4 Week Trip Advice And Tips Please

[burtie80]

Hello all!

This is my first post so sorry if it’s a bit long. I have been reading the forums on and off for the last couple of years and found it very informative.

I am looking for some advice on things to do and see for my partner and myself. We will be travelling to Thailand for 4 weeks in July this year.

We done a 3 week trip last year but a few things went wrong that were out of our control so we had to miss quite a bit out of our trip. Our trip this year will be our last one (for a while) so we are looking to make the most out of it.

We are both in our early 30’s and don’t mind a bit of adventuring. We are pretty much up for anything as long as it doesn’t involve any trashy tourist hot spots. We love nature and seeing natural things, animals (my partner really wants to see some tigers), beautiful places and scenery. We don’t mind hiking about as we will be backpacking and won’t be doing any luxuries like posh hotels and stuff like that…being in Thailand is a luxury in itself so we don’t see the point in lavish hotels etc.

We will be travelling to Bangkok, Phuket, Krabi and then over to Kho Phangan.

I have some parts of the trip planned out and have found some interesting things to see but some other parts I don’t really know what would be best to do, and was wondering if someone could give me some pointers please?

I am a big fan of caves, and would love to do some day trips to some really amazing caves. We would also like to do some kayaking in and around caves, but would like to do the best ones possible, the bigger the better! I am not sure if the best place to do cave kayaking is in Phuket or Krabi?

I have seen some videos on youtube and really like the look of this trip, which I would love to do but does anyone know where this video was filmed or the trip they were on?

(sorry I can not post links but if you search for Phuket HD on youtube it will be the first video to come up)

As we are in our early 30’s we don’t mind a little bit of a party and a drink and did venture to the full moon party last year but we didn’t stay very long as we found it quite a horrible experience (and Haad Rin in general) it was just full of horrible drunk and obnoxious youngsters so we are hoping to avoid anything that extreme this time around.

We will be arriving in Bangkok and spending 3 nights there not far from Khao San Road. We are planning to go and see the usual tourist temples; Grand Palace, Reclining Buddha and Emerald Buddah as we didn’t get to see them last time around. But I am wondering if there are any other interesting things we should see while there? We will be taking a trip down to the shopping area near the British Embassy because last year we found a little alley way full of food stalls that had some of the best food we had in Thailand (and there were no tourists there).

We will then be travelling down to Phuket! (this is the part I am least looking forward to as I know Phuket has a bit of a reputation) We are only going to be spending 2 or maybe 3 days there. We were thinking of going to the south of Phuket and staying around Karon or Rawai. But I don’t know of anything to do there so was wondering if anyone could recommend things to do in Phuket in general? I know my partner wants to have a night out there, have a little bit of a drink and dance and probably wake up with a hangover!

Next we will be going over to Krabi (this is the part I am looking forward to the most). I am not sure how long we plan to stay there but it looks like there is quite a bit to do and see in Krabi so we may be there a week. We were looking to stay somewhere at Ao Nang or Railey Beach, as this seems like a good spot?

As you can see I have this part of the journey planned out and some things I would like to visit include:

· the Tiger Cave Temple

· Phanom Benja National Park

· Huay Toh waterfall

· Crystal Pond (emerald lagoon)

· Khao Phung Cave

· Lang Rongrian Cave

· Sra Gaew Cave (deepest fresh water cave)

· Lang Rongrian Cave

· Wat Tum Sang Phet

· Kow Phung Cave

· Than Bok Koranee National Park

· Khao Khanap Nam Cave

· Tha Pom (Khlong Song Nam)

· Krabi Fishery Department

· Noppharat Thara Beach

· Khao Phanom Bencha Mountain trek

But just wondering if there is anything else worth checking out?

After this we will be pretty much making our way over to Kho Phangan. We spent two weeks here last year and will be heading to the north of the island where we found a perfect little resort tucked away out the tourist path. We made some friends with the owners here (who for some reason found us hilarious) and didn’t want us to leave last time because we they treated us like a part of the family, so we are going back for a little reunion

We will most likely stay a week (or little bit more here) just to chill out and take things at a slower pace before heading back to Bangkok to come back home.

If anyone can offer any little tips or things to see (and avoid) I would be eternally grateful. Especially if there is any other places we should stop while going from place to place.

Thanks

[PattayaPhom]

If you dont like the 'trashy tourist hotspots' stay away from BKK near KSR, Phuket, Ao Nang and Koh Phangan because thats what they are...Try the North of Thailand Khao Yai etc....

[krisb]

how bout phu kradung? cow bell mountain. its beautiful well worth it. check it out on youtube, theres also a new temple near chumphae being built im sure its the biggest temple in thailand. it goes up the side of a mountain and at the top the views awesome. its also free so thats good. when i was in chiang mai few years ago we did the flight of the gibbons which was an excellant day out and really well run by great ppl. have a great trip!