What this site covers

observergroup.net is about Thailand at working scale: the river that still carries commuters, the roads that replaced the canals, the hours markets keep, the food that arrived with migrant labour, and the two monsoons the year is built around. Most of it is reported from Bangkok.

The subjects are specific rather than general. A road with a date on it — Charoen Krung, paved in 1864 because the foreign community wanted somewhere to drive. A capital with a year — Ayutthaya, sacked in 1767, after which the court moved downriver to the site Bangkok now occupies. A dish with a border in it — khao soi, which arrived in Chiang Mai overland rather than up the Chao Phraya. A railway that went into the air because the ground underneath it is soft alluvium.

How it is organised

Seven sections, each holding its own guides. The river and the working day it keeps; a city that could not dig, so it built upward; where the city buys things, and when; the food, which is regional and argued over; the two coasts and their opposite seasons; the capital before this one; and the things a visitor notices before anyone explains them.

Every guide on the site is listed on the archive page, and each section has its own landing page reachable from the menu at the top of any page or from the sections index.

Photographs

The pictures are of the places, dishes, buildings and vehicles the guides discuss, and the captions are there to add something the picture cannot show on its own. Credits sit under the caption where the source is known.