After 'doing' the temples around Siem Reap I suggest many are here, even though this is the tourism dead season. The hotel is at 9% capacity but a number of other hotels that clearly cater specifically to Chinese have 5 or 6 of the big buses parked up, each, and these appear to be full as they bully around the countryside. The Chinese tourists certainly live up to every negative stereotype that have become famous for, the current favourite seems to be clotting a restrictive walkway inside a temple in groups, shouting, spitting and clearing their nose into the ground, temple walls, other tourists, and pointedly refusing to allow anyone else to pass or use the space.

Before suggesting I'm being racist, know that their own government is campaigning to educate them to stop being such pricks as tourists. I cannot imagine what it would be like to visit the temples in high season.

Blame it on the Communism. Taiwanese and Hong Kong Chinese aren't like them. And they have the herd groupthink mentality, so little individuals are crazy and unprotected outside of the "herd."

OrangeDragon wrote:Who wants to leave one country heavily controlled by military presence and state censorship just to visit another?

Lol - just as well you're going to California and not St Louis then.

Cowshed Cowboy wrote:

OrangeDragon wrote:Who wants to leave one country heavily controlled by military presence and state censorship just to visit another?

Lol - just as well you're going to California and not St Louis then.

Actually about 4 days in St. Louis when I first arrive... anyone know where to buy body armor here?

rather than discriminating the chinese tourists the Thai should be happy that there are still tourists going there considering they managed to pollute the whole coastline and to ruin the experience for everybody seeking a decent holiday.

for the temples i would go in Myanmar and Cambodia by the way, and for the beaches i would stick with Indonesia and Philippines, why should people swim in such a dump like Patong beach or Pattaya ?

for the shopping, Singapore and Bangkok.

the only valid reason to still go in Thailand is the bargirls but they're shooting themselves in the foot as well and the chinese tourists are not into boozing and whoring.

party's over for Thailand and they can only blame themselves, each time i go back the place is getting worse and the prices are skyrocketing and the services suck, even in a tourist trap like Bali you'll feel more welcome not to mention in Bali there are many things to see and do unlike Phuket or Samui.

phuketrichard wrote: What total bullshit :please:

Phuket beaches are pristine now!! as his Hua Hin and the beaches on the west coast have relatively been very nice, Far better than most places in PI unless ur going to very remote places an bali is really bad.

Great temples in thailand, have u been to Sukhothiai or Ayuthaya? The temples in Bangkok and every little town/city has nice temples (same as Cambodia, Myanmar)
Not as great as Bagan or Angkor but...

Shopping is as good in Phuket, as anywhere, even Singapore now. ( i can find anything i want here and no reason to travel even back to the states except for a few items) Pattaya, Bangkok with many malls/specialty stores

Phuket offers lots more to do for an island than anywhere in Bali/Cambodia/Myanmar/Laos combined and i have been to all of them in the past year

Wait till this high season,tourist will be back , For a country is still offer great value for your $$ and more to do than anywhere in the area.\

PS Chinese are now getting FREE tourists visas for the next 3 months and are not being discriminated against at all.

there's nothing like Boracay or Palawan in Thailand, nor anything on par with Bagan, Angkor, Swedagon Pagoda (Yangon), no lakes, no mountains, no vulcanos, no decent trains, that's exactly why in ALL thai tourism brochures you always see the same pictures of Phi Phi island and RaeLay Bay.

yes, been in Ayutthaya and i like it, been in Sukhothai, Chiang Mai, border of Myanmar, Hua Hin, Isaan, south, east, west, been there done that ... i'm not saying Thailand is a bag of shit but considering the actual cost of living i would rather spend my hard earned money elsewhere and see real attractions without being forced to pay twice or being treated like a walking ATM.

the Thais take us for granted, now they'll learn a lesson or two, and i'm quite happy of the new visa rules as once again it will backfire on their tourism industry.

too late for the military to clean up a few beaches and tear down some illegal kiosks, the damage has been done and it will take a long time before farangs go back there as in the past.

and it's just unsustainable anyway, their cost of living keeps going up, why wasting money in Thailand when you can spend 30-50% in other nearby countries where they speak good english and treat us very well ?

great value for money ? not anymore, and not certainly in places like Phuket.
Thai was still great until 2008, now the party's over, what we're seeing now is the last stage, the supply/demand will make no prisoners just see by yourself how bad the high season will be, as if the last high season wasn't bad enough ...

Thailand has had it's day.
As you rightly observe- the new action will be Myanmar.
There are less known areas like the Mergui archipelago that will surely come to be viewed as some of the best marine environment in the world when tourism finally hits.

yes, no infrastructure now to cope with demand- but all these places grew big starting with bamboo huts- like bali in the 1970's.