Take a walk down Khao San Road in Bangkok and you’ll see people lining the streets asking for money. Only they’re not homeless locals struggling to feed their families; they’re gap yah backpackers who spent their week’s budget on too many drinks in the hostel bar #fail #YOLO.

There has been a recent rise in ‘begpackers’ - that’s backpackers who are begging - across some of the poorest countries in the world. Their attempts to fund their trips via begging, busking and occasionally selling their holiday photos have been snapped and shared on social media by more socially aware travellers - and disgusted locals.

Most of the begpackers have been spotted in South East Asia, along the well-trodden traveller’s trail of Thailand-Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam and across into Malaysia. One woman from Singapore, Maisarah Abu Samah, was shocked to see two white couples selling postcards and playing music for money.

“We find it extremely strange to ask other people for money to help you travel,” she told The Observers at France 24. “Selling things in the street or begging isn't considered respectable. People who do so are really in need: they beg in order to buy food, pay their children's school fees or pay off debts. But not in order to do something seen as a luxury.”