A Tourist's Tale

[poliphilo]

A chap I know spent the Christmas holidays in Bangkok. People round him (bar and hotel staff?) were joking about this tsunami thing that had hit the coast. "You should go to Phuket; they're handing out free food." He gathered there'd been some minor local unpleasantness.

It was only when he arrived back home that he discovered he'd been living in the middle of a disaster area...

...and that he'd have learned more about Thailand if he'd have stayed at home and watched TV.

Comments

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

That's what my friends who were in Indonesia for holiday said, too. They stayed in out-of-the-way villages so as to avoid terrorist unpleasantries and didn't know anything until they got to their hotel in Kuta and were bombarded with the messages everyone had left with the main desk.

They are fortunate. Though it's strange to imagine that they would have been that close and not known a thing.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I wonder whether the Thai government may be keeping its own people in the dark. My friend said there was nothing about the tsunami in the media out there.

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

Someone suggested it was a conspiracy to keep the tourists from leaving. I am not surprised if this is the case, having lived in tourist destinations all my life and also worked in newsrooms. There are many things you just cannot say. The gatekeepers and advertisers are in cahoots.

Maybe I am being pessimistic.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

No, I think you're right.

The relationship between tourists and natives(especially in a third world country) involves a lack of respect on both sides.

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

I can vouch for that, absolutely.