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Borderlines: A Journey in Thailand and Burma
Impulsado por las palabras de un monje budista, Charles Nicholl decidió viajar a Tailandia para buscar la paz en un templo erigido en medio de la selva. Pero su ruta fue más larga y complicada de lo que él esperaba: desde las callejuelas de Bangkok, por las orillas del Mekong, hasta el “triángulo del oro” t, cruzando la frontera con Birmania, a la zona dominada por la guerrilla.
La simpatía y el respeto de Nicholl por el pueblo tailandés, por su cultura y su religión, impregnan su relato de observaciones y detalles que ayudan a comprender esta zona que constituye una fascinante encrucijada de razas y culturas.
La simpatía y el respeto de Nicholl por el pueblo tailandés, por su cultura y su religión, impregnan su relato de observaciones y detalles que ayudan a comprender esta zona que constituye una fascinante encrucijada de razas y culturas.
- GenresTravelNonfictionAsia
223 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
2 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
About the author
Charles Nicholl
23 books67 followersCharles Nicholl is an English author specializing in works of history, biography, literary detection, and travel. His subjects have included Christopher Marlowe, Arthur Rimbaud, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Nashe and William Shakespeare. Besides his literary output, Nicholl has also presented documentary programs on television. In 1974 he was the winner of the Sunday Times Young Writer Award for his account of an LSD trip entitled 'The Ups and The Downs'.
Nicholl was educated at King's College, Cambridge, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has lectured in Britain, Italy and the United States. He lives in Lucchesia in Italy with his wife and children. He also lectures on Martin Randall Travel tours.
Nicholl was educated at King's College, Cambridge, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has lectured in Britain, Italy and the United States. He lives in Lucchesia in Italy with his wife and children. He also lectures on Martin Randall Travel tours.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 8, 2023
This is the third of Charles Nicholl's books I have read. This one covers three months he spend in Thailand and Myanmar (Burma) in 1986.
After some time in Bangkok on arrival, Nicholl heads north, heading toward the forest Buddhism temple he had planned to visit, but a chance meeting with Harry, a ruffled but experienced traveller sets him aside from that path. While the ever cagey Harry doesn't share a lot, he temps Nicholl enough to change his plans and head north to the Golden Triangle, on the promise of being 'shown around'. The Golden Triangle, of course, is the small area of land where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar (Burma) meet, and is notorious with the growing of opium and cross border smuggling.
Katai makes up the third primary focus in the narrative. She is a twenty year old Thai girl from Bangkok, and Harry's girlfriend. When Harry has to leave Chang Mai to carryout some business, Nicholl is asked to meet her and travel further north with her to meet Harry in Chang Rai.
There is much that Harry (and Katai) are not sharing with Nicholl, which he realises, but gradually Harry shares more details with him. Harry is a trader, but primarily he says, a gem dealer. He is on the trail of Burmese Jade, and he has a contact in the Golden Triangle who he is trying to meeting up with.
In the best of Nicholl's books, The Fruit Palace, he goes full out, involving himself in the story. This time round he shows a bit more restraint, and while he is illegally crossing borders, messing with opium and along for the journey with the potential smuggling operation, you can sense he has more restraint this time around. Indeed, at one point he departs leaving Harry and Katai to visit his forest Buddhist retreat before a chance encounter with Harry gives his story the closure it needs.
Borderlines, as a theme is explored throughout the book - the border between waking and sleep, the borderlines of trust, friendship and understanding, and the physical borders of the country (although in the Golden Triangle these borders are invisible and more permeable than most).
While Nicholl presents his story in a full and honest way, sharing his thoughts and motives, usually without the benefit of hindsight, it seems to me that some of the naivety he shows is not real, but written in later. Remember that in 1986 Nicholl is 36 years old - not a 20-something backpacker with wide eyes, and his experiences in Colombia three years earlier (see The Fruit Palace link above) would have made him only too aware how things he gets wrapped up in can be out of his own control.
Don't get me wrong, this is a great book, and Nicholl has the ability to sniff out a story, otherwise he would never have tagged along with Harry in the first place.
4 stars.
After some time in Bangkok on arrival, Nicholl heads north, heading toward the forest Buddhism temple he had planned to visit, but a chance meeting with Harry, a ruffled but experienced traveller sets him aside from that path. While the ever cagey Harry doesn't share a lot, he temps Nicholl enough to change his plans and head north to the Golden Triangle, on the promise of being 'shown around'. The Golden Triangle, of course, is the small area of land where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar (Burma) meet, and is notorious with the growing of opium and cross border smuggling.
Katai makes up the third primary focus in the narrative. She is a twenty year old Thai girl from Bangkok, and Harry's girlfriend. When Harry has to leave Chang Mai to carryout some business, Nicholl is asked to meet her and travel further north with her to meet Harry in Chang Rai.
There is much that Harry (and Katai) are not sharing with Nicholl, which he realises, but gradually Harry shares more details with him. Harry is a trader, but primarily he says, a gem dealer. He is on the trail of Burmese Jade, and he has a contact in the Golden Triangle who he is trying to meeting up with.
In the best of Nicholl's books, The Fruit Palace, he goes full out, involving himself in the story. This time round he shows a bit more restraint, and while he is illegally crossing borders, messing with opium and along for the journey with the potential smuggling operation, you can sense he has more restraint this time around. Indeed, at one point he departs leaving Harry and Katai to visit his forest Buddhist retreat before a chance encounter with Harry gives his story the closure it needs.
Borderlines, as a theme is explored throughout the book - the border between waking and sleep, the borderlines of trust, friendship and understanding, and the physical borders of the country (although in the Golden Triangle these borders are invisible and more permeable than most).
While Nicholl presents his story in a full and honest way, sharing his thoughts and motives, usually without the benefit of hindsight, it seems to me that some of the naivety he shows is not real, but written in later. Remember that in 1986 Nicholl is 36 years old - not a 20-something backpacker with wide eyes, and his experiences in Colombia three years earlier (see The Fruit Palace link above) would have made him only too aware how things he gets wrapped up in can be out of his own control.
Don't get me wrong, this is a great book, and Nicholl has the ability to sniff out a story, otherwise he would never have tagged along with Harry in the first place.
4 stars.
October 29, 2021
Charles Nicholl wants to experience a little of the world so in 1986 he heads to Thailand to take in some of the sights and to learn about the spiritual traditions of forest Buddhism. He was heading to the north of the country to a place called Chiang Mai to visit a temple but the train he was on has just pulled into the Lop Buri. There is much excitement with vendors selling everything from smoked fish to iced drinks in plastic bags.
When the train gets moving again, he heads down the carriages to see if he could find the tall Caucasian guy who had boarded. He was an American and they get talking and it was in this conversation that he heard about Harry. It wasn’t long after that he met him, a slight seedy but formal man with swept-back black hair and an accent that he couldn’t quite place. He recommended a place for Nicholls to stay and they all went back to their carriages
It wouldn’t be long before they were to meet again and as they talked, Nicholl realised that the aim of finding spiritual solace in the temples of Thailand was looking less appealing than the thought of travelling along the banks of the Mekong and into the Golden Triangle and maybe even Burma. It would be a journey that would take him to some of the sordid bars of Bangkok with a German businessman, to partake in the pleasures and pain of opium and to spend far too long in the company of Harry’s girlfriend, Kitai.
I really liked this book, mostly because it doesn’t conform to what you would find elsewhere with travel writing. There is not much detail about the places that he is passing through, but he manages to convey the atmosphere in very few words. Rather this is a people-centred travel experience and what does come across is that he is sometimes out of his depth, not because he is getting himself in trouble, rather Harry is playing a very different game on the fringes of society there. Even though he has a certain amount of naivety in his travels, he is open-minded enough to know that this is an experience that he might never have happened if it wasn’t for the chance meeting on that train. The book is full of the wonder that he sees in the people and places they end up in.
When the train gets moving again, he heads down the carriages to see if he could find the tall Caucasian guy who had boarded. He was an American and they get talking and it was in this conversation that he heard about Harry. It wasn’t long after that he met him, a slight seedy but formal man with swept-back black hair and an accent that he couldn’t quite place. He recommended a place for Nicholls to stay and they all went back to their carriages
It wouldn’t be long before they were to meet again and as they talked, Nicholl realised that the aim of finding spiritual solace in the temples of Thailand was looking less appealing than the thought of travelling along the banks of the Mekong and into the Golden Triangle and maybe even Burma. It would be a journey that would take him to some of the sordid bars of Bangkok with a German businessman, to partake in the pleasures and pain of opium and to spend far too long in the company of Harry’s girlfriend, Kitai.
I really liked this book, mostly because it doesn’t conform to what you would find elsewhere with travel writing. There is not much detail about the places that he is passing through, but he manages to convey the atmosphere in very few words. Rather this is a people-centred travel experience and what does come across is that he is sometimes out of his depth, not because he is getting himself in trouble, rather Harry is playing a very different game on the fringes of society there. Even though he has a certain amount of naivety in his travels, he is open-minded enough to know that this is an experience that he might never have happened if it wasn’t for the chance meeting on that train. The book is full of the wonder that he sees in the people and places they end up in.
May 1, 2023
A remarkable, honest, very different kind of travel book that I thoroughly enjoyed. I have read Nicholl's Traces Remain before and loved it, and Borderlines has snapshots of that whimsical, curious mind when it was much younger. It is also a portrait of a very different Indo-China and the cast of characters that first came to it in search of a fortune and a good time, sometimes finding both.
November 4, 2023
Best journey of your life.
August 16, 2021
Any book that has me engaged and laughing in the first few pages is a book I know I’m going to enjoy, and Borderlines fulfilled its purpose to educate, enlighten and entertain me on every page.
In 1986, author Charles Nicholl ventured to Thailand seeking a ‘spiritual rest-cure’ at a Buddhist forest temple, meeting a myriad of characters along the way who are seeking their own pleasures, enlightenment and fortunes in the country. Meeting up with a trader, Harry and his wonderful partner Katai, who is central to the whole narrative of the book, entices Nicholl with a trip to the Golden Triangle where the borders of Burma, Thailand and Laos meet and an area rich in agriculture and the Opium trade. Through the red-light districts of Bangkok, to forest temples, opium and jewel traders, Borderlines is more an adventure than a travel book, yet what an adventure it is!
Yet, mid the adventure there is also the realisation that Thailand is a country very much in the grips of the vices of those who choose to exploit it. The opium trade helps fund many regions and the illicit sex trade sees girls openly exploited for the gratification of any willing tourist, and Nicholl certainly highlights this through the characters he meets. Even though a seasoned traveller the narrative is not necessarily one of someone who claims to be an ‘expert’ in any travel writing sense, but someone who, sometimes reluctantly, goes along for the ride and takes in new experiences. There’s a sense of innocence, and innocence lost in Borderlines, from someone only looking to seek some form of spiritual rest in a forest temple ends up meeting up with revolutionaries, drug dealers and haphazard tourists. I’m not sure if there was any enlightenment of the kind sought, but the narrative is enlightening and opens up a world many of us will never experience or even have prior knowledge of.
The countries of Burma and Thailand are countries I haven’t had the opportunity to experience, so reading Borderlines gave me some insight into the culture and history of these far-off places, and in a world where only the dates change and the narrative doesn’t, Borderlines remains as relevant as when it was first published.
In 1986, author Charles Nicholl ventured to Thailand seeking a ‘spiritual rest-cure’ at a Buddhist forest temple, meeting a myriad of characters along the way who are seeking their own pleasures, enlightenment and fortunes in the country. Meeting up with a trader, Harry and his wonderful partner Katai, who is central to the whole narrative of the book, entices Nicholl with a trip to the Golden Triangle where the borders of Burma, Thailand and Laos meet and an area rich in agriculture and the Opium trade. Through the red-light districts of Bangkok, to forest temples, opium and jewel traders, Borderlines is more an adventure than a travel book, yet what an adventure it is!
Yet, mid the adventure there is also the realisation that Thailand is a country very much in the grips of the vices of those who choose to exploit it. The opium trade helps fund many regions and the illicit sex trade sees girls openly exploited for the gratification of any willing tourist, and Nicholl certainly highlights this through the characters he meets. Even though a seasoned traveller the narrative is not necessarily one of someone who claims to be an ‘expert’ in any travel writing sense, but someone who, sometimes reluctantly, goes along for the ride and takes in new experiences. There’s a sense of innocence, and innocence lost in Borderlines, from someone only looking to seek some form of spiritual rest in a forest temple ends up meeting up with revolutionaries, drug dealers and haphazard tourists. I’m not sure if there was any enlightenment of the kind sought, but the narrative is enlightening and opens up a world many of us will never experience or even have prior knowledge of.
The countries of Burma and Thailand are countries I haven’t had the opportunity to experience, so reading Borderlines gave me some insight into the culture and history of these far-off places, and in a world where only the dates change and the narrative doesn’t, Borderlines remains as relevant as when it was first published.
December 26, 2008
I't more like a travel log or journal from the author, but it gives you a great perspective of what Thailand's life is like, since he goes beyond the regular tourist polaces and wanders into the country looking for a monastery but stumbles into different adventures without being this his primary purpose.
September 2, 2023
A great tale - the pace never slows... very descriptive writing also, which captures something of the Thai way of looking at things.
I found it very hard to believe that all the events in the book apparently happened to the same person.
Is the book all based on fact - or not? We'll never know... Who cares?
I found it very hard to believe that all the events in the book apparently happened to the same person.
Is the book all based on fact - or not? We'll never know... Who cares?
July 28, 2021
Now dated - but I found at the time (1990)and excellent orientation to Thailand. Today I will include as a classic in the genre a la "Short Walk in the Hundu Kush".
December 31, 2013
This book was okay. It wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped it would be. It brought back good memories of Thailand but in general it didn't have much of a plot.
May 26, 2016
Charles Nicholl transports you to Thailand and Burma in this tale of his travels and the characters he meets on the road. A perfect read for anyone with a bit of wanderlust.
December 22, 2022
Nicholl takes himself to explore northern Thailand, a land of many peoples, and its border with Burma. He uses, as his purpose for the travel, a desire to visit a particular forest retreat, but begins his trip in Bangkok, where me meets with a character who's both knowledgeable about northern Thailand and willing to take on a newbie.
Charlie has trouble figuring out Harry, whose name may or may not be Harry, who may or may not be French, and who may or may not be a gem trader who's looking for bits of Burmese jade, the finest in the world. Harry has a girlfriend Katai, who's young, gorgeous, Thai, and a brilliant translator and companion. Harry will be traveling near the first retreat, so Charlie decides to listen and learn as much as he can.
Through their journey, Charlie learns of the history of the many, many peoples of Thailand: who has lived where, who has fought, who has aligned themselves with other tribes/Chinese/French/Americans, who pays attention to what borders, and what life is like in this wild part of the world, where opium grows and powers many people's entire existence.
Nicholl is a good writer, one who creates characters, paces narratives, and gives a sense of how the world seems and how it might be. He's curious and respectful, and includes just enough background information to provide context for what is said and done.
An entirely satisfying trip to a wild and interesting world, taken from the comfort of an armchair.
Charlie has trouble figuring out Harry, whose name may or may not be Harry, who may or may not be French, and who may or may not be a gem trader who's looking for bits of Burmese jade, the finest in the world. Harry has a girlfriend Katai, who's young, gorgeous, Thai, and a brilliant translator and companion. Harry will be traveling near the first retreat, so Charlie decides to listen and learn as much as he can.
Through their journey, Charlie learns of the history of the many, many peoples of Thailand: who has lived where, who has fought, who has aligned themselves with other tribes/Chinese/French/Americans, who pays attention to what borders, and what life is like in this wild part of the world, where opium grows and powers many people's entire existence.
Nicholl is a good writer, one who creates characters, paces narratives, and gives a sense of how the world seems and how it might be. He's curious and respectful, and includes just enough background information to provide context for what is said and done.
An entirely satisfying trip to a wild and interesting world, taken from the comfort of an armchair.
August 27, 2022
It continues to amaze me how many good books are out there but mostly lost to the world. This is a solid, well-written book that the rest of the world seems to have passed by. It's an interesting, specific look into both the underbelly and heart of the area encompassing Burma, Laos and most Thailand. It was a fascinating insight into the indigenous tribes that don't consider the borders between these three countries. This area at that time in history had a lawless feel thus a thriving drug trade. The author depicted how, even if not directly involved, it's easy to brush up against that drug trade. When I say specific I mean it's not only a book about the region but the author's involvement with two people who travel, trade and live within it. In fact, it was so specific I often found myself wondering if this were really non-fiction. In the end, I don't care, I found myself if the sweaty ambience with the author.
October 7, 2023
In a bookshop in Chiang Mai, I photographed the section dedicated to English books about Thailand. After reviewing the selection at home, this particular book appealed as especially interesting, due to being a literary travelogue by a good writer, and covering areas of Northern Thailand I was going to explore. It didn’t disappoint one bit and made me feel as though I embarked on two journeys at once: one myself, and the other through its pages.
October 12, 2019
If you want a quick primer on Thai culture and language, wrapped in an interesting story/adventure this is the book for you.
December 30, 2023
Very enthralling story, although short shrift given to Buddhist forest temple.
July 28, 2012
After reading Nichols book on Colombia, The Fruit Palace, I had high hopes for this rendition on a region as fascinating, if not moreso. Sadly, there is a disconnect between the man who writes in SE Asia and the one who writes in SAmerica. The writing feels immature and bland in comparison. The prose is rich in possibility, but fails to deliver in storytelling. The plot feels shorter, not as brave and more restrained. The descriptions lack conviction. Its points are not fully fleshed out. Not a bad story, just not as good as he's capable of.
December 2, 2012
When I read a book like this I have to ask myself why the publisher thought this was a good investment?
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews