John Smith 
Letters to Bangkok 

Letters to Bangkok is a story of love born on the internet between a practising Thai surgeon and an English University marketing manager. The initial Skype conversations and subsequent letters are true and exact records of written exchanges between two people trying to find love. Below is an extract pages 17, 18 and 19 of the actual book.

The Skype Connection
September November 2008

Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, the
famous throwaway saying in Casablanca brings me immediately
to thinking with amazement how I first met
sweet Pen. Reflecting on this momentous meeting, well momentous
in terms of its life-changing impact on my small world, I often pose
myself one question: How is it possible that two people, effectively
total strangers, with widely different backgrounds and experiences can
begin a conversation through a chance meeting at a moment in a time
and place on a social chat forum called Skype and through that conversation
set off additional exchanges leading eventually to two hearts
beating as one? (See explanation of the term Skype below.) It must be
said at the outset that both Pen and I came to the site with reservations
and varying degrees of scepticism born from previous failed and
disappointing encounters on Skype, where people come and go with
regular monotony, like ships in the night or ghosts briefly haunting
the ether space but soon to disappear without a trace.
It is the nature of the beast called social Internet chatting that you
may find someone interesting and then they disappear, never to be seen
or heard of again, with no by your leave, refusing to reply to further
communications, leaving you saying, Um, it was definitely something
I said!!!! I had an early impression from what Pen said that she was more
experienced on Skype in comparison to me, a relative newcomer. But
why did Pen and I come to seek out one another in the first place? I was
searching initially for company and solace, as I was suffering in a loveless,
rather cruel relationship. Despite my experiences, I have always been an
optimist, eternally inquisitive and open minded, a peoples person. Setting
aside early negative encounters on social sites, I have been blessed with a
strong belief in the goodness of human nature and a belief in destiny.

Whether I believed that destiny could be found in such a chance
and brief encounter is a moot point. I had just come through a long
and difficult marriage which had ended de facto, and although I had
not made the break physically from my ex-partner, I had signalled my
intention to leave, and in mind and spirit, I had disassociated myself
from intimacy or any future plans with this failed relationship. So
yes, in one sense, although not consciously acknowledged by myself,
I was searching for a human being to fill the emotional chasm left by
years of mild mental abuse born of being married to an aggressive and
sometimes violent alcoholic. I was seeking someone who might be
sensitive, caring, supportive, loving, someone who could be my friend
and confidant, someone I could trust with my heart, a lover that would
be my love for always, not just temporarily, someone that would be
my encourager and someone that would share my dreams and let me
share hers, and most importantly, someone that would not betray my
emotional trusta big shopping order, you might say!
And in that respect, I had already decided to cast my net wider,
beyond the shores of England, and sought an international partner to
be my friend. I was already familiar with some of the attractive qualities
that an Asian woman might bring to a relationship: loyalty, selflessness,
spirituality, a caring, loving, and generous nature, and rarely abusive
of alcohol. I was also physically attracted to the Asian look with their
dark eyes, sultry looks, and long dark hair. For Pen, Skype perhaps
offered, amongst other things, an opportunity to d

About the author

John Smith lives in Greater London, England, a town some 17 miles to the West of the Capital. Originally brought up in the North of England his family for generations fished the cod off the Icelandic sea banks. John’s tribal influences are mixed, Irish from his mother’s side and Scottish from his father’s forebears. Formerly serving a number of years in the Royal Air Force including lengthy overseas tours, he ended his military service in the 1990’s to take up a career in marketing at a London University, where he has been employed for the last 17 years. Studying with the Open University, he graduated in 1992 majoring in Psychology. Letters to Bangkok fulfils a boyhood dream of becoming a writer.