Finished The Godfather of Kathmandu, by John Burdett. It was okay, nothing special but certainly not as bad as the reviewers said. In fact, I thought this fourth installment in the Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep series better then the third.
I know that Eleanor of Aquitaine and some others have read the book, so I’ll offer a few comments on factual details. It was nice to “revisit” Kathmandu a little. I used to be somewhat familiar with the Thamel area of the city, and Kathmandu Guest House, where Sonchai stayed is not only real, but a choice place. We’ve never actually stayed there, because every time we hit the city it was fully booked, it’s so popular. But we’ve eaten there and wandered around the lovely grounds. They even showed us a room that looked very nice, and we could have had it for a couple of nights but then would have had to move elsewhere due to bookings, so we opted just to stay someplace else. But they’re famous for accommodating all budget levels – inexpensive to rather fancy suites. Pilgims Bookshop, or Pilgrims Book House rather, is also real, just up the street, a wonderful bookstore really, known to just about every Westerner who hits Kathmandu. Unfortunately, as you can see in the link, it burned to the ground a couple of months ago. They’re in a new location nearby, and I can only hope they manage the same ambience. And yes, Freak Street really is a bottom-of-the-barrel neighborhood, strictly a relic of the 1960s but still a few interesting places there. Burdett says Nepal is two hours behind Thailand; it’s actually 1 hour and 45 minutes behind, but close enough. (The country insists on staying 15 minutes behind India, and as far as they’re concerned, if India doesn’t like it, then India can change.)
As for the Thailand portions, the Rose Garden in Sukhumvit Soi 7 is obviously the real-life Soi 7 Beer Garden, and it is exactly as described in the book. Exactly. A freelancer hangout that opens early in the day. It’s Swiss-owned with a kitchen, and the food is quite decent. It’s been around for donkey’s years.
The “hospital on Soi 49,” where his young son died, is obviously Samitivej Hospital, really one of the top facilities in Southeast Asia. I had a salivary gland removed there 12 years ago. There’s even a string quartet playing in the lobby!
In one place, there is this exchange: "‘Explain why you were at that women’s holding prison with your geek and you can go.’ ‘He’s not my geek, he’s my assistant …’ " Burdett has made an unfortunate spelling choice. “Geek” here is not the English word, although the English-speaking reader could be forgiven for reading it that way. But Burdett italicizes it because it is a Thai word that would best be spelled gick and can be loosely translated as “fuck buddy.” This especially makes sense since the army general making the first statement is gay and the assistant a transvestite.
He makes frequent references to yaa baa, which are amphetamine pills. It literally means “crazy drug.” Everyone used to call it yaa maa, “horse drug,” but the government thought that gave the drug too glamorous an image, making people think it would make them strong as a horse, so a major campaign was launched to rename it yaa baa. And it worked. The book is correct that Burma is a major manufacturing center to this day. And it is the top drug problem in Thailand today despite the successful change in slang nomenclature, heroin having become rather passé.
For Soi Cowboy, where his mother owns and operates the Old Man’s Cub, he lists a string of real bars but oddly throws in a couple of fictitious ones, those being Vixens and Fire House. And the fictitious Pussy Cat on the next page, of which he writes: “In the Pussy Cat he allowed himself to be fellated in a quiet corner by a team of three professionals who took turns.” I would bet money that the Pussy Cat is the real-life After Skool Bar, although it could conceivably be Fanny’s next door too. (There is no bar really called the Old Man’s Club of course, but I’ve known plenty of bars just like it.)
There is a brief passage with a female pathologist named Dr Supatra, who conducted the autopsy on the dead farang (Westerner). This is an obvious homage to the real-life Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand, who is a living legend over here.
Burdett also makes an odd mistake. He meets the mad Mimi Moi at a Starbucks in The Emporium shopping center, and I am very familiar with the very Starbucks he uses as the setting. And the grocery store behind it is one of our regular places to shop. It is indeed on Sukhumvit Road as claimed, and it was eclipsed by the opening of Siam Paragon a few years ago. But Paragon is not on Silom Road as claimed. It’s nowhere near there. It’s on Rama I Road across the street from Siam Square. This is a very odd mistake to make, and I don’t know why he would do this on purpose. They’re both owned by the same company, The Mall Group.
Finally, getting back to Soi Cowboy, where Detective Sonchai’s mother has her bar and where he acts a sometime-papasan-cum-pimp, this is an okay overview of the street (spoiler box because maybe a little NSFW):
It only describes a handful of the many bars, but the video at the bottom is a good walk-through. It was obviously taken last December, because you can see some of the many Christmas trees that go up every year, plus I spot Cockatoo Bar, the new ladyboy bar that opened last year (at minute 2:04, the bar with the blue-tinted light; that group of “girls” are all ladyboys). This is the setting for his mother’s bar.
So I’ve gone ahead and bought a copy of John Burdett’s next installment in the series, Vulture Peak. But first I still have a couple of library books to read ebfore they’re due back, so next up is A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess.