Thailand, the land of smiles

Thailand is a south-eastern country, for some also known under the name of Siam. Siam – it’s the place where the Siamese cats originate from. The land stretches over about half a million of square kilometres and has around 65 million of population. To the north and north-west it borders on Myanmar, to the north-east to Laos, to the south-east to Cambodia and to the south to Malaysia. The national capital is Bangkok, with around 15 million of inhabitants. Politically the country is a constitutional monarchy with a democratic parliamentary regime. After many unrests and cues the situation stabilised in the past few years. Today Thailand is among safer south Asian countries. As many other nations Thailand is also facing economic crises, but still remained to be the leading producers of natural rubber, sixth producer of rice and eight producer of sugar in the world. 

 

Bangkok is most likely the city with the longest official name in the world: Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathatthiya Witsanukam Prasit. Many people complain about their first encounter with the huge city, saying there’s bad smalls of various fried food and sweat in the city. You can see poverty everywhere, unfit barracks, women washing clothes in dirty river and thousands of homeless dogs. Many feel they should turn back, especially when they enter the chaotic traffic with exhaust fumes of many motorised transportation – you can basically feel there’s too many people in one place. But there are various offers for travellers, endlessly pushed at you. If you, however, last enough to get to know this chaotic city, it becomes quite nice. The locals are good-hearted, smiling and happy to meet any visitor. Among all locals the spirtis usually get highest with the monks, that are very much present on the streets. Not to get stuck in traffic, you should take the typical transportation device – the tuk-tuki, which is a tricycle that, naturally, most drivers completely disregard in traffic. I suggest you hire a local taxi driver to explore the city as he will be able to take you to the most attractive places and explain to you all about them. And about places to sleep – there’s tons of them. Still I suggest you choose a good hostel, where you’ll also meet travellers from other parts of the globe. The offer is very rich and you can find them at: www.hihostels.com/destinations/th/hostels. 

The north part of the country has many mountains and invites tourists to participate in trekking tours, but there are also many tribes living here. The best known are the tribes: Karen, White Karen, Lisu, Lasu and Karenni, and everybody can get to visit them. Mostly these tribes moved in from other neighbouring countries. The reason is the lack of wild animals due to extensive hunting as there used to be many monkeys, tigers and other wild animals living here. 

 

There are some remarkably beautiful villages here, where locals organize tours and treks for tourists. They take you to canyons, natural springs, underground caves, waterfalls, unspoiled nature, tribal villages, to rafting, canyoning, mountainbiking, classes of Thai cooking, elephant riding, relaxing massages and you can even get drugs, which are available. Such a mass of tourists coming to the north does begin to take its toe on the nature, which is not unspoiled anymore.

 

Among the most known tribes I’ve mentioned before, are Karenni, known for women with extremely long necks. They start placing brass rings on girls at the age of 5 and should represent the protection from tiger bites. They also serve for identification and are a beauty symbol. The girl gets the last ring just before her wedding and average woman has between 22 and 27 rings, with combined weight of around 5 and 7 kilos. Their necks don’t actually grow longer, but the weight and presser make the collar bones grow lower making the illusion of long necks. Apart from this, there are other local tribal interesting things, among which we should mention their believe systems. You can find Buddhist, Christians and also pagan cults worshiping spirits. The Christians are a minority, but have made their church out of bamboos. Unlike churches you might be used to, there is nothing shinning in them. Buddhist temples are usually inside local houses as shrines and the spirit worshipers just peel trees in the vilages, where they perform various rituals for keeping bad spirits away. 

Southern parts of Thailand are – compared to the north – very different. It has numerous islands where you can experience many interesting things. The biggest difference between both parts, however, are the prices. As the south has developed tourism, the prices are much higher. The most visited places are Phuket, Pai, Phi Phi, Koh Samui and others. Among many islands there are still some that don’t attract so many tourists. It’s this part of Thailand that was most devastated by the 2004 tsunami which wiped whole villages of the surface and flooded the whole straights of the island Phi Phi. Until today they’ve managed to rebuild most of it, so you can’t really see traces of the disaster. The south, also, offers activities for the tourists, such as trekking around jungle, rivers, diving on the coral reef, and naturally enjoying the paradise beaches. There’s even a snake farm, where you can get a close encounter with the very dangerous king cobra. With some “luck” you can even find one in the wild. 

Developed sex tourism and night life on one hand and serving Buddha and country on the other. The paradise island country also got the reputation of being a sex destination, so many tourists come here to quench their lust. On the streets in hotels and just about everywhere you can see most unusual combinations of couples. Most people would see something bad in it, but both the customer and the sex service provider are both happy. One is getting the money, or in some cases even food only, and the other is getting the thing which was the reason for the visit of the country in the first place. You’ll encounter the sex tourism all over Bangkok already, but the centre of it is in the part of the city called Pattaya. The city features all sorts of fun spectacles and the offer of girls and travesties, nevertheless also men, is really rich. But the offer is not there only at night, you can get it anytime, even in the mornings when elderly ladies yell after tourists: »Happy hour for you,« offering young girls at low prices.

 

The contrast to the sex tourism is service to country and Buddha. Among young boys they select ¼ who will go to army duty. They call groups of 100 local boys of the right age and distribute tokens among them. 25 are red and 75 are black. The red ones are allowed to go to the army and they get paid about 100€ a month (a teacher gets paid around 150€ a month). The rest may try their luck next time, as the military duty presents a steady job for 2 years. The reason why military service is not obligatory for everybody lies within the Buddhist religion. The country has 80% of Buddhists and that’s not only a religion, it is a way of life. Every Buddhist must serve Buddha for a year and you can recognise the monks from far away. They have shaven heads and eyebrows and are called Monks. They are dressed in three parted clothes, all orange. Those who work for Buddha – either for one year only, or for entire life – do not get paid for it, they live off the money and food they collect. They prepare a ritual of gratitude for the food if they receive it and the donor believes to get paid back in the next life. 

 

Thailand is a country where those who don’t have many experience can safely travel to. Even if you don’t speak languages, you will get by OK. It’s a country with busy cities, prostitution, chaotic city traffic, but also rich history and temples connected to it, with religion, the countryside and the paradise beaches, and probably some more things as well.