About the Author: MAREK LENARCIK
For as long as he can remember, traveling has always been an important part of Marek Lenarcik’s life. If he had to burden anyone with that particular aspect of his personality, that would have to be his parents. They took him to Bulgaria when he was five, and packed him off to all sorts of youth camps around Europe during his teens. If they wanted to see more of him when he was grown up, they could only blame themselves.
A corporate lifestyle in Dublin enabled him to fulfill a life-long dream of driving across USA, check if Iran is really as bad as people say, and taste the forbidden fruits (natural or otherwise) of Thailand.
This last trip changed him entirely, and within a few months of returning, he put in motion a plan to return to the Far East, this time for good. His 18 month experience in Thailand is chronicled in the book “This Is Thailand: A Story of Love, Sex and Betrayal in the Tropics."
After life in Thailand became too much, Marek traveled as far away as he could to South America before returning to Asia, first to Kuala Lumpur, before moving to Myanmar, where he currently resides. He is currently working on his second book “In Burma", which tells the story of his experiences in the country shortly after the country began to open up to the rest of the world.
"This is Thailand" is the riveting real-life account of Marek Lenarcik's blind leap from the safe, comfortable and utterly bullshit, corporate world of Dublin to the charming, exotic beaches of Thailand.
With rose-tinted glasses firmly in place, Marek fully expects to find a land of exotic fruits, beautiful women and an easy-going tropical lifestyle. Which he does. At first.
Traveling from Phuket to Bangkok and throughout Thailand's exotic locales, Marek's desire to experience all the forbidden fruits Thailand has to offer leads him to Piam, a gorgeous, kind, independent Thai girl who, he is convinced, might well be the one.
But as he immerses himself deeper into this strange country, replete with often inexplicable thought-patterns, worldviews and customs, Marek begins to discover a much darker, more complex side to the Land of Smiles and its inhabitants.
Soon, Piam begins to reveal her true colours. It soon dawns on him that, despite his best intentions (most of the time), he has been ensnared — as have many men before him — by the dreaded Honey Trap. The stormy relationship that ensues provides a fascinating backdrop to the insights into Thailand's unique culture that stem from Marek's efforts to come to terms with the reality of the country and the people who call it home.
