I'd agree mostly, some things never changed since 90's apart from perhaps attitudes - but i remember backpacking used to be a gap year endeavor, not a lifestyle unless you were a hippy or dropout. Some came here and made business or careers, or were REAL teachers (not TEFL BS fakes), later came the criminals, then the bigger money to build the resorts, then the chains, until they'd changed quite a lot for the backpackers. Where once a beach was lined with huts for hundreds of baht a week, are now a thousand concrete A/C bungalows on a 2km strip of ruined natural shoreline, sold in 4 or 5 star package holidays worldwide ...Added to which: exchange rates are nothing like they used to be, and the place itself an economic tiger that isn't as cheap as it once was. Furthermore, not just Thailand but around the world generally - things are more restrictive than the wonderful decades pre Y2K where we really could roam about SEA through porous borders without a care in the world ... sad to say the world has changed, drastically and in past few years especially freedom wise. but I think other places and opportunities open up ....i think we forget of other horrors and sh1t times that were existing also in the region. The list of things that have changed is a long one ....
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very good follow-up. Once these bio-metric (is that not one word? spellchecker doesn't think so) systems get installed globally, such as the ones i just encountered in Australia, i think travel will become even more restricted.
I guess age is taking its hold on me and as time goes by I become more of a "back in my day" type person :) The good news is that the people that are gap yearing it now, don't know how much easier it was and are probably more capable of simply taking it in stride.
I'm with you on the 'back in the day' part, and sometimes guilty of being in love with the past more than the present just a little ...