SHEER SERENDIPITY

Ser-en-dip-i-ty n (U) the natural ability to find interesting or valuable things which one is not looking for ('Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English').

Well, I'm not sure about the 'natural ability' bit. If we have it, then it seems to appear only in bursts, the rest of the process of assembling 'interesting or valuable' contents for this magazine falls into the more mundane category labeled 'sweat and toil'.

But the way this month's cover feature came along, or rather fell into our lap, was indeed sheer serendipity! Firstly, our occasional travel correspondent Reinhard Hohler happened to mention that the first marathon hovercraft journey in Asia had a spare seat available as it passed by Thailand along the mighty Mekong on it's way to Cambodia. Looking into my diary I sighed the usual wistful sigh. Why do these 'interesting and valuable' opportunities always seem to fall mid month when my production pressure is at it's most frenetic?

Second (and a matter of only seconds later), in walks our Swedish/Canadian visitor Peter Wennberg, photographer and former pilot, looking for anything mechanical that moves and might also promote Thailand, a nation with which he has just fallen in love! Thirdly, all this is just in time for the excellent Namkhong Travel to organise the Laos visa he needs in order to jump on the craft; fourth, this is all 3,000% more 'interesting and valuable' than the other feature I had in mind!

That's how this month's cover and main feature fell into place, while a discovery of local food producer Dacheeso's excellent garlic butter compelled me to choose that wonder plant as a follow up to last month's chillies. Next month? Coriander of course!

There's an exception to every rule and the one unserendipitous (can I say that?) aspect this month was our Community Spirit page. Planned as the report of our hand-over of your kind clothing donations to a needy hilltribe, it gave way to a last appeal simply to give us time to find a truly deserving village.

We simply ran out of recce time and will have organised the whole thing for mid-December by the time you read this. Phone up or e-mail with any last donations and feel free to come along! Everything else fell together nicely - for once - and we even won an award on a family rally.

Someone just told me that "Spirit of the Sport" is actually the polite Thai version of the English "booby prize." But I don't care. It was serendipity again!

Hovercraft marathon on the mighty Mekong

Pioneers and VIPs hovered through 6 nations.

David Hardy

Khmer! Khome along and see our ruins!

Garlic: gift from the gods?

All about garlic. Hold your breath!

PIP

New meets old on family rally

Rallysport - fun for all the family.

Chiangmai and the North

How foreigners can own Thai land & condos

My Chiangmai

David Hardy

Reasons to Relax

FOUR IDEAS, FOUR TILL MIDNIGHT

Ric Klein

Financial Affairs

MANAGED CURRENCY ACCOUNTS

The Drinks Page

Night Fowl

Letters

FRENCH TRAMS IN TOWN?

Chiangmai could have it's own version of San Francisco cable cars if a 30 million baht feasibility study looks positive. (...).

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