Tourists come to Bangkok for many reasons - a sex change operation, a night with two prostitutes dressed as nuns, and a stay in a luxury hotel. Lawrence Osborne comes for the cheap dentistry. Broke - but no longer in pain - he finds that he can live in Bangkok on a few dollars a day. Osborne's is a visceral experience of Bangkok, whether he's wandering the canals that fill the old city; dining at the No Hands Restaurant, where his waitress feeds him like a baby; or launching his own notably unsuccessful career as a gigolo. A guide without inhibitions, Osborne takes us to a feverish place where a strange blend of ancient Buddhist practice and new sexual mores has created a version of modernity only superficially indebted to the West. "Bangkok Days" is a love letter to the city that revived Osborne's faith in adventure and the world. 'Thailand inspires such enthralled romanticism that it also invites great cynicism and it is a feat to acknowledge all its complexities and graces, as Osborne does, without ever quite surrendering to them' - Pico Iyer, "Los Angeles Times".
- Wang Lang
- Men Without Women
- Si Ouey
- The Blue God
- Moveable Feasting
- Krishna's Arrow
- East/West
- No Hands
- The British Club
- The Slaughterhouse
, etc.
He is a first-rate obsever and analyst... Any Westerner curious to take a decadent Oriental trip with a writer you can trust to keep you turning the page should pick up a copy
-- New Youk Times --
Far more than a travel book, Bangkok Days explores both a little-known, extraordinary city and the lives of a handful of doomed ex-patriates living there, "as vivid a set of liars and losers as was ever invented by Graham Greene"
-- New Youk Times --
He uses language with great skill, and sounds and smells of Bangkok are wonderfully evoked. Osborne's writing conveys a genuine love for the city
-- Library Journal --