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Photo: The Mekong in North-Eastern Thailand forms part of the border between Thailand and Laos. I have tried to visit parts of Thailand not usually visited by tourists in addition to the tourists hotspots. What's On This Page? |
Thailand - My Travels Page 1This page is a summary of some of the places I have visited in Thailand with brief descriptions and personal impressions. With places that I have visited more than once, my view of them may have changed over time especially if that location has undergone a lot of change such as Pattaya, Phuket or Khaolak. Considering how much time I have spent in Thailand, I have seen relatively little of the country. This has been a conscious decision. My objective while in Thailand has always been to absorb as much about the culture as I could and get to know the local people. In order to do this I have found it a much more effective strategy to spend long periods of time in relatively few places rather than to run around the country spending a few days here and there. My relationships with Thai people after staying in one place and getting to know them over time have been far more rewarding for me, and I hope for them. It has never been my aim to tour the country with a backpack staying in as many different places as possible for a day or two, never being in any one location to really get to know the place or its inhabitants. If it has not already become apparent by reading through these pages, I am different to the majority of people who visit Thailand. I have a tendency to like places other farangs don't and vice-versa. It actually works very well for me but please bear this in mind when reading my opinions because I am an exception and not the norm.
Despite Burma's best efforts to complete destroy the city in 1767 a lot of the old temples still remain and are in fairly good condition for their age. The red bricked temples and lush green lawns are beautiful. Ayuthaya is easily accessible from Bangkok and is well worth visiting. See my Ayuthaya page for more photos and impressions.
Thailand's capital is a huge, sprawling city and considerably larger in all respects than any other Thai city by a massive margin. There is a wealth of accommodation from backpacker hostels on the Khao Sarn Road to world-class hotels along the river although my preference is for something in between. It is rich culturally with such buildings as the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Wat Arun and several museums. The noise and pollution from traffic fumes, especially when the weather is hot and humid, can be quite overwhelming. Bangkok has changed beyond recognition in the last few years. Development is going on at a frantic pace and the pollution levels aren't getting any better. The traditional Thai way of life is fast being eroded. Hardly anyone smiles or has time to talk in a country where generally everyone loves to smile and talk. After having lived in a provincial Thai town for several years it has given me a different perspective on Bangkok compared to when I used to arrive as a tourist. For a start it seems expensive. I never thought this before but the tendency is to compare prices with where you have just come from. Compared to my place of birth it is cheap but compared to a Thai provincial town it is very expensive. There are lots of tourists and, as a result, lots of Thais who make a living preying on tourists. At almost every location where tourists visit in Bangkok there are opportunist Thais around trying to scam a few Baht out of them. Such is life in a big city. Another thing that struck me was the appearance and behaviour of farang tourists. To be frank some of the sights I have seen make me squirm with embarrassment. I have put together some thoughts and views from recent trips to Bangkok, 'Bangkok Revisited'. Bangkok has a reputation for its nightlife and first time visitors should definitely take a look at what goes on but I have found that seeing it once was enough. I was intrigued and quite fascinated by some of the nightlife back in 1987 but on repeat visits found it quite boring.
Chiang Mai is where many hill tribe trekking tours start from. I didn't go on a hill tribe trek but spent a day river rafting and elephant riding. It was okay but very touristy. The villagers who live in the area all rush out holding items to sell as the tourists go by and the tourists point cameras at them to take photos. It was all very artificial and made me feel a little uncomfortable.
It is an area of outstanding natural beauty and home to some of the friendliest Thais I have ever met. Also in its favour is a lack of sleaze, prostitution, bars, bargirls, sexpats and sex tourists - the things I have come to despise since I came to live in Thailand. My visit has caused me to think quite seriously about a permanent move there some time in the future. For more thoughts and photos see my Chiang Rai page.
In many ways it reminded me of Hat Yai. It is quite large for a provincial Thai city and it is a real, working town. Overall it is probably cleaner and doesn't have the large Muslim population that Hat Yai has but, like Hat Yai, I noticed a lot of Chinese. There are several markets around town that operate at different times - morning, day and night. Transport connections are pretty good as it is on the main route going through the Isthmus of Kra. Chumpon is not actually on the coast but there are beaches nearby. Again, all of these statements apply to Hat Yai as well. Because it is a jumping off point for Ko Tao there are far too many farangs there for my liking. Not only does this spoil the atmosphere but certain establishments in town have realised they can push prices up when there is a high farang presence.
It is the same tourists who love Phuket that say there is nothing in places like Chumpon and Hat Yai. It doesn't take long to figure out what they come to Thailand for.
They are experimenting with water-cooled walls in their rooms to eliminate the need for air-conditioning units. Guests can stroll around the grounds to see their environmental policies in action. Organic rice is grown and milled using traditional methods before being served in the hotel restaurant. Accommodation at Chumpon Cabana ranges from Bt1,260 to Bt2,200 depending on the type of room and whether it is high or low season. Tel. +66 (0) 7756 0245-7
It is just a big tourist trap. There are no Thai shoppers at the market, just foreign tourists. Consequently, what is being sold is aimed at foreign tourists so the vendors concentrate on selling souvenir trinkets and the Thai equivalent of 'Kiss me quick' hats. I wanted to relax and take some photos but was constantly harassed by vendors touting for business. It wasn't at all what I had hoped for.
As I started to write this I was trying to think of a suitable adjective to describe the town but whatever I use will be judgmental. How it is described depends largely on ones personal view. Some possibilities might be: 'interesting', 'fun', 'sordid', 'immoral', 'highly dubious', 'disgusting'. Before I started to spend time in southern Thailand I didn't realise what notorious sex tourists the Malaysians are, especially those of Chinese ethnicity (and the Indians aren't far behind). It would be interesting to know how much money is coming over the border this way but it must be a huge amount. At weekends Malaysian men flood into larger Thai towns such as Hat Yai to get their 'booking' girls. However, there are towns all along the Thai/Malaysian border such as Dannok, Sungai Kolok and Pedang Besar that cater to them on a smaller scale. These places have sprung up purely for that purpose. They are within a few hundred meters of the border and all that exists in these towns are 'Karaoke' bars (brothels, to be more precise), massage parlours and the infrastructure to support the sex trade - hotels, restaurants and shops. They are convenient for the Malaysian men who can't be bothered, or who don't have the time, to go further into Thailand. Along the streets are rows and rows of bars and massage parlours with hundreds (maybe thousands) of girls sitting outside. Roaming around the streets are Malaysian men in pairs or small groups. There must be a lot of single men in Malaysia or maybe they tell their wives they are playing golf? Many of the bars have names like 'Chiang Mai', 'Chiang Rai', 'Chiang Rai 2', etc. A lot of the girls appear to be from those cities or from Isaan and they are popular with the Malaysians who, like other Asian men, prefer light-skinned girls. Whereas in Hat Yai the sex tourists are mainly Chinese, whenever I have been to Dannok I have seen mainly Malaysian Indians. Unlike Hat Yai which does cater to families and female tourists, there is only one kind of Malaysian tourist in Dannok: sex tourists. There is nothing there apart from prostitution and the whole scene is quite ugly. The town is filthy with litter piled up everywhere. On my last two visits to the Sadao immigration office I have had to go to Dannok to catch a minivan. I've watched young Thai kids of seven or eight going from rubbish bin to rubbish bin looking for anything of value. Many of the working girls aren't very clean looking and even if you are tempted by one of the pretty girls, a quick look at some of the Malaysian clients they are servicing week after week should be enough to put you off completely. The prostitution scene elsewhere in Thailand can look quite glamorous when it is all painted up and set amidst palm trees near a pretty beach but there is nothing pretty or glamorous about Dannok.
In case you were wondering, I might write cynically at times but I don't have an issue with what goes on here. Whatever ones moral viewpoint, the law of supply and demand will always win. The men are happy to get their leg over and the girls are happy to earn some money. The girls aren't forced to do the work. They arrive completely of their own volition and many come from the opposite end of the country after making a 24 hour bus journey. Update: Since writing the above I have been to Dannok several times on border runs. It doesn't get any cleaner but the town continues to grow further in the direction away from the border. There are now some quite large hotels. It is getting to be a fair sized town. What hasn't changed though is why people visit. There is absolutely nothing of any scenic or cultural significance and there is no reason to build lots of hotels when Hat Yai is so close and already has a huge tourist infrastructure. The only reason people visit - and 100% of visitors are men - is for prostitution. Prostitution is illegal in Thailand and the Thais get very upset if foreigners suggest Thailand is notorious for prostitution but look at the evidence. It's a joke. I have written a separate page about Dannok if you would like more details.
When I arrived there was something I liked about the place and although I was only intending staying for two days I stayed for four. I would have stayed longer but I felt obliged to rejoin my friends who by now were in Khaolak. I returned again later for more of a look around and got to know the town quite well. I think I know why I like it. Provincial Thai towns that don't get many tourists can be dark, depressing places. Towns with tourists are normally a lot more fun but I hate being where there are lots of farangs. Hat Yai has lots of tourists so it is a fun town. However, the tourists are mainly from Malaysia and Singapore so to me they don't seem like normal tourists. For me Hat Yai has the right balance of 'Thainess' but still has a lot of the good things that come when tourists arrive. There are some great restaurants and a few good bars with live music.
Around town are lots of massage parlours offering various services. There are an incredible amount of salons and foot massage places. A very common sight in Hat Yai are rows of Chinese lying back in leatherette easy chairs having their feet massaged. They also indulge in facial treatments and love having their ears cleaned out by young Thai girls with cotton buds. The 'Ancient Massage' places (as they are known) employ hundreds of girls to satisfy mainly male visitors. For a small fee the girls can be booked out all day if required and negotiated with for extra services. There is a thriving prostitution industry in town. Many of the establishments call themselves Karaoke bars but there is no singing. They are just places for male clients to select their girl. In Hat Yai the term used for hiring a girl is a "booking" and the girls are often referred to as "booking girls". If a client pays for one she stays with him until the following morning.
It doesn't take too long to work out what is going on in Hat Yai and when you do, you realise that it is quite an immoral place. I was told on more than one occasion that in certain occupations almost all the girls are available for sex. I know that this isn't quite true as not ALL girls think this way but the visiting Malaysian men certainly make this assumption. If they like the look of a girl they will think nothing of making her a monetary offer.
On the other hand though, without the tourist money coming into town Hat Yai would be just another depressing provincial town so I accept that without them it wouldn't be the place it is. Hat Yai is the way it is for two reasons. The first is its location, being near to the Malaysian border and on a main route between Thailand and Malaysia. The second reason is Malaysia being a Muslim country which restricts a lot of activities Malaysians - especially Chinese Malaysians - regard as fun. In addition to the Singaporean and Malaysian weekend visitors, Hat Yai sees a few farang tourists but not too many. They just seem to use it as a staging post between Malaysia and somewhere else in Thailand - normally Krabi - to break up the journey. Most of the farang visitors are typical backpackers. They don't tend to stay around long and they always stay at crumby guest houses within 300 meters proximity of the railway station - this seems to be an unwritten rule with backpackers.
However, take a walk to the fresh market and beyond, venturing quite literally on to the wrong side of the railway tracks and a very different side of Hat Yai emerges. A side of Hat Yai that the local tourist authority don't say very much about. A shanty area with very poor Thais living in wooden shacks under corrugated roofs. An area where no tourists go (I know this from the amount of attention I receive when I go). It's just a couple of kilometres from Lee Gardens Plaza where BMW show off their latest models to affluent Thais but a million miles away from Lee Gardens Plaza in terms of wealth and prosperity.
I therefore only buy from department stores now and never off the street. But department stores exist everywhere, they are not unique to Hat Yai. I can't actually think of anything that's worth buying in Hat Yai and as for technology products forget it. Run-of-the-mill computers and cameras are available but it is impossible to get anything that is a little bit specialised without it being ordered from Bangkok.
The bus journey from Bangkok's northern bus terminal - Mo Chit - takes around two-and-a-half hours and costs Bt90. I would imagine that most tourists going to Kanchanaburi go there to visit the infamous River Kwai bridge and allied POW war cemeteries. That's what I did. My feelings were mixed in that what happened was an awful episode of recently history but the whole thing has been turned into a tourist attraction. For instance, information about the cemeteries is posted not by the War Graves Commission but by the Tourist Authority of Thailand. Considering what actually took place it doesn't seem right to have a lot of grinning tourists taking photos of each other on the bridge as if they were in Disneyland. A visit to the Death War Museum brought home to me just how cruel the Japanese had been to POWs. In the Japanese Imperial army it was commonplace for officers to dish out corporal punishment to lower ranked officers. Those in charge of the POWs were very lowly-ranked and had probably suffered a lot of abuse from above. They in turn took out their anger and frustration on the POWs. The abuse was terrible. Up to 28 men slept in tents designed for eight in the middle of the jungle with no protection from mosquitoes, lice and leeches. Their diet was totally inadequate for men carrying out hard physical labour, they were beaten and had no proper toilet facilities or medical care. Those men who were too ill to work had their rations stopped as an incentive to get them back to work. They suffered from malaria, cholera, beri-beri and other tropical diseases yet were still forced to do hard work in the tropical heat. It must have been hell. I didn't see many Japanese tourists, not that there is any connection with the present generation and the soldiers who meted out such cruelty during WW2. There were however a lot of Chinese tourists. Was this just a coincidence or, with a lot of tension still between the two countries, do the Chinese get some kind of satisfaction seeing the evidence of Japanese wartime atrocities?
The cemeteries are beautifully kept. The one I visited (Don Rak) contains the graves of allied British and Dutch soldiers. What I always find most concerning about WW1 and WW2 war memorials is the age of the soldiers, some of whom were in their teens or early 20's when they were killed. It is tragic. The museum adjacent to Don Rak cemetery is excellent and costs Bt60. The telephone number for more information is 034 510067. Apart from WW2 memories there are a lot of places to visit in Kanchanaburi which I didn't see. There are temples, old ruins, caves, waterfalls, museums, national parks and one temple which is a refuge for wild tigers and other animals which looks very interesting. There is a tourist information office on the main road near the bus station which can provide more information. Because of the amount of tourists visiting Kanchanaburi there is a lot of accommodation. Near the River Kwai bridge are many guest houses offering budget accommodation and in town there are several hotels. Each year in late November is River Kwai Bridge week, a big festival where an allied bombing raid is enacted. This is a big draw for both tourists and Thais and the town gets packed. If you plan to visit hen it is advisable to pre-book accommodation but during the rest of the year accommodation is normally easy to find when you turn up. From Bangkok there is a special train which leaves Bangkok at 6:30am on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays. It stops at Nakhon Pathom (a lovely place) and passes through the Kanchanaburi countryside before going across the River Kwai bridge. It goes on to a waterfall before making the journey back to Bangkok, returning at around 8pm. I haven't done this trip myself but would like to sometime in the future. It sounds great.
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