Songkran (Thai New Year water festival) is everywhere right now and for about a week it is quite hard to stay dry.
In the last few days I tried out the ‘GoPro’ HD video cam (which is waterproof) for a Songkran story. I took some footage in my neighborhood Huay Kwang and on Khaosan Road. Here are some still pics of my footage…
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Originally published at Siam Voices / Asian Correspondent on April 11, 2011

The heavy clashes in February at the Preah Vihear Temple have been the peak in the still ongoing Thai-Cambodian border dispute.
I went to Sisaket (Thai side) during the clashes and followed many villagers who have been evacuated. Most villagers moved to the next biggest city Kantharalak. Several villages have been affected by rockets and shells. The military built up road blocks and tried to seal the area.
The refugee camps at Kantharalak were helping with food, medical support and shelter. About 20.000 refugees were in and around Kantharalak for several weeks after the clashes.
The situation at the border calmed down – most villagers moved back to their homes but some roads are still blocked and military is ready to take action at any time. (more…)

According to Thailand’s calendar it is New Year again and people preparing for several days of celebration! It is actually the first time I am spending in Bangkok during the Thai New Year. Last year I was quite busy with the protests in Bangkok and the year before I celebrated in Laos (German) which shares the same moon oriented calendar.

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Its not only Thailand which is censoring various kind of online media. These graphic gives a good overview on the current situation and issues on Internet censorship around the world.  What content is censored in which country and how does it work? (more…)

Over the last few days we went up to the Thai-Burmese border to deliver donations to the clinic & the refugee camps in Mae La. Our last visit was in December and we gathered lots of clothing donations, food and medication for the clinic in the last two months. Our rental truck was pretty stuffed, thanks to everyone who donated! (more…)

It was in the news nearly 24h for weeks. I was constantly reminded on the clashes in Bangkok but it was interesting to follow the political struggle of the modern Egypt and see changes in the middle east. Al Jazeera did a great job during the clashes and their latest round up is pretty good to cover the main events in the 18 days of ‘modern revolution’.

Tara and I spent Christmas and New Years Eve in India. It was a great trip but overall we both came to the conclusion that India is far away from being as charming and spiritual as advertised. For a bit more than two weeks we explored the northern part of India. From Calcutta up to Darjeeling into the Sikkim Himalaya region…

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A short Podcast (originally recorded for Radio Thailand) about the refugee situation at the Thai-Burmese Border since the election in November.

[audio:http://www.vaitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/burma_podcast10.mp3|titles=Burmese Refugee 'Ping-Pong'|artists=January Podcast]

Its been about one month since we released the website for Burma Border Aid to raise money for a little Burmese refugee clinic. We gathered over $700 so far and traveled up to the clinic a few days ago to deliver some clothes, food and medical supplies. (more…)

Just a century ago our news structure was dramatically different than today: a world of pigeon posts, telegraphs, and air mail, methods of communication that are now just faded images only found in history books. Now every one of us is receiving a constant and immediate flood of news, photographs, stories and gossip from all over the world via Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and millions of RSS Feeds, at a rate and amount that would have been inconceivable only a decade ago.
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