Off to Thailand for a month... Advice needed please!

AdladUK

AdladUK

AdladUK

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Hey guys,

The GF and I are going to Thailand for a month and I'm in the planning and booking stage now trying to work it all out.

We'll be flying from Istanbul to Dubai, then Dubai to Bangkok (all with Emirates). Once we arrive in Bangkok we want to stay 3 or 4 nights and then begin the "paradise" part of the holiday. I've wanted to go to Koh Samui for a long time, so the plan is to get down there and stay around 10-12 nights.

Thing is I'm not sure where else to visit. If you include the 3/4 nights in Bangkok (another 1 or 2 on the way back) and the 10/12 nights in Koh Samui, that still leaves about 2 weeks unaccounted for.

So my questions are...

Where should we spend these 2 weeks if not Bangkok or Koh Samui? Are there any islands or parts of the country that are awesome and not a total nightmare to get to?

And does anyone have must do activities in Bangkok? For me it will be silly little things like going on a bike tour (apparently this is a great way to see the real city) and visiting one of the tiger sanctuaries. In Koh Samui I'd love to hang out with some elephants too :D

Our budget for the month is about $10,000 (£6,000), that's with the flights already paid for. It may sound like a decent chunk of change, but looking at the prices of hotels and you could easily spend that in a week!

Thanks for reading and any advice is greatly appreciated
 
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I'd do this route;

Bangkok > Chang Mai > Chang Rai

Fly/Train/Coach back to Bangkok for a day.

Bangkok > Patong > Krabi > PhiPhi > Koh Samui > Koh Phangan > Koh Tao > Champon > Bangkok

If you're wanting to sit on your arse for 2 weeks doing nothng, you don't need to fly out to Thailand to do that :p
 
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TommyV said:
I'd do this route;

Bangkok > Chang Mai > Chang Rai

Fly/Train/Coach back to Bangkok for a day.

Bangkok > Patong > Krabi > PhiPhi > Koh Samui > Koh Phangan > Koh Tao > Champon > Bangkok

If you're wanting to sit on your arse for 2 weeks doing nothng, you don't need to fly out to Thailand to do that :p
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Thank you for the advice. I'll take a look into these other islands now... Are there any that are absolute essentials in your opinion?

Of course going to Thailand is about travel, but on the other hand we're only gonna be there 4 weeks and the 13 hour plane flight takes a lot out of you.

I like to do activities and try new things, but I don't like my entire holiday to be one long journey of train rides and flights... If you get my point :)
 
Liquid_Entity said:
Don't get scammed on the jet ski scam !!
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Don't worry I won't! Already saw the YT vids on that... Also let's just say the GF and I had a rather "unpleasant" experience on a jet ski in the black sea when I forgot to give it gas when turning... So probably no jet skis on this trip :o

Although if we do I'll be sure to get them direct from the hotels in Koh Samui
 
TommyV said:
I'd do this route;

Bangkok > Chang Mai > Chang Rai

Fly/Train/Coach back to Bangkok for a day.

Bangkok > Patong > Krabi > PhiPhi > Koh Samui > Koh Phangan > Koh Tao > Champon > Bangkok

If you're wanting to sit on your arse for 2 weeks doing nothng, you don't need to fly out to Thailand to do that :p
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That plan sounds good.

Don't bother staying in krabi, book in at railay village (west railay) and they'll pick you up in minibus and transfer you to the beach via boat. Stunning place cut off from the mainland by huge cliffs. West is nice, east beach only 5mins walk but horrible to stay at. Although east is where you drink, eat and party.


Will he there again this Xmas as well as phi phi. A short boat ride from railay to phi phi too.

Long beach on phi phi wins. A 5mins longboat to tonsai for food and partying, but long beach is quieter an a nicer place to chill.
 
There's a national park near Railey (all the little islands off the coast) I did it by boat and it was soooo amazing, all the limestone karsts and beaches and snorkelling.
 
I'm just back from bangkok. Spent a week visiting my friend working there. Anyway, the heat is unreal. 35 degrees in the day and a nice cool 32 degrees at night. Sights to see are The Jim Thompson house, the grand palace and Wat Pho temples. There's loads of temples etc over there. The Bts sky train system is pretty good, traffic in Bangkok is always a nightmare. In saying that it is worth getting a cab everywhere. Prices are so cheap but agree a price before getting in. I'd avoid the tiger sanctuaries as I hear the animals are drugged and treated like crap. Don't eat the street food, which is everywhere btw. If you do fancy eating it goto a shopping mall called terminal 21 near nana in Sukhumvit, it's a rather swanky mall and squid balls do taste nice.

Also check out the Skybar, where the hangover 2 was filmed. It's cool to have a beer 64 stories up, stunning views but ungodly expensive. £8 a beer! For further afield I can't help. I did want to check out the bridge on the river Kwai, but I had a ungodly hangover and did not fancy a 2 hr train ride.
 
Kanchanaburi is where the Death Railway is and bridge over river kwai. I did it and when i arrived it was in a torrential downpour and thunder storm, awesome weather over there hahaha my stuff didn't dry out for 2 days as it was so humid nothing actualy dried, it just stayed warm and damp haha
 
-Ad- said:
Don't bother staying in krabi, book in at railay village (west railay) and they'll pick you up in minibus and transfer you to the beach via boat. Stunning place cut off from the mainland by huge cliffs. West is nice, east beach only 5mins walk but horrible to stay at. Although east is where you drink, eat and party.

Long beach on phi phi wins. A 5mins longboat to tonsai for food and partying, but long beach is quieter an a nicer place to chill.
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Thank you for the advice. Will certainly look into Railay and Phi Phi.

I think if we could go to 3 nice places in the South (something like Railay, Phi Phi and Samui, that would be enough)... I don't want it to turn into some massive backpacking adventure.

And then in the North go to Chang Mai or Chang Rai like TommyV recommended for a bit, along with Bangkok and I'd say we will have made a good job of it
 
Koh Samui although is nice, there isn't too much to do; We much preferred Koh Tao. We stayed at Buddy Oriental in Koh Samui and it was lovely. In Koh Tao we stayed at Sensi Paradise, which was amazing. They have a wreck just off the coast too, which is ace to go down to see with your snorkel (free from the hotel).

I'm not aware of any elephants on Koh Samui - though I couldn't be wrong. We spend the day with the elephants in Chaing Mai which is an amazing place. The name of the place we went too was Baan Chang (baan = home, chang = elephant), they come pick you up from your hotel and take you to see the elephants - you ride them through the jungle, feed, wash them and they take great care of the elephants.

In Chiang Mai we spent some time with the Tigers which is unreal. We did our research and picked one which didn't drug their tigers or treat them badly. During the day Tigers are massively lethargic, which means they just sleep. Allowing you to get close to them. I have pictures of me spooning a tiger. Literally spooning a tiger... Oh and biting it's tail. Crazy.

Ideally in Bangkok you want to stay near Sukhumvit, we stayed at in a place called Aloft, which is opposite Bed Restaurant - the food there is amazing, completely out of this world. It isn't overly expensive, it's a must to go to! Also, there's a great place to eat called Cabbages and Condoms in Bangkok (soi 14 I think?!), make sure you go there, it's pretty cool! :)

In Bangkok you have the Reclining Buddah (Inside Wat Po), which is opposite the grand palace. If you go there stop for no one, you'll probably get approached and told that the grand palace is closed and that you should go somewhere else (likely along the river). This is false, it's a scam, the palace is always open. There's loud speakers all around the palace that tells you to ignore people and that it's open.

If you want to take a trip down the river, don't bother with the tourists boats, the next pier up has a worker boat which people take to get to work. That goes the same way and will probably save you £15+ each.

The BTS around Bangkok is very good and easy to use.

If you're in Bangkok on a Saturday that's a place called Chatuchak Market which is massive, it's an experience to go along. It's right near BTS Mo Chit - again easy to get too. It's the biggest market in the world, make sure you pick up a free map when you get there as you'll need it. It's something like 35-40 acres big, and it's non smoking - you'll get fined if you do.

There's another Market in Chiang Mai which is cool, it's full of locally made goods. People come down from the mountains to sell their wares, so you'll pick up some really random, cool stuff. It's called the walking market and I think it's on, on a Sunday. It goes right through Chiang Mai's centre roads, think it's called Moonmuang road, or something similar!

To go to the Islands from Bangkok we did a sleeper train make sure you go 1st or 2nd class train, we went 2nd and it was fine. You get to book your beds on the train, make sure y ou book the bottom bunk, there's ton more space. It's dirt cheap. We booked the sleeper train down to Surat Thani, the mini bus to the coast and the high speed catamaran for like £15 each or something ridiculous. We flew from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and back, then train down to Surat Thani and boat to the islands. We took a coach back to Bangkok (8 hours). Just because it as the cheapest way of getting around by far. Public transfer is so cheap. Flying is reasonably cheap compared to the UK, but buses, trains etc are peanuts.

Any questions feel free to ask. Anything I remember I'll just add here later! :)
 
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MickeyFinns said:
For me Koh Tao was a major highlight. Also Rayleigh peninsula was great too.
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Koh Tao was our highlight too, A tiny little island but it's paradise. I spent a lot of time in Duhs Bar, which is right by the pier. Ended up befriending the locals and they drove us to a kareoke bar... Messy times!
 
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