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Thai-English English-Thai Phonetic Dictionary by Benjawan Poomsan Becker



With Transliteration for Non-Thai Speakers

A practical dictionary for non-Thai speakers

From the author of the most successful Thai language tape courses in Thailand comes this handy dictionary aimed at foreigners learning Thai. It gets over the main problem in Thai-English dictionaries of having the Thai only in Thai script. This one has phonetic spelling in English in all the sections.

Consistent and accurate phonetic transcription of Thai sounds for those unable to read the Thai alphabet

Includes a comprehensive guide to pronunciation

Has Thai script for those who read Thai

All entries organized in three easy to use sections

Thai alphabet guide showing the different styles in Thai characters to help you read shop signs and newspaper headlines

Section One- English-Phonetic-Thai

Section Two - Phonetic-Thai-English

Section Three - Thai-Phonetic-English

Benjawan Poomsan Becker has extensive experience teaching Thai to foreigners in Thailand, Japan and the US. Currently she lives in the San Francisco Bay area where she has a translation and interpretation business and writes books on the Thai language.

Paperback
Pocket Size
Bangkok 2001
Paiboon Publishing
658 pages
ISBN 1887521143

Pattaya: Patpong on Steroids by Duncan Stearn



Inside the real Pattaya

This is NOT another novel about the bar scene
This is the 'REAL' thing

Read About:

The dancer who beat the pride of the US Marine Corps in a beer drinking competition...
The rigged blackjack scam...
The trials and tribulations of running an A-Go-Go bar...
How ླྀ Minutes' Australia concocted a 'smoke and mirrors' exposé about Pattaya...
TRUE stories of Sex, Alcohol and Expat life in Thailand's hedonistic seaside resort...
Duncan Stearn gets to the bottom of it all!

"The Golden Bookmark Award for the Best Book of Local Interest in 2002." The Clinic Bar, Soi Yamato

"...Duncan shoots from the hip and he is more than a confident shooter. His stories demonstrate his knowledge of the ways of Pattaya and Thailand. Each account into the lives of the bargirls offers depth beyond the tale... Each chapter jogs your memory like a friendly tour guide." Scott Miller, Pattaya Trader

"Duncan Stearn describes his time as a go-go bar business partner in Pattaya. Very autobiographical with many amusing and serious tales from a none too successful venture. The ... insight into the bar trade is excellent ammunition for the game of life in Pattaya. The book then widens out to take in gambling scams and media manipulation of Pattaya's unique image ... we pick up many fascinating lessons about Thailand..." www.thaianxiety.com

"The book races along from one encounter to another, while building a common thread throughout. It gives an insight into the rich tapestry of characters that somehow find their way to Pattaya ... I recognised situations, characters (both Thai and farang), and even the places ... it is a great read." Murray Scaddan, Thai News

Paperback 2002
Revised and Updated 2004
Mitraphab Press
ISBN 0975134906
252 pages

Mai Pen Rai Means Never Mind by Carol Hollinger



An American Housewife's Love Affair with Thailand

Carol Hollinger was a housewife, mother and teacher, and Mai Pen Rai Means Never Mind is her humorous, often hilarious account of her experience in all those roles during her stay in Thailand, where her husband was stationed in the US foreign service.

A brilliant observer of customs, manners and cultural differences, she writes frankly and unsparingly of herself and her fellow Americans, and relates both the fun and frustration of communicating with the Thai people - without being coy or condescending. Although written over 30 years ago, Mai Pen Rai is as entertaining now as it was when first published, and remains equally as relevant - with its honest and lively anecdotes of this exotic country and its people, and the difficulties and delights foreigners have in adjusting to life in a completely new environment.

A classic and authentic book, not only for all foreign residents and visitors, but also for those who have never been to Thailand, and even for Thais themselves.

Paperback 1965
3rd. Edition 1993
New Printing 2000
Asia Books
202 pages
ISBN 9748303357

Private Dancer by Stephen Leather
New Second Edition



Love, Lies and Death in the Land of Smiles

"I don't know if it was love at first sight, but it was pretty close. She had the longest hair I'd ever seen, jet black and almost down to her waist. She had soft brown eyes that made my heart melt, long legs that just wouldn't quit and a figure to die for. She was naked except for a pair of black leather ankle boots with small chrome chains on the side. I think it was the boots that did it for me."

Private Dancer, the on-line cult novel chronicling the disastrous relationship between a travel writer and a Bangkok bargirl, is finally available in print. The on-line version of the novel, written by best-selling thriller writer Stephen Leather, has been downloaded more than sixty thousand times over the past five years. Now Leather has decided to publish the book in Thailand.

The novel is set in Thailand in 1996.Pete, a young travel writer, wanders into a Bangkok bar and meets the love of his life.Pete thinks that Joy is the girl of his dreams: young, stunningly pretty, and one of the top-earning go-go dancers in Nana Plaza. What follows is a roller-coaster ride of sex, drugs, lies and murder, as Pete discovers that his very own private dancer is not all that she claims to be. And that far from being the girl of his dreams, Joy is his own personal nightmare.

Often described as the best book ever written about the Bangkok bar scene, Private Dancer has been a huge hit around the world, and has been downloaded in more than forty countries.

"I have been getting dozens of emails a week asking for the novel to be published, as most people seem to prefer a book they can hold, and put on their shelves," said Leather. "Now that the whole bar scene here is changing, it seemed a good time to finally publish a hard copy."

The striking cover photograph, of a naked girl holding a cut-throat razor behind her back, was taken in Anglewitch Bar in Nana Plaza and features one of the bar’s top showgirls.

Leather, a frequent visitor to the Land of Smiles, is the author of seventeen thrillers that have been translated into more than a dozen languages, including The Tunnel Rats, set in Bangkok and Vietnam, and The Solitary Man, set in Thailand and Hong Kong. He has sold more than a million books worldwide. Two of his novels, The Bombmaker and The Stretch, have been filmed for television in the UK and he has written for TV shows such as London’s Burning and the BBC’s Murder In Mind.

Paperback
Bangkok 2005
Three Elephants
ISBN 9749275535
370 pages

Even Thai Girls Cry by J.F. Gump



An expat cult classic - Probably the best novel out of Pattaya

Tippawan - The Joy Of Math has now been published in Bangkok as "Even Thai Girls Cry". If you didn't get your copy the first time around - now's your chance.

Bad Luck Lady

She calls herself that sometimes. Tippawan Bongkot is her given name but everyone knows her as Math. She doesn't know where the nickname came from; she just accepts it without question as a proper Thai lady should. math is a beautiful young lady in a mad dash to find herself. What she finds instead is love and death.

Math's frantic search takes her from the sizzling resort town of Pattaya on the southeast coast of Thailand to the beautiful city of Chiang Mai in the north. From the bed of her American lover to the arms of her dying father, Math lives each day as if it might be her last. Her adventures are happy and sad, funny and tragic. Math is true and false, fact and fantasy. The story you about to read is based on actual events. Only the details are fiction. You will fall in love with Math as you follow her through one amazing year of her life. You will laugh at her good times and cry for her sorrow.

Paperback
Bangkok Books
Bangkok 2003
294 pages