Holiday in Thailand

My partner and I are interested in going on a holiday to Thailand wihin
the next year. I have been looking on a few websites and doing google
searches though i havent been able to come up with much information as
yet.

We are interested in visiting Phuket, Koh Samui and Phi Phi, I am an
animal lover so ild love to see the elephants or even visit a zoo in
Thailand.

Does Thailand have any places to shop? What sort of food should we
expect to be served in restaurants? How do we get around on our
holiday?

Im not sure about places to visit, activities or how much things are
going to cost and i dont know alot about Thailand and its people.


It would be greatly appreciated if anyone has any advice or information
they could share

"Trilly" wrote in message
ps.com...
My partner and I are interested in going on a holiday to Thailand wihin
the next year. I have been looking on a few websites and doing google
searches though i havent been able to come up with much information as
yet.

We are interested in visiting Phuket, Koh Samui and Phi Phi, I am an
animal lover so ild love to see the elephants or even visit a zoo in
Thailand.

Does Thailand have any places to shop? What sort of food should we
expect to be served in restaurants? How do we get around on our
holiday?

Im not sure about places to visit, activities or how much things are
going to cost and i dont know alot about Thailand and its people.


It would be greatly appreciated if anyone has any advice or information
they could share


Well at least in Bangkok you can shop till you drop But you can shop
almost everywhere.
Food is great everywhere, thai food is very tasty.
Krabi is also nice place to visit.

Pirre

Trilly wrote:
My partner and I are interested in going on a holiday to Thailand wihin
the next year. I have been looking on a few websites and doing google
searches though i havent been able to come up with much information as
yet.

We are interested in visiting Phuket, Koh Samui and Phi Phi, I am an
animal lover so ild love to see the elephants or even visit a zoo in
Thailand.

You're not going to see animals in Phuket unless you call drunk,
chain-smoking westerners with head to toe tattoos drooling over bar
girls "animals". To see elephants you need to go north. Chiang Mai is
great. You can also do a little trekking there if that's "your thing".

Does Thailand have any places to shop? What sort of food should we
expect to be served in restaurants? How do we get around on our
holiday?

Bangkok is a modern city. Tons of first rate shopping (at first rate
prices). Also plenty of local shops. Buses, taxis, BTS sky train,
subway.... getting around is easy.

Im not sure about places to visit, activities or how much things are
going to cost and i dont know alot about Thailand and its people.

Suggest you buy a tourist book or two and read up a bit. Might help you
decide what you want to see. I don't suggest things like "Lonely
Planet" (although you'll see a lot of people here do). I've been going
to Thailand regularly (5-6 times a year) for nearly 20 years and live
here now. I consider Lonely Planet to be laughably inaccurate.

Go to your local library and read through a dozen different books on
Thailand to get a "feel" for what's available then you can ask some
questions that are answerable. Otherwise your question is too general,
I think.

"Tchiowa" kirjoitti
legroups.com...

Suggest you buy a tourist book or two and read up a bit. Might help you
decide what you want to see. I don't suggest things like "Lonely
Planet" (although you'll see a lot of people here do). I've been going
to Thailand regularly (5-6 times a year) for nearly 20 years and live
here now. I consider Lonely Planet to be laughably inaccurate.

But seldom downright wrong ........

Shopping is excellent in Thailand. There are all the brands and the fake
brands as well. The markets are a hoot - try Chatuchak markets at the
weekend in Bangkok. They have to be seen to be believed. I will never
complain about Paddy's Markets in Sydney being crowded again!

The food in Thailand is sensational. I was tempted to say that you will get
Thai food there but all the usual western food is available. If you are
interested in food, do a cooking course - you can do one that goes for a few
hours or a few days. It's a wonderful way to learn about the food.

"Trilly" wrote in message
ps.com...
My partner and I are interested in going on a holiday to Thailand wihin
the next year. I have been looking on a few websites and doing google
searches though i havent been able to come up with much information as
yet.

We are interested in visiting Phuket, Koh Samui and Phi Phi, I am an
animal lover so ild love to see the elephants or even visit a zoo in
Thailand.

Does Thailand have any places to shop? What sort of food should we
expect to be served in restaurants? How do we get around on our
holiday?

Im not sure about places to visit, activities or how much things are
going to cost and i dont know alot about Thailand and its people.


It would be greatly appreciated if anyone has any advice or information
they could share

"Tchiowa" schrieb

I consider Lonely Planet to be laughably inaccurate.

1) What was the last LP that you looked into?
Any examples what's so laughably?

2) You have to consider that LP is a book. Being a book means that it
needs some time to collect the information and print the book. I assume
this process takes 6..12 months, which leads to the conclusion, that LP
can never be really up to date.

3) Even an old LP is better than nothing.

4) There are several other guidebooks on the market. Just go to amazon.com
or your favorite internet-bookstore and do a search on "Thailand".
Don't expect those other guidebooks to be 100% accurate either (see 2).

cu, Thomas

Trilly wrote:
My partner and I are interested in going on a holiday to Thailand wihin
the next year. I have been looking on a few websites and doing google
searches though i havent been able to come up with much information as
yet.

the Lonely Planet and Rough Guides websites are a good place to start.

We are interested in visiting Phuket, Koh Samui and Phi Phi,

They are all basically beach resorts. Phuket is very developed and
focuses on package tourists. Koh Samui is a backpacker resort
gradually going upscale.

I am an animal lover so ild love to see the elephants or even visit a zoo in
Thailand.

There's an elephant sanctuary near Bangkok that cares for injured or
abandoned elephants.

Does Thailand have any places to shop?

For many people, that is the main reason to go there. The "Weekend
Market" is generally considered the best place to shop in Bangkok.

Things that Thailand is considered a good place to buy include:

-Traditional crafts (including wood carvings, silk and jewelry).
-Very cheap clothing (you can have a suit or a dress custom made in
Thailand for a fraction of the cost of buying a quality one in the
West).
-Gems (make sure you know what you are doing since there are a lot of
scams).
-Cheap electronics (see warning gems)
-Pirated luxury goods, DVDs and CDs (not condoning this, just saying
they are available).

What sort of food should we expect to be served in restaurants?

Thai food in Thailand you will find it much spicier and much better
than the stuff served in most Thai restaurants in the West. If you
aren't familiar with Thai food, they use a lot of seafood, herbs, and
hot peppers.

The quality and variety of fresh fruit available in Thailand is the
best I have seen anywhere in the world, and it is available for just a
few cents at street stalls.

Bangkok has large Chinese and South Asian communities, and you can find
plenty of Chinese and Indian restaurants if you dislike Thai food.

In Bangkok or the major resorts or tourist sites, you can find Western
food, although it is usually pretty awful.

How do we get around on our holiday?

Domestic flights are cheap (try Bangkok Airways). For even less money,
there are vans. From the Khao San Road in Bangkok, you can take a van
almost anywhere in Thailand for just a few dollars.

Im not sure about places to visit, activities or how much things are
going to cost and i dont know alot about Thailand and its people.

Look into visiting the north of Thailand if you like nature - Chiang
Mai or Chiang Rai. You can take treks through the hill country that
involve river rafting and elephant rides (and in some cases visits to
indigenous communities, but if you do this please make sure to take a
responsible tour that respects those communities and their culture
rather than objectifying or disrupting them).

Ayuthaya and Sukhothai have the ruins of past Thai empires. Another
interesting historic site is Kanchanaburi (which has the "Bridge on the
River Kwai").

As far as cost, Thailand is one of the cheapest countries in the world
for travellers. Unless you expect four-star luxury it is possible to
find $10-20 hotel rooms in most places, and great food for less than $5
(and often more like $1 if you seek out local places).

Do not feed the troll

"Trilly" schreef in bericht
ps.com...
My partner and I are interested in going on a holiday to Thailand wihin
the next year. I have been looking on a few websites and doing google
searches though i havent been able to come up with much information as
yet.

We are interested in visiting Phuket, Koh Samui and Phi Phi, I am an
animal lover so ild love to see the elephants or even visit a zoo in
Thailand.

Does Thailand have any places to shop? What sort of food should we
expect to be served in restaurants? How do we get around on our
holiday?

Im not sure about places to visit, activities or how much things are
going to cost and i dont know alot about Thailand and its people.


It would be greatly appreciated if anyone has any advice or information
they could share

wrote:

As far as cost, Thailand is one of the cheapest countries in the world
for travellers. Unless you expect four-star luxury it is possible to
find $10-20 hotel rooms in most places, and great food for less than $5
(and often more like $1 if you seek out local places).

You did really, really good until you got to this last paragraph.

Can you get a $10/night room? Yes. But the statement "unless you expect
four star luxury" implies that you can get something just less than
that (maybe 3 star) for that price.

Nonsense. For $10 a night you get a room that smells and you get to
share it with cockroaches. Maybe outside the normal tourist track you
can get fairly decent rooms at that price. But this is a newbie, based
on his question, and he's not going to be ready to do that. The
Marriott in Phuket is around $150/night. So is the Marriott in Bangkok.
Yes, you can get cheaper hotels. A 3 star in Phuket is typically
$30-50/night. A bit more in Bangkok. A bit less in Chiang Mai.

On 17 Oct 2006 23:56:37 -0700, "Tchiowa" wrote:


Trilly wrote:
My partner and I are interested in going on a holiday to Thailand wihin
the next year. I have been looking on a few websites and doing google
searches though i havent been able to come up with much information as
yet.

We are interested in visiting Phuket, Koh Samui and Phi Phi, I am an
animal lover so ild love to see the elephants or even visit a zoo in
Thailand.

You're not going to see animals in Phuket unless you call drunk,
chain-smoking westerners with head to toe tattoos drooling over bar
girls "animals". To see elephants you need to go north. Chiang Mai is
great. You can also do a little trekking there if that's "your thing".

Does Thailand have any places to shop? What sort of food should we
expect to be served in restaurants? How do we get around on our
holiday?

Bangkok is a modern city. Tons of first rate shopping (at first rate
prices). Also plenty of local shops. Buses, taxis, BTS sky train,
subway.... getting around is easy.

Im not sure about places to visit, activities or how much things are
going to cost and i dont know alot about Thailand and its people.

Suggest you buy a tourist book or two and read up a bit. Might help you
decide what you want to see. I don't suggest things like "Lonely
Planet" (although you'll see a lot of people here do). I've been going
to Thailand regularly (5-6 times a year) for nearly 20 years and live
here now. I consider Lonely Planet to be laughably inaccurate.
IMO the LP book on Thailand is severely outdated, maybe it was
accurate 20 years ago.

Go to your local library and read through a dozen different books on
Thailand to get a "feel" for what's available then you can ask some
questions that are answerable. Otherwise your question is too general,
I think.

Hmm... would it be possible that we see here an answer with a link to
a 'useful' self-praised web site?

;-)
Mort