Feature Stories
Tom Vater is a writer and editor working mostly in South and Southeast Asia.
Tom has published six crime novels. In 2022, he sold the film rights to his debut novel, The Devil's Road to Kathmandu, to 108 Media.
Tom has written some twenty non-fiction books, including the bestsellers Sacred Skin with Aroon Thaewchatturat, and Cambodia: A Journey through the Land of the Khmer with Kraig Lieb.
Tom's work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Times, The Guardian, Nikkei Asia, CNN, Marie Claire, Geographical, Eco-Business, The Mekong Review and many others. He is the Thailand Daily Telegraph destination expert and has authored guidebooks on Thailand and Cambodia.
He is the co-author of several documentaries, including the highly praised The Most Secret Place On Earth, a feature on the CIA’s secret war in Laos.
From 2012 to 2021, Tom was co-owner of Crime Wave Press, a Hong Kong based crime fiction imprint which published 36 novels .
Tom writes and edits reports for UNDP, IFC, the EU, Fauna & Flora and others.
Tom is represented by London-based literary agency Marjacq.
Tom's latest book, SHARKMAN, is a true crime non fiction about a kidnapping in West Africa and tiger sharks in Thailand.
Feature Stories
Stuart McDonald, a tourism industry analyst and owner of Travelfish, a travel website, says Koh Samui's tourism industry is already unsustainable as a result of Thailand's "relentless" pursuit of growth targets, often with little regard for environmental or social costs.
Kathmandu’s majestic Kaiser Library, a treasure trove of rare and beautiful volumes in the heart of the city, is making a comeback following a heroic retrofitting effort.
BANGKOK -- Most first-time visitors to Bangkok find Thailand's capital an overwhelming, chaotic and yet exuberant experience. Nearly 6 million people
KATHMANDU -- Until the 1950s, Nepal's Kathmandu Valley was a place many had heard of but few had seen. That enigmatic image has changed radically over
BANGKOK -- Brennan Lee, whose Bangkok-based company Moo Dank produces around 100 kilograms of cannabis flowers a month, is upbeat about his business p
In 1992, mechanic Peter Hauser and two friends bought three old cars and set off from southern Germany to cross the Sahara and drive to Togo, where they planned to sell their vehicles. They never reached their destination. The young, free-wheeling adventurers were ambushed by Tuareg bandits on th...
T he video is captioned "UGLY TRUTH ABOUT THAILAND". Peeralada Sukawat-better known by her stage name, Pyra-looks into the camera and rolls her eyes. "Bangkok babies in Mercedes," she raps over looping drums and a synth beat. "Rich gets richer, poor gets poorer,/Inequality's a bitch, this place is gettin' shittier."
Over the past 30 years, more than 50 per cent of reefs have disappeared and more than 75 per cent are damaged. Another 40 per cet of the remaining coral may disappear in the next 30 years, unless there is a global conservation rethink.
As The Serpent draws to a close, one writer recalls interviewing the serial killer in prison - and his shocking lack of remorse In December 2003, Central Jail in the Nepali capital Kathmandu was everything one might expect from a prison in a developing country.
(Crime) Fiction
Meet Clara Green, Emerald, Chartreuse, Olive, Hunter, Juniper and Forest. They are The Green Panthers: a privately sponsored, multi-national underground army, on a mission to hold corporate polluters to account. During the attempted rescue of a snow leopard hunted by British tycoons in Siberia, t...
Detective Maier Mysteries Collection: The Complete Series by Tom Vater
In 1976, four friends - Dan, Fred, Tim and Thierry - are on a bus along the hippie trail from London to Kathmandu. But everything is not going according to plan. After a drug deal goes wrong, the boys barely escape with their lives. Thousands of kilometers, numerous acid trips, accidents, nightclubs and a pair of beautiful Siamese twins later, they finally reach the counter-culture capital of the world, Kathmandu, and Fred disappears with the drug money. A quarter-century later, mysterious...
Becker is a British traveler in trouble. Madhurima is a rising star police officer. In these three explosive tales, the two join forces to investigate the city’s crooked high society. On the way, they take on deluded would-be messiahs in search of Mother Teresa’s stolen millions, encounter fanatics, circus freaks and cannibals, fall in and out of love and pay homage to one of the world’s most beautiful and toughest cities. Amidst passion, murder and mayhem, is there room for two lovers...
Travel
Read our Telegraph Travel expert guide to Bangkok, including the best places to stay, eat, drink as well as the top attractions to visit, and all of the information that you need to know before you go.
Mit seiner im Dschungel versteckten Tempelruinenlandschaft Angkor, die zum Weltkulturerbe der UNESCO gehört, hat das alte Khmer-Königreich grandiose Spuren hinterlassen. Der gewaltige Haupttempel Angkor Wat, das größte sakrale Bauwerk der Welt, strahlt auch heute noch eine unglaubliche Erhabenheit und Macht aus.
A beautifully illustrated book introducing the mysterious world of sak yant, spirit tattoos said to bestow protective powers upon their bearers.