Had a great day in #Pattani, which is multicultural and reminded me a bit of Songkhla town - both w/ Chinese-influenced old quarters. Also some good empty beaches on Laem Ta Chee. Many checkpoints but mostly unstaffed. Locals were very nice.

First time for me

Guy tries to rent kayak from shop on Ko Phangan to paddle out and dump body parts of the person he murdered and chopped up. No kayaking at night, shopkeepers say. So he *buys the kayak* on the spot for $1,000 USD. What a complete trainwreck. https://t.co/YdI92LbVB4

Good article on how @amazonbooks is enabling misleading AI-generated "travel guidebooks" that are propped up by fake reviews. I've also noticed @Google highly ranking horrible AI-generated travel and news websites in its search results. https://t.co/477319poaa

Great to see that Blue Ba You has come back to life as a smart budget resort near Hat Noppharat Thara in Krabi. I always dug their original guesthouse before it was bulldozed a few years back. Nice family owners, can't wait to try their new spot. https://t.co/8Q0YE2p9lR

What bugs me most about this is how @Google reliably rewards The Thaiger by ranking its plagiarism well above the original journalism that The Thaiger so blatantly copies.

I wouldn't call Ko Klang a "slum," but this is a good video showing local cooking and life on an island that has preserved its traditions despite Krabi town being directly across the river. https://t.co/qXyc2H4zVE

Think of #Phuket firstly as a large city / highly developed province and you're less likely to be disappointed. Visit it for nightlife, shopping, food, onward transport, etc. Travelers who go and complain that it's urban / busy make me 🥱

The most beautiful? The most visited? The most destroyed? The most talked about? The big environmental come-back story? The model for the future? In so many ways, Maya Bay is the paradigm by which other Thai beaches are judged. https://t.co/J3vCj4Hswg

Yesterday it was Chanthaburi, today it's the #Rayong coast. I'm also just back from Ko Phi Phi / Ko Yao Noi and will be writing a bit about them soon too. https://t.co/fzpj1FJFbo

#Chanthaburi has long been one of my favorite provinces for travel in Thailand. Here's my guide to it with a focus on the coast and a handful of obscure islands, as well as some great jungle areas: https://t.co/mN5L9DtZpV

A seminar in Bangkok to find solutions to settle a land dispute between a land developer and indigenous villagers who are being forced out of their land on Lipe Island. #Thailand #หลีเป๊ะ #เกาะหลีเป๊ะ #Saveหลีเป๊ะ #SaveLipe #ปัญหาที่ดินชาวเล #ชาวหลีเป๊ะ

Happy to have published a first part of the Thai Island Directory that shows how I'm boiling 800+ Thai islands down into a single guide. 54 islands are in this section, w/ some info about every one of them: https://t.co/vul0AEGmoQ

Publication of the actual directory part of the Thai Island Directory begins tomorrow morning and will ultimately reach 800+ islands. Here's an updated Table of Contents and a primer on how to use the T.I.D.: https://t.co/lfYG1Jb72k

"Look at Songkhla’s Muang Ngam Beach. The sand may shift right sometimes and then left ... but it’s still there. If you give the beach enough time, you will see it rehabilitate naturally.” <- Good to see organized efforts to rethink sea walls. https://t.co/t1jmXXh0cx

Stocked with photos, background info and tips on traveling Thailand's 7 coastal zones, an overview welcomes you to each new chapter of the Thai Island Directory. This one is for the Eastern Gulf: https://t.co/JcfTqtITwj

😥

When finished, I believe the Thai Island Directory will be the most complete single guide to Thailand's islands and shorelines ever written in English. I'm publishing it piecemeal, starting tomorrow. More info:

Sneak peak at my hand-drawn map of the Eastern Gulf of Thailand, FEATURING mermaid from hell (drawings should improve as I go lol). One of these maps comes w/ all 7 chapters of the Thai Island Directory (one per week starting 28 Dec. at https://t.co/QIy4fuvKsB)

Ban Huay Klang in mountainous southern #Chumphon province. Coffee-growing country w/ exceptional durian groves. Beautiful vistas, cool air, dirt tracks ending at viewpoints. It's all cliffs and jungle between here and #Ranong on the Andaman coast.