They're back! Chinese tourists flood Mae Klong for "Amazing World Class" experience at market

[webfact]

Picture: Sanook

 

Sanook continued to report on the return of Chinese tourists to Thailand after the Chinese government eased travel restrictions on Monday February 6th.

 

Thailand is one of 20 countries that Chinese on group tours are allowed to visit.

 

A group of 40 had arrived on Spring Airlines to Don Muang airport while 90 independent travellers were welcomed too.

 

Yesterday the tourists were at the Mae Klong station waiting for a photo-opportunity of a train coming into the station through the Rum Hup market.

 

It was packed as the train crept through the crowded area.

 

Picture: Sanook

 

Sanook called it an amazing world class experience.

 

Chinese - many with their colorful "team shirts" - waited for the train with some setting up "live" cameras to show their friends back home.

 

The tourist police and station staff were on hand to keep order and ensure the safety and convenience of the visitors.

 

Prior to the pandemic Thailand had 40 million tourists a year with at least a fifth coming from China.

 

Their return to the country after three years is seen as a key driver of tourism and general economic improvement, notes ASEAN NOW.

 

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[Will B Good]

Thank God only 4% of them have covid!

 

[realfunster]

"Amazing world class experience..." 

 

The Colosseum, Parthenon, Macchu Pichu, Taj Mahal, Angkor Wat, Eiffel Tower and Grand Canyon will surely be scrambling like mad to release an updated marketing campaign to beat off the challenge from this colossus of a tourist attraction. 

 

The scrum of phone-camera waving crowds is enough to put me off. 

 

[Taboo2]

Cancel Christmas....55555

[John Drake]

3 hours ago, realfunster said:

The scrum of phone-camera waving crowds is enough to put me off. 

It does look pathetic.

"What did you do on your vacation, Huang?"

"I watched a train run through a ghetto."

[StayinThailand2much]

"They're back!" reads like the poster for a horror movie.

[StayinThailand2much]

4 hours ago, Will B Good said:

Thank God only 4% of them have covid!

If 5 million come, this will mean only 200,000 with Covid...

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Sanook called it an amazing world class experience.

Train spotting at a market?

 

[Burma Bill]

4 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Train spotting at a market?

 

All wearing orange T-shirts rather than anoraks with notebooks in hand?

 

 

[norfolkandchance]

6 hours ago, Taboo2 said:

Cancel Christmas....55555

Don’t you know. No laughing allowed on here now.

[sammieuk1]

How bizarre ????????

[BayArea]

I think at this rate, Sanook would report a horde of Chinese tourists watching a street vendor making pad that an " amazing experience". 

[PCUSHING]

Thank goodness i am escaping Thailand in a couple of weeks.

Pattaya has become little Moscow and now we will have the added bonus of hordes of spacially unaware Chinese tour groups yacking at the top of their voices and dressed like scarecrows.

Apparently, Macau is back to 95% of precovid footfall levels.

An experience i will never forget.

 

[daveAustin]

Might have to stop reading this site for a bit…. that title is major cringe. I wish I could unread it. And the whole concept of what’s going down there is just first class weird! I mean, really, you come all this way to do that?

[Xanthe]

16 hours ago, realfunster said:

The Colosseum, Parthenon, Macchu Pichu, Taj Mahal, Angkor Wat, Eiffel Tower and Grand Canyon will surely be scrambling like mad to release an updated marketing campaign to beat off the challenge from this colossus of a tourist attraction. 

Chinese tourist are going to those places also and soon they will overwhelm those places as they used to do pre Covid also.

[hotchilli]

7 hours ago, Burma Bill said:

All wearing orange T-shirts rather than anoraks with notebooks in hand?

 

 

At least there are only two of them 

[Xanthe]

5 hours ago, PCUSHING said:

Thank goodness i am escaping Thailand in a couple of weeks.

Pattaya has become little Moscow and now we will have the added bonus of hordes of spacially unaware Chinese tour groups yacking at the top of their voices and dressed like scarecrows.

Apparently, Macau is back to 95% of precovid footfall levels.

An experience i will never forget.

I like them better than drunk bride/orgy seekers hoping from brothels to brothels (aka bars) and in baht busses passing sexual innuendos to local girls they would never dare to do in London buses. 

[rankric]

Definitely not a zero dollar tour. Out of all those photos there is one guy with a purchase. An iced milky tea.

[Orinoco]

2 hours ago, Xanthe said:

I like them better than drunk bride/orgy seekers hoping from brothels to brothels (aka bars) and in baht busses passing sexual innuendos to local girls they would never dare to do in London buses. 

So you come to Pattaya for the pristine beaches and crystal clear waters. 

 

[jacko45k]

1 hour ago, Orinoco said:

So you come to Pattaya for the pristine beaches and crystal clear waters. 

 

I think the Chinese are running around Pattaya too, but not the huge throngs gawping on Walking  St we used to get. Groups of 4-8 coming into some of the better Walking St Bars .....

[Orinoco]

5 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

I think the Chinese are running around Pattaya too, but not the huge throngs gawping on Walking  St we used to get. Groups of 4-8 coming into some of the better Walking St Bars .....

Will have to get the plastic bags out, for the all you can eat seafood  buffets,  if they are back in town. 

 

 

[bamnutsak]

I'm amazed there aren't accidents daily at this attraction.

 

 

 

[jaiyenyen]

22 hours ago, webfact said:

A group of 40 had arrived on Spring Airlines to Don Muang airport while 90 independent travellers were welcomed too.

So TAT are wetting themselves over the arrival of 130 Chinese travellers. Better warn the street vendors about this huge influx of big spenders.

[KhunLA]

Harsh crowd ...

... that's interesting to see, the train passing through the market.  Guessing a few replying, like myself, have seen it.

 

Don't know if I'd make a special trip to see, but if in the neighborhood, as most are, seeing other things, why not.  I certainly didn't go where it was that crowded.  Need to stroll down the line a bit further, and a more pleasant experience.  Checking out the vendors as might find something interesting.

 

What else you going to see here, or not see, this time of year.   Mountain vistas, scratch those.  Gulf is iffy.   Phuket and Samui are scam ridden for tourist.   

 

Then there's a Wat, and another Wat ... oh yea, and that other Wat.   National parks that charge you 10X the locals, and you wonder why they even pay that much for what's not there.

 

Waterfalls without water are always a thrill, to pay and not see.  Since they're a bit dry, watching the relic trains on the trestle along the river is a bit different.

 

Mall after mall, don't have those at home.  Leaves khlong markets and cheap eats, along with coffee shops to increase your BMI.

 

Thailand as an international tourist destination ... does make you wonder.

 

Maybe the Chinese are just coming here for the 'fresh air' ????

[John Drake]

41 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

Thailand as an international tourist destination ... does make you wonder.

 

Maybe the Chinese are just coming here for the 'fresh air' ????

I think the Chinese come here because it's not China. And it's nearby and cheap.

[KhunLA]

6 minutes ago, John Drake said:

I think the Chinese come here because it's not China. And it's nearby and cheap.

Same reason I leave the Amphur & Province when ever I can.

 

Just happy I don't have to deal with airports and 3 or 4 hr flights.