Category Archives: Thailand

Skateboarding Pattaya 2006

Back in 2006 while living through another hot season in Pattaya, I watched the 2006 Winter Olympics from Torino Italy. After viewing the downhill and fantasized about snow mountains and skiing, then spotted my skateboard. Skateboard, Pattaya Hill, road, downhill on asphalt. I told Angie’s mom about my plan and she frowned, even after I […]

Beyond The Border

Over the years my friends’ sons and daughters suspected that my travels were connected to the CIA or some criminal enterprise. My denials only confirmed their opinions, mostly because none of them wanted to become their parents, unless they were rich. Recently young man contacted me on Facebook and asked if I was in Thailand […]

A TASTE FOR THE EAST 1990

My first trip to the Orient was in 1990. A round-the-world ticket. One destination was Singapore. The Straits city was already undergoing its metamorphosis from a colonial port to a gleaming metropolis of skyscrapers. Raffles had been closed for renovations. I stayed at a cheap Chinese hotel in a decrepit godown. The walls climbed toward […]

Chasing the Dragon by Cops 2009

Drugs are illegal in Thailand. The police have squads of officers scouting the slums, discos, and bars for offenders. Suspects are piss-tested for ‘ice’ and ‘ja-bah’, the two popular speed drugs in the orient. Any trace of purple means a lock-up for months. Actual possession could earn years, but smuggling drugs gets the most time […]

COME ALL YE FAITHFUL by Peter Nolan Smith

Pattaya is not a city known for monogamy. Promises of fidelity last, until you leave the room, because this city on Thailand’s Eastern Seaboard offers temptations by the thousands and those temptations rarely say no. Bar girls, rent boys, ka-toeys, booze, and drugs added up to damnation according to Reverend Joe Stannis of the Holy […]