Thailand

Thailand - Bangkok

Bangkok is the capital city of Thailand. Bangkok is one of the world's top tourist destination cities. With so much of life conducted on the street, there are few cities in the world that reward exploration as handsomely as Bangkok. Cap off an extended boat trip with a visit to a hid- den market. A stroll off Banglamphu's beaten track can end in conversation with a monk. Get lost in the tiny lanes of Chinatown and come face to face with a live Chinese opera performance. After dark, let the BTS (Sky- train) escort you to Th Sukhumvit, where the local nightlife scene reveals a sophisticated and dynamic city. Among Bangkok's well-known sights are the Grand Palace and major Buddhist temples, including Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Pho, and Wat Arun, to name a few.

Thailand - Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is the largest and most culturally significant city in northern Thailand. Chiang Mai hosts many Thai festivals, including: Loi Krathong (known locally as Yi Peng): Held on the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar, being the full moon of the 2nd month of the old Lanna calendar. In the western calendar this usually falls in November. Every year thousands of people assemble floating banana-leaf containers decorated with flowers and candles onto the waterways of the city to worship the Goddess of Water.

Thailand - Pattaya

Pattaya's a stay up late kind of town, but wake up earlier than most and there are activities galore to redress your daytime/nighttime balance. Hit the dive shops to explore the city's offshore reefs and wrecks, or get some fresh air on world-class golf courses. And if you're here with the family, the kids will find plenty to do to make it a real holiday.

Thailand - Phuket

Phuket is Thailand's largest and most popular island, Phuket is as colourful as it is cosmopolitan and one of the world's most famous dream destinations. Phuket boasts some lush inland vistas, including a few remote swathes of rainforest on Ko Yao, but the island really comes into its own along its western shoreline, where hunter-green foliage meets the turquoise waters of the Andaman Sea. The mile upon sandy mile of coastline boasts tons of water sports, delectable restaurants and decadent resorts.

Thailand - Kanchanaburi

Kanchanaburi is a town in the west of Thailand and the capital of Kanchanaburi province. With field, forest and stream, Kanchanaburi has become a catch basin for new arrivals overwhelmed by Bangkok (a mere 130km east) and a closer alternative than Chiang Mai for Thailand's soft version of 'trekking' (elephant rides, short hikes and bamboo rafting). The town sits in a fertile valley where sugar-cane fields bow in the breeze, measuring out an easy pace. Kanchanaburi is famous for their temple caves, an underground communion of animistic spirit worship and traditional Buddhism.

Thailand - Khao Lak

As the most practical base for exploring the Similan and Surin islands as well as the mainland wonders of Khao Sok and Khao Lak/Lam Ru National Parks, it's no wonder that the beautiful, bronze beach of Khao Lak has been experiencing a tourist gold rush in recent years. After the area's near total devastation from the Boxing Day tsunami and subsequent rebuilding, resorts have been flinging open their doors, tourists (especially divers) have been flooding in and new infrastructure has been laid down at a terrific rate.

Thailand - Koh Samui

Koh Samui , often called just Samui is an island in the Gulf of Thailand. Ko Samui is a fairly big island. The most popular and commercialised beaches are Chaweng and Lamai, while the northern beaches and their adjacent villages of Mae Nam, Bophut, Bang Rak and Choeng Mon are more peaceful choices, and the west coast beaches are still comparatively quiet. Ko Samui is paradise - white-sand beaches with palms blowing in the wind and clear green seas sparkling in the sunlight, against a picture-perfect background of lush green hills and brown roads interspersed with rough wooden structures

Thailand - Hua Hin

Today's visitor to Hua Hin will still sense this special atmosphere and old world charm. Hua Hin has weathered the onslaught of modern development and construction far better than all other resorts of Thailand (with perhaps the exception of (beach-less) Chiang Mai. The central town around the temple and toward the beach is free of high-rise construction with the exception of the Hilton Hua Hin Resort & Spa. Besides sun-filled days on the long beach there are leisure activities for the whole family from watersports (especially kite-boarding has become popular in recent years) to golf. The area around the town let's you discover fabulous parks and peaks, caves and waterfalls. In the evening the winding roads with a great variety of shops, restaurants and nightlife establishments make for an interesting and relaxing stroll. And the seaside restaurants built on stilts into the sea offer superb seafood in the legendary and unsurpassed preparation of the Thai cuisine, at still very affordable prices.

Thailand - Krabi

Krabi is a southern province on Thailand's Andaman seaboard with perhaps the country's oldest history of continued settlement. A southern province on Thailand's Andaman seaboard with perhaps the country's oldest history of continued settlement Krabi has many cliffs and caves where ancient colour paintings, stone tools, beads, pottery and skeletal remains have been found.It is believed that Krabi has been home to homosapiens since the period 25,000- 35,000 B.C. In recorded time,it was called "Ban Thai Samor",and was one of twelve towns that used, before people were widely literate, the monkey for their standard. At that time, c. 1200 A.D., Krabi was tributary to the Kingdom of Ligor, a city on the Kra Peninsular's east coast better known today as Nakorn Sri Thammarat.