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Back from Thailand! Link to pics and Reviews
Thailand was amazing! Absolutely one of our most favorite trips ever. Feel free to ask questions.
Our itinerary was as follows:
3 nights in Bangkok at the Millennium Hilton - nice enough hotel, loved the riverside location, though the other side of the river is a tad more convenient for getting around. Bangkok was tons of fun, though I wish we had had more time to explore. We did two whole day tours with Tour with Tong. Yes, she was a bit difficult to communicate with at times, but persistence paid off. We felt her tours were a great value for the money and our guide was efficient, knowledgeable, funny and so much fun. Our first day was a tour of the Bangkok highlights; the second day, we visited a railway market, a floating market and a fishing village.
4 nights in Chiang Mai at the Aruntara Riverside - cute little boutique hotel right on the Mae Ping River; some of the most friendly people working here. They were so helpful. It's not an ideal location, so if you want to be in the thick of things I'd look elsewhere, but it's a lovely hotel overall.
Did a day of cooking class with A Lot of Thai - so much fun and a bargain at $40pp for an eight hour day, 6 courses to cook/eat, a tour of a local market and a cookbook to take home with you.
We did an "Elephant Owner for a Day" program through Patara. This was an expensive activity at $180pp, but we felt it was well worth it. H and I each got our own elephant to spend the day with - we learned how to check their health, we fed them, brushed them, took them to the river to bathe them, rode them down to another riverside location, had a huge lunch, swam with the elephants in the water and then rode them back. Patara gave us a nice cd with about 180 or so pictures and movie clips of the day.
We loved Chiang Mai, especially the night markets. Great bargains compared to Bangkok! I had quite a few foot massages - a steal at $2 for half an hour! Great on tired legs. We hired a local driver to take us around one day. Went to Doi Suthep (a must see), Tiger Kingdom (just ok for us) and a few different wats. It was nice to have a driver - for 8 hours, we paid him around $60.
4 nights at The Tubkaak in Krabi - Absolute paradise. If you're not stuck on the idea that you have to visit Phuket, I can definitely recommend Krabi. Tubkaak Beach is really quiet, the water is perfectly swimmable, there was barely anyone on the beach. The Tubkaak is a gorgeous property - beautiful grounds, rooms, excellent food and service. There was a tiny massage place on the beach next to the hotel - amazing Thai massages for $12/hour.
We booked a speedboat tour around the Phi Phi Islands and some other locations (Viking Cove, Monkey Beach, Bamboo Island) through Tubkaak. I really wanted to see Maya Bay, but I felt like the day was a bit of a waste. Very crowded and rushed, lots of people on the boats. Staying at Tubkaak, you're really close to the Hong Islands (they also provide a stunning view from the beach) and you can rent a private longtail boat for the day at half the price of the speedboat tour. I'd go that route instead.
We did 1 more night in Bangkok before we left and stayed at the Tower Club at Lebua. I *do not* recommend this place at all. We had a horrible experience, found the staff to be pretentious and rude, they gave us the total run-around on our reservation and then the rooms weren't even that nice considering the hotel has a supposed 5 star rating. Blah. We got out of the hotel though and walked to the Patpong Market (the ?Red Light District.?) Interesting atmosphere?a definite must-experience kind of place.
Pictures (lots ? I haven?t completely narrowed them down) ? bobandkate.shutterfly.com
Re: Back from Thailand! Link to pics and Reviews
Thanks for your review- YGPM
Thank you so much for posting this! Yet another destination I've added to a long list of places I'd like to see in the somewhat near future :-P
How was the flight? I've heard it's 16 hours from LAX. The 10 hour flight from LAX to Fiji was doable, but pushing it in terms of how long it was and how cramped we were. I can't imagine adding another 6 hours to that!
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The flight out there was surprisingly not bad. It was 16 hours from Chicago to Hong Kong, then another 3 from HK to Bangkok. I slept through most of the Fiji flight (thank you, Ambien!), and that's what I did on this one too. Cathay Pacific had an amazing in-flight entertainment system, so I watched two movies, ate dinner and went to sleep.
The flight home was BRUTAL. We left at 11am and got home at noon, so I felt wide awake. I decided to just try to sleep and that didn't work, so I was up the whole time; I didn't want to take a sleeping pill bc our doctor had only prescribed a few and I figured I'd need them to regulate my sleep schedule before going back to work. We had a woman and her teenage daughter sitting behind us - they were bringing home a little boy they had just adopted from China...he was unhappy for much of the flight home...it wasn't great, but I would do it again.
I spent a few hours of that flight thinking mean and nasty thoughts about all the lucky people all comfy cozy up in business class...jerks.