That's how a recent story in the SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST starts off, with reporter Kavitha Rao doing a nice profile of both book and author. The book is subtitled: "Into the Dark Heart Of Guns, Girls and Ganja and is published by Asia Books in Bangkok, with a regional distribution throughout Asia and planned forways into Europe and North America. Gilboa apparently shopped the book around to some agents and publishers in the USA, but they all felt the story was too "fringe" for an American audience. Wrong, but publishers are often wrong. So Gilboa took the manuscript to Bangkok-based Asia Books and a contract was signed. The book is now in its second printing, with off-the-book page articles appearing in TIME magazine, BAYON PEARNIK magazine, the SCMP and the AFP wire service. The book still has legs, as they say, and may end up in a USA edition one of these days, to say nothing of its Hollywood potential.
Meanwhile, readers can find additional material from the TOKYO BOARDWALKER's archives below, reprinting those reviews we've seen already ... and a brief excerpt from the book itself. Want to know more? Email Tokyo Boardwalker at tokyoboardwalker@writeme.com (we can put you in touch with the author, too, if you wish).
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READER COMMENTS
What some readers around the world said about the book (quotes can be found at amazon.com under the book's title and ordering form):
A reader from New Jersey:
Engaging. I could not put this book down. It's a facinating study of the adventures of expatriates in Cambodia. I was most intrigued by chronicle of the author's attempt to enter Cambodia, one final time, without a passport. Well worth reading.
A reader from Lulea, Sweden:
Description of Cambodia and the expats who live there. Very good book which gives an interesting insight into the subculture of english teachers and other expats who live in Cambodia. The book also provides an extensive picture of the normal Cambodians and the country.Amit has spent a lot of time with expats in Phnom Pehn who were not aware that he was writing a book. The world that they live in is unreal and devoid of the usual rules and morals of society. When you read the book you will be disturbed by some aspects as well as laughing and wondering if all these bizzare people really exist but Gilboa assures us that they do...
A reader from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:
Discover what happens to people when there are no rules. This book is fantastic! Fast-reading and wild, I was surprised to find Cambodia so fascinating. Amit Gilboa offers a point of view I can relate to and gives a perspective from the post-Veitnam generation on politics, sex and fear in Cambodia. He paints a picture as compelling and repulsive as the city itself and the ex-patriots who revel there. Read this book!
Lost luggage, surly taxi drivers, a bout of food poisoning--these are usually the most outrageous things that happen to writers who chronicle their globetrotting adventures. Consequently, as a literary genre the travel narrative is often genteel to the point of yawn- inducing boredom. Maybe that's why first-time author Amit Gilboa's recent book, Off the Rails in Phnom Penh, is causing such a stir in Southeast Asia. Just one glance at the subtitle--"Into the Dark Heart of Guns, Girls, and Ganja"--tells you his hellish holiday in Cambodia will unfold more like a gonzo rant from Hunter S. Thompson than an erudite essay by Paul Theroux.
The first time Gilboa hit Phnom Penh was on a side trip from neighboring Vietnam for a quick visa extension. He returned in 1996, scribbling notes, keeping journals, dodging bullets. He befriended a group of dope-smoking, sex-obsessed slackers who worked as English teachers, hanging out with them as they visited degrading brothel villages and chomped away at pot pizzas while trying to avoid AK-47 attacks. He noted how the serenity of the Buddhist wats contrasted with the stench of the city's slums and the bursts of automatic gunfire. "Cambodia is like you're always tripping," one female teacher warned him at the onset of his journey, and she wasn't referring to stumbling on the sidewalk.
Under not-so-subtle chapter headings like "Lawlessness" and "Drugs," Gilboa spins a fascinating if somewhat fractured tale about a beautiful country whose people have been ravaged by decades of turmoil. His main characters may be the unsavory crew of stoned "sex- pats" who indulge their libidos with two-dollar hookers. But the real villains here are Cambodia's so-called leaders, who turned the once- spiritual haven into a bedlam of decadence and violence. Fortunately, there's enough historical and social perspective to give meaningful context to the tawdry sleaze that drips off the pages. What could have been a merely exploitative book can also be read as a lesson about the country's exploited victims.
As a writer, Gilboa is a better observer than he is a stylist. Much of his story reads like the raw notes of a wannabe journalist as he frantically describes the mayhem swirling around him. At times he resorts to listing various quotes from his teacher buddies, or seemingly transcribes one of their rambling, brutal monologues about "shagging" a young prostitute--word for word, in lurid detail. Forget about nuanced, three-dimensional characters here; aside from our humble narrator, there isn't a memorable fellow in the bunch, just a parade of freaks who blur together in a haze of marijuana smoke, gunpowder and flopsweat.
Perhaps unintentionally, the funniest portions of the book depict the author as an intrepid anthropologist determined to examine the debauchery first-hand--purely for the sake of "field research." Margaret Mead would not be amused. By the time he begins devouring slices of Merry Jane's "extra-happy" pizza toppings, he shucks all pretense and waxes about the "unique, if not delicious, culinary experience" that leaves him crawling on all fours. Bloodshot yet wide- eyed, Gilboa claims innocence throughout his stay, even as he racks up bar bills that read "Beer-$4, Juice-$2, Girl-$4." Still, with its mix of random jottings, bizarre character sketches and diary entries, Gilboa's account plunges readers into the center of the Khmer storm.
(c)1998 TIME
Readers who have not yet had a chance to pick up a copy of "Off the Rails in Phnom Penh," here is a brief excerpt from the book:
"Cambodia is so disorganised that anyone can, and does, arrive as a
tourist or entrepreneur. I was consistently surprised by the variety
of nationals I encountered in Phnom Penh.
"Within the first few weeks of my first visit (October 1996) I met
Burmese, Thais, Malays, Vietnamese, Chinese from all over Asia, a
Cameroonian, a Zairean, Sri Lankans, a Tunisian, Iranians, an
Afghani, and of course, Europeans from every corner of the continent.
"Prostitution, which is usually considered morally wrong,
exploitative, or at least shameful to partake of in the West, is more
or less celebrated by foreigners in the capital.
"With so many residents eager to initiate me, I soon learned about
the main flesh markets frequented by foreigners. Ranking the areas in
some kind of descending order of 'classiness', Champagne tops the
list.
"This renowned Phnom Penh institution has a dance floor, an open air
movie theatre with tables, two bars, three food stalls, and, of
course, hundreds of girls. The proportion is about half each of
Vietnamese and Khmer, and they range from quite young, perhaps as
young as 15 or 16, to over 35.
"They go for the night for as low as $10, but a very attractive girl
may be able to charge a 'rich' (read gullible) tourist $30 or $40.
The differentiating factor about Champagne is that the girls come and
go as they please, and are free to accept or refuse any offer at
will."
(c) 1998 Amit Gilboa
BOOK ON CAMBODIAN "SEX-PATS" PAINTS SEEDY PICTURE
by Stephen Coates
AFP
Cambodia's strongman Hun Sen likes to quip to journalists that the only thing the United Nations has ever done for the troubled country is spread the AIDS virus. It is a cynical reference to the massive peacekeeping effort surrounding the 1993 elections, when thousands of soldiers from around the world came to ensure security for the vote.
The peacekeepers, buoyed by hefty U.N. salaries in one of the poorest countries in the world, earned a reputation for hedonism not seen in Indochina since the U.S. army pulled out of Saigon near the end of the Vietnam War.
The period has been documented in "Cambodian Interlude: Inside the United Nations' 1993 Election," written by Tom Riddle and published last year.
But a new book selling quickly in Bangkok suggests a different group of decadent Westerners is taking advantage of the cheap sex and drugs Cambodia has to offer.
"I never imagined that such a place could exist -- it was amazing," said Amit Gilboa, author of "Off the Rails in Phnom Penh: Into the Dark Heart of Guns, Girls and Ganja."
Written during a year "undercover" in Phnom Penh in 1996-97, the book just published by Bangkok-based Asia Books exposes the excessive lifestyles of certain expatriates who call Phnom Penh home.
"I've heard that some of the expatriates in Phnom Penh aren't so happy about the book," said Gilboa, who insists he was merely reporting on the behavior of a small sub-section of the foreign community here.
In particular, Gilboa befriended a group of men working as English teachers and living in one of the city's cheapest hotels. He secretly recorded his conversations with them in private notebooks.
For example, Gary is an "ugly" American "who made a career from traveling around the world having paid and unpaid sex." Jean, a Frenchman, funds his sensual extravagance with unemployment benefits from home. Henrick the Dane feels "genuine affections for the girls he pays to sleep with."
Perhaps the most stunning of all is Eric, a "militaristic, racist, homophobic, child molesting smack addict" from Switzerland.
Gilboa said the people described in the book -- pseudonyms were used throughout -- were generally happy to find their exploits recorded for posterity.
"They thought it was great. If you remember Eric, he loved it. It was only the description of him as a smack (heroin) addict and child molester he was reticent about," the author said.
"Anyone could land in Phnom Penh tomorrow and meet exactly the same types of people. That's one of the things that amazed me -- they were just so open about what they were doing."
Expatriates in Phnom Penh, including a large contingent of professional aid workers and journalists, are not so sure. The one review which has been published here slams the book and Gilboa personally.
"(It) sensationalizes the seedier side of life here using crudity and cobblers to embellish the fact," wrote the Bayon Pearnik's reviewer, Adam Parker.
"Despite mentioning that there are people here not indulging in this lifestyle, the impression given is that most foreigners in Phnom Penh are sex crazy, pot heads or heroin addicts who can't get it up."
Parker told AFP that some of his friends were in the book, and they were far from pleased about it. "A couple of them would like to kill him," he said.
Publisher and editor Richard Baker said the book was already in its second printing after only two months on sale in Bangkok.
"Hopefully there'll be distribution in Europe and the United States soon," he said, adding that Asia Books showcased it at the prestigious Frankfurt book fair earlier this month.
(c) 1998 AFP
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Q&A with Amit Gilboa (by Dan Bloom of the Tokyo BoardWalker, via email)
When the Tokyo BoardWalker queried Amit Gilboa by email about how the book came to be (in terms of its publishing history: shop talk, in other words) he kindly wrote back from his desk in Bangkok, to wit:
Q: How did you find a publisher?
A: The short answer is that I wrote the manuscript "on spec" and submitted it to a couple different publishers in Thailand, as well as several in Singapore. Asia Books was the first (actually, the only) publisher to accept the manuscript for publication. After some frustrating hemming and hawing on their part, we finally signed a contract, and the result is that my poor mom sees a picture of her son buying marijuana on page 7 of the SCMP's Saturday review section.
Q: How long did the entire project take?
A: The entire process from beginning to write to actually seeing the book on a shelf took exactly one year (almost to the day), which I'm told is actually fairly fast for a first book. Finding a publisher was a much longer and more frustrating process than writing, that's for sure.
Q: Who did you see as your audience as you were writing?
A: An interesting side note is that I wrote the book with an American audience in mind. I actually got several responses from agents in publishers in the US about it. Most of them had quite nice things to say, but they felt the book was too fringe for an American audience. If you're in Hong Kong and thinking of writing or submitting a book, keep in mind your audience. A book can be quite popular in the region, and yet not take off in the US or Europe.
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MORE REVIEWS:
Bangkok Metro Magazine, September 1998. By Ian Crawshaw
The debut work of young writer Amit Gilboa is a helter-skelter low-life travelogue through that neighboring madhouse named Phnom Penh. A book easy for old hands to dismiss as immature or nave, it's invigorating, exciting, packed full of fun and infectious youthful exuberance.
The Nation, Bangkok, August 30, 1998. By Simon Johnstone
The book is phenomenal. On a scale of the amount of muck raked it must come very high in the annals of reportage... The book...is by turns attractive, repulsive and frightening but never boring. I found it hard to put down, and will never forget it.
OFF THE RAILS: Description
Phnom Penh is a city of beauty and degradation, tranquillity and violence, and tradition and transformation; a city of temples and brothels, music and gunfire, and festivals and coups.
But for many, it is simply an anarchic celebration of insanity and indulgence. Whether it is the $2 wooden shack brothels, the marijuana-pizza restaurants, the AK-47 fireworks displays, or the intricate brutality of Cambodian politics, Phnom Penh never ceases to amaze and amuse. For an individual coming from a modern Western society, it is a place where the immoral becomes acceptable and the insane becomes normal.
Amid this chaos lives an extraordinary group of foreign residents. Some are adventurers whose passion for life is given free rein in this unrestrained madhouse. Others are misfits who, unable to make it anywhere else, wallow in the decadent and inviting environment. This unparalleled first-hand account provides a fascinating, shocking, disturbing and often hilarious picture of contemporary Phnom Penh and the bizarre collection of expats who make it their home. As they search for love in the brothels or adventure on the firing range, Phnom Penh Journey follows them into the dark heart of guns, girls and ganja.
Notes from the author, Amit Gilboa:
What happens when the usual restraints are cast off. Cambodia is a place where the usual restraints on behavior - legal, financial, social - are noticeably absent. For examples, bags of marijuana and sex in brothels were both easily and openly available for as little as $2. Of course there were plenty of Phnom Penh residents - Khmer and foreign - who maintained what Americans would consider a "normal" lifestyle. But I was most intrigued by those who adapted completely to this freewheeling environment. The real-life degeneracy which is described is what makes the book such a fascinating and at times horrifying read.
Phnom Penh is host to one of the world's greatest cultures and also one of the world's most shattered societies. It is an incredibly engaging place: Some people are seduced by the glory of the country's distant past or the tragedy of it's recent history; the stunning architecture or the music which seems to come straight from some exotic heaven. This book, however, focuses on the people who were seduced by the easy drugs, easy sex, and easy work that Phnom Penh offers. We learn about the wooden shack brothels in town and the brothel village outside the city limits, about the pizza restaurant offering marijuana as a topping, and about the firing range where automatic weapons and grenades are all part of the day's fun.
About the Author:
Amit Gilboa was born in Israel, grew up in America, and currently lives in Bangkok. Over the past 10 years, he has studied in China, entrepreneured in Viet Nam, worked and researched in Cambodia, and written in Thailand, as well as working as a consultant in Washington, DC. Gilboa is fluent in Chinese, Khmer and Hebrew, and proficient in Thai and Vietnamese. While in Cambodia, Gilboa developed customer service training for Royal Air Cambodge, began a call-back partnership, and sold airline tickets, as well as teaching English and learning Khmer. In addition to his recent book about Cambodia, Gilboa has published numerous articles in North American magazines and newspapers. Gilboa is a 1991 graduate of Wesleyan University.
Excerpt:
Almost immediately, I became committed to the idea of investigating this madhouse of a country and its foreign-born inmates. I wanted to understand the details of this country which seemed to consist entirely of the perversion of what would be called 'normal' in many other societies. I also wanted to understand the attractions that this country held for the people who chose to come here to live. Finally, I was determined to successfully relate all of this to those who have never been to Cambodia.
Between September 1996 and October 1997, I made several more trips to Phnom Penh, each time taking about a month off from my less-than-explosive journalistic career in Viet Nam. The standard place to eat and sleep for backpackers, low-budget visa runners, and also many longer-term residents in Phnom Penh is the sadly misnamed Majestic Restaurant and Guesthouse. During my visits I spent my time, using the Majestic as a base, learning about a range of extraordinary lifestyles from the people who were actually living them. I talked with them over quick breakfasts before their classes, and over long lunches before their brothel trips. I listened quietly as they talked in groups, and I interviewed them earnestly one on one.
Most of my conversations revolved around the sensationalistic aspects of living in Phnom Penh, and all of these are addressed throughout this book covering: The bizarre political system, and the anarchy and violence that result; the permissiveness and recklessness regarding sex, AIDS, and drugs; the ease with which the foreigners earn money from the Khmers; some interesting observations about the foreigners of Phnom Penh; and observations on the Khmers themselves. While these chapters detail the more outrageous aspects of life in Phnom Penh, there are other, more subtle facets of living in the Kingdom of Cambodia that make it a mind-altering experience. It was these subtleties, as much as the sex, drugs and violence, that entranced me to Cambodia.
Khmer culture undeniably accommodates one of the world's greatest artistic traditions. No matter how many times I go past the Royal Palace, it never ceases to amaze me. The beautiful colors, the intricate patterns, the four giant faces looking out from the top of the central tower. It's as if, just by appreciating it, I'm somehow a part of this monumental culture.
As millions of tourists and travelers will attest, the massive size and incredible artistry of Angkor Wat, the country's greatest monument, is an easy way to understand the glory of the Khmer Empire and the cultural heights it reached. But the strength of Khmer culture is not limited to monuments. I have traveled all around East Asia and the popular radio stations play American rock and roll, or dreadful local imitations of American rock and roll. Cambodia is the first Asian country I have been to where I actually heard mostly traditional music. And the music itself is so beautiful, the way they slide up and down the scale, all in these mournful minor keys. The very traditional music is played on an ensemble of musical instruments including gongs, bells, drums, and various other string and percussive pieces. As a person not usually given to romanticizing "exotic" cultures, I was totally unprepared for the effect this strange and exquisite music has on me. Whenever they start playing, I always feel as if some part of me is being transported to a mythical Angkorian kingdom of princes, warriors, dancers, and gods.
The clash between this traditional culture and the modern world is part of the energy of Phnom Penh. A journalist remarks that, "This is a society that's been through hundreds of years of agrarian feudalism, twenty-three years of civil war, ten years of Communism and isolation, ten years of foreign occupation, and then the world just flipped a switch and turned Cambodia into this democratic, capitalistic, open, developing country. You think there might be some tension created?"
The fact that the process of Cambodia's 'development' is still in the early stages is clearly an attraction for many. One is constantly jarred by the contrasts. Wealthy generals drive by in Landcruisers or BMW's flanked by bodyguards, past cyclo (three-wheeled pedicab) drivers who own nothing but the cyclo and one change of clothes. While the generals own two or three villas, the cyclo drivers actually live in their cyclos because they can't even afford to rent an $8-a-month shanty. There is an overwhelming rawness that confronts the visitor; the trash in the streets, the little children running around naked, the dust, the unpaved roads, and the shacks. And among all of this one regularly chances upon a beautiful wat (Buddhist temple) rising up into the sky. While stunning in its own right, the sight is even more amazing in the middle of all the shit that surrounds it.
Similarly, many people cite their own bizarre reasons for finding Cambodia so interesting. A long conversation I had with a tourist provided the subtitle for this book. He expounded about why Phnom Penh is nothing less than a real-life version of the movie Apocalypse Now. "Think about it, Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness [the Joseph Conrad novel on which the movie is based], are built on the premise of what happens when people live without the normal restraints of society. That's exactly what we're seeing here. The foreigners here have absolutely nothing stopping them from behaving completely irrationally, and completely without judgment or inhibitions. I'm telling you, it's no coincidence that they put Colonel Kurtz in Cambodia."