My Life in Thailand

I arrived in Thailand in early 1995 to work in the chemical industry. My introduction to Thai life began immediately with my business associates accommodating me in a 3 storey shophouse in a small soi (street) opposite the factory. I was 16kms out of Bangkok, in a heavily industrialized area, and by virtue of the stares and attention given me, there had not been too many white faces living in my new neighborhood before...

It was here where I spent my working week and where I had my first experiences in washing from a bucket, listening to the geckos on the walls and ceilings by night, and very quickly acquiring a taste for boiled rice.

I would spend my weekends in Bangkok, staying at a small hotel in Yannawa within walking distance of Silom Road and what I considered the center of the city.

The idea of writing fiction had never occurred to me before, yet on the King’s Birthday, December 5th of 1995, I suddenly had an urge to write. To write what – I had no idea. The strangest things happen at times, and this was one of those times. After a leisurely afternoon shopping for groceries I headed home to the small studio apartment off Rama III Road I had moved into back in June. I sat up that night with unintelligible Thai TV soap operas playing in the background as I contemplated my foray into the world of literature. Nothing. My mind was a complete blank.

That night I had a dream, and in that dream, the characters that would become such an important part of my life emerged. I remember waking and writing down the names Rilms and David. I also remember thinking this was a story about Rilms, the American expatriate Vietnam war vet who now called Thailand home, but later it changed to be a story of love between teenage David and a Thai girl named Nee.

Writing the story took me almost two years and by the time I finished in late 1997, the Asian economies had imploded and no local publisher had any interest in new work. The story of David and Nee has been left on the shelf long enough. It is time to share these wonderful characters with the world...

Since leaving Thailand in December 2000, I have lived in Brisbane, Australia - Phuket, Thailand (through most of 2005) - and now Tulsa, Oklahoma. I am now working on a non-fiction manuscript that is an amusing and informative tale of my first year living and working in Thailand.