Must do things in Thailand.

20 years ago the road trip from Chaing Mai to Chaing Rai and on then to the Golden Triangle was fab! Mind you the roads have bound to have changed by now.

I really enjoyed a long boat trip I took along the Mekong. In those days there were soldiers on the Cambodian side taking quite an interest in us, so we didn't land. Wonderful place though.

I can remember visiting some very special caves near Mae Hong Son near the Burma border. Huge and deserted save one guy selling the use of an oil lamp at the entrance!! DIY Caving! - We didn't get lost though and it was excellent! But I found the tallest mountain peak Doi Inthanon a bit of a let down.

Turning south, all the usual attractions around Phuket Phang Nga, Krabi are certainly worth visiting, but for me personally, the highlight of my adventures was in the Khao Sok National Park. Basically heading from the Phuket bridge to Koh Samui overland by road passing Surat Thani (hope spelling ok) I visited the area several times 15+ years ago and there were some very small basic grass hut type hotels, just a bed and a mosquito net out in the park/jungle. I can remember a very high limestone cliff face populated by monkeys all calling at dawn - Wonderful experience. Also I remember sitting out after dark with fire flies buzzing about and no light polution to spoil one's view of the stars..... Beauty beyond my description I must find time to go back - A wonderful place if you like peace and wildlife (of the non human kind!) I hope this link is left up for you Khao Sok National Park

FYI I did continue on to Koh Samui, which was very nice as small islands go, but I should have stayed within the park IMHO

Kind regards,

Peter

Not sure about real must dos.. but well worth a a visit:

Chiang Mai: Wat Phrathat Doi Suthop.. temple on top of hill.. also hilltop palace of Royal family.. Phu Ping.. and the night market is good fun.. my brother lives there so the family picked some nice places for us to visit

Bangkok: the Grand Palace..

Phuket.. is a bit like Blackpool though.. the airport at Koh Samui is amazing.. small but beautiful gardens by the arrival/departure buildings and beside the runways

H,

I've been to Ko Phi Phi several times, and love the place - ok, it's getting more and more commercial all the while, but is still a charming place in many respects. They can get a boat there from Phuket. I can't say i've ever wanted to go to Phuket. I stayed in Phuket town the only time i was there (on the way back from Phi Phi) and found an excellent Thai bar with a band on - much more authentic than 'little benidorm'! Thais buying rounds of cokes to drink with bottles of whisky they'd bought or brought in - i couldn't work out which! If they haven't tried scuba there are far worse places to dive.

Whilst in Chiang Mai i took a 3 day trek with a company called Panda tours. This was great and very enjoyable if a little disconcerting to see hill tribe children wearing fake arsenal tops...

For me the charm of Thailand is about following your nose and chancing upon the culture well away from the tourist track. When i was first in Bangkok almost a decade ago, i decided to walk from Sukhumvit road to Hualumphong train station to find out about trains to Chiang Mai. This was at 9am having been up all night two nights running, and the only way i could see that i could survive the trip without sleeping all day was to get out of Bangkok for a while! The walk to the station took me through industrial city streets where Thais sat on the floor astride car engines working on them - not a foreigner in sight. It was magical, and typical of the Thais, although they wondered what the hell i was doing walking through non-tourist streets, they all greeted me with the warmest of smiles.

I went to Ko Samui a couple of years ago. Again, a good spot, but in many respects not unlike other tourist locations around the world, with an irish bar, pashmina stalls, tat shops and the like.

Again, my advice would be to follow your nose, rather than heading to the beach with all the other farangs (foreigners), jump in a longboat and get the guy to take you somewhere else - won't cost much. Did this in Phi Phi and ended up in Monkey beach watching monkeys fighting over the bunch of bananas i'd brought. Very funny!

Phil

Thanks guys.

I was passing through Bangkok in transit a few years ago had to overnight there. My missus and I got a taxi from the airport downtown and I asked the driver if he could recommend anything to do that evening.
His first suggestion was the Lady Boy Cabaret to which my missus didn't fancy.
His next suggestion was the ping pong show..............................