Once a year the quiet Thai resort town of Hua Hin comes alive with its annual jazz festival on the beach, which has just chalked up its sixth year. However, just as the event has begun attracting international attention, Thailand's new fascination with a "sufficiency economy" and a return to simpler times is working to roll the music fest back to being just a local gig.
The royal Thai holiday destination usually attracts the older European tourist looking to avoid some of the livelier hot spots in Thailand, but it is also very popular with weekend visitors from Bangkok, only a little over two hours away by car. On any day of the year Hua Hin boasts kilometers of wide sandy beach, fine seafood restaurants and a number of world-class golf courses. Added to its repertoire is an increasingly popular music festival, now in its sixth year. However, it could be in danger of becoming the victim of its own success.
Full Story: Asia Times Online
Sufficiency economy, and all that jazz
Sufficiency economy, and all that jazz
Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed? - Hunter S Thompson