History Main / HolidayInCambodia

* You wouldn't expect a Disney comic to take place in such a locale, but in CarlBarks' "The Treasure of Marco Polo", (written in 1966), Scrooge [=McDuck=]'s adventure in search of the title treasure takes him to the war-torn, vaguely Vietnamese country of Unsteadystan.

So, when a piece of media goes to Southeast Asia, it usually goes on a HolidayInCambodia. The setting will either be little jungle villages with wooden huts or cities so seedy they leave marks on the screen. Vice will be both upheld and punished, with the main characters either being told "[[AsianHookerStereotype Me love you]] [[YouNoTakeCandle long time]]" by a woman who [[UnsettlingGenderReveal may or may not actually be a biological woman]], or being thrown in some hellhole of a prison on drug charges. And someone, some time, is getting a gun in the face. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Oh, and there may be elephants.]]

* ''TheYearOfLivingDangerously'' is about Western reporters covering the 1965 civil war in Indonesia.

So, when a piece of media goes to Southeast Asia, it usually goes on a HolidayInCambodia. The setting will either be little jungle villages with wooden huts or cities so seedy they leave marks on the screen. Vice will be both upheld and punished, with the main characters either being told "[[MeLoveYouLongTime Me love you]] [[YouNoTakeCandle long time]]" by a woman who [[UnsettlingGenderReveal may or may not actually be a biological woman]], or being thrown in some hellhole of a prison on drug charges. And someone, some time, is getting a gun in the face. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Oh, and there may be elephants.]]

* ''TheHangover Part II'' is set in Bangkok, which is portrayed exactly like this trope.

And that's the thing: cultural experience with Southeast Asia is usually limited to the leftovers of the VietnamWar. In the minds of many people outside of the region, Southeast Asia (minus Thailand)is a land of steamy jungles, guerrilla warfare, and all sorts of violence. Add vice for taste; affairs between American servicemen and native Vietnamese women are notorious, and it's not for nothing that Thailand has a reputation for sex tourism.

* ''BlackLagoon'' centers on the fictional Thai city of Roanapur, where it seems like every body of organized crime in existence has a controlling stake.

* The [[VertigoComics Vertigo]] miniseries ''Vertigo Pop! Bangkok'' centers around two American tourists who are fully exposed to the seedier sides of Thailand's sex tourism trade.

* The VillainProtagonist of ''AmericanGangster'' gets his drugs from Vietnam. The scenes there focus on the peasant villages with wooden huts and the general anarchy of TheVietnamWar.
** Similarly, the Amsterdam Triad in the 80s film ''ChinaWhite'' gets their heroin from guerillas in an unidentified Southeast Asian nation in exchange for rocket launchers.
* ''BrokedownPalace'' presents a somewhat more grim variant of the above scenario, with the two female leads thrown into a Thai women's prison with no chance for parole after a fling sneaks large amounts of heroin into one's luggage.

* ''ApocalypseNow'' is probably the TropeCodifier.
* ''{{The Beach}}'', beginning with a seedy Bangkok hotel. Interestingly, the tourist industry around the Phi Phi Islands, where the bulk of the movie was filmed, seems quite proud of the movie and it is still possible to visit remnants of the set.

* ''TheQuietAmerican'' sticks to the cities of Vietnam, but focuses on the upcoming turmoil that will lead to the Vietnam War. Notably, it was actually written ''before'' the Vietnam War began, which can lead to a good deal of HarsherInHindsight for modern readers.
* ''[[BangkokEight Bangkok 8]]'' is centered on Bangkok's red light district, and the sequels follow Thai detective Sonchai Jitleecheep as he explores the other seedy aspects of Bangkok living.
* ''BridgetJones: The Edge Of Reason'' has a scene where Bridget, on vacation in Thailand, is unknowingly made into a drug mule by a fling of one of her friends and ends up in your average Thai prison hellhole.

* Jack from ''{{Lost}}'' holidays in Thailand in one of his flashbacks. Apparently, in ''Lost'', Thailand is made entirely of naive 8-year-old boys and psychic tattooists. Incidentally, they manage to split the difference on the surroundings: he gets a quiet jungle hut... right in the middle of a seedy city.

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* ''KingOfTheHill'' has a Laotian character, Kahn, as the neighbors of the main characters. The show mostly averts this trope, until the episode where another well-to-do Laotian convinces Kahn that his life is meaningless because he embraces American culture, and convinces him to join a Laotian resistance force that will one day go back to free their brethren.

<<|HollywoodAtlas|>>

*** Given that Seoul isn't in Southeast Asia, it actually serves to solidify that this trope is in full effect, and is not just a part of larger ArtisticLicenseGeography issues.

So, when a piece of media goes to Southeast Asia, it usually goes on a HolidayInCambodia. The setting will either be little jungle villages with wooden huts or cities so seedy they leave marks on the screen. Vice will be both upheld and punished, with the main characters either being told "[[MeLoveYouLongTime Me love you]] [[YouNoTakeCandle long time]]" by a woman who [[UnsettlingGenderReveal may or may not actually be a woman]], or being thrown in some hellhole of a prison on drug charges. And someone, some time, is getting a gun in the face. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Oh, and there may be elephants.]]

* ''The Beach'', beginning with a seedy Bangkok hotel. Interestingly, the tourist industry of the Phi Phi Islands, where the bulk of the movie was filmed, seems quite proud of the movie and it is still possible to visit remnants of the set.

* The JamesBond feature ''TheManWithTheGoldenGun'', where he travels to Thailand to question a possible associate of Scaramanga, the businessman Hai Fat.

* ''TheQuietAmerican'' sticks to the cities of Vietnam, but focuses on the upcoming turmoil that will lead to the Vietnam War.

Southeast Asia is a rich land of many cultures and nations. Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and, well, Vietnam.

So, when a piece of media goes to Southeast Asia, it usually goes on a HolidayInCambodia. The setting will either be little jungle villages with wooden huts or cities so seedy they leave marks on the screen. Vice will be both upheld and punished, with the main characters either being told "[[MeLoveYouLongTime Me love you]] [[YouNoTakeCandle long time]]" by a woman who [[DroppedABridgetOnHim may or may not actually be a woman]], or being thrown in some hellhole of a prison on drug charges. And someone, some time, is getting a gun in the face. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Oh, and there may be elephants.]]

* The JamesBond feature ''TheManWithTheGoldenGun''.

* You wouldn't expect a Disney comic to take place in such a locale, but in CarlBarks' "The Treasure of Marco Polo", (written in 1966), Scrooge [=McDuck=]'s adventure in search of the titular treasure takes him to the war-torn, vaguely Vietnamese country of Unsteadystan.

[[AC:WebOriginal]]

So, when a piece of media goes to Southeast Asia, it usually goes on a HolidayInCambodia. The setting will either be little jungle villages with wooden huts or cities so seedy they leave marks on the screen. Vice will be both upheld and punished, with the main characters either being told, "[[MeLoveYouLongTime Me love you]] [[YouNoTakeCandle long time]]" or being thrown in some hellhole of a prison on drug charges. And someone, some time, is getting a gun in the face. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Oh, and there may be elephants.]]

** That suggests Kahn is Hmong, with a clearly Loatian family name. Huh.

* The Dead Kennedys song "[[TropeNamer Holiday in Cambodia]]" uses this trope for satirical contrast, with a pretentious, insensitive {{hipster}} liberal stereotype going on vacation and getting captured by Pol Pot's regime.

* Exception: When the ''TopGear'' boys went motorcycling through Vietnam for the 2008 Christmas special they acknowledged it would be a disservice to history not to refer to TheVietnamWar and its legacy, but at the same time presented the country as so much more than "that place where a war happened". This troper confidently predicts that Vietnam will be a popular holiday destination in 2009.

* The Dead Kennedys song "[[TropeNamer Holiday in Cambodia]]" uses this trope for satirical contrast, with a pretentious, insensitive liberal stereotype going on vacation and getting captured by Pol Pot's regime.

For those in the know, it becomes clear that the writers have [[IncrediblyLamePun Missed]] [[MissSaigon Saigon]].

->''Is a [[TropeNamer holiday in Cambodia]]''