Foreign Fool: A Conversation with Author Alan Platt

When it comes to characters, Bangkok has them in droves - people
who have been places, eaten things, talked to people, and lived
adventures that would make your mother put her hand to her mouth
and proclaim, "Oh my" with a frightened little squeak. On this
episode of the Bangkok Podcast we're happy to have one of these
epic characters on the show with us - Mr Alan Platt, who, as it
happens, has just released a book about his adventures
entitled Foreign Fool.


(Direct download .mp3)


Now I know what you're thinking, and it's the same thing we think
when we hear self-published book by a farang in Bangkok, and that
is, "Oh, yes, another one for the dusty back section of Asia
Books, along with all the stories about hard-boiled detectives,
heart-of-gold prostitutes, and love gone bad." But no -
that's not what this book is about at all. In fact, take it from
me (Greg), who has read the book - this is one hell of a fun
read, and is actually - get this - really well written. From
Saigon to Bangkok to Panama to London to Honolulu, Foreign
Fool tells of, as Alan puts it, the bumbling misadventures of a
doofus. I'll just let the first two paragraphs of the first
chapter say it themselves:
In Saigon, many years after the war was over, long after the
city was declared safe for tourists and when even the hookers were
becoming almost discreet, I was kidnapped. That does sound a bit
dramatic, I admit. Technically, it was more an abduction. But
however one puts it, any mention of that sort of thing floods the
mind with images of some poor guy being jumped by thugs, bundled
into the trunk of a car and splattered across the tabloids with a
screech of tires and the burning of rubber. None of that happened
to me. I was kidnapped on a bicycle.

Alan discusses how he went from sunning his broke ass on a Los
Angeles beach to the top of the New York ad world, how the book
took shape, and a few of the stories - both in the book and not -
that keep him looking ahead to the next trip. Visit the book's
website at ForeignFool.com Buy Foreign Fool on Amazon.