MangoZeen

This week the USS aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln docked at Laem Chabang. Immediately 90% of the crew deserted the vessel for five days R&R in Pattaya. Local officials said the stopover means a welcome boost for tourism. The girls working the bars are especially happy to see these young lads pump hundreds of millions of […]

While watching the Hotspurs-Arsenal game, Convict entered the bar. Convict is not his real name. He’s an ex-cop from Australia, but Nick calls all ‘Roos ‘convicts and criminals. Convict had been last seen the previous evening on Walking Street in search of a one-night stand. Usually a fait accompli, yet this evening his face was long […]

Wim Wenders presents a troubling film about America’s obsession with terrorism. While stating the threat as real, he focuses on a demented Vietnam vet’s (John Diehl) hunt for a sleeper cell in the high desert north of LA which turns into an odyssey of regaining his sanity with a missionary niece (Michelle Williams). Initially the film’s […]

Most foreigners in Thailand are obliged to make regular border runs for visa renewals. My passport is cramped with visits to Prum, the frontier nearest to Pattaya. Most trips are relatively easy other than the 6:30am departure, but the earlier the mini-bus leaves, the less people at the crossing and the faster the process of renewing your visa. 

Prom is […]

Yesterday scores of crocodiles took advantage of rising flood water and fled a breeding farm in Lop Buri. The escape was discovered after a local fisherman’s finger was bitten by a fugitive reptile. Villagers gathered to hunt the saurians and swiftly captured a dozen. Half were eaten and the other half sold to be eaten […]

The Songkran festival shifts from Naklua to Pattaya on April 19. Wan Lai falls on the same day as the second Senate election and election officials in the coastal city recommended voters turn out early to cast their votes.

When I rose at dawn, the city was sleeping, but when several hours later I rode my […]

Thailand has been lurching from crisis to crisis like a man staggering home from a long night at the bars. In April 2006 PM Thaksin called for a snap election figuring that the people of the northeast would reward his populist policies i.e. spending lots of money on buffaloes, health care, and roads; however he […]

The Songkran celebration ushers in the Thai New Year as well as the coming of the rains ending the hot season. The festival is focused on Wan Parg-bpee April 15, when homage is paid to ancestors, elders and other persons deserving respect because of age or position. Younger people poured scented water into the palm of an […]

I’ve never thought of Thailand as a surfing spot, until seeing the autumn waves on Koh Chang. Growling shorebreak. Some of them had to be rideable. Spotting an ancient surfboard at the nearest hotel. Obviously abandoned, since the deck was wrinkled like a potato chip. First problem. No wax.

Undaunted I tucked the board under my arm and […]

My favorite Pattaya Bar is the Buffalo on the 3rd Road. 

When it first opened years ago Sai Sam was a dusty track and the bar stood by itself on a dirt road leading into an unassuming Soi. Back then circa 1997 the bar was a good alternative to the self-destructive go-go bar crawls on Walking […]