thailand for 9 days
 

hey everyone!
a friend and i leave for thailand on dec 7. we are getting immediately out of bangkok to spend 4 nights in the island area near phuket (thinking most of our time on koh phi phi) then flying up to chiang mai to spend 4 more nights exploring up there. we are both 26 year old women looking to have a good time and experience as much of the country/culture as possible. any recommendations for hotels/hostels (we are on a bit of a budget), good companies to kayak/snorkel/scuba/elephant/river trek with, or good adventures down near the islands or up near chiang mai would be great! really any and all advice would be very much appreciate:) thanks!
emily

sawadee.com good basic info

asiarooms.com heap hotels hostelbookers.com

kohtoa.com my fav island Lotus Resort $14 view suite

best diving/backpacker place in Thailand for me

and far cheaper than the others for budget travel.

Congrats!

Located in the center of Sairee Village by Koh Tao's beautiful Sairee Beach, Lotus resort offers ... The beach, restaurants, shops, spa, diving, nightlife and much more ...

lotusresortkohtao.com

travel.state.gov Thailand and these forums for many alerts/issues with flooding currently would stay on the beaches to the south.

After flooding in the north usually comes water borne
illness which I would avoid...

mdtravelhealth.com Thailand health issues

The North of Thailand did not experience any prolong flood and only part of the North was flooded a few months ago. NO outbreak of any waterborne illness as described by qwovadis above!

If you do go up North I highly recommend you visit a small sleepy town call Pai. Lots of budget accommodation there and would be great for someone your age. About a 3 hour bus ride from Chiang Mai so not too far out of the way.

For Phuket or Phi Phi I don't really know the budget accommodation down there but do check out Sawasdee.com, same link as above, for prices.

www.travelfish.org is a good resource for budget travel and www.hostelbookers is good for hostels etc. and has pretty accurate reviews. Coincidentally we are in the north in December and will base ourselves in Chiang Mai before travelling around the region. Our first couple of nights are at http://www.3sisbedandbreakfast.com/ which is a good location hand gets good reviews.

I concur with Hanuman's comments re Pai - we visited about 5 years ago and loved it but this time we are opting for Soppong which is even quieter and only a few miles away.

Elephant rides abound in CM but do check out the operators well as not all treat the animals well! There are a couple of places for Ele trekking in and around Pai which might be better. there is also teh elephant conservation centre in Lampang which is worth a visit and http://www.elephantnaturefoundation.org/go/park also close to CM

qwovadis's comments re Scuba on Koh Tao are flawed on two counts:
1. It is the monsoon season and the worst time for diving there and,
2. It is on the gulf coast - teh opposite side of teh country from Phuket where you will be.

If you do want to dive or snorkel then there are plenty of day trips from Phuket or head of to Khao Lak for the best diving which is a 2 hour drive.

thanks everyone!!!