Feb 17, 2010 | Northern Thailand

For better or worse (emphasis on the latter), I followed the tourist trail from Bangkok to Chiang Mai in the north, stopping along the way in Ayutthaya, Lopburi, Phitsanulok, Sukhothai, and Lampang. KFC and 7-11 were abundant, yet I did manage to find traces of a unique cultural heritage, much of it fenced off in tidy, multiple-ticket historical parks. Let Thailand be an example of what happens to a country when it's a cheap tourist hot spot for 20 years. Not exactly the Land of Smiles, regardless of what the brochures say.