What I love about Thailand - One of the World's Top Tourist Destinations

We were in Chiang Mia for a little more than a week and we fell in love with this city! Thailand is one of the most popular and successful tourist destinations on the plantet. Pre COVID period, it attracted almost 40 million tourists in 2019. Though the number of tourists declined sharply during COVID with only 6.7 million in 2020 and only 427,000 in 2021 due to strict entry policies. However, the tourists are returning fast.

In 2023, there was a strong rebound to 28 milliong arrivlas and in 2024, Thailand welcome over 35 million arrivals, almost reach the 2019 numbers. For years leading up to the pandemic, Thailnad ranked 8th or 9th in the world for international tourist arrivals. It competes closely with countries like the UK, Turkey, Germany and Mexico. Many tourists love coming to Thailand for a variety of reasons; I love Thailand for the following reasons: 1. Plants and greenery everywhere!

 

I loved the way Thai people decorated their gardens and the front of their houses with various size of plants in nice flower pots hanging from trees or displayed on shelves.

2. Nice, polite and gentle people providing good services wherever we went. ( I can’t say that about every country where we have visited. In certain European countries, we found people were cold, unfriendly and unwelcoming, Therefore we have no desire for a returned visit to these countries. ) But with Thailand, it is a complete different situation. Thailand is known as the 'Land of Smiles", its hospitality is a key reason why we will certainly return for more future visits.

  3. Safe and clean cities and litterless streets – When in Thailand, we felt completely safe! There were a couple of nights when we went out walking on the streets and we were not afraid or nervous at all. We didn't see any drunks, crazy or angry people screaming at others for no reason like we often see so often in North American cities.

 

Thai people are clean people. This was evident on Thai city streets and in their pubic spaces. Thais obviously love keeping their cities clean and are making conscious efforts to do so. Thailand may not be as wealthy as other countries. But from what we saw, Thais' mom and pop small stores were kept spotless and free of clutters. It was a pleasure for us walking by their stores and finding their creative ways of making their storefronts attractive and inviting.

  4. Affordable living accommodations, groceries and dining out at restaurants - Coming from a western country, we have the advantage of our currency being much stronger comparing to the Thai Baht, therefore giving us more buying power in Thailand.

  5. Delicious food

Thai cooking is famous in the world. While we were in Thailand, we didn’t venture into any western food franchised restaurants such as KFC, McDonalds, Starbucks, Pizza Pizza or Burger Kings.

There were so much good and inexpensive Thai food around, we didn’t need to go into any fast food at all. I think we have had enough Pad Thai that would last us for a long time!

  RT, Chiang Mia, Thailand

A Chiang Rai Hotel Review - A Relaxing and Enjoyable Stay in a Resort Like Chiang Ria Hotel

We visited Ching Rai, Thailand recently, a smaller city about 4 hours of bus ride from Chiang Mia. We were there for a few days staying at a hotel which was more than we expected; it was like a resort.

The ground was nicely kept and the tress and plants were beautifully manicured. However, the cleanliness of some of the public spaces such as stairs and walls could be better. The part I enjoyed the most was taking part in the zumba exercise class and swimming in the Olympic size swimming pool during our stay at the hotel. Since we were in Thailand in August, everyday the temperature was above 30 degrees, therefore getting a dip in the pool in the evening was a cool and relaxing experience. I love doing lane swim, therefore I chose later hours to swim when there were not too many people.

It was fantastic being in the pool after the sunset and doing my lane swim to my heart's content! The zumba class was fun with not one but three energetic instructors leading us in our moves. This was the kind of hotel where I could spend a few days wihtout running around the city too much for sightseeing.We started our day with our breakfast in the hotel's spacious dining room. The breakfast was served buffet style with various dishes served on long tables.

There were a mix of western style style breakfast such as eggs, sausages, toasts. milk, coffee and teas as well as Asian style food items such as congee, fried noodles and steamed buns. There was a good variety from which to choose. ">

Be Aware of Scamming Transportation Sites When Buying Bus Tickets Online in Thailand

We made a sidetrip visiting Chiang Rai for a few days and only bought a one way bus tickets for two going from Chiang Mia to Chiang Rai as we were not sure the time of our return from this city.

 

Today we were sure that we would  like to return to Chiang Mia the next day, Sunday. We went online to purchase our tickets for the Green Bus which was the bus that brought us to Chiang Rai. But strangely, we could not find the Green Bus site or any information about their buses.

But one site kept popping up, giving us information for private cars, vans and SUV's. However, the fee charges were calculated in US$ and it was a lot! It was very strange and frustrating as we kept typing in Green Bus to Chiang Mia but no information was coming up.

 

  My husband said"Well, it looks like may be the Green Bus seats are all sold out because tomorrow is a Sunday. We may have to go with one of the smaller companies' van."

  But then the charges were outrageous once we converted them in Baht, Thailand's currency . It was  almost 10X the charges. "Forget about it! We would not pay for that." We thought.

We went to our hotel concierge and asked them how to buy Green Bus tickets as we were having problems buying them online.

 " You can go to the bus station directly. Or you can buy from 7 Eleven, up the street." replied the nice lady behind the front desk.

  That was exactly what we did. We went to the 7 Eleven, a convenient store, which has many stores all over Thailand and bought our Green Bus tickets going to Chiang Mia the next day. Easy as pie and we didn't have to pay un reasonable price!

 We finally figured out the site that popped up right away was a scam always directing users like us to their site and preventing  us from getting to the real site that we wanted.

 

A word of CAUTION: When travelling in Thailand, you must be aware that whenever you are directed to a site that looks like a legitimate business site but is not the one you want, you may have to pay much much more. Lots of scams around in Thailand when purchasing things or looking for information online  these days. Consumers beware!

Happy Travelling!

R.T, 

Chiang Rai, Frustrated in Thailand

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