Slow Travel in Thailand

Flat illustration of terraced hillside houses, a loom, a basket and a mountain path, deep teal and gold

Temples & Culture

Most Hill Tribe Tours Make You Part of the Problem

The Karen, Hmong, Akha and Lahu villages in the north were resettled, relocated and turned into tourism over about thirty years. Knowing that changes which tour you book.

Flat illustration of a city park with a monument, runners, a lake and skyscrapers behind, deep teal and gold

Slow Travel

Bangkok Has Free Things That Are Better Than the Paid Ones

The best park in the city is free, the best view of the skyline is free, and the best food in the country costs less than the entry fee to the palace you queue for.

Flat illustration of a jade pool between limestone cliffs, a longtail boat and rainforest canopy, deep teal and gold

Slow Travel

Emerald Pool Is the Best Thing in Southern Thailand and Getting There Is the Problem

A limestone lake the colour of a swimming pool, a fully river-fed one, in a national park that closes parts of itself for most of the year. Here is how to actually get there.

Flat illustration of a riverside market, a golden temple spire, a wooden longtail boat and a bridge, deep teal and gold

Slow Travel

Thonburi Is the Half of Bangkok That Has Not Been Sold Yet

The west bank of the river is older, weirder, cheaper and better than the side everyone photographs, and it is fifteen minutes on a boat from the Grand Palace.

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Practicalities

Three Months of Thai Lessons Is Nothing and Everybody Is Surprised

The gap between knowing the tones and being able to hold a conversation is about two hundred hours, and a school can compress it, but not as much as the marketing says.

Flat illustration of limestone cliffs above a bay, a kite in the wind, a fishing pier and windmills, deep teal and gold

Islands & Beaches

The Coast North of Hua Hin Is the Best Part of the Gulf and Nobody Stops

Ninety kilometres past Hua Hin the coast turns to limestone, the hotels stop, and a province that is four hours from Bangkok goes back to being a place people live.

Flat illustration of a tuk tuk, a juice glass, a small swimming pool and a temple gate, deep teal and gold

Practicalities

The Kids Do Not Need a Holiday Planned and Neither Do You

A country organised around a village model, a food culture that feeds children constantly, and a heat that dictates the entire day. Thailand is easier with kids than most people expect.

Flat illustration of a meditation cushion, a temple roof, a bell and a simple meal bowl, deep teal and gold

Temples & Culture

Ten Days in a Temple Is Harder Than Ten Days of Anything Else I Have Done

You will wake at four, you will not eat after noon, and on the last morning you will understand something and then go back to your life. Here is how the thing works.

Flat illustration of coffee cherries on a branch, a pour-over dripper, a paper filter and a cup, deep teal and gold

Street Food

Thailand Grows Some of Asia's Best Coffee and Almost Nobody Has Noticed

The royal development projects turned a subsistence crop into a speciality industry across the northern hills, and the result is genuinely good coffee in a country that drinks instant.

Flat illustration of a misty mountain ridge, a pine plateau, a field of wildflowers and a waterfall, deep teal and gold

Slow Travel

A Sea of Fog Rolls Through the Valley at Five in the Morning and About Forty People See It

Sixteen hundred metres up a winding mountain road in Phetchabun, with a battle from the last century still on the ground and essentially nobody else there.

Flat illustration of a limestone karst tower rising from turquoise water, a longtail boat and a cave mouth, deep teal and gold

Islands & Beaches

Krabi Is Not a Beach Town and That Is the Whole Point

Everybody who has heard of Krabi has heard of one beach strip, and the province underneath it contains a cave temple with twelve hundred steps and a jungle pool the colour of a swimming pool.