Introduction to Thailand's Website 'Scene'
First of all, an introduction.
There are many websites that exist in Thailand, On The Road Thailands (OTRT) being one. They can be lofty, aspiring forums and travel guides, night-life orientated with bar reviews or humble personal blogs that can have cult-like status. These can range in quality and accuracy from the very good to the very bad but they tend to be lacking in three key areas:
Firstly, they don't tend to be impartial; A slanted bias is usually encouraged and stuck to, which means it's one-sided and uneven.
An example of this would be catering to the short-stay families and tourists while ignoring the expats and single folk who reside here. Conversely it could be a website that rants on about the sex industry in BKK, Pattaya and Phuket. Another would be blatently promoting products and services via 'fake-interviews' about a place for cash or 'services-rendered.'
Secondly, they tend to be unable to 'tell-it-like-it is.' Examples can be refusing to name and shame the farang criminals, dodgy business' that rip off farang and so on due to fear of recriminations (more on this later).
Thirdly, they tend to 'sanitise' their websites a lot about the realities of Thailand. This can include them not even acknowledging the 'night scene', bars and the broader aspects of the country.
Introduction over, its on to what we do.
On The Road Thailands Mission
OTRT's goal is to provide free quality information, imagery and an even-handed look at Thailand. This is aimed at expats, travelers and tourists. As the title suggests the website will lean towards the biking and car traveling expats and travelers that have the urge to travel, cities will be covered but in less detail at first.
But travelers often wish to do more than just roam the roads in Thailand so reviews and information on populated towns and cities will be included as well. We will cover the tourist spots, but we won't shy away from telling-it-like-it is if a place isn't up to scratch or the attitude sucks.
Name and Shame of the crooked farang that infest Thailand will be available to those who wish to be forewarned of them, and perhaps give them a piece of your mind as well!
This is a website created, designed and worked on by expats, for expats. As such we, unlike many of the 'popular' Thailand websites have no qualms about showing the more adult side of Thailand to our audience. However, anyone expecting porn and X rated exploits with the local thai women may as well leave now. This is not the place for it and it ain't happening on this website period.
Riding the open road in Thailand is pretty damned cool, so cool in fact On The Road Thailand was created around it.
Thailand has a good road infrastructure, it has danger, adventure, few nanny-state entanglements and so it appeals to many free-spirited riders out there. We could expand on that now a lot but we'll get to that later. Routes and photo-recon of many roads and highways are available for visitors and we hope they are of great assistance to you on your travels.
On a side note...
A long time ago a free-speaking, independant website listed the dual pricing establishments in Thailand. This websites founder was impressed by it's bold direction and 'tell-it-like-is' style. Alas, it's gone to that great website in the sky now but we, at OTRT, will try and keep its spirit alive. OTRT will list any dual pricing establishments that we encounter or hear about.
This goes out to all the Puritanical foreigners, nay-sayers and troublemakers in Thailand...
If you want everything to be just like home...
Stay home!
