thong and Sak Yant tattoos, I came across Nam Man Phrai, a kind of magical oil. When I started looking into the Thai love and mind control spells, the oil was an… Read More

Finally, she has arrived. Last Saturday, Khwantippa safely arrived in Belgium. Having been apart for months, we’ve spent the weekend doing literally nothing, which was absolute bliss… Read More

Today is my last day of instant noodles, working in my jammies till noon and going to the gym at night to see 3-dimensional people. It is the last day I live by myself and I’m excited!… Read More

Conscious or not, prolonged exposure to anything will influence a person. Whether dramatic (like radiation) or just slightly worrying (like Ed Sheeran), the impact cannot be denied. Over the… Read More

Is it just my perception or is the fake news phenomenon not slowing down at all? When Facebook announced that it would weed out false reporting I was hopeful it would come to an end. Instead… Read More

‘Three servings of Somtam with fermented crab, extra spicy’.  When I heard the couple next to me order spicy papaya salad with their ice coffees, I knew I had to stick arou… Read More

Beneath Thai Buddhist society, a strong undercurrent of superstition and black magic exists. Mysterious and taboo, these influences require research to be fully understood. Case in point is… Read More

As Internet access only reached the Thai masses after the introduction of the smartphone, Siam has a very different online landscape compared to the West. Online sales caught on relatively r… Read More

With my lovely wife moving to Belgium next month, some budgetary optimization will be needed temporarily if we want to keep up our slightly glamorous lifestyle. Plenty of inspiration for fut… Read More

Got another call from our friends over at the fake Microsoft office. Once again, my intention was to drag them along as I can, get them irritated and make them hang up themselves. I was a bi… Read More

Walking past the window, I caught a glimpse of this dramatic colorful sky and had to rush to capture it before it was gone. The sky was pink and purple with a splash of blue. The tiny hint o… Read More

In the weeks before Christmas, I flew to Shanghai with every intention to blog about my experiences, working from the Chinese metropolis. The People’s Republic of China, however, had d… Read More

Interested in having an ever-changing collection of interesting songs in a wide-variety of styles available anytime, anywhere? I present my Glitterati Radio Youtube playlist. An interesting… Read More

With my catch-up post about my adventures behind the Great Wall turning out to be more elaborate than I initially expected, here is a little sneak preview I would love to share ahead of time… Read More

If you can see the picture below, it means I was able to get it past the Great Firewall. If not: sorry, I really tried. The post Good morning, Shanghai appeared first on Glitterati Blog Read More

On this blue Sunday, I find myself in limbo at Bangkok International Airport. While I usually adore arriving at Suvarnabhumi, this particular visit feels surreal. Yes, I am on Thai soil and… Read More

Over the past weeks, a few people asked if I had been cured of the writing bug. While I do appreciate the concern, that is not at all what happened. Recently, I was given an international as… Read More

With my first attempt at keeping phone scammers on the telephone as long as possible only moderately successful, I decided to take a different approach. This time I went for stupid but inqui… Read More

A professional visit to Prague presented the perfect opportunity to experiment with low-light photography in a different setting. With mixed results, to be honest. The pictures below are the… Read More

Lately, my home and office phone numbers seem to be mainly used by sales people and phone scammers. Instead of letting frustration getting the better of me, I’ve decided to run with it… Read More

Commercial empires aren’t exclusive to mainstream business. Successful multinationals exist in underground markets just as well. A textbook example is British Dragon, the Pattaya labor… Read More

Nocturnal picture of sculpture by Rik Poot, in Vilvoorde (Belgium). The post Nocturnal horse appeared first on Glitterati Blog Read More

Over the last 3 years I have been trying to capture the essence of how Thai rural night markets look. There is something about the combination of a sunset and many different light sources, c… Read More

I remember a time when any preference for an older item would warrant a snooty response in Thailand. New was best, old was discarded and heritage irrelevant. How times have changed. Anything… Read More

The most suitable description of my attitude towards technology would be selective technophile. Yes, I do like digital gear, but I am not obsessed with new devices. When my trusty Macbook s… Read More

Pahurat, also known as Little India, is the neighbourhood just west of Yaowarat (Chinatown). Originally an enclave of the Vietnamese, and other South-East Asian cultures, Indians moved in sh… Read More

The post Nightly taxi ride on Srirakarin Road, Bangkok appeared first on Glitterati Blog Read More

This post started off as a follow-up to The Story of EST Cola. Thought to have come across another story of a Thai company standing up to a multinational conglomerate, I started to research… Read More

Yantra tattoos are extremely popular, even beyond Thailand’s borders. While Western tattoos typically have sentimental value, Thai tattoos have deeper meaning. Their distinctive style… Read More

Every year, the Thai community in the Benelux area meets up late August in the seaside city of Bredene for the event formerly know as Thaise Markt (Thai market). Rebranded as I ❤ Thai… Read More

We met Laurent while he was working behind the bar of our favorite tennis club. For years he entertained us with amusing tales about life in Isaan, Thailand’s North-Eastern region. His… Read More

At least twice a year I fly from Brussels to Bangkok and back. My wife usually makes the same round-trip in the opposite direction every 12 months. With intercontinental flights not exactly… Read More

When Thai-Flemish cultural organization Thaivlac offered to spend a day on the road with their Ram Thai dance group, I grasped the opportunity with both hands. Belgium has a thriving Thai sc… Read More

Was one of Panamarenko’s most iconic pieces inspired by a ’70s Nazi hoax? Follow me across a weird and wonderful story past twentieth century legends and pop-culture folklore. At… Read More

On the edge of mainstream and underground, combining billboard production characteristics with a nasty edge. That is how I like my contemporary music. Throw in a synth and a touch of melanch… Read More

With a string of foreigners dying in suspicious circumstances and an ominous nickname like Death Island, Koh Tao has been in the public eye for a while. Time to have a look into the history… Read More

We did it. After incredible amounts of red tape, 26 documents and a whole lot of patience, Khwantippa and I were married on July 15th. As the ultimate Siam In-between column, let me tell you… Read More

When we registered our wedding at city hall in part 1, we experienced the first challenges in marrying a foreign national in Belgium. Step 2, applying for a marriage visa, only emphasized th… Read More

Recently, I’ve rekindled my romance with photography by going back to my first (14-year old) camera. Never had more fun snapping pictures, than with that particular device. The challen… Read More

My post listing Thai newspapers in English triggered so much positive feedback that I decided to compile a follow up. This time I listed my favorite Thai-related magazines, blogs, vlogs and… Read More

Fascinated by retail in Thailand, I started paying attention to the differences compared to its Western counterpart. One distinction is related to branding in casual wear and denim.  Wh… Read More

With culinary tradition a significant part of Belgian culture and many business deals being struck at the dinner table, people frequently ask me about restaurants in my hometown of Vilvoorde… Read More

One of my favorite albums of all time is The best of Blue Note, a compilation of Jazz tracks released on Blue Note imprint. Blue Note Records is a legendary label that released some of the m… Read More

Back in 2005, Glitterati.be was a popular nightlife-and-fashion webzine yours truly was extremely proud of. Times have changed, life has moved on, but the original Glitterati website still h… Read More

In recent years, social media has sparked new interest into a magical substance called Lek Lai, or fluid metal. A cult following has developed around the protective properties and efforts to… Read More

Great set by Nakadia, recorded live at Altern8 festival in Hong Kong (March 11th, 2017). Her enthusiasm is enticing. No wonder Sven Väth signed her to Cocoon. Choc dee khrab, Nong Nakad… Read More

Increasingly modern as Thailand may become, it will always remain a mystical country. Buddhist beliefs are intermingled with legends about magic, ghosts and local folklore. In this series of… Read More

To truly start understanding Thai society, keeping up with the news is essential. Expats and foreigners in general often regard Thai newspapers as inaccessible. The language barrier does not… Read More

This blog has almost completely recovered from the major difficulties early this week. After a major power outage in the data center the site returned with very long loading times. Transfer… Read More

Over the last day, I have been working on technical upgrades for this blog. Solving bugs, optimizing images and code, testing different plugins. At one point, the system went down the drain… Read More

When my favorite gym closed late last year, I reluctantly joined Basic Fit. Price-wise their offer remains extremely attractive. I opted to pay for a one-year subscription (payed in advance)… Read More

Virtually every time we are in Thailand together, Khwantippa and I spend a night at a Tawan Daeng club with her friends. Always heaps of fun, it made me curious about the style of music that… Read More

Holidaymakers set on visiting Thailand regularly ask me where they can get the best exchange rates, converting their Euro’s into Thai Baht. In my experience (so far) the best deals are… Read More

Over the last few weeks the frequency of the updates on this blog has diminished, I am well aware. Getting a visa that allows my (Thai) fiancée and I to get married in Belgium has pro… Read More

On Friday, I hopped on the red-eye to Bangkok, as some of you have noticed on social media. A little while ago, I started writing about the process of getting married to my Thai fianc&eacute&hell…Read More

With a lot of positive feedback, the Deep Despair playlist was begging for a follow up. With a similar recipe of deep house and pop/urban lyrics, this one comes drenched in a slightly more u… Read More

Kind of a tech geek, my attention was drawn to this article in Business Insider today. Yes, I know, your wallet has been mobile all along. Mine too, but I was kind of hoping it was about har… Read More

Mash-ups are made by combining two separate songs, thereby creating a completely new track. They typically combine the vocals of one song with the instrumental version of another, but other… Read More

Today (06/04/2017) my hometown of Vilvoorde (Belgium) hosted the first edition of a monthly foodtruck market, behind city hall. From April to October, the event will take place on the first… Read More

‘The best pizza of Vilvoorde and surrounding area’. Felix Pizza in Vilvoorde has chosen quite the audacious tag line. I do like the implied confidence, but it does sound like a c… Read More

The sight of an impeccably clean German straight-6 engine gives me joy. I’ll confess: I’m a gearhead. This is my 17-year old jewel. Rebuilt, tuned, but inconspicuous and unassumi… Read More

My favorite era for R&B and Hip-hop spans from the late nineties till halfway the next decade. R&B came out of the age of Slow Jam and evolved into a relaxed and layered sound that p… Read More

After writing my post about Hipster Vilvoorde, I promised myself that I would visit and review all colorful businesses in my hometown. First up is Bazaar Trend lab, by far the local venture… Read More

Belgian big-box retailer Colruyt started offering Everyday Wine. Not convinced that wine is such a good idea on a daily basis, but who am I? Read More

Browsing through my portfolio of stock funds yesterday, looking for opportunities for my monthly modest purchases, I quickly realized that we are going through a bullish spell and this might… Read More

Musically speaking, the Eighties don’t have the best reputation. There was Hair Metal, George Michael in different blazers, the electronic drum and MTV pushing music videos.  One… Read More

“We are not particularly good at doing things quickly. When we try to act swiftly, things inevitably go wrong.” – Local City Official, said with a careless smurk on her fac… Read More

Getting married to a Thai national (or any foreign national, for that matter) in Belgium isn’t a straight-forward process. Official sources contradict each other in tiny (but crucial)… Read More

After the success of my travel top tip for charging your devices, it’s time for a follow up. Not only will I reveal a hidden option to charge your devices, I will resolve one of the gr… Read More

Woke up to this view over Vilvoorde Read More

My hometown is Vilvoorde, a city with about 43,000 inhabitants neighboring the Belgian capital of Brussels and with a checkered past. Vilvoorde thrived during the Industrial Revolution due t… Read More

Nakadia kicked bottom in 2016: she signed with Cocoon and was named one of the six people that changed dance music in 2016. Impressive, kudos! She caught my attention years because of a shar… Read More

While researching another blog post today, I made a remarkable observation. German online retailer Zalando seems to practice considerable direct price discrimination. In Belgium, the exact s… Read More

In my quest for a decent traditional Thai massage in Belgium, I came across Baan Prathumwan in Antwerp. The inside looks like a proper above-average massage parlor like you fi… Read More

I’m all for showing a product from all angles in an online store, but Zalando has a strange way of picking the main image sometimes. As a fan of all things dark blue, I do like these A… Read More

With my supply of whey products replenished, time has almost come to straighten up and fly right. My period of extensive traveling comes to a pauze halfway through February and I plan to hit… Read More

Maybe it’s just the remarkable advertising profile Facebook has given me, but adverts on my Facebook wall have been strange for a while. Endless Kickstarter wristwatch suggestions have… Read More

For about a decade America Today‘s self-branded Alex boxer were my absolute favorite. Well-designed (wedgie-proof ;-)), durable and comfortable, they offered great value for quality th… Read More