whats the Philippines like compared to thailand?
ive been to thailand and really like it their, like all the shopping, food, people, beaches and because its so cheap and the hot weather..obvious its going to be different cos its a different country but whats it like??
Globetrotting Huntleys Thailand
Big day out on Phi Phi Island. No Leonardo Di Caprio though - Shame! Lots of greedy fish and baby lizards.
Hua Hin: A fantastic beach resort town
No visit to Thailand is complete without a trip to the beautiful resort beaches of Hua Hin. Located 200 miles south of Bangkok, Hua Hin is one of the oldest and most popular sandy destinations in the country.
While many of the other beach resorts in Thailand – including Phuket and Samui – have been over developed and overrun with tourist hotels and restaurants, Hua Hin has retained its traditional charm as both a resort and a working fishing village.
The beach is over five miles long and surrounded by some of the best, yet least expensive, golf courses in the entire world. The city itself was discovered more than 80 years ago by King Rama VII. He chose the place as his home away from home when he wanted to escape the heat and humidity of the capital city.
Once King Rama built his palace in what had up until that point been a fishing village, other Siam nobility were soon to follow – which fueled the growth and popularity of Hua Hin.
The king's palace – called Klai Kangwon, which means “Far From Worries” - remains an official royal residence and popular attraction to this day. Public tours are easy to arrange – even when members of the royal family are staying there!
Be careful outside the palace, however, because security is very tight and any type of public intoxication or other bad behavior near the palace is dealt with very strictly by the local police officers.
While the main tourist activity is to lie out on the sandy beach and have locals bring your drinks or provide massages, there are sites to see when you've decided you've had your fill of fun in the sun.
Most of the wealthiest families in Thailand have built their summer homes near the palace or on the beach, which means there is beautiful architecture to see as you stroll around and explore Hua Hin.
Khao Takiap is a large hill that is filled with beautiful Buddhist temples and offers the best overhead view of the city, the port and the ocean. It is a four-kilometer hike, so you may want to rent a bike or motorcycle to take you to the top.
The Hua Hin railway station is one of the oldest stations in Thailand and is so beautiful that it is considered one of the country's landmarks.
The Spirit Houses of Brassiere Beach has a really odd history. Legend has it that the daughter of a local fisherman was eaten by fish because she was too beautiful to live in the world. Today, men and women leave brasseries on the beach in order to ask the gods for good luck.
Namtok Pa Lau is an 11-tier waterfall located about 30 miles outside of town. It is easy to get to by bus, and is particularly popular on hot and humid days.
Wat Huay Mongkol was where famed monk Luang Phor Thuat lived his life. He was known for performing miracles and his former residence is now a large public park featuring a giant statue of him as its centerpiece.
At night Hua Hin comes alive with a large open-air market where you can buy nearly anything under the moon, and see what types of interesting fish and fruits the locals like to eat. You can also sample any of the many excellent seafood restaurants that surround the market.
If you want to sample local products, look for things made from Khommaphat, which is a type of cotton unique to the Hua Hin region. They use it to make everything from shirts to large decorative pieces of art.
The one downside of Hua Hin is that it does not have as active a nightlife culture as the other beach resort towns in Thailand. Your best bet is to hit the Soi Bintabaht and Soi Selakam areas where you can find local beer bars. By royal decree, there are no go-go bars in town.
Hua Hin has three important regional festivals, including:
The Thailand’s International Kite Festival is held from March through May in Hua Hin during even numbered years. It features stunt kites, big kites, little kites, high tech kites, traditional Thai kites, and displays of international kites. Hua Hin Jazz Festival is held through the month of June on the beach. It attracts world-class Jazz musicians and is considered one of the most popular events in Hua Hin. Hua Hin Vintage Car Rally. Sponsored by Vintage Car Club of Thailand and the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the car rally is held every December. All of the cars in the rally are vintage from the 1920s, in celebration of when the King discovered the city.
Getting to Hua Hin is easy from nearly any part of Thailand. It is hooked up to most of the major rail lines and you can get a direct train from Bangkok. There are also several bus routes from both Bangkok and Malaysia.
Overall, the weather is temperate. There is a brief rainy season in the spring, but the showers tend to be very short and are often over in five minutes or less – so you can get right back to the sun and fun!
You will notice that there are many, many more Thai tourists in Hua Hin than in the other national beach resorts. While westerners do come to Hua Hin, there are far fewer of them here than in Phuket or any of the other beach towns.
This leads to a certain charm, because Hua Hin has yet to be completely corrupted by tourists - and you can feel like you are having a very authentic Thailand vacation experience!
So, next time you are in Thailand, hop on the train and check out the beautiful beaches, waterfalls and temples of Hua Hin. Consider it a royal experience!
You'll be glad you did!
http://www.thailandvisa.com is your one stop information site for travel to Thailand.
Michael Allen is an expat who lives abroad and loves travel and adventure. For all the current information on traveling to Thailand and visa and immigration to this country, go to: http://www.thailandvisa.com
Travel To Thailand
If you are perhaps wondering where to travel to on your next big vacation and are just fresh out of ideas then we have a suggestion for you. After traveling through Thailand with a friend several years ago, I just fell in love with the place. Prior to that most of my trips had been to the States, Caribbean and Europe and I thought that after listening to my friend talk about Thailand and seeing his videos and pictured that maybe I should check it out for myself. He was planning a trip there and asked if I wanted to tag along with him and his wife and best friend. I thought this would be a good opportunity to go somewhere different and go with someone who had travelled there many times before so would be a great way to know where to go, where to avoid, etc etc. So we went and I just couldn't get enough of the wonderful country. There really is a suitable type of holiday for absolutely everyone, singles, couples, families, newly-weds, gay and lesbian couples you name it Thailand caters for all needs and they have one of the best tourist infrastructures in the world as far as giving the customer what they want and looking out for their wellbeing. How many other countries in the world do you know that has an army of “tourist police” in all the major towns and cities to take care of tourists and visitors? I truly believe that you haven't experienced REAL customer service anywhere unless you have experienced the customer service in hotels, restaurants etc in Thailand.
People there are genuinely pleased to help and it seems to have been passed down through the generations as it is now as if second nature to the Thai people. Great customer service aside what else does Thailand have to offer? I'll tell you. It has tropical beaches on sun-kissed tropical islands where you can eat and drink and stay as cheaply or as elaborately as you wish from straw huts on the beach to multi million dollar villas available for rent, and where you decide the pace of your holiday. It also has vibrant, pulsating cities where you can shop (again as cheaply or as exorbitantly as you like)dance, eat, and visit beautiful landmarks and structures some of which are thousands of years old and stay in hotels that have set the mark for top hotel standards the world over, the original and best. Thailand has every conceivable type of landscape from tropical beaches to desert, flat plains and some of the most unspoiled rainforests in the world where you can glide through the canopies with the gibbons and feel at one with nature. Another great thing about traveling in Thailand is how easy it is to visit several of the above mentioned areas within a single trip. As no-where is more than a little over an hours (very cheap) flight away it is possible to take several trips in one vacation so you can do the city, do some extreme sports, visit rainforests and then hit a tropical beach all in a few weeks, hows that for breaking up the monotony and telling your friends what you did on your trip? As I mentioned before it really is up to you how much you want to spend on accommodation you can stay in a hut on a beach which is some peoples idea of heaven I know for as little as $10 or $15 US or stay in a perfectly good hotel for just a couple of bucks more. If you are getting married or just want to stay somewhere private, luxurious and away from the crowds then maybe renting a private villa could be for you. Prices for these villas are again quite flexible and you can get one for not much more than the price of a hotel room and even thousands of dollars a night if you want some kind of estate, but all are possible (think Miami but way way less in price). All in all there is a reason that Thailand is such a top tourist destination. A combination of favorable prices, awesone service multitudes of activities spectacular scenery and much much more has secured Thailand as a top destination for a good time to come yet. They call Thailand the 'land of smiles' and you really should get over there and find out why for yourselves and you will see what I mean.
If you are perhaps wondering where to travel to on your next big vacation and are just fresh out of ideas then we have a suggestion for you. After traveling through Thailand with a friend several years ago, I just fell in love with the place. Prior to that most of my trips had been to the States, Caribbean and Europe and I thought that after listening to my friend talk about Thailand and seeing his videos and pictured that maybe I should check it out for myself. He was planning a trip there and asked if I wanted to tag along with him and his wife and best friend. I thought this would be a good opportunity to go somewhere different and go with someone who had travelled there many times before so would be a great way to know where to go, where to avoid, etc etc. So we went and I just couldn't get enough of the wonderful country.
There really is a suitable type of holiday for absolutely everyone, singles, couples, families, newly-weds, gay and lesbian couples you name it Thailand caters for all needs and they have one of the best tourist infrastructures in the world as far as giving the customer what they want and looking out for their wellbeing. How many other countries in the world do you know that has an army of “tourist police” in all the major towns and cities to take care of tourists and visitors? I truly believe that you haven't experienced REAL customer service anywhere unless you have experienced the customer service in hotels, restaurants etc in Thailand. People there are genuinely pleased to help and it seems to have been passed down through the generations as it is now as if second nature to the Thai people.
Great customer service aside what else does Thailand have to offer? I'll tell you. It has tropical beaches on sun-kissed tropical islands where you can eat and drink and stay as cheaply or as elaborately as you wish from straw huts on the beach to multi million dollar villas available for rent, and where you decide the pace of your holiday. It also has vibrant, pulsating cities where you can shop (again as cheaply or as exorbitantly as you like)dance, eat, and visit beautiful landmarks and structures some of which are thousands of years old and stay in hotels that have set the mark for top hotel standards the world over, the original and best. Thailand has every conceivable type of landscape from tropical beaches to desert, flat plains and some of the most unspoiled rainforests in the world where you can glide through the canopies with the gibbons and feel at one with nature.
Another great thing about traveling in Thailand is how easy it is to visit several of the above mentioned areas within a single trip. As no-where is more than a little over an hours (very cheap) flight away it is possible to take several trips in one vacation so you can do the city, do some extreme sports, visit rainforests and then hit a tropical beach all in a few weeks, hows that for breaking up the monotony and telling your friends what you did on your trip?
As I mentioned before it really is up to you how much you want to spend on accommodation you can stay in a hut on a beach which is some peoples idea of heaven I know for as little as $10 or $15 US or stay in a perfectly good hotel for just a couple of bucks more. If you are getting married or just want to stay somewhere private, luxurious and away from the crowds then maybe renting a private villa could be for you. Prices for these villas are again quite flexible and you can get one for not much more than the price of a hotel room and even thousands of dollars a night if you want some kind of estate, but all are possible (think Miami but way way less in price).
All in all there is a reason that Thailand is such a top tourist destination. A combination of favorable prices, awesone service multitudes of activities spectacular scenery and much much more has secured Thailand as a top destination for a good time to come yet. They call Thailand the 'land of smiles' and you really should get over there and find out why for yourselves and you will see what I mean.
Charlie Shaw
We are traveling to Thailand next month for a month, what is the best routes to take?
We land in Bangkok, should we go first to the mountains and jungles of the North or South to the beaches , we have to return to Bangkok for the flight back to Michigan.
Thanks
Visiting Thailand- Suggest good hotel and places?
hello
I am visiting Bangkok and Phuket later this week and plan to stay for 10 days there.
I am not interested in the sleaze and want the better side of thailand and its culture.
Can someone guide me where in Phuket should I stay? I want a relaxed holiday where I can wake up and see the beach and have a beach view from my window and not too expensive.
also in Bangkok which r gr8 places to visit.
Best place to live in Thailand: Chumporn, Chonburi or Trat?
I've been offered jobs in each of the three cities, and want to know if anyone has an idea in terms of which would be best. I want a beach-type lifestyle that is relaxed, but not so far off the map that the place is dead at 530PM. But, I want to avoid being a tourist trap filled with prostitutes. Any ideas? Lopburi is also an option, although it's not on the beach.
i’m visiting thailand next month and this is the first time?
This is the first journey in my life and would like to get some tips and advice from Regular travelers to Thailand. I have to gather some experience before leaving, that you had when traveling and after. what are the most interesting places that you enjoyed. If you can give some fabulous tourist spots, the famous beach, Shopping, etc.. that will be good enough. I'll be there for 2 weeks.
earlier i made the wrong question, I'm Very sorry about that one.
Thank you
What’s a good travel plan for a 9 day trip to Thailand? I am going in low-season Sept. 24 – Oct. 3rd?
I wanted to check out the Temples, the beaches and do some shopping. Is it safe for 2 women to be traveling?