I've been digging through piles of archives of past discussions, and I'm
just overwhelmed. I wonder if the kind folks here could give me a few
pointers to work on.

(I'm getting some great ideas from the thread at
http://groups.google.com/groups?thre...c619cb8%40post
ing.google.com, since his desires are very similar to mine, but more ideas
are always welcome!)

We (me, wife, boys aged 6 & 8) are planning a trip to Thailand this
January. We plan to spend maybe 2 days in Bangkok, 5-7 days in the north
hill country, and 5-7 days on the southern beaches.


North: like every other tourist going here, we would like to see the hill
tribes. Like every other tourist, we'd like to avoid the touristy areas.
:-\ We also want to be sensitive to the people in the villages, not
contributing to their problems, á la
http://search.bangkokpost.co.th/bkkp...24/news/24Jan2
003_news26.html

Especially for our kids, we want to do the fun experiences like the
elephant rides, the bamboo raft trips, just like everybody else. Can
anyone recommend a good plan of attack? Since we're travelling with our
kids I'm tempted to find a small package tour, so we don't have to deal
with logistics of transportation, finding our way around, etc and can just
enjoy the experience. Naturally that would tend to put us right in with
all the rest of the touristy types. Any ideas? I've been told the Chiang
Rai area is nicer than Chiang Mai, "like Chiang Mai was 15 years ago," so
that's a definite possibility. Should we just go to Chiang Rai and figure
it out from there, or...?


South: when we first started thinking of this trip 3 years ago, I found a
website for the "Dawn of Happiness" resort near Krabi. It sounded
absolutely perfect: small, quiet, laid-back, family-style, right on the
beach. They encouraged you to interact with the staff & locals, helping to
catch fish for dinner, learning to cook the Thai dishes, help drive the
water buffalo or plant rice, whatever. Genuine "Thai flavor" instead of
Waikiki-beach-hotel. The local activities would be fabulous for our kids.
Unfortunately I've spoken with someone who is a minor partner in the place,
and he says he can no longer recommend going there; a very noisy disco has
opened next door and it's "not a happy place any more." What a shame.

So I'm starting from scratch to find a good place to spend a week on the
beach, as far from the "mega-resort" experience as we can get. We don't
require 3rd-world conditions, running hot water & AC is good, but we don't
want to be in some glitzy hotel, and we'd like to avoid being near one if
possible. We don't need night life, just a quiet beach, some good places
to eat, and some things to do when we're not vegging out. Good snorkeling,
kayaking opportunities, etc would be a plus. A tiny island might not be
good if there's *nothing* to do but swim and lie in the sun. It would be
fabulous if we could find a place that encouraged interaction like the Dawn
used to. Any recommendations? It doesn't have to be around Krabi if there
are other great beach areas. Ao Nang, Railay, Phra Nang, Koh Lanta, Hua
Hin, Koh Tao, ...???

We had assumed we would fly from Bangkok to Krabi and go wherever from
there, but now I'm wondering if an overnight sleeper train would be a
better choice. We'd save a night's hotel fee, we'd travel at night instead
of spending a day going down & back, etc. Can you really sleep on these
trains (I'm 6'4"!) or are they too noisy and bumpy for sleep? Assuming we
go to Krabi, does the 3hr bus ride from the train to Krabi negate the
advantages of travelling overnight, so we should just take the plane?

Many thanks,
Gary