For information on where to stay and what to do in this less commercialised, less touristy region have a look at www.everythinginnakhon/info. This is an amateur site, very well put together, with lots of photos and new local information being posted regularly. ...
captaincat 23.08.2008
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Southern Thailand
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Advantages: Sheer paradise - need I say more? Disadvantages: some overdevelopment
We stopped on Phi Phi with plans to explore a lot more of SouthernThailand but found it almost impossible to leave! We stayed at the Maprao which is a bit of a trek (or a longtail boat) around the bay and absolutely loved it. The place is run by a big moustacioed Belgian, and his fantastic Thai staff, the accomodation is basic but cheap (suiting our budgets) and the whole place is far less commercial than reorts close to the main town on the island, Ton Sai. Almost daily the Thais staff challenge the "farangs" such as myself to a game of 5-a-side football on the beach. Initial respect when they thought that being English I'd play like David Beckham or Michael Owen soon evaporated and they ran rings around us. The scenery on the island is suberb, the diving fantastic - there are numerous beaches and islands to explore, including ...
Advantages: shopping is cheap Disadvantages: dusty
Hat Yai as a holiday destination, has very little to interest the adventurous tourist or culture seeker. It is really nothing more than a shopper's haven. At least Malaysian shoppers anyway, who come in droves at the weekends and public holidays, crossing the border from the northern Malaysian state of Kedah through the customs checkpoint at Bukit Kayu Hitam.
The drive from the border to the centre of Hat Yai takes approximately 45 minutes, and the journey is fairly non-descript. Hat Yai itself is a bustling town in Songkhla, the Southern region of Thailand. The town is well laid out and its fairly easy to find your way around even if you can't read the signboards in Thai script.
All along the streets you will find row upon row of street vendors nestled against the pavement selling everything from cashewnuts to fake 'versace ...
Advantages: The largest religious structure in the world; beauty in the smallest details Disadvantages: Not enough to care about.
), culminating in Suryavarman II, who reigned for the first half of the 12th century and was responsible for Angkor Wat itself.
A century earlier, Suryavarman I, who usurped the throne by the traditional method of force & political intrigue, left little mark in the landscape, but it was his military prowess that expanded the empire in southernThailand and much of Laos, thus initiating the prosperous 'classical age' that could afford the constructions that were to follow. Despite taking on the now expected attributes of the Hindu god-king, it's thought that Suryavarman I was by heritage a Buddhist and may have been responsible for the spread of that religion into Cambodia during his reign. Certainly, Buddhist sculpture becomes much more evident at this point. His reign was followed by a period of imperial instability, before Suryavarman II (r ...
