Black Arts in South East Asia, Adventures in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia [NOOK Book]

Honestly, this book made me sad. Perhaps it was the 5,000 remar

Honestly, this book made me sad. Perhaps it was the 5,000 remarks about how fat, ugly, and evil us American girls are, or maybe it was the author's constant patronage of brothels with underage girls, most likely sold into sex slavery by their poverty-stricken parents, which is such a rampant practice in that part of the world. Admittedly, I was looking for more fun and adventure and less unsatisfying sex (by unsatisfying, I mean, I don’t think there was a single true and valid female orgasm out of the 500 sexual experiences described in detail in this book.) I actually cried (more than I wanted to) and tossed and turned at night, thinking about these women without choice or real freedom or, at the very least, pleasure in their forced deeds. Even the girls that weren’t prostitutes seemed to accept any heinous action as their due in life and hardly hoped for more for themselves. What's their story? Well, don’t expect that question to be answered. The author barely contemplates any woman beyond the end of his…er…male member. At the beginning of the book, he even admits to hating women, and it was pretty depressing thinking of all the men out there who would look at someone like me (and my entire gender) as valued for little else than a hole. My fiancé assured me that, while every man has his evil thoughts, only the morally bankrupt act upon them. I guess I should feel sorry for someone who can’t have sex unless he’s paying for it from a sex slave—or seducing a naïve girl—and how he’s assuredly ruined any chance he had at real, mutual love because no self-respecting girl would ever give him a second thought, but it’s hard. I only finished this book because I hoped and hoped that he would collapse in a heap of self hatred as he discovered that his actions are promoting the real and sad problem of sex slavery in Southeast Asia. Alternatively, I wished he would be irreparably hurt and unable to carry on.

And still, I struggled to find a positive meaning and a purpose. And I found it!! If there is one good thing that I've taken away from this book, it is the necessity to break out of the mold and to not just accept what is handed to us, but to escape the "rat race" to seek our happiness (however, for me, this does not include victimizing and hurting others for my pleasure). In that, I do believe this book has a valid, positive purpose, which is why I gave it two stars. That purpose, however, is just kinda hard to find and renders 95% of this book fairly useless and sad for someone like me. If all this author states is true, Southeast Asia is little more than one big craphole brothel, and the only way I’d go down there is on a mission to throw open all the doors lit by pink neon lights and shout, “C’mon ladies! You don’t have to put up with this!” until we had an army of liberated women / girls. But then, I'm just a fat, evil, ugly American chick (according to the author, we all are—with no exceptions, of course) in my 30's, and obviously, the author never had any intention for me to like this book—or Southeast Asia—anyway.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

by : Curtis S -Nov. 16th 2001. Sexy, funny, fascinating, shocking, insightful -- tales of a glorious romp through South East Asia. Every chapter is an adventure in itself. Truly a pleasure to read.

by : Nick W. from stoughton , US, 25 Oct, 2011
Couldn't put the book down.
Few books grab my attention as this one did. From start to finish I found myself glued to the pages, unable to put the book down, and in full grip of the story. Which happens to be true. Everyone who goes to South East Asia has a story to tell, but this story is quite different. Highly recommended.

by : John Mansfield, Maine, US, 27 Oct, 2011
Black Arts in South East Asia: If you would like to read about "the dark worlds of prostitution, pimps, transvestites, killers, thieves, human trafficking and counter culture", then this is absolutely the book for you. There is nothing like it! Definitely not for the squeamish, it is the personal story of a young American male, one year out of college, who states that "Living in and traveling across northern Thailand, and through The Golden Triangle, has quenched many of my thirsts for adventure, sex, drugs, danger and excitement." It is definitely a page-turner and I look forward to the sequel.

by : Robert Bruce Bangall, Chiang Mai Resident of over 10 years. 26 Oct, 2011
Amazing Thailand never was this amazing. A must read for all who would be a traveler in Asia.

by : Christophé Lui, Hong Kong, Oct, 29th
I couldn't wait for the snail mail hence i bought the pdf. I'm hooked just by the first few pages already... can't wait to finish all 200+ pages~
Hopefully we don't have to wait for another 7 years for your next piece!!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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