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In the nearly two decades I have lived in Thailand, I have visited more than 50 provinces and run the gamut—sometimes it seemed more like the gauntlet—of travel experiences, from scuba diving and rock climbing to surviving a near-drowning experience in a kayak off the coast of Krabi, and from learning how to hunt for red ant egg nests (a delicacy in the northeast) to going trawling with Thai-Muslim fishermen down south. These experiences have underlined many of the stories and guidebooks I have written, as well as a non-fiction collection of features about the country’s stranger side called Bizarre Thailand: Tales of Crime, Sex and Black Magic . For the last decade, I have been daylighting as the editor of some of the country’s top travel magazines and contributing freelance features to magazines, newspapers and websites around the world. Due out from this publisher in 2013 is a collection of my prize-winning short stories and new novellas called Tsunami and Other Twisted Tales from Thailand .
Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd
Copyright © 2012 Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd
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Thailand
Text by Jim Algie
TUTTLE Publishing
Tokyo | Rutland, Vermont | Singapore
The Thailand experience has something special for everyone!
There are hundreds of reasons why Thailand is the leader in repeat visitors and near the top in arrivals in Southeast Asia. First and foremost, the kingdom is a hodgepodge of influences that mix the region’s crème de la crème in a savory, palatable and often wholly original way.
The country’s northeast blends Lao and Khmer influences while Phuket’s vintage architecture is Sino-Portuguese. The provinces and islands of the far south have a Malay vibe and linguistic flair while the Thai spirit is an Indian-influenced triumvirate of Buddhism, Brahminism and animism, fascinatingly juxtaposed against Bangkok’s CBD of sky-rises that stand tall against their rivals from Hong Kong and Singapore. As in those cities, the ruling élite of the corporate world as well as the protagonists in the theater of politics mainly have Chinese bloodlines.
Another chapter in Thailand’s tourism success story is that anyone plotting a trip or extended sojourn can swing from a frayed shoestring on the guesthouse circuit, go stratospheric with the high rollers relishing the region’s most affordable five-star facilities or navigate a truce between those extremes.
Bring the whole family or just your drinking buddies for a beachside bender. Go wild in the jungle or head out on a honeymoon after getting married on elephant back at a northern-style wedding. Come on business and stay for leisure. Book a healthy holiday at a detox/spa resort or let Dionysus be your tour guide on a wine-tasting trip through the new “Tuscany of Thailand”.
Toss in ingredients like hospitable locals, solid infrastructure, safety and security, season with a benign climate that offers wildly differing environs, from limestone mountains to mangrove forests, from tropical beaches to impeccable rainforests, and Thailand is your all-in-one/whatever-you-want getaway.
This book is a distillation of my nearly two decades of living in the kingdom and a compendium of recent travels in 2012.
The modus operandi is concision. After all, lugging your baggage around under a mind-broiling sun can be arduous enough without adding a cinder block of a guidebook filled with all sorts of extraneous details.
At the same time, the tiny bytes of information and fingernail-sized photographs on a smart phone cannot possibly do justice to an 11th–century Khmer ruin. The Tuttle Travel Pack Thailand occupies a Buddhist-style middle ground between these two extremes. I hope you enjoy the ride—and the yin and yang counterbalances.
CONTENTS
