During my travels in Thailand, I have relied upon a Lonely Planet researched in 2009.  It never occurred to me that the guidebook might be out of date roughly two years later–yet almost every day I encounter inconsistencies between its text and my surroundings.  I wouldn’t wish an out-dated guidebook on anyone, obviously.  But, when I’m not swearing about the absence of a bar here, a bookshop there, it provides an interesting insight into the pace of modernization.

A “brand-new” (as of 2009) theater specializing in traditional Thai puppetry proved unprofitable.  By the time of my visit it had closed, its puppets and puppeteers relegated to a dinner show at the Ramayana Restaurant.

Visiting Dusit Palace, I am informed that the twice-daily traditional Thai dance performances no longer take place.

Lonely Planet recommends shuttle buses from the airport to “convenient destinations all over Bangkok.”  “Not anymore,” the woman at the information desk informs me.  It’s an ultra-modern elevated train now.

My book describes the MBK mall as “a street market” with escalators.  Far from it–the MBK of 2012 is a glistening, state-of-the-art shopping facility!  Not only that, but the cost of entrees at the international food court is up 130 percent…

A trend starts to emerge… Bangkok marches toward the future, while traditional performance art falls by the wayside.

In an effort to reverse the trend, Thailand’s Queen Sirikit has styled five modern outfits inspired by traditional dress.  I have no idea whether her suggestions are catching.  But, when traditional culture becomes the queen’s little pet project, I’d say it’s on life support.

But there’s no use mourning the passing of traditional Thai culture.  Waiting for the dinner show at the Ramayana, I struck up a conversation with a German who was also traveling alone.  As it turned out, he was a puppetry aficionado.  He had been visiting Southeast Asia for decades,  he said, and observed the art form everywhere from Myanmar to Malaysia.  In fact, he had attended the unheralded opening of the Bangkok puppetry theater mentioned above.  And, for as long as he’d been visiting the region, traditional performance venues had succumbed to public indifference.

I was surprised by the matter-of-factness with which he described the demise of his favorite diversion.  But when I commented, he made an observation worth repeating:  the world is never the same for any two people.  I suppose Heraclitus was making the identical point when he said, “No man ever steps in the same river twice.”

At the time of the German’s first visit several decades ago, perhaps Thailand was a bit like Myanmar today:  a wild, live-by-your wits experience for Western tourists.  Thirty years from now, Myanmar may be Thailand; Thailand may be Singapore.  Who knows?  Nothing stays the same.