FREE BANGKOK DAYS PDF Lawrence Osborne | 288 pages | 04 Mar 2010 | Vintage Publishing | 9780099535973 | English | London, United Kingdom 20 Things to do on a Bangkok Itinerary for 5 Days | Goodreads helps you keep track of books you Bangkok Days to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge Bangkok Days. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview — Bangkok Days by Lawrence Osborne. Lawrence Osborne comes for the cheap dentistry. Broke but no longer in painhe finds that he can live in Bangkok on a few dollars a day. And so the restless exile stays. 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 Bangkok Days the West. Get A Copy. Hardcoverpages. More Details Original Title. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought Bangkok Days this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Bangkok Daysplease sign up. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of Bangkok Days. Sep 22, Bangkok Days Chappell rated it really liked it Recommends it for: anyone interested Bangkok Days travel, specifically Thai culture. Shelves: nonfiction. God, how to describe this book First off, a caveat: this book, which was just published this year, is marketed almost Bangkok Days some sort of expose on the steamy, sordid underworld of Bangkok. As the subtitle says, "A Sojourn in the Capital of Pleasure," which resides on the book jacket next to an ostensible working girl, her face par God, how to describe this book As the subtitle says, "A Sojourn in the Capital of Pleasure," Bangkok Days resides on the book jacket next to an ostensible working girl, her face partially obscured by shadow, but her red lips are nevertheless Bangkok Days and parted. I was -- almost -- embarrassed when I check it out of the local library. There actually isn't a lot of sex in this book, and it certainly isn't central to book itself. The inside jacket gets it a little better when it states "Osborne takes us to a feverish place where a strange Bangkok Days 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 Bangkok Days city that revived Osborne's faith in adventure and in the Bangkok Days. More specifically, the book does look at why Bangkok and Thailand attract this type of person, including our intrepid Mr. I forget what it was that bugged me somewhat about the first third of the book. I didn't have Bangkok Days lot of preconceived notions about the book; I merely got it because I have read a few of Osborne's pieces in magazines before, and his books often come recommended from other travel writers and their readers that I like. That, and my interest in all things Southeast Asian lead me to check it out. Whatever it was that I had a problem with hence the 4 instead of 5 stars seemed to have worked itself out by the middle of the book -- I was so enthralled I reserved another of his books at the library before I was done with this one. This is excellent travel writing: witty and insightful, without the pablum one usually finds in typical travel writing, which I think of more as vacation writing, more often than not. To wit, one of my favorite quotes and one of Bangkok Days last paragraphs of the book : "It was at that moment that I remembered why I liked Buddhism, despite being unable to adopt it: because there was no drama of love at its heart. Love simply didn't insinuate itself into its view of animals and people, where were Bangkok Days coldly and clearly for what they are. The misery of love didn't Bangkok Days center stage at all. It was breathtaking, when you compared it to us, who are taught to believe in love from day one, who believe in love as a sort of birthright. We don't see ourselves as coldly as that. We think our lives are great, meaningful dramas defined by love Bangkok Days and of course they are nothing of the sort. The book itself is not as cynical as this quote might make it seem -- although the book is nevertheless rather British, shall we say; it does have a healthy dose of post-modern, post-colonial cynicism about it but then Bangkok Days a Yank; maybe a Brit would find Osborne upbeat. In the end, the best I can say about this book is that I hope I run into Osborne some day Bangkok Days a dingy hotel bar on the other side of the world; If I do, the first few rounds are on me. View 1 comment. This is the second book I've read recently where one's impression may Bangkok Days swayed Bangkok Days gender. Having never been a woman, I'm not sure, but I think that Osborne's descriptions of the largely male characters in his Bangkok expat Bangkok Days might not seem so. They do lead a rather Peter Pan existence, which he does a great job at depicting. Before reading the book, I was aware that Thailand is known for where western men go for mid-life crises. He excels at making Bangkok a "character" in its This is the second book I've read recently where one's impression may be swayed by gender. He excels at making Bangkok a "character" in its Bangkok Days right, including experiences with a local priest and nun. I visited once, twenty Bangkok Days ago now please pass the Geritolbut have spent enough time in the tropics to find the descriptions familiar. Residents of western cities certainly possess biases against other areas Bangkok Daysbut Osborne highlights that fact that Bangkok Days can be just plain Bangkok Days of whole sections of this city. As a travel narrative, the book works well. So, would I recommend it? Yes, as one expat's view of the city, definitely not as some sort of authority on "this is how it Bangkok Days. Sep 04, Subvert rated it liked it. Borrowed Bangkok Days book from a friend while living in Bangkok Days. This was my daily BTS read for a bit more than a month. It's hard for me to put into words what I liked and did not like about this book. But lets try. It's an interesting introduction to the fucked-up lives of dirty farang 'foreigner' in Thai expats living in Bangkok Bangkok Days seek to escape their past. There are many of them here and I bet Bangkok Days is one of the the best books written about them. I liked it enough to recommend it Bangkok Days anyone wit Borrowed this book from a friend while living in Bangkok. I liked it enough to recommend it to anyone with an Bangkok Days in Bangkok. It's well-written and as shown in other Bangkok Days here, it has some beautiful prose here and there. I liked the somewhat cynical approach towards Thai culture and the colourful farang characters. I identify with the writer's appreciation of chaotic Bangkok and the urge to follow random roads until they end on late hours. It's a bit of a travel book in that regard. Bangkok is filled with little secrets, unexpected sights hidden in side-soi's, or sometimes just unnoticed in that street Bangkok Days walk through every day. This book describes these sorts of places, analysing and writing about them. I do have some different world views than the writer and sometimes he seems a bit fatalistic. It's hard to describe what exactly bothers me here, but I suppose I'm a bit more idealistic. At the same time though, while he distinguishes himself from the Bangkok Days sexpats and from the Thais themselves be it yaba-addicts in Klong Toey or hi-so 'housewives' in Thong Lorit's without pretension or arrogance. I appreciate that. Readers of this book should take note of these words in chapter 4: " That Osborne isn't concerned with facts or accuracy shows in his writing. The book is loaded with mistranslations, transliteration errors, inaccuracies, and b Readers of this book should take note of these words in chapter 4: " The book Bangkok Days loaded with mistranslations, transliteration errors, inaccuracies, and bald-faced lies. Some of the mistakes are minor, and could be just typos: The word for 51 is spelled "haa sip ek" Bangkok Days it should be "haa sip et". He says he was in roomwhich would put him on the Bangkok Days floor of a hospital with only 12 Bangkok Days. If you're trying to impress your readers with your foreign language skills, you should at least get the right word: He says "maeng-da" are insects. The word he's looking for is "malaeng". A "maeng-da" is a water beetle. Sacred tattoos are called "roi sak" in the book, which just means tattoo. Sacred tattoos are called "sak yant a ". He writes that "Amarin" means angel. How to spend 5 days in Bangkok - A Detailed Itinerary Bangkok is a vibrant, chaotic city in the heart of Thailand that everyone seems Bangkok Days have a Bangkok Days or hate relationship with.