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In her ten visits to Thailand, Yvonne Strömberg once came specifically to purchase eye glasses. Another time she had a facelift. Typically though, she comes to relax in the northern hills around Chiang Mai with Thai friends she met during earlier trips. The warm weather and peacefulness, combined with the value for money and the security the university professor feels coming here on her own, has made Thailand her favourite tourist destination. |
She is not alone. Some 64 per cent of visitors to Thailand have been here before. And women travellers are an increasing proportion of all visitors.
“In Thailand I can afford to stay in good hotels, have good food and buy things that are very expensive in Sweden,” says Strömberg. ”It is very easy and safe for women to travel in Thailand.”
Expat women living in Bangkok are seeing an influx of other working women coming repeatedly from within the region and further afield to “chill out” and recharge spiritually. Some who come have high-powered jobs and want to relax or enjoy a work bonus. Some also come after the break-up of a relationship and feel the need to “find themselves” again. Many combine an excursion of medical check-ups, good eating, fun shopping and a special event, such as a textile exhibition or special sale.
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Equally attractive are the options for “real” cultural experiences, such as visits to weaving or hill tribe villages. These are particularly favoured by first-time female visitors who want to immerse themselves in Thai culture. |
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According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, marketing campaigns targeting female travellers and families have led to record increases in arrivals in these niche-market categories. Of the total 13.8 million arrivals in 2006, a record 5.6 million were females.
Lots of women say Thailand is the perfect place for women. It still appeals to backpackers but increasingly is also alluring to the environmentally concerned, and to conscientious aesthetes looking to engage with communities in a helpful and educational way. There are also well-heeled ladies in want of extremely luxurious pampering. And Thailand beckons refined adventurers who want to trek across hilltops to remote jungle villages but re-emerge to a rose-petal bath and traditional herbal massage.
“Thailand is comfortable, easy and convenient,” says Jane Puranananda, a long-time American expat in Bangkok.
Cultural experiences
A large part of the country’s appeal of course is its rich history of many kingdoms, its many ethnic cultures and its Unesco World Heritage sites, which include the former capitals of Sukhothai and Ayutthaya. There are also glorious temples, mammoth reclining Buddhas and an eclectic variety of museums. The biggest is the National Museum in Bangkok where a number of expatriate women volunteer as tour guides.
Many tour operators are waking up to the female traveller trend. Andaman Discoveries, which received the Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Award for Best Conservation of Cultural Heritage, and was runner-up for Wild Asia's annual Responsible Tourism Award for community or family-run homestays, offers one- to five-day tours. The company focuses on volunteer, educational, family and female interest tours.
“At the end of just a day, I understood more about Thailand than in four weeks of backpacking and staying in guesthouses, writes “Helen” of her Andaman Discoveries homestay experience on the company’s website. “We travelled to and from obscure piers that the average tourist would never know were there. We got to try out driving the long-tail boat, visited [the village] temple, met members of the Moken tribe who talked about traditions dying and surviving amongst them. We learnt about the role of the chief, their fishing economy, how to make squid traps and an unusual community drive for conserving endangered animals and ecosystems. I feel privileged to have seen behind the scenes in Thailand.”
Another tour operator, Phu Phiang, offers crafts and culture journeys that are tailor made for specific interests. Many of its female clients — and some males, too — have spent time in craftspeople’s villages actually learning skills such as weaving and embroidery with the Mien hill tribe.
"I enjoyed the sightseeing just as much as the spinning and weaving activities. A great variety — preparation, spinning, dyeing, weaving and back strap weaving," wrote a Canadian client on the Phu Phiang website.
Phu Phiang has relationships with craft communities that produce weaving, baskets, jewellery, hand-made paper, embroidery, pottery and other things sold in the very popular ThaiCraft Association monthly sale in Bangkok. Itineraries can include hands-on workshops, craft training, in-depth lectures and demonstrations from recognized specialists. There are also visits to religious and historical sites.
The Thanatharee (“Treasure on the Water”) is a 21-metre rice barge offering comfortable accommodation for two- and three-day cruises on the Chao Phraya River between Bangkok and the ancient capital of Ayutthaya. Passengers can sample the traditional ways of life of rural communities, sometimes using bicycles to explore out-of-the-way villages or local markets and festivals.
Images © Suan Thip |
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Images © Suan Thip |
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Suan Thip, a house devoted to Thai culture near the Chao Phraya River, has developed cultural programmes on cooking and flower arranging. It also lays on river tours to historical sites and master artisans, such as the potters at Koh Kred. There is also an upscale homestay experience in a traditional Thai teak house surrounded by fruit trees and built by craftsmen in a style popular in the Ayutthaya region of central Thailand some 150 years ago. |
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Cooking lessons have become an essential ingredient of the authentic Thai experience that many visitors seek. The number of cooking schools has mushroomed. Bangkok’s new Siam Paragon shopping mall has one, and the Blue Elephant has another above its Thai-colonial restaurant. There is also the Baipai Thai Cooking School, which is set up in a modern Thai-style house with tranquil surroundings and accredited by the Ministry of Education. Alternatively, there is Time for Lime, a beachside school on the southern part of Koh Lanta Island.
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Shoppers’ paradise
To most female travellers, Thailand is a kingdom of treasures to buy, to consume and to indulge. It is gems and tailored clothing, silk scarves and silver spoons as well as a trove of items worked in bamboo, water hyacinth, leather and traditional weavings.
Two long-standing shopping favourites of Thais, expats and returning visitors alike are the Chatuchak Weekend Market in Bangkok and the night market in Chiang Mai. The ever-increasing shopping malls in the centre of Bangkok are meanwhile filling with specialty Thai products that showcase local artistry, especially in home furnishings. For instance, the creative fabrics from Pasaya’s award-winning Thai textile designer, available in Siam Discovery Center help make any home ultra chic. Other specialty shops that are favourites with females include Chabatik at Siam Paragon, Studio Lea and Sop Moei Arts in the Promenade Decor centre next to the Nai Lert Park Hotel on Wireless Road, and Studio Naena in Chiang Mai. |
Trendy pampering
Stunning hotels in or on the outskirts of Chiang Mai city heavily promote their blissful spa experiences along with yoga rooms for private lessons, and cooking schools. One even includes a cultural museum dedicated to the Lanna kingdom. Resorts further north in Chiang Rai province combine outdoor spa pampering with nature retreats in luxurious tropical mountain jungle settings, conservation projects and excursions to border markets and hill tribe villages.
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The once small beachside resort town of Hua Hin southwest of Bangkok has grown a considerable wingspan that enfolds many contemporary chic resorts overlooking the great blue expanse of the Gulf of Thailand. It is also home to several award-winning Thai spas.
Thailand certainly has perfected the spa experience. There is something for every type, from the extended stay spas and herbal treatment centres in most of its cities and popular islands to high-end wonders of exclusivity and serenity. Hua Hin’s top spas repeatedly attract foreign female celebrities like tennis ace Serena Williams.
While traditional herbal treatments and services abound in nearly every corner of the country, the Thai spa experience has evolved into wellness centres that are short on rustic and long on luxury. Serenely emphasizing holistic healing and preventive treatments, they offer yoga, Vipassana, Tai Chi, meditation retreats, nutritional analysis, detoxing, colonic cleansing and therapeutic massages.
Thailand’s burgeoning medical tourism sector is meanwhile attracting a million visitors a year for treatments ranging from open heart to knee replacement surgery. Visitors can also get face lifts, breast enhancements and fine dental work done more or less at their leisure. Thailand’s hospitals have joined the wellness trend and offer posh spa facilities that combine therapy with preventive care as well as nutritional consultations, intravenous antioxidant treatments, sport science trainers, counsellors, detox yoga and “emotional detoxing”.
Affordable pampering, treasure troves, cultural adventure and safety to wander — they all come together to make Thailand a preferred choice for women travellers. |
LISTINGS
SPECIAL INTEREST ACTIVITIES
Crafts and Culture: Journeys Through Thailand
Customized itineraries for the discerning general traveller as well as those with specific interests in crafts, arts and other cultural traditions.
www.phuphiang.com
Thanatharee Rice Barge Cruise:
www.thanatharee.etc.co.th
Suan Thip Thai Cultural House
www.suanthip.com
The Blue Elephant Cooking School
www.blueelephant.com/school/index.html
Baipai Thai Cooking School
www.baipai.com
Time for Lime
Thai Cooking School and classes, Krabi, Thailand
www.timeforlime.net
SPA PRODUCTS
Panpuri – Purify Your Senses
www.panpuri.com/new/home.html
Palama-lapa
www.erbasia.com
Harn Products
www.harnn.com
SILK AND COTTON TEXTILES AND ACCESSORIES
Chabatik – The Fine Art of Silk
4th Floor Siam Paragon, Unit 4-34A
www.chabatik.com
Jim Thompson – The Thai Silk Company/ The Jim Thompson House
www.jimthompson.com
www.jimthompsonhouse.com
Pasaya
www.pasaya.com/language/en/onlineshop.php
Sop Moei Arts
A non-profit organization with a unique collection of textile and baskets woven by the Pwo Karen in Sop Moei district, Mae Hong Son Province.
www.sopmoeiarts.com
Studio Lea
The Promenade, Nai Lert Park Hotel, Wireless Road
Studio Naena, Chiang Mai
Silk and Cotton Textiles Gallery
www.studio-naenna.com
CentralWorld
The largest lifestyle shopping complex – one stop for all your lifestyle needs
www.centralworld.co.th
Siam Paragon
The Global Retail Entertainment Phenomenon
www.siamparagon.co.th
Siam Discovery Center
www.siamdiscoverycenter.co.th
The Emporium Department Store
www.emporiumthailand.com/main.html
For a complete listing of shopping suggestions for Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket, please visit www.ArtandCultureAsia.com
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Shopping in Thailand
Art & Culture – South and Art & Culture - Lanna
As the saying goes - you are sure to find something for everyone. If you do not know where to begin, Art & Culture – South and Art & Culture - Lanna, the definitive guides to studios, shops and special places have been assisting visitors and residents with their shopping needs for over seven years. Touted by other respected publishers as ‘the best of the best’, this team hand selects the companies for their free copy publications based on product and service quality.
TIPS AND ADVICE ON SHOPPING IN THAILAND
by Lori Ashton
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