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new *e-book* for kindle

our non-fiction book of investigative journalism:

“Hello My Big Big Honey!” Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews

is now published in san francisco as an *e-book* for kindle etc, available at amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Hello-My-Big-Honey-ebook/dp/B009ESEGY0

$4.99

“hello my big big honey!”

TIME magazine hailed this book for its investigative journalism, interviews, and “intimate portrait” of the sex industry in Thailand. 

“Does love conquer poverty, cultural barriers and the fear of AIDS? Sometimes…” 

— TIME 

“A number of themes run through the book: prostitution, love, family, cultural stereotypes, AIDS. The most prominent, however, and perhaps the most interesting is money. 

“‘Hello My Big Big Honey!’ is interesting and readable, surprising and engaging…intriguing…picking up a copy of ‘Hello My Big Big Honey!’ is worthwhile…” 

— Bangkok Post 

A “masterwork” of “feminist research”

— The British Library’s Oriental and India Office Collections 

“…very funny…” 

— Publishers Weekly 

“…a Freudian whirlpool of sexual fantasies and frustration, of damaged egos and haunting super-egos, of dreams of pure love and acts of cold calculation, and a milieu of cross-cultural mayhem.” 

— The Far Eastern Economic Review 

Richard S. Ehrlich is the Bangkok-based co-author and co-photographer, along with Dave Walker, of a book of investigative journalism entitled, “Hello My Big Big Honey!” Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews. 

Nearly all of the girls have flocked to the cities and resorts to escape their own prison: an impoverished existence in Thailand’s rural expanses, whereas a night’s takings from the city bar could sustain a family for a month. 

From Isan’s desperately poor, rice farming villages, where hunger is the norm, the bars of Bangkok or Pattaya are a welcome escape. 

For girls with little education, they provide an opportunity to shine, and have the honour of providing for their families by sending new-found riches back home. 

— The Observer, U.K. 

“Thailand super-expats Richard Ehrlich and Dave Walker have many distinguished lines on their resumes, though none quite so noteworthy as ‘Hello My Big Big Honey!’, their anthology of love letters written to Bangkok bar girls by men of all nationalities, who, once back in the lands of dowdy, nagging women, strip malls, and other nine-to-five drudgery, can’t seem to get the exotic vacation trollops of Thailand out of their minds.” 

— Smile When You’re Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer, by Chuck Thompson 

“‘Hello My Big Big Honey!” Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews — This classic study of the Bangkok bar scene has been extolled by anthropologists and sociologists throughout the world.” 

— S. Tsow, The Nation newspaper, Thailand 

“…our favorite is the timeless classic, ‘Hello My Big Big Honey!’” 

— Bangkok Inside Out

This book is a collection of love letters, written by men from all over the world, to Thai women who work in bars on Bangkok’s famous Patpong Road. 

Plus revealing, in-depth, question-and-answer interviews with the women who receive them. 

How does romance blossom amid the harsh streets? 

“Hello My Big Big Honey!” devles beyond the neon, glitz, hype, and tragedy of Bangkok’s red-lit nights and discovers a world of loneliness, depseration and — sometimes — love. 

This latest American edition — ISBN 0867194731 — can be ordered through any local bookshop or Internet bookseller, including Amazon.com, for delivery worldwide. 

The *Lonely Planet* Guide to Thailand, July 2001 edition, and the *Lonely Planet* Guide to Bangkok, August 2001 edition, both recommend this book in their *Culture and Society* section. 

Lonely Planet’s Joe Cummings — winner of the “2002 Best Travel Writing, Peace Corps Writers’ Awards” — wrote: 

“Hello My Big Big Honey!” Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews — also published in French as ‘Bonjour ma Grande Grande Cherie!’ — by Richard Ehrlich and Dave Walker, delivers exactly what the title describes. 

This collection of letters between Thai bar workers and their farang (foreigners of European descent) clients and the verbatim question-and-answer interviews with the women, discloses more about the complex nature of these encounters than 10 academic treatises of similar size.” 

“Hello My Big Big Honey!” is also *one of only three* books recommended by the September 2002 edition of the *Lonely Planet* Bangkok: Condensed Guide written by Rebecca Turner. 

She says in her “Bangkok in Print” section that “Hello My Big Big Honey!” is among the “better reads” and is “intriguing…” 

Bangkok — Thailand: Where an Old Man Can Think He is Debonair

The Observer, U.K.

Translations in German, Italian and French have been published, titled: 

“HELLO MY BIG BIG HONEY!” (DEUTSCHE FASSUNG) 

Liebesbriefe an Bangkok’s Barmaedchen und ihre Aussagestarken Interviews

“HELLO MY BIG BIG HONEY!” ist cine his dahin nie erzahltc Darstellung der Liebesleben von Bangkoker Barmadchen und den Auslandern, von denen die Madchen gemietet werden — und sich dazu in ihren eigenen Worten hekennen. 

Eine Sammlung von Liebesleben aus derganzen Welt, an die Ladies of the Night, die in den Bars von Bangkok’s beruhmter Patpong-Strabe arheiten. Dazu enthullende, in die Tiefe gehende Interviews mit den Frauen, die die Briefe empfangen. 

Warum sind einige Manner so von Thai-Prostituierten besessen? Kann Geld wahre Liehe kaufen? Wie kann inmitten der rauhen Welt der Strabe eine Romance bluhen? 

Heiraten Barmadchen ihre Kunden? 

“HELLO MY BIG BIG HONEY!” forscht jenseits der Neonlichter nach, jenseits des Glanzes, cles Werberummels und der Tragodien von Bangkok’s rot erleuchteten Nachten und entdeckt eine Welt der Einsam-keit, der Verzweiflung unclomanchmaloder Liehe. 

“Buongiorno Mio Grande Grande Amore!”

“…un ritratto intimo…” 

—TIME 

“BUONGIORNO MIO GRANDE GRANDE AMORE!” presenta una ras-segna, mai vista prima, della vita sentimentale delle bar-girls di Bangkok e degli stranieri che le “noleggiano” — raccontata dalle loro stesse parole. 

Una raccolta di lettere d’amore provenienti da tutto il mondo, scritte alle signore della notte che lavorano nei bar della famosa Patpong Road di Bangkok. Inoltre, le interviste con le donne che le hanno ricevute, ne sono ancora piu profondamente rivelatrici. 

Perche alcuni uomini sono ossessionati dalle prostitute Thailan-desi? Puo forse il denaro comperare il vero amore? Come puo fiorire un idillio in mezzo a quelle aspre strade? 

Le bar-girls si sposano con i loro clienti? 

“BUONGIORNO MIO GRANDE GRANDE AMORE!” scava al di la delle luci al neon, del luccichio, della eccitazione e della tragedia dei night a luci rosse di Bangkok e mette in luce un mondo di solitudine, disperazione e — qualche volta — di amore. 

A French-language translation — ISBN 9748434478 — of the 172-page edition, titled: “Bonjour ma Grande Grande Cherie!” Lettres d’Amour aux Filles des Bars de Bangkok et Interviews Revelatrices, was published in Bangkok in 1998 and is also on sale at most bookshops throughout Thailand and the French-language book websites listed below. 

Translated into French by Bangkok-based Le Figaro correspondent Florence Compain and France’s RTL radio correspondent Cyril Payen, this book is also available titled:

“Bonjour ma Grande Grande Cherie!” Lettres d’Amour aux Filles des Bars de Bangkok et Interviews Revelatrices is available in bookshops throughout Thailand, including at the Alliance Francaise de Bangkok, and also worldwide via Amazon.com and other websites. 

Gavroche magazine reviews the French edition

“entirely free of the greasy imprint of voyeurism” 

************************************************************

“Hello My Big Big Honey!” is also available in the personal libraries of: 

Robert Crumb, *underground* cartoonist 

Matt Dillon, actor 

DMX, rap star 

Dennis Miller, comedian 

Mandy Moore, singer and actress 

George Meyer, writer on “The Simpsons” 

Carmen Elecktra, actress and model 

Eva Mendez, actress 

Michael Bolton, singer 

Chou Yun Fat, actor 

Steven Seagal, actor 

Tracy Quan, author of “Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl” 

Terry Zwigoff, film director 

Joe Bob Briggs, television personality 

Warren Hinckle, Ramparts magazine’s former editor 

Jack Hirschman, “one of San Francisco’s few remaining Beat poets who you can still find in North Beach’s Cafe Trieste, making his usual rounds meeting his bohemian neighbors” 

Jack Boulware, author of “Sex American Style: An Illustrated Romp Through the Golden Age of Heterosexuality” and “San Francisco Bizarro” 

Sienna Guillory, actress in “Resident Evil: Apocalypse” 

Nancy Reiko Kato, San Francisco’s national organizer for Radical Women, a Trotskyist Feminist group 

Tony Poe, notorious American C.I.A. paramilitary guerrilla leader in Laos, Tibet and Indonesia (alas, Tony passed away in July 2003 in San Francisco) 

************************************************************

Angels in Bikinis?

Collecting Love Letters, Conducting Interviews, and Other Secrets About Writing the Book, “Hello My Big Big Honey!”   

BANGKOK, Thailand — We could only pursue the bar girls in the early evening, before they began working, but not too early because they’d still be crashed out from some romantic, miserable or naughty-kinky pre-dawn tryst that defied description — especially to two mischievously grinning authors. 

Yes, this would be more than mere journalism.

(read all about it in *Dateline* magazine, published by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand):

http://www.asia-correspondent.110mb.com/nonfictionbook.angelsbikinis92fcct.html

san francisco book tour

SAN FRANCISCO, California — A switchblade to the throat, a former CIA “Apocalypse Now” paramilitary leader, and a warning not to say “chicks,” greeted us during our three-week book signing tour in San Francisco. 

And who were those “Trotskyite feminists”? 

(read all about it in *Dateline* magazine, published by The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand):

http://www.asia-correspondent.110mb.com/nonfictionbook.bbhbooktour01fcct.html

5,000 word excerpt

“HELLO MY BIG BIG HONEY!” 

Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews 

Collected by

Dave Walker and Richard S. Ehrlich

****************************************

Excerpt from The Preface by Dave Walker 

…The love letters in this book were all written by men of various nationalities, many of whom came to Thailand on holiday, fell in love with a prostitute, then returned home to write love letters and send money. As many men soon discover, reality and common sense can be easily suspended in exotic Southeast Asia. 

“Hello My Big Big Honey!” examines this relatively unexplored, and less sensationalized side of Thai prostitution through the love letters donated by the bar girls, and through intimate interviews with the women and others involved in Bangkok’s bar culture. 

Some letters describe badly performed sexual encounters in short-time (pay by the hour) hotels, squalid guest houses, and even five-star hotels. Some letters are crude, while others are sensitive and beautifully written. There are the romantic letters of the French, German love letters, heavy and full of Teutonic angst, as well as letters from British, Australian, French, New Zealand, Canadian, American, Japanese and Scandinavian men. 

What emerges are not-so-normal love stories and a very different look at human relations. 

A foreign man arriving in Bangkok for the first time can be an easy mark for many scams. Jewelry, custom-made suits, and sex with anything he desires, are all endlessly offered by a variety of sleazy characters — usually driving a taxi. 

He may walk into a go-go bar where he is treated like a celebrity by scantily clad nubiles in string bikinis. But like celebrities everywhere, this popularity usually lasts only as long as he is paying the bills. 

He could be a nice guy who just finds it easier to empathize with the bar girls, due to their poverty and wretched lifestyle. Or he may be a sex tourist who bar hops and sleeps with as many women as he can. The women respect this type of man the least and will take him for what they can. Fidelity is highly prized by Thai women as many of them are working in the bars due to a failed relationship or marriage. 

Another man may make a woman his travel companion and take her on holiday in Thailand. They may spend weeks, or even months together. Some bar girls have married the rich and famous, many have worked the bars in other countries, while others have done more travelling than Marco Polo. 

Whatever reason a man has for frequenting Bangkok’s bars, he will be entering a complex and very alien world. There is little in the West that can prepare him for Bangkok’s bars, and the women may haunt him long after the jet-lag has worn off. The wild nights and the sultry, available (for a price) women will have left their mark. 

The bars seem to bring out the best, and occasionally worst of male behavior. Bar relationships are not always “buy sexual,” and one hears of generosity and compassion that can give you a whole different way of looking at men. 

In addition to Thai prostitutes, tourist men also fall in love with cashiers, tour guides, hotel receptionists, waitresses, co-workers, and bank clerks. These women also receive love letters. But it’s the bar girls who seem to inspire foreign men to write the most. The fantasy prevails. 

Thai women who enter the sex industry usually come from the poor, rural, northeastern region (Isarn) where life can be extremely harsh…”

 (Walker’s full Preface appears in the book.)   

****************************************

 Excerpt from The Introduction by Richard S. Ehrlich  

…The odds are against love. When she’s dancing on her tiny stage, a Thai bar girl might discover a row of men blandly watching, as if jurors at her trial. Or she’ll see a man whose expression is so mangled from years and fears that his face looks like a Rorschach inkblot, which only she can interpret. In the shadows, a quiet drinker might be waiting for human balm to satiate and sooth his antique body. 

Her friends and competition will also be there, including the much too professional, pumped-up girls with their mercenary, split-level smiles beaming hot fake lasers of love. Other girls, jagged from smoking heroin or sniffing paint thinner or eating amphetamines, will scan the barroom with fierce, barbed-wire eyes unable or unwilling to conceal their own traumas. One girl’s face might be pulled by invisible hooks into a frown as she numbly goes through the motions of dancing to the blare of “Like A Virgin.” Other girls, gleefully laughing and trying to lure a crowd, will comically dance and strip. Some shows continue into crude cabaret. 

Prostitutes have always driven some men crazy with love. Vincent Van Gogh may have chopped off part of his ear for a bar girl, though Van Gogh also threw his mind to the crows so he might not be an accurate measure of how deranged men can get when confronted by a female willing to pretend to be the answer to their dreams. 

Throughout human history, the oldest profession has inspired in some men eloquent poetry, opulent feelings and an honesty which can be lacking in the courtships, marriages and vows of other relationships. Much of the commercial intercourse in Bangkok, unfortunately, doesn’t appear to be so lofty. Men are willing to pay, but they often quickly demand her sunny side up while the meter is ticking. Or kinkier acrobatics. And these days with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus causing Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome — people on all sides are increasingly losing their lives. 

But among the bars’ clients and public dancers are some foreign men and Thai women who are looking for love, though sometimes even they are unsure how to find it. Many of these infatuated men write love letters to their store-bought girlfriends. Even tonight, some Patpong women are carrying paper envelopes stuffed with foreign hearts. In some cases, a gorgeous, sweet, stunningly erotic Thai bar girl is the indescribable explosion that a man suddenly sees as a faint glimmer of hope. Though customers usually return to faraway nations, Bangkok becomes the place where they fall when they fall asleep. 

Male chatter with their bar girls might be sexist, obscene, humorous, profound, scientific, pathetic, disgusting or just a delight in the pleasures of the senses and the moment’s illusion. 

“Want me to write your name with a bottle of wine in the streets, to show you how I feel about you?” an American whispers to a lady on his lap. “Has anyone ever done that for you? Wasted a bottle of wine writing your name with it in the street?” 

Or a German advises his buddy, “My best time was being with a squad of deaf and dumb hookers who were really nice because they never got on your nerves with silly talk. No talk about how you must marry them or anything…” 

 (Ehrlich’s full Introduction appears in the book.) 

****************************************

Excerpt from The Prologue by Dr. Yos Santasombat  

(Dr. Yos Santasombat is an Associate Professor on the Faculty of Sociology & Anthropology at Bangkok’s Thammasat University. He is also Research Director of the Local Development Institute in Bangkok’s Department of Medical Science and author of the book, The Community and Commercialization of Female Sexuality.)

…What the letters explain is that we’re not talking about a piecemeal type of relationship that describes other forms of prostitution in the West. In the cases here, the Thai girls themselves are prepared to extend their relationship for a number of days or weeks or even years. Sometimes the farang himself ends up spending the entire vacation with one girl and sometimes he comes back. Sometimes she becomes his mistress or even a wife. 

I think in most cases, the girls enter into the relationship from a strictly pecuniary motivation. But of course she may stage a concern in a sense of a physical attraction or some kind of an emotional attachment.

The girl will attach herself to a client or a farang more permanently if she finds the relationship enjoyable. Those are the cases I find most interesting in open-ended prostitution in Thailand. 

Once the relationship is extended, the girls’ involvement with the farang often gradually changes. Her stay with the man is usually conditioned upon his readiness to support her or to take care of her financially. The line between money and love becomes very fuzzy, because the money itself cannot be distinguished between signs of affection, tender caring and love itself. Mutual or material dependence frequently engenders some sort of an emotional attachment on the part of the girl herself.

So, what starts out as a money-orientated transactional arrangement becomes a mixed involvement, a more complicated relationship. In extreme cases it becomes even possible that the attachment comes from pure emotion. It somehow gradually detaches itself from the material aspects or the money. And in prolonged cases, open-ended prostitution can be characterized as an ambiguous compliment of love and money…

  (Dr. Yos’s full Prologue appears in the book.)  

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Technical Details 

The following letters and interviews were given by bar girls in Bangkok. Women were asked for whatever love letters they had received from foreign men, and to tell about their lives. We rejected hundreds of letters and many of the interviews and selected only the ones which were interesting or displayed emotions.

It was impossible for us to find out the fate of many of these relationships. Often the women themselves didn’t know why they drifted apart. Sometimes the women were about to travel to join their foreign boyfriends.

To protect everyone’s privacy, we changed every bar girls’ name to “Darling” and all letter writers’ names were deleted. To ensure anonymity, we also deleted descriptions of the men’s jobs and removed the names of all foreign cities, substituting instead the name of the country. All dates were also deleted or replaced by “soon” or “recently.” 

In the few cases where writers kept mentioning their own names in the text of the letter, and their names became intrinsic to the letter’s cadence and mood, we simply replaced their real names with two invented names: Hubert and Floyd.

The sometimes twisted grammar in the letters are the exact text — we corrected their typos and misspellings — and we only used letters which were written in English. The letter writers’ attempts at Thai phrases are translated in a glossary.

We relentlessly searched the bars to find letters and interviewees. And when we interviewed women, we concentrated on those who spoke relatively good English, and transcribed their replies verbatim.

The bar girls we interviewed do not match up with every published letter. This is because many of the bar girls who gave us fascinating, romantic letters, were not always the most eloquent or lucid interviewees. Similarly, some of the best interviewees declined to let their more intimate letters be made public — or simply never saved them. 

The statistics are also a bit random: some women had only one letter worth including, while others received a handful of collectibles. To ensure confidentiality, we also jumbled the published order of the letters and interviews so no one reading the book would be able to identify which women received which letters.

In this edition, we added three bar owners, and photographs of nightlife in Bangkok.

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Men’s Correspondence to Bar Girls & Interviews 

BRITISH AIRWAYS

flying between _____________

and ______________________

First Class

Darling,

I am writing to you on the aeroplane because I want my letter to reach you as quickly as possible.

I will try to write in very easy English so your friend can tell you what I

say in Thai.

I (Hubert) was very, very sad to say goodbye to you this morning at Don

Muang (airport). Like you, Hubert also cry. But do not worry, Hubert will

come back to see you very soon. I will try to come back to Bangkok to see

you soon. I think I can stay for about two (2) weeks next time.

I want to tell you so many things. I feel very bad on the aeroplane because I miss you already. Also, I feel very angry because I cannot write to you in Thai. Sorry.

I want to say very big thank you for coming with me to the airport (Don Muang). I know it was very sad time for you (and sad for Hubert too), but Hubert was very pleased with you and very proud of you for being very brave.

I will try to help you with money. But please do not expect too much from me — because now I have to save money to come to Bangkok again soon.

I will write to you again to tell you how much I have (money) in the bank. Not very much I am sorry.

I was very pleased to give you the little presents (gifts). I will send you some more little things soon.

Now comes more important words:

VERY IMPORTANT AND “TOP SECRET”

I wish I had met you as soon as I came to Bangkok. We did not have enough time together. But I really enjoyed your company and Hubert feel very good with you. I think you are very good-looking (very pretty) and, first of all when I see you dancing, I am very attracted to your lovely, young body (very sexy!)

But, as we spent more time together, I start to think darling is a lovely person. You are fun to be with and have good heart. I really enjoyed taking you to places and you make old Hubert feel very young again. I say old Hubert. Please understand darling that Hubert is in his forties. Old enough to be your father! What do you think of that? Perhaps you think that Hubert is a “dirty old man” to have sex with a young lady (you). Hubert felt very good to make love to you, but because you are much younger, sometimes old man Hubert find it difficult to please darling. You have so much energy. This is why I say (joking to you) “Doctor, Doctor, please save me, give me some medicine (vitamins) so I can make love again to my darling.”

No joking now.

Making love is good now and again and I hope you enjoyed it too. But there is more to life than making love. I think we became very good friends and I hope I will always stay a good friend to you. You speak only little bit of English and I speak only little bit of Thai but I think we are very good for each other.

I was sad when you tell me you have no mother and no father in Bangkok. Do your mother and father die? Please tell me about your family, I would like to know more about you.

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

(She resides upstairs in a bleak building typical of many bar girls’ living quarters. A ceiling fan churns humid air which smells of food cooking on a hotplate placed on the floor in the hallway. She has shiny, pink toenails, and six finger-rings, some of them gold. Her elderly mother, who is emaciated and extremely wrinkled, comes in from the bathroom topless and puts on shirt. The bar girl points to her mother and boasts, “Sexy!” Her mother gives a toothless smile and departs. 

Dust-covered cobwebs dangle and sway in the ceiling’s corners and the room is sectioned off by turquoise-painted plywood. Someone has rubbed purple lipstick all over the mouth of a young Thai actor in a big poster. Another poster shows a larger-than-life baby. Five people share the bedroom — which is little bigger than the bed — two children, the bar girl’s sister, the sister’s boyfriend and a girlfriend. In the only other room, she sleeps with her son and mother near a VCR and dart board. As she speaks, a nude baby boy sleeps on his back on the bed. The room’s floor is covered with thin, roll-down linoleum. On a top shelf rests a gray, stuffed animal with its eyes missing.)

(what do you think of the letters you receive?) 

Too sweet. All letters be sweet. One German write, also he do send money. He very good. Other man forget about me because just like to make letter and after never heard about again. I like this German because he very good, he young but have very good thinking. I never see anyone German like him. I like him, him good care, good love, not butterfly. Two years I know him. I never love him, only like him. It hurts too much and is too scary to love him. Because the first one hurt me really bad, from England. German love me too much. 

(do you believe his letters?) 

I do. About future, I talk to him already. If I marry I want to stay Thailand because have too much to take care. My family. My mother, my son. The town of my boyfriend is not in the city and is very boring, like in the village. I went Germany two times. I like him family, very good care of me. I don’t think so I like Germany, too cold for me. He say, “OK,” but he also will like to stay Thailand but difficult him. Because he don’t have job. Now I 27. Old? I from Bangkok. I worked Patpong but I don’t like. I don’t like show people my body in go-go bar. When I dance, I have to be drunk first so I not shy to do it. Some girl she not too much like, but she have to do it. Because Thailand difficult to find job. Girl come from everywhere. It not easy. You want a job. My whole family work in carpenters. Difficult. (laughs) Not my style. Very hard work, very tiring. Take a long time for my mother to know what I doing.

(what is the difference between men from different countries?)

Different country, I think all think the same. Some very good, but some very crazy. For me I don’t care about the country. The farang are the same type of people, have to work hard. I marry with a husband went to England. I think not different than my country. One thing is he can find a good job, not like in Thailand. And if can’t find job, government can take care him, not like in Thailand. I marry with him about five years, but now not together. Very funny I meet him. I come to bar to drink and see him stop motorbike and he ask me, do you know what he ask me? “Have ganja?” I said, “What you think I like that?” And he say, “You look stoned.”

(why did you separate?) 

Always fighting. He crazy. The problem was he too much jealous because I open the bar I have to take care customer, I have to keep talking. But he don’t understand. He think I have to go with the man. He buy the knife, (laughing) tell the customer, “You can speak with my wife but can’t touch her.” I never tell customer I have a husband, because the business, so I keep talking. After he buy the drink, he think this bar very good and he come again. I have son. 

(who is the father?) 

I don’t want to say. First time you work you don’t know from who. Now he’s around six years old. 

(any advice to a new girl who is thinking about starting as a bar girl?) 

Working this not good. Better she can find the other job. I think the old girl is better than the young, because young think work for fun. But old girl think how to get money tonight to pay tomorrow, not work for fun. I think next year I going to get married to him. Then I only live Germany one year, but not for life. But if I can find a job there, I stay there because Thailand make me crazy. When I go with farang in Thailand I never hold hand, I let him walk ahead because many Thai people don’t understand why Thai girl go with farang.

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Darling,

I’m in receipt of your letter which just arrived

The girl you met when you came to see me at NANA Hotel, I didn’t know that he/she were an hermaphrodite and when somebody told me about I decided not to see her again.

I went twice to your place but unfortunately you were travelling to your father’s home.

When you write that you came at Gent Hotel, it was at Grace Hotel I went when I returned after NANA’s.

I was so disappointed not to see you.

I have kept a so nice “souvenir” of my first stay in Thailand, when we went to the “Disco.”

Please answer me as soon as you receive my letter, I might come to Bangkok very soon, I will let you know when.

Darling, I miss you, I do hope that you will continue to write me, telling what you are doing.

Are you still at school, are you working, how many boys friends have you got?

Many kisses from your lover.

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

(She is a good-looking, short, tough woman, 23, who sometimes appears as if she’s on the verge of tears. Her painted, pointy fingernails torture a tiny piece of cellophane wrapper from her cigarette package as she speaks.)

If Thai boyfriend is good and take care of girl, Thailand not be full of prostitutes. But they have baby and not take care, not get married. That’s why they have prostitutes. Also, somebody not want marry girl second time if she not virgin. That’s why they become prostitutes. I have a lot of friend do work like I did before. Thai boyfriend never take care their baby because he have to work hard, can’t find the money to take care of baby. It’s a problem of money also.

(do bar girls make good money?)

If don’t take smack, don’t take a drink, don’t have Thai boyfriend to look after.

(why did you attempt suicide?)

Want to show, when boyfriend shouting, want boyfriend say, “Sorry.” I try two times. With knife, and one time with scissor. First time two and a half years ago because I have problem with my boyfriend. We go out to Patpong, have a drink. Some people talk to me. I like to talk with somebody else. So we fight. Just jealous. Sometime another boyfriend call me for his girlfriend, so he don’t trust. Stupid thing. I do silly. Sometime I learn English, I come home late. 

I try to kill me second time, last year, because my boyfriend he go back Europe for nearly four months. Tell me about the place he living no telephone number. One day, I drunk in Patpong. I want to talk to him. I feel lonely. I just wait thinking how I feel. I miss him. Have no telephone number. I call his mother to get his number. Then I call his apartment. A woman answer. She ask, say, “Who are you?” I told the farang girl, “Ask the boy, he know very well.” Boyfriend say how I know this telephone number? I say his mother give to me. He say he call me back tomorrow. I say, “Why you not talk with me now? Because you have lady? Tell me the truth.” Next day he call me. We fight. Before, he told me he come back now. On telephone, he tell me one and a half month more. Say he not finish work. I say, “What happen about lady?” He told me the story what happen. Lady from Denmark have no find a place to live, sleep on his floor. I think 50 percent I do believe, 40 percent no believe. I thinking I lonely. Not have man four months. Woman same like man. I go Koh Samui. Meet man. Nice. Denmark come back. We fight. I tell him, I love him but I feel lonely, that why I do this. So he don’t talk with me, don’t kiss me, don’t look at me for nearly one week. I cut my arm because he don’t trust me. I try to kill me because nobody trust me.

(why do some girls take drugs?)

I tell you the truth? Because people want good sex. Because the tourists like. They have money. Say, “Come on, we have good fun together.” The girl don’t know what this is. I drink and smoke ganja because we go to discotheque to meet some people.

(what is your advice to a new girl thinking about becoming a bar girl?)

A lot girl from north Thailand finish with Thai boyfriend, have broken heart, ask me, “What about farang boyfriend? How can have? I want have same as you, go another country. Have gold, have house, have good money in the bank, have nice dress, buy things for parents.” She see some friend who have more than her. She say, “Why? What her story?” I tell, “Please forget about this. It’s not fun. Now AIDS coming in Thailand. People look down at bar lady. Some people go work first time, get lucky, meet man, take care this girl. But maybe you don’t find man take care you. You have to sleep around. Sometimes man look like shit, have to fuck him.” 

(do you know any bar girls who married foreigners?)

Eleven of my friend in the same bar stop work and marry with farangs. Netherlands, England, German, Denmark also.

(when you go with a customer you don’t like, what do you think about while making love?)

Thinking about how to be strong. What tomorrow to pay. What tomorrow to eat. Want some money to send back to parents. 

(why do so many Western men like Thai bar girls?) 

They like the brown skin and black hair. A lot of farang women, after get married, get fat. Thai women different from farang. Europe women are prostitutes only to take drugs. Thai women are prostitutes to take care their families…

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 Excerpt from an Interview With an American Bar Owner   

(how do you hire the girls?)

Five years ago, I went up country in the small villages where I previously

worked in intelligence and knew the village elders. I recruited the girls

and brought them back. My girls go back home, and tell other girls what a

great bar this is, flashing the gold, and bring other girls back. The new

girls go through an orientation period. I pay them 30,000 baht for that 90

days. I determine her experience level sexually. If she’s a virgin, I say,

“You can proceed slowly. Go when you want to go.” If there’s a mama-san, she

tells her to go the first night. I tell her, “It’s up to you.”

(when you hire a new girl, do you also try to judge her personality along with her looks?)

Personalities are very hard to judge, initially. Usually, when she first

comes in, she’s quiet. Maybe she’s never been to Bangkok. She’s probably

never been in a bar. She’s afraid of me. My size and voice is intimidating.

You can only tell her what to do, and hope she’ll listen. One girl worked

here, and she was great until she brought in her younger sister. She told

her younger sister, “Don’t go with a man all night. Do something to piss

them off, so you can get another bar fine.” I was getting complaints from

the customer. I have an evaluation form for customers to fill after being

with the girl. I told those sisters, “You’re fired. Turn in your numbers,

your bikinis, and get your clothes.”

(what do you look for in a new girl who you want to employ in your bar?)

A new girl off the street will say, “I’ve never worked in a bar before.”

I’ll hire her if she never worked. If she speaks good English, I won’t hire

her. Because she’s worked too much. And they’ll bring their problems to my

bar. At my bar, 95 percent are fresh off the farm. From upcountry. They don’t speak English.

(if a customer wanted to marry a bar girl, and asked you for advice, what

would you tell him?)

I would tell him, “Proceed extremely slowly. Observe her in many, many types

of situations over a long time. Expose her to some different cultures before

you get married.” When a guy goes back to the States with a Thai girl,

married or not, the girl experiences culture shock. Her diet is changed. The

weather is different. There’s no wat (Buddhist temple) nearby. No

Thai-speaking people. She’s totally isolated and dependent on this one

individual. And she doesn’t know how to react. It is easier if he is from

LA, they have a wat in LA, they have Thai-speaking people, even a channel in

Thai. But if he takes her to Indianapolis, Indiana, the girl is in for a

rough time. Guys don’t realize this. Guys can adapt to cultural differences.

But a girl who’s never been out of Thailand, and you put her on a plane and

haul her to Timbuktu, and expect her to be the same like she was at home?

It’s not going to work. It’s traumatic for her. And the majority are not

going to make it out there. With a Thai girl, her family is first, and you

are second. 

(how did you find the first girls to work at your bar?)

I’d go upcountry and into a restaurant, meet the woman there, and say, “I’m

a bar owner in Bangkok.” And I’d tell her a little about what I want. And

she’d be half-listening. And then I’d say, “And a good girl can make 40,000

to 60,000 baht a month.” Then all of a sudden, she perks up. I’d go in the

next day, 40 girls would be there. I go down the line and pick them out.

“Too old.” “Too ugly.” “Had any kids?” “Are you a virgin?”

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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who am i?

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Interview with Richard S. Ehrlich, foreign correspondent: Who are you? What is your background?

citylife chiang mai — link:

http://www.chiangmainews.com/ecmn/viewfa.php?id=3240

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Road Warriors: Interviewing Richard S. Ehrlich — Warrior of Words

untamed travel magazine — link:

http://www.asia-correspondent.110mb.com/thailand04farangintv.html

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Back From The Front: Interview with Richard Ehrlich

european press network — link:

(under construction) 

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Xpat Files: Breathless in Bangkok

travelocity magazine — link:

http://www.asia-correspondent.110mb.com/ehrlich01travelocity.html

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Interviewing the Interviewer

richard s. ehrlich interrogated by scott murray — link:

http://www.asia-correspondent.110mb.com/richardehrlich_murray.html

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Kabul — Afghan Blues

*dateline* magazine, published by the foreign correspondents’ club of thailand — link:

http://www.asia-correspondent.110mb.com/afghanistan90fcct.html

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Kabul — Trouble If You’re An American Reporter

united press international — link:

http://www.asia-correspondent.110mb.com/afghan8006reportingupi.html

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