Lonely Planet Traveller awards best destinations in Thailand

[dragonfly94]

Best destination here is the airport!

[rickirs]

How about the Best Buildings in Bangkok to Jump to One's Death?

Is there a sport in Thailand that is like bungy jumping but without the bungy?

[Jeremy50]

Lonely Planet should have died when Tony Wheeler sold it - maybe before.

There was a time when it was an invaluable source of little known information.

It wasn't long until it became popular among the hordes who descended upon East Asia like a plague of locusts.

True. If it isn't in the LP, it's worth checking out. It is sad to see all these young people simply treading the same tired trails that have been followed by millions of others before, falling into the same old traps , being taken in by the same old scams, and being herded onto the same old buses.

[TomYumpoochai]

Ive got a nice little blog running on ' best places to visit which arnt choked up with tourists and the inevitable thais cashing in on it'.....but i dont give out the blog address.... chillin in a national park tonight....alone and for free...

[DaddyWarbucks]

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Best klong (canal) or other waterway not polluted with rubbish or effluent in Thailand - Nowhere

Best footpath to walk, use a pushchair, or a wheelchair in Thailand - Nowhere

Best step free access to a shopping mall or mass transport system (bus, metro, Skytrain) - Nowhere

Nowhere Man

Doesn't have a point of view

Knows not where he's going to...

Nowhere Man, please listen

You don't know what you're missing...

He's as blind as he can be

Just sees what he wants to see...

Doesn't have a point of view

Knows not where he's going to...

He's a real Nowhere Man

Sitting in his Nowhere Land

Making all his nowhere plans for nobody.

[Classic Ray]

Liked the reference to Nowhere Man, but I probably have too much of a point of view! I'm getting older now so may soon have to have a wheelchair, but at the moment have a small son who still needs transporting to and from daycare in a pushchair.

Until you actually get out of your cars or off your motorcycles and actually try and walk around cities here, especially Bangkok, you don't realise how much pedestrians and disabled people are treated as second class citizens. The roads are generally well constructed and maintained, but the footpaths are still left in their wild state, with not one drain cover properly fitted or levelled, uneven surfaces and no collapses ever repaired.

Don't get me onto lack of dropped kerbs designed for pedestrians rather than cars, or slopes as well as steps leading into shops. I know I'm repeating some of what I said originally, but I don't see why ordinary people put up with this stuff here. Is it because rich people in power only travel by car?

And the klongs are disgusting, with no one taking responsibility for cleaning them up, they stink.

[MZurf]

Lonely Planet should have died when Tony Wheeler sold it - maybe before.

There was a time when it was an invaluable source of little known information.

It wasn't long until it became popular among the hordes who descended upon East Asia like a plague of locusts.

History repeats itself. When Wheeler's LP guides first came out many of the hardcore backpackers at the time pretty much said what you just wrote ... exclaiming that Wheeler had betrayed them and given away the great hidden places to travel to and stay at, and, as you say, it wasn't long until the "hordes descended upon East Asia" ... and then Africa and Central & South America.

When I first started hitch-hiking and traveling third-class through Africa and Asia in the 1960s my "guide book" was the little note book I kept in my shirt pocket to add info given me by fellow travelers I'd meet in hostels, hippy hotels, buses, trains, etc. who were coming from where I was headed. My note/guide-book filled with info about: cheap hotels, black-market money exchange, scoring the best hash, off-the-beaten-path exotic places like Kabul, Katmandu, Goa, Lake Toba, Koh Samui (when you had to take a coconut boat), Kuta Beach, etc.

I miss that long lost time when traveling was truly an adventure, there were actually exotic places, and the world was real.

I envy you those travels. I did my Asian backpacking tour in the 80's, which clearly is the best decade ever , but at that time Khaosan Rd was humming, there were already a few tourists in Samui (even though Phangan was still the dark side of the moon) and you had the feeling everything or every place had been done to death already.

On another note I do not understand the animosity towards backpackers displayed by many on this forum. Is it their lack of money (duh, how many 20-somethings are loaded?!), the way they dress (who cares?) or the way they behave (I've seen a lot more bad behavior among "ordinary" tourists)?

I have a feeling this animosity is mainly coming from mongers.

[fasteddie]

Brilliant! no mention of Krabi, that should keep the riff raff away!

[ThePlant]

Lonely Planet should have died when Tony Wheeler sold it - maybe before.

There was a time when it was an invaluable source of little known information.

It wasn't long until it became popular among the hordes who descended upon East Asia like a plague of locusts.

There was a long period, reaching it's zenith in the mid to late 1990s and early to mid 2000s, when LP was the only guide which was 'up to date' as it were.

For a large segment of travellers to leave home for SE Asia (in particular) without the latest LP guide would be unthinkable. The internet/technology killed the 'solid' (book) part of their business through 'up to date' sites like Travelfish et al. The Wheelers did a smart bit of business getting out when they did even if the BBC made a hash of it.

I'd be surprised if the business now is worth anything like as much as it was at it's peak when they were the biggest publishers in the world.

When I first started hitch-hiking and traveling third-class through Africa and Asia in the 1960s my "guide book" was the little note book I kept in my shirt pocket to add info given me by fellow travelers I'd meet in hostels, hippy hotels, buses, trains, etc. who were coming from where I was headed. My note/guide-book filled with info about: cheap hotels, black-market money exchange, scoring the best hash, off-the-beaten-path exotic places like Kabul, Katmandu, Goa, Lake Toba, Koh Samui (when you had to take a coconut boat), Kuta Beach, etc.

I suppose this was very much the case for most pre internet/technology travellers even in the 80s when I was hacking through Europe and North Africa.

In those early travelling days our 'up to date' info sources was word of mouth or the ubiquitous rag tag notice boards found in every GH or hostel. In those days people were more communicative. We had to be. No faces in guidebooks or smart phones all the time, nor staring gormlessly at endless loops of poorly pirated videos, fellow travellers were sometimes the only source of info.

If I was 'retracing steps' the most up to date info I had would be my notes from the previous trip.

[willyumiii]

I think Lonely Planet is a reference guide for far many more than just the backpackers.

I have never been a backpacker, but have used their books much over the years...for Thailand and many other destinations.

[Jungle Jim]

you mean like a cancer.

Lonely Planet should have died when Tony Wheeler sold it - maybe before.

There was a time when it was an invaluable source of little known information.

It wasn't long until it became popular among the hordes who descended upon East Asia like a plague of locusts.

[dragonfly94]

best place for coffee- Starbucks

best hamburgeeer- Mcdonalds

best bread- Tesco

best pizza- Pizza hut

best chicken- KFC

most expensive beer- 7/11

best 'ice cream'- Swensens

most fattening cake mr doughnut

best fake coffee Auntie Annies

These buggers have help turn everywhere into the same place, I hate them

[Andre0720]

Obviously ran out of time to visit and rate PHUKET...

[alex88]

Well Andre Phuket is pretty well avoidable.

[dbrenn]

Koh Lipe is the best island? The author must either have shares in a resort there or need new glasses!

The whole island is a construction site and the beaches are strewn with garbage.

[Borzandy]

A typical TAT action, how much Lonely Planet was paid ?