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Hello My Big Big Honey: Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their InterviewsSnagging.org In association with Amazon.co.ukOnline Shop | Property Guides | Kitchen & Home | Garden Tools | Power Tools | Consumer Electronics Get the Snagging Checklist Here! Hello My Big Big Honey: Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Interviews by: Dave Walker, Richard S. Ehrlich  EAN: 9789748876191 Edition: 7Rev Ed ISBN: 9748876195 Label: Dragon Dance Publications,Thailand Manufacturer: Dragon Dance Publications,Thailand Number Of Pages: 179 Publication Date: December 31, 1998 Publisher: Dragon Dance Publications,Thailand Studio: Dragon Dance Publications,Thailand Related Items:
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 Rating:  - roving insight from marc richard and loreen nevilleThis was a book waiting to be written, but if you're looking for a raunchy sex tale about Bangkok's red-light districts, try the Internet -- it's full of sites with much more graphic descriptions, even streaming video. What Dave Walker and Richard S. Ehrlich have done is approach a social fact of life from a different angle, a very human angle. "Hello My Big Honey!" is a sociological study dealing with a section of society that can be found in just about every country in the world, their hopes, their fears, their dreams and above all, their interaction and deeper involvement with their clients, the farang (foreigner). As Dave Walker explains in his 10-page preface, the germ of an idea was born in the bars of Patpong Road in Bangkok...True, the days of the Vietnam War were over, but the reputation that Bangkok had gained as a "wide-open town" had spread near and far. Where there had been GIs, now it was oil workers and other professional expatriates hunting a living in Southeast Asia... The letters followed, more than a reliving of stolen moments of physical passion, these were letters of hopes, dreams and longings to return... To some it might seem the craziest of places to find love, a road full of hustling, neon lights, prowling transvestites and ear-shattering music. Lust yes, but real love surely no. Yet whether or not it's the wrong place to be looking for lasting commitment, there are those foreigners who have found their heart's desires in a love that's been reciprocated. This is something that Richard Ehrlich takes up in his 10-page introduction. It's "a surreal night-time world" in which the bar girls live, one in which "men's fantasies, desperation, emotions and hormones" all "collide" with the "sleaze, partying" and highly "intensive care", plus of course, "cash". Most times it's a purely physical interaction that lasts no longer than rising from the crumpled sheets, but sometimes... As Richard points out though, "the odds" are really stacked "against" it [love]. "Dancing on her tiny stage", a girl may try and shut out the leering faces while trying to pick out just one where there is a deeper feeling she believes she can read. Other girls may become outright exhibitionists playing to the crowd, but they too are searching for a soul mate. The "competition" is fierce, for the girls have only one thing on their mind -- grab a man. Their reasons differ, some so spaced out on heroin or amphetamines that their only worry is where they can find the money for their next fix, while the professional plasticine jobs with their fake smiles of enduring love are mentally counting baht as they move around weighing up the potential catch. With so many girls and so many bars, to make the right connection can be tough... No wonder the poor old farang is confused, for it destroys all his Western conceptions of "normal" life...It is easy to become deluded and believe that they are really in love, but what about the girl. Does she really love me? Does she really care that much about me? If she does, then why does she always want money? I know she has to live, but surely she can earn money in some other job. If it's a quandary he finds himself in while in Bangkok, at least the ministrations of his newfound love provide some temporary relief. It's when he's back home that the whole meaning of this relationship begins to gnaw on his mind... It is into this strange melting pot of fantasy and reality that Dave Walker and Richard S. Ehrlich have delved, fishing out a selection of 71 letters from foreign men all around the world, as well as interviewing a dozen bargirls and three bar owners, one English, one American and one Thai. It may seem a massive invasion of privacy to read someone else's letters, for there are only two places a person can never hide -- in bed and in their letters. Yet the only people able to tell the true story of life on Patpong Road are the bargirls themselves and it is story that merits being told. Be warned however, this is a journey that is not for the faint-hearted...The American serviceman on his way to Saudi Arabia prior to the Gulf War desperately trying to persuade his teenage Thai girlfriend that he really wants to settle down and marry her, is one letter that stands out not only for its length but also the intensity of feelings expressed. Then of course there are the girls, who provide another cross-section. There's the consummate professional, all business, who is busy saving to buy a house -- no time for romance in her life one suspects. Or the girl whose seen it all, from being a barmaid right down to being a mama-san today. Then there's the would-be suicide, who has tried once and hopes she can stave off the desperation to try again. Yet perhaps more typical is the girl who lives in cramped squalor with her son, mother, two younger children, her sister and her boyfriend and another girlfriend... "Hello My Big Honey!" doesn't delve into the morality of prostitution, nor was that its intention... There is even one Thai girl who has traveled the world as an anti-AIDS campaigner, but admits that if desperate for money she would quite willingly have unprotected sex. Rating:  - East meets West on the Patpong Road« Hello my Big Big Honey » seeks to shed light on the mystery of the « romantic » relationships which can spring up between Bangkok's bar girls and their farang (foreign) sex-tourist customers, sometimes even leading to marriage. For me, however, the letters at the centre of this book were paradoxically the least interesting part of it. Unwittingly amusing at times, but flat and repetitive with their endless mantra of « I love you, I miss you, here's the money/sorry I can't send you any money », the missives from the deluded and besotted farangs to the girls they left behind quickly blend into one. The depth of their delusion becomes clear from the interviews with the girls. Money is the motor for these largely uneducated women from poor rural backgrounds who often have parents and siblings to support - and sometimes a Thai husband as well. The phenomenon they describe is fascinating, however, and the sections surrounding the letters make the book well worth reading. Walker's preface gives the background to the bar culture, Ehrlich's raunchy introduction sets the scene and Dr Yos Santasombat from Bangkok University analyses the sociological differences between prostitution east and west. The book concludes with a set of revealing interviews with bar owners (including some rather unorthodox advice on avoiding disease!) and an epilogue by Mrs Tantrakul, translator of many letters, and unofficial advisor to the girls who ponders on the future of those who do marry and leave.  Try searching the Internet for "Hello My Big Big Honey: Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Interviews" or Ebay for "Hello My Big Big Honey: Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Interviews". You might also be interested in the following great products:
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