Authenticity of the Culture. (From the point of view of a tourist)

The tourist went to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai in Northern Thailand, and was accompanied by his girlfriend. When they arrived there, they hired a local guide, who was a Karen man, to show them around since they were not familiar with the place.

They first went to a summit of a mountain, which was the highest mountain in Thailand. The Karen guide then told them the importance and symbol of the mountain. The body of one of Thailand’s past King, King Inthawichayanon laid in the summit. The King was a man who believed that the watershed in the summit was the most importance hence; he requested his resting place to be here, before he passed away. As the Thais have a deep respect for the Kings and their royal family, the summit of the mountain is visited by thousands of Thais each year, to pay their respects.

Another place that they went to was a Hmong Hill Tribe market where the local Thais sell crops which they have grown in their own fields. This is one way where the Thais show the use of the culture. Agriculture was an important source of income for the Thais, way before tourism became one of the main sources of the economy.

From this traveller’s report of his experience at Northern Thailand, he had the exposure of seeing how the Thais still deeply respect their culture and how it is used even though the country has gone through Globalisation.

*This has been taken from the review comment by the author’s name of Gunnar Estonia from Tripadvisor.com. I do not own any of these reviews. (GunnarEstonia, 2010)