Less than five months ago protests shut down the shiny new Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, stranding travelers for days.
With the Thai people again at each others' throats (running updates here via Bangkok's Nation newspaper), perhaps it's better to picture Thailand the way most visitors experience it - like in this photo of a beach on an uninhabited islet off Koh Samui.
As governments around the world react to the return of violence in Thailand with travel warnings, the tourism industries in neighboring Cambodia, Laos & Vietnam stand to benefit.
In Laos, the emerging showplace is the ancient royal capital of the Lan Xang Kingdom, Luang Prabang, a UNESCO World Heritage site on the Mekong River. The introduction of scheduled air service a few years ago has eliminated the need for a long overland trek or, as we experienced in 2000, a long float in from upstream, at the Thai border north of Chiang Rai.
Direct flights have brought other changes. In 2000 a tall cold Beer Lao in Luang Prabang would come with a big smile and change back from your dollar. Nowadays you can spend just shy of USD$500 a night for lodging.
Cambodia is touting development of its coastline, most notably at an island called Kep and adjacent to Vietnam's Phu Quoc island.
Vietnam's tourism sector has a huge jump on Laos and Cambodia. See a photo tour of Vietnam from the Cambodian border in the south all the way up to the far northern Chinese border, previously posted on CS&W. And as you're planning your non-Thai holiday, check out photos in the Laos Gallery and the Cambodia Gallery on EarthPhotos.com.
(Photo above from the Thailand Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.)
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