Leonardo DiCaprio cemented Thailand as the go-to destination for backpackers following the release of The Beach in 2000, but in the years since parts of the South East Asian destination have become victims of its own success, plagued by over-tourism.
So much so, the actual beach where the then 24-year-old actor shot most of his scenes is closed to tourists to allow biodiversity to return. It follows years of abuse as hundreds of longboats bringing throngs of daily visitors poured petrol into the bay.
The BBC’s big new drama, The Serpent, which is mostly set in Thailand’s capital Bangkok, kicks off 25 years before Leo arrived on its shores.
Set in the mid-seventies, the eight-parter is a snapshot of what it was like for the real pioneers of experimental travel, who touched down decades before relatively cheap international air travel arrived and the hordes descended.
The crime drama, based on real life events, captures the frenetic nature of Bangkok as it was then.
It shows why the city’s labyrinthine feel has timeless appeal, as we’re rushed through back streets on thrilling tuk-tuk chases, down roads lined with chefs attending boiling pots of street food, and more gently, on longboats which meander past the houses lining Bangkok’s backwaters.
The Serpent also imagines the lavish world of the expats who would throw excessive pool parties at their condos in the city, where guests would sink Mai Tais ’til dawn. It also exposes the dark reality of the city too, like the sex workers in the bars of Patpong.
Filmed on location in Bangkok in places where real-life backpacker killer Charles Sobhraj (brought to terrifying life by Tahir Rahim) lurked, the eight-part series serves as a memory prompter for people who have visited, but through a nostalgic lens of the fashions, styles and attitudes of nearly fifty years ago.
In one joyous scene, travellers on The Hippie Trail toke on spliffs out of half-cracked windows on a brightly-coloured bus as they ascend the mountains in Nepal. Vistas of snow-capped and jungle-laden mountains span every direction.
But away from the obvious visual delights, The Serpent isn’t always an easy watch. When the killings take place, the show becomes one of the tensest thrillers on TV.
Viewers are ripped from escapist, cluttered, colourful Bangkok to confined, intimate scenes revealing the torture Charles inflicts upon his victims.
Juxtaposing the travel porn are dingy shots from within the killer’s apartment, as victims lay dying, curled up in his spare bedroom or tied up on the rear seat of his car.
But get through the grimness and the show evokes the freedoms none of us can have right now: the privilege of discovering a new smell as you explore a foreign city, or peering around yet another corner without knowing what’s to come.
Michael Palin returned to our screens again this past Christmas with look-backs through some of his classic documentaries. But while the formula of that show sees Michael sat at home reading through his diaries and rewatching old travel shows and lamenting the loss of travel, The Serpent actually makes you feel as if you are in Thailand, for a few brief hours - and TV is all the better for it.
The Serpent airs Sundays on BBC One at 9pm. The series is available to stream in full on iPlayer now. Watch the trailer below.