I picked this book up because
1) My mother always spoke very unremarkably about her experience in Thailand - no, she wasn't arrested there or had any contact at all with the police - but she did however go there for holidays and she was terrified. Even though it was beautiful, she said, the fear of being getting involved in something illegal, either she wanted to on not was very high.
2) I recently watched The Beach, directed by Danny Boyle in 2000. Its fucking Danny Boyle - director of Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours - all films I absolutely love. And it stars Leonardo Dicaprio. I don't need to elaborate any further... But the movie is set in Bangkok, and I was fascinated by all the life that seemed to be into that city.
3) The title
4) There was a portuguese soap opera a couple years ago on which one of the characters was a young girl sentenced to death (or something like it) in Thailand because drugs were put into her bag by strangers and I remember wondering why the hell would that be.

I had to know more! My interest with Thailand has now started oficially, and the more I read about it, the more I want to go there - and the more terrified was I to actually do so. I might go there one day. I do not know.
I picked Welcome To Hell because it was cheap, and I just finished it and it is... extreme. The brutality presented in Colin Martin's words are evident, and the corrupt, the lies, the absense of justice are all very well represented in the book.

Colin Martin is a strong man, who lived through a lot. He probably didn't consider himself much of a writer, and the writing style in the book isn't lyrical, poetic or whatever - but he managed to get his point across and that is the most important part. It expresses a raw reality which lives nearby and thousands of people are haunted by that same thing every single day of their lives. My major issue with the book was how repetitive it all felt at times, but after all, we're reading a true story. It probably felt repetitive for the author too - and he probably didn't enjoy it, not even a little bit, but that was the truth.

This counts the story of a man who fought like hell for what he believed and what he wanted, and he didn't prove his innocence, but in his heart he knows he's not a bad guy, and as long as his children and family believe the same - he'll be saved. ( )

I picked this book up because
1) My mother always spoke very unremarkably about her experience in Thailand - no, she wasn't arrested there or had any contact at all with the police - but she did however go there for holidays and she was terrified. Even though it was beautiful, she said, the fear of being getting involved in something illegal, either she wanted to on not was very high.
2) I recently watched The Beach, directed by Danny Boyle in 2000. Its fucking Danny Boyle - director of Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours - all films I absolutely love. And it stars Leonardo Dicaprio. I don't need to elaborate any further... But the movie is set in Bangkok, and I was fascinated by all the life that seemed to be into that city.
3) The title
4) There was a portuguese soap opera a couple years ago on which one of the characters was a young girl sentenced to death (or something like it) in Thailand because drugs were put into her bag by strangers and I remember wondering why the hell would that be.

I had to know more! My interest with Thailand has now started oficially, and the more I read about it, the more I want to go there - and the more terrified was I to actually do so. I might go there one day. I do not know.
I picked Welcome To Hell because it was cheap, and I just finished it and it is... extreme. The brutality presented in Colin Martin's words are evident, and the corrupt, the lies, the absense of justice are all very well represented in the book.

Colin Martin is a strong man, who lived through a lot. He probably didn't consider himself much of a writer, and the writing style in the book isn't lyrical, poetic or whatever - but he managed to get his point across and that is the most important part. It expresses a raw reality which lives nearby and thousands of people are haunted by that same thing every single day of their lives. My major issue with the book was how repetitive it all felt at times, but after all, we're reading a true story. It probably felt repetitive for the author too - and he probably didn't enjoy it, not even a little bit, but that was the truth.

This counts the story of a man who fought like hell for what he believed and what he wanted, and he didn't prove his innocence, but in his heart he knows he's not a bad guy, and as long as his children and family believe the same - he'll be saved. ( )

After being swindled out of a fortune, Colin Martin was let down by the Thai police. Forced to rely upon his own resources, he tracked down the man who conned him and, drawn into a fight, accidentally stabbed and killed that man's bodyguard. Martin was arrested, denied a fair trial, convicted of murder and thrown into prison - where he remained for eight years. ( )