News Forum - Tubing in northern Thailand bustling with foreign tourists

[Thaiger]

A Thai TikToker recently shared a video of foreign tourists enjoying a tubing adventure along the Pai River in Mae Hong Son, a northern province of Thailand. Thai netizens were overwhelmed by the video, saying it was a sign the kingdom is well on the way to economic recovery and tourism is booming once more. …

The story Tubing in northern Thailand bustling with foreign tourists as seen on Thaiger News.

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[HolyCowCm]

Not trying to be negative, but even if I was younger that is way not my cup of tea and way not the group I would want to be with as just a bunch of foreigners. Just a big toilette if you ask me. But it does look good for the Thai businesses.

[Ramanathan.P]

As long as there is no complains and unwanted incidences reported like Pattaya or Phuket it is ok. However hope all those foreigners follow proper safety measures when riding their moped along the narrow alley of Pai.

[Highlandman]

21 hours ago, HolyCowCm said:

Not trying to be negative, but even if I was younger that is way not my cup of tea and way not the group I would want to be with as just a bunch of foreigners. Just a big toilette if you ask me. But it does look good for the Thai businesses.

It's normal human nature to want to be with people who are like you. Thais visiting or living abroad, generally only associate with other Thais.

[Highlandman]

20 hours ago, Ramanathan.P said:

As long as there is no complains and unwanted incidences reported like Pattaya or Phuket it is ok. However hope all those foreigners follow proper safety measures when riding their moped along the narrow alley of Pai.

Like what, wearing a useless face mask  

[HolyCowCm]

1 hour ago, Highlandman said:

It's normal human nature to want to be with people who are like you. Thais visiting or living abroad, generally only associate with other Thais.

Yes maybe nowadays, and especially in Pai. Been there over probably 20 times in 20 years becauee of friends visting wanting to go, and this has become more of an anomaly compared from way back when abd even 10 years ago. Guess it is just how the modern day young travelors are, and can even judge it from news of the Full moon parties saturated with droves of foreingers. I would also bet that nowadays you are in the cool foreign travelor crowd club if you have a tatoo or odd piercing saying - I am different. Now I understand what my dad thought of my generation.

[TWS60]

Nice, Pai was a cool place to stop for a night on the MHS Loop drive several years ago.  Random Euro/Westerners rocking dreadlocks and crispy new Tie Dye shirts tryna be Hippies from the 1960s, ramshackle Reggae bars down by the river blasting Bob Marley on repeat, pretending there's no (illegal) weed around.   Almost felt like we'd stumbled into that funky bar in the original Star Wars film.

Agree with HolyCow's perspective above.   We tended to do our domestic travel during the work week to avoid some of the crowds,  but that's no good against a perma-Russian or Chinese Wave.   Nice for the local businesses, especially after the long COVID drought, but for me, that river tubing photo spells Give it a Miss.

[MiD]

A jedi master proclaimed, "the urge to belong is strong in this one ... and this one ... and this one ... and this one ... and this one ... and this one ..."  :p

[AdvocatusDiaboli]

On 2/23/2023 at 11:38 AM, Thaiger said:

Thai netizens were overwhelmed by the video, saying it was a sign the kingdom is well on the way to economic recovery and tourism is booming once more

But this could also be … the death Nell has moved across the border.

https://theworld.org/stories/2012-01-25/laos-tubing-can-be-deadly

Tubing ended up being banned in Lao due to deaths and bad tourism publicity. Let’s see what happens in Thailand, wonder if they use motorcycle tyres here?