Lifestyle

The world of the ‘farangs’ of the day in Bangkok revolved around activities loosely bounded by New Road from Sathorn to Siphya Roads, north to Petchburi Road, east to Rajadamri (New Petchburi Road did not exist then) down to Ploenchit, east again on Sukhumvit to about Soi Asoke 19, which was the end of civilization and the beginning of the boondocks all the way to the Cambodian border (in 1949, Sukhumvit Road was only paved to Soi 20; after that it was dirt and gravel), south down Wireless Road, east again on Rama IV Road, into the port in Klong Toey.
Most of these roads were tree-lined with enormous rain trees and were bordered by ‘klongs,’ most of which were navigable and connected to the Chao Phya River – the Siamese Mother of Waters. These had been the avenues of commerce in the old days. Eventually, all were covered over or filled in to expand the surface roads to handle the increase of vehicular traffic.
     The ‘sois’ leading off of them were often not paved, just compacted dirt, and in the rainy season very muddy. Then west down Rama IV and New Road to Chinatown, down Yawarat Road, Sampeng Alley, Nakorn Kasem (the Thieves Market where you bought back what was stolen by the ‘kamoeys’ the night before) to the Rattanakosin Island/Rajadamnern Avenue area with the government offices, the courts, two universities and the Grand Palace, the Temple on the Golden Mount and the Dusit Zoo. And, of course, on Rajadamnern Avenue with the Rattanakosin (the ‘Rat’) and Majestic Hotels and the infamous Cathay Night Club.
     The transnational corporations of the day considered Bangkok to be a hardship post with entitlements to extra allowances – no resident dared to disillusion them. Social life for Americans, Europeans and cultivated foreign-educated Thais centered pretty much on the Royal Bangkok Sports Club with its horse racing, swimming pool, tennis, squash and badminton courts, field sports, golf, card-reading and billiard rooms (for men only) and parties, parties, parties, often in costume. For many years it had been the only place in the city where you could take a hot shower!

Every day, mountains of unsold food are thrown away by Bangkok restaurants, bakeries, hotels, grocers, cafes and supermarkets. It’s not only a terrible waste of valuable nutrition at a time when so many people in today’s world are going hungry, but it’s also damaging the environment.

What can be done to change this appalling situation?
One very enterprising team based in Bangkok believes they have the answer. It’s called Yindii, a start-up delivery service that ‘rescues’ food before it’s thrown in the trash at the end of the day. It’s then repackaged in a ‘surprise bag’ of high quality goodies that’s sold on to customers via an app for up to 70% of the normal price.
Less waste and extra revenue for food sellers – and bargain meals for hungry eaters. It’s a win-win situation.
The creative mind behind Yindii is 35-year-old Louis-Alban Batard-Dupre from Paris who landed in Thailand three years ago after a successful career in start-ups in Europe and America. The idea came to him while volunteering for SOS, a food waste rescue charity. It was an experience that crystalized his thoughts on today’s throwaway society and its impact on the environment.
“Around 33% of all food produced worldwide is wasted or lost every day, creating a carbon footprint, and cutting short our lives on this planet,” says Louis. “That is close to a billion and a half tons that is never consumed, accounting for 10% of the greenhouse emissions around the globe, four times more pollution than the airline industry. Someone somewhere is losing money, while people elsewhere are starving.”
Yindii works in Thailand with more than 150 partners, says Louis, including a number of major hotels like Hyatt Erawan, JW Marriott, Centara Grand, Movenpick, SO/Bangkok and Sofitel Sukhumvit; major supermarkets like Tops and Gourmet market; as well as  premium food brands like Mandarin Oriental shop, Landhaus Bakery, Tiengna and Paris Mikki.
When these partners have boxed the surplus food at closing time, they contact Yindii which in turn announces them in its daily ‘Happy Hour Deals’ via its app.
The actual contents of the ‘surprise bag’ are only revealed when it is opened. This may sound like something of a gamble but with almost 40,000 Yindii customers since its launch a few months ago, it seems to be paying off.
“Although you can’t tell precisely what you’re going to get in the bag, the store will indicate whether it contains fruits, vegetables, baked goods, pastries or even a meal,” says Louis. “It feels like a surprise gift when you receive the bag!”
There’s also no telling in advance what Yindii’s partners will be offering in their daily ‘Happy Hour’ deals.’ ”It changes every day,” he says. “What's important is to be sure that, 
as a customer, you'll receive perfectly good food. If you're satisfied with the surprise bag, there's a high probability you will come back to this sustainable store"  
Customers can collect their Yindii bag from the restaurant or the shop themselves, or arrange to have it delivered.
With certain stores already proving more popular than others, eagle-eyed customers watch out for Yindii’s announcements to make sure they are first in the queue to place an order. “You definitely need to fight for some boxes – it can be very competitive,” says Louis, adding that the most successful partners are usually bakeries as they give really high value for money as they have no other alternative than throwing it away. 
ouis admits that his venture faces a challenge with Thai consumers who view food waste as something dirty, or that leftover food somehow suggests a company is not successful. “We need to change that mentality. Waste is not waste until you waste it” He would also like to see a change in Thailand’s food waste laws, emulating countries like France which forbids retailers from throwing away leftover food and forcing them to donate it instead to charities.
It’s still early days for Yindii, but Louis believes it can be replicated in other countries. “It has the potential to become one of the world’s most successful anti-food waste ventures.”
www.yindii.co

Next time you throw away some worn-out sneakers, remember this: A pair of original Nike Moon shoes used in the 1972 US Olympic trials were sold in auction a couple of years ago for the world record sum of US$437,500 – double the previous highest figure.
Probably costing less than US$10 when new, this now fairly dilapidated pair of sneakers represents a spectacular investment – and may explain why collecting trainers is such a popular hobby and a lucrative hedge against inflation.
Check out Tareq Q, a self-proclaimed “sneakerhead” from Kuwait who has the biggest sneaker collection in the Middle East.
Bangkok regular Tareq has been building his collection from the age of 12 with a pair of Stealth black Air Jordan 5s, which he bought at the World of Sports store in Singapore and wore until the soles fell off.
Today, he has over 800 pairs of different sneakers stacked high in “the vault” of his home in Kuwait as well as in his family’s London apartment. A few also reside here in Thailand.
To his more than 130,000 followers on Instagram, he’s known as @kickstq and until recently kept his name, age and background a secret. His face was always kept strategically covered in promotional photos to add to the myster

​Name /Nickname: No nickname, only George.
Current position and company: Executive Director and co-founder of Sports Engineering And Recreation Asia Ltd.
What is your company involved in, and how long has it been in existence? Sports Engineering And Recreation Asia Ltd (Seara) specializes in the planning, supply, and installation of quality health, sports, and recreation facilities in hospitality, real estate, educational, government, corporate, and consumer markets.
Seara was formed in 1999 in Bangkok and today has eleven offices and ten retail showrooms in seven countries in Indo-China and East Asia as well as five branches in Thailand.  The company has four divisions: Commercial Fitness, Consumer or retail fitness, Sports Construction, and Customer Service.

"I decided to take a leap of faith and had my first treatment. This was a life-changing moment. I was absolutely hooked. Over a course of effective acupuncture sessions, all symptoms – the addictive habits, depression, sciatica, suicidal thoughts, aches, insomnia, the disconnect with myself and the world, were completely eradicated.” 
Today, eight years later, 44-year-old Davina, has turned her life around and resolved the many issues that she had carried over from her younger days in the UK.
Chef consultancy for a selected few clients became far less demanding.  She now had time to focus on her passion for health and wellness.
Having been profoundly moved by the benefits of acupuncture, she decided to study the subject more closely, as an apprentice to a licensed practitioner.  Now it forms an essential part of her next project - a “wellness platform” that also features nutritional advice and life coaching. She has plans to launch in Bangkok with the collaboration of other health specialists. It will signal a brand new chapter in her busy and often challenging life.

T​he last two years have been exceptionally busy for Steve Craig, owner of the Accidental Butcher, an independent retail and wholesale meat supplier located in a small side street on Bangkok’s Soi Ekamai.
“We grew by 25% in 2020 and maybe even more this year,” says Steve, explaining that his company’s trend-bucking performance in these Covid times has been due mostly to the fact that people have been eating at home more regularly because of the lockdown.
But while his shop’s products have been flying off the shelves in recent times, much to the delight of this veteran butcher, Steve faces a new challenge now affecting  his business industry – how to overcome dwindling supplies from Australia, his major source of high quality beef, without unduly compromising the price he charges his growing list of customers.
The shortage is down to a combination of factors, says Steve, including a slew of natural disasters in Australia - drought, fires and a run of cold winters that have resulted in significant losses of meat and dairy cattle, all contributing to an industry downturn and the current worldwide shortage of protein.

By Andrew J Wood
Has travel and tourism in Thailand changed? I found myself contemplating the answer as I sat drinking my pint in the Londoner pub in Bangkok with a mate. I’m a Yorkshire lad and having a pint in t’pub is something we do, but this one was special.
With the pandemic, it had been 19 months since my last beer in a Bangkok pub and as I sat there it all seemed so normal, so real as though nothing had passed. As if nothing had changed. But it was most definitely different; the arrival of Covid-19 was an event of such magnitude that no-one was spared.
As I sat sipping my pint my thoughts turned to the future. What lay in store for the industry I had been involved in for more than four decades?  In 2019 in a world unaffected by the coronavirus, Thailand had welcomed 39.9 million tourists from across the globe. The industry is now forecasting it will be difficult to reach even six million for 2021. A drop of 85%.
Tourism is a major economic contributor to the Kingdom. Estimates of tourism revenue directly contributing to the GDP, according to Wikipedia, range from one trillion baht (2013) to 2.53 trillion baht (2016), the equivalent of 9% to 17.7% of GDP. And according to the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) in 2019, the tourism sector was projected to grow and in the next ten years would account for 30% of GDP by 2030, up from 20% in 2019.
These forecasts however have been adversely affected by the pandemic, NESDC confirms the actual figures for Thailand’s GDP contracted 6.1% in 2020 due to Covid-19.