Tag Archives: farangs

Berlin Wall a la Pattaya

The Berlin Wall fell in November of 1989. Several years ago a German expat in Pattaya tried to recreate one of many escape attempts over the infamous barrier between East and West by trying to evade police by leaping over a concrete wall topped by barbed wire in a state of nakedness. Stasi Police would […]

NAPS OF THAILAND by Peter Nolan Smith

When a Chinese general was asked about the defeat of the People’s Army by the Vietnamese in 1979, he replied, “We get up at 5am and they get up at 4.” The draconian work ethic of NVA seemed to have been sapped by the torrid climes closer to the equator, because Thais and Laotians are […]

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 […]

Mango Season for Yai

Throughout the first decade of this century I lived in Pattaya in a lovely house off Soi Bong Koch. The neighborhood had once been a mango farm. The last tree stood in my front yard. Nothing grew underneath the tree. The sap killed grass and flowers, yet during the hot season February to April hundreds […]

The Roam of Ghosts

My youngest son talks about phee or ghosts. Fenway is not scared of these spirits, but he doesn’t want to go to certain houses on our soi in Sri Racha, since the four-year-old sees birds with voices. His mother thinks that he has the 6th sense. Mam says that she is not frightened by ghosts. […]