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How did it start?
Life, Published on 09/02/2017
» It's hard to say who was the first tourist in Siam, because tourism as we know it didn't exist until a few centuries ago. Indian merchants sailed here in the 5th century, the Chinese came to trade and later to settle, and one of the earliest European travellers were the Portuguese, arriving in Ayutthaya in 1511. In 1680, Ibn Muhammad Ibrahim, a Persian, visited the land and recorded his impressions -- "All around us were trees that never feel the withering touch of autumn" -- while the first guidebook to the Kingdom was written by local resident J. Antonio in 1904. (Its most highly recommended activity is the shooting of birds and mammals.)