MangoZeen

Pattaya is not Venice and certainly no one on the Coasta del Crime retends to be Thomas Mann preparing to re-write a Thai version of TO DIE IN VENICE. At least no one I know, however plenty of people die here. Thais and farangs. It’s why we are mortal. We die.

Unfortunately not always glorious.
The Pattaya City News, a […]

ST. PAUL, Minn. - In an effort to help Sen. Larry Craig, the American Civil Liberties Union is arguing that people who have sex in public bathrooms have an expectation of privacy.

And not only gays.
My friend Sam Royalle swears he has had sex with several naked dancers in the bathroom of Pattaya’s go-go bars. I don’t doubt […]

My niece was the first of her family to attend college.
After graduation my wife announced with pride that Gueng had been hired as a hostess or jaoo phrap krueng bin for Nok-Khon Air. 10k/month, a uniform, a dormitory room in Bangkok, and with free travel for her family. Me included.
“Where do they fly?”
“Not airplane. Bus. VIP.” The […]

I last saw Fabo at the Buffalo Bar. He was with Gai, his mia noi.

“My wife she knows nothing.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure of that.” Thai wives have ‘naak-suab’ or spies everywhere and Thai women love to ‘waa raai’ or gossip about other women’s philandering husbands, especially if the woman is not present.
“Poo never say […]

Yesterday the Asian stock markets responded to President Bush’s tepid salvation plan for the US economy with a feverish sell-off of exposed positions. The malaise later spread to the London exchange, which suffered the largest drop in value since 9/11. The Dow Jones escaped the plunge thanks to a bank holiday for Martin Luther King, but Asian investors […]

Jocko Weyland left the USA for the Orient. The reasons for this departure are his own and so his choice of Beijing. My prerequisites for a place to live are good food, warm weather, and beautiful women. Guess I’m shallow as an evaporation stain on an Arizona Highway. Jocko went for a world-class intellectual city, however […]

Thai dogs like to bark. They bark all night and no one says a word. The little chow across the street once yapped for 17 hours non-stop, until its voice went as raspy 50 year-old Gitane smoker. 
Thai dog’ favorite targets are those unfortunate rubbish divers eking out a living in search of recyclable bottles, paper, and treasure. Mop […]

When I first toured the Orient, friends and family asked, “Are you scared of someone robbing you?”

“I live in the East Village.” The neighborhood welcome wagon in 1977 had been Hakkim and his junkie friends cleaning out our apartment. “I’ll be careful.”
Truthfully the greater danger was my losing something.
Nothing of value can stay in my […]

Good news from Iraq.

The Surge succeeded beyond expectations, GW Bush is planning on a withdrawal of 20,000 troops, and the IMF had looked into its economic crystal ball to predict Iraq’s increasing potential for economic growth and political progress. When a country is at the bottom every thing looks up from so far down, especially […]

This afternoon I set off from my house and thought, “Damn what a beautiful sky.”

No smoke in the air.
A miracle, until returning to my house I spotted thick grey plume billowing from the northern end of the street. It was not a cloud. It was fire. A brushfire. Call the Fire Dept. Quick.
Mistake or kwam-pit. […]