MangoZeen

Two days before Songkran I was stopped by the Pattaya police.
I was wearing a helmet, driving on the proper side of the road, wasn’t speaking on the cellphone or speeding. Three traffic violation which I do all the time. “Mi pen-ha arai.”
I couldn’t think of having done anything wrong.

“Passport please.” The cop’s English was good.
“Okay.” […]

After several hours of drinking gin and tonic’s at the Zig Zag bar, Roland, the manager of the Angkor Inn, suggested a night cap at the snake farm.
“Ze girls there dance with snakes.” Roland is French, hence the ze instead of the.
“Lead the way.” Nick was a great admirer of the exotic arts.
The Snake Farm […]

Back in 1971 I hitchhiked through the Northwest with Peter Gorr. We were hippies. Loggers and cops didn’t like longhairs and rides were hard to get, especially since Interstate 90 was under construction from the Idaho Stateline to Butte Montana.

The same for the road winding through the Cardamom Mountains between Koh Kong and Sihanoukville. Earthmovers […]

Passing through the Cambodian frontier was easy.
$25 for a month long visa. A young boy wrote out the particulars. A young man offered to drive us into town for $5. No sign of Stinky. The Dutch passenger from the mini-bus. We bought 4 beers and got into the car. Nick laughed to himself.
“What’s so funny?”
“You […]

Songkran started early this year, despite the cool rainy weather. Drunken bar girls and their patrons jump-started the water festival two days before the official opening date, April 13. My wife and daughter deserted Pattaya for their family celebration of the Thai New Year. I had no intentions of enduring the expected aquatic mayhem, but my […]

I was just riding along Beach Road.
The traffic slowed after Pattaya Klang.

The bar girls and drunken lager louts were assailing passing motorcyclists with buckets of water. Got a Sikh full in the face. These lowlifes were sparing no mercy and I snuck behind a baht bus to avoid any wetness.
Right next to the police station, whose […]

For over fifty years motorists have been greeted to the traffic snarl north of the Tobin Bridge by an orange fiberglass T-Rex at the Saugus Mini-Golf. I had asked my father to stop for a quick 18-holes every time we passed the prehistoric icon on the way back from Maine.

“Next time.”
I told myself the same thing since […]

Back in 1958 America and France movie studios collaborated to film THE NAKED GOYA. Anthony Fransciosa starred as Goya painting the renowned nude of the Duchess of Alba played by Ava Gardner. I think I saw the movie at the drive-in and my mother covered my eyes, when the actress took off her clothes.

Six was too young an age […]

Drunk driving during Songkran is a serious problem in Thailand. The government has announced harsh measures to combat this scourge. Unfortunately not in time for the upcoming 5-day holiday, so sweet sour lollipops will be distributed to motorists to keep them from falling asleep behind the wheel and driving off into the scenery. The police […]

Back in the distant past Dick Cheney’s lack, GW Bush, called Iraq, Iran, and North Korea the ‘axis of evil’.

The USA in 2003 invaded Iraq to avenge the 9/11 terror attack by Saudi Arabia stooges and their Al-Quada masterminds.
Since 2001 Dick Cheney the unelected president, has been lambasting Iran for its nuclear ambitions, while we rewarded Pakistan with atomic […]