The changing Kingdom

I have written about Thailand ever since my first trip back in 2011. A dozen years have passed and yet I never get bored with the Land of Smiles. If you haven’t been to the Kingdom, what are you waiting for? The food is still amazing, and the people love to laugh. Thailand is one of the best bargain travel destinations on this fine planet. But enticing you to travel is not the purpose of this post. If you’re a newbie to the idea of SE Asia, try on of my earlier blog posts. There are plenty to choose from:

https://newland-newtale.blogspot.co.at/

The topic of this travel post is change. Here I sit in Manila hotel room, looking back at the last three weeks in Thailand. Let me tell you, fellow travelers, there have been some big changes in the Kingdom since my last long trip in 2016.

I know what you’re thinking. No land is a time capsule, just like no person is a small landmass surrounded entirely by water. And yet, there were a very few thing about my favorite country that I believed to be timeless. Let me tell you just how wrong I was.

Whether if be the Chiang Mai night market, village day market, or the giant Chatuchak market in Bangkok, the market women trusted in one thing and one thing only: cash. Baht on the barrel head, Baby. All else can take a long scooter ride. I never in my wildest imaginings thought this would change. Market women and cash were the fundamental underpinnings of commerce in Thailand.

Enter the COVID pandemic. Thailand shut down to tourism, which took a healthy bite out of the economy. Touchless payment became the new preferred norm across the globe. Enduring a series of lockdowns, the Thai people struggled just like everyone else. A new instant payment system rose from the ruins of the tourist economy.

A strange new creature sprouted from market stall tables and pick-a-pot food stands, a QR code atop a spindly plastic stem. The proprietress names her price for your bag of vege or you bowl of boat noodles. The patron scans the QR code, which brings up the payment account. Enter the amount, hit the button, then show the screen to the market auntie. A polite “khap” on both ends of the bargain, and the deal is done.

About the only folks still using cash are the poor farangs like me. I saw Thai folks paying for Moto-taxi rides without using cash, a thing both impossible and unthinkable in 2016. 

There are more changes to talk about, but they will have to wait until the next post. Meanwhile, there are still new stories coming out, even if I am halfway around the globe. Catch up on all the news at the MEF blog:

https://www.marcoetheridgefiction.com/whats-new-in-marcos-world-the-blog/

More to come, My Lovelies, more to come. Four months of travel for this epic adventure. Talk soon!