Hawaii is nice, but can be pretty expensive depending on whether you rent a beach house vs hotel. I went twice in the past and felt it was a normal place, but nothing worth what others made it out to be. The people that live there love the place and for good reason, it's their home. For a New York'er, it's probably a little slow.
Thailand (mainland), particularly Bangkok was pretty shitty if you ask me. The US dollar goes a very long way and half of the people I would walk by (men, women and men disguised as women) would offer to have sex with me for as little as $20. Their food was interesting, but a little bit of a risk if you ask me.
What I will say that I loved was going to Maya Bay in Phi Phi. Back in 2003, I went there with a small group of friends, we had a tour guide that was sanctioned by the local authorities, as the place has/had no hotels or places to stay and we found it to be beautiful. I became interested in seeing the bay after watching Leonardo DiCaprio in The Beach and found it to be almost as beautiful as depicted in the movie. There is something about filmmakers and their ability to bring out the best in scenery that just can not be surpassed by the limitations of the human eye.
Anyhow, all I really wanted to do was to swim in that bay's water, while wearing waterproof headphones and listening to Moby's Porcelain. I did it and managed to cross that off my list. What I didn't like about the trip was that unlike the movie, there were numerous speedboats racing into the area and tourists (much like me) that were trying to capture that same magic as seen in the movie. Unfortunately, the bay was nowhere as desolate as what the movie depicted and much of the vegetation that was seen in the movie, was not seen in the bay.
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