Chasing the Dragon: Into the Heart of the Golden Triangle

I just finished reading Cox's book, and while I heartily agree with the criticisms of his literary style (there is a reason that Cox writes for the Boston Herald rather than the Economist or Atlantic), I found parts of it to be very engaging, with only the second-to-last chapter being a disappointment. The epilogue in particular makes up for a lot of slow going towards the end of Cox's Shan State visit. While he attempts to keep the hero worship under control, Cox does not exhibit the maturity that a seasoned writer like William Shawcross does, nor is Cox as adventurous as he seems to believe; the current king of the hill among hardbitten, well-educated nightmare-travel journalists has to be Robert Kaplan, whose penchant for jumping into open graves ought to shame Cox. Nonetheless, I learned a great deal about the history of Burma and the autonomous states within what is now dubbed 'Myanmar'. Cox appears to have assiduously researched his destination, much more than I would expect the author of a ... paperback to have done. Provided one does not demand exhaustive political analyses and policy recommendations from every travel writer on the shelf, this is a light-weight adventure tale which happens to be shelved in the non-fiction category, and should not disappoint those looking for material concerning one of the few remaining mysteries among Southeast Asian countries.

Wow. Talk about a peltering! Poor Chris Cox writes a good and entertaining book about his looney adventure in Thailand and Burma, and the critics go ballistic. The venom is astonishing!Well, the fact is that Chasing The Dragon is a pretty interesting tale, and certainly offbeat considering that it begins with a private mission to find MIAs in SE Asia ... in 1994!But its more than simply a whacky story. There's a goldmine of history on Burma and Thailand, and I think Cox is one of the few writers to have actually put recent (post-1950) Burmese politics into a coherent framework.Along the way Cox gets his interview with Khun Sa (the crux of his journalistic mission), and that's quite a coup. But that he also has some adventures; takes Xanax to adjust to his 12-hour jet lag; and describes some of the seamier corners of Asia is not outside the scope of the story. That's the way that travel in Asia often is!Ecotourists might be offended. There is too much here that doesn't work for that strict Puritanical mindset ("Porno tapes as a gift to Khun Sa! My God!"). But you don't have to be a Robert Pelton fan to understand what's happening in Chasing The Dragon. You just have to have gone off the Lonely Planet path to a world that is markedly different from your own.

Although Cox's journalistic adventure narrative begins slowly, mired in pretentious descriptions and glamorized, over-dramatized, Hunter S. Thompson wannabe-gonzo bragging, it soon settles into a much more sophisticated groove, bolstered by Cox's significant grasp of Burmese history, Southeast Asian politics, and obligatory willingness to mix with the locals, dabble in a few vices, and refreshingly steer clear of "ugly American" stereotypes and boorish behavior abroad. The meandering of the book, between wandering Thailand's red-light district, sharing the quest of obsessed American POW hunters, and a good deal of astute political analysis, can lose the reader a bit at times, but by the last hundred pages one is fully engrossed, engaged, and rooting for Khun Sa and his ragtag band of drug-financed outlaw good guy rebels, while booing and hissing the bureaucratic US officials who forego supporting the Shan, valiant enemies of the odious Burmese regime, because of our hypocritical and shortsighted "war" on drugs. Sadly, since Cox published this ambitious work, Khun Sa has given up his guns and his poppy fields, betrayed by his own Shan rebels beause of his half-Chinese ancestry and perceived greed, and the old man is now doing lucrative hotel/casino business deals with the Rangoon regime. Oh well, at least Cox got in one hell of a narrative description before this "drug lord" decided to call it quits. Anyway, the relevance of the Golden Triangle to the international smack trade is now fading away, as the Afghan Taliban find that they can endure their diplomatic isolation quite nicely, thank you, by flooding world heroin markets in the name of political Islam.

If your interested in Southeast Asia, adventure travel or the opium trade ..definitely worth it!

Cox went up the mountain to see the king and he lived to write about the experience. This is a very well-written book and Cox's painstaking research is extremely evident on every page, but sometimes he provides more information than one might desire. Cox paints elaborate pictures of urban and rural Asian lifestyles that will remain with you long after you finish the book. Often, reading this book before bedtime, I dreamed of the world Cox visited. From derelict junky hangouts in Boston, to Thailand sex districts, to Asian-based USA DEA sweaty offices, to dusty Ho Mong roads, to Shan State poppy farm houses, each vista is delicately unveiled by Cox. All in all though, by the time the tale is told, Cox weaves a satisfying modern-day adventure. The finale (though minus fireworks) is preceded by enough side-stories and mini-adventures to make Edgar Rice Burroughs proud. One last word of caution: When you visit Cox's Golden Triagle tale, don't forget your dictionary. I am a would-be author and I would say I have a better-than-average grasp of the English language, but if I had to chop off a finger every time I reached for a dictionary or thesaurus, I and a couple of friends would be handicapped.