Arriving in Bangkok more than a month ago I didn’t know what to expect, travel was and still is very new to me in a lot of instances. There is a path that travelers trek on through Thailand, that goes either north or south, to the quiet beauty of the mountains to the sun and sand of the beach.
Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Kho Tao and Kho Phangan each have their own tourist gauntlet, where the waves of tourists congregate to meet other travellers, party, drink and at times misbehave.
This acts like bees to honey, where you will see every person trying to sell you something, shirts, watches, packages to other illicit items. These places are meant to be places of excess. I really find they are great meeting grounds but poor representations of the people.
As a tourist you begin to feel like a lamb to the slaughter, the wolves are ready and waiting for thee chance for dinner, except it isn’t you meat they want, it’s you cash.
I feel like the tourist traps warp your perceptions of a place and I think while they offer a lot there are shadows at work that will try to take even if you don’t want to give. Going to be heading out of Thailand pretty soon and hoping to walk out of the traps and into the sun where I hope to find myself in the process.
A guru who I gave 20 baht to said a lot of things but one thing I am certain he is right about is that my future isn’t in Canada, it’s somewhere else and that and my best me are what I’m searching for.
