Thailand Old Hand: Thirty years around the bars and backstreets of Asia

Peter Jaggs has the unerring ability of being able to blunder into a good story wherever he travels in Asia. Whether perusing the bars and brothels of Pattaya and Angeles City, meeting up with an archaic spirit doctor in the wilds of the Isaan countryside, losing his way in the war-time tunnels of Cu-Chi in Vietnam, becoming embroiled in a punch-up with the local tough-guy in a Philippine backstreet or encountering an ethereal ghost on a deserted, moonlit beach in Thailand, he tells the tale with his own peculiar stamp of originality, humor and accuracy. The twenty true short stories in this - the author's eighth book - are as colorful, diverse and sometimes as confusing as the continent of Asia itself. Many will make you laugh, others may make you want to cry and one or two will probably appall you. Whatever your reaction may be to some of the memories of a man who has spent almost three decades making the most of what Asia has to offer, 'Thailand Old Hand' makes for a rattling good suitcase read and is a book you will find hard to put down.