Rating: 
Summary: saw this in spectator and agree
Review: Chasing the Dream Girls of Bangkok: "Hello My Big Big Honey!" is, all in all, a good read. It's also a useful book, particularly for those parties curious about this neon-lit sex world of Thailand, as well as readers intent on eventually visiting this Southeast Asian capital of nocturnal lust. Not only through these love letters, but -- even more strikingly -- through poignant interviews with bar girls, bar owners, and other peripheral agents involved with the Bangkok sex scene, "Hello My Big Big Honey!" offers an engagingly insightful -- frequently far from 'black-and-white' -- look at the foreign men and the bar-room hookers with whom they've fallen in both love and lust... The love letters in "Hello My Big Big Honey!" are similarly eclectic in terms of the composers' ages and nationalities. There are letters from foreign men (referred to in Thai as 'farang') who are young and old (from early 20s to late 60s), living in New Zealand, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Korea, Australia, and America. And what I found immensely satisfying about these letters was the genuine sensitivity that the farang frequently expressed towards Bangkok bar hookers. The guys show concern about the ladies possibly contracting AIDS. Anger towards tricks who might force the ladies into having sex without using a condom. Worry about these bar girls' families, to whom the latter typically show great devotion... for the most part, the gents are a well-meaning lot, successfully challenging the stereotype of the sleazy john But whom exactly is it that these guys are going so goo-goo gah-gah over? A photo caption in "Hello My Big Big Honey!" perfectly captures the magnetism of the typical Thai prostitute: They emit 'a lure of hilarity, raunch and innocence.' And not necessarily in that order... I can definitely see why some guys would have a hard time forgetting these vixens. And, indeed, I can see why they'd begin writing them letters to stay in touch, before their inevitable or indeterminate return to the Land of Smiles... "Hello My Big Big Honey!" is quite funny, too, despite its heavy subject matter. Many of the farang [foreign men], the hookers, and bar owners really open up." "Hello My Big Big Honey!" is truly helpful and frequently entertaining...
Rating: 
Summary: The Focus is more on the Men than the Women
Review: Ever since Thailand became known as the newest and best sin city for foreign men to visit to have sex with impoverished yet attractive Thai women, a deluge of these men land daily at Thai airports expecting to find the romance and lust often denied them in their home lands. What these men usually discover is that any romance that develops is based on a pay as you go basis. In HELLO MY BIG HONEY, Dave Walker and Richard Ehrlich try to explain why. The authors see the Bangkok sex scene as the natural outcropping of a degraded culture that has only its women to peddle. In such a lurid, transient environment, the focus of money for sex must be limited to the here and now. Any foreign man with even a minimum of sense and dollars can surely score in any of dozens of sleazy clip joints. In a series of interviews with bargirls, hookers, and transsexuals, Walker and Ehrlich clarify to the next deluge of incoming men that these are working girls, all of whom count the success of a relationship in the minutes spent to earn those western dollars. It is hardly the fault of these Thai women if they soon realize that calling their newest boyfriend 'Big Honey' and other such of similar ilk can only gratify him into spending more money on her (and her family)or--and this is what each Thai lady dreams of--finding a western man thinking that he will 'deliver' her from a life of vice by taking her back to his country for marriage. In this latter case, the man will certainly send money to her on a regular basis, with her promising all the while that she will be loyal in return. The letters that these men write back and forth reveal a breathtaking lack of brains that they, with all their degrees, find out later that these women were always one step ahead. In defense of the men who are surrounded by willing, attractive Thai ladies who offer themselves at what to these men seem like bargain prices, it is not difficult to overlook the more obvious and higher bill that is sure to be presented later.
Rating: 
Summary: Misleading
Review: Had very high hopes for this book. Started out to be a very informative and interesting. Once you get past the first 3 letters they are basically the same. Didn't feel there was any feelings or passion to this book.
Think the idea was great but just not enough detail.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing Changes
Review: Having just returned from a month in Bangkok, I was amazed that despite the rise and fall of the Thai economy,the new entertainment areas and a crusading moralist politician-nearly everything in "Hello My Big Big Honey" is the same as when the book came out in its first printing. About the only real changes that I could see was that 1)the ever adaptable bar girls have fully embraced the Internet-thus extending the number of possible money sources and 2) the pervasive use of cellular phones has made made many a woman desist in her activities while she calms her long distance lover with half truths about where she is, with whom and doing whatever. Wonder if the authors could get funding for an updated version -but though the names change, the game goes on!
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Summary: I also really enjoyed your book -- well done!
Review: I also really enjoyed your book -- well done! Are you working on another one? Nury Vittachi Travellers' Tales columnist Far Eastern Economic Review
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Summary: A Must-Read for anyone heading to Thailand
Review: I spent three years doing research on Thai bar girls and this book pretty well sums it up. I, myself, helped women write letters to their Western "boyfriends," and they were exactly like some of those in the book. Read the book and you'll understand what's really going on in their minds. Besides that, this book is HILLARIOUS. You will fall off your chair laughing (unless one of the letters was sent to you)
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Summary: More revealing than a stack of PhD theses
Review: I've lived, traveled and worked in Thailand for 23 years, and when I'm asked to cite references on the commercial sex scene in Thailand, this book always occupies the top of the list. No one says it as well as the women themselves, and I found these interviews to be very credible. The foreword, by a Thai academic, was also among the more enlightening essays I've read on this topic. Should be read by any male or female contemplating an entree into Thailand's "demi-monde".
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Summary: It's the best book I've read in the past decade
Review: It's the best book I've read in the past decade. You can put me, once again, on the cover saying so. Much better than Snow Falling on Cedars. I got it and it looks great. People are lining up to borrow it at the office. -- Anthony Spaeth, correspondent, TIME magazine
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Summary: FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions): Relations With Thai Women
Review: Many (not all!) bar girls want to get out of that life, and when they have found a foreigner they like or love, they can become very good wives. Before you ever decide to marry a bar girl, I strongly advise you to read the book "Hello My Big Big Honey!" This book answers all the questions you might have about bar girls much better than I ever could. from: FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions): Relationships With Thai Women
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Summary: Prositutes and the Men Who Love Them
Review: Most books are bound with the hooves of crushed horses. This book is bound with the dreams of crushed men.
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