Intro

This baby leapt of my case crying, “Review me! Review me!” Dave Walker and Richard S. Ehrlich gathered, “Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews,” in 1991. Each letter tells romance on Patpong Rd, Bangkok’s vivacious nightspot. The hopes of women and men and their loves are shown, as Time Magazine said in, “an intimate portrait.”

This book is more earmarked than dusty, as it is my most read. Reason? It’s awesome what these beau’s hold for their lovely ladies. Its rare reading love letters which is why, “Hello My Big Big Honey!” is a classic.

Think about using the ISBN number, at the end, to buy your copy for the coming gifting season. A wild uncle would just love it.

Thai Beauty

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The girls of Bangkok are stunning. Meeting the bar girls of Koh Samui was a high point of my last visit to Thailand. “Hello My Big Big Honey!” is one rough diamond reminding me of those happy-times.

Any time I’m down I read it. It’s the antidote to the blues! “Hello My Big Big Honey!” lifts your spirits when you read all this beautiful aspiration. “Will I meet a nice, “farang,” (foreign) husband?” and, “What is my beautiful Thai mosquito thinking now?”

 What Dave Walker and Richard S. Ehrlich have done for writing others have done engineering Diamond mines. Each letter is simply pure and beautiful.

Not All Letters

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The broken English interviews reveal the hopes and desires of these exquisite Thai girls:

(Do your parents know what work you do?)

“My mother she know. My father he don’t know because he never ask. I bring two boyfriend to my parents already. I told my mother. Because I send money to her, she ask me, “How do find the money?” I say the truth. She say, “If you do like this you cannot be thinking about your future. She say, “Take care of yourself, don’t go about take drugs.” She say. “Come stay home, better.” This first boyfriend my mother don’t like. New Zealand. She like Denmark. He helped make the kitchen cleaning, take water from the river. He good looking nice polite quiet.”  (p. 55 – 56)

Hopeful letters in return, from their beaus, tell of lifelong dreams:

“Basically I am looking to marry a good looking woman who has a bit of class, can turn heads, and knows how to dress and handle herself socially. Someone who can take charge of the household accounts and deal with the staff in my absence. Someone prepared to eventually become involved in running my business, taking over if necessary.

Also a woman who can be trusted. Very important point in today’s world where there seems so little trust. Be warned I am also looking for a woman to be the mother of my children and sexual partner. I find the women here to be a little reserved sexually and find it difficult to accommodate my taste and size. (I have an extremely large penis)”  (p.51)

Every interview and love letter is full of sweetness, honesty and downfalls from this wonderful Kingdom – Thailand.

The Glittering Epilogue

At the close of the book, Mrs. Pisami Tantrakul, the author’s translator, notes how her educated-equals ridiculed when she told them she was translating these amazing interviews and letters. But, she notes, “This is a good chance for a Patpong Girl to lead a good life and I pity them. But this is a chance to help them. Because this problem of our country. They don’t have a good education, and don’t have chance to got to school like us, they very poor.”

Indeed, before translating the work Mrs. Tantrakul reviled the Patpong Girls. Then after she started translating for them she changed her mind. “Many Patpong Girls are good girls. Good inside.” are the closing lines of this, “must-read.”

My only hope is both beauty and beaus find the life they long for.

Source

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Walker, D. and Ehrlich, R.S. (1994) eds. Hello My Big Big Honey! Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews.  Bangkok. Dragon Dance Publications.

ISBN

0867 194 731

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