The Commercialization of Thailand

Well a lot has happened since I last wrote here and I am realizing that I really need to be better about taking some moments to kick back and put my thoughts into writing (or type). Let me start off by saying that Thailand was beautiful and I saw tons of amazing things, met some great people and enjoyed almost all of it…almost. The highlights for me were definitely the amazing street food (spuper cheap), lounging on Lamai beach, the boat trip to Ang Tong, the jungle excursion and night on Cheow Lan lake, trail running and night marketing in Chiang Mai. Now onto that ‘almost’ I mentioned above.

The true locals I met were all wonderful people, but sadly there seems to be so much tourism focused on extorting every last dollar it sometimes soured the experience. Shuttle bus rides that would randomly stop in the middle of no where to sell you a tour or some overpriced food,  boat piers hours from any public transport so you need to pay for the overpriced taxis, and half the guesthouses focused more on selling high priced tours than helping customers or heaven forbid helping you do something on your own. Just a few sour experiences in an otherwise wonderful country I guess.  Of course this is just my personal experience for my first time being in SE Asia and just traveling where I did. Maybe I didn’t get far enough off the beaten path or was looking in all the wrong places,  but that’s how it went. 

I will probably return to Thailand at some point with a new agenda and a new point of view. But only two days into Cambodia the people have been nothing but wonderful and the culture so warm and welcoming. I think I’m going to like it here. As always I’ll leave you with some photos from my travels around Thailand,  the next blog will be a photo heavy writeup on my tour of the Angkor temples and Siem Reap.

Monkeys of Khao Sok.

Boat tour on Cheow Lan Lake.

Tramping through the jungle, kind of on trail, or just in the river.

The cave was flooded so we went and bathed in a waterfall instead.

A quiet night lake side on Cheow Lan Lake.

Early morning kayak all by my lonesome on the lake.

Descending into coral cave.

Wandering the Chiang Mai night market

Took the long way via trail up to Doi suthep

Temple stairs hidden deep in the forest.

The lovely and ornate white temple

Giraffes and zebras! OK so it was the Singha Park zoo in Chiang Rai, but it was still cool.

Wandering the tea fields of Singha Park on my lay day in Thailand.


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8 thoughts on “The Commercialization of Thailand

  1. Charles D

    I felt very similarly about my time in Costa Rica. There was way too much space between the real people and the experience fed to tourists. No one else seemed to care which bothered me even more. Next time, I’d go to a less tourism-developed country.

    Reply
  2. Sally

    Good morning, Eric.

    Election Day here in the States.

    Your sunset photo of Langshisha was the best.

    Sally 11–8-16

    Reply
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