Buriram

Rural Thai City Emerges As Sporting Camelot

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A ‘godfather’ of Thai politics is using cash and contacts to transform his once poor, forgotten rice-farming fiefdom into an unlikely sporting Camelot, complete with a football stadium and racetrack set to host the MotoGP. Newin Chidchob, a 58-year-old native son of Buriram in Thailand’s agrarian northeast, has enticed super-rich investors into his vision of … Read more

Three Years After Coup, Rural Thais Yearn For Democracy

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Three years after their latest coup, Thailand’s arch-royalist military is firmly dug-in. Dissent is banned, a junta-appointed legislature makes the law — and awards the army an ever-burgeoning budget — while a new constitution gifts the military power to write the script for Thailand’s next 20 years. But discontent lingers and is at its sharpest … Read more