Tag Archives: thailand

No More Cars

Gas prices in Thailand are running about 38 baht or $1.25 a liter. These prices are as expensive as the USA and sucking money out of people’s wallets faster than the cars can drive on the Asia Highway. There is no shortage of gas, but prices have been pushed up by oil speculators to reap […]

Up Country Blackout

I’m upcountry in the Western Forests of Thailand. There are no farangs on the mountainous border on Burma. Just me and that’s more than enough for me, so please excuse the absence on Mangozeen, but I’ve been re-writing my hitchhiking novel BACK AND FORTH I’ll be back in civilization this evening. Have the London Olympics […]

The Cost of Happiness

Happiness is relative. Most people think rich people are happy. I have lived in Palm Beach and Duchess County. Their wealth is no guarantee of happiness. Wives run away with brothers, husbands are murdered in a jealous rage, children are abandoned at birth. Very much like Thai soap operas, however listening to high society moan […]

Highway 1040 Again

Yesterday morning I sat at a small coffee stand in Umphang. I was the only farang in sight. My daughter and her mother were shopping at the Karen tribal shop next door. A light rain dotted the street. This was the end of highway 1040, the Highway in the Clouds. There was little reason to […]

Spotting a Conman in Pattaya

Pattaya has attracted all sorts of farangs and Thais. Most are upstanding citizens, however there is a small percentage of miscreants to avoid and be seen avoiding, which unfortunately excludes your Thai in-laws. Farangs are stuck with them and they with you, but a westerner can’t live in a Thai vacuum, especially without any ability […]