They're Baaack!! Return of the Tourists

 

The foreign tourists have been starting to come back to Thailand.  Not the former great numbers of Chinese yet, but “farangs”, i.e., westerners, and some Middle Easterners are showing up. 

I have been extremely spoiled for two years, because the Covid pandemic shut down all incoming tourism.  I seemed to be the “only farang in town”, and I admit that I really liked that.  The trains, malls and theaters were empty and I roamed freely.  I didn’t have to witness crude behavior from farang (Euro-American types) or Chinese tourists.  There were only Thais and myself out and about, and I felt like I blended in.  But the dread tourists are trickling back.  I feel crowded now. 

We are all still expected to wear masks everywhere in public – it’s the social norm here as well as the law – but some tourists are arrogantly ignoring it, thumbing their noses at Thai values, and to me, as an expat, this is embarrassing to see. 

What I hate most is that public spaces are more crowded again.  Yes, that is selfish of me, but I am by nature a solitary rambler. 

“Ramble on; and now’s the time, the time is now, to sing my song...”. (Led Zeppelin). 

-Zenwind. 

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