Bad Karma – Confessions of a Reckless Traveller in South-East Asia

Review by Philip Blazdell

According to the marketing blurb for this book, 'In this irreverent traveller's tale, two twenty twenty-something trouble magnets wreak havoc across South-east Asia as they struggle to escape the beaten path. From a bizarre encounter with a Xena-obsessed hotel clerk in Thailand to a stoned flight on a crumbling Russian plane in Laos, the author takes a wayward journey through the underbelly of South-east Asia so often ignored by traditional travel writers. Peppered with swindlers, drunkards and uber-hippies, puts backpacker culture through the wringer.'

Although there is much to dislike about this book (and I hope that I never meet the author or her supremely obnoxious travelling companion on the road) such as the attitude of the author, which varies from mildly annoying, terribly contrite, insanely aggressive or downright patronising; there is little information given to most of the places the author visits (indeed, half the time she doesn't even know where she actually is); the abuse the author and her friend dish out to locals (totally inexcusable in my view) and backpackers (totally acceptable in my opinion) and that the book actually ends at the point where it starts to become interesting. However, there is also much here that is fresh, original and very funny. There are stories a-plenty about drug taking, wonderfully surreal descriptions of strange food and a hysterically funny excursion into a Laotian discotheque which has to be read to be believed.

However, my main concern about this book is that the target audience (one assumes it to be the hoards of gap-year students who head off to Asia for a year of meaningful experiences) will read this, take it as gospel and then head off into Asia believing that its ok to go stamping around in Cultural Size Nines and to have little, or no respect, for local people, local customs or the regions in which they are travelling. This is exactly the kind of book, that when read with a jaded and somewhat cynical eye, can be very funny (and at times very relevant) but when read by a neophyte traveller (or, worse, their parents) can cause numerous alarm bells to ring. It is for this reason that it would have been nice for the author to include one final chapter summarising her travels and talking a little about how the trip had changed her and how she might have handled situations in a different way. However, these small gripes aside this is a fun, amusing book and it takes delight in shoving two fingers up at the 'holier-than-thou' backpacker community, and this should be applauded.

• Bad Karma – Confessions of a Reckless Traveller in South-East Asia by Tamara Sheward