Borderlines

I't more like a travel log or journal from the author, but it gives you a great perspective of what Thailand's life is like, since he goes beyond the regular tourist polaces and wanders into the country looking for a monastery but stumbles into different adventures without being this his primary purpose.

I was in Sidney enroute to Bangkok maddly looking for SOMETHING to orient me when I landed, when I stumbled across this gem. It was the cover that attracted me at first - crimson red earth, lush green foliage, searing blue sky, white clouds. Beautiful - but at odds with the title - Borderlines, which seemed to imply a vaguely psychotic, marginal subsistance kind of place that didn't square with what I was expecting from the beach holiday image I had been assured of.What was "Borderline" about Thailand?As I found out - everything.A remarkably insightful "traveler's classic" which explores the country, its people and ones state of mind as you travel through it being seduced. Prose that remind one of a cross between Somerset Maugham in "The Comedians" and gonzo journalist R.H.Thompson. Where did he learn to write!Then a couple of years ago I was mentioning this trip to a buddy who teaches Elizabethian Drama - he knew Charles Nicholl for his remarkable sleuthing done in "The Reckoning" which showed some hitherto undiscovered facts that support his contention that Christopher Marlowe may have been eliminated for his spying activity rather than in a chance brawl in an obscure tavern on the outskirts of London in 1594.This is a talented man.

Nicholl's story is at turns entertaining and informative, and he tells it well. (This reads more like fiction than a travelogue.) It's a light, quick read. My only criticism is sometimes it feels Nicholl is trying a little to hard to be a novelist rather than a travel writer when he circles back to the title, which feels contrived. But that doesn't detract from the story, and paired with Lily Tuck's "Siam", and a couple "Rough Guides", you'll be itching to buy your ticket to Chiang Mai.