Thailand travel guide

Despite invasions by Burma, Thailand remained independent until they misguidedly allowed the Japanese troops to pass through the country during the Second World War. Japan used this as an opportunity to occupy Thailand, leading to one of the most devastating events in Thailand’s history – the deaths of up to 100,000 Thai labourers and allied POWs during the building of the notorious “Death Railway”.

Thailand became an independent state again once the war ended, and during the Vietnam War, a new type of invasion began: tourism. US soldiers crossed over into this safe haven to enjoy the sun, sea and growing number of sex workers, meaning Thailand’s tourism fate was sealed from the very beginning. 1974’s Man with the Golden Gun heightened Thailand’s fame, and in the 1980s, the backpackers landed, with a 10 percent increase in visitors each year, inspiring Alex Garland’s novel The Beach – whose plot has not changed in the ensuing two decades.

Over 5,000 people were killed in Thailand during the devastating tsunami in 2004; many of these were tourists. Rather than deterring tourism, however, the flattening of entire resorts and beach villages along the stunning Andaman Sea was seen as an opportunity for a new start on those islands that had succumbed to The Beach’s nightmare vision of overdevelopment. In some resorts, restrictions were put in place – accommodations became more exclusive; jet skis, vendors and beach lounges were banned; and the number of tuk tuks was capped. But in other destinations, desperate for tourists to return so that the locals could begin to rebuild their livelihoods as well as their homes, rapid reconstruction of cabins, stores and restaurants took place and there is little noticeable change from the pre-tsunami days. There are still untouched spots in Thailand, however, and preserving these, along with the rich Thai traditions, far from the notorious new culture of bargirls and hawkers, will determine the future of tourism in Thailand.