Irreverent, informed and downright eclectic crime fiction and reportage from Southeast Asia and beyond
Photographer Michael LaPalme shot my talk (together with co-author and photographer Aroon Thaewchatturat) on Sacred Skin at the Neilson Hays Library during the second Bangkok Literary Festival. It had been a while since our last talk on Thailand’s sacred tattoos and I had a great time re-engaging with our book and an audience. I also [...]
Cameron Cooper, editor of Sacred Skin, my book on Thailand’s sacred tattoos, recently took the plunge and visited Achan Neng Onnut to receive his very first Sak Yant, a phut . Cameron has posted a video of his experience on YouTube.
Bangkok’s loudest RocknRoll band, Pussy & The Learjets, featuring my alter ego, Tom Learjet, on guitar, may not be rumbling through the Thai capital’s music venues right now, but the band led by the amazing, incredible Om aka Pussy still has a pulse. Bassist Manis On Fire has been digging through our extensive back catalogue [...]
Word Play, the second Bangkok Literary Festival takes place next Sunday, the 25th of March at the Neilson Hays Library on Surawong Road. Last year, I gave a talk on freelance writing and my career in the digital age. Writers giving talks include Philip Cornwel-Smith, Luke Cassady-Dorion, David Young, Dean Barrett and Joe Cummings. The [...]
In 2004, I traveled to Hubli in Karnataka, India to investigate a temple which allegedly still had devadasi, traditional temple dancers cum prostitutes. The Indian government had already made moves to ban the practice of enslaving young girls in Brahmin temples but old tradition tend to linger in India. I think this story has never [...]
Gone are the days when these kind of stories could finance a trip across India. This particular story Hampi: Ruins Forgotten in Time appeared in Lifestyle + Travel in a special segment on India in around 2005 and was republished several more times in travel magazines across Asia. Here is the entire pdf, also featuring [...]
Sacred Skin, my book on Thailand’s spirit tattoos, Sak Yant, photographed by Aroon Thaewchatturat, has garnered more than 25 reviews, including positive coverage in TIME, Die Zeit, El Mundo, The South China Morning Post, the Asia Wall Street Journal and Courier International. This week, the book gets a mention on the Tattoo Arts blog. Thanks!
Sacred Skin – Thailand’s Spirit Tattoos, photographed last week at Suvarnaphumi International Airport in Bangkok, where it is still selling very well, has had another couple of positive mentions in the media. Books about Thailand had this to say: An interesting read is this book about the sak yant, Thailand’s religious tattoo tradition. Besides describing [...]