Bizarre Thailand: Tales of Crime, Sex and Black Magic

Some coverage on buffalo races, buffalo shows and the Buffalo Head Temple in Bangkok. Another venomous creature, the cobra, "protected" Thai entertainers who court death and foreigners who don't believe in magic. The lengths to which Thais go to improve their fortunes. Bizarre, ascetic rituals, self-mortification and plenty of donations from hopeful participants. Ghost stories and the Thai people's obsession with them. Another ghost story, Nang Nak that has been made into a very successful film.

Phi Ta Kon, a plethora of deities and some attempt by the author to make sense of all the confusing beliefs.

'Bizarre Thailand: Tales of Crime, Sex and Black Magic'

The final chapter is rather informative, giving even old hands like myself quite a bit of information on last rites like pouring coconut milk over the deceased. Yes, you definitely won't find much of this in any travel brochure or shopping guide. You won't even find them in the Lonely Planet. It's so well-researched that even for those who have been to Thailand many times over years, this book will still be an eye-opener. You'll definitely find some macabre and bizarre stuff here.

Definitely not something scholarly. Jim Algie writes for the layman. I would prefer more focus for each chapter. Some of them seem to have more than one theme. Other than that, it's a brilliant effort.

How did you like the book?

Spellbound In Chiangmai Thailand Confidential. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. There are two sides to Thailand that I have come to know. The first is the one that got me on a plane and ready for an idyllic vacation. That is the one from the glossy brochures, and Travel Channel specials. Twelve years later, I have come to know the other side. This is the area that few farangs get to glimpse unless they live in LOS. Expat and journalist--Jim Algie--brings us through the seamy underbelly where Sex, drugs, crime and black magic are the local norm. Far too many farangs go to Thailand each year with their head in the clouds.

Bizarre Thailand : Tales of Crime, Sex and Black Magic

Little do they know that this is a world where noodle vendors moonlight as witch doctors, Tattoo's possess the living, and entire villages are inhabited by ghosts. With a hilariously black sense of humor, Jim Algie presents this rogues gallery of madmen, bizarre celebrities, rituals, and lore into one volume that absolutely begs for a sequel. This is a must read for any visitor to the "Land of Smiles", and far more useful for understanding the Thai cultural cosmos than a backpack full of Lonely Planet guides.

I anxiously await part II.

This book is a very enlightening, often humourous and engaging read. In exploring the more unusual aspects of Thail life, it certainly has its share of the odd and unusual, as the title "Bizarre Thailand" suggests.

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But it also contains considerable insight into Thai history, social strata, traditions, customs, crime and punishment, philanthropism, paths to and cult of celebrity, gender roles, sex trade, tourism, religion, folklore, et al. There is also plenty with regard to when Thai and Western cultures have intersected in history, like: And the quainter side of Thai life, like the middle-aged middle-class Thais enjoying their Saturday evening dinner yeehahing and kicking up their heels at a northwestern Thailand Western dude ranch. Also within its pages are many other wonderful cross-sections and literary snapshopts of Thai life, such as the remote lonely traditional Thai farmer and his beast of burden, the water buffalo, thanked with an annual backwoods celebration, of sorts.

For the first-time visitor to Thailand almost everything looks weird: Here are a a few, which can be found in my new book "Bizarre Thailand: Tales of Crime, Sex and Black Magic. Randy tortoises openly fornicate in the streets of one Khon Kaen town.

Bizarre Thailand: Tales of Crime, Sex and Black Magic by Jim Algie

As emissaries of Hanuman, the Monkey God of Hindu lore, the macaques are tolerated in the town and some are given Buddhist cremation ceremonies at the Monkey Hospital because they will become human in their next reincarnations, or so the Thai belief goes. Peak tortoise-spotting times are early in the morning and late in the afternoon when they trudge along dirt roads and through yards and houses where the locals treat them like pets. These cold-blooded reptiles warm up during the rainy season when they mate in the streets and the males square off in shell-butting duels over the females.

The structure may also wind up as a towering tombstone for these increasingly obsolescent beasts of burden that are lumbering towards extinction. That is only the tip of the saddle horn at Pensuk Great Western , a cowboys and Indians theme resort in the province of Nakhon Ratchasima that the owner, Yuttana Pensuk, modeled on a real 19th-century ghost town in Nevada.

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