Paradise city for backpackers

Tourism has set the pace for Chiang Mai's modernisation

The Thai city of Chiang Mai is a destination favoured by shoestring backpack travellers.

But for Kirsty Jones it proved to be anything but a safe, friendly haven.

The 23-year-old Welsh woman's body was found in one of the city's guesthouses on Thursday. She had been raped and strangled.

Kirsty Jones had saved hard to travel the world

Like thousands of other Britons who visit each year, Thailand formed part of Kirsty's trip of a lifetime.

An estimated 8.65 million foreigners visited the country in 1999, according to the Thai tourism agency.

UK passport holders form the largest single group of European tourists, with over 515,00 visiting last year.

Chiang Mai is high on the list to places to stay.

Away from Bangkok's bustle, it is known as a gateway to the remoter hill tribe regions close to the Burmese border.

It is popular for its Buddhist temples, ancient walled city and bustling night market.

It is also the starting point for treks into the lush hills bordering Myanmar and Laos.

Tourism boom

Chiang Mai, capital of the once independent Lan Na Thai kingdom, was founded to the west of the Ping River in the latter 13th century.

Tourism has fuelled the town's modernisation over the last decade.

Its tallest high-rise blocks are hotels, but most of the city's inhabitants retain an old-world outlook.

Shaven-headed monks roam the streets after dawn, collecting alms, pedal-powered trishaws travel the streets, and household and food markets bustle as they always have.

Chiang Mai's popularity among tourists has had some undesired effects.

By day it is a charming, cultural city, but by night it is lit up by bars and clubs, where young Thai girls ply a lower-key version of the trade that made Bangkok's Patpong Road infamous.

German death

Violence against visitors travelling through the city is not unknown and Kirsty Jones' murder is the second time in two weeks that a European has been killed there.

German motorcyclist Manfred Michael Oberhauser, 41, was shot and killed in July by a motorist to whom he had made an obscene gesture.

The British embassy in Thailand has decided not to issue any warning to British travellers in light of the latest killing.

"We would if we felt that other tourists were in any way at risk, but there is nothing at the moment to suggest that there are," said a spokesman.

"By and large, we consider that Thailand is an extremely safe country... but vigilance is obviously wise."