Thailand - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Burn It All for the Mushrooms: The Smoky Quest for Thailand's Truffles Ah, Chiang Mai, land of misty mountains, tranquil temples, and a three-month period every year when you can’t see any of it because the air turns into a smoky apocalypse. Why? Sure, some of it’s due to large-scale agriculture and cross-border burning, but a surprising amount of haze comes from a much humbler source: villagers setting the forest on fire to hunt for mushrooms. Not just any mushrooms, but the illustrious  het thob (เห็ดถอบ), also known as earthstar mushrooms or Astraeus hygrometricus . These round, truffle-like fungi are delicious, elusive, and most importantly, they thrive in recently burned forest soil. So, come dry season, locals grab their lighters and head to the hills to light things up, unfortunately literally. To be fair, this isn't just chaos for chaos’ sake. It’s tradition, it's seasonal income, it's dinner. These mushrooms fetch high prices at the market and can mean serious...

Breathless in Bangkok: A Tale of Air Pollution, PM2.5, and Government (In)Action Welcome to Thailand, where the air is thick with... well, not just the aroma of delicious street food, but also a not-so-delightful cocktail of pollutants. Let's dive into the hazy world of Thailand's air pollution problems, the infamous PM2.5 particles, and the government's attempts to tackle (or not) this invisible menace. The Invisible Enemy: PM2.5 PM2.5 particles are tiny, sneaky foes—so small they can infiltrate your lungs and even enter your bloodstream. These microscopic menaces come from various sources: vehicle exhaust, industrial emissions, and agricultural burning. In Thailand, they're a chronic problem, especially during the dry season from November to April, when farmers burn fields and the weather traps pollutants close to the ground. Selfish Farmers and Local Losers: Fueling the Fire One of the major contributors to Thailand's air pollution woes is the selfish practice of...