Recycling

In Thailand, there's a group of people who traditionally 'scavenge' in rubbish bins to find anything that can be recycled, and sell it on for profit. So, even if you don't recycle yourself, these people do it on your behalf anyway. It's a pretty nasty job, as it involves digging around your bins to find anything useful among all the grimey stuff. A friend suggested (thanks Ellie!) a kind way to treat these people - why not separate your recyclable stuff already, before throwing away the bags? This saves them from digging through nasty remains of food, and at the same time makes you more conscious of what you are using...

Offset the carbon emissions of your travel to Thailand

To get to Bangkok, you probably had to take a long flight to get here. Think about offsetting the carbon emissions of your plane journey! Climate care has a great website to help you do this. Basically, you use their clever tool to calculate the impact of your journey, and make a small financial donation to the organisation to support carbon offsetting projects, like research and implementation of renewable energy approaches and forest planting/conservation. The donation is tiny compared to the price you paid for your ticket!

Increase the heat!

It might seem obvious, but saving the amount of electricity you use is a good way to be a little greener. One simple way is to avoid using too much aircon. So, from time to time why not turn it off altogether (and not just when you leave your apartment!)? In Bangkok, the heat can get really oppressive at some times of year so you might want to your thermostat up a few degrees. We don't all need to live at 25 degrees, and after a while in Thailand you can probably tolerate 28 or 30 degrees quite easily. Give it a try if you haven't already! Added bonus: it saves money on your electricity bill!

Rasayana retreat

If you are a really hardcore veggie, or just a part-time health freak, you should really try the raw food cafe at the Rasayana retreat. They have the most amazingly healthy food ever, and it's also incredibly tasty. I have visited a few times with various groups of friends, who have all loved it!

This should give you an idea of the food available:

• freshly squeezed juices: funky blends of vegetables and fruits
• great fresh salads: Japanese carrot salad in sesame dressing
• interesting raw food creations: veggie sushi, raw nut meatballs and courgette noodles

It's not super-cheap, but it's well worth visiting for a special treat!

Organic farming and food in Thailand

Organic farming is both very old and very new to Thailand. Traditional farming relied on organic methods, but modernisation has led to farmers using a great deal of pesticides and fertilisers. Vitton Panyakul from the EarthNet foundation has written a good overview article. There's an organisation for quality assurance of organic products called Organic Agriculture Certification Thailand.

Here's a full list of Thai members of International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, many of which are organic food producers:

• APZ
• GreenNet & EarthNet - also do organic produce home delivery
• Thai Organic Food.

Two organic restaurants I plan to try very soon - Anotai vegetarian restaurant and bakery and Amaranth.

Places to buy organic produce and other products:

• Lemon Farm - shops around Bangkok;
• Emporium supermarket - on the top floor of Emporium you can get some organic (and semi-organic i.e. pesticide free) vegetables, and some more 'green' products in the health food section
• Villa market - branches around Bangkok, like at Soi Thong Lo (Sukuhmvit soi 55), and near Phrom Phong skytrain station

Vegetarian restaurants around Bangkok

Although many Asian dishes seem vegetarian friendly, it's actually not that easy to find totally veggie food in Bangkok - mainly because of the liberal use of fish sauce. Luckily the Happy Cow website has a good directory of vegetarian restaurants and health food shops.