Often when I tell people that my interests include Thailand their reaction can be varied. Some people are interested but others have their own ideas what a Thailand has to offer the holiday maker and what they should expect if they ever travelled there. Through out my 10 years of travel in the Thailand I have encountered both the positive and negative side of this Kingdom but overall I have nothing but positive things to say about Thailand and its people. Thailand is far from perfect and a short search on the internet will soon show you this, but what country is perfect?

Not so long ago I met up with a friend who had just returned from their holiday of a lifetime to Thailand. Her plan was to spend some time in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Koh Samui, Phi Phi and Phuket to enjoy all that Thailand had to offer. Jungle trekking in the north of Chiang Mia, scuba diving in the south and the cosmopolitan city of Bangkok, it all sounded an ideal holiday to me. During her four weeks I would imagine she would have met many Thai people and gained an insight into Thai life and seen how another culture lived, maybe even picked up a few Thai words on the way. Thai people love to talk especially if it means practising their English.

When I met up with his friend I was eager to get her holiday stories and to find out what she thought about the country I have grown to love. My excitement was short lived when I heard her say that her overall impression of Thailand was ‘dirty’. I just couldn’t believe this, after 4 weeks of tropical rainforests, eastern culture, coral reefs, white sandy beaches glorious sunshine her first adjective of to describe Thailand the land of smiles was dirty’.

Sitting for a few minutes in stunned silence I listened as she described what her holiday actually entailed. The more she discussed her travels the more I lightened up and the more I felt justified to criticise her and many other travellers like her that visit Thailand for that matter. She arrived in Bangkok airport without any pre booked accommodation, not a problem in anyway if you then use the tour desks to get a hotel. Oh no what her and her friend did take a local bus to Khao San Rd and found a cheap hostel costing 300baht per night, this worked out to be around $4 a night. After a few nights in this ‘dirty hotel’ they took the overnight train to Chiang Mai and again started the search for the cheapest accommodation in town.

As I sat listening to her “holiday of a lifetime” I realised that for 4 weeks she had been bumming about in Thailand taking every cheap alternative on offer and actively searching for the cheapest accommodation at each destination. This is a very popular way to travel around Thailand and most of Asia and I first experienced the country this way so I’m not knocking it. In fact I would say the opposite and advise people to try it as you come across some hidden gems in street vendors and sometimes in the accommodation.

However if you do choose this way to travel then you should expect a little reality. The hotel standards of a $60 hotel are just slightly higher than that of your $4 room. The area these $4 rooms are located can often be in a part of town that you would not frequent if you were back home. I could go on here about how you if you pay nothing for services then you should not really complain about the service but I wont. Here’s a thing though, if bum-type holiday gets too much for you then you can always consider checking into a hotel with some star rating, maybe even pre-book your accommodation or try flying to save you some time.

If you spend 4 weeks paying the bare minimum to live in any country, chances are you will come across some dirt on your travels. When travelling to a foreign destination or to a culture you don’t understand and then you live on the bread line, I can almost guarantee that after four weeks things won’t be great. If you tried living on the breadline in your home country things wouldn’t be great either.

It’s a holiday folks, a break away from the drudgery of your everyday life, if you choose to spend 90% of your holiday money on the flight then sit in the gutter because it’s all you can afford maybe you should stay a little closer to home next time.

I still maintain that Thailand is one of the best destinations for any holiday. The warm welcome you will receive, the variety of activities above and below the water, and of course the glorious weather makes this a destination you should return to again and again. You just have to pull your self out of gutter sometimes and enjoy your holidays!