Here are nine of the most bizarre eating spots you’re ever likely to come across in Bangkok.

Hajime Robot Restaurant

At this futuristic Japanese restaurant, the beady-eyed robots not only bring your food and take away empty dishes, they also do clunky dance routines at regular intervals, much to the delight of the customers.

The food itself plays second fiddle to the attention-seeking mechanoids, who are sadly unable to communicate with the patrons, although deep down you get the feeling the bots know what’s going on and are just rolling with it.

The setup is hotpot or barbecue, which means you have to cook your own food, but with robots for company, you’ll want to stay all night.

Hajime Robot Restaurant, 59/27 3/F, Monopoly Park Rama 3, Bangkok. +66 (0) 2 683 1670

Por Kung Pao Seafood

Sticking with the theme of “restaurants that make you work for your dinner,” at Por Kung Pao Seafood punters armed with little rods and nets get to fish their dinners out of a shrimp pond.

After choosing your victims, you then get to fry and eat them.

While it might not be a lot of fun for the shrimp, nothing beats rocking up to Por Kung Pao Seafood after a night out on the town and drunkenly trying to catch your meal before leading it to its death.

91/2 Ratchadapisk Road, Bangkok. +66 (0) 2 642 2305

Ninja House Hero

Another Japanese restaurant, but this time masked ninjas provide the entertainment while you eat. The dark walkways leading to the dining area will put you straight into stealth mode before you get to sample the fine dishes on the menu.

It feels like you’re in some kind of ninja movie and the restaurant has been expertly decked out with the latest in trendy ninja furnishings.

But the ninja experience doesn’t come cheap so be prepared or else you’ll have a clan of angry ninjas to answer to.

Ninja House Hero, 74 Sukhumvit 26, Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok Tel: +66 (0) 2 661 2277

Royal Dragon Restaurant

This is a ginormous seafood restaurant — once the world’s largest, in fact –- that features such spectacles as waiters running across water and whizzing down ziplines.

The restaurant is so big that most of the staff have to wear roller skates to get around.

The restaurant is spread over more than three hectares and is served by more than 1,000 staff. It’s epic in every sense, but thankfully the food is also well worth making the trip for.

Expect to be entertained by traditional dancing as well.

Royal Dragon Restaurant, 35/222 M.4 Bangna-Trad Rd, Bangna, Bangkok. +66 (0) 2 398 0037

The bug cart

It’s not a fancy name for a restaurant –- it’s literally a cart full of bugs. Every evening at about 7 p.m. or so, the bug cart is rolled out onto Khao San Road much to the delight of drunk travelers daring each other to indulge in the delights of eating creepy crawlies.

Everything is on offer, from grasshoppers and crickets to silkworms and scorpions. Some of these light bites are rather tasty while others will leave you feeling as if you’re about to puke your guts up.

Believe it or not, the bug cart doesn’t only cater to curious tourists as many locals actually enjoy snacking on those little critters.

Ka-Tron Restaurant

It’s billed as the “original flying chicken restaurant.” The world’s one and only, in fact.
What that means is that the chickens get cooked before being set on fire and catapulted across a stage towards a chap on a unicycle who catches the chickens on spikes held in his hands and mouth.

The folks at Ka-Tron also put a lot of effort into their marinade, giving their chickens an extra-special flavour, but all people really care about is the flaming carcasses that end up being launched into the sky, proving once and for all that chickens really are birds of flight.

Ka-Tron Restaurant, Bangna-Trad Road Km1 (opposite Bitec), Bangkok. +66 (0) 2 399 5202

The Third Floor

Meals based around your blood type: a curious idea for a restaurant that sounds more gruesome than it actually is.

The idea comes from the Japanese theory that your blood type defines what kind of person you are and that certain types of food complement your personality better than others.

Persons with blood-type A are supposedly introverted while those with type B are independent, but neither gets to eat tom yum kung as that’s reserved for extroverted O types, of course.

Whether or not the theory holds any weight is anybody’s guess, but suffice to say that whatever kind of blood your have pumping through your veins, there’s a scrumptious Thai dish on the menu for you.

The Third Floor, Verasu Building, 83/7 Wireless Road, Bangkok. +66 (0)2 254 8100

Cabbages & Condoms

It sounds weird just saying it. It actually sounds a little bit gross. But fear not, for this is a restaurant that offers great grub while promoting family planning and raising cash to support the work of Thailand’s Population and Community Development Association.

The menu is chock full of traditional Thai dishes, so if nothing else you can rest assured that you will end up well fed and not pregnant. There’s also a handicraft shop showcasing the works of villagers from some of Thailand’s poorest regions.

Cabbages & Condoms, Sukhumvit Soi 12, Bangkok. +66 (0) 2 229 4610

Pyongyang Restaurant

How could anyone pass up an opportunity to dine out on Korean food safe in the knowledge that the profits from the restaurant are going straight back into the pockets of one of the world’s most repressive governments?

That’s right, the Pyongyang Restaurant chain is owned and run by the delightful North Korean government, which has been enjoying the extra pocket money their restaurants bring in since economic sanctions were imposed on the country by the international community.

But enough with the fine print. What’s most important here is that the food is decent and the waiting staff do lots of dancing to traditional Korean music. It’s almost enough to overlook the small matter of the totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship.

Phatthanakan 20 Yaek 6, Bangkok. +66 (0) 02 717 5700

All along downtown Asoke Road, locals have been fortifying their shopfronts, some opting to build little cement walls as a last line of defence against floodwater that is gushing into the city and disturbing people on the outskirts and near the mighty Chao Phraya river.

Bangkok’s 10 million residents have been expecting the worst for a while – waiting for 4bn cubic metres of rain water to start draining through the city from the north – but on Thursday many of the streets remained bone dry.

Advice from the authorities has ranged from “get out now!” to “don’t panic!” and some of the wealthier residents have already packed up to clog the roads and take impromptu vacations south, to beach resorts such as Hua Hin, while others remain behind, ready to face the elements.

“My family was too chilled about preparing for the flooding, which is probably a pretty bad thing,” said Aim Monobelle, 25, who is staying with friends while her family sticks it out in western Bangkok. “I would say most older people don’t want to leave their houses, thinking it’s not going be too bad. I am trying to convince them to move – anywhere but Bangkok – because it’s risky, but they are not listening to me.”

For people 50 miles north of Bangkok, in Ayutthaya province, there was little else to be done but watch as the roads turned into rivers and water inundated their homes. People now get around by long-tail boat or leaky creations fashioned out of old oil drums, tyre inner tubes or large tubs.

Some 2.5 million people have been affected by the flooding in Thailand, including 800,000 children, many of whom are lacking basic necessities such as nappies and food. Getting aid to those people has proved a challenge. Plan, a global child-rights organisation, travelled by truck, boat and fire engine on Saturday to deliver 900 relief kits to families in Bang Pa-in, Ayutthaya, but many more are still in need. Not everyone is fleeing. “I’m not going to desert the city in its time of need. I’m staying right here,” Richard Barrow, a Thailand-based blogger, proclaimed on Twitter.

Nowhere is the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of achieving decent employment for men, women and young people more crucial than for a young, post-conflict nation like Timor-Leste, which has a population heavily weighted towards its youth. Forty-five percent of its people are aged 15 years and below, according to the Population Reference Bureau.

Indeed, the violence that erupted on the streets of the capital Dili in 2006 was partly due to the frustration of large groups of unemployed, disenfranchised young people who felt let down by their government and the international community.

With the nation now at peace nine years after independence in 2002, the drive is on to bolster the capacity of the Secretariat of State of Professional Training and Employment (SEFOPE), the government institution tasked with getting people working. The unemployment rate has been estimated at more than 20 percent in urban areas, says the country’s national youth employment plan.

With about 70 percent of the population still living in rural areas, it’s been a difficult task to get people to move away from familiar subsistence farming activities. A lot will depend on maintaining support for the country’s skills training providers and micro-finance institutions, many of which are ill-equipped to get people working. It’s an almighty task to get the people of Timor-Leste engaged in gainful employment, but through various projects scattered around the country, there are clear signs of progress.

View the slideshow here

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” It’s perhaps with that thought in mind that thousands of travelers arrive in Thailand every year to volunteer.

But it can be difficult to choose which program to opt for, especially when some come with fees of up to 97,850 baht for a two-week stint.

Given Thailand’s reputation as an inexpensive destination, where does that money go, and what are the differences between paid and unpaid programs? Volunteers and organizers weigh in.

To pay or not to pay

“Why would you pay to volunteer?” asks James Padolsey, a web developer from London who in 2010-11 took part in a paid program in northeast Thailand and then went on to volunteer with a free one. “You give your time. The idea of charging for it seems wrong to me.”

During his paying gig, Padolsey experienced the inner workings of a pay-to-volunteer organization — and he wasn’t pleased with what he saw after handing over 13,400 baht and being sent to a school in Khon Kaen.

The school told him how much compensation they got: 700 baht per volunteer, per week.

“The key is that the school doesn’t need compensation,” he says. “Many of them are prepared to pay a teacher. Schools really want the help and they don’t need any compensation to have the burden of having a volunteer.”

Padolsey is, of course, not the first person to have reservations about “voluntourism” organizations, who talk a good case for why volunteering comes with a fee.

Charlotte Williams from Travel to Teach, which charges 450 euro (20,000 baht) for a two-week teaching stint, says that the fees are necessary to keep money flowing in, which can then be channeled into marketing.

“The projects benefit because through the funding we receive we can maintain our Internet presence and recruit enough volunteers to provide [the schools] with constant support and much-needed continuity,” she says. “Many small programs who recruit volunteers independently often struggle to get a continuous volunteer presence which ends up having a negative impact on their programs.”

The value of experience

A portion of the fee is often used to pay the locals who assist volunteers and interns, says Dalyn Simmons from Mundo Exchange Thailand, which charges 400 euro (17,840 baht) for the first month, and 100 euro for each subsequent one.

“They are unable to pay for the foreign volunteers’ housing and food but need the assistance that volunteers and interns give to their own communities,” she says. “The donation or fee is also used to make it possible to take the volunteers to cultural sites and homes of elders and families in the nearby communities.”

Anthony Kingsley from Starfish, which charges 19,500 baht for two weeks’ teaching English in Thailand, says it often comes down to the type of experience the traveller is after.

“Most people recognize that volunteer work is not free — it requires funding,” he says. “From my experience I believe the traveller would choose to do paid volunteering because it’s a much more meaningful holiday experience.”

The major difference between paid and non-paid volunteering is the length of time volunteers spend on projects, he adds. Paid programs typically get a higher volume of volunteers, who tend to stay for less time than volunteers on free programs.

Critics say this devalues the overall benefit communities receive, and that the paid volunteer experience often puts as much emphasis on the volunteers having fun as it does on them helping the beneficiaries.

But by charging a fee, an organization has an obligation to look after the needs of the volunteer as well as the community and to ensure that the volunteer has a “rewarding and enjoyable experience,” says Erin Courtenay, program development manager of Global Volunteer Network, which charges 1,115 euro (47,600 baht) for two weeks at a wildlife rescue or elephant refuge centre.

A volunteer-oriented focus adds an extra layer of comfort to the whole experience that can be lacking with more stripped-down approaches. That peace of mind appeals to people who want a rewarding experience with a few more bells and whistles thrown into the mix.

Some paid programs offer extras like meals, cultural activities, insurance, transport and a higher standard of accommodation.

There for the right reasons?

Dave Peel, a qualified teacher with 15 years’ experience under his belt who has worked with both free and pay-to-play programs in Thailand, says organizations that charge aren’t always best positioned to help communities.

“People are fooled by websites when the reality is these teaching organizations know nothing about teaching,” he says. “Volunteers who pay quickly turn their volunteering into one long drinking party.”

Casey, not her real name, started out volunteering with a teaching organization in 2005, paying 750 euro for three months — “The cheapest I had come across” — in the northeastern Thai border town of Nong Khai, but has also lent a helping hand to some unpaid programs over the years.

“As a volunteer I loved my first experience … but the longer I stayed, the more I realized how much wrong there was with the organization,” she says. “Volunteers were allowed to stay and teach for as little as two weeks, resulting in absolutely no qualitative teaching. The children were taught the same things week after week and were just devastated every time a new teacher left them.”

Doing good should not be a “photo opportunity for a fee”, says Texan Kirk Gillock, who in 2005 established the Isara Foundation, an organization that takes on volunteers without a fee and has only one paid staffer, Nok, whose salary comes from a sponsor. Most of Isara’s funding comes from sponsors and donations.

“Pay-to-volunteer programs blur the line between for-profits and non-profits and make it more difficult for people to trust charities because they begin to believe that if something is free then it’s a scam or that the volunteer services provided are not as good as paid-programs, which just isn’t the case,” he says.

“If someone wants to help others then that person should be welcomed with open arms, not a bill.”

Free programs are in high demand and are more likely to turn down unsuitable applicants than paid programs, but the overall experience is said to be more “authentic.” Although the flip side is that the work can be more challenging.

Educational program specialist Daniel Lockwood from the Dragonfly Community Foundation, which started off as a not-for-profit business but then made the move to become a charitable foundation, has seen the pros and cons of both sides of the spectrum.

“Some organizations are for-profit and it shows,” he says. “We used to run a full-service organization that charged about one-half to one-third of the prices other groups were charging, literally for the same services or in some cases we provided more.”

Another issue concerning prospective volunteers is visas. Many organizations fail to inform volunteers that they need to apply for a special visa through a Thai embassy or consulate to volunteer legally, as a tourist visa is not acceptable. Other programs, meanwhile, are aware of Thai laws and will assist with the visa process.

So should volunteers pay, or go with a free program? Basically, it all comes down to the experience the individual is seeking. It’s up to the volunteers to do the research and choose to give their time to the organizations that can most effectively bridge the gap between the volunteer and the beneficiary.

By MATT CROOK

JULY 14, 2011

DILI—It was a humid night and I wandered home in the dark, cursing the government of Timor-Leste for yet another power cut in Dili, the country’s tiny capital. I was lumbering up the road to my house, illuminating my path with my mobile to avoid the crater-like potholes, when I heard someone call out. “Eh, malae!” said the voice, “malae” being the Timorese word for foreigner. I looked to my right and saw a group of youths sat atop the burned-out shell of what had at one time been a car. I thought for a minute and then decided to throw caution to the wind. Before long I was sat on top of the car knocking back home-brewed palm brandy and snacking on uncooked instant noodles.

I got to know that group of lads quite well over the next few months. Any night when I was at a loose end I’d venture down the road and sure enough they’d all be there, sat on top of their rusting hunk of metal. We usually drank until well into the night and I used to help them scrape together a buck or two to pay for the liquor, but I soon became aware that these guys didn’t really have anything else to do besides hanging out on the side of the road, a familiar sight down almost any of Dili’s streets.

None of them ever had phone credit and there was a lethargy about them that was hard to miss. They would sometimes ask me if I knew of any jobs going, but in a small Southeast Asian nation, ravaged by 24 years of illegal occupation by the Indonesian military, development has progressed slowly and these future breadwinners in what is a male-dominated society are still bread-less.

The only jobs these young chaps could envisage themselves doing were things like driving taxis, working as security guards or—and this one was the Holy Grail—leaving East Timor and travelling to the UK to work in a factory on a Portuguese passport, taking advantage of Timor-Leste’s colonial past.

It’s easy to pass off Timor-Leste’s youth unemployment problem as something that just takes a while to overcome, but post-conflict countries don’t have the luxury of time. When the UN arrived in 1999 to help secure independence, it operated a top-down approach that all but ignored the needs of the people at the grassroots level, the guys who would end up sat on top of burned-out cars, and it was their dissatisfaction with independence that played a significant role in the violence of 2006.

The riots of 2006 weren’t supposed to happen and they certainly weren’t supposed to leave 37 people dead and 150,000 displaced. The international community had helped the nation formally achieve its independence in 2002, but then as the UN scaled back it left behind a weak democracy and a divided society.

Timor-Leste is a young nation in every respect, with about half of the population of 1.1 million aged below the age of 17, according to the World Bank. Women have, on average, six children each and the youth demographic (12-29) makes up more than one-third of the population.

In 2006, when a labour dispute in the armed forces escalated into a crisis that brought the country to its knees, the international community had little choice but to admit the shortcomings of international aid as disenfranchised youths went out onto the streets and fought with neither rhyme nor reason.

Timor-Leste’s youths have struggled to conceptualize their national identity outside of their country’s independence struggle. The unification of the people within what became “Timor-Leste” simply didn’t happen in the beginning and and what divides there were became institutionalized and politicized as the elites squabbled among themselves for the spoils of the state.

Youth unemployment peaks at more than 40 percent in Timor-Leste’s urban centers and yet successive governments have been unable to tackle this because they’ve had security issues top of their agenda. The Secretariat of State for Vocational Training and Employment (SEFOPE) hasn’t had the capacity to put the pieces together, but things are changing.

Timor-Leste is still a predominantly agricultural country and the government and its partners have been working hard to create gainful employment opportunities for young people, especially in rural areas as the cities can’t cope with the influx of jobless youths.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) took the bull by the horns early on with what it called an “unusual approach” to employment generation.

LO started delivering activities through SEFOPE, rather than utilizing the standard method of creating a team of skilled national personnel on unsustainable UN salaries, which often leads to project collapse once the program closes.
ILO’s support of SEFOPE has brought the government closer to skills training providers and micro-finance institutions, bolstering the capacity of each and opening up new opportunities for short- and long-term employment. I saw various employment-generating projects as I travelled around the country meeting young blacksmiths, artists, laborers and groups producing everything from coconut oil to tofu.

With a state budget of more than a billion dollars for 2011—by far the largest in the country’s history—there are high hopes among the Timorese people that their government will be able to come good on promises to replace conflict with development … permanently.

As for my little gang on the car, the last I heard one had left Timor-Leste for the UK and the rest were muddling through on cockfight winnings and handouts from their families. The car wreck, however, had been removed, towed away in the dead of the night.

Walking into Mecca, we were confronted by hordes of grannies slamming pound coins into wall-to-wall slot machines. After shelling out about 15 quid for our bingo books we made a beeline for the main hall, which looked like some kind of gigantic greasy spoon, with trays of scampi and pies being dished out at a furious pace. There were a few younger people scattered throughout the hall, but for the most part it was like an episode of Phoenix Nights.

It was easy enough to figure out what to do with our bingo books and giant marker pens, so we got our eyes down and set about winning a fortune while drinking heavily. The bingo caller was a master of his trade, turning each number into a kind of nasal crimp. With prizes of about £100 for each full house, I was already planning what to do with my imminent winnings.

Of course neither of us actually won anything, although we did come close only to be pipped by one of the many veterans of the game. Just as we thought the night was over, the bingo caller announced that “bingo afterdark” was starting in the lounge area in 10 minutes .

Bingo after dark was extreme. The lights had been turned down and a DJ was rattling through a playlist of generic dance music while a spritely chap was owning the stage as some kind of bingo MC. I ordered an orange WKD – purely to fit in – and as we sat down a woman came round and gave us glowsticks and new bingo sheets.

The new bingo caller, a pretty young woman who looked slightly bored, injected a little spice into the game as she rhymed each number with a rude limerick and bantered with the MC. Everyone who claimed a prize went up on stage where the MC covered the “winner” with glow-in-the-dark marker pen. My girlfriend won a digital camera but sternly warned the MC to “stay away from the face”.

At this point everything stopped and a cigarette break was called, so we made a swift exit and headed home. Bingo was certainly an experience and I’m embarrassed to admit I’d do it all again, if only for the company.

Those fears are understandable. The choices are overwhelming: what not to wear, how to dress without looking like a chump, where to party until the sun comes up.

Luckily we’re here to help, so if you don’t want to stick out like a sunburned thumb during your visit to the City of Angels, these handy hints should keep even the most wayward of vagabonds on the tenfold path to blending-ins-ville.

1. Live the Khao San life

So you wanna go to Bangkok, but you’re worried about not fitting in with the other tourists?

Those fears are understandable. The choices are overwhelming: what not to wear, how to dress without looking like a chump, where to party until the sun comes up.

Luckily we’re here to help, so if you don’t want to stick out like a sunburned thumb during your visit to the City of Angels, these handy hints should keep even the most wayward of vagabonds on the tenfold path to blending-ins-ville.

1. Live the Khao San life

Much like in Mexico and the Caribbean, It’s an unwritten rule that foreign women visiting Bangkok have to have their hair braided at some point.

Nobody is quite sure why this tradition became embedded in the backpacker psyche, but if you are a woman and you have hair, you’ll want to have it braided almost as soon as you set foot outside your hotel room.

Pick up a Chang beer from 7-Eleven, take a seat and let the good Thai women of Khao San work their magic.

Men who feel like they’re missing out can opt for dreadlock extensions.

3. Wear beer apparel

This one isn’t exclusive to Bangkok, as similar phenomena occur all over Southeast Asia.
The gist of this shebang is that you need to show how in touch with the locals you are by wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the logo of your favorite Thai beer.

Popular choices are Chang and Singha.

If there’s a special occasion, such as Halloween, you can simply cut the sleeves off your T-shirt and take a razorblade to it for the desired spooky effect.

4. Get hustled at pool and ‘Connect 4’

Bangkok is a city for players, and nowhere does this become more apparent than in the darkest depths of the nightlife districts, where doey-eyed temptresses will try and cajole you into sinking a few balls or else aiming for “four in a row” in games that inevitably end up with beer as a wager.
Careful though, as it’s not unheard of for middle-aged men to arrive in Bangkok with a head full of ideas and leave with nothing more than their decrepit sandals.

5. Start fights with the locals

You know the drill: you’ve had a few drinks, you’re all sweaty from throwing shapes on the dance floor and you suddenly find yourself being shouted at by an angry Thai chap.
The trouble is, you can’t remember what series of unfortunate events led to this predicament.

The only thing you can do in these situations is shout back in an attempt to further enflame the situation in the hope that your adversary explodes or else backs down.

If you’ve previously bought pepper spray or a tazer from a dodgy Bangkok side street, now is the perfect time to try it out. (Note: we’re joking.)

6. Have your photo taken next to a beast

Thailand presents plenty of photo ops that your online friends will soon drool over, but nothing says “I’m the boss” quite like a pic of you crouched down next to an enormous, docile tiger.
Snap away and upload straight to your Facebook profile for all to see.

7. Wear novelty headwear

Oh, the hats. It’s like Ascot for hippies.
Travelers in Bangkok are dedicated followers of fashion, so you should be aware of the latest trends, which include bandanas, novelty plastic trilbys and, of course, those pointy hats the costumed-out hill tribe ladies try and sell alongside little wooden frogs.

8. Take your shirt off

This one’s aimed more at the lads because it’s almost unheard of for women to let their baps out in public in Bangkok.
Due to the unbearable heat of the city, local men usually just roll their T-shirts up and wear them like bras, thus exposing their glorious guts for the world to see.

You’ll want to go the whole hog and give the world a glimpse of your glistening man boobs.

9. Take a crash course in Thai affairs

There is no better way to impress fellow travellers than by launching into a monologue about how screwed the Thai economy is and how backwards political affairs are and how coups have become part of daily life in the Land of Smiles.
Make up statistics as you go along and try and throw in a few illuminating insights about human rights if you can.

10. Get fondled — or robbed — by a ladyboy

Female travellers usually have sufficient wits about them to avoid being robbed by Thailand’s few unscrupulous ladyboys, but guy backpackers find it difficult to escape the Medusa-like gazes of the nighthawks as they swoop, grope and strut off into the distance — sometimes with your pocket change and cellphone.

These young people have grown up in a nation still trying to see and shape its identity away from the struggle for independence. In 2006, a split in the armed forces quickly escalated to full-on conflict in Dili, the nation’s capital, forcing more than 150,000 from their homes and into camps for internationally displaced persons.

Health and education indicators point to significant weaknesses in the state’s framework, but there have been signs of improvement and the government says there has been a nine percent decrease in poverty with the strengthening of healthcare and education institutions. Central to progress in the coming years will be further reductions in the fertility rate and the maternal and child mortality rates, as well increased access to primary and secondary schooling. Efforts thus far have got the country on the path to eradicating poverty, achieving universal primary education, reducing child mortality rates and improving maternal health, but there is still a long way to go.

View the slideshow here.