tourism – GW Blogs from Abroad

By LizGoodwin04

There’s a phrase in Thailand that one will see plastered on t-shirts and hear spoken by Thais all over the country and it is “same same but different.” This phrase means exactly what is sounds like; it’s used to describe something that is essentially the same, but just a little different.

This past week, our program travelled to Koh Chang, an island off the coast of Thailand, to study tourism and it’s impacts on the environment. The island of Koh Chang has two sides. One can turn left and visit the local, preserved side of the island, or one can turn right and visit the developed, touristy side of the island. Ultimately, both sides of the island are the same, but different.

While developers have built up the right side of the island, causing many environmental problems like the accumulation of waste and water pollution, the left side has remained relatively untouched, only inhabited by the locals. The locals on this side of the island are hoping to increase community-based tourism; a system where locals would run the tourist industry and the money from tourism would go back into the community rather than leaving in the hands of developers.

Throughout the week, my classmates and I stayed with host families on the left side of the island learning how to promote community-based tourism and how to prevent environmental degradation from development policy. We had a boat tour around the island and went snorkeling so we could see the coral reef that is being destroyed by tourists who have damaged the coral by touching it and we hiked over a mountain to the only beach left on the island that hadn’t been bought by a developer yet. On the second to last night we were in Koh Chang, we travelled to the other side of the island; the right side that has been built up by developers.

On this side, the streets were covered by neon signs and shops catered to foreigners. There were hardly any Thais in sight and everything in this area was dirty and polluted. I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to come to this side of the island when they could have an amazing, local and immersive experience on the left side of the island. Although the two sides of the island are ultimately the same, they are so very different.

By practiceyogadistrict

With a three-day weekend, a world of freedom opened so two friends and I decided to travel up to the north of Thailand to explore Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Pai. The north is known for it’s lush green foliage and gorgeous mountains. Unfortunately we chose to go at the worst possible time because in the month of March, all the rice farmers burn their fields in order to grow herbs and mushrooms that sprout from the ashes. Though it’s an effective practice for the farmers to earn a little extra income from the second crop, it is horrible both for the environment and visibility, so our mountain views were a little less spectacular. Even so, getting out of our Khon Kaen bubble was fun and exciting.

Khon Kaen, as it would be, is the farthest thing from a tourist destination in Thailand. Comparatively, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Pai are major tourist destinations. As we disembarked our bus in Chiang Mai, we saw countless white faces in the crowds of Thai people. I was a little taken aback, being used to being one of the only farrang around in Khon Kaen. Even more shocking was when I arrived in Pai. Pai is a world of dreaded, tattooed, pierced European backpackers. I could walk down the street without seeing a single Thai. It was a place completely catered to tourists. There were even people dressed in Karen hill tribe cultural dress performing on the street to give the tourists a taste of the ‘culture.’

As I spent time in these tourist locales using my Thai language that I have garnered so far, I spoke in Thai with locals about my life and asked them about theirs. I found that the Thais I spoke with were pleasantly surprised and even excited to encounter a farrang who had more permanence in Thailand than other tourists. I became more than just a walking moneybag to them. Gaining even the simple ability to communicate on a deeper level gave me more humanity in their eyes. One friend I made along the way, an elephant trainer, even asked my friends and I to come back and work on the elephant farm with him.

What I realized through my long weekend is how blessed I am to get more than just a few days or weeks in Thailand as a tourist, but rather months studying and seeking to gain as much understanding as possible about the culture in which I am living. Tourists who make their rounds of Thailand go to the beaches in the south, Bangkok for the big city experience, and then Chiang Mai/Chiang Rai/ Pai in the north to see pretty mountains. They stay on the tourist trail where it is easy to communicate in English. They see the sights, buy some trinkets, and then they move along to the next country. Though I have four short months, I am getting far more than any tourist might. I am gaining empathy.

Tag: tourism

"Same Same But Different"

On the backpacker trail