RE: Thailand no longer wants backpackers
"a lot of people don't want to live a regimented life"
It is a shame, because the regimented lives that we are all being pushed into living come with so little awareness and adventure that many of us die without ever having really lived at all. We might as well all be robots, engaging in the same routines and programs as everyone else, then simply shutting down, indistinguishable from anyone else in the great robot scrapyard in the sky.
My sister once went backpacking for about a year, and to this day, she dines out on stories about those days. They shaped her too, allowing her to engage with all kinds of people, and she's so much better for it, she's an example to me, that's for sure.
Of course those days ended, as she wanted a family, and only the regimented life can really sustain family life, as far as I can tell. But those days still live in her, opening her children's eyes to a wider world that they may never see if Thailand and all the world's wonders shut their doors to adventure. :(