Why a Booktrail?
2000s: A series of short stories which delve into the shadows of Thailand
Sightseeing
What you need to know before your trail
Sightseeing refuses to take the tourist routes or pay the farang prices at the market. In poignant, tough, heart-catching episodes, Rattawut Lapcharoensap takes his readers beneath the surface of Thailand to a place that is dynamic and corrupt, full of pride and passion and fear. In these intergenerational stories of luck and loss, mother and son, Thai and tourist, healthy and sick are bound together.
Sightseeing introduces its readers to the young boy and his brother speeding on a moped to the Cafe Lovely, a brothel in Bankok; Priscilla the Cambodian, a girl whose mouth is stuffed with the family fortune; a woman approaching blindness who barters for a last pair of sunglasses; and a pig called Clint Eastwood.
Travel Guide
Thailand
A collection of short stories about Thailand in every shape, form, shade and style.
Written by a native Thai, there are stories which illustrate the country and culture at large. This is no guide book in the strict sense of the term, but a book which guides you around the dark edges and into the black soul of the country.
Every country has its dark side, but these stories concentrate on Thailand’s through the eyes of its ordinary people. A man taking part in cockfights and being threatened by a bully for example and how that one source of income for his family ends up having many serious consequences despite this being an acitity we wouldn’t accept in the West.
These are stories about ordinary people. Young boys who take part in some selection lottery for the army. Pick a red ball and you’re signed up. A black one means you’re free to go. But balls can be exchanged for bribes.
There’s also the story of a Cambodian person who suffers prejudice and racism in Thailand.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Sightseeing
Destination : Thailand Author/Guide: Rattawut Lapcharoensap Departure Time: 2000s
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