Patrick Winn

Based in Bangkok, Patrick Winn produces written and video dispatches on Thailand and Burma for Global Post. By capturing street revolts, a gruesome Muslim insurgency and even transgender beauty...

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Patrick Winn's Notebook:

February 1, 2009 10:05 ET

Sex change ads and newspaper sensibilities

Once at the News & Observer — the Raleigh, N.C. newspaper where my career began — my editors felt the need to run a front-page warning to readers.

Be advised, it read, today's "Life" section features nudity.

Of course, every  reader with a shred of curiosity immediately flipped to the Life section ... only to find Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam," which does indeed feature God, majestic mountains and Adam's penis. The newspaper was subsequently ridiculed by readers, the blogosphere and reporters at my newsrooom's happy hour.

I guess editors are a bit more relaxed at the Bangkok Post, an English-language daily with a large readership of educated Thais.

Yesterday's front page featured a large ad from the Pratunam Polyclinic, where sex change operations go for $1,625 — no extra charge for anesthesia! Curiously, the $125 "orchiectomy" listing is crossed out with red lines. I'll let you look that up yourself, but suffice to say, that seems like a very reasonable price.

The clinic is even endorsed by Tanyarat Jirapatpakorn, a transexual beauty queen.

Thailand is renowned for its "ladyboy" cabaret shows, but transexuals aren't just limited to the cabaret stage here. Called "katoeys" in Thai,  they're openly accepted in society. I've seen katoey bank tellers, servers and ticket booth operators in Bangkok's subway stops. At teenage shopping hang-outs, it's not uncommon to see a katoey in a pack of chattering college girls.

I don't know of any katoey business moguls, however, so I have to wonder if they find it hard to climb the career ladder within Thai office culture. I'd love to hear from readers with more insight into this.

Though you'll never see a sex change ads on a U.S.  newspaper's front page, maybe American editors should relax and reconsider. With most papers' circulation figures in a tailspin, they could definitely use the attention.

I'll bet the Pratunam Polyclinic gets its share of American clients. Might they be interested in advertising abroad?

January 26, 2009 08:21 ET

Thailand's Gold Rush Goes Digital

In this GlobalPost piece, I explained how Thailand's jittery stock market has driven many Thais to sink their money into gold bars.

Bangkok's Chinatown,  lined with more than 100 shops selling high-purity gold bars,  has been bum-rushed in recent months each time gold prices dip. Buyers walk in with fat stacks of cash, wait as shopkeepers diligently count the bills and walk out with bags full of palm-sized gold rectangles.

Now it looks like this old-school, face-to-face style of investing is threatened. In early March, the Thailand Futures Exchange will take on gold, allowing brokers to secure large gold holdings for buyers convinced that gold's value will rise.

Buying gold through online brokers instead of Bangkok's crimson-walled gold shops, however, will require sizeable investments. Traders will have to throw down an amount worth roughly $2,000 to play. That's more than 760 grams of gold.

While mom-and-pop gold shops are likely worried, they can still count on buyers seeking what the market calls "ornamental gold," which include necklaces, bracelets, rings, etc.

Many Thais adore gold jewelry, especially older-generation Thais, and the obsession seems to cross class lines. Gold isn't just for the wealthy. It's not too uncommon to see an older guy sporting the working-class, Bruce Springsteenish Thai rocker look: leather vest, ponytail and enough gold chains to rival 1980s rapper Slick Rick.

For the big-time gold emporiums in Bangkok, digitizing gold investment isn't a threat. They'll be the same companies supplying the futures market. They're even prepping buyers with a "Gold Futures Trading Workshop" coming in February.

January 21, 2009 07:25 ET | Updated: January 21, 2009 08:52 ET

Inaugurating Barack Inside a Bangkok Taxi

An international crowd packed Bangkok's Roadhouse BBQ last night to watch Obama assume the presidency on CNN. How captivating was Barack's speech? Enough to shut up more than 100 expats — crammed into a tight bar space, many of on their fourth pint of Tiger beer — for more than six minutes. Impressive.

After leaving the  inauguration viewing party for expats, we hailed a taxi working the post-midnight graveyard shift. The cabbie — whose name, I believe, was Teerajet — was having a very different inauguration viewing experience.

A fair number of Bangkok taxi drivers rig their cabs with mini-TVs. It's an escape from the soul-grinding traffic that only devout Buddhists have the inner calm to withstand. (That's my theory, anyway.) Some even pop in karaoke discs and pass the time crooning.

But this driver was tuned to the inauguration, which appeared to be dominating Thai TV news — even at 1 a.m.

As the TV feed crackled and hissed, he offered his (vaguely spiritual) thoughts on Obama:

"It's like with our country. We have to bring in change, leave the old behind," he said. "Old people are too connected to old institutions ... to bad forces. New people have a chance to change things."

For good measure, here's a shot of expats watching the big speech. Keep in mind that many of those who jammed into Bangkok's inauguration party weren't American — but excited nonetheless.

Both photos shot by Global Post correspondent Pailin Wedel.

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January 20, 2009 06:36 ET | Updated: January 20, 2009 13:22 ET

Bangkok's Obama factor

Parts of Bangkok will surely party tonight for incoming U.S. President Barack Obama, whose swearing-in happens around midnight here in the Thai capitol. Given Obama's lofty profile in Bangkok, some Thais may be surprised to hear that Obama was still waiting to take the presidency.

While superficial, Obama's image here still casts him as the planet's young and handsome savior. Consider the above cartoon, scanned from the million-circulation, Bangkok-based Thai Rath newspaper. A sickly globe clutches Barack's arm and begs "Please Change the World Too."

Thailand, which could use a savior of its own, has also taken to calling its own new premier "Obamark" in recent weeks. This is a play on Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's nickname — "Mark" — which likely helped him sidestep some grief while studying at Oxford.

The parallel is meant to flatter and Abhisit —  also young and also heading what he calls a "coalition government" — has done little to stem the comparison. Asked last week how he could heal Thailand's urban/rural divide, Obamark mentioned the U.S.:

"The midwest keeps voting Republican. And the east and west coasts keep voting Democrat. When you do polls of voter behavior all over the world , often you find that urban people prefer one party, rural people prefer another.  That doesn't mean urban and rural people are necessarily in conflict. During my years in politics, I've found that women tend to vote for us than men. I don't think there's a fundamental problem between men and women."

Ground zero for tonight's inauguration merrymaking in Bangkok is the Roadhouse BBQ, which expats dutifully packed during each presidential debate. (It's likely the only bar that replayed the debates.) We'll be there ... and we'll also let you know how his inaugration plays in the Thai press the next day.

P.S. Thanks to Ron at 2bangkok.com for capturing the cartoon above and the picture below, of Obama photos sold in gilded wooden frames on Bangkok's streets.

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January 18, 2009 12:58 ET

Dogs dressed for Thai cold snap

As I type this, the sun is setting on a hazy 84-degree evening. That's a touch warm for this month, it seems -- temperatures hit just below 60 degrees exactly one week ago. This is Thailand's cold season and for people of my tender complexion — think Conan O'Brien — this is weather at its finest.

The rest of Thailand disagrees. The commuter trains are jammed with teenagers in hoodies. College kids are accesorizing their school uniforms with thick scarves. Just this week, fellow Global Post correspondent Pailin Wedel spotted a little girl wearing pink ear muffs. It seems that everyone is freezing but me.

Now, even Bangkok's stray dogs are layering up for those brutal 75-degree nights.  In this piece, I explained the kindness Bangkok Thais extend to strays.  Guess who's dressing the canine homeless in T-shirts to keep them warm?

These dogs were spotted by the Saphan Taksin bridge. Perhaps their new streetwear came from the motorbike taxi drivers who hang there. They seemed to know all the street dog gossip: whose puppy belong to which mom, the whereabouts of the deadbeat dad and so on.

The record-breaking cold spell is actually no joke, especially in the northern hinterlands. Associated Press reports that three people, including a monk, have died from falling temperatures.