TravelGoReady

Thailand Itinerary (2005)

Grace and I are taking a 2 week trip later this March. Here's a our tentative itinerary with links to more information on each day/ activity:

We're back and here's my feedback (link to feedback)

Bangkok:

We spent two days and two nights in Bangkok.  Tough transition off a flight in terms of pollution and crowdedness.  Both definately worth the time.  Here are the highlights of our time (link)

Khao Luk (just north of Phuket) Diving:
We did a 3 day 3 night liveaboard dive trip to the Similian Islands.  Here's the charters we looked at: Thailand Dive Trips.  We've seen some better big fish viewing in the Galapagos, but when you factor in the beauty of the coral, the service, warm water, it was probably as good a diving experience.  Link to Diving Experience.

v 20 - Krabi
Ø 1 day paddling tour, see limestone formations, semi-submerged caves
v 21 - Krabi
Ø visit/hike around this series of pretty bay beaches, separated by 10-20 min hikes
v 22 - Krabi/Chaing Mai
Ø beach?
Ø head to BKK then chiang mai
Ø go to tailor to get measured and order clothes
Ø have tasty dinner and go out at night
v 23 - Chaing Mai
Ø see doi suthep, explore cmu area, get message
Ø have tasty dinner, go out at night
v 24 - Chaing Mai
Ø 1-day trek (elephant ride, bamboo raft, hiking, visit hill tribes)
v 25 - Chaing Mai
Ø Snake farm

Ø day 2 of trek or day trip to Wat Phra That? Lamphun? Doi Ithanon?
v 26 - Chaing Mai
Ø Grace take cooking class, Dave takes boxing class:  Chaing Mai Boxing and Cooking Class Link;  Boxing was one of my highlights: Link to boxing feedback.
v 27 - Chaing Mai, go home :(
Ø See main city area, explore riverside area
Ø Flight from Chaing Mai - BKK ~2:30pm?
Ø Flight from BKK-SFO depart 4:55pm

Thailand Sport Fishing Options

Not being a huge sport fisherman myself, I turned to a buddy who lives and breathes this stuff.  (He used to go marlin fishing before work--strange, but true). 

So apparently, Thailand is fantastic for big game fishing.  Steve suggested a couple of websites for reference:

Sport Fishing Magazine

Marlin Magazine

Also, based on some web searches, Steve came up with a couple charter companies that looked good.  I'm trying to get on a charter with one of these companies and will report on it after I get back.

http://bluewater-anglers.com/index.htm

http://www.reelhooker-phuket.com//v2/

Thailand Dive Trips

We haven't chosen a trip yet, but here's what we're looking at:

First, this dive center's website has some info on Similan's diving conditions post-tsunami:  Seadragon Dive Center  (bottom of page, can follow link to more details on similan)

It sounds like there was some damage in some parts, and not in others, and still a good place to dive. Now, the lonely planet says that if you want to visit Similan islands, it's better to start from phang nga, instead of phuket, b/c it's closer to phang nga and hence a little cheaper (not sure by how much though). 

Here are some websites you might want to check for 2 day dive trips out.       Seadragon Dive Center  (3day/2night - $270)

See-Bees     (3day/3night - $450)

Quick update: here's who we booked our dive trip with: Dive Charter Details Link.  We had a fantastic time.  Great diving, super friendly and knowledge dive masters, 1 to 1 service to guest ratio.  We're thinking of going next year!  Read about our experience here:  Diving the Similan Islands Link

Kontiki  (has a 2day trip, but you have to email for price)

Cooking and Boxing Lessons in Chaing Mai

Here's where we're taking lessons:

Muay Thai boxing:

http://lannamuaythai.com/

(250Baht/day, about $6.50)

Cooking:

http://www.thaicookeryschool.com/

(the only one in lonely planet that has a website. There are 5

different 1-day courses. You can decide which one you want, and then

look at their schedule to see which day it is offered. cost is 990B,

about $25US/person)

Our Thailand Dive Charter Choice

We ended picking Sea Dragon Sea Dragon Link.  They were highly recommended by our guide book,had a simple, but great website, and were recommended by Ntaional Geographic Adventure magazine as the best priced liveabord diving trip to the Similan Islands.  We'll report back on our experience.

Update: We're back, here's a review on our dive charter:  Link

Chiang Mai Trekking

You can view the 1-day and 2-day trekking programs here:

Trek Website

Despite what the website says, the 1-day trip is 650 baht (about $16), and the 2-day trip is 1200 baht (about $30).  Both trips have elephant riding, hiking, bamboo rafting (more like drifting), visiting hill-tribe visit.  2-day trip includes dinner and overnight in a hill-tribe village, lots more hiking, and apparently some natural hot springs.

We're Back From Thailand

Unfortunately we’re back from Thailand which turned out to be one of our best trips—excellent and inexpensive food (I gained 7 pounds), stunning diving, great boxing and cooking classes, and amazing accommodations for under $50.  All this against a background of a great culture.  Obviously it varies across individuals and city vs. country, but generally I found the Thai folks that we met to exceptionally friendly, good natured, and helpful. I can honestly only remember one local woman who was difficult and unpleasant to deal with. Pretty good given that I’m sure that as tourist, we probably committed plenty faux pas and were generally pretty ignorant.

I've put feedback on each activity as links off the main itinerary. 

Lanna Muay Thai Boxing Camp Feedback

Lanna Muay Boxing Camp was one of the highlights of our trip.  This is a real deal training camp and not a tourist-oriented shop.  They have a tradition of developing championship fighters and most of the boxers there are in Thailand from 2 months to 2 years to train in earnest to compete. 

That's being said, it's a great place to take a one day class to get exposed to the sport.  I really enjoyed my experience and have started to take class back here stateside. 

A little bit about Muay Thai boxing.  There's a lot to like about MTB.  It's a great work-out.  It trains you cardiovascularly, improves your flexibility and your power.   It's also incredibly practical.  Unlike other martial arts, in MTB you train to fight, and only to fight.  It's incredibly practical so that if you are in the position of needing to defend yourself, unlike karate, or even jujitsu, you are pretty well-trained to handle yourself. That being said, you can train and never fight at all. The owner Andy Thomas has been training for over 10 years. He fought three times before realizing he didn’t enjoy that aspect. He’s continued on training, sparring, etc. without any intention of entering the ring again.

Finally, I wanted to comment on the intimidation factor. I showed up to the camp and the first guys that I encountered were a bunch of 6’3”, 200 pound, 4% body fat guys eastern European guy who had tats on their biceps backs and shoulders. A little intimidating.  Four Japanese tourists actually arrived to that scene and promptly left. It turns out however, the instructors and the Thai boxers (50%+ of the population) are incredibly friendly and hospitable. A lot of them want to practice English and are generally happy to have you there. So after that, I felt quite comfortable as a semi-out of shape 30 year old. Also, there were a handful of women there as well, so for you female athletes, you should definitely not feel intimated about joining the camp. That being said, most of the westerners were as advertised. I generally tried to stay away from the tatoooed gringos.

Logistics:

The camp is on the western side of chiang mai near Chiang Mai University. The class are either in the morning 6:30-9 or 4:00-7:30.  To find out more:  www.lannamuaythai.com

Bangkok Feedback

Here are the highlights from our time in Bangkok:

Ø Chatuchak Weekend Market (Sat, Sun 7am-6pm): Chatuchak was great.  Huge and over-whelming, but there's actually some really nice stuff.  They have the tourist schwag that you'd imagine, but they also have a great selection of ceramics, furniture and decor that looks like it's right out of Pottery Barn or Harvest, art-work, clothing, etc.  Definately worth going to.  The Weekend Market tends to have the lowest prices we saw.  (still try to knock off around 20% through bargaining
Ø Grand Palace (8:30-noon, 1-3:30pm), Wat Po (8am-5pm):  I'm not a huge Wat/ Palace guy, but pretty interesting.  Not a must see for me, but interesting

Ø Thonburi canals to take longtail boat ride (?):  We actually ended-up taking the ferry instead which is really cheap--$0.50 a person I think.  Great way to see the city and canal side-doesn't require walking and the breeze is nice the otherwise hot environment. The longtail boats were more expensive, incredibly noisy (they are powered by a car engine), and threatened to splash you with not so clean water.

Ø Muay Thai Boxing Match--They have matches pretty much everyday at night in one of two stadiums.  Pretty interesting experience--it really looks straight out of Bloodsport with locals chanting and gambling in the stands. Good stuff.  Most of the tourist were in the ringside seats which have good views.  We went upper deck which still had a good view (these are small stadiums) and also got a vibe of the gambling crowd.

Ø Dining: One last thing:  We went to one of the starred restuarants in Frommers--a vietnamese restaurant. Don't bother. The food was decent-but not quite as good as what we get in San Francisco.  The service and decor were amazing for the price (about $40 for 2), but you'd do a lot better in terms of food and price at a Thai joint.

Diving Similan Islands

Our diving experience was fantastic.  Here's the highlights

The most important, marine life:  the reefs for the most part were not damaged.  In fact, I didn't notice any visible damage at all where we were.  The coral was amazing and the abundance of fish was fantastic.  Visibility was about 30 meters  Here are some pics from our trip:

Great Service:  Grace and I had our own dive master and in the gearing up and gearing down process, there was crew around to help you get in and out of your gear.  They broke down everything and set everything up for us.

Value: It was $150 per person per day for 4 dives a day and the stuff above

Some things to note:

*If you want to see whale sharks, make sure your tour includes Richeliu Rock.  Also, at the Sheraton Krabi, they claimed that their dives have a 50% + hit rate of seeing whale sharks and mantas.  The folks there seemed pretty respectable, however that hit rate was inconsistent to everything else we heard--our dive master had seen one whale shark in 3 years. 

*There's not much to do in Khao Luk, so get in and get out.  It's a one street town and it got hit hard by the tsunami, so there's not the tourism other than diving when we went (3/05) is shut down.