Author: Richard Barrow

The Tourism Department will organize the Thailand International Film Destination Festival 2019 (TIFDF 2019) from 25th March to 2nd April 2019. There will be free viewings of international films shot in Thailand from 27th to 31st March at Siam Paragon Cineplex. The movies are: Detective Chinatown (7:00pm on 27th March), Bounty Hunters (7:00pm on 28th March), Hangover Part II (7:00pm on 29th March), Gold (7:00pm on 30th March), and Changeland (7:00pm om 31st March). You can reserve tickets by calling the Hotline number on 097-045-8526 or going in person to the ticket booking point In front of McDonald’s store The Paragon Cineplex Theater. They will be open for booking from 26th – 31st March 2019 from 11:00am to 5:00pm.

Since 2013, the annual Thailand International Film Destination Festival has been important in promoting Thailand as a prime location for shooting international films and helped to generate income for

Some good news for people who use the MRT subway in Bangkok. The long-awaited extension west from Hua Lamphong to Lak Song will open ahead of schedule. It was recently announced that the general public will be able to ride the extension for free when it opens for a test run in April this year. It will then be officially opened in September 2019. The new extension is 14 kilometers long and has eleven stations. Of note for tourists are the stations in Chinatown and Rattanakosin island. The latter is only a short walk from the Temple of the Reclining Buddha and the Grand Palace.

The beautiful interior at MRT Sanam Chai

Unlike the regular stations, there are four stations on the Blue Line extension that will surely please the selfie generation and anyone who appreciates a piece of art and originality. The above picture is from

Air pollution is a hot topic in Thailand these days. Everyone is talking about it, which is a good thing. In the past, it had mainly been swept under the carpet or regulated to the inside pages of the national newspapers. Now that it has become headline news, people are not only talking about where air pollution comes from and what we can do to reduce it, but they are also looking into ways of monitoring the air pollution themselves in their homes and their community. This year saw a run on both air quality monitors and air purifiers. To the extent that many shops quickly ran out of stock. I’ve had my own air quality monitor for about a year now. It is an Air Tricorder by Makerspace Thailand (see my first look review here). At that time, I was also interested in the AirVisual Pro

This year, it would seem that everyone wants to buy an air quality monitor. Which is a good thing as it raises awareness of the air pollution problem. But which one to buy and where to buy it? Prices vary a lot and they each have their own advantages and disadvantages. In addition, can you really trust them to do a good job? Particularly if they are so cheap? As people keep asking me where I bought my air quality monitors from, I thought I would gather information together on this one page to help answer that question. At this moment I am not saying which ones I like the best. But, as I gradually start doing reviews of these monitors, I will also add a star rating with pros and cons for this page. Please bookmark this page or the Air Pollution page on my website

This year saw a big jump in public interest in not only air pollution awareness, but also interest in finding out the air quality reading in their area. There are a number of websites out there that help you with this. The main international sites are aqicn.org and airvisual.com. I have used them both, but I find AirVisual more useful. Mainly because AQICN seems to rely a lot on government monitoring stations that are not always reliably updated. Yes, AirVisual sometimes has these problems, but most of their stations are run by ordinary people and schools and these are updated hourly. AirVisual also has the advantage that they have a good app for smartphones and widgets that webmasters can put on their blogs like at the bottom of this post.

If you have been in Thailand for any length of time, you probably already have the LINE chat app on your mobile phone. I use it every day to communicate with people at work and also with my Thai friends. It is the Asian version of WhatsApp which is popular in the West. But not everyone realizes that this same app also has something called Rabbit LINE Pay. You can use this to pay for goods and services. I signed up for it last year, but I never really used it. However, then I heard that you could link your Rabbit Card for the BTS Skytrain to your Rabbit LINE Pay account. Once you have done this, you never need to queue up ever again to top up your Rabbit Card when riding the Skytrain.

February 15, 2019

นโยบายการป้องกัน และตารางมลพิษทางอากาศ ของโรงเรียนศรีวิทยาปากน้ำ จ.สมุทรปราการ เพื่อให้คุณครู ผู้ปกครองเฝ้าระวังนักเรียนและบุตรหลานของท่าน เกี่ยวกับความปลอดภัยจากมลภาวะทางอากาศ

โรงเรียนของเรามีเครื่องตรวจวัดอากาศ สามารถบอกค่ามลพิษ ได้ตลอดเวลาที่เชื่อมต่อกับอินเตอร์เน็ตอ่านค่าได้ทุก ๆ 5 นาที เพื่อความปลอดภัยของบุตรหลานท่าน

This is the air pollution policy for Sriwittayapaknam School in Samut Prakan, Thailand. Other Thai schools are welcome to base their air pollution policies on our one. Our aim is to help all Thai youth.

Our school has an onsite air quality station that continuously monitors the air we breathe, twenty-four hours a day. This is connected to the Internet so that parents and people in the local community can know more about the quality of the air both day and night.

To see the AQI readings for our school, you need to download the AirVisual app. 

Air Pollution policy at Sriwittayapaknam School นโยบายป้องกันมลพิษทางอากาศของโรงเรียนศรีวิทยาปากน้ำ

UPDATE: 21/01/2562

Air quality is considered satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk.

คุณภาพอากาศถือว่าเป็นที่น่าพอใจและมลพิษทางอากาศมีความเสี่ยงเพียงเล็กน้อยหรือไม่มีเลย

Air quality is acceptable; however, for some pollutants, there may be a moderate health

UPDATED AT 6:50PM ON THURSDAY 3RD JANUARY: The following are the latest updates about Tropical Storm Pabuk that is expected to hit Southern Thailand between 3rd and 5th January 2019. These are the affected areas:

3 January: Isolated torrential downpours with strong wind in Chumphon, Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarart, Phatthalung, Songkhla, Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, Phangnga, Phuket, Krabi, Trang and Satun.

4-5 January: Widespread rainfall with isolated torrential downpours and strong wind in Phetchaburi, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Chumphon, Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarart, Phatthalung, Songkhla, Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, Ranong, Phangnga, Phuket, Krabi, Trang and Satun.

Latest Met Office warnings can be found here. If you want to see the latest situation on Koh Samui, here are some live web cams

UPDATES ON CLOSURES AND CANCELLATIONS:

Mu Ko Similan National Marine Park and Mu Ko Surin National Marine Park in Phang Nga will be closed during at least 4-5

On 1st January 2019, the Royal Household Bureau announced that the coronation of His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn will take place during the first week in May. The following information is what we know so far about the coronation and how it will affect foreign tourists and expats. Please bookmark this page or the front page of RichardBarrow.com as I will be updating as and when new information comes in.

WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR:

The actual coronation ceremony will take place on Saturday 4th May 2019. Afterward, His Majesty will grant an audience with royal family members, privy councillors, cabinet members and senior government officials. There will then be an “assumption of residence” ceremony. There will be a ceremony marking the inscription of the King’s full ceremonial name on Sunday 5th May 2019. His Majesty will then present Royal titles to members of the Royal family to mark their

This weekend I went on a two-day trip at the invitation of TAT Lopburi. The highlights were the train trip across the lake at Pasak Jolasid dam and the sunflower fields. More information about the train trip on my blog. For the sunflowers, it isn’t easy to visit as they are often in the middle of nowhere. However, some guest houses in Lopburi offer day trips that include the sunflower fields.

Date of travel: 2-3 December 2018

Waiting at Pasak Jolasid Railway Station for the weekend day-trip train from Bangkok. It’s due to arrive at 10am but it’s running 30 minutes late. Tickets from here to the viewpoint in the middle of the lake is 60 Baht. Ticket doesn’t include a seat but it’s only 5 minutes away.

December 21, 2018