Bangkok and Chiang Mai

[smifffymoto]

Off to Thailand at Christmas for 3 weeks(3rd time).

We are looking for stuff off the beaten track and out of the ordinary.
You lot are well travelled so I know you won't let me down.

[SimonV8ster]

Have you been to Bangkok 3 three times ? I think you've probably done it by now !!

Never been to Chiang Mai but heard its a great place to go - very old/proper Thailand from what I've heard.

[smifffymoto]

About a week in Bangkok this time,so 4 weeks in total over the 3 visits.Still not bored of the place,our kids are more excited than we are.

[Nobby Diesel]

Don't know what you've done in Bangkok, but here are some ideas.
Not necessarily fun, but interesting.

Chatachak Market - Saturday and Sunday only. Every single thing known to man is on sale.
Bangkwang Prison Visit - http://bangkwang.net/ Visit a fellow countryman and cheer him up. Quite a sobering thing to do.
Give a day to Charity - volunteer at a childrens charity, Baan Nor Giank for example.
Charter a long tail and go hooning through the klongs and river. Keep giving the driver money and you'll be surprised how fast a V8 moter makes a longtail go!
Wat Saphan - to see how the monks get addicts off their chosen drug. Not pretty.
Lumpini Park - get there very early morning for some Tai Chi or yoga with the 80 year old locals.

There's absolutely loads to do - you just have to search a little.

Edited by Nobby Diesel on Thursday 4th August 11:35

Edited by Nobby Diesel on Thursday 4th August 11:36

[tontoro]

Chiangmai mai is backpacker central, it is certainly not off the beaten track, I was there in Feb

[bigandclever]

Depends entirely on your definition of "off the beaten track and out of the ordinary".

[smifffymoto]

tontoro said:

Chiangmai mai is backpacker central, it is certainly not off the beaten track, I was there in Feb

We are looking for unusual stuff to do as we have done most of the usual stuff.

[phumy]

smifffymoto said:

tontoro said:

Chiangmai mai is backpacker central, it is certainly not off the beaten track, I was there in Feb

We are looking for unusual stuff to do as we have done most of the usual stuff.

That'll be Pattaya then.

[firman]

Have you thought about Kanchanaburi? We ended up spending a week there just relaxing! Stayed in a really basic little hostel right on the river Kwai for about £6 a night from there you have the Tiger Temple and death railway trips and as someone has said before the longtails on the river (we just waved one down as he went past cost us next to nothing)
Worth taking a look

[havoc]

Here:-
http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/

We went there in Dec-07, had a fantastic time. Lek is an absolute gem - so passionate about her elephants. This isn't an "experience day" where they get the elephants to do tricks/rides etc. - this is genuine volunteering at a proper refuge, albeit in a nice way. You start by going to the market for food, then go by minibus to the site, feed the elephants, then have lunch, chill out, and in the afternoon you go into the (shallow, clear) river to wash the elephants (so take a change of clothes and some hand-gel).

You can do anything from a day-trip to a few night stay, depending on your preference. If you've got kids then a day-trip is probably enough - I'd expect it to be the highlight of their holiday - it was ours!


If you've not been to Chiang Mai before, then it's also worth getting a taxi up Doi Inthanon mountain - highest peak in Thailand. There's a couple of famous temples half-way up, plus another not-patronised one at the bottom (right by the junction) which sometimes gets missed but IMHO is the prettiest.



At Bangkok - day trip out to Ayutthaya. We arranged our trip before we left the UK, wasn't that expensive but got ferried around in an aircon'd Volvo, which made it all a little more pleasant. Temples aren't in the same league as Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and the other Cambodian ones, but they're still well worth a visit.

Alternatively, if you've a bit of budget spare, ditch half of the week in BKK and instead go to Siem Reap for 3 nights. 2 days at the temples will be just about enough (3 full days would be plenty, and would enable you to go to the floating market or to some of the quieter temples). The Khmer temples are still in the Top-3 of all the places I've been in the world, they are an absolute MUST for anyone going to that part of the world.

[Asterix]

Last time I was in Chiang Mai was 1977 - can't remember much

[mudster]

If you're in Chiang Mai, hire a car and drive to Doi Inthanon national park. It's a pretty part of the world and you can drive right to the top of the highest mountain in Thailand. Hotels will organise mini bus day trips if you want it all arranging for you.

As an alternative, we took the train from Bangkok to Bridge on the River Kwai and stayed for a few hours before catching an afternoon train to the end of the line at Nam Tok (it's a full day trip from Bangkok). Persuaded a local to take us to River Kwai Village hotel we'd pre booked as taxis were a bit scarce. A bus ride takes you from the hotel to Hellfire Pass which is an amazing place to visit. You can still see the holes the prisoners drilled to insert explosives to blast the cutting through. Lot's of river trips and trekking type activities to do as well.

Edit: Agree with havoc. Siem Reap in Cambodia is worth a trip too for Angkor Wat. We hired a taxi with driver for a couple of days to take us to the various temples at a cost of about £10 for an entire day.

Edited by mudster on Friday 12th August 00:01

[swiftpete]

Go diving in ko chang. Plenty of waterfalls to see on your motorbikes etc. It's a nice place, or at least was last time I went, not too touristed up, but still stuff to do. Mind you that was several years ago, god knows what it looks like now.