I am writing this after spending six months in Thailand over the course of three years, doing one two-month trip each year.
Though I hope to keep traveling extensively and not settle in a single place anytime soon, if I were forced to settle anywhere today, it would undoubtedly be Thailand. Thailand is my favorite country.
I don’t like saying things like that because I haven’t been to that many countries. Probably only around 30, and of those I think there are only four that I’ve spent more than one month in (yeah, I know, “only”). So, I don’t feel very qualified to make any serious claims for one country over another. All I can say is that I really love Thailand!
I’m not alone in my love for Thailand, though. Bangkok, my favorite city in the world, makes the top 10 list of the most visited cities in the world, and Thailand was in the top ten most visited countries before the pandemic and will probably be back on the list any year now. Tourism is a major part of the economy, contributing to 12% of GDP and 20% of overall employment, according to a 2024 speech by the Governor of the Bank of Thailand. There’s a large number of expats. Most people I talk to who have passports seem to have been there at some point. It’s hardly a hidden gem or an unusual travel destination.
With that said, I hardly see tourists when I’m there. Really. Other than the Grand Palace and like two other places, I don’t know where they go, what they do, or why they come. I see so many white people in the immigration line at the airport, but by the time I get to my Airbnb in Bangkok they’ve all but vanished, only to magically reappear in droves a month later when I go to extend my visa at some random crappy mall on the outskirts of Bangkok (I’ve been there three times now and love that place).
I always fly to and from Thailand via India, and I’m generally the only non-Indian on the flight, but then for the two months I’m there I don’t see any Indians other than my wife except for when I go see movies at Icon Siam and walk by the VAT refund line at the entrance of the mall. What’s a VAT refund? I have no idea, but lots of Indians are willing to spend their precious vacation time lining up for it. I thought I’d see some Indian people at the famous Hindu temple in Bangkok, in a neighborhood with a lot of Indian restaurants, but the only Indians I spotted were the priests giving blessings to the many Thai people who come there to pray. Where does everyone go?!
My wife tells me that people come to Thailand for beaches, shopping, and partying. I’m very confused by all of this. I can’t stand beaches and lack the empathetic reasoning abilities to understand why anyone would ever go. That they are popular makes me despair for humanity. The shopping part is even more confusing to me. Presumably these people have Amazon in their home countries, and if you can afford a plane ticket to Thailand you can afford Amazon Prime. The best things to shop for in Thailand are perishable fruits that they won’t let me get through customs, or, in the case of The King of Fruits, won’t let me take on any public transportation, let alone an airplane, so I don’t know what people are shopping for that they can’t get back home.
And I’m not totally sure what partying is? I went to some birthday parties as a kid and hated them. As an adult I went to some film production wrap parties. Those were alright. I don’t get the concept of going to another country to party. Don’t you have to be invited to a party? “Thailand has really nice bars,” my wife adds, but this confuses me even more. Don’t they have bars everywhere? Don’t they have beaches everywhere? Don’t they have shopping everywhere? Why fly to Thailand for these things? My head hurts. I need a coconut water. On every level, this whole “Thailand is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world” thing is a real puzzle to me.“
I do understand on some level why certain types of male travelers frequent Thailand, but I’m going to pretend those people don’t exist, and I hardly see them either. I’ve had people tell me they dislike how prominent all of that stuff is in Thailand, but unless you voluntarily choose to go to one of those neighborhoods it isn’t very prominent at all. Your choice. I also understand the point of medical tourism more than I understand regular tourism, and Thailand does get a high number of medical tourists, but I never seem to meet any, granted I don’t hang out at hospitals and most of my social network is under 40. (I actually did try getting some medical work done in Bangkok, but the first hospital I contacted was way too expensive and the second one was free but needed proof that I already had two children before they’d give me a vasectomy. So much for its sin city reputation!)
Am I exaggerating some of this? Okay, fine, you got me. I see more tourists than I’m putting on, and I’m not so naive about the tastes and preferences of the average person (I am still perplexed, though). But really, I’m consistently struck by how popular of a tourist destination Thailand is and how few tourists I see in most of the country. I’m not trying to brag about how I only go to cool hidden places, because I don’t think I really do, a lot of places I go aren’t that obscure. I’ve gone to upscale but reasonably priced (under $10 per person) Michelin starred Thai restaurants in popular neighborhoods in Bangkok expecting them to be pretty touristy but it mostly seemed to be Thai people eating there. Such experiences are normal. Where are people eating? Do people not know that the Michelin guide has an app you can download with a location detecting map you can pull up? What’s wrong with people? My wife tells me highly implausible, unbelievable stories of people who come to Thailand and eat most of their meals at 7-Eleven. This can’t be true, can it?
I feel a sense of sadness at seeing a place I love commodified as a cheap exotic “party” destination (like it’s Chuck E. fucking Cheese, seriously what’s with this party stuff?), or reduced to its beaches. I don’t like most tourism and find it sad in general, even if I’m happy on some level for the economic benefits that it brings. I guess I like that it’s pretty ghettoized in Thailand. Anyway, just remember that I’m the Travel Grinch and you should ignore me when I rant like this.
Even though my reasons for loving Thailand are very different from most people’s and I might hate why people like it, I do think some of the same things that appeal to me appeal to most people that come, like there’s some ineffable quality of Thailand that calls to us all like a siren. For the next several thousand words I’ll try to convey what it is that I love about Thailand, and maybe I can help people realize that there’s more to the country than whatever other people are up to there. Thailand is a wonderful, amazing place even if, or rather, especially if you have no interest in beaches, resorts, massages, selfies, alcohol, prostitutes, shopping, dental work, and etc. (Totally coming to Thailand if I ever need dental work, though.)
I do sometimes ask myself why I like Thailand over other countries. Does it have to do with anything uniquely great about Thailand, or is it just because Thailand was the first country other than the U.S. or India that I spent more than a month in on a single trip? Because I kept returning, kept learning more, kept immersing myself in it so I’ve developed an attachment? Could I have done this anywhere with the same results? I should at least compare Thailand to other countries in Southeast Asia so I can make a proper mangoes to mangoes comparison, but I’ve only been to a few and haven’t spent enough time in them. People periodically ask me why I like Thailand over Vietnam. I don’t know, maybe because I did a two week touristy Vietnam trip while I got to know Thailand much better? (Nobody ever asks me about Indonesia even though I spent three weeks there. Awesome place. It was a whole week better than Vietnam.) I think everything works like this.
I’ve thought about this with dogs. Every dog I’ve had has been the best dog ever. What luck my family has at picking dogs. But I usually don’t feel that way about a particular dog until having it for around a year, it takes time for that attachment to build, and in all likelihood the dogs are to some extent interchangeable and we would have gotten equally attached to whichever dog we picked. All love is like that. Romantic love (as cultures that believe in arranged marriages will know), familial love. Love for interests and hobbies. Love for places. It’s mostly not so special. There’s some personality matching required, but beyond that you just get attached to things based on timing and exposure, and then you tell yourself stories to act like they have more significance than they actually do. It could have been something else, someone else, somewhere else, it’s all just a coincidence.
Except for Thailand. Thailand is special. Thailand is destiny. The gods have chosen it. The Chakri dynasty has willed it to be.
I never imagined myself living in Thailand. In 2010 I went on a 2 week trip with my family and our Thai friends and loved it. It was my first time in Asia and it was radically new for me. I would have gladly spent more time there if some opportunity came up, but I’m sort of a travel minimalist and never really go out of my way to go anywhere without some excuse (odd for a travel blogger, I suppose, thankfully I’m good at coming up with excuses). I went back to Thailand for a few days in 2019 after a family trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. It was easy and inexpensive to go to Bangkok by bus from Siem Reap before going back to India, and I decided I would do so if I could get a highly coveted reservation at Gaggan, which seemed like a necessary expenditure in order for me to understand the full spectrum of possibilities of Indian cuisine, a totally reasonable life goal to have. I got the reservation, we spent a few days in the city, and I again loved my time in Thailand even though we spent half the time on the toilet. If a place is amazing even when you’re down with food poisoning, there’s obviously something special about it. Still, I didn’t have concrete plans of returning.
In September 2022, my wife planned a trip to Thailand with her friends. With my minimalist ascetic mindset, I thought it would have been overindulgent for her to fly to Thailand and then fly back to India a few weeks later, so the plan was that I would fly along, stay on my own while she traveled with her friends, and then we’d stay for as long as our visas allowed, which was two months. Though I was more or less happy to go, I wouldn’t say I really wanted to (I’m not sure I ever really want to go anywhere, this also seems odd for a travel blogger but there’s probably a life lesson here about doing things you don’t really want to do, though maybe this has no applicability to anyone but me). At the time, I had been back in India for less than six months after an extended stint in the U.S. due to the pandemic. I wanted to stay in India and really get to know it in a more in depth way, which I felt I was just starting to do. I wouldn’t say I was upset about it, but going to Thailand was an act of Indus interruptus that I didn’t ask for. We had to buy a return flight for the visa, and we chose Kolkata, the shortest and cheapest flight to India from Bangkok and a good excuse to finally visit the city. I was more excited about going to Kolkata than I was about going to Thailand. That’s like being more excited for a root canal than a massage, but the heart wants what it wants (unintentional, but it’s a surprisingly literal analogy).
I really loved Thailand, though, more than I ever expected. I don’t remember at what point in the trip it happened, but at some point it occurred to me that this might be my favorite place I’ve ever been, and my wife felt the same way. I went back again in the summers of 2023 and 2024 for two months each (I assure you I had very good excuses) and each trip really just deepened my love for and interest in Thailand. And now I don’t need an excuse to go back. Thailand is home. Exploring Thailand is its own excuse. I hope to spend, at a minimum, two months a year there for the rest of my life.
That all goes back to the question: Why Thailand? What’s so special about it to me?
I think it boils down to Thailand being a blend of both very comfortable and incredibly stimulating in a way that I haven’t felt to the same extent anywhere else, and in a way that feels uniquely, distinctively Thai.
The comfort part is both subjective and relative (and maybe I should note that I place a lower value on comfort than most people and am thus not a trustworthy source). I like to tell people about how when I first visited Thailand in 2010, experiencing Asia for the first time, it was a shock to the senses and my thoughts were basically “This is so crazy, chaotic, and dirty. How does such a place possibly function?” But when I came back after spending many years in India, I had the opposite reaction. “This is so calm and organized and clean! Can India ever be as nice?” I’m sure Thailand did get nicer in the span of nearly a decade, but it’s likely that the bigger change was in my standards. Most of my readers won’t be coming from India so I don’t want to spend too much time pointing out how in Thailand cars don’t honk pointlessly and endlessly, car rides don’t make me nauseous, there’s not a mass excess of dust and smoke everywhere, I don’t feel a need to wear an N95 whenever I’m outside, people don’t push me in lines, and on and on, but it’s really striking every single time I go.
I recognize that Thailand is probably not the most comfortable place for a lot of people and that it’s far from a utopia, but it’s much more comfortable than most outsiders would expect (for me, the least comfortable part of the country is finding good, healthy vegetarian food when I’m out and about, but I’d say I manage quite well). Over my three extended visits I’ve been surprised at how much of the country I’d call lovely and pleasant, which are not the words the average westerner tends to associate with Thailand outside of a luxury hotel/spa setting. And though there’s a lot of room for improvement, it’s quite a well developed country. I previously thought of it as poor, but it’s classified as upper-middle income and that’s apparent to me while visiting. The GDP per capita is more than double India’s, and though it’s less than 10% that of the U.S., the quality of life in Thailand feels closer to the U.S. than it does to India, though in many ways this has as much to do with culture as it does with development level (I mean, at what point on the development spectrum do people stop honking at red lights?). I’d actually go as far as saying the quality of life is better than the U.S. in many ways, but that’s more subjective and is another conversation for another time.
Thailand’s infrastructure is generally good. It is very safe. Power and connectivity have never been issues. Food poisoning risk seems pretty low after an initial adjustment phase. Roads are good. Grab cars are often very nice. Bangkok sidewalks are terrible and the traffic is brutal, but the public transport is excellent. Bangkok can be crazy and overwhelming, but once you’ve spent a lot of time there you know which pockets are pleasant and charming, and such places are less hidden in the rest of the country. Smaller towns always seem to have beautiful lakes with nice walkways around them. I’m always close to nature, even in Bangkok. I haven’t gone in the burning season, which I hear is horrible in northern Thailand, but generally the country doesn’t seem very polluted. I periodically see Bangkok on lists of the world’s most polluted cities but the worst day I’ve ever experienced in any part of Thailand is better than the best day I’ve ever experienced in any part of India excluding some remote stays in the mountains. (I have no positive spin on Thailand’s floods, though. Those are bad.)
I was very surprised at how broadly distributed the development is, even though the country is still very lopsided. Bangkok (around 11 million people) has more than 10% of the country’s population (approaching 72 million), and then Chiang Mai (around 1.2 million) is the only other city with more than even half a million people (how you add up to 72 million from there, I don’t know). The rest of the country is pretty small-townish, but these are surprisingly nice small towns. On early Thailand trips, I thought, “It makes sense that Bangkok is so nice, given that it’s a big international city that has tons of tourists and expats.” But then I’d go to random distant suburbs of the city and they’d be just as nice, sometimes even nicer, and small towns I went to with pretty much no tourism industry were similarly very nice, modern, and liveable. This really surprised me.
(Thailand is actually smaller than Texas. Texas has 30 million people, but it is less lopsided in its urbanization. Three cities have over 1 million people, the largest having 2.3 million, two more are just slightly under 1 million, and still one more is over 500k. Pointless trivia but I found it interesting.)
Where Thailand fares poorly in terms of comfort is in its weather, very hot and humid year round in much of the country. Out of Thailand’s control, so I can’t be too mad at them for it. Also, they do try to control it! It’s not like India where they use air conditioning as sparingly as I use sugar and use sugar with the freedom and velocity that I would like to use air conditioning. In Thailand, the air conditioning is at full throttle (unfortunately so is the sugar). It might be sweltering outside, but there are nice places with very strong AC just about everywhere, and AC cabs are a given.
One of my favorite feelings in the world is when I’m miserably hot and sticky and I step into the icy cool chill of a 7-Eleven. It is indescribably pleasurable. I have experienced many other hot-to-cold environment shifts, but none are as satisfying as this. Unfortunately, when you step back into Earth’s atmosphere you start having “Is it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all?” sorts of thoughts. Thankfully there’s always another 7-Eleven just minutes away, along with countless super nice cafes, with the strongest AC you’ve ever felt, serving the coldest drinks you’ve ever had (just make sure you get them without sugar, for the love of god, and triple check to verify that they’ve understood your request). Once you’ve been inside for 20 minutes you’ll be freezing, which is good, because it means you gotta get back out there and go exploring. Thailand has its ways of keeping you from getting complacent. You wouldn’t want a place that makes you too comfortable.
Comfort is relative to income and consumption. I’m usually put off when I hear people talk about how great various low to middle income countries are to live in because they’re so cheap, as they sometimes make it seem like living in them is little more than an arbitrage opportunity and that’s obviously very different from how I look at travel. Money matters, though. People who make much more money than me would probably be more comfortable in Switzerland than Thailand, but I found that country very uncomfortable. “Should I walk 7 miles to my destination and get a mediocre sandwich for $17 on the way, or should I spend my money on the train ticket and skip lunch?” In India I’m kinda rich, but no amount of wealth really buys comfort there unless you’re the sort of person who never wants to step outside in a public space. In Thailand, though, I’m comfortably middle class and very happy.
Though India is cheaper overall, for the lifestyle I want I actually find Thailand to be cheaper (even in Bangkok, though the rest of the country is generally much less expensive). Some of this is because of better infrastructure, but it also seems to be at some sort of development sweet spot that I don’t understand where many things are only slightly more expensive but are much nicer, and a surprising number of things are actually cheaper. (Why is this? Lower inequality and a broader middle class raises standards, puts downward pressure on prices, and limits price discrimination? A more business friendly environment with less stifling regulation and taxation? Lower rents? Any other theories? Buddhism?)
I can’t afford the fanciest restaurants like I can in India, but my apartments in Thailand are cheaper and much better quality than in India. Hotels are cheaper and nicer. Cafes are cheaper and nicer. Food is generally more expensive, but cheap restaurants are far less likely to give me food poisoning. I hardly get street food in Thailand since I’m vegetarian, but I’m not scared of it like I am in India. I get cut fruit from street stalls all the time without fear of getting an intestinal parasite. I even trust the ice from street stalls. Toilet paper is cheaper and is actually soft and durable, unlike India’s overpriced easily torn sandpaper. Public spaces are clean and aesthetically pleasing. I can leave the house for a full day with the confidence that I won’t have any trouble finding clean bathrooms. I’m happy taking public buses in Thailand. In India I often wish there were a service that cost 1.5x as much as Uber but has consistently decent cars and drivers, and I basically get that with Grab in Thailand, and in other such areas where Thailand is more expensive I often feel like I’m getting my money’s worth. Movie theaters are 1.5x the cost but are usually nicer and the other people in the theater aren’t on their phones for the entire movie.
I don’t want to tire people with my India comparisons. I also feel bad criticizing India. I love India! India has things about it that are better than Thailand. Every place has its pros and cons. I’m just trying to give people some concrete details to hold onto. Whenever I hear people discuss how they feel about places, I never know what the hell they’re talking about because it’s so unspecific. “Yeah, it was so nice. We loved it. It was great. You must go!” “It was okay. Not so nice.” I’m of the opinion that if a place isn’t worth writing thousands of words about, it isn’t worth visiting.
Anyway, Thailand gives you more bang for your buck (now now, be mature) than most places I’ve been and is a better value than India unless you’re one of those people trying to live for like $10 a day. Maybe this is true of most of Southeast Asia, barring Singapore, and true of many other middle income countries. I’d say my experiences in Turkey were pretty similar, though Turkey was definitely a degree more expensive (and Istanbul housing was much more expensive than Bangkok). Maybe this isn’t as special as I’m making it sound. Still, it’s one important factor for me.
But to me what makes Thailand especially comfortable are Thai people, who are super nice. I do think people everywhere are pretty nice, at least some of them, but some cultures place a higher value than others on being outwardly nice, and I like outward niceness. That’s maybe the most American thing about me. I like pleasant demeanors. I like smiles and upper inflections. I dislike brusque and brash speech and mannerisms. I believe that projecting happiness makes you and the people around you happier.
There might be darkness lurking beneath the smiles, but I find Thai people to be the most outwardly kind and cheerful anywhere, and that’s a big plus for me. Sometimes public life in Thailand comes across as Disneylandish, and that’s a good thing. I love Disneyland. Thailand is even better. I have the bad habit of seeing people as automatons, but if you are going to be an automaton you should at least be an upbeat one. I don’t like grumpy people, unless they’re funny. It sounds kind of patronizing to call Thai people “cute,” but in Google reviews of restaurants and cafes in Thailand, Thai people frequently praise the service by calling them “cute” (or whatever Thai word translates to “cute”), so I’ll come out and say it: Thai people are cute!
I also don’t like small talk. I don’t like overbearing hospitality. I don’t like random people with no connections or commonalities with me chatting me up for no reason (I don’t mind that much, it’s okay, I’m happy to indulge people even if it’s not my thing, and it’s kinda funny once in a while). I don’t like people physically invading my personal space. Again, Thailand is perfect for me. Thai people are a combination of both sweet and hands off. They leave you alone. I actually wish they’d talk to me more. They might be a bit too shy. I don’t get randomly invited to things like I do in India. But I also don’t have complete strangers trying to take pictures with me, or interrogating me about my family and career. It evens out.
It’s a good country for introverts like me. I wish I had Thai friends, though. Maybe someone can introduce me to some Thai film nerds who speak good English. I’m pretty hands off with strangers myself, but sometimes I try talking to people in Thailand where I think there’s some commonalities and the conversations could go somewhere, but they just go nowhere. “Hey, you there at this fancy matcha cafe where we’re spending $7 on iced matcha lattes (no sugar). Which matcha did you get? I got the single origin Shizuoka with the sweet, salty, soft cheese, and tofu tasting notes. It’s amazing! How’s yours?” “Oh, um, uh, it’s good.” They then shift their eyes and tilt their heads down and towards the corner. (No wonder the birth rates are so low.) Okay, maybe this is my fault and I have no idea how to talk to people. Whatever. I got a super expensive matcha in a still developing economy, I want to talk to someone about the flavor notes, a totally normal thing to do. Even if you don’t think it’s normal, I swear such efforts go further in other countries.
But other than occasional drug addict taxi drivers (never through Grab though, just use Grab after 7PM), I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone behave badly with me. I fairly often get an awkward indifference, but never belligerence or rudeness. I also find Thai people very welcoming and accepting. They are very live and let live, at least with non-Thais. They don’t question why I’ve come anywhere, they just act happy that I’m there. I’m an outsider everywhere I go in life (that includes my home country), but in Thailand I never feel like an outsider. I don’t feel like a special guest either, which makes me feel like an outsider. I just feel… free. I feel like I belong in my unbelonging.
As a farang there’s nowhere I’d rather be, but I don’t think I would like being Thai very much. I’d be a bad Thai person. My personality is poorly aligned with the culture, if I were expected to be a part of it (surely true everywhere and not unique to Thailand, but I felt compelled to mention it here). I’m highly disagreeable, at least with people I know. I don’t care about “face” and think it’s kinda stupid. I don’t respect authority for authority’s sake. I value honesty over people’s feelings. I don’t like conformity. I would have argued endlessly with all of the people still wearing masks years after the pandemic was no longer a meaningful threat (I’m always the only one doing ninja moves to avoid touching any knobs or handles in public bathrooms, so who is the real neurotic one here?).
But I also think I’m very polite and mild mannered. I avoid getting in people’s way. I’m probably too antisocial to be called friendly, but I think I generally speak kindly to people. I always say “thank you” (I was raised on “please” and “thank you” but “please” is overrated and sounds passive aggressive, I’m not sure I’ve used that word since I was 12). These things are important to me. So I hope, even if I’d be a bad Thai person, that I’m a good farang. I want to be a good farang. (“Good Farang” would have been a good blog title but it’s too presumptuous, such a distinction is not up to me to make.)
I love wai-ing and smiling at people. It’s my favorite form of interacting with strangers, and it's pretty much all I ever have to do in Thailand, along with performative sing-songy sawasdee krub’s and kap khun krap’s (all entirely optional, really, but I’m happy to engage). I’m not very good at smiling at people generally, but with a wai the smile forms with minimal effort. When I go to other countries, I wish I could just wai at people. I don’t want the small talk, the awkward grunted “hello”s, or the forced smiles, but I also want more than nothing. I get lonely otherwise. Can’t we all just wai? Wai not?
I just find basic living in Thailand to be easy. Happy. Fun. Sabai sabai.
And also very stimulating. This needs little explanation, and I don’t want to repeat too much what the typical visitor says. In the average urban area there’s like 45 interesting things wherever I look. Whenever I go out I’m like a dog on a leash, racing ahead and pulling my wife along as I giddily explore. I want to examine the offerings of each and every street vendor. I never get bored of wandering around Thai markets. I never get bored of anything in Thailand. There’s a seemingly unlimited amount of dishes to try, highly varied and often exceptional (though they really should tone down the chillies). An unlimited amount of fruit varieties. The signboards and fonts are consistently interesting. People watching is fun. The temples are beautiful and/or zany. The music playing in public is always awesome. The countryside is beautiful. Wherever I am I get to see water buffaloes or monkeys or monitor lizards or some other exciting creatures. Sculptures of animals, mythical creatures, and gods are everywhere. Thailand feels alive, buzzing with the activity of people, animals, spirits.
In a lot of countries I’m sufficiently stimulated in big cities but find smaller towns to be boring after a point. In Thailand the small towns hold my interest, with amazing markets featuring produce I’ve never seen before, great local restaurants in old wooden houses, surprisingly nice movie theaters in glitzy malls, super fancy cafes on every block, and often nice museums and art galleries. I think Thailand has a great balance of traditional and modern, which tracks somewhat with stimulation and comfort, and the two enhance each other. A day of walking through traditional neighborhoods and going to temples and local markets is easier, less stressful, and also more fun and memorable when there’s some really cool, clean cafe and a fun little art gallery in the same area. On the other side of the coin, the modern world can feel soulless and empty to me, but I appreciate the comforts and attractions of modernity when they’re integrated into the landscape, so to speak. The cafe and art gallery on some high street is boring to me, but I’m excited by the ones on the second floor of an old shophouse next to an old temple surrounded by street vendors teeming with people praying and picking up a quick breakfast on the way to work.
Thailand’s history and culture are endlessly fascinating to me (and you can check out my posts on movies, music, and books for much more on Thai culture). I didn’t come to Thailand with any preexisting interest or knowledge. Other than basic Thai food, crazy martial arts movies, and the gritty, dangerous streets of Bangkok (which I now basically see as a cinematic construct), I hardly had any imagination of Thailand, and my brief early visits only added a few other generic things like elephants, Buddhism, and ladyboys. I feel sad that a lot of people’s engagement with Thailand doesn't extend much beyond this, but mine didn’t either until a few years ago.
Maybe I don’t read enough, but I’ve never heard anyone ever use the word palimpsest outside of the context of India. Palimpsest seems to apply equally well to Thailand, though. You feel layers of history and influences alive in daily life. Thai culture is very distinctive and everything feels very Thai, but it also has clear influences from many sources, including but not exclusively the major civilizations in its neighborhood. I see Thailand as a cultural bridge between India and China, and Thailand draws heavily from each. Both of those threads, which are sometimes separate and other times intertwining, are interesting to follow, and I pick up and piece together more on each trip.
Thailand is very Hindu-influenced in addition to being Buddhist, and though I may have missed this had I not known much about India, it is very clear while visiting that Thailand has historically been part of the ancient Indosphere. Sanskrit names are everywhere, as are the Hindu gods and epics. These same roots are all over Southeast Asia, but perhaps because Thailand was neither colonized nor Islamicized there’s more cultural persistence. Today, Thai Brahmins who possibly have Tamil ancestry still conduct royal ceremonies.
The Chinese influence is even stronger and, unlike India’s mostly ancient influence, is both ancient and recent, with major waves of migration for a few centuries up until the 1930s. Today, a double-digit percentage of the population is of Chinese origin, and though the exact number depends on who is counting, Thailand is cited as the home to the largest Chinese population outside of greater China. They have largely assimilated, but the cultural influence is evident particularly in any urban part of the country. In the early 20th century, Bangkok was said to be close to half Chinese, and though it has the very popular Chinatown neighborhood, my wife gets confused and refers to the entire historical stretch of the city as Chinatown because it has Chinese shops and restaurants all over.
Thailand’s openness to foreigners is historically rooted, with an understanding that embracing outsider influences and adapting to the changing ways of the world were necessary for its survival and success. Ayutthaya (Siam’s capital before Bangkok, and yes, same same but different as Ayodhya) had communities from Portugal, Persia, and Japan, amongst other places, composed of traders, soldiers, and diplomats, amongst other occupations. The Portuguese have had a lasting influence with language, food, and a neighborhood in Bangkok that makes for a fun half day visit. One of Thailand’s most prominent noble families is of Persian descent and possibly introduced Massaman curry.
As the era of colonialism took hold in the region, Siam remained independent (for the most part) by modernizing, which included a process of determining what it meant to be Thai, and developing extensive (and not always friendly) diplomatic and commercial relations with western powers. Though it wasn’t colonized, Siam did westernize in many ways, including in matters of fashion, arts, architecture, and the use of silverware, and there was a strong European presence and influence which is why Bangkok has that “cosmopolitan port city in the age of empires” feel. You can add to the mix the American influence that came during the Vietnam war. In addition to the global diversity, there’s a lot of internal regional diversity that is still intact even though over time the country has been largely unified into a Thai identity.
I don’t want to regurgitate historical facts, but I wanted to highlight some (just a sliver, really!) of what I find interesting about Thai history, which will hopefully whet your appetite for more. Part of the fun is that Thai history feels very connected to the Thailand that I experience today, with its many historical continuities, and to the rest of the world. Sometimes I read very narrow “this happened and then that happened” histories that teach me nothing except how one group of people conquered some territory and I wonder why I’m reading that, but the Thai history I read is consistently relevant, broad-ranging, and multifaceted with ideas to explore on the topics of diversity, nationalism, progress, market dominant minorities, monarchies, and more.
And I should probably admit that I like being in a long running monarchy. I like powerful empires. I don’t like being in sleepy backwaters. They don’t inspire me. I can’t explain this, it’s just the way it is, some weird ego thing. I feel the power of the great kingdom of Siam when I’m in Thailand, and that makes me happy.
Even more than the history, I’m drawn to Thailand’s mythology, which has a strong, fantastical physical presence. All around the country I’m greeted by sculptures of dragons and lions and snakes and other creatures, guarding temples or just acting as mascots. Half-bird women, flying elephant lions, conch shell people. Garuda, Ganesha, Erawan. Buddha. Statues of Portuguese pirate guardian guys (I guess?). I don’t have a spiritual bone in my body, but the ever present religious and mythological figures make Thailand feel more energetic and magical to me. It’s a wondrous place. I like the grandeur and flamboyance of it, and the countless whimsical touches you see throughout the country. It’s very Thai. Hindu gods appear to have been reinterpreted through an anime filter. I love the giant over the top temples. The hell temples are extraordinarily imaginative masterworks of the grotesque. I’m a big fan of the works of Lek Viriyaphan and other creators of visionary environments in Thailand, a style of art that to me feels very well suited to Thai culture. I find all of this creatively stimulating.
I tend to think cultural analysis is patronizing BS and the following statement likely falls under that umbrella, but nonetheless: I find a cohesiveness in disparate elements of Thailand that I’m not sure I feel anywhere else. The natural world, the spiritual, mythological, and fantastical, and the history all feel seamlessly connected with each other and with modern Thailand. In much of the world, the traditional and the modern feel like separate entities existing in parallel. Sometimes the same people engage in them, sometimes they coincide, but they never feel unified. I love exploring the remnants of the Ottoman Empire in Turkey, but modern Turkey never feels like a continuation of Ottoman culture to me. India contains multitudes, but “Modern India” with its English and western orientation feels severed from the past to me, even if it pays lip service to the past, or struggles to outrun it. I love to visit the beautiful old cities of Europe, but they are backdrops for modern life. Thailand has changed as much as anywhere else, and yet I see modern Thailand as Siam, and as the ancient land of Suvarnabhumi (sorry, historians). The temples, palaces, and skyscrapers, the canals and skytrains, the floating markets and malls and street stalls and cafes, the antique shops and modern art galleries, the villages, farms, waterfalls, and caves, they all feel part of the same eternal whole. (I wonder where else I’d feel this way? Japan? America?)
I think that’s partly why there are many things I’ve always hated but I love in Thailand. I used to think malls are hell on Earth, but the malls in Thailand are grand creations, visionary environments of their own gloriously capitalist sort that I am always excited to visit. I’ve been to over a dozen malls in Bangkok and make it a point to visit the malls whenever I go to smaller towns, even though I never buy anything other than food and movie tickets. Central Group might be my favorite multinational conglomerate in the world, and though the Central Pattana stock would have been a bad pick at any point in the past decade, I’d like to buy some just out of sentimental value.
Cafes are another thing I used to hate, or rather was indifferent to but grew to hate because other people seemed to love them for reasons I couldn’t figure out. My wife used to drag me to cafes so she could get coffee and I would just sit around hating the world, listening to people’s stupid conversations, lamenting the cultural rot that I’m witnessing and speculating over the mental deficiencies that compel people to visit such places. I’m now a changed man. Cafes in Thailand are wonderful places that I want to be. Sometimes I’ll go to three in a day, and I’ll feel so fulfilled that I don’t feel a need to do anything else that day. In other parts of the world I fume with rage when I see people posing for photos. What sad, pathetic creatures. But I find it charming in Thailand. If you read Thai google reviews of cafes, the most used word (translated from Thai) is usually “angles,” referring to the many potential photo angles there are at the cafe. How delightful. I’m not mad at people for drinking caffeine either. I used to always think of habitual caffeine drinkers as degenerate lowlife addicts. I’ve now softened up a bit, because the coffee in Thailand is so delicious, and the people serving it are cheery and unpretentious and don’t make me feel like a second class citizen for ordering an iced latte (without sugar), the only good coffee.
I like Thailand’s modern architecture. I like Thailand’s art galleries. I like Thailand’s hiking trails. I used to hate all of those things. I listened to some fun podcasts about Thai politics, and political podcasts are my least favorite thing in the world. After going to Thailand, I try these things in other countries and am sometimes able to appreciate them, but often I just say “No, that was only good in Thailand.” Everything is fun in Thailand. Even laundromats, which give me the creeps everywhere else. I sometimes seek out Airbnbs that don’t have washing machines just so I have an excuse to go do laundry at a neighborhood Otteri.
Did any of this make anyone want to visit Thailand? I don’t think the tourism board will hire me as a content writer anytime soon. “Come to Thailand. The glories of Siam will cure the hatred in your heart, and make you want to do your laundry in public.” But maybe there couldn’t be a greater endorsement, and that’s all that matters.
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