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With Bangkok a few hours to the north, a regional airport and train station nearby, the hot topic of Thailand is definitely the elite beach resort & fishing village communities of Hua Hin/Cha'am. There are various reasons why Hua Hin has become a magnet for artists, musicians, sunseekers, students of Buddhism, and visitors from around the world who wish to escape and experience the rich culture and laid-back lifestyles.

Most recently new western style home construction and a real estate boom have created a relatively inexpensive opportunity for foreigners to purchase vacation and retirement homes - particularly snowbirds from Canada and Scandinavia - this past year, Hua Hin's first modern 'shopping mall' opened which has drastically changed the economic climate for the traditional mom and pop corner stores. There are trade offs for these conveniences - busier street traffic and a general increase in the cost of living. Nevertheless - compared to other places - Hua Hin remains relatively peaceful and crime free . . . offering peaceful leisure living not found elsewhere in the world.

As dramatic changes have swept through Thailand and Southeast Asia in the last fifty years, Buddhism has been both highly conservative and radically innovative. Thai monk Buddhadasa Bhikkhu expressed both aspects when he called for a life of contemplative simplicity and social engagement to counteract the pressures of modern materialism. It was Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh who first gave the name “Engaged Buddhism” to this form of religious practice. Engaged Buddhism was his answer to fellow Buddhists who asked, as the Vietnam War raged, if they should continue their meditation practice or work to stop the war. The engaged Buddhist response unites these two paths — the path of meditation and the path of work to relieve social suffering.

The Buddhist Studies Program in Thailand draws on Webster University’s strengths in International and Religious Studies to explore the complex social reality of Buddhism in Asia today, offering students a first-hand opportunity to investigate the many ways in which contemporary Buddhists engage their changing social world - through grassroots activism as well as through art, ritual, philosophy, institutional reform, and political debate.

Webster International University offers courses in accounting, Asian studies. Business Admin. & Mngmt, Media Comm. (Radio, TV, & Film), Computer Science, Communications, Culture, Human Res. Management, History, Journalism, Literature, Psychology, Religious Studies, International Relations, Political Science/Politics, English as a Second Language – the cost in US$ approx. $11,000/semester

Planning a trip to Thailand?
learn to speak conversational Thai with private lessons from a Thai instructor fluent in English Thai, and Thai-Lao
Private instruction available in Bangkok and Hua Hin - email contact at paradisemoon.com | see Hua Hin first hand and find a wealth of sites and information

Hua Hin's cultural sights - leisure entertainment, events, attractions, and hospitality facilities

• Exotic Tropical Resort Spas • Golf walking tours of the six local greens in Hua Hin

contains hundreds of fascinating images/slideshows and video clips for Windows PC

With the Hua Hin Tours CD Rom you'll exprience various cultural attractions, local activities, & festivals like the Jazz festival, Loy Kratong, and Thailand's New Year, Songkran, a sanuk (festive) Thai celebration. The DV Video - Photo Tour CD-Rom also contains entertaining video footage, a handy desk reference to of direct listings to businesses in Hua Hin with links and listings to local resorts, spas, golf tours & sightseeing tour operators. read

The Official Hua Hin Thailand DV Video Photo Tour CD-Rom $14.98 plus shipping

updated local info + full scren photo images and DV video clips for Windows Media player

The hot topic of todays gulf of Thailand is the tropical resort paradise seaside village of

Hua Hin
besides the famous seafood and Night Market - you'll enjoy an excellent Thai Dinner Show Restaurant with

golf courses | health spas | leisure resorts | pristine beaches | tropical island rainforest retreats

Hua Hin, Thailand offers some of southeast Asia's best rates on Thailand vacation packages, hotel accommodations, discount tropical resorts, and fun sun adventure tours to romanticl getaway destinations

The Hua Hin - Cha Am community offers the ultimate in relaxation plus numerous activities including;

It's also an ideal sunbathing mecca for the international traveler or just to cool out with evening walk along a deserted white sand beach plus there's the infamous 'ultimate golf experience', photo & nature tours, cave tours, elephant trekking, backpacking, mountain trails, waterfalls and the royal white sand Hua Hin beach!

snorkeling, windsurfing, kite boarding, scuba, fishing, and more all available locally & close to Hua Hin. Hua Hin tours

Thailand is extremely rich in tradition, culture, religion, and philosophy. Many of the Thai health spas and herbal massage treatments and potions go hand in hand with the Buddhist concept of a healthy, happy existance.

Buddhist "Wats" in Thailand are some of the most beautifully adorned and well kept sacred temples one will find throughout Asian countries which comprise about 100 million people of Buddhist faith in the world. Thai's practice an older form of Theravada Buddhism.
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Thai Tropical Island Tours | Thai new Media Video Magazine | Thai Leisure Tour Entertainment

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cruise Trang beach at sunset . . .

featuring amazing Thailand or join in with others people to hear world musicians jam every Sunday starting at 5PM

Experience the mellow moods of exotic Trang . . . & cruise the beach scene at Samui's best kept secret gardens

Thailand has absorbed many influences from the Chinese and Indians as well as neighbouring countries such as Laos, Burma, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia. Music is extremely important in Thai culture, especially in Buddhist activities, animist rituals, Brahmin ceremonies and so on. Popular Thai music includes the luk thung and the morlam. This is very cool interesting almost latin feel music.

In Traditional Thai music, the seven equal notes of the Thai scale fall between the cracks of the western piano keyboard. There is no notation and everything is memorised. Thai Classical music can be traced back to stone engravings during the Sukhothai period (around 1283 AD). The music was developed to accompany classical dance-drama (khon or lakorn) or shadow puppet theatre (nang).

The principle gong-chime ensemble of Thailand is the pî phat. The sound of the pî phat is very distinctive and can sound strange and monotonous to the western ears with it's metric regularity and unchanging dynamics. The repertory is typified by regular, repeating rhythmic figures (usually in duple metre). The phrase organization punctuated by gong or cymbal strokes, while very similar to that of Javanese and Balinese repertories, is much less elaborate. Three basic tempos are used; slow, medium (twice as fast) and fast (which is twice as fast again). The pace is marked by the cymbals (ching) which is one stroke per bar in the slow tempo, two in the medium and four in the fast.

Pi phat is one of the loudest of the Thai ensembles. Other quieter groups include the mahori (with gong chimes, xylophones, fiddles and spike-fiddles, zithers, flutes, goblets and frame drums and cymbals). The khruang sai is softer still (with fiddles, zithers, flutes, goblet and frame drums, cymbals and gongs).

There are regular dance and classical music performances in Bangkok at the National Theatre and daily shows at the Vimanmek Palace.

Thai Traditional Musical instruments are known as pi-phat are very similar to the Indonesian gamelan based on percussion instruments and include the gong circles, xylophones, drums and an oboe called the pi-nai.

A large outdoor pî phat ensemble usually includes at least one pair of each of the main instrument types; gong chimes (Khong wong yai, khõng wong lek), xylophones (ranãt ék and ranãt thum), metallophones (ranãt ék lek and ranãt thum lek), barrel drums (taphõn, khõng that), cymbals (ching, chãp lek, chãp yai), a gong (mõng) and shawms (pî nai, pî nõk), which lend the ensembles their name. Smaller indoor groups have fewer melodic percussion instruments.

The instruments by their nature have a limited dynamic range so that the relative loudness may best be adjusted by the listeners who can move closer to or further away from the group.

Thai folk music is referred to as pleng phua bahn which encompasses styles from Central, North, North-eastern and Southern regions of Thailand. There are sixty one different languages and dialects overall. Thai folk music is in contrast to classical repertoires. Examples are the hill tribe New Year dances in the far North, the all-night singing jousts of the Northeast mor lam glawn and the Muslim vocal music of likay wolou in the deep South. The North-eastern bong lang is up-tempo and danceable and the name originates from a wooden xylophone that is vertically attached to a tree. Bong Lang is ancient and is thought to predate Indian-Thai culture. The phin hai instrument (which is a jar with rubber stretched across the mouth) was introduced into the style during the 1970s. The sound is similar to that of a double bass.

The music of the Pwo Karen people of North Thailand is linked to poetry. "Mae-tae" is the local term referring to music which literally means "poeming" and indicates that words are more important than music. Most songs have a specific function, for example drinking, courting, funerals or lullabies. The only Pwo Karen instrument is a side-blown buffalo horn. Thai country music is known as luk thung.

Learn about the ancient origins of Thai folk music and how & why it has a meditative mezmerizing effect on listeners in an article written by world musician, composer, and musicologist, Greg Turner click

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