The Passing of Wild-Man “Ja”

Yes, the rumors are true. Wild-Man Ja is dead. But before you enter into a week long state of weeping and teeth gnashing, I would like you to know that he did in fact die peacefully, or, I should say, as peacefully as someone with the nickname Wild-Man Ja, could do.

Apparently our hero met his demise while doing what he loved – totting the random foreign tourist through the bustling back alleys of Bangkok. And right in his old favorite fishing hole of Kao San Road, he and an unfortunate, star-crossed hippy backpacker were swept away by the hand of fate into the netherworld. The cause – reportedly a fuel explosion due to Wild-Man Ja’s recent experimentation with an incredibly powerful but highly unstable super fuel produced from the carcasses of Bangkok street dogs, something definitely in abundance within the city. Nonetheless, his tampering with the boundaries of science ended in a fiery furnace of death.

In the above photo, we see an artists rendering of Ja (and his lowly companion), entering into the aqua jelly vortex, the believed gateway into the afterlife of Thai tuk-tuk drivers. It is a land in which there is always a willing and affluent farang to pick up, and the gasohol flows freely, as well as the beer Chang. It is written that if a tuk-tuk driver is honest and forthright in his service of tuk-tuking for his fellow man, then he will pass into the realm of the aqua jelly vortex for eternity.

So Wild-Man Ja, though gone, is far from forgotten. Soon his stories will pass into legend, and his legend will eventually pass into myth. Perhaps a deity status someday awaits this man of men. Who’s to say? But, yes. Saint Ja – patron saint of tuk-tuk drivers -- kind of has a nice ring to it if you ask me.