Cautionary tale for unwary travellers

Carey Furze was 21 years old when she nearly became a sex slave.
Now the former Bay of Plenty woman, in her early 40s, has revealed how close she came to being forced against her will into Thailand's sex trade in her new book, Sex Slave.
It was 1989, and Ms Furze had left her "sheltered beach environment" of Mt Maunganui to go travelling overseas.
She was planning to meet friends in Tokyo, but had time to spare, so took up a fellow traveller's recommendation of heading to the idyllic Thai island of Koh Samui.
There she found long sandy beaches, rows of coconut trees and quaint, airy bungalows perched around the water's edge.
A middle-aged woman welcomed her and told her the accommodation was cheap there, so she dropped her backpack and decided to stay.
She said it didn't occur to her at the time why the woman began asking questions about where she was from, how long she was staying on the island, and who she was travelling with.
That evening she set off down a road toward Flamingo's, a place popular with young travellers that was about a 20-minute walk from her bungalow.
A teenage boy on a motorcycle stopped and offered her a ride there and, not wanting to be rude, she accepted.
Soon after, the motorcycle veered off the main road and into the jungle, and the boy told her that he wanted to get another motorbike.
When they arrived at what Ms Furze described as a "solid" bungalow - much more sturdy and secure than the hut she was staying in - the teenager introduced a man there as his brother.
The man invited her inside while his brother fetched the other motorbike, only to lock the door behind her and thrust her on to a bed.
Ms Furze remembers him stepping toward a chair at the end of the bed and pulling out a large hooked knife she had seen locals cutting down coconuts with. Fearing the man was about to kill her, she kept talking, telling him she was from New Zealand and just travelling.
The man offered her cake and a glass of white liquid, which she immediately suspected were drugged. He then sat down on the bed and began stroking her hair, before placing his hands under her skirt.
Eyeing a chance to escape, she asked if he could wash his hands first. When she heard the water running, she made her break and ran out into the night, toward the direction of the main road. She made it there, but the man headed her off on the motorbike, dragged her by her hair and hauled her on to the back of the bike.
While returning to the bungalow she threw herself off the back of the bike and hid in the jungle until she could no longer hear the bike.
She returned to her bungalow to gather her money and passport. During the night the man again tried to snatch her, but she kept him out by wedging her bed against the door.
She escaped the next day, but over the years since has heard about young travellers who weren't so lucky.
She found many young Western women travelling alone had been abducted, drugged and pulled into Thailand's sex trade, which in the late 1980s began swallowing women for what she called the "white girl experience".
"I came across one person whose friend just vanished and was never seen again while she was staying on Koh Samui."
She said sometimes these women turned up dead in Bangkok after having fatally overdosed on drugs.
Ms Furze, now a Sydney-based real estate investor who volunteers to help family and friends of homicide victims, hoped her new book would be a cautionary tale to travellers.
"This issue is still happening around the world. I hope this is a warning for girls who go travelling to follow their instincts ... and to not travel alone."
Carey Furze's Sex Slave can be ordered online through www.wilkinsonpublishing.com.au