Warren Olson - Thai Private Eye

For my daughter, Natalie

After many years, I finally left Thailand, armed with a much better understanding of life, some great memories, some lifelong friends and one jewel.

It was in the early 1990s that, somewhat by chance, I founded what started out as a struggling private investigation agency. A decade later, in a decision most parents will understand, I decided to give up dodging bullets, bargirls and bourbons and return to my native New Zealand, primarily for the well-being of my young daughter Natalie. During that decade, I had not only investigated many cases, but also developed a very fine understanding of Asian ways and means in particular, Thailands unique traditions and customs and the amazing cultural heritage of the Kingdom.

Confessions of a Bangkok Private Eye, published in 2006 by Monsoon Books, was a compilation of just some of the many cases I investigated as founder of that agency, Thai Private Eye. I was then fortunate to have renowned author Stephen Leather fictionalize (in order to protect both innocent and guilty) some of those cases and, in so doing, bring to life the people involved.

Now that Im well settled back in New Zealand, a number of factors have inspired me to write this follow-up volume, Thai Private Eye. The first of these factors was the positive reception given to Confessions of a Bangkok Private Eye, along with the encouraging feedback I received on that book. I was certainly surprised by the range of readers the book attracted: it seems to have appealed to far more than just travellers stuck in airports or hotel rooms around Southeast Asia.

My continuing association with the current director of my old company, as both advisor and personal friend, has also kept me abreast of some more recent intriguing cases that I am now able to include here. All types of cases are chronicled here, from unfortunate tsunami-related calamities and the latest scams to wayward husbands and their vindictive wives.

These days, not only are basic investigations part of the Thai Private Eye mandate, but the agency also handles such matters as in-depth assessments for high profile multinational companies; providing security for VIPs; and the supply and placement of the very latest surveillance technology. I have to admit that the companys current operations have spread into far wider fields than I ever envisaged. Reports based on some of these more recent cases, along with a number of my older cases, all go together to make Thai Private Eye what I believe is a worthy sequel to Confessions of a Bangkok Private Eye.

Not being the accomplished wordsmith Stephen Leather is, I wont even attempt to enrich characters in the manner he did for me in Confessions. What I have tried to do, however, is to include more aspects of Asian culture, beliefs and sociology in this book. By doing so, I hope that in addition to being an entertaining read, this book may help to reduce some of the lack of understanding that I am only too aware often exists between Westerners and Asians. By frequently adding explanations as to why certain scenarios may have unfolded as they did, Ive sought, in my own small way, to narrow that cultural gap.

While writing this book, I completed a Masters degree in Strategic Studies at Victoria University (NZ) and wrote a research paper that looks at the way WesternAsian interviews and interrogations are conducted. Indeed, I now lecture on this subject. The ways people in the East and the West think and perceive things often differ greatly. This was something that became even more apparent to me when, after many years of living in Thailand and being entwined in the local culture, beliefs and language, I returned to New Zealand to be confronted by the somewhat upfront and abrupt Kiwi way of doing things. This also spurred my interest in trying to include a deeper cultural insight into the cases detailed in this book. With this volume, I hope to help our readers appreciate both Asian and Western perspectives, as very different as they may sometimes be.

Warren Olson, MSS

Wellington, New Zealand

For a number of reasons, the writing of this book has fallen neatly into two parts.

Part One is to some extent a continuation of my earlier book, Confessions of a Bangkok Private Eye. The cases detailed there were ones in which I was personally involved. It is perhaps fair to say that no one will be able to emulate those early days of Thai Private Eye, and that is not just because of my own somewhat unique (or should I say eccentric?) ways.

Because of my background in the Kingdom, being the first farang to manage a major hotel in the poorer Northeastern or I-sarn region situated on the ThaiCambodian border, I had little choice but to become fluent in Thai and Khamen. It also meant that I became very aware of, and often involved in, many of the local customs and beliefs.

I soon developed a great affinity with working-class Thais. I understood not just their language, but also their beliefs and dreams. I probably attended temples or visited fortune tellers as often as they did, and I found myself quite at home in small, upcountry villages eating local delicacies such as grasshoppers, common birds, or frogs, all of which were washed down with some of the very powerful homemade whiskeys that went under such wonderful names as See sip degree (40 degree proof); Sip et sua (eleven tigers); or Sart-oh, the sweet white liquid that, like them all, packed a very potent punch. I was therefore able to sit down in any upcountry village with a group of locals, pass myself off as a writer, travel agent, or perhaps claim I assisted in gaining visas for Thais, and get the gossip on a girl from that particular village. So while this procedure became almost routine for me, it was something few other foreigners could emulate.

When in Bangkok, I would venture to tourist nightspots like Hard Rock, CM Square, Spasso or other trendy hotel discos only when on a job. I was more at home at Tahwan Dang, Dance Fever or Bow Goong Pow huge Thai nightclubs where I was not only the only foreigner, but where I was able to join in with the hearty singing of the favourite Thai pop song of the day.

One well-known song I used regularly was called Kitt mark. This title refers to a common Thai term which means think too much. Seeing a Thai girl deep in thought, I would walk by and sing the plaintive opening line, Mai oh naa yaa Kitt mark. This is a lighthearted, inoffensive saying that would invariably break the ice and usually get a response or a reason for the deep thinking. A foreigner simply asking Whats the problem? would probably just get waved away.

Likewise, I had a decent collection of Thai Soup-par-sits, or proverbs, I could call on. Proverbs and sayings abound in everyday Thai conversation. It was not, however, only those value-added qualities that made me somewhat unique and able to often gain information more easily than it would be for my successors.

In what I loosely term the pre-Tsunami time, corruption was rife; in particular, the ease of accessing information from various agencies. Also, the Surin hotel where I had, unbeknown to me at the time, gained much of the knowledge that would be so useful to a struggling private eye had been the venue for almost all major police, army and government conferences in northeastern Thailand. When you meet almost any Thai, following the