Thailand’s capital, Krungtep, known as Bangkok to Westerners and “the City of Angels” to Thais, has been home to smugglers and adventurers since the late eighteenth century. During the 1970s, it became a modern Casablanca to a new generation of treasure seekers: from surfers looking to finance their endless summers to wide-eyed hippie true believers and lethal marauders leftover from the Vietnam War. Moving a shipment of Thai sticks from northeast Thailand farms to American consumers meant navigating one of the most complex smuggling channels in the history of the drug trade. Peter Maguire and Mike Ritter are the first historians to document this underground industry, the only record of its existence rooted in the fading memories of its elusive participants. Conducting hundreds of interviews with smugglers and law enforcement agents, the authors recount the buy, the delivery, the voyage home, and the product offload. They capture the eccentric personalities who transformed the Thai marijuana trade from a GI cottage industry into one of the world’s most lucrative commodities, unraveling a rare history from the smugglers’ perspective.

The definitive Thai cookbook from a YouTube star! Growing up in Thailand, Pailin Chongchitnant spent her childhood with the kitchen as her playground. From a young age, she would linger by the stove, taking in the sight of snowy white coconut being shredded, the smell of lemongrass-infused soups, and the sound of the pestle pounding against the granite mortar. Years later, as a Cordon Bleu–educated chef in San Francisco, Pailin vividly remembered the culinary experiences of her youth. And so, on YouTube, Hot Thai Kitchen was born. Combining her love of teaching with her devotion to Thai food, Pailin immediately connected with thousands of fans who wanted a friend and educator. In this much-anticipated cookbook, Pailin brings her signature warmth and impressive technique to Thai food lovers everywhere. She begins by taking readers on a beautifully photographed trip to Thailand to explore the culinary culture and building blocks central to Thai food. With foolproof and easy-to-follow instructions, Pailin breaks down the key ingredients, flavours, equipment, and techniques necessary to master authentic Thai cooking. Then, she shares her must-make recipes for curries, soups, salads, and stir-fries, including entire chapters on vegetarian and vegan dishes, dips and dipping sauces, and sumptuous Thai desserts. With QR codes to video tutorials placed throughout the book, you’ll be able to connect with Pailin online, too. Both a definitive resource and an extraordinary exploration of Thai cuisine, Hot Thai Kitchen will delight and inspire you in your Thai cooking journey.

Both professional practitioners and casual massage enthusiasts will learn to raise their practice to an art with this step-by-step guide to foot massage as traditionally taught in Thailand. The practical sections of the book clearly cover the different parts of the massage process, and color photos and graphics provide clear explanations to help learners utilize the techniques with confidence. The book also covers the history and theory behind Thai foot massage, including discussions about the reflex points on the feet and the concept of Sen (energy) lines that flow throughout the body, to help explain how this ancient healing art works. Though Thai foot massage is not a curative in itself, the featured techniques can promote general health and well-being.

An intimate, beautifully written coming-of-age memoir--a young girl's journey from war-torn Vietnam to Ridgewood, Queens, and her struggle to find her voice amid clashing cultural expectations. Ly Tran is just a toddler in 1993 when she and her family emigrate from a small town along the Mekong River in Vietnam to a two-bedroom railroad apartment in Ridgewood, Queens. Ly's father, a former lieutenant in the South Vietnamese army, spent nearly a decade as a POW, and their resettlement is made possible through a humanitarian program run by the US government. Soon after they arrive, Ly joins her parents and three older brothers in sewing ties and cummerbunds piecemeal on their living room floor to make ends meet. As they navigate this new landscape, Ly finds herself torn between two worlds. She knows she must honor her parents' Buddhist faith and contribute to the family livelihood, working long hours at home and then later as a manicurist alongside her mother at a nail salon in Brownsville, Brooklyn, which her parents eventually take over. But at school, Ly feels the mounting pressure to blend in. A growing inability to see the blackboard presents new challenges, especially when her father forbids her from getting glasses, calling her diagnosis of poor vision a government conspiracy. His frightening temper and paranoia leave an indelible mark on Ly's sense of self. Who is she outside of everything her family expects of her? Told in a spare, evocative voice that, with flashes of humor, weaves together her family's immigration experience with her own fraught and courageous coming-of-age, House of Sticks is a timely and powerful portrait of one girl's struggle to reckon with her heritage and forge her own path. --

"This is a revised edition of Law and war : an American story [published in 2000]."--T.p. verso.

Youth Culture and Identity in Northern Thailand examines how young people in urban Chiang Mai construct an identity at the intersection of global capitalism, state ideologies, and local culture. Drawing on over 15 years of ethnographic research, the book explores the impact of rapid urbanisation and modernisation on contemporary Thai youth, focusing on conspicuous youth subcultures, drug use (especially methamphetamine use), and violent youth gangs. Anjalee Cohen shows how young Thai people construct a specific youth identity through consumerism and symbolic boundaries – in particular through enduring rural/urban distinctions. The suggestion is that the formation of subcultures and “deviant” youth practices, such as drug use and violence, are not necessarily forms of resistance against the dominant culture, nor a pathological response to dramatic social change, as typically understood in academic and public discourse. Rather, Cohen argues that such practices are attempts to “fit in and stick out” in an anonymous urban environment. This volume is relevant to scholars in Thai Studies, Southeast Asian Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Urban Studies, and Development Studies, particularly those with an interest in youth, drugs, and gangs.

This book is the story of Peter Maguire's effort to learn how Cambodia's "culture of impunity" developed, why it persists, and the failures of the "international community" to confront the Cambodian genocide. Written from a personal and historical perspective, Facing Death in Cambodia recounts Maguire's growing anguish over the gap between theories of universal justice and political realities. Maguire documents the atrocities and the aftermath through personal interviews with victims and perpetrators, discussions with international officials, journalistic accounts, and government sources.