A few days ago, an article on Thailand’s cafe culture written by my fellow journalist for Nikkei Asia has been quite a sensation in my circle of friends. Actually, it has been talk of the town enough that everyone, even my favorite local podcaster, talks about it. In short, he said that the young Thais have turned chic cafes into photo studios. Some cafes embrace that, while others don’t.
To tell you the truth, I feel him. Last week I took a cab to a bakery near my place in Ari neighborhood and the taxi driver was completely shocked when he saw a huge crowd walking around Gump Ari, a community mall, like zombies. They walked and posed and stopped so their photographers could take photos. The driver laughed when I said that it is like this. They came to take photos, even with white walls with nothing. Blame it on #FOMO.
It’s not only about cafe-hopping, but photo taking (not quite selfies because they usually have someone else to take photos) has been Thailand’s national sport for quite a while. And it is even worse when e-commerce has become a lucrative business. Many sellers are roaming around to take photos with their products tied in. No worries about copyrights, privacy or peace of mind of anyone else. Recently, I just interviewed Bangkok Art and Culture Center (BACC) on this issue because there are many people who tied in their products with the world-famous works of Ai Weiwei, without knowing or without care that there are art copyrights involved. They just think it was a nice backdrop, that’s all.
This also reminds me of my last trip to Samui. We decided to try the stylish yet super-busy SALA Chaweng, which is also very insta-worthy. That was a really bad idea for me. People taking photos everywhere, even on the balcony of our room. I was so shocked when I joined sunrise yoga surrounded with people taking photos of themselves, on the lawn, by the beach and swimming pool. At 7 a.m.
It’s not like I don’t take photos at all. If you go to my personal blog Tasteofwander.co, you will see that I love taking photos of people and beautiful places and great food. And I don’t mind if young Thais will take millions photos a day. My way of coping: what I call slow journalism. No matter how much I need to be there, I tend to wait and take it slow and end up there late than everyone else, which seems to be a good idea. At least I can have a nice cup of coffee or enjoy a nice place peacefully. And it’s also my criteria in assessing the virtue of places. If they are good enough, they are going to last long, even when the fads are gone.