Thailand, for sure, is the most accessible country to travel to in South East Asia. It is very safe, has a pretty good infrastructure with many low-cost airlines, and you can discover it on a budget quickly without sharing your bed with cockroaches. Also, it can be visited best during the winter in the Northern Hemisphere when there is generally a dry season in most of Thailand, and the conditions for traveling and enjoying the beaches are very favorable.
At the same time, Thailand is also a country with a long history and a lot of cultures, being an independent Buddhist kingdom that has never been colonized by the Europeans (sharing this honor with Japan, by the way, is not the only similarity between these countries). When obeying some strict rules like respecting the king, who can be seen everywhere in pictures, you can pretty much roam freely in Thailand, and the people are pretty open-minded. Being transgender, for example, is not a big issue over here; the sight of so-called ladyboys is pretty standard. Thais are very friendly to tourists, and of course, some will see an opportunity to sell you something, but you are not a walking dollar bill like in other parts of Asia and Africa. Unfortunately, the level of fluency in English is not very high among Thais, especially the older ones, but it changes, and some kind of communication is always within reach, maybe with a little bit of imagination or the help of Google translate.
Michael Hoffman Photography 