The daily robbing, bashing, drugging, extortion and murder of foreign tourists on Thai soil, along with numerous scandals involving unsafe facilities and well established scams, has led to frequent predictions that Thailand's multi-billion dollar tourist industry will self-destruct. Instead tourist numbers more than doubled in the decade to 2014. The world might not have come to the hometowns of the many visitors fascinated by Thailand, but it certainly came to the Land of Smiles. While the Thai media is heavily censored, and bad news stories about tourists suppressed, nonetheless there is more than enough evidence to demonstrate that something has gone seriously awry with the nation's tourist industry. In 2014, just as in the years preceding it, there were train, bus, ferry, speedboat, motorbike and car accidents, murders, knifings, unexplained deaths, numerous suicides, diving accidents, robberies gone wrong, anonymous bodies washing up on the shores and a string of alcohol and drug related incidents. Thailand had a dying king and serious succession problems, weak democratic institutions, an economy slipping into recession, faced issues of corruption across many of its key services and was host to international crime syndicates, awash with despised foreigners and drifting perilously towards civil war. Tourists choose one destination over another for a number of reasons, most of which Thailand scores highly on. But on the core issue of tourist safety, Thailand scores very badly indeed.

How Not To Get Murdered In Thailand is in it's rawest a shocking expose of Thailand as one of the worlds most deadly tourist destinations. Penned in advance of the much publicized murders of Hannah Witheridge and David Miller in September 2014, the book pairs grisly but altogether overdue research into the countries dark side with fascinating and just as overdue societal insights & observations.

Hideout in the Apocalypse is about surveillance and the crushing of Australia’s larrikin culture. In the last three years the Australian government has prosecuted the greatest assault on freedom of speech in the nation’s history. The government knew from international research that when it introduced the panopticon, universal surveillance, into Australia it would have a devastating impact on the culture. When people know they are being watched, they behave differently. Dissent is stifled, conformity becomes the norm. This is the so-called chilling effect. Hideout in the Apocalypse, in the great tradition of The Lucky Country, takes Australia’s temperature half a century on from Donald Horne’s classic cautionary tale. Now the future has arrived. Forced by a plethora of new laws targeting journalists to use novelistic techniques, in his latest book veteran news reporter John Stapleton confirms the old adage, truth is stranger than fiction. Hideout in the Apocalypse takes up the adventures of retired news reporter Old Alex, first encountered in the book’s predecessor Terror in Australia: Workers’ Paradise Lost. But as befits the times, this book is more fantastical, intimate and politically acerbic in its portrait of his beloved country. Alex believes believes he has been under abusive levels of government surveillance since writing a book called Terror in Australia, and as a natural empath can hear the thoughts of the surveillance teams on his track, the so-called Watchers on the Watch. Alex also believes he is a cluster soul sent with others of his kind to help save the Earth from an impending apocalypse, and has the capacity to channel some of history's greatest writers. Australia might have the worst anti-freedom of speech laws in the Western world, but how can you sue a character like that? Stapleton's essential theme: a place which should have been safe from an impending apocalypse, the quagmire of religious wars enveloping the Middle East, is not safe at all. Ideas are contagious, and the Australian government is afraid of them. Australia is a democracy in name only.The war on terror has become a war on the people's right to know, justifying a massive expansion of state power. Alex’s swirling head, lifelong fascination with sociology, literature and journalism, and his deep distress over the fate of the Great Southern Land, makes him the perfect character to tell a story which urgently needs to be told.

Terror in Australia: Workers' Paradise Lost, by veteran journalist John Stapleton, is a beautifully written snapshot of a pivotal turning point in the history of the so-called Lucky Country. This book is a sidewinding missile into the heart of Australian hypocrisy. In 2015 there were well attended Reclaim Australia demonstrations in every major capital city, all protesting what the demonstrators saw as the growing Islamisation of Australia, along with countering anti-racism demonstrations. There were frequent violent clashes, hundreds of police were forced to form lines separating the demonstrators in Sydney and Melbourne, there were a significant number of arrests and injuries, and dozens of people were treated for the effects of capsicum spray. The terror alert was at its highest level ever, the country was engaged in an unpopular and discredited war in Iraq and Syria, and relations between the government and an increasingly radicalised Muslim minority had broken down. Despite the billions being spent on national security, authorities believed another terrorist attack was inevitable. A demoralised population, saddled with a history of grotesque overregulation, turned inwards, increasingly questioning the failed social creeds of the past. On the streets once vibrant entertainment districts were desolate, while closed and shuttered shops became a characteristic of many suburbs. An optimistic, freedom loving country with an irreverent, larrikin culture and a wildly optimistic view of its place in the world lost faith in its own story. Well documented, switching through multiple points of view, Terror in Australia: Workers' Paradise Lost is a sometimes frightening, sometimes intensely lyrical step inside a democracy in serious trouble.

This book questions why Southeast Asian nation states are struggling to adopt full-fledged liberal democracy and attempts to better understand the relationship between globalization and models of democracy. Country studies are covered mostly by native Southeast Asian scholars who analyse recent developments as well as specific concerns that have arisen from political crises, citizen uprisings, ethnic identity politics, political reforms, social justice and inequality, and the persistence of the political elite. The collection highlights factors which have impacted the different regional and national paths taken such as: the legacy of the Cold War, rapid economic development and liberalization, external economic globalization, the important role of informal politics, powerful elites, and weak but emerging middle classes. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of regional studies of Southeast Asia, Democracy, Sociology, Politics and Globalization Studies.

The North of Thailand is emerging as a standalone, off-the-beaten-path destination in the otherwise well-traversed Southeast Asia travel route. With the northern mountains covered in verdant jungle and sprinkled with age-old hill tribes, elephant camps, and ancient ruins, it is no wonder that the North is becoming an unforgettable experience for travelers. Laid back cities like Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai offer a burgeoning restaurant and nightlife scene that provides the perfect respite after experiencing the natural beauty of Northern Thailand. T. F. Rhoden has spent seven years exploring this fascinating country. First as a graduate student, then as a Peace Corps volunteer, and finally as an aid worker on the Thai-Burma border. Through his unique experiences, Rhoden provides insight into the country that has become his second home. With a comprehensive background section covering the history, culture, and logistics of travel, and sixteen sections dedicated to each stop on his recommended travel route, this book will allow travelers to feel like locals while enjoying the indisputable beauty that the North has to offer.

Visitors to Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos will find handy planning tips and full-color photos in this updated guide.

Koh Tao--a small island in the Gulf of Thailand, surrounded by pristine beaches, swathed in sunshine, and a mecca for tourists, divers and backpackers. But "Turtle Island" has its dark side. In 2014, Koh Tao was the site of the brutal double murders of two British backpackers, but theirs weren't the only suspicious backpacker deaths. My name is Suzanne Buchanan. I am the former owner and editor of the Samui Times, a news publication on Koh Samui, and covered the stories of the so-called "backpacker murders" and other suspicious deaths. Although I am a British citizen, because of my investigation and stories, as well as my support for the two Burmese migrant workers sentenced to death for the murders, I had to flee Thailand for my own safety. There is currently an active warrant for my arrest should I return to Thailand, which had been my home for more than twenty years, and I continue to receive death threats. In "THE CURSE OF THE TURTLE" readers can make up their own minds on who is responsible for the murders that so devastated the victims' families. Were the Burmese migrant workers responsible? Or were the powerful, tribal families who run Koh Tao involved? And if so, were they aided by corrupt law enforcement?

Often cited as the quintessential travel destination for backpackers and hedonistic party goers, Thailand has enjoyed over three decades of accolades and rave reviews. In fact, in New Delhi in April 2014, Travel & Leisure magazine voted Thailand as the best country destination for travellers, for the third consecutive year in a row. 445km of palm fringed coastline, a diverse and fascinating culture, and food and scenery like nowhere else on earth, doesn't after all, just enchant millions of tourists every year into returning to Thailand. Rather, whether it is in beach side reggae bars, or by the pool sides of sybaritic five star hotel resorts, Thailand brings people together and makes people feel more like they have finally come home, rather than just flown somewhere thousands of miles away. However, beneath its tropical wonderland like veneer, Thailand hides a very sinister secret. Literally hundreds of holidaymakers and Thailand expatriates are after all, murdered in the country each year. And the only reason that people aren't already aware of the amount of westerners being beaten, and flung from high rise apartment balconies in Thailand, is because Thai authorities move promptly after every such case, to attribute such incidents to mysterious series of accidents and suicides. The following book will therefore go further than most other guide books and blogs '10 tips for staying safe in Thailand, ' and expose not only how dark and belligerent the country can be at times, but also how you can ensure your own safety when abroad in the so called Land of Smiles.