Thailand Tourists

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Thailand is a country that has long been heralded as one of the most amazing countries to visit. Most people I know have loved their time in Thailand, and so I was looking forward to exploring the country. I decided to concentrate on Northern Thailand, as I didn’t have much time, and wanted to avoid the beaches in the south, which I had heard had been pretty much ruined by tourism.

First stop was Chiang Mai, where I was to meet up with my friend Rich from Korea (who I also met up with in Hanoi). He had made friends with a cool group of people from all over, and we all rented motorbikes one day and went off exploring. After spending the morning exploring various waterfalls, we headed to the Tiger Temple. Here you can get in a cage with some tigers and have your photo taken with them – obviously this place splits opinions quite dramatically. Half the people love the idea of having their photo taken with a tiger – and half the people are disgusted by the thought that the tigers are locked up in cages and most probably drugged to keep them subdued enough for you to get your snaps in. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the place. Although it is really cool to be able to sit with the tigers, I still feel that it’s not particularly humane. I did a bit of research on the subject, and I’m inclined to believe that they aren’t drugged – more likely they have been trained from birth and kept extremely well fed. However, even if that is the case, being locked up in a cage having your photo taken with a bunch of English backpackers is no life if you ask me. So although I did it, it has made me think a bit more about responsible tourism. If you feel like something isn’t right, it probably isn’t - maybe it’s not worth that photo after all? Anyway, after visiting the tigers we headed up the windy mountain road to Wat Suthep – one of the most famous temples in Thailand that overlooks the city of Chiang Mai. I’m reluctant to describe yet another temple to you, so I’ll leave it to your imagination…the view from the top was spectacular, you could see for miles around. Even more fun was the motorbike ride back down the mountain!

Rich and I decided to book ourselves on an adventure filled day that must have incorporated half the attractions in the local area. More elephant riding (again raising more questions about responsible tourism…these hulks didn’t look too happy either), more waterfalls, some very tame white water rafting (where Rich managed to fall out the boat as he was trying to splash the Chinese girls in the next raft), and some bamboo rafting. It was all quite short and sweet, but was fun nonetheless. The last stop was a trip to the infamous Long Neck Village. The cost of going here was the bulk of the cost of the day, at about $15, so I was expecting it to be good. It’s not. What a zoo! You pay the money to go and look at about 15 market stalls, where the long neck women are selling their goods. These women put a new brass ring around their neck every year from about the age of 5, until they can’t fit on any more. The result is quite remarkable to look at, some of these women have really stretched their necks with these things. Actually, it doesn’t stretch their necks – the weight of it all pushes down on their collar bones and compresses the rib cage! Although they are a genuine tribe, this village has clearly been set up to cater for tourists, as everyone obviously wants their photos taken with them. But then out of guilt, you feel you have to buy something from them. Once again, I ended up choosing something totally useless for me – a ring that doesn’t even fit on my finger! Anyway, this place is a huge cash cow, the least genuine thing I have ever seen – to pay that amount of money to just go and look at some market stalls is daylight robbery! As time was passing in Thailand I was beginning to see a pattern recurring – everything is set up for tourists, everything is really commercialised and about making money – it was beginning to take away from the whole experience and I was becoming more disenchanted with the place.

For the next few days, Rich and I rented a couple of Honda Phantoms and set off on a three day loop around north-western Thailand, navigating over 1800 curves through the mountains. The drive is beautiful, and our first stop was Pai, the famous hippy town. Pai was a bit of a let-down for me – although it is chilled out and quite cool, there was nothing there that really blew me away. We were only there for a night and a day though, and it was raining a bit, so maybe that’s not a fair review. We did a bit of tubing down the dirtiest river in the world, visited Pai canyon, and chilled out for the day, before setting off for Mae Hong Son. Once you get past Pai, you rarely see tourists. The road continues to be spectacular, winding its’ way through the mountains – the perfect road for a motorbike! The going was a bit slow as it was raining on and off and some sections of the road were not great. The first time it started raining torrentially we managed to find a wooden shelter to hide under with a bunch of the locals. A car went past with a man clinging on to the bonnet wearing a balaclava, and using his arm to wipe the windscreen, as obviously the wipers weren’t working! I love how they do things in Asia sometimes – even the locals were in stitches! About 20km from Mae Hong Son it really began chucking it down. We sheltered for a bit, but it was getting dark and it showed no sign of letting up so we just accepted the fact we were going to get soaked and pushed on. The following day we decided to try and get back to Chiang Mai, a supposed 5 hour journey – with the rains and the roads though I was anticipating more! Sure enough it took us a lot longer, but once again it was a beautiful drive – driving along the Burmese border and over the highest mountain in Thailand, Doi Inthanon. It was a really great few days of driving, so much fun and great scenery – not to mention the fact that you really get off the tourist trail around those parts past Pai.

Rich and I went our separate ways, and I carried on down to the ancient ruins of Sukhothai. This is a huge area of ruins from the 13^th century, and I decided to break up the journey down to Bangkok by exploring them for a day or two. I rented out a bicycle and cycled round in the blistering heat – unbelievably there was barely anyone there! I must have only seen about ten other tourists all day. The ruins don’t even come close to the temples of Angkor in Cambodia, but the fact that there is no one else there really makes up for it. They are very well looked after though, so don’t quite have such an authentic feel about them, but it’s still nice to roam about for a bit. On the bus between Sukhothai and Bangkok, I was sitting next to a Thai guy who worked for the government in the tourist board, and he had some interesting things to say about tourism in Thailand. He said the hardest problem he had was trying to convince local communities to keep their culture. It’s something you see all over Thailand – most tourists are wanting certain things, and the Thai people are catering to them, often at the expense of their culture. Obviously the media and the internet don’t help too, with everyone wanting to modernise. This guy was really nice though, he went quite far out of his way to give me a lift from the bus station into the centre of Bangkok (in a Volkswagen Beetle of all things!).

Bangkok didn’t really do it for me. I spent the first day being conned – not out of money but out of time. I’m normally pretty savvy when it comes to scams, but my experience in Bangkok was that everyone was out to get me! Basically you are a walking ATM, and fair game for anyone to try and rip off. The first morning I went along the infamous Khao San Road to do a bit of shopping, but the prices of everything were ridiculous! Like $25 for a pair of fake shorts – and any attempt at haggling was met with ‘Get out of my shop’, or ‘No way, you leave now’! It was a bit of a shock coming from Vietnam where you bargain hard and it’s usually a fun experience. Here, they seemed happy to charge extortionate prices as I guess lots of tourists buy them at that price, and so are reluctant to go any lower. I think it’s a bit of a vicious circle in Thailand – they are so jaded and annoyed by tourists now they are beginning to be a bit rude to them. As a result, tourists are a bit rude back, and it carries on. Anyway, after a morning of buying nothing, I then attempted to go to the Grand Palace. On my way, I stopped to check my phone and a friendly Thai guy came over for a chat. He told me that the Grand Palace was closed for a Buddhist holiday until 4pm, and that I should go to a bunch of other temples which he kindly wrote down. Well I’d already heard about the ‘closed for a holiday’ scam, so was aware of it, but he then let me walk away with all the information – so I thought that maybe it actually was closed until 4pm as he hadn’t asked for anything. Then he calls after me and says to make sure I get a yellow tuk-tuk and no others as they are rip-offs. He then said there was one coming and proceeded to flag one down. I knew what was going on here, and realised it was just his mate coming, so I politely refused and went to get lunch, and decided to go to the temple later. Well as I set off for the temple later around 3.30, I asked the receptionist and he told me that it closed at 3. I was so angry as this guy earlier had just wasted my day! That evening I was going over to the other side of the city, and decided to see how much a tuk-tuk would cost. After negotiating a really good price, I hopped in and we headed off. After a minute or two, the driver said that we had to stop at a couple of his friends’ factories…another scam I’d heard of, but he said that I just needed to pretend I was interested for 10 minutes so he could get his fuel coupon. I was a bit annoyed but agreed as long as he got me to where I was going on time. Well it wasn’t a factory but a tailors. So I go in and the owner sits me down and starts asking what type of suit I want. I was caught really off guard, and so tried to look interested, but after a few minutes the guy puts everything down and tells me to get out. Apparently I clearly wasn’t interested in a suit (well perceived), and I was wasting his time. So I leave and get back in the tuk-tuk, where the driver tells me to make sure I stay in the next one for longer!!! So the next one is a tailors too, and I’m more prepared this time, and pretend to be interested for 10 minutes and then leave, only to find the driver has disappeared. Another driver tells me that he will be back in ten minutes, so I wait around for a bit, and then just decided to screw this guy – I was going to be late and so why should I wait for him! I hadn’t paid him, so just jumped in a taxi! I was a bit cautious walking round the tourist area for the next few days though as I’m sure he was going to be out looking for me! Getting a taxi back later also proved to be a nightmare – you have to ask about 20 cabs before you find one that will put the meter on, as they know they can get 2 or 3 times as much money out of you off the meter. They all seem to be in on it together, as it’s almost impossible to find one on a meter! So my first day was spent with nothing but being hassled and ripped off, and I wasn’t having such a great time – I felt like everyone was just out to get me! It is frustrating, as I really like talking to the locals, but in Bangkok I just felt I couldn’t trust anyone, and as a result you treat anyone that approaches you accordingly. I met lots of really nice Thai people, but I found that the majority of people working in the tourist industry were extremely unfriendly and rude – a lot different from my experiences in the rest of Asia.

I’d been wanting to do a cooking course for a little while, and so decided to try and find one in Bangkok. I had a quick look in the Lonely Planet, and the first advert I saw was for a cookery class called ‘Helping Hands’. Sounded legit until I looked at the name of the website - ‘www.cookingwithpoo.com’. So I decided to give that one a miss, and booked somewhere through my hotel…It was a good, if brief, course, and I learnt how to make Thai Green Curry, Tom Yum Kung, Pad Thai, and sweet pumpkin in coconut milk. I obviously had to eat everything I made, so I was pretty stuffed by the end of it!

I also checked out the FlowHouse while I was there. This is an artificial wave that you can surf, and I’ve been wanting to go on one for ages so took the opportunity. It was great fun, not really like surfing, more like a cross between wakeboarding and snowboarding I guess – but it was still great! It takes a little while to get used to it, especially when there are loads of little expat kids absolutely ripping on it and putting you to shame! I eventually did go the Grand Palace as well, which is impressive, but not worth the massive $15 entrance fee. Wat Pho was much better, where they have a huge golden reclining Buddha. We decided to get an hour long Thai massage here, something I’ve never done before, and something I’m unlikely ever to do again. Probably the most painful thing I’ve ever done. If someone had filmed my face throughout it would have made a great TV program! I can’t believe I paid money for that – I’m sure it’s all a big joke in Thailand…’I know what, lets charge all the foreigners loads of money, and we’ll beat them up for an hour and tell them it’s good for them’…and they all laugh at the end of the day watching all the foreigners walk off crippled thinking that it was good for them! Next time I’ll jump in front of a car, it’s a lot cheaper and I’m sure a much less painful massage…

We also went to watch a Muay Thai fight in one of the main stadiums in Thailand – Lumphini. We bought the (really) expensive ringside seats, but got a great view of the fighting. Each fight starts off with a kind of dance that both fighters perform, and then 2 or 3 rounds of fairly tame fighting, before things really kick off in the last two rounds. It’s pretty vicious, but not quite as brutal as I thought it would be. We only saw one guy throwing up on the floor…It was a great experience and I was glad we were ringside. The atmosphere in there is amazing, with all the locals gambling and shouting, and all the trainers screaming and leaping backwards and forwards with each move. It gets electric in there, and I enjoyed soaking it all up.

On my last day in Bangkok, I travelled around the city using the taxi boats – definitely the cheapest and most fun way to get around. I explored Chinatown, roaming round the markets and the oil-soaked streets where they mend all the car engines (where they used to repair all the old Chinese junks back in the day). Sampling all the street food and drinking tea with a bunch of old guys was a fun way to spend my last day.

The great thing about Bangkok is that it is such an international hub, you’re always bound to bump into people you know there. I didn’t have a single night where I was on my own – I bumped into people I knew from Korea, people I knew from home, and people I’d met on my travels throughout Southeast Asia. Although I moan about all the problems I had there, I still had a good time, and I’m sure that as a city it has a lot more to offer – especially if you stay away from the touristy areas.

I think Thailand for me was missing something. Vietnam has the pace of life (and much better food in my opinion!), Laos has the laid back life and scenery, Cambodia has Angkor Wat and a fascinating history. Thailand had, well, all of the above but nothing that really took my breath away – there were some nice places but I found everything to be better in the rest of Asia. Maybe it’s not so much that it’s missing something, but that it has too much of something else. There were too many tourists everywhere, and everything felt so commercialised. Catering to tourists is the name of the game, and a game they are winning at the expense of their culture. I didn’t feel that excitement that you get when you arrive somewhere that is so different to anything you have seen before. The first store I saw in Thailand was a Tesco, and that for me sums it up. I know a lot of people will probably disagree with me about this, but it’s just how I felt while I was there. Of course it’s a big country, and I was only there for a short time, and I’m sure there are plenty of places off the beaten track. Just another excuse to come back and explore more!

Anyway, next stop is Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam for a few days, before heading on to Sri Lanka!

Hope you are all well at home, keep me updated on what you’re up to!

Love Ross x

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Photos

Long Neck Village
The next big rock band

Comments

[Home and Away]

Your impression of Thailand was pretty accurate...
having grown up there, I was pretty disappointed as to the changes during my last visit. I see that you went up Doi Inthanon...I supervised the construction of the road to the top of that mountain and the radar station on top...that was 1974-75.

[Ross Parker]

Yeh the road up there is great - good job haha!