Bernard Trink reviews Thailand Fever in The Bangkok Post!

Discussion of Thai-Western relationships and the book, "Thailand Fever."
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Chris Pirazzi
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Joined: Thu Nov 25, 2004 2:10 am

Bernard Trink reviews Thailand Fever in The Bangkok Post!

Post by Chris Pirazzi » Thu Jun 23, 2005 1:47 pm

The inimitable Bernard Trink, who wrote the
Bangkok Post's nightlife page for more than
40 years, has graced us with a review in the
Bangkok Post:

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Bangkok Post Real.Time section, Friday July 10th, 2005
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Cupid's counsel

Thailand Fever by Chris Pirazzi and Vitida Vasant

258 pp, 2004 Paiboon paperback

Available at Asia Books and leading book stores,
495 baht

Farangs _ the origin of the definition in dispute _ has come to mean Caucasians, whether tourists or residents. Not openly insulting like the Japanese term gaijin (barbarian), it carries the pejorative of foreigner: not one of us, untrustworthy, dangerous, wary of the locals.

Big and small, outside of movies, many have a gut and all smell. They have no manners, raise their voices, everywhere they go they sound like they own the place and look down on its people. They proposition the women, paw the bar girls and think it's funny. Still, they are nice to children (apart from paedophiles but they aren't the only ones who are ).

Farangs have money, so much of it, and they throw it around. What does a local lass have to do to get some (all right, a lot) of it thrown her way? Sex? Well, virtue has its price. Love? Love me, love my family. Happiness? As long as he forks over money she will be or pretend to be, but when he's broke, what's the point?

Chris Pirazzi a Yank, and Vitida a Thai living in the States, have co-written Thailand Fever, do's and don'ts to farangs and Thais in the Kingdom bitten by the love bug. They call it a road map, half of it in English and half in Thai. Paraphrasing Kipling, the message is East is East and West is West, but they'll meet if you read this book.

To be sure, there's much to be said for this road map. Its six chapters pretty well cover the conceptions and misconceptions farangs and Thais have about one another. Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned is that he values his independence, she her interdependence. No amount of compromise, give and take is going to change that.

Accompanying him to his homeland may well be depressing. She'll find that the money he flashed in her country was the savings from his; that she's lonely without her family and friends (his family and friends aren't the same thing at all); the snow was fun at first, but it gets awfully cold in winter; communication breaks down when they use the same words with different meanings.

Thailand Fever is for Thai women and farang tourists. Farang residents, particularly Old Thailand Hands who have dwelt here 20 years or more, will dispute the authors/ contention that farang husbands are loud while Thai wives are quiet. More than a few Thai wives have motor mouths, complain incessantly and aren't above using expletives.

Pirazzi and Vasant have bought into the bar girl stereotype that they entered the nitery entertainment field to help their mother. Far more are on the game because it pays better than factory or supermarket jobs with little effort. As to how they spend their earnings, gambling (card-play-ing, the underground lottery) comes first, then gold. Poor mum!

Read Thailand Fever by all means. You won't lose face.

bdw

Trink reviews Thailand Fever

Post by bdw » Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:40 am

Chris Pirazzi wrote: ----------------------------------------------------------------
Bangkok Post Real.Time section, Friday July 10th, 2005
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Farangs have money, so much of it, and they throw it around. What does a local lass have to do to get some (all right, a lot) of it thrown her way? Sex? Well, virtue has its price. Love? Love me, love my family. Happiness? As long as he forks over money she will be or pretend to be, but when he's broke, what's the point?
this is the thing that frightened me big time about Thailand Fever, all the "he's rich" thrown in

granted, it was covered that not ALL Westerners are loaded, but it seemed more like a warning than a call to compromise

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