Jump to content

Where is Bernard Trink...?


Recommended Posts

<< But some of those who know him better and worked regularly with him say he tended to take himself too seriously and exaggerated his own importance in the grand scheme of things. >>

 

 

You've got it. Trink came here when Farang writers were few and it was easy to get a job. I think it was Steve van Beek who hired him at the old Bangkok World, a delightful little evening paper that the Bangkok Post later bought out and shut down. That must have been around 1966. He took over the Nite Owl column from a Filipino and quickly turned it into something worth reading.

 

Trink was indeed the auntie in the attic. His corner in the old Bangkok Post building was isolated from others. Trink pounded away on a rusty old typewriter, the same one he banged his pipe ashes out on. Trink would come into the office, take off his shoes and then hang his socks to dry over the handles of his rusty file cabinet. If it was after lunch time, he would open his belt, unzip his fly and open his trousers to relax. He did that at a dinner at what was then the Hilton and happened to be sitting at the same table as a pair of elderly princesses. The shocked princesses complained to the hotel, and Trink was crossed off of the guest lists after that.

 

Trink would be a wonderful character in a novel. It would take a great writer to do him properly though, sort of like Fitzgerald's "Pat Hobbie" stories.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

But it wasn't always that way. In the '70s and '80s, Trink was a "must read" to find out what was going on. His 3 page Saturday section was filled with information. But after the Post bought out the Bangkok World, they told Trink no more of the naughty stuff. Huh? The naughty stuff was what Trink was all about!

 

You're right about his last years though. He obviously was more or less just going through the motions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I never met him but saw him a few times wandering around Patpong with his chest high trousers and satchel, quite a comical site actually. I remember how he used to always say in his column that he never took drinks from any of the bar owners, but the one time I did actually see him in a bar was in the Crown Royal when he walked in, was immediately presented with a glass of fresh orange, drank it in about 5 minutes and then left without having to pay anything! ::

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That "no drink" policy was a farce. Trink would accept soft drinks, but nothing hard. Fair enough.

 

But he also did a weekly restaurant review, where he naturally pigged out for free (and often took home a "doggie bag" for his family). But most hypocritical of all were his weekly free massages at a once famous MP at Patpong. He would detail his adventures with the MP girl each which in somewhat graphic detail under a very transparent code. So he wouldn't accept a beer in a bar, but he would accept a free shag or BJ from his favourite massage parlour?

 

TIT (Trink is Trink)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

"but the one time I did actually see him in a bar was in the Crown Royal when he walked in"

 

Why do i enjoy this bar? Always stop by on my trips to the big mango. I guess maybe an expat "Cheers" type tavern for those forlorn Silom business types. The demimondaines arrest the days travails. I reckon so.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...