Review: Sex, Drugs, and, Well, More Sex!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 7, 2012
This is a travel book with a decidedly different slant on things.  Instead of focusing on the destinations, the book focuses on the author and her journey from depression to a sort of self-discovery.  In this vein, the book works.Faced with the guilt and depression from her divorce, the author takes a journey through Southeast Asia, taking a bacchanalian excursion where sex, lots of alcohol, and drugs seem to be the order of the day.  Living on the cheap in the usual backpacker haunts, she meets up with other free spirits, living on the couches of strangers, sharing rooms, and enjoying life.Sex is extremely prevalent even if it is not graphically described.  Sex is on her mind, either with her desires to have sex with accented, good-looking men or in her utter aversion to the come-ons by Indian and Sri Lankan men.  Drinking is also done to an excess pretty much every day.  It seems to me, as a reader, that the author needs the alcohol in order to lose her inhibitions and do what she wants to do.For me, the most telling part of the book was her experience with Lucky.  As a conservative Christian, she had long felt that sex, while necessary, was always a bit dirty.  However, with Lucky, a man she met and with whom she spent a few days, she had a personal epiphany that sex is OK, it is good, and can be enjoyed for just what it is.Her experiences were rather varied.  As a Thai resident, and as someone who has done the backpacking scene, her amorous adventures were unlike anything I personally have ever experienced, but I do not doubt them.While the book was an interesting view on one person's journey, I wish the organization had been better.  I think a more linear telling of her story would have served it better as sometimes it was a little difficult to catch just what was going on and when.  Additionally, her entire trip to Myanmar was ignored after some intriguing hints as to what happened there.I think a few references needed to be explained better.  For example, instead of just describing a shirt that had "Up to you" written on it, I would have liked to have read the significance of that saying (in Thailand, there is significance to it.  It is not just a random phrase.)Finally, I would have liked a deeper insight to the author's thinking.  On one hand, she seems to relish her new-found freedom and openness, but she is still somewhat conservative.  It is OK to have a sex with strangers, but threesomes and such are verbotten. It is OK for a complete stranger to bump and grind her on the beach, but any interest by an Indian man is disgusting.  I found all of this fascinating, and I wish she had gone into more details as to her thought process.Overall, this was a good book.  It is not for everyone, that is for certain.  But for those who feel comfortable reading about sex, drinking, and drug use, well, this books offers a fascinating peek at one person's maturation.