Discover where locals travel in Thailand

“When I was small, it was all very traditional,” muses 69-year-old Prapapan Sritrai as she shows me around her workspace, where huge vats of bubbling, inky-blue liquid are being stirred by her husband. Auntie Ngeam, as she’s known locally, is one of a third generation of indigo artisans in a family descended from the Phuan, a people known for their handwoven fabrics. A sizeable Phuan community, originally from Laos, settled in Phrae, in northern Thailand, after being displaced from their homeland when the borders of Siam were expanded in the late 19th century, bringing their indigo craftsmanship with them. Auntie Ngeam’s Tardis-like indigo studio is located down a slim alley in Ban Thung Hong, a village on the outskirts of Phrae, almost equidistant between Chiang Mai and the Laos border. Here, where the green rolling hills are dissected by the Yom River and its tributaries, the acanthus and indigofera tinctoria plants central to indigo production flourish. Indigo — and, specifically, the production of dark-blue mo hom shirts, a common uniform for rural and agricultural workers in Thailand — became a key industry in Phrae after the demise of the local teak industry following the Second World War.

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It took me close to a year of living in Philadelphia to find a cheesesteak I really like. 

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The Royal Thai Government led by Prime Minister H.E. Mr. Srettha Thavisin has announced the temporary tourist visa exemption scheme to passport holders of the People’s Republic of China and Republic of Kazakhstan effective from 25 September 2023 to 29 February 2024, to achieve this year’s tourism revenue target of 2.38 trillion Baht. Chinese and Kazakhstani nationals will be granted a temporary visa exemption for a 30-day stay on tourism purpose in Thailand during the five-month visa exemption period.

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The best time to visit Thailand is from December to March—though, as with any tropical destination, a short and ridiculously torrential burst of rain is unpredictably possible, even on the sunniest of days.

Majorca, the largest of Spain’s Balearic Islands, has been a classic summer destination for Europeans and Brits for decades. But long before the big resorts sprung up along the coastline and villas came with helipads, the island’s hilltop villages attracted artists, musicians and writers in search of year-round sun and solitude. Among the best known of those early visitors were the Polish composer Frédéric Chopin and the French novelist George Sand, who spent the winter of 1838 in the town of Valldemossa, in the mountains above Majorca’s northwest coast. By 1929, when the British writer Robert Graves and the American poet Laura Riding arrived in the nearby village of Deià — at the recommendation of the American writer Gertrude Stein — and later built a home there, that picturesque hamlet of stone houses and olive groves was already a fledgling artists’ colony. In 1956, the Barcelona-born artist Joan Miró and his family moved to the outskirts of Palma. Plenty of artistic talent was homegrown, too, nurtured by generations of weavers, glassblowers and ceramists. One of Spain’s most prominent contemporary artists, Miquel Barceló, grew up on the island painting landscapes with his mother and her friends. Among the island’s many signature local crafts is the , or cloth of tongues, a style of ikat believed to have arrived from Asia centuries ago via the Silk Road. And it’s that deeply rooted artistic tradition combined with an extraordinary natural beauty that’s attracting the latest influx of creative types. In the last few years, a number of artists and designers have left larger cities in Europe and moved to Majorca. Some of these new arrivals are renovating old houses and farms in and around the country towns of Sóller and Deià or choosing to base themselves in Palma’s Old Townwhere Gothic spires loom over the port, and there’s a fresh wave of contemporary art galleries and idiosyncratic shops dedicated to supporting local artisans. All over the island, new or newly revived hotels compete for the most impressive views.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Tuesday, November 15. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.