His visits to rural Thailand had started a few years earlier, with an extended trip to the northeast of the country in 1955, the first time a Thai monarch had visited this region. He returned to Isan in 1958, and in the following year he travelled to the South. These trips to remote corners of the Kingdom became a trademark of His Majesty's reign, and historical photographs today often show the monarch making way over rough terrain by car, by boat and even on foot, to visit his people, and gain a first-hand experience about their woes so he could find a way to help them.