Thailand
Weather
Northern
Thailand.
Best time: October to March-13c to 25c
Hot:: April to July -
temp. over 25c
Wet: August to September -humid.
However, Chiangrai being
surrounded by the mountains and hills, it is pretty cool and comfortable
though.
Deciding Where to Go
As for Thailand, Bangkok is a
must. It's a big, dirty, crazy city that you'll form a love-hate relationship
with. Go North if you have time. I went to Chang Mai, wish I'd stayed longer.
There is also Chang Rai up that way that I hear is also nice though I didn't go
there.
Ko Pan nagn is party central whilst Phi Phi is just nice and laid
back.
I never made it to Authaya though I wish I had. I did go to
Kanchanaburi which was OK. I did it as just a day trip from Bangkok which was
perfect. Other day trips from Bangkok included the floating market which I heard
was a TOTAL rip off and in fact you walk through it and watch it from the
sidelines instead of actually getting on boats and participating.
My
friend went to a place up the coast from Krabi that she LOVED. I can't recall
the name, but I'll find out and post back.
Really, all you have to do is
get to Bangkok and the rest is easy from
there.
Bangkok
General Guide
Bangkok is a diverse
and enigmatic city: simultaneously overflowing with spicy and exotic foods,
proudly boasting grandiose temples,
simmering with the voices of bargaining
shop owners,
teeming with racy nightlife, and paradoxically inhabited
by
gentle Buddhists. My visit there was brief but marked
with awe, peace and
the desire to return. I stayed in
Bangkok for a total of almost four days,
and also I flew
down to Phuket, an island off the southwest coast of
Thailand, for one night. Having visited Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in the
past, I wasn’t expecting Bangkok to be much different. Thankfully, my ignorance
became readily apparent my first day there!
Reading up
Since
95% of Thai people are Buddhist, its helpful to read about how buddism reached
Thailand, as well as the tenets to which its people subscribe. You might also
want to know what most of the temples/monuments there are praising! I found Thai
people to be extremely friendly, open and hospitable. Perhaps Buddhism can be
attributed to part of this.
Buddhism in Thailand
What Buddhism Means to Thai
People
Visa Information
If you are from Britain, any other
EU nation, USA, Australia, Canada or Japan, you don't need a visa if you stay in
Thailand for under
30 days. For all others: Visa
Information
Health/Vaccines
Check out the CDC Website specific to
Southeast Asia.
Getting There and Around
I flew there on Air India and out of there on Vietnam Airlines. That was cheapest
for me. However, I flew from BKK-Phuket on Thai Airways and found them to be great.
Check out their website!
What to Do
Gotta see the Grand Palace,
Wat Phra Kaeo, Wat Pho, and Wat Arun. (Wat means "temple"). All are stunning.
Here are some websites to guide you:
Top
10 Things to Do in Bangkok
Things to Do in Bangkok
Bangkok Tourist
Bureau
More About
Bangkok
Backpackers'
Tours Around Bangkok
Here's a website about
Bangkok that looks pretty good.
You can do some excellent shopping
there and prices are good.
I can tell you for sure that one night
in Bangkok makes a hard man humble. That Bangkok is an Oriental city, but the
city don't know what the city's got in it: the creme de la creme of the chess
world in a show with everything but Yul Brynner.
Bangkok is quite an
experience. I highly recommend taking to the waterways to see the city from that
vantage. The Grand Palace is worth a visit as is the Reclining Budha. If you're
there on the weekend, be sure to hit the weekend market...but go
early!
Accomodation
Although I was lucky enough to have a
connection in Bangkok with a place to stay, I met a girl who was staying at Suk 11 and liked it very much. It's in
the Sukhumvit area of Bangkok, convenient to the Skytrain and easy to get to
from the airport. It's a clean, family run place, and Mama even makes Thai
dinners if you don't feel like going out. It's reasonable priced an you'll meet
other travelers.
This is a proper hostel with a friendly communal
atmosphere. Star attraction is their evening meal on most nights when you share
authentic Thai food with the family at less than £1. Dorms are a/c, common room
is fan-cooled. It is on Sukhomvit Road which has restaurants, internet places,
shops etc etc by the hundred. It is a long way from Khao San Road, which doesn't
seem to have a hostel as such, just guest house rooms (albeit very cheap) and
I'm not sure how easy it is to meet other travellers. When are you
travelling? It's cleaner & quieter but Sukhumvit Road is busier and
more crowded than any street I've ever been in! However, if you're looking
for a place in Bangkok's Backpacker Central, aka Khao San Road, this isn't the
place.
Don't stay in Khao San Road! If you want to stay in a relatively
cheap area, I would head for Sukhimvit Road instead. Everyone I know who has
stayed in Khao San has told me how much they hated Bangkok. I didn't understand
why until I saw it for myself. So, if you want to start off on a positive note,
go for a cleaner and quieter area first, especially if this is your first stop
in SE Asia.
Also a great website: Hostels Bangkok
Eating -
the best part
Food I thought was VERY HOT and I love hot food! Just keep
this in mind. You must go to Tawandang German Brewery. Sounds ridiculous, but
it's crawling with locals (not tourists), great Thai food, beer, and live
entertainment! Read about it in this guide: Entertainment and
Food in Bangkok
Shopping
Koh-sahn Road is backpackers
paradise or pit depending on who you talk to. You'll find everything you need in
just a few blocks - which can be a good thing and a bad thing. I saw the same
people over and over again there. Some say it's like the Hotel California, you
can never leave. You're lured in by the cheap and easy living the place offers.
Though a word of advice, if you stay a street or two off of the actual Koh-Sahn
Road, you'll actually find cheaper accommodations and it'll be
quieter.
My
Webshots of Bangkok
My Journal
(Blog) of Bangkok
Golden Triangle
The name evokes an
impression that illicit drugs are the activity of this area. Yes, it was once a
notorious place. However, with strict enforcement started many years ago by
various countries particularly the United States and Thailand playing an
important role of eradicating the drug menace by educating the many hill tribes
to have a permanent settlement instead of the slash and burn to grow sustainable
crops except poppy plants. Schools were built to educate their children on the
Thai curriculum and welfare.
Chiangrai is the second largest province of
Thailand and is in the midst of mountain and hills. Across the great Mekong
river is Myanmar and Laos, thus the name "Golden Triangle" . All nationalities
can cross over to these countries easily by road, boats or air with valid
passports and visa. Being the first to establish into a city by King Mengrai of
the Lanna Kingdom, it has many ancient ruins. There are many activities you can
indulge like visiting the Opium and National museum, shopping for foodstuff,
clothing, jewelries, handicrafts or ride on a long propeller boat on the Mekong
river, explore the natural rock formation and caves with spectacular
formations.
Of course, if you are a nature lover freak, go to the
mountains. Doi Tung - it has a sacred hill top Buddhist shrine built in 911 AD
and it is believed that the left collar bone of Lord Buddha is enshrined in the
twin pagodas. On your way up, enjoy t he panoramic view then drop in to visit
the Akha and Lahu village famous for their hand woven textiles and silver
jewelries. Not satisfied with on mountain? Venture to Thailand's little
Switzerland, the Doi Mae Salong, incidentally "doi" means mountain. It sits on
an elevation of 6000 feet above sea level. The air is cool and refreshing
throughout the year. The settlers are ethnic Chinese descendants of the KMT
nationalist army who took refuge in Thailand to escape the Communist forces of
Mainland China some 50 years ago. The settlement has its own Christian church,
Buddhist temples, schools, locally produced oolong black tea, shops and
restaurants.
Trip Report - Drewmeister sd
What an epic
trip!
I just flew in from Bangkok, and boy are my arms tired. 20 hours
there (with a 4 hour stop in Tokyo) and 17 back.
We stayed a couple
nights in Bangkok, 2 in Phuket, and 4 on Phi Phi (pronounced pee pee) island.
Phuket is about 500 miles SW of Bangkok on the Andaman Sea, and Phi Phi is about
20 miles offshore from Phuket.
Bangkok is a teeming city of about 10
million. At any given time, about 9.9 million of them are on their scooters or
in their cars- I’ve never seen such horrific traffic. One evening, it took us
over 2 hours to go 16 miles by taxi (costing $5.50). We rented a car and driver
and went to Ayutthaya (the ancient capital) and saw some awesome ruins (and got
blessed by some Buddhist monks, which was very cool). We also went to the palace
and the Wat Po temple to see the world’s largest reclining Buddha statue (150
feet long). These sites were amazing.
While on Phuket we went on an all
day tour to the famous James Bond island where The Man With the Golden Gun was
filmed. The area where it is at has spectacular limestone pillars and islands
all over the place. We kayaked among some, and into various caves and grottos,
and ate lunch at a sea gypsy village. We also rode elephants and fed wild
monkeys at a Buddhist Monkey Temple. Awesome day…I’ve always wanted to be James
Bond and go to that island!
We took a ferry to Phi Phi island and relaxed
at a Holiday Inn resort there, accessible only by water taxi- No cars on the
island. We did some fantastic snorkeling (seeing giant clams, lionfish, and an
enormous variety to other fishes). We also fed more wild monkeys, which
incredibly, SWAM out to our boat to get some bananas. Oh yeah, we also rode an
elephant.
The weather was…Great, steamy, and rainy. It must have rained
at least 15 inches while we were there. Better to go closer to the high season
(November to March).
Both Phuket and Phi Phi got hammered by the
tsunami…We met many locals who lost family members. The Thais were hard at work
rebuilding, though, and really welcome tourists. Speaking in tourists, I did see
a fair amount of 50ish westerners with +-20 year old Thais on their arms. Good
times!
Since it was low season, hotels were very cheap. $40-$50 gets you
a four star resort room with a nice breakky err breakfast. Meals are incredibly
cheap and delicious. The most expensive meal we had was $17 total for a lavish
dinner and drinks at our resort in Phuket…I do mean “our resort” as we were the
only guests one night!
Lastly, curiously enough, we ran into the usual
hordes of Australians and Euros, but no other Amerikans…Phi Phi got hammered by
the tsunami (waves came in simultaneously from both bays- You know the little
isthmus at tonsai separating the 2, which apparently had shops on it in between
both parts of the island? Everything South (I think) towards the uninhabited
part of the island (monkey island) is gone. Wiped out. Only coconut
trees.
I saw some watermarks and pictures from the tsunami. The water
level was about 8 to 10 feet above sea level. The main strip on tonsai is
rebuilt, but there is a lot of wreckage still visible if you wander inland. The
locals were in good spirits, though, and were working very hard to get back to
"normal". We stayed at the holiday inn on the opposite side of the island, which
was in fine shape.
I didn't make it to the lookout, but another couple we
met said that there was still a lot of destruction on the path and you
apparently couldn't get to it.Here are a few of our pics, assuming I can post
the link correctly...I have many more.
thai
pics 
