Geoffrey Giuliano is a well-known movie actor and writer of books on legendary figures in the music industry. He is 66 years old and stranded in India right now with his 12-year-old son, Eden. The pair have never been apart for even a day since the boy was born 12 years ago. Geoffrey has managed to survive, up to this week, on some of the cash he brought with him and donations via PayPal which he applies to his credit card. He needs cash right now to survive. He is trying to get himself and his son home to Bangkok so their life can resume as normal.
Movie actor and book writer, Geoffrey Giuliano, is reaching out again for help as he tries to survive in Jaipur, India with his 12-year-old Thai son, Eden. However, he is warning that he is growing concerned for the state of Eden’s health. The father and son are living in fear that someday this week, the pair will be ejected from their hostel as they will not be able to pay the bill. The 66-year-old Geoffrey and his son are so desperate that he is prepared to run the gauntlet again in asking for help despite being the subject of a particularly nasty backlash at the end of April from some of our less than sympathetic readers.
Movie actor and writer, Geoffrey Giuliano, is warning again that both himself and his young son Eden are facing life on the streets as money that well-wishers had sent him and his own reserves will not last beyond the middle of this week.
The US man and his Thai son cannot access Thai government repatriation flights because Geoffrey, as an American citizen, is prohibited from availing of the service.
Please read our earlier report on Geoffrey Giuliano and his son Eden stranded in Jaipur, India since March 22nd
The self-described ‘family of two’ according to Giuliano have no real outside friends. They are in dire need after Geoffrey forgot to bring his bank debit card from home and exceeded his budget because of the extended trip.
They have found themselves locked down in India since the end of March rather than here in Thailand where they have a home and access to their own resources.
Movie personality and acclaimed writer reached out to foreigners linked with Thailand at the end of April
Last month, we brought you the story of the former movie and music industry writer Geoffrey Giuliano who has been stranded in India with his son since early March.
The father and son cannot fly home and are trying to survive on limited resources from their initial funds and with the assistance of some good-hearted Thai Examiner readers who reached out to help.
The older man and his son are just waiting to be able to fly home to their comfortable life in Pattaya.
Hostel in India is their security right now
The pair is still stranded in Jaipur, Rajasthan. They have become prisoners of the Covid 19 virus emergency.
At the end of April, they appealed to Thai Examiner readers for help to have the Thai government allow them to fly home together on Thai Airways repatriation flights.
Unfortunately, those flights are reserved for Thai nationals only and although Eden qualifies, his father does not as an American citizen.
While they received and were thankful for essential support, they were also the subject of some very negative and cruel commentary.
Now, they are seeking help again.
Geoffrey Giuliano says that there is the very real danger that both the actor and his son could be on the streets in Jaipur this week if they cannot pay their bill at their moderately priced hostel in the city called Blue Beds.
The room at the Blue Beds hostel right now is their security and they cannot afford to lose it as they wait for the airways to reopen.
Geoffrey admits that, initially, it was not the cheapest hostel and has recently tried to move to some place cheaper to conserve funds.
However, now he says that because of the lockdown, it is very hard to find accommodation open.
‘Not only could we not find a cheaper room but they wouldn’t take us anyway because they are superstitious because we are not from their country and maybe we would bring bad luck to them.’
Says his son looks gaunt ‘like a skeleton’ because of the ordeal surviving on limited food supplies
The elderly man is growing concerned for his cheerful son.
The ongoing effects of living on limited food resources have left him looking ‘like a skeleton’ as the two sit together day after day waiting to fly home to Thailand.
He explains that he is trying to keep his son’s spirits up but his son is also highly intelligent and sensitive to the danger they find themselves in.
Waiting for a window of opportunity with air flights to get home to their comfortable life in Thailand
For nearly two months, the elderly father and his 12-year-old son have been living day to day as they wait for the opportunity to return home.
The US citizen and his son, who is a Thai national, were featured in the Thai Examiner some weeks ago on April 27th.
Geoffrey has made it clear that once he has landed in Thailand, he will have access to his own resources and will not need any further help.
Both father and son are also prepared to enter into quarantine on arrival.
However, as we spoke to him this week in Jaipur, he received a text from the friendly manager of the hostel reminding him that his bill will be due again from the 14th of May.
Once the airways are open and flights start up, it’s just 20 minutes to reach the international airport in Jaipur
Once the international airways are reopened again and planes are flying between India and Thailand, Geoffrey will then have to get two one way tickets back to the kingdom for himself and his son.
He points out that he has a Thai visa and re-entry permit valid until October and his son is a Thai citizen with a Thai passport.
The problem he faces is just when will both Thailand and India allow air flights to take off and land again and when will flights to Bangkok be available?
He then needs cash for the flights and to cover the pair’s limited expenses until then.
Cannot access his bank account in Thailand but has a US credit card which is maxed out at its limit
The father and son cannot access their Thai bank account in India as Geoffrey does not have internet access to his bank account and simply forgot to bring his debit card with him when leaving in early March for what he thought would be two weeks in India with his son.
‘I came here for two weeks with two thousand dollars and it is true, I forgot my ATM card but I thought two thousand dollars would cover two weeks in India with the dental work. My son is just eating rice with an egg every day. He is far too thin and I am worried about him. We sleep as much as possible every day to pass the time,’ Geoffrey explained this week.
He has also disclosed to our reporter that he has tried to have the credit card limit on his card extended but admits that there have been four late payments in the last year so that option is precluded.
Arrived in India on March 3rd for a two-week trip
Mr Giuliano and his son arrived in New Delhi, India on March 3rd on two one way tickets with $2,000. The father and son travelled to the famous Hare Krishna or ISKCON spiritual retreat in Vrindavan.
While there, they had also arranged for Eden, his son, to make an audiobook recording.
Mr Giuliano has long been associated with this faith. Vrindavan was famously frequented by Beatles guitarist and member, George Harrison, in September 1966.
Geoffrey Giuliano is an accomplished and complex character with a long history in the media business
Geoffrey Giuliano is a well-known writer and actor.
His series of books on music and rock legends such as Beatles members George Harrison and Paul McCartney, as well as other stars such as Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, have established him as an expert on that extraordinary musical era.
Mr Giuliano hosted a syndicated radio show entitled Giuliano’s Roots of Rock which aired in the United States and Canada in late 2005.
His publications were critically acclaimed but less popular with the staunchest fans of his subjects.
He was well known for the depth and methodical nature of the research put into his biographical accounts. George Harrison once told his devoted wife Olivia ‘That guy knows more about my life than I do,’ according to her account and it was not meant to be praise for Mr Giuliano whose depth of coverage of his subjects drew disdain from some quarters.
Geoffrey Giuliano has also played in a long list of film roles and also curiously acted as both Ronald McDonald and the Burger King in North American advertising productions as well as his still ongoing and extensive acting career.
This is despite being a vegan since 1970 and a campaigner against processed foods.
Original intention was to have dental surgery in India and stay for two weeks after arriving on March 3rd
His original intention was to have dental surgery in India and stay for just two weeks.
He also made an appointment for March 4th to enquire about liposuction in New Delhi where such procedures are cheap but ultimately, after hearing a presentation on all sorts of plastic surgery miracles on offer, Geoffrey decided the procedure was too perilous.
He ultimately had questions about hygiene standards especially as he was accompanied by his son.
He had been told by sources in the movie industry that there was no point in even casting for further parts without having his teeth fixed. He also faced concerns about his weight.
He had budgeted $400 for the dental work but it never got done as the crisis took over.
‘The money I brought, $2,000. Of this, about $400 would have gone to them but they closed. So when the virus hit, that money was used for survival. I broke four teeth on a stunt in a film. This was my only hope of reasonable repair,’ he said this week.
Took his son to a Hare Krishna temple to introduce him further to his own faith when lockdown happened
However, what started as a two-week stay was extended after Geoffrey took his son Eden to the Hare Krishna temple to introduce him to his Yogic faith.
Geoffrey sees himself as a mid-level adherent to that faith.
The pair later travelled to another ISKCON or Hare Krishna temple in Jaipur but it closed when India went into lockdown between the 22nd and 24th of March.
The lockdown in India was introduced without warning between a Sunday test run and confirmation following on that Tuesday.
It is stricter than Thailand where a state of emergency was declared and a night-time curfew was imposed two days later, on March 26th.
Lucky to find a hostel that would take them in after the lockdown was introduced by surprise
Geoffrey says he was then lucky to find a hostel that would accept him and his son without a medical cert. They have since been staying at the Blue Beds hostel in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan state.
‘I follow the moral and ethical portions of the faith, no meat-eating, no intoxication, controlled sex life, meditation in the morning. I would not impose any faith upon my son, that’s for him to decide when he’s older. Here is the ISKCON temple we stayed in Jaipur until it closed,’ Geoffrey said this week from Jaipur as he sent a photo of the temple along with other supporting documentation such as their entry stamp when they arrived in India on March 3rd last, from Thailand.
Negative commentary caused young boy distress
While the article on April 27th last resulted in some help for the man and his son, it generated a wave of unfortunate negative commentary which caused distress for Geoffrey’s son when he read the comments online.
Much of the negative commentary centred on a video some years ago of Geoffrey at a supermarket in Thailand when he had argued with a Thai national and made some controversial remarks about the United States.
Other people criticised him strongly for putting his son in jeopardy by travelling to India.
Some readers questioned his story and pointed out what they saw as inconsistencies.
Older generation actor who expresses himself sometimes in colourful and general terms
Geoffrey is 66 years of age and as an actor, is used to expressing himself in colourful and imaginative terms. He is an older man from another generation.
This led to several misunderstandings between the US man and our readers.
Eden, the actor’s Thai son has lived nearly all his life in Thailand but has been reared as an American
One misunderstanding was Geoffrey’s claim that his son Eden had been reared in the United States.
The fact is that Eden only lived in Geoffrey’s home country for 2 years and has spent nearly all his life living with Geoffrey at their home in Pattaya.
Geoffrey meant to say that he had reared him as an American in terms of his outlook and culture. For instance, the boy speaks little or no Thai.
Eden is due to commence schooling in August at a relatively inexpensive private school in Pattaya
Geoffrey explained that the reason he brought his son back from the United States to Thailand was that he found he was not accepted in his home country.
’I have no ties with the United States. I have lived in Thailand since 2002. We went back for two years for my son’s schooling but he was bullied, beaten and made fun of. They called him ‘china boy’ so we came back. I found a perfect international school for just ฿100,200 baht a year by our home. I can afford that, it starts in August,’ he said this week.
‘I never had a father so I swore that before I left this world, my son would never know poverty and that I would be the best father I could possibly be. I’m still doing my best under these circumstances.’
Claims that Geoffrey spent his money on plastic surgery after unearthing March 4th post on Facebook
The actor was lambasted online when some Thai Examiner readers researched his Facebook page and saw a post just after he arrived in Thailand on March 4th where he talked about plastic surgery and making it as a movie star.
Geoffrey, at one stage in his career, was a fulltime actor in Hollywood and always wanted to make it as a movie star.
He didn’t make it but the dream has never died. He still tries for parts and plays roles. There have been three movie appearances this year, he tells us.
He explained to the Thai Examiner this week that the day he posted that, he had just attended the free consultation with the clinic about liposuction and also discussed the other procedures which sounded exciting.
‘I’m an actor’ – Geoffrey explains
The prices were attractively cheap but he was afraid of the procedures due to hygiene concerns and also the fact that he was accompanied by his son. ‘It never happened’ he says this week from India and when asked about how it looks he replied, ‘I’m an actor.’
And that is part of the problem he has experienced during this ordeal where a difficult reality is bitingly close to the bone.
He explained from his hostel room in Jaipur this week that his interest in plastic surgery was piqued by what he has been told by agents. They said that if he is ever to land another screen role, he has to fix his teeth and look a bit younger.
Although the father and writer has put that career behind him as the day job, the dream has never left him and he continues to be an actor.
Could not have predicted the extent of this emergency in early March, even if he could have, it was a mistake
He has been accused stingingly of being irresponsible by taking his son on this trip but explains that even though that may be so in hindsight, ‘to err is human’.
Also, who could have predicted the extent of this historic catastrophe even in early March?
Even if so, Geoffrey did not.
Needs $500 to $1,000 to get by until early June
Geoffrey says that, at present, he and his son have access to ฿2,000.
Right now, Geoffrey needs $500 for food until early June. He is hoping that, at that point, there may be some news on access to flights to Thailand hoping that the restriction at either end may be lifted and airlines crank up operations.
Good father who has never been apart from his son since he was born 12 years ago in Thailand
Geoffrey stresses that he has never been apart from his son for even 1 day since the moment he was born and their current predicament has been caused by this unprecedented situation.
‘The only person my twelve-year-old has in this world is me so I take very good care of my health even though I’m 66, I have never smoked, drank, taken drugs, or gone with lady bars in my life. Eden is all I have so I am a dedicated father, ‘ he told the Thai Examiner this week.
He is asking for help through his email and PayPal id which is milesfar@gmail.com.
Duo run a small audiobooks concern together, 12-year old Eden is the boss of the firm called Iconic Arts
Geoffrey explains that he has access to funds at home when he returns to Pattaya with his son.
The pair have been running an audiobooks company for some time now called Icon Audio Arts.
Geoffrey describes his son Eden as the boss of the venture who keeps tight control over the business finances.
He points out that Eden is an accomplished voice-over artist and is actively involved with his father in running their fledgeling concern.
Help Mr Giuliano if you can
The Thai Examiner is asking readers to help Geoffrey if possible at this time.
He is a man like many foreigners that live in Thailand and visit regularly, who walks his own path. He is a man who has achieved some success in life and at times, been controversial.
He lives a comfortable, good life with his son in Pattaya.
In March, he simply took the wrong turn when he headed to Jaipur instead of heading home to Thailand with Eden.
He describes his yogic faith as his ‘moral compass’ and while he may have eccentricities, in this respect, he is not unlike many other foreigners to the kingdom.
If you cannot or do not wish to help, that is fine but please do not subject him and his young son to unfair or hurtful commentary.
This is a man who is currently stuck and needs a dig out. It is quite wrong to criticise and condemn any man or woman at a time like this especially with a 12-year old son in tow.
Further reading:
Australian man’s heartbreak cut off from his Thai wife – begs to be included on repatriation flights
Police to track down arrivals last night who escaped Suvarnabhumi Airport in defiance of emergency
Germans arrested for defying local authorities in Chiang Mai and removing Covid 19 checkpoint
City area popular with foreigners to be targeted by new lockdown measures in Pattaya from Tuesday
