My stint in Aus-tralia came to an abrupt end recently when an opportunity to spend some time in my old stomping ground of Thailand presented itself – how could I refuse? A mate of mine I’ve been very close friends with since we were kids was to get married on the southern holiday island of Phuket – and being just the one continent away, there was no way I could miss it.
Unfortunately I hadn’t been at my job in Sydney long enough to warrant a holiday. But when a possible employment opportunity with a national paper back in God’s Green Kingdom cropped up, I decided to quit, hit the wedding and head home afterwards.
Funnily enough, it was the second wedding I’d been to in Thailand, as my sister tied the knot in the Land of Smiles earlier this year. Funnier still is the fact that another friend has requested that I be his best man at his own wedding, chalked in for April next year in – you guessed it – Thailand!
This most recent wedding was quite something – it was held on the astounding Kata Noi beach and put together by the five-star hotel where the wedding party was staying. Paul and Alyson put together what was in some ways quite a traditional day, but added some elements which reminded everyone we were a long, long way from a do in Ballybrack church and afters in a Travelodge.
Among these flourishes was a baby elephant, which was led into the middle of the gathered well-wishers by its mahout (driver). He seemed a cheerful blob of hairy hide, and after posing for a few photos and making repeated attempts to grope the groom’s face, he was led trundling off up the beach with a trunk full of bananas.
Another unique touch was an ice sculpture that started out as a pair of swans but quickly melted into the shape of two elephants. It was particularly enjoyable for me after myself and two other blokes present took bets on how long it would take to collapse – I managed to clear the princely sum of 600 baht (€12) when it came tumbling down some time in the early hours.
It’s always interesting to do the tourist trail in a place where you once worked, and this latest trip has proved no different. However, Phuket is one of the most visited places in Asia, and it is in grave danger of turning into an overcrowded mess like a Fuerteventura or an Aiya Napa. Prices are high, touts are aggressive and development is surging ahead at breakneck speed – at the expense of the local environment.
Chatting with some of the wedding party, many of whom had never visited Thailand before, I was surprised to hear that quite a few really didn’t like it. But on looking around, it wasn’t difficult to spot certain things that new visitors might not take too.
The island’s burgeoning sex industry was among them, but few would arrive without having any expectations about something which in any case rarely matches up to the extremes so often painted in the western press.
Rather, one of the most frequently cited issues was the people, whom many of the visiting party found quite difficult to deal with. I nearly spat my Som Tam all over the dinner table the first time I heard that, and promptly burst into an impassioned defence of my former adopted country.
Yet when I started to bang on about all the fabulous Thai people I had known and in many cases am still good friends with, I realised that anything resembling the real Thailand is very remote to the average tourist arriving in the likes of Phuket. After all, the Thais that most of the island’s visitors come across are mostly the kind who make a living by separating tourists from their money.
Armed with a few words of the local language and some former Thai colleagues dotted around the island, I had a means of cutting through the bull and had a predictably good time.
But I couldn’t help but feel bad, both for tourists arriving into this mercenary version of Thailand currently under construction in its island resorts, and the Thai people themselves, who are done a terrible disservice by many on the front line of the tourism industry.
