Holiday hel_l - Bangkok, Thailand

[churchill]

From D.Mail

Admittedly things could have gone worse - I’ve seen the documentaries and thankfully kidnap, drug barons and a trip to the notorious Bangkok Hilton were not involved during the time I spent in Thailand’s capital.

But I was a naive 19-year-old embarking on my first intrepid travelling experience, one of those that’s supposed to change the course of your life for the better. Unfortunately things didn’t go altogether according to plan.

Different view: Rosalind visited the notorious go-go bars of Bangkok

Initially the shock of the city sent my nervous system into a state of panic and I acquired the mother of all illnesses.

With a rocketing temperature and fragile stomach I had to forfeit the delicious steaming platefuls of pad thai if I was going to embark on any sightseeing.

When your mind and body aren’t functioning quite as they should be it’s hard to make sense of things in the comfort of your own home let alone being confronted by the sights, sounds and not altogether pleasant smells Bangkok has to offer.

The glorious temples and golden Buddhas in the grounds of the Grand Palace were about as stupendous as anything I’ve ever seen but sadly their beauty was offset by the utter destitution I saw in the disabled beggars lining the streets outside.

Back to nature: Rosalind Reason and friend Jess admire the view

By night the go-go bars teemed with ladyboys beckoning me inside with a wink. Giggling, I’d wave off their advances and then turn a corner to be confronted by a bar with old Western men lusting over pretty young Thai women and was quick to stop my smirks.

The tuk-tuk rides were a thrilling ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ experience until I clambered aboard one whose driver tried to take me on an unbargained for trip around the houses.

Luckily I saw through him and disembarked before being completely ripped off. I found my own way to the bustling Patpong market that night and it was there, among the colourful stalls, that I bumped into a man I’d sat next to for a year at primary school.

Funnily enough he too was on his own quest to discover the exotic unknown.

It was a disappointingly large slice of reality, one that was made harder to swallow (pun intended) in light of the fact I hadn’t been able to eat for 48 hours.

I felt pretty foolish to have ever thought a 12-hour plane ride and a backpack was going to reveal to me my very own fantastical paradise.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-...l#ixzz0O3W1bScS

[bkkjames]

Hardly a bad reflection on Thailand - speaks more about the naivety of the young english traveller.

[emsfeld]

???

Not sure why this is bad PR for Thailand? Absolutely uninsightful, boring article.

[alantheembalmer]

So what was so Hellish about her trip?

[jasreeve17]

What a let down...

I love the slag Thailand off threads, but this was nothing other than a silly tourist's unenlightening views - can't believe it was published... If the poor lass gets a tummy bug in Thailand then probably best never to leave the UK again; god forbid she pops to Egypt or India or Turkey or China or virtually anywhere. (Much as I hate to praise the place, the level of hygiene is very good - Thais are pretty clean folk.)

[Eff1n2ret]

About what you'd expect from a 19-year old girl writing "what I did on my holidays". Her queasy account of Bangkok is as one-sided as her rose-tinted view of the Lake District, with no mention of the rain, the choking traffic in Windermere, Ambleside and Keswick, and the prices which are as keenly adjusted to exploit tourists as anything in Bangkok.

[Birdman]

Why a newspaper is publicizing such a crap can be understood only by the riddler.

[churchill]

It's the general impression that people will pick up from the article - food Poisoning , being ripped off by a Tuk Tuk driver , beggars and the Title doesn't help .

[davee58]

And a few lines further down the page in the linked article, she is in the Lake District:

"we donned Cumbrian accents, toppled into and out of the hedgerows and bleated along with the sheep"

No surprise that the ladyboys were winking at her then!

[astral]

Anyone, old or young who ventures overseas without doing their homework is asking for trouble.

There used to be a bus map with the routes and numbers, is it still available?

I never used a tuk tuk on my early visits in the 80's

Medical insurance is a good idea as well.

[mrtoad]

Hardly a bad reflection on Thailand - speaks more about the naivety of the young english traveller.

James, I think it says a lot more about the intelligence of the Daily Mail editorship and their readership. What a load of dross.

[mrtoad]

Why a newspaper is publicizing such a crap can be understood only by the riddler.

It's not a newspaper, it's The Daily Mail, the holder of morale values in the UK. This is typical British tabloid shit, and not even remotely interesting or new.

[sunholidaysun1]

I have read better stories than that in a Thai newspaper, written in Thai and I cant even read .

[DP25]

Poor princess, it really tugs at the heartstrings that those horrible Cambodian landmine victims ruined her trip.

Honestly doubt she even went to Thailand, sounds like some google-foo for a quick article.

[CHAIYENYEN]

And a few lines further down the page in the linked article, she is in the Lake District:

"we donned Cumbrian accents, toppled into and out of the hedgerows and bleated along with the sheep"

No surprise that the ladyboys were winking at her then!

.....and yet a few more lines further, one would read that : "ill fares the land and to hasten ills a prey" . how more english can you get back to the ye olde rustic countryside where young testorone-bursting lads would pick daffodils for their coyish lass in the rolling brooks like the young poor school girls in the crowded dusty roads of bangkok would risk their lives to sell their mini-rose and jasmine garlands to their countrymen ploughing their tuks-tuks for pittance with a god-forbid overweight, oversized client in tow. good gracious, she forgot to compare the canterburian characters of her homeland with the street personalities of LOS, where a struggling third world country people are jump-started into some unknown future and parameters without an honest-to-god shepherd to guide them and a magna carta of sort to provide any attributes of justice for the poor

[CHAIYENYEN]

Why a newspaper is publicizing such a crap can be understood only by the riddler.

It's not a newspaper, it's The Daily Mail, the holder of morale values in the UK. This is typical British tabloid shit, and not even remotely interesting or new.

what does a typical british tabloid like the daily mail aim to achieve? to keep the british people dumb and feed them more dungs

[spongeman]

Daily Fail at it again I can see.

sort out the beggars back home first I would say.

[RoastLamb]

Well that has to be just about the single most pointless article i have ever read in my entire life. I can't for the life of me figure out why these mundane teenage musings regarding a completely uneventful and apparently aimless daytrip (or was it two days?) to Bangkok have been published by a major newspaper, even if it is the daily mail. I wouldn't publish that on a roll of smartprice toilet paper. Jesus, she got PAID for that. I'm gonna apply for a job there right now

[guava]

Poor princess, it really tugs at the heartstrings that those horrible Cambodian landmine victims ruined her trip.

Honestly doubt she even went to Thailand, sounds like some google-foo for a quick article.

The stock photo of Soi Cowboy rather than Patpong, and her whimsical account of her visit, would suggest that isn't that unfeasible.

The sex trade in Thailand exists, as it does in pretty much every country in the world - and, not so surprisingly, the younger and pretty girls are in demand, there's exploitation in ten different directions, and blah blah blah blah blah.... It's prostitution, and whilst it may bring many to Thailand, it's easy enough to avoid the scene - unless you really want to be offended.

I doubt there's an English speaking adult on the planet who isn't already aware that Bangkok has red light districts - as does London, Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Brussels, Saigon, Manila, Karachi, KL, Amsterdam, Moscow, Manchester, Belfast, Barcelona, Hamburg and pretty close to every other city around the world with any semi decent population. If they don't have actual red light districts, there will certainly be prostitution available through some other avenue - regardless of laws, religions, governments, etc. It's been around a while, it's here to stay - get over it.

If it really offends you (1) stay away from it, and (2) don't report on it - there's nothing that can be "done about it" and moralistic prude journalists like this silly bint and tens of thousands of others are really only fueling the industry, and embarrassing the people of Thailand in the process.

And no-one likes seeing beggars, but again they exists in many many countries, certainly in the UK, where the often forceful demands for cash or cigarettes (often with an underlying hint of potential violence) are certainly no less offensive than the sight, or even heaven forbid contact, with the crippled and maimed, young and old beggars of Thailand, or anywhere else...

[cdnvic]

It's the general impression that people will pick up from the article - food Poisoning , being ripped off by a Tuk Tuk driver , beggars and the Title doesn't help .

True, but they'll get the same stories from Blackpool so how damaging is it really going to be?