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Tired of the hectic pace of life in Georgia, in 2006 David Yow and his wife moved to a picturesque, treed, mountainous setting in northern Idaho. They built their dream house, and everything seemed idyllic. But a family tragedy and failing marriage led to discontentment, and Mr. Yow started looking for those greener pastures. Thailand was calling. He visited for the first time in 2011 and moved there in 2013.
The preface to the book is a letter to “Miss America,” an affectionate farewell epistle to the United States. The author expresses his admiration for his homeland, but also his disappointments at what America has become. In the chapters that follow, we accompany Mr. Yow through his “maiden voyage” to Thailand, his return to the States, his eventual move, and sundry observations and opinions about the lifestyle, culture, and people of Thailand.
It is a very personal work. The author expresses his thoughts and feelings quite liberally; this is not just a book of dry facts and information. Everything is filtered through the author’s lens. What he thinks and feels frames the narrative: wide-eyed wonderment, admiration, confusion, misunderstanding, wistfulness. It contains elements of autobiography, diary, and travelogue, but really can’t be pigeon-holed into any particular category. A chapter may begin with a description of an open-air market or café, and drift into a discussion of Mr. Yow’s past forays into entrepreneurship or reflections about his grandparents. He often pauses in his narrative to wax philosophical about something, never in a hurry to relate the next adventure. This is perhaps a reflection of the relaxed and casual lifestyle he has embraced in his new home.
That being said, each chapter is interesting to read. The author is a keen observer and a good writer, and that’s always a winning combination. Whether he’s discussing a restaurant, café or bar (a recurring subject), beautiful Thai women (an even more frequently recurring subject), beer, his six boyhood friends, his motorcycle helmet, the sex trade, a festival, or foreign tourists, he is engaging and humorous. He usually offers his opinions along with the observations, but he is never dogmatic. Whether I agreed with him or not, I enjoyed reading his reflections on things, as his viewpoints are clearly, concisely, and creatively expressed.
There are very few errors in the book. Here and there I encountered a stray misspelling, extraneous word or misused semicolon, but these are few and far between. The narrative is mostly written in past tense, but occasionally it changes to present tense for no apparent reason. I felt a few passages were needlessly verbose; I love creative writing, but it is okay to say “soda” instead of “artificially colored, high fructose corn syrup drink.” Three or four paragraphs are spent simply describing the process of getting off an airplane, picking up luggage, and going through customs; in the end, there is nothing significant to any of this. In a few places (but very few) it seemed that the writing – that is, the attempt to describe the mundane in a new, creative way – was just getting in the way of the story.
But other passages made me admire Mr. Yow’s skill as a writer: the written Thai language is described as “the enigmatic script where the characters resemble musical notes and mangled paper clips.” Two rival beers – one with a lion in its logo, the other with an elephant – are “in a constant battle, in efforts to be king of the jingle.” When speaking about dresses, shoes, and handbags, he notes that “nearly every female needs duplicates of these items in maximum redundancy.” And the author writes that “many Thai people resemble cats. They don’t like to get wet, they are clean, they are feminine, they’ll sleep twelve hours per day if allowed…and they eat bugs.”
I suppose a credit to the book is that it made me want to visit Thailand. I love to travel, and the “Jewel of Asia” is now on my bucket list. Overall, Mr. Yow presents a positive picture of the country – after all, who can say no to beautiful women, a tropical climate, gorgeous scenery, wonderful food, a relaxed lifestyle, and friendly people? And having lived abroad myself, I could easily relate to his experience of moving to a different country and having to learn so many new things. He conveys very well what most expats, I suppose, go through when trying to acclimate to their new surroundings. But this is not a how-to guide. It is simply the author’s personal story.
The author is (apparently) in some kind of business that assists people to immigrate to and settle in Thailand. While this is mentioned in the book along with Mr. Yow’s website, it is kept in the background, so the book does not feel like an advertisement to encourage people to engage his services and move there.
The Golden Gateway to Thailand is interesting and well-written. The content along with the author’s skill as a writer keep it engaging throughout. This book will appeal to anyone contemplating moving abroad, anyone interested in southeast Asia, or anyone who likes to travel and experience new people and cultures. It’s not an exhaustive reference manual on all things Thailand, nor is it meant to be. (There are no photos or illustrations at all.) It’s a personal story of a man who took the adventurous step to move to a new country. Along the way, he shares slices of his life, his discoveries, and his thoughts and impressions of this new chapter of his life. I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars.
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