Nung..... Song..... Sam....

Oct 1, 2005
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Is it just me?...... Or have Thai tourists gone digital camera potty?....... I have coincided with a couple of Thai holidays in places like Pai and lampang Luang over the last few weeks..... And they are pointing their digital boxes at each other, themselves, food, passing soi dogs....... Anything......... Huge tribes of middle class men with dubious haircuts are getting their (admittedly very cute) girlfriends to pose against signs whilst they set up the tripod (no light in the middle of the day you see)......... She then makes the vacuous duck face and the V sign, whilst he intones the bovine mantra...... Nung..... song...... sam....... Before they move on in their hectic schedule to photograph the menu...... their friends doing inept star jumps...... Themselves standing in front of anything at all...... A mountain that should be there but is actually covered in mist........ Have Nikon, Canon and Sony been putting something funny in the water supply?
 

scotty007

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Feb 23, 2004
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David Fl and myself were at the top of Doi Inthanon a few weeks ago and Thai tourists were taking photos of us and the bikes.

But now you mention it I did see a lot of Thais taking pictures last holiday, all part of the digital revolution!
 

gobs

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Feb 8, 2007
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What the heck?

I suppose some people like to take pictures while others like to ride their bike...

A pleasant hobby is always funny, no matter what it is, isn't it?
 
Jun 21, 2006
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its an asian thing man, here in england they take pictures of these weird statues with funny hats and a big building that some important woman is alleged to live in. pointless in most peoples opinion, but then as gobs said they probably think the same about us when we spend all our disposable income on something that can only take you from A to B, and then every minute of our lives either talking about, thinking about or riding that very same machine.
 
Oct 1, 2005
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Its not simply an Asian thing. I have been working in Asia for nearly two decades (as a photographer as it happens)...... It's a new phenomenon. I was in Pai new year 2008 and although it was packed with urban holiday makers..... The photo frenzy was not yet in evidence..... Its new and its compulsive.... It is frenzied. Manic.
 

KZ

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Aug 20, 2003
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It's a new thing?! I've seen asian tourists pouring out of their busses with cameras around their necks for decades, nothing new here. Might have gotten a bit worse since digital cameras became cheap. So what?
 
Oct 1, 2005
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So what?..... So nothing. It's called observation.

Indeed tourists taking photographs is not a new phenomenon anywhere Asia included.

The manic, compulsive hyper-inclusive nature of the way that is done is definately a new thing and is commented on by both Thais and farangs...... Or the ones I know around CM at any rate. Its quite a site to behold.

Of course none of this is qualititavely good or bad..... It simply is. It certainly adds another dimension to the circus that places like Pai have become on public holidays...... Its bizarre.....

Try heading up to Wat Phumin or Lampang Luang on a Thai public holiday and see if you can guage at any one instant how many people are either pointing the screen.... Or looking at the screen..... And it certainly is a digital phenemenon...... Photography having died with film of course.... Now all you're left with is 'digital image capture'...... Well..... Nothing stays the same.