Farang
By Dr Iain Corness
Published by Maverick House, 2008

The Pattaya Mail’s Dr Iain Corness prescribes 60 remedies for farang that ensure a very good prognosis. My review for Daily Xpress, published in June.

British-born Australian Iain Corness, the retired physician who writes columns for the Pattaya Mail about medicine, motoring and maintaining sanity as a stranger in a strange land, warrants high praise for sticking to the high road in “Farang”.

This enjoyable, 330-page ride on a three-wheeled cuttlefish cart dodges almost all of the potholes that cripple most foreigners’ books about Thailand. The ones that prove unavoidable are negotiated with the even temper of an old hand.

The book’s 60 chapters hop amiably from one foot to the other, at times dispensing doctorly advice that newcomers will find helpful and at others musing on the rationale behind Thai ways — and finding little to criticise.

He occasionally winces (the modern Songkran, bureaucratic red tape, karaoke), but most of the time is found reveling in the delights of his adopted land, only once deigning to comment on the sex trade, which is quite a feat for a writer who lives in Pattaya. There’s a recipe for somtam, a cobra in the kitchen, cautionary essays on scams and house hunting and plenty of advice on staying healthy, especially if you’re getting on in years.

The language is mostly mundane, but there are moments when the squid-cycle picks up pace, and in the little tale called “Second Time Dads” we hit an emotional summit fuelled by the love of the young family with which Corness has been blessed since settling here.

TEXT BITE: “With a towel wrapped around my otherwise naked self, in the interests of public decency, I stumbled out of my front door and asked my neighbour if she had water. Yes, she did …They must have turned my water cock off, thought I. I walked outside the gate to turn the handle, and it was gone! So was the entire water meter! Who would steal a water meter?”