Have you ever watched a Thai ping-pong show?
“We didn’t want to go, at first,” two young English women told me, “but then we decided it was better to support local jobs.” Both giggled, whether at the ingenuity of this comment, or the concept of women paid to shoot plastic balls out of their nether parts, I do not know.
The stereotypes of Thailand – its sex industry, cross-ethnic match-making and lurid underworld – are elements of the country that trouble every traveler. Do we embrace, accept or abhor?
This is the conflicting scene that Burdett skillfully addresses in his nonfiction mystery, Bangkok 8…
Kelli Mutchler left a small, Midwest American town to prove that Yanks can, and do, chose alternative lifestyles. On the road for five years now, Kelli has tried news reporting and waitressing, bungy jumping and English teaching. Currently working with Burmese women refugees in Thailand, she hopes to pursue a MA in Global Development. Opportunities and scenes for international travel are encouraged on her blog, www.toomutchforwords.com.
