By Ruth Gerson

T​he local academia scene remains a vibrant sector attracting talented people from across the world to work here and enjoy Thailand’s long list of attractions.
For Acharn Jessica (Vechbanyongratana), a young lady from the mountainous state of Colorado in the US who has taught at the Faculty of Economics at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok since 2010, life in Thailand has created all kinds of new opportunities, including authorship of a book and a small business.
Working as an Assistant Professor in the university’s Faculty of Economics, Jessica has been able to indulge her passion for historical research, which has produced some surprising revelations about the history of land fertility and ownership in Thailand.
Jessica’s connection with Thailand actually goes back to 1995 when she arrived here as a high school exchange student. Although she originally applied to study in Japan, Jessica found herself unexpectedly diverted to Thailand under the auspices of the Rotary International exchange program due to her flexibility and open mindedness, as there seems to have been a shortage of students who signed up for SE Asia.
Jessica was enrolled at a high school in the far Thai southern city of Hatyai, and housed with two families for the duration of the school year. It was certainly an effective way of learning Thai very quickly, complete with a southern vernacular, which she now chuckles about.
The second time around Jessica arrived here in 2008 with her Thai husband whom she had met and married in the US. He had accepted an attractive employment in Thailand in the field of IT, while Jessica was completing her PhD degree in economics, with specialties in economic history and labor economics.

Back in 2003, German photographer Ralf Tooten first arrived in Thailand to prepare for an exhibition called ‘The Eyes of Wisdom’ at the National Gallery, a collaborative event with the Goethe Institute. Seventeen years later, he’s still here, has his own photography production company, Tooten Photography, and is married to a beautiful Thai lady named Tao, who is an interior and lamp designer.
Today you will find their individual studios, as well as their stunning home on Sukhumvit 49/14 in Bangkok, an urban neighborhood near the Saen Saeb Klong.
The Studio House they reside in is a modern masterpiece made out of concrete and glass, designed by the talented Japanese/Thai architect/curator Khun Jun Sekino. It took several years to find the right location for their villa, and more time for it to be ready to move in to, but the wait was well worthwhile, say Ralf and Tao.
The house is divided into two buildings connected by huge windows. Because the windows and terraces face north, they avoid the direct sun. The entire structure is covered with a kind of brick net, which gives the house a very special look and emphasizes its contrasting style compared to the old, colorful wooden houses on the same narrow road. Inside, the walls are covered with some of Ralf’s huge, colorful photographs.
Ralf, who has a captivating smile and a delightful sense of humor, was born in the small village Homberg, at the lower Rhine area in Westphalia, Germany, close to the Dutch boarder.

Walking along Dongtan Beach, Pattaya promenade at 7:30am is a daily ritual for me.  It brings a sense of much needed normalcy; sharing pleasantries with the other exercisers is a soothing reminder of life prior to Covid-19.  It is also hopeful knowing that every passerby is facing similar decisions with unknown answers. 

Being almost 70 years old, living and working in Pattaya has been a dream come true.  The exceptional tropical beach weather, sociability within the community, expanding commercial development and light traffic compared to Bangkok, are reasons enough why my husband and I chose to make this city our permanent home. 

For the past twenty two years I’ve been a resident of Pattaya - that’s saying a lot from a Southern California beach girl.  Unfortunately, Pattaya does suffer from a sordid image, but there is another side that attracts retirees, families and couples that you seldom hear about.  

Bangkok - Sukhmvit 1989
It has been an exciting, 31-year adventure since moving to Thailand with my wonderful, Thai husband Paisan.  Initially we spent 10 years in Bangkok while the BTS was under construction.  We almost lived on the tracks where the pounding of the piling could be heard unceasingly.  Then we encountered the Tom Yum Goong financial crisis in 1998, which was a humbling experience. 

For 10 years in Bangkok, my work allowed me to travel to almost every corner of the country as a consultant for real estate developers.  Conducting feasibility analysis and housing market research would later assist in creating the design and concept for our future resort. 
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Ximena met her husband Douglas in Bogota where he was sent to work with Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. They married in 1975 and continued to live in Colombia for a further six years. Later they moved to Miami in the US.

While in Bogota, Ximena continued to paint while teaching art at the elementary level of the International School of Bogota.  The birth of her first child, a daughter, set Ximena on a new track, and she began her own business designing and selling educational toys.

Ximena’s art kept growing and changing while she continuously experimented in new styles and working with various media. In Miami, she took a course in garden design and after a year the family was on the move again “The story of my life,” she says bemoaning the fact that she had to abandon so many projects and courses before being able to finish them, as life had other designs for her. This time they were on their way to Sri Lanka, where Douglas was transferred. Adds Ximena: “This is what happens to a woman who follows her husband, but I always continued my art.”
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By Arshi Banerjee

What more can be said or written about Bangkok that’s not already appeared elsewhere? After all, there’s a mountain of books out there on Thailand’s enigmatic capital, and the pile grows ever bigger by the year, so you’d think pretty much everything had been covered.
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Then along comes Philip Cornwel-Smith and his wonderful newly published book ‘Very Bangkok’ and you realize that there is still much to be learned about the Thai capital.

Sub-titled ‘In the City of the Senses,’ this is a well written and deeply insightful guide to Philip’s adopted home since 1994, and deserves a place on the bookshelf of anyone with an interest in Thailand.
It’s an impressive production, beautifully printed, 360 pages long, featuring Philip’s thoughtful photography and unique research arranged in three parts: Senses, Heart and Face, each providing a different way of looking at one of the world’s most complex and complicated cities.