MBlong4travel

After a month of travelling it's hard to pick the most important things to tell. We had a lot of Highlights, and many lessons learned. Instead of plaguing everyone with minor details, I'll give an outline of the trip, goods and bads, and a few links.
For photos: http://www.mandytrip.blogspot.com

First off this journey was done on a budget style, but even the more luxurious travellers can take some ideas from this trip.

ps. I did this on my own with a six year old, so no fears, anyone can do this.

Best:
1. CHIANG DAO NEST http://www.Chiangdao.com ... IT'S HEAVEN
2. Elephant Concervation Center..once in a lifetime!!
http://www.changthai.com
3. pit stop at Chumporn port. Like a deserted island

Lessons learned:
1. bus route to Sukhothai is hard
2. always carry toilet paper
3. buy flights within the country ahead. Air asia is cheap, but sells out fast
4. Don't fly into Surrathani to get to islands. The route from airport is tedious, ugly, and horrendously slow. Fly into Samui or Phuket. or take bus from bangkok and high speed Catamaran through Chumporn. http://www.lomprayah.com

Itinerary:

Bangkok: 4 days
Sukhothai: 2 days
Chaing Dao: 7 days
Chaing Mai: 2 days
Elephant Conservation Center, Lampang: 3 day homestay
Koh Phangan: 2 days
Koh Samui: 4 days
Chumporn: 2 days
Bangkok: 1 day

Bangkok
accomodation: Shanti Lodge (This was a hidden gem. It's in an older residential neighborhood called Thewet. Close to the action, but away from the chaos. Great access to the ferry. Authentic Thai experience. Very clean, good food. We payed 350 baht for shared bath and fan, but I think you can have ac and ensuite bath for not much more. No online resv yet, but good about emails.
http://www.shantilodge.com/bangkok/index.html

Sukhothai:
6hr bus there
7hr bus leaving to Chaing Mai
Was amazing to rent a bike and tour the ruins, but was more effort to get to than worth. I guess if you had the VIP bus ticket already or fly it might be better. We decided to go last min. and ended up on an over crowded 2nd class bus ride from hell.
accomodation: Garden house. hot water, AC 350 baht.

Chiang Dao Nest
http://www.Chiangdao.com
This place is about 90 min north of Chaing Mai. I never expected somewhere this beautiful to be in Thailand. I lost track of time and reality up there. I felt like I'd been transported to heaven. The owners are awesome and the food is 5 star. A must see is the Montestary down the road that sits on top of the mountains in the clouds. it is remote and the most peaceful place I've ever been.I can't say enough. 695 baht

Chang Mai
We mainly used Chang Mai to catch up on phonecalls, internet, and as a halfway stop. it's a bit of a tourist trap, but none the less I really liked it and wish we could have stayed longer. Unfortunately we were so happy in Chiang Dao that we extended our stay there, thus shortening our stay in Chang Mai. The place we stayed wasn't that great and I don't even recall the name.

The Elephant Conservations Center, Lampang.
http://www.changthai.com
We rode Elephants through the jungle bareback. We swam with them. it was just amazing. We did a 3 day home stay for 5000 baht a person. They are very kind to the elephants, and the creatures themselves have such amazing personalities. It was the highlight for my daughter.

The beaches:

This was the most dissapointing part of our trip. Only on my bad planning and it was monsoon season ( nothing but grey skies and foggy water because of the storms).
I would love to go back to the Adaman Coast and check that out during the dry season. The Gulf of Thailand was OK. Like I said earlier we took the less scenic route, and I realized as we were leaving as we passed Koh Tao, that is where we should have gone. it looked amazing.

Koh Phangan: a little too much roughing it even for me.

Koh Samui: too tourisy. I come from Florida and I can hear Jimmy Buffet and drink Margaritas here.

We just had a string of bad luck and i was too exhausted to explore the islands further so I just made the most out of it.

The one pleasant treat was on the way back to Bangkok we bought a joint ticket ferry than bus. At the Ferry stop in Chumporn we traded our bus ticket for the next day and stayed in a bungalow right next door to the port. We were the only ones there and had the beach to ourselves. we saw a giant monitor lizard run across the beach. It was the peace i needed after Samui.

Well I hope this helps. The Thai people are amazing and kind. I kept thinking those times when I was lost or in a bind. That foreigners in America would never have gotten the kind overwhelming help that I recieved.

Safe travels to all

cruisinred

Thanks for sharing your comments and photos. Looks like you both had a great time. I think you would definitely win coolest Mommmy of the year award....
and you confirmed my suspicions about Ko Samui.

Thanks again for sharing,
Cruisinred

BradinBangkok

I love the airport at Samui, but it is what changed the place. It was much more quiet & out-of-the-way before.

My first time there I took the plane to Surrathani, a bus to the ferry, the ferry to the island, and rode in the back of a pick-up truck to Chewang Beach. The trip took most of a day, but it was worth it.

rhkkmk

thanks for the report...

JamesA

Chumphon is so much a place for getting to and from Koh Tao etc that it's often missed. North of Chumphon there are deserted beaches, just north from there Bang Saphan with snorkeling, great part of the coastline. Although not on the beach but close enough is the Tusita resort ( luxury ).
Chumphon may seem nothing more than a place to get the jet-Cat or ferry but it's friendly and certainly 'different'.
I'll settle with a coffee later and have a good read !

Did you actualy use Lomprayah ? Did it work fine ?

eurotraveller

I agree with you about Ciang Dao Nest. We were there in Feb. and fell in love with this place! I called it our little "jungalow" because it felt like a bungalow but it was in a jungle setting.

We ended up drinking cheap whiskey in the kitchen with the cooks for a coupel of hours. It was one of the most memorable nights of our 3+ week trip!

Tamara

eurotraveller

That would be a "couple" of hours. Man, I wish we could edit our posts!

MBlong4travel

we did finally use Lomprayah on the way back. Big lesson learned for next time. But of course then I wouldn't have my great stories of standing in the pouring rain for 20 min waiting for the ferry, or wading through the ocean with my luggage thinking "Wow I really wish we could've gotten a little closer"...

JamesA

That's what it's all about ! Those are the 'memories' you will hold, and worth getting wet for !!

JamesA

Great photos ! Pity that system doesn't let you put in captions/locations for the pics, great anyhow!