[poker-penguin]

Yes, this probably is fairly standard for tourists. So what? I enjoyed it. I never fooled myself that I was special, or that this experience was unique in any way. I have set a goal for myself to send 30 minutes a day on narrative writing, I figured I may as well do a trip report.

I didn't go to Thailand specifically to pick up an English girl, it just happened while I was there. Was I supposed to turn it down because of some [censored] up desire to have an authentic experience? I went to KFC once when I was there too and feel no qualms about that either.

No Thai girls for me, I have moral objections to paying for sex, and was never really in a situation to try to pick up normally.

Yes, I read the Beach (in Bangkok airport on the way out). I think the point was that people tend to [censored] things up. The main character does make some smug comments about "backpackers", but I think I would have found him an insufferable [censored] in real life.

I suspect the only people who say that backpackers are what is wrong with thailand are the ex-pat farang or deluded "travellers" who are both caught up in how cool they are for not being backpackers.

I went to thailand like hundreds of thousands of other westerners aged between 18 and 30. I went to a ping pong show, I went diving on Ko Tao, trekking in Chiang Mai, looking at temples in various places, did a cooking course, got a thai massage, went to see the bridge over the river Kwai, etc. I didn't save the whales, play internet poker, or do anything important or socially signifant. I am the poster boy for lonely-planet backpackerism and I don't care.

Ahem, having got way too into that tirade, I'd like to thank the people who said they liked my trip report.