MCFC-OKAY said:
That's not really true mate, Thousands of tourists were caught up in crossfires.
Behave.
Thailand is perfectly safe. And that's coming from someone who lived there for years, is there at least 3 or 4 times a year, has friends who still live there and was there when the curfew was in place.
If you happened to ignore every newspaper, website and TV channel for the previous two weeks and accidentally stumbled into Lumpini Park at about six o'clock on the morning of the crackdown or decided to take a leisurely stroll down the road next to Central World that had played host to a stand-off for months beforehand, you might have encountered a few hairy moments. If you were in any of the other 200,000 square miles that make up Thailand (inlcuding ANY other part of Bangkok), you wouldn't have even known anything was going on.
I like all parts of Thailand, even the ridiculously over-touristy places; I'm going to Phuket next week and it doesn't really get any more fucked up than that (well apart from Samui and Pattaya!). But even Phuket, Samui and Pattaya have incredibly beautiful and largely undeveloped areas.
Everyone tends to head south to the islands, but there are some great places on the mainland as well. Kanchanaburi is fantastic and Khao Yai National Park in Nakhon Ratchasima is my favourite place in the whole country. Further north, Phitsanulok has some incredible countryside and great little villages, and then of course there's Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Pai in the far north, which are all top places.
I really enjoyed Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang in Laos and HCMC, Hoi An, Nha Trang and Hanoi in Vietnam. Personally, I'm not a big fan of Cambodia to be honest, although I've only been to Siem Riep, Phnom Penh and the awful Sihanoukville. Lots of other people I know really like Cambodia though.
All in all, you'll have a great time. If you've only got two months, my advice would be to try not to do too much. It's better to really explore and enjoy 6 or 7 places than to rush around like a blue-arsed fly and only skim the surface of 20 places.
Enjoy. I'm very jealous!
Dunne Believable. said:
dont bother spending too much time in thailand especially the islands,its a bit like the costa del sol of s/e asia
True of Patong in Phuket and Chaweng in Samui, but not really a fair representation of anywhere else (including other towns on those particular islands).
bezdog said:
I Hope your wrong there mate Im supposed to be going in January to koh Chang looks beautiful and nothing like Costa del sol
Don't worry, Koh Chang is lovely. Admittedly it's been about 6 years since I've been there but it will be many, many years before it gets to the state of Koh Samui.
They had some really bad mudslides there last week (a perennial problem since they started large-scale construction on the island under Thaksin), but January is a great time to go there; the weather will be perfect. It's a HUGE island so make sure you hire a jeep or a motorbike and go exploring. You'll love it.
