Chiang Mai is basically dead at the moment. During this time of year people tend to not travel here anyway even when there isn't any Covid to speak of because of the fact that the "burning season" results in very bad air pollution that greys out the sun and just seems deadly. It probably is and we were all wearing masks before it was required during this time of year due to having some of the worst air pollution in the world.
Therefore, I go and visit my friends down in the south any chance that I get and this weekend we went to Phang-Nga bay which is an area that would normally be jam packed with boats of tourists going this way and that but I knew it wasn't going to be like that this time. However, it was a bit alarming to see that there was basically no one there at all.
This part of the country is known for the very calm seas and crystalline waters that everyone can enjoy. There are virtually no waves, there are no riptides and you would have to work pretty hard to drown in this ocean that seems more like a lake than it does a sea. Because of this, longtail boat excursions are (were) very popular here and even though I hate those machines because they are so freakin loud, they are a very inexpensive way of getting around
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enjoying your tranquil environment are you? Well this will put a stop to that
Myself and my friend arrived at this one bay in Phang-Nga province where we come to do some Stand up paddle boarding and of course try our best to not get horribly sunburned in the process. Normally, we would have to move the car around a bit to get a spot and then argue with the "parking lot attendants" about extortionate parking fees that change depending on your skin color / ability to speak Thai but instead we arrived to encounter virtually no one at all.
You can see a few vehicles in the back there but normally this place is wall-to-wall vehicles and the restaurants on both sides of the street are normally chockablock with customers. That was not the case this past Saturday where we encountered only one other person while we were there. It is a good thing that we brought our own food because every single restaurant was closed as well.
Some of the cooler restaurants are actually connected to rocks in the distance where you will dine on a floating platform where the seafood is stored below your seats in nets. If you are concerned about the freshness of your seafood, this is one way to ensure that you are getting the freshest possible. Obviously, all of these were closed as well.
I do enjoy having the place to myself when I visit stuff like this and sometimes in the past the sheer volume of people at these places was borderline extremely annoying. But I can't help but feel bad for the number of people whose lives have been turned upside down by the complete and total death of tourism for Thailand - a country that relies on tourism for a great deal of the livelihoods of its people. At this one location alone there are normally hundreds of people employed and I can only wonder what it is that they are doing to make a living in these times.
Back in my "home city" of Chiang Mai I would estimate that 80% of all businesses that were tourism-related have shut, many of the permanently. Even the 7-11's closed and when that happens you can believe that the impact of the lack of visitors is well and truly terrible since 7-11's almost never close.
There is some news that Thailand is fast-tracking tourism and eliminating quarantine periods for vaccinated tourists by the third quarter of this year and for the sake of the thousands upon thousands of people that are out of work right now, I certainly hope that this objective ends up being successful. Now if the country could just stop being such jerks about their visas.
