HOLIDAY SEASON  -  BE SAFE, BE AWARE, BE STRONG

I am being serious today - so do take extra care.

How we live is determined and governed by customs, laws and social norms.   Then when on holiday to another country, another city, with no one to judge, the rules just don’t apply.  The inevitable happens, excesses of whatever, held back before, combined with unaccountability, the flood gates are opened wide, ready to receive trouble.   The bad decisions that are made, result in the direst of consequences.

Take the case recently of two Canadian sisters vacationing in remote islands of Thailand.   From Pohenegamook, they grew up in a small town of less than 3000, schooled locally and worked during the summer in the family grocery business to save for their holiday abroad. Today’s trend-setting youngsters go backpacking in Thailand. It has become an exciting adventure of a lifetime for college students, especially if their friends have been or perhaps urged on from films like The Beach.  Stories of fun, drugs, sex and alcohol, all the things unlikely to come their way in this small town in Quebec, the two sisters decided to venture their way into a thrilling journey.

Koh Samui - Thailand

Two days into their stay, they are found dead in the their cheap backpackers hotel suspected of toxic poisoning.  The authorities did not want to darken the image of tourism so the blame goes out to food poisoning. The reality of it is, food poisoning does not warrant blackened fingernails, bloody gums, or profuse amount of vomit.   So whatever their choice of drugs, local dealers are making more bang for their bucks by cutting it with anything from talcum powder to borax to handier mosquito repellent.  What influenced these two innocent girls to choose this path, trusting strangers, ingesting something they wouldn’t even consider back home is the lack of common sense.

Full Moon Pary on Koh Samui

Why do these travelling backpackers, middle aged and old men go hell bent on vacation and return home in body bags much to the sadness and dismay of their families, is unknown but the psychology behind this can be explained.

Time and time again, German, Swedish, EU and American tourists pour into welcoming countries.  Lured by the magic of the dollar, host countries give them whatever they have been fantasizing. Back home, the toll of drudgery and mediocrity just makes life miserably boring.   So when the ability to live out their fantasy is within reach, no one to judge or critique or even disapprove, the fantasy becomes ever more exciting.

Even movie stars, who seem to have all the fantasies availed to them, can behave badly away from prying eyes.    In the instance of David Carradine, whatever his sexual proclivities were, regardless of his turbulent childhood, or his stardom, there allegedly was another person in his hotel bedroom helping him with his autoerotic asphyxiation.  Speculation on whether he would have entertained this thrill, aided by another person, had he been in his own home country is doubtful.

Observing any full or half moon parties on the beach defies all logic on why humans take their pleasure to the limit.  The holiday mind frame carries their common sense to a complete stop.  Aided by magic mushroom cocktails, local brew, viagra, sexercise on the beach and dancing all night to the beat, till dawn breaks with the sunlight streaming on exhausted bodies lying half dead would shatter the families disbelief back home. 

Morning after party
 sleeping on the beach is typical after a Full Moon Party :  Photo Getty Images

Maybe backpackers or sex tourists are not worried that they are going to judged, for nobody knows them here.  Unfortunately their bad behavior, encouraged by the host country, whose very living is determined by these tourists paying double the fees, is definitely judged. 

Sometimes the locals and police game together to bring about sheer pleasurable abandonment so that they can benefit and take advantage.  So if a few look half dead, they sink them even further by dangling even more pleasures.    How they deeply feel about the morals of these Western tourists are etched in the disparaging way they talk amongst themselves.  A window into the local mindset would make anyone shudder with embarrassment and shame and perhaps not partake so heavily and wantonly.  Or in some cases, embarrassment and shame are unfelt, as death already took place.

It is with sadness that some truths are covered up, more for the benefit of the country’s image, so that the tourism business does not suffer, than an excuse to protect the victim’s family.  The real victims are the families that are left behind, dealing with unanswerable painful questions.