Thai Touch [Paperback]

Richard Rubacher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2006

The good and the bad of the Land of Smiles are told with a comic touch. The book focuses on the spiritual and mystical side of the magical kingdom as well as its dark side. The good and the bad are told with a comic touch. The Sex Baron, the Naughty & Nice Massage Parlors, the Bangkok Haircut and Bar Girls & the Pendulum are contrasted with tales of the Thai Forrest Gump, the Spiritual Banker of Thailand and the 72-year old woman whose breasts spout miracle milk. It's a fun book to read about Thailand.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Lewis Carroll told us about Wonderland. In this collection of ironic tales, Rubacher tells us of another Wonderland. The magic of Thailand is captured again and again. --Ian Quartermaine, Sleepless In Bangkok

Rubacher's is a wacky world. He has a knack for sniffing out bizarre tales and bares Thailand like no other. --John Twigg, Publisher, METRO magazine (Bangkok)

I've been living in Thailand for ten years. Thai Touch opened my eyes to people, events and happenings. I now have a totally different way of viewing the kingdom. Who but Richard Rubacher would think of ordering a cup of coffee and asking the Bangkok waitress, in Thai, that no fish sauce be put into it? --Dale Metcalf, Esq., former attorney for Bobby Fisher

About the Author

Richard's father was a runners' number for the mob in New York City. "He did something bad and was told, 'Git outta town. Udderwise.'" Richard is a high school and Ph.D. dropout. At an early age he was intoxicated with Mark Twain's quip, "Original sin is our fall into seriousness." He turned the saying upside down "Original blessing is our explosion into mirth and joy." He continues to experience delight in the Land of Laughter since 2000. His two versions of plays on Charles Manson, based on being the psychopathic killer's confidant, were staged in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento, Ca. to critical acclaim by the San Francisco Chronicle and Sacramento Bee. He writes off-the-wall stories for the major English-language magazines in Bangkok. Richard is working on other books on Thailand. "So many magical things keep occurring in the land that is a tonic for the body, mind and soul."

Product Details

• Paperback: 223 pages
• Publisher: Paiboon Publishing (September 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887521690
• ISBN-13: 978-1887521697
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,060,858 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really enjoyed "Thai Touch", January 13, 2007

By 

Kevin Sutton - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thai Touch (Paperback)

I'm visiting Thailand in a couple of weeks, and decided to get "Thai Touch" after reading about it in the East Bay Express, an alternative weekly newspaper published in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Rubacher has lived in Thailand for years, and reports on the good and bad in his "Land of Smiles". I especially liked his portraits of various people throughout Thai society, both Thais and foreigners. His comic touch means he is not judgmental, whether he writes about Miss Jumbo, or the Forrest Gump of Thailand, or the 72 year old woman whole magical milk has healing powers, or his many friends in Thailand.

It was also a revelation to read how the King of Thailand was instrumental in overthrowing two previous dictators who had engineered coups in 1972 and 1991. Without a shot being fired, the king worked behind the scenes and persuaded the military dictators to volunteer themselves into exile.

Rubacher satisfied my curiosity about the country, and really made me look forward to my upcoming trip. I especially liked his "32 reasons for loving Thailand too much."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, December 11, 2010

By 

Globalman - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Thai Touch (Paperback)

I must say I was disappointed with this book. I have only made it halfway through. I was expecting a clever, funny, insightful book about Thailand, but it is mainly a book about how wonderful Thailand is. It could have been written by the Thailand Tourism Board. I love Thailand, but I wanted something that is really about Thailand - good things, bad things, and everything in between. More like a travel article you would read in the Sunday travel section of the newspaper. Nothing interesting here.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Knowing Nose doesn't lie, April 1, 2010

By 

Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Thai Touch (Paperback)

Several years ago, I read Private Dancer, a fictional account of a British travel writer who, upon finding himself in Thailand and confronted by the fleshpots of Bangkok, allows his sex drive to overwhelm good sense. Written by Stephen Leather, a onetime journalist for London's Daily Mirror and Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, it was (by his own admission to me) based partly on his own youthful indiscretions in Thailand's capital. PRIVATE DANCER is a very good read.

The same curiosity that caused me to pick up Leather's book was operative here with Richard Rubacher's THAI TOUCH, a collection of fifteen stories that the author apparently hopes will demonstrate to the reader the exotic nature of Thailand and the good-nature and playfulness of its people.

Rubacher, in his early sixties when he wrote THAI TOUCH in 2005, is obviously infatuated with the place. And rightly so, perhaps. It's a locale I'd like to visit, but probably never will. In any case, Richard's approach is that of a journalist reporting on various aspects of what he's found there to be especially interesting and captivating.

Thailand, and especially Bangkok, is known for its prevalent sex industry; foreign companies run tours to the place for randy males to indulge themselves and their fantasies. So, of course, Rubacher must report on his own experience with getting a "naughty" massage as well as reveal the backgrounds and motivations of the female sex workers that he interviewed. But THAI TOUCH contains more than that. He also explores such topics as the personality of the highly revered current monarch, Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX), the expats' clubs, the "Bangkok Haircut" - penis amputation by a jealous spouse reminiscent of Lorena Bobbitt's hatchet job - and the local surgical specialty that has developed to reattach the offending member, the "miracle" breast milk of the 70+ year old fortune-teller Pissamai Trapsukhorn, the spiritual benefits of Thai meditation techniques, the circumstances under which Rubacher met his Thai girlfriend, and Thailand's annual "Miss Jumbo Queen" contest. And then there's the chapter in which the author tests the veracity of bar girls' statements with a homemade lie detector pendulum, a crystal on the end of a silver chain, which he calls "Knowing Nose."

For me, the successful travel essay will leave me either wanting to catch the next plane out or determined to avoid the destination at all costs. THAI TOUCH did neither; my strongest reaction to the book is a shoulder shrug. For me, the chapters were only marginally interesting and the journalistic reporting, if it can be called such, was light weight. Perhaps the lightest was the chapter inquiring into the reasons why four Thai women watched "Sex and the City" and their reactions to it. Oh, puhleeze!

THAI TOUCH isn't wonderful or awful; it's just one that I wouldn't recommend unless you're stranded on a desert island and it's the only book that'd washed up onto the beach. Rather, look further down the shoreline for PRIVATE DANCER.