Patpong a Gap Year Reminisce

Sex in Thailand. I guess this is something that we all know and think about with Thailand, but it’s really quite hard to write about without committing some serious faux pas.

So let me put my little story in the context of a huge ’name drop’. I was at University and good friends with someone who became a well known writer, most notably for his first book, The Beach— Alex Garland and most recently the film 28 Days Later.

I can tell you right now that he won’t mind me mentioning him here as he went and wrote about my little experience in ’The Observer’ years later!

Seriously, what Alex did (and I’ll always admire him for the unbelievable tenacity and discipline that he showed)— was, at the risk of putting him down (what am I apologizing for? That is precisely my intention!), ’articulate’ the tremendous impact that the ’gap year’ has on UK students in their lives and how its influence stays with them for the rest of their lives.

It is a year, to coin a cliche, ’to find yourself’. In Alex’s quite cynical interpretation, it was to ’find yourself and paradise’ at the same time— only to discover the thin lines that can define these realities.

It really is something that seems unique to the British system— as our US, European and Asian counterparts are just not given this amazingly opportunity of a year to ’discover yourself’.

Also, being really more than a year, one really can work to save enough money to fund the trip.

So, for what it’s worth, here is my story...

Updates this week

This week has taken a slightly more academic leaning. We started with Cambodian Musical History and then a look at the Early History of Cambodia.

Thailand - ah! Thailand. How I miss you when I am away. The Early History of Thailand is coupled with a Glimpse of Koh Samui the island paradise. We all know about popular Thai music - but how much do you know about Traditional Thai Music?

We don our History caps again with the Early History of Burma and the Early History of Vietnam.

Finally, Laos Sticky Rice goes some way to justifying our name with a piece written to help anyone wanting to cook their own sticky rice — Laos style!

Have a good week.