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thailand
BillieTheBot
Posts: 8,721 Bot
me and the fella are thinking of taking a short trip there early next year.
we'd only be going for 2 weeks. where are the best places to go? also, when is best for the weather? we wouldn't want it too hot but at the same time, we wouldn't want to go when its rainy!
we'd only be going for 2 weeks. where are the best places to go? also, when is best for the weather? we wouldn't want it too hot but at the same time, we wouldn't want to go when its rainy!
Beep boop. I'm a bot.
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we are thinking of going next march time so hopefully everything will have calmed down a bit by then!
for those that have been, where are the best places to go? i've done alot of googling but there are soooo many places in thailand. everywhere sounds good but if we were to go, we'd only be going for two weeks! we would only have time to go to a few places!
I'm at work right now, but when I have some spare time, I'll write a short essay. :thumb:
Bangkok is full of gorgeous temples, the largest and most famous is the 'Grand Palace'. A must on your itinerary.
Another one is the 'Golden Mount', which is worth the mission up the hill, if only for the view. From up there, you can see all over Bangkok. It allows you to see the diversity of the city... you'll see skyscrapers and modern technology standing next to slums and shanty houses.
When you're in Bangkok, you should take a boat trip down a canal. It is a cheap and efficient way of getting around and also seeing the city (you'll see many temples from the water).
Bangkok is famous for it's markets. The Weekend market is the largest (I'll let you gues when it's held :P), and is so huge that it can be quite intimidating! We also went to an Electrical market, which was held in a shopping centre, and was about 6 or 7 floors of Electrical and techy stuff.
Nightlife in Bangkok is spot on. There are plenty of sick bars and clubs (though I can't remember their names). Most of the nightlife is situated along Kao San Road, which is very popular with backpackers. There's a party every night down that road.
The seedier side of Bangkok is mainly found in the Sukhumvit area. I think Soi 14 is the most notorious street. There you'll find 'go go bars' where every man who enters is pounced on by Thai girls, ping pong shows, massage parlours and lady boys. It's worth a look, if only to satisfy your curiosity. But be warned, it's very sleazy and you mind find some of what you see disturbing.
After Bangkok, most people head down south to the beaches and islands. Don't bother with Pukhet or Kho Samui. Pukhet is very exclusive and expensive, Kho Samui is a bit like a Thai benidorm (ok so not quite, the island is beautiful but you know what I mean...). There are far better islands.
Kho Pha Ngan is my favourite island. Just don't stay on Hat Rin (the beach where they hold the Full Moon Party), because it's like Kho Samui. Stay on a beach in the north of the island called Hat Thong Nai Pan Yai. I was reccomended it by a bloke on the Lonely Planet forum who said it was the most beautiful beach on Kho Pha Ngan, and fuck was he right.
I still remember rocking up there and not being able to take my eyes off the beach. It is literally like finding your own little slice of paradise. It still makes the my hairs stand up thinking about it. When the Full Moon Party isn't on, it's pretty quiet and I can imagine it being very romantic. There are jungles to explore and plenty of restaurants along the beach. There's even a bar selling weed and mushrooms if you're into that.
You can take a long tail boat to Hat Rin for the Full Moon Party. This does attract some 'Brits abroard', but it's fucking awesome. It's basically a massive rave on a beach, under the full moon. People dancing on podiums in the sand to different types of music. Lasers shining out into the ocean. It's sick, but very full on.
There's also the Half Moon Party and Jungle Experience if you want something a little less intense.
Most people head to Kho Tao afterwards. If you go here after the Full Moon, it's almost like the after party. It's alot smaller but equally as beautiful. There's alot of coral reef around Kho Tao and it's great for diving and snorkling. Most people get their open water here as it's supposed to be one of the cheapest places in the world to learn how to dive. I wish I'd learnt when I was there!
On the other side of the gulf of Thailand, you have Kho Lanta and Kho Phi Phi.
Kho Lanta is gorgeous, probably the most romantic of the islands as it's so un-developed and you could nearly have a whole beach to yourself. This is because it got hit very badly by the Tsunami and is still trying to recover.
I would reccomend staying on Lanta, and then taking a boat to Phi Phi to visit the famous 'Maya Bay', which is the beach out of the film 'The beach'.
Unfortunately you can't stay on Maya Bay. Phi Phi is made up of two islands, Phi Phi Don (which is where the town is) and Phi Phi Leh (which is where Maya Bay is, and is uninhabited with no hotels). You'll have to get a boat to Phi Phi Don, then another boat to 'Maya Bay' on Phi Phi Leh. You'll only get a couple of hours on 'the beach' but it's so worth it. Possibly the most stunning beach on earth.
Railay and Ton Sai beaches in the Krabi area on the mainland are also worth a visit. They're really pretty as they're backed by spectacular cliffs (great for rock climbing). Railay is quite expensive, whilst Ton Sai is the cheap backpacker alternative round the corner, complete with hippy bars, fire poi and Cannabis everywhere.
If you'e only going for a short trip, you probably won't have time to go up north. But if you do, you'll head to Chiang Mai.
Chiang Mai is a lovely city, it's alot more chilled out than Bangkok and is famous for it's food. Take a Thai cookery course in Chiang Mai, you won't regret it.
There's a temple called 'Doi Suthep' in Chiang Mai, which is on top of a hill and is absolutely gorgeous. It offers amazing views over the city and the mountains beyond.
Northern Thailand is quite mountainous and covered in jungle. Most people in Chiang Mai go on 'Jungle treks'. You can go on one day treks, 2 days treks, or more. The idea of these treks is basically an organised walk through the jungles, during which you'll come across hidden waterfalls, try your hand at white water rafting or bamboo rafting, and here comes the best bit....ride an Elephant!! It's a pretty awesome experience believe me, definately one of my Thailand highlights.
There's loads more to Thailand, but you won't have time to see it. But here are a couple of day excursions you could do from Bangkok...
Ayutthaya is about an hour north of Bangkok. It's the place to go if you like history and ruined temples. It is pretty cool to see, ridden with wild monkeys. It used to be the ancient capital of Siam.
There is also the Tiger Temple on the river Kwai. I'll let you look into this yourself as there is lots of contraversy surrounding it and I'll let you make up your own mind.
I was in Thailand (and Laos) for January, February and March. I think this is the best time to go. Avoid going in September and October as this is the height of Monsoon season.
Enjoy Thailand!
The first two are Hat Thong Nai Pan Yai on Kho Pha Ngan.
The third is Kho Tao.
The fourth is the sunset from our beach on Kho Lanta.
The fifth is 'Maya Bay'.
oooo, you've got me all excited now! :hyper:
The second is from the Doi Suthep temple in Chiang Mai.
The third and fourth are from the Grand Palace in Bangkok.
I fucking love Thailand.... and Laos aswell...it's an absolutely outstanding part of the world.
What happened out there literally changed my life, and I'm not just saying that.
ok soooooo, pill'ed. i'm not sure if you'll see this but if you do, please give your opinion as i'd rather ask someone who has been there before! anyone else who has been to thailand, your opinion too would be appreciated!
basically, because of the lonnnnng travelling times, we are only going to get 13 full days in thailand. bit shit i realise but its the max time i can take off work really.
anywayyyyy, i've put together a rough route and i'd love your opinion. we obviously won't have time to visit all of the places want so if you could give your opinion on the places i've chosen, that would be great
we will be flying into and out of bangkok. we plan on spending around 3 nights in bangkok as this is one of the places we definately want to visit...is that enough time to see the main things over there? i always find 2-3 days is enough in a city. my only concern is that there has been riots over there recently. from what i've read online, these seem to be over and done with but you know...things can change quickly!
after spending a few days in bangkok, we will then be heading south to koh tao and koh pha-ngan. my plan so far is to stay on koh pha-ngan for 3 nights as you recommended that one? we'll probably pop over to koh tao for 3 nights too as its really good for diving and my boyfriend wants to do that.
after visiting these places, we'll be heading over to the east to koh lanta and koh phi phi for the rest of the holiday. we'll probably spend 4 days or so in koh lanta and whilst there, we'll take a day trip to koh phi phi. i've found some good day tours online going like this one - http://www.krabi-travel.com/speedboats/lanta-phiphi.htm
sooo yeah, my rough plan is to spend 3 days in bangkok, 3 days in koh pha-ngan, 3 days in koh tao then 4 days in koh lanta (with a day trip to koh phi phi being on one of those days). thats five places in 13 days. am i trying to see too much do you reckon? am i choosing the best places? we can't go up north to chiang mai as we won't have enough time. do any of the places we are planning on going give you the opportunity to ride elephants and have jungle-type-places? we want to explore!
if you had a 13 day limit and wanted to visit all of these places, how long would you spend at each place and would you do it in the order i have? sorry for all of the questions. i just don't know what is the best way to do it all. just wish i had more time!
final question, how much does stuff cost over there? as a couple, how much do you reckon we should take for two weeks? we are going to be on holiday so we'll want nice meals, to go on tours, have enough to drink lots of alcohol, etc and we'll need money for our boat trips between the islands and stuff but from what i've seen online, they are rather short trips and therefore cheap.
sorry, i've asked you a zillion and one questions!
also, you know these boats/ferries that go between islands? what are their rules on luggage? i was planning on taking a suitcase but will i be best taking a mahoosive rucksack?
Just to answer your question on the luggage bit, saw plenty of other ppl on the boats with suitcases, so you'd be fine with that.
In Thong Nai Pan (on Koh Phangan) there is an elephant camp nearby that ppl i went to full moon party went to which they quite enjoyed and said they seemed to be treated well.
Not sure about exploring it but the whole centre of Koh Phangan is jungle.
Also it very much depends on where you end up but lots of thailand isn't suitcase friendly for dragging stuff along, so you might be better off with a rucksack. Laundry is fairly cheap and quick in thailand anyways, can get it done same/next day wash and dried and it's priced by the kilo so aint too bad if you wanted to lighten your load slightly.
welllllll, we haven't totally decided on where we are going yet or what order we are going to do things in butttttt i think the plan is as follows...
i think we'll be getting an overnight sleeper train from bangkok to chumpon. from there we will be able to catch a boat/ferry to koh tao. we will leave bangkok early evening and arrive in koh tao early the next morning. as we'll be sleeping most of this journey, we should be alright
from koh tao, we'll be able to catch a high speed ferry over to koh phangan. this is a rather short journey about 90 mins so we'll get an early one so we don't miss out on much of our day. so yeah, so far so good. everything seems nice and easy and we won't use up much of our 'awake' time travelling.
as for getting from koh phangan to koh lanta (our final place!), the quickest way to do it is to get a a boat over to koh samui, a flight from samui to krabi then a fast boat transfer to koh lanta. i've checked out flight/boat times/etc and we should be able to do it in 7-8 hours. leaving koh tao at 7am and arriving in koh lanta at around 2pm. not toooooo bad really. we'll miss a morning and part of an afternoon but hopefully koh lanta will be worth it
we will be visiting koh phi phi as well but that won't be an issue as we plan on just having a one day tour. there are loads of one day tours to koh phi phi from koh lanta and we will get there by boat. its not far away.
when we return home, we'll be making a return journey to krabi then flying back to bangkok airport to come back to heathrow!
think i've got it all in there! *breathes* i think thats the plan. feel free to comment if i'm doing something wrong!
as for luggage, i reckon i'll end up taking a rucksake to be honest just for the fact it will be much easier.