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

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

interesting book, 2008-09-24
I found this book to be an informative book. Takes a single slant at the topic as a whole. A person can learn alot of new things in this book.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Imformation like this is hard to get, 2007-11-03
how else is one to figure these subtle things out. dig deep and let the cards fall where they may. I felt the book helped me to sort through patterns. good and bad, I wand to move forward quickly and efficantly. I wanted to be able to sort the cultual from the scam. this book helps you do that. I know better where i stand now. and my relationship with my fiance is stronger for it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Not Great But A Classic, 2007-09-28
I first visited and fell in love with Thailand when I was 19. It was not till 1994 when I was 30 that I decided to go native. While helping out at my friend's travel agency, I discovered an interesting letter translation service that was offered in almost every other travel agency. When tour guides had no work, they translated "love letters" for Thai women who had foreign boyfriends. All letters told virtually the same story. Mother sick, brother in jail, buffalo died ... these are the bargirls. In the case of students and office workers, course fees, computer went caput, want to set up own business because boss is abusive and exploitative ... br / br /It takes an insider to appreciate the size of this love letter industry. People who say that it's the same everywhere else in the world ain't seen nothing yet. It's quite amazing that authors Dave Walker and Richard Ehrlich dared to make these embarrasing letters public. I nearly tripped over my own toes when I saw this book in the bookstore back then. br / br /Highly controversial but totally honest, this book reproduces the letters that bargirls sent to their foreign boyfriends. It's definitely a project that took more legwork than keyboard hours, but the authors did include interviews with insiders and also a foreward by a Thai sociologist. br / br /The moral of the story? The line between true love and mercenary prostitution is sometimes blurred in the Land of Smiles. Prostitutes don't just charge a fee for service. They create an illusion of romance. It would be good if the suckers could read this book. It would be even better if they could watch a video of a Thai woman weeping in the phone booth telling her Western boyfriend how much she misses him and then smiles to her Thai boyfriend beside her immediately after hanging up. Still, those who think with the wrong "head" are often impervious to reason. br / br /But anyone who has dated traditional Thai women would also have noticed that even good girls will ask for money. The root of the conflict lies in the difference in "money culture". The Westerner thinks that a woman who truly loves him will not ask him for money. The Thai woman thinks that a man who truly loves her will show it with money. br / br /It's not a great book, but at a time when there was no other material on this subject, I thought it was a very good and courageous attempt by the authors. br / br /Confessions of a Bangkok Private Eye: True stories from the case files of Warren Olson br / br /Thai Girl br / br /Wondering into Thai culture, or, Thai whys, and otherwise br / br /The King Never Smiles: A Biography of Thailand's Bhumibol Adulyadej br /

0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

great read, 2007-03-12
This one a must if your going to Thailand for R and R or II. The interviews with the woman are the best, wish they would have had more.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

Hello My Big Big honey, 2006-06-28
A very well written book which is an excellent insight into the letters written by foreigners to thia ladies, primarily bar girls. br /This book also includes the thai girls point of view in interview form. br /Plus a few bar owners experiances. br /A must for all travelers to Thailands bangkok streets, particularly Patpong but also relates to Nana and soi Cowboy with some referances to Pattaya. br /Maybe if you travel to these areas of Thailand you will see something of your self in this book, you will surely see something of those you know whe travel there.