Message in a Bottle by Don Coppock
Don Coppock was born and raised in San Diego, California. He has worked in ship yards, shovelled snow off roofs and owned a music store in Lake Tahoe, California, and was a commercial salmon fisherman in southeast Alaska in the 1980s where he worked with Observer publisher, John Murray. They recently re-connected on Facebook, and Don has agreed to write a monthly column examining issues facing America with a perspective gleaned from living as an ex-pat 8000 miles away in Thailand.
Story and Photographs By Don Coppock
(Editor's note - Don Coppock has lived in Thailand for several years and routinely shares stories of his experience with readers of the Waterbury Observer. Coppock currently lives with Nung)
Nung presents the Thai doll she just made with barely concealed glee...in fact, it appears she's having a difficult time restraining herself from laughing out loud at her own creativity. She's plainly amazed that something so unique could simply appear as if by magic from her manipulation of twine and thread, and I can't help wondering, knowing her as I do, exactly where this joy springs from.
I met Nung in a seedy little club in Jomtien, a beach community just south of Pattaya, Thailand. She was working at a thinly disguised brothel-masquerading-as-a-bar, one of the few daytime establishments of its kind in the area. It was near my house and I passed it daily, where most afternoons a handful of women dressed alluringly beckoned as I passed by.
Nung was one of those women.
Column By Don Coppock
It disgusted me in Greece, I found myself unable to breathe in clubs in Berlin, and people indulged in Taiwan. Everywhere I've been I've bumped into people sucking on cigarettes. The little terrorists are all around us. Still, I was surprised when I was out playing basketball with some Thai friends, I noticed toxic tendrils of smoke enveloping me, and an unmistakable foul stench. I looked over to the sidelines, and to my disappointment, observed guys waiting to play puffing indolently on cigarettes.
Story By Don Coppock
There is no place on earth like Pattaya. It's a frantic city, a celebration of hedonism, an unabashed paean to the joys of sex and drink. It has a reputation, a well deserved notoriety, which is precisely the reason men come here from all over the world. They’ve visited here on military leave, heard about it from friends, read about it or seen it on the net, so most have an idea what this community is all about before they set foot here.
King Bhumibol of Thailand is the longest reigning monarch in the world.
Column By Don Coppock
I recall my first visit to Bangkok . I was taking a tour of the city, we were bogged down in one of the city's usual traffic jams, and the tour guide was talking about all things Thailand.
We were about to enter the King's Grand Palace, so I asked him his thoughts on the King. He smiled and his eyes got a glassy look as he began, ‘I love my King...’
(Editor's note - the following column was written by Don Coppock, an American ex-pat now living in Thailand. Living 8000 miles away from the United States provided Coppock time and space to reflect about the dramatic changes in American life that has evolved during the past sixty years)
Column by Don Coppock (July 2011)
When I made the decision to retire in Thailand , that decision was based on the information I had at the time. The dollar had hovered around 40 baht for as long as I’d been coming here, and I foresaw no cataclysmic change in the stock market.
My Life With Jack
Column By Don Coppock
Jack (pictured) has been my companion about 10 years now. Friends gave him to me after I lost my pound hound Mac to cancer, and I reluctantly accepted him. I definitely didn’t want another dog - Mac was the love of my life, and his death broke my heart, and it took awhile before I ceased comparing Jack to his beloved predecessor.
The Secret To Ending Political Fighting -
Duct Tape and Super Glue
Column By Don Coppock
America appears to be coming unglued these days.
On street corners and Fox News, agitated preachers pace furiously back and forth, gesticulating wildly, tearing at their hair, sputtering ‘the end is near’ or ranting about inevitable doom, destruction and anarchy. According to them, the future, if there is one, is bleak indeed. Everything seems broken.
Rebuilding After Thai Tsunami
Column By Don Coppock
When you make the descent into Patong Beach, one of the more popular tourist stops in Phuket (pronounced Pooket) Thailand, the first thing that strikes you is the wild jungle greenery cascading down the mountain and threatening to sweep this insular town into the ocean.