Thailand Travel Thoughts

I left Thailand last week and boy am I going to miss it. It's fiery, loud, smelly and all around wild. The country is so diverse ranging from the most pristine limestone features carved through the ages to the crazy crystal clear water everyone is so desperate to put on their social media.

I stayed on this island Koh Lanta for a few weeks because it was quieter, calm and the least amount of tourists I could find in the south. After a while you get really sick of seeing the trash from Western food companies and the old white men looking for their Thai brides. I just wanted to be in nature and hang with the locals. I found that in Koh Lanta. So don't go there haha. Leave it be.

It's a paradox traveling and being a tourist while criticizing it constantly. We all want to travel but none of us want to do it in a way that respects the people, cultures and land of the places we visit. We want the food we are accustomed to. The air conditioned hotel room that required foreign materials to be shipped halfway across the world to construct. We don't want to learn the language or the customs of the religions. This would require us to get out of our comfort zones. And who wants that. . . Well I do.

I came to Thailand in the hopes to find a land far off. Far from the western hyper dualised way of thinking. The ways of profit and resource hoarding. To my dismay the conquest of the west did not skip over this country. In the most touristic of areas it was depressing. I'm not even sure why people would travel to some locations and say they left their home country. . . .BUT in Koh Lanta I found what I was looking for. And a few hours on a scooter it got even better And I'm not gonna tell you where. I found no "Ferrangs"(tourist). Just the locals.

It was a Muslim island in a Buddhist country. Far from what I know as familiar. Here the kids laughed. And played. People waved and smiled. No one tried to sell me anything. Just a hello and a smile. I loved it. People going about their lives respecting one another. Living off of the land and building their homes from local materials. It was glorious. I can't wait to come back and find more of this.

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this. I don't want to ever sound negative about my travels. I am so grateful for my travels and the experiences I am having. But I always have to remain in reality. Observe what is going on around me. Observe the effects for the better or worse of tourism. I hope this has made you think and possibly consider you travel habits.

Much love,

Arqetype