Thailand - Outside Bangkok

-:::PLANNING OUR TRIP:::- Around April 2003, myself and my best friend Nathan decided that we hated our jobs and were both going to look for new ones. Then we had the great idea of working in our horrid jobs until the summer, saving as much money as we could and then going travelling for a while. While researching places that we thought we'd like to see, we came across this website: http://www.tree-of-life-orphanage-thaila​nd.com/ it was a Christian run orphanage North East of Bangkok. We exchanged several emails with the director of the orphanage, Roger (American) and his wife Pong (Thai), and ... more

Thailand for me has everything you could possible wish for. One day you could be partying until 7.30 in the morning then the next you could be wandering around a temple only hearing the occasional gong or wind chimes. With just a one and a half hours flight from BKK you can be on the Paradise Islands of Samui, Phuket etc. I would recommend leaving the usual tourist places for a while and traveling out to the more rural areas such as Chiang Mai, Isan etc. The people here are the kindest and most generous people I have ever known. Some people I have met have had nothing, but still managed to ... more

I wanted to write a general opinion piece on Thailand and this was the only heading that it fitted under. So, here goes... I travelled to Thailand in the summer of 2000 for a hotel break in Pattaya (South East) for 3 weeks. Due to a number of totally unforeseeable circumstances (well, unforesseable according to the travel agents) we were totally devastated with the town that we were staying in. (see my opinion on 'Pattaya' for more details of our grissly fortune). We were thus forced to look elsewhere, travel around a bit. I felt that it was pointless to travel that far and be stuck in a ... more

Thailand really is a country which will change the way you look at the world. I have personally visited this country twice to date and during my time there saw many different sides to the country and what it has to offer. The most important to thing to understand about Thailand is that, although the majority of the country still reflects the original natural beauty that the country has to offer, some parts are slowly becoming very commercial in terms of tourism. What I mean by this is reflected in a comparison between the first and second times that I visited the country. Koh Samui is one of ... more

I went to Koh Chang a few years ago and it was such a beautiful island. Quiet from the tourist trap, the people are very welcoming and so friendly, and the beaches and sea is so clear and unpolluted. The accomadation is cheap and quite basic (dependant on what you want to spend, ranging from beach huts to basic room on the beach with toilet/shower room) but I thought it was fine being next to the beach with a hammock outside to lounge around in and the sea about ten metres away, bliss!!! There is one road around the island, the island is very small but there are a few waterfalls etc. if you ... more