One thing that was very uplifting to me when I would occasionally look at the "top things to do" on certain websites for various areas is when I see that charitable organizations are normally on the top of the list for those places. It is good to see that enough people are interested in helping out underdeveloped areas by volunteering their time and in some instances even paying to be a part of it. This was something I saw a lot of when Thailand was transitioning away from elephant trekking and moving towards elephant sanctuaries. In areas like Thailand and I presume Vietnam, the government isn't going to do this sort of thing on their own so it is on us to "vote with our wallets."

The elephant trekking industry has almost completely died because of this change of heart on the part of tourists and as a result the government actually stepped in to offer help to the trekking companies to transition to sanctuaries. Before I left that country over a year ago I witnessed the near complete collapse of the once very popular elephant riding industry and the emergence of sanctuaries that at least before Covid, were right there at the top things to do in Chiang Mai.