Perfect Krabi Beach Issue: Looking Glass Magazine-January 2013

Inspired by The Beach movie and James Bond Island, Jack Corbett looks for the perfect Krabi Beach in the greater Krabi Area

In Search of the Perfect Krabi Beach

It looks like James Bond Island in "The Man with the Golden Gun", but it's just one  Karst of thousands that make the Krabi area the most picturesque, incredibly beautiful coastal region of Thailand.  So it's no surprise that Richard played by Leonardo Dicaprio, like the Christopher Lee character in the James Bond film  would find his perfect getaway from mankind's polluting masses in Krabi.  Dicaprio's beach exists.  You can view it in these pages and in the included You Tube video.  But whereas the Maya Bay in the movie is now visited by far too many tourists who have overrun the Phi Phi Islands in recent years, many parts of Krabi are not.  If Daniel's perfect beach exists at all, it must be somewhere in the Adaman Sea in that area of Thailand that is often loosely defined as Krabi that includes the Phi Phi Islands, Ao Nang Beach and Railey.

By Jack Corbett

 

Yamaha 125 Nouvo SX Elegance 135 roadtest

For the first time, a real road test that pits Yamaha's svelte fuel injected 125 c.c. Nouvo against last year's 135 cc Yamaha Nouvo Elegance to find out which bike offers the best fuel economy, cruising comfort and all around capability in a variety of road conditions.  Measured over a 125 km loop comprising four lane to heavy city traffic, our results will surprise you.

By Jack Corbett

 

Moonlight Bungalow where American Thai silk magnate disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1967

Jim Thompson's strange 1967 Malaysian (murder?) disappearance   revisited

By Jack Corbett

By 1967, Jim Thompson, entrepreneur par excellence had put the practically unnoticed Thailand silk industry on the International map which helped  him  become the most famous American  in Asia.  But on March 27th, 1967, he disappeared after last being seen relaxing on the lawn just outside Moonlight Bungalow in Malaysia's Cameron Highlands.   Some say he got lost in the jungle while taking a stroll, others claim he got eaten by a tiger.  And still others claim he was kidnaped and murdered by the C.I.A. contending that he never had quit the O.S.S. (Office of Strategic Services) he served under during WWII.  Or that he was done in by Thais who were unhappy with his activities while living in Bangkok.  One theory was that he was a sympathizer of the Chinese Communist government whose agents he willingly surrendered to just outside this bungalow.  Another theory was he had fallen into an animal trap laid by the aborigines or run over by a motorist who hastily buried him. 

We had to get close to the scene to see for ourselves what Jim was up against when he disappeared into the jungle.  So we  flew from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur where we rented a car and drove to the Cameron Highlands.  There we braved cold showers, impossibly narrow and dangerous roads, and even a short trek through the jungle on manmade boardwalks just to see how thick the jungle could get.  There's nothing like actually going to the potential crime scene itself to see what might have happened and what most likely didn't.  So read on, see the pictures, and experience the videos to draw your own conclusions to one of Asia's biggest mysteries of the late 20th century.

 

Classic Pattaya Walking Street Go Go bars reviews you can't do without by Uncle Bufford

 

 

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