Hello! I originally offered this in the "Another Thailand trip report up for grabs" post but have decided just to post the whole thing here. <BR><BR>Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Krabi, Thailand Trip Report<BR><BR>January 27, 2002<BR>Hey everyone!<BR>We're in Bangkok! We’re staying at the Siam Intercontinental Hotel (http://www.interconti.com/thailand/b...el_bansia.html). We arrived yesterday around 4pm after a 10 hour flight (plus 2 extra hours sitting in the plane before takeoff, ??). Everything is fine and we're having a jolly ol' time! So far, Bangkok seems like something out of a futuristic sci-fi flick. It's massive, sprawling, ugly, smoggy and the traffic and smog are horrible. But we like it!! Our hotel is at Siam Square, a major shopping area. So last night after we got in we wandered down to a shopping center, the World Trade Center. It's a very nice mall with lots of stuff to pick from. We dined at a little restaurant there and had really good Thai food (stir-fried veggies, rice, spicy soup with prawns and Singha beers) for about $12US. <BR><BR>Last night we couldn't sleep but we still made it out today by 11. We took the Skytrain 15 minutes to the massive, wild and crazy weekend market. The Skytrain is an elevated train (hence the name) which is absolutely wonderful if you need to go where it goes, but it adds to the concrete feeling in a big way. The weekend market is a sprawling, mostly semi- indoor flea market. Major amounts of stuff available to buy. Afterwards we blazed back to our hotel, dumped our stuff, ate lunch at a shopping complex next door (Rick had seafood fried rice, I had sticky rice in coconut cream with stinky durian and a passion fruit shake) then took a taxi to Wat Traimit, a Buddhist temple with a 5 1/2 ton solid gold Buddha. Oh my! Very nice. From there we took one of the infamous tuk-tuks to another shopping center on the river. Tuk-tuks are 3-wheeled open-air golf cart dealies that are known for ripping people off and taking them to shops to get commissions. But hey, it was there and a taxi wasn't. He tried to pul<BR>l the shopping routine on us and we rolled our eyes and started to get out, and he gave in. We wandered around the River City Shopping Center (a very nice but small mall) and bought silk then took a river ferry down the river to a Skytrain station. We couldn't figure out how to pay for the boat and no one seemed to care. We jumped back on the ever-so-handy Skytrain and bopped down to the Silom Complex, yet another shopping center. There's a restaurant there that's recommended in our books called Banana Leaf so we ate there. Good stuff! We had garlic fried rice, pineapple fried rice (yummy!!), stir fried veggies (yum!!), asparagus and shrimps and a couple of Singha beers. Very tasty and only cost $12.

So here it is 8:20 on Sunday night. The shopping center is right near Patpong, the red light district, so we of course had to check it out. I'd say it's pretty tame compared to Amsterdam. One might even walk down the street and not realize what's going on. The women have on nice (albeit small) silk dresses and tend to congregate en masse and holler at dudes, but I didn't hear any English and no one hollered at us (I’ve heard single guys really get harassed). No big threat here, I don't think. We didn’t see any sex shops, either. <BR><BR>In case you're wondering, most people we've dealt with have spoken at least basic English. If not, they've been very nice about doing sign language. Everyone has been pretty nice. We haven't been bothered by beggars or con artists although we have seen a few pretty pitiful unfortunate souls prostrate on the sidewalks with donation cups. The places we've dined have had English-Thai menus, so no problem there. The Skytrain has English-Thai, too. So far it's been really easy. The weather has been much better than we expected. It feels like the highs are around 80-85 and maybe 65 at night. We're happy campers. Tomorrow the plan is to visit the Grand Palace and see all the important sites over there. There's so much really cool stuff here that I wish we had more than 3 days! Oh well, we'll just have to come back sometime. <BR><BR>

January 29, 2002<BR>Today's our last day in BKK. Poo! We're still having a great time. What a cool city. Yea, the pollution is outrageous, but the people are nice, the food is divine, there are loads of cool sights, magnificent shopping and getting around has been a piece of cake. We try to plan our agenda around the Skytrain and the river express ferry, which is also really easy. After our first trip on the ferry when we couldn’t figure out how to pay, there was always a ticket seller on board. They would find the people who'd just gotten on and sell them tickets. It’s really cheap, like 8 Baht (20 cents) per person, per trip. <BR><BR>I guess I should add a comment about Patpong, the red light district. We were there early so I'm sure it gets a lot worse and God only knows what goes on in those clubs! We were approached a few times with offers of the ping pong shows. Ick. Needless to say, we passed on that! ar ar We haven't seen sex bars anywhere else, or anything even close. Not like Amsterdam where the mostly naked women are on display. I've heard so much about the sex industry here that I was afraid it would be something unpleasant we had to deal with, and it's nothing like that.

So, what have we been doing? Monday we did the major tourist things. We took a taxi to the Grand Palace. The first taxi we approached refused to use his meter and would only take us for 300 Baht ($7.50) so we found another and this guy used his meter and it was only 70 Baht. Big difference! The Grand Palace was crawling with tour groups so we hired a little old guy as our guide and he took us around and told us the scoop. On the grounds is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, which is overboard ornate and glittery and simply beautiful. From there we walked to Wat Po. In that area was the only time we've been harassed by those types that prey on tourists. We managed to avoid them but they were really annoying. At Wat Po we were looking for the entrance and these goobers kept telling us stuff like, "It's closed till 2," "the entrance is to the left," "the entrance is to the right." Geez! We finally found it. How cool! There's a 150' (or so) long reclining Buddha statue inside, which was all under scaffolding. Still cool. The grounds there have lots of Buddhas and other stuff to check out. In the back is a massage school, so we had 30 minute Thai massages. Some of it was great, and at other times we were both wondering if we'd be able to walk when they finished! From there we walked to a pier and took a ferry across the river to Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn. It's decorated with bits of pottery, even some whole little dishes. Very nice. From there we caught the express river boat back down to River City Shopping Center and had a relaxing lunch in the a/c. This is certainly a city of contrasts. There are lots of really nice malls, restaurants, etc and next door are shanties and buildings on the verge of collapse. After our very late lunch we hired a longtail boat to take us on a tour of the canals for 500 baht for an hour ($12.5). At the River City Shopping Center, outside near the water, is a silver booth that says “Pier One” or something like that. It’s staffed with English speakers and it’s an easy way to arrange a longtail tour. No haggling over price, no trying to explain to a non-English speaker where you want to go, no picking a boat, etc. They take care of it all and it’s very simple. That was really cool! He took us into the bowels of the neighborhood across the river where houses are built on stilts sitting in the water. Again, shacks are next to really nice places. We passed lots of little kids swimming in the river and they all smiled and waved at us. After the tour we asked him to drop us at the pier next to the Skytrain station so we easily blazed back to Siam Square where our hotel is. A guy at the Taksin boat landing demanded a 20 Baht landing fee and we didn’t think it was worth arguing about.

Siam Square is a sight, really. There's no square that I can see, just tons and tons of concrete all around! It's pretty wild looking. We checked out another big shopping center there, MBK, which is full of little stalls and teenagers. In the food court I finally got to try mango and sticky rice. YUM!!! Then we wandered across the elevated concrete walkway to another mall and had dinner in a restaurant there. More stir fried veggies, garlic rice, salmon teriyaki and beers. Good stuff. <BR><BR>Today is Tuesday and we spent several hours wandering around China town. Another very interesting experience. We walked down a narrow pedestrian street lined with shops selling mostly household stuff and clothes and packed with shoppers, delivery guys pushing carts through the crowd and power lines dangling dangerously close overhead. We ate lunch at the Old Siam Center (I think that's the name), a small, old mall without many tourists and then wandered around more, before taking the river express boat and Skytrain back to Siam. That's where we are now and we're going to wander around here before heading back to our hotel to clean up before our dinner cruise. That's all for now! Tomorrow we leave for Chiang Mai. <BR><BR>January 31, 2002<BR>Last you heard we were heading for a Loy Nava dinner cruise (http://www.loynava.com/submenu_eng.html) in BKK. The boat was really cool and it was a lot of fun. The food wasn't spectacular but was ok. It was worth the bucks for the fun of the boat ride. It was pretty amusing when a speed boat would blast by and everyone would have to grab their glasses!<BR><BR>Flew to Chiang Mai yesterday (Wednesday) at 11:00. No probs there and got to CM at 12:30. It's Thailand's 2nd largest city, I think, but is no where near as big as Bangkok. We found the 100 baht taxi ($2.25) to our hotel. I haven't seen any real taxis here that I recall. This was just a regular car. I think tuk-tuks are more common here (the 3 wheeled little go carts). Our hotel is pretty cool, especially since it only costs $40 a night. It’s the Riverview Lodge (http://www.riverviewlodgch.com/), right on the river, and we have a little balcony overlooking the hotel's gardens and the mucky river beyond. The hotel is a small, locally owned place.

Checked in and took a nap. Around 3 we finally dragged ourselves out on the street and were quickly overwhelmed with the shopping madness all around us. Whew! The night market was setting up and the streets were lined with stalls and shops. All kinds of stuff for sale for cheap. It wasn't as crowded as I'd read somewhere but there were plenty of people milling about. The vendors here are more aggressive than the ones we encountered in BKK although generally pretty friendly. We encountered a couple of pushy beggars and many hill tribe women dressed in traditional garb looking pitiful and selling jewelry. There are so many that I got over my urge to be charitable and help them out. Which ones to help?? There are also lots of really nice permanent stores selling all types of stuff. Shopping madness! We bought some stuff and wandered and shopped, etc. We had probably our best dinner so far at a place called Whole Earth. It's a vegetarian restaurant that also serves some seafood and chicken. It's in a traditional looking building. We sat outside on the wrap around balcony overlooking lots of orchids and hibiscus. We had veggie fried rice in a pineapple with raisins, cashews and veggies (YUM!!), some other rice and veggie dish and cream corn soup. It was divine and had a great atmosphere. CM seems like a scaled down version of BKK. The traffic and fumes on the main roads are still bad, just not as bad. Vendors hawk all kinds of food from stalls on the sidewalk, kids run around in school uniforms, motorcycles blast through traffic, people go about their business. The weather feels about the same too. Maybe the high today was 85 but I never felt uncomfortable.<BR><BR>Today (Thursday) we had big plans to walk every street in the old town. It's surrounded by a moat (maybe ditch is a better word) and parts of a wall. We spent too long looking for a tailor that was recommended and ended up going back to one we found last night, Hong Kong Tailors on Changklan (right in the middle of the night market area). Unfortunately some others beat us there and we had to wait almost an hour. Finally got our turn and ordered some suits. Cool! At least I think so. We'll see how they turn out. I got a skirt, jacket and pants made from navy wool-silk and Rick got a dark suit from silk-cashmere. The choice of fabrics and colors was limited so we did our best. I also ordered 2 silk blouses and some baggy pants. Grand total for all of this was about $250. Woo hoo! We're going back tonight for our first fitting. Spent the afternoon checking out temples in the old city. Very nice. I'm starving so I think I'll cut this short and run to the nearest restaurant. We might do another massage tonight. Tomorrow (Friday) the plan is to go on a mini adventure. It's a standard tourist trip to an elephant park, riding elephants for an hour (oh boy!), something with water buffalo I think then a raft trip. Should be interesting!

February 2, 2002<BR>Hee hee, giggle giggle, we rode elephants yesterday (Friday)! That was soooo much fun!! We took a tour from our hotel for 1600 Baht each ($40). We were the only ones on it so we had the guide/driver and minivan to ourselves. The guide, Nui, was very friendly and spoke really good English. On the hour drive out to the elephant camp he answered all my questions about Buddhism and I learned tons. We arrived at the camp around 9:30 and elephants were everywhere! Big ones, little ones, male, female, babies, etc. Hee hee hee hee! I had perma-grin all day. They were all just hanging around so we got up close and personal with them. The camp is a pretty rugged place with most of the structures open-air and made of bamboo or something. We watched the cheesy but fun little show where the critters played soccer, danced, moved logs, etc. Before you think that's really tacky, the point of the camps is to give the elephants jobs and earn money to feed them. They used to work as log haulers but logging has been banned (I think) and now they are 'unemployed.' Ok with us to contribute to their upkeep! We fed them some bananas along with all the other giggling tourists. I looked away for a minute and when I looked back, Rick was sitting bareback on an elephant! He looked as surprised as I was! Then I got to climb aboard! hee hee hee hee After the show we boarded our big elephant with a 2 seater on top for a ride through the hills to a hilltribe village. This was a different option from the standard deal (it cost extra), so we headed off alone with a dude sitting on the elephant's head. Everyone else went off in a caravan so we were pleased that we were alone. The ride lasted over an hour uphill and down, along a hiking type trail. We arrived at the hilltribe village and Nui met us there and took us around. The village consists of several bamboo huts and colorfully dressed tribespeople. I think he said they wandered to this area and are originally from Nepal. They apparently have a deal with the elephant camp so when we showed up, they were in their traditional dress, sitting around sewing. We bought a really pretty handsewn wall hanging from them. They did a little song and dance for us, frowning and looking seriously bored the whole time. On to the next village. These folks were smiley and happy types. We bought some hand-woven fabric from them (what the heck) and they did a little show and let us shoot their crossbows. They seemed like much more pleasant folks than the first batch. Nui drove us back to the camp where we took a cheesy 20 minute ride in an ox cart through the village nearby. But it was fun! These oxen are the white ones with humped backs and baggy throats. Then back to the camp for lunch. We had stir fried noodles with black bean sauce. Yum!! Each plate cost about 75 cents! Then onto the final stage of our day: going down the river on a bamboo raft. Everyone else had gone way before us so we had the river to ourselves. The rafts are made of about 20 bamboo poles and have a bench in the middle. Nui picked us up at the end and took us back to the hotel. I just loved those elephants!!

We got back around 5 and headed out in search of a massage. Massage parlors are everywhere. We found one and had 1 1/2 hours of legs, feet, arms, back and neck for about $10 each! It was much nicer than the one we had in BKK. Ahhh... We sat inside in a/c in a plush recliner with nice music playing. Ahhhh.... For dinner we went to a place called the Antique House near the river. It's in an old teak building with outside seating in a garden full of flowers and another building with a wrap around balcony. I had broccoli and prawns and Rick had some seafood stuff and we each had 2 beers. Grand total was about $10!! It was excellent food and the service was just how it should be. Beer here costs a lot more than the food. Our food only cost $3!!! Then we wandered around the night market and shopped and went back to the tailors. These guys are pretty annoying and disorganized, but they seem to do pretty good work. My suit skirt fits PERFECTLY. The pants were still too tight and the jacket wasn't even there. We're going back in a few hours for the final fitting or pickup. Hopefully they'll have it all in order by tonight since we're leaving tomorrow. They're sort of slippery types and we have had to harass them a bit to get them to fix stuff. They're full of phrases like, "Oh madam, that looks wonderful!" "Oh madam, the fit is perfect!" etc, etc. Oh puh-leeze!<BR><BR>Today is Saturday, and it's the first day of their annual flower festival. We caught a bit of the parade this morning. Lots of beautiful Thai girls in gorgeous dresses and lots of flowers. Since then we've been wandering. Chiang Mai isn't exactly quaint. Actually, to us it seems rather ugly on the surface. The traffic sucks and the main roads are gagging with exhaust. But, there are gorgeous temples everywhere, excellent food, amazing shopping (good thing we brought an empty bag with us!) and the people are friendly. They were in Bangkok, too. We're having a good time! The weather has been wonderful! Highs around 80 and sunny. At night here it cools off a bit, probably 65-70. Tomorrow we're leaving Chiang Mai (poo!) and heading to Krabi. Woo hoo!! We're staying at a nice 5 star hotel near the beach there. Woo hoo!!

February 4, 2002<BR>After we left the internet cafe in Chiang Mai (they're everywhere and cheap! 40 minutes for a dollar!) we took a tuk tuk back to the night bazaar area to eat lunch. Ate at a patio cafe, only because they served sticky rice and mango. Yum!!! I love that stuff sooooo much! I think they cook the rice with coconut milk so it's somewhat sweet. Rick had fried red snapper, veggies and rice. I don't remember the price but it was cheap, probably $5-7. Then we shopped a bit (some stores in the night bazaar are open all day) then went back to the tailor (Hong Kong Tailors). Egads, we're so sick of dealing with these guys. Actually, only one is really slippery and he's the salesman. His brother is the tailor and much more straightforward. Some of the stuff was done, some still not. Geez! But my skirt and jacket fit perfect. I still don't know what it's made of. The slippery guy once said silk and wool, another time said silk and viscose and the tailor-brother said silk and cashmere. Whatever, it was cheap and looks like a nice suit. My suit (skirt, pants and jacket) cost 5000 baht, or $115. Rick's cost about $100. So we agreed ONE MORE TIME that we'd come back later. We took a tuk tuk back to the old city center and wandered all over and around 5 headed back in the direction of our hotel. Stopped for an hour Thai massage, 150 baht ($3.50) each. It was really nice. This was a more casual place with mattresses on the floor and was like the one we had in Bangkok. Except this time we had to change clothes into loose cotton pants and tops. The girls walked all over us (thank God they're little girls!), pushed and pulled in all directions. It's a bit painful here and there but mostly pretty nice. Afterwards we went back to the tailor for the last time (yay!!) and everything was done and fit. YAY!!! Took it back to our hotel then went to dinner at the place we ate at the first night, the Whole Earth. Great food!! Our meal probably cost $10. <BR>

Sunday (yesterday) we left Chiang Mai. We had time for one more massage at Let's Relax, the nice place over McDonalds. We didn't have time for the full deal so we had our arms, necks and backs done. Ahhhh.... Simply wonderful. This place is a bit more upscale and cost 250 baht per hour ($5.50). Got a taxi to the airport and flew to Bangkok and onto Krabi. Arrived around 6pm and were met by some people from the hotel (we arranged a pickup) and chatted with them for the 45 minute ride to the hotel, The Pavilion Queen’s Bay (http://www.pavilionhotels.com/krabi_overview.htm). Oooooo boy!! What a hotel!! It's a five star that just opened last November. It sits up on a hill overlooking the beach, about a 10 minute walk to the water. The outside is neither here nor there, but the inside is lovely. There's a big Gone With the Wind type staircase and everything is done in wood, colored marble (stone, anyway) and gold. Our room is divine!!! We're pleased. It has a huge bathroom with a separate toilet room inside, a big tub, a HUGE shower stall (5' by 5') and a closet. The floor in the bathroom is black stone and the walls look like cherry wood. Ahhhh... The room is also really nice. The floor and walls are the same wood, king-size bed, silk throw pillows, a divan, TV with all kinds of channels and the wall facing the balcony is all glass with a big sliding glass door. The balcony is about 12' by 12' or bigger with a gorgeous large wood hanging swing and 2 rattan chairs. Very, very nice for the price ($130 per night, I think, I booked through our travel agent which was cheaper than the hotel’s website offer). The lobby downstairs has the big staircase, and beyond that is a 3 level pool. Each pool overflows into the next about 8' below. Ahhh... We dined at the rooftop terrace restaurant at the hotel last night. Only one other couple was there and probably 10 staff. More good food. I had stir fried noodles with veggies and Rick had green veg curry.<BR><BR>Monday, today! Wandered down to town and the beach. We walked the length of Ao Nang beach. Some parts look nice for swimming and other parts have many longtail boats scooting around. The sand is sorta brown but the water is mostly clear. I've heard there are nicer beaches nearby but this one is fine. We walked back through 'town' which is really just one street along the beach lined with small hotels, open-air cafes, shops, massage parlors, etc. It's really low key and relaxed here. And quite a bit hotter, but not too bad. We ate lunch at a cafe. I had coconut ice cream and a papaya shake and Rick had veggie fried rice. Then we walked through the shops and arranged to take a day trip tomorrow. We're going with Sea Canoes to near Phang Nga Bay. It's not the same trip that's offered from Phuket but it sounds like fun.

February 6, 2002<BR>So, on Monday after I wrote we went back to the hotel and hung at the pool. What a nice pool! And best of all, no one else was around. <BR><BR>Tuesday, yesterday, we went on a kayaking tour with Sea Canoes. They drove us about an hour (in the back on an open air pickup) to the mangrove swamp where we boarded a 2 person kayak and headed out. How cool! We paddled along in murky water through mangroves, into caves, through limestone tunnels and all around. We had lunch back where we took off, in a shack on stilts over a mudflat. Lunch was pretty good. Standard Thai food. We piled back in our kayaks with our wet butts and paddled for a few more hours. We stopped at one point to get out and explore a cave with 3000 year old paintings inside. Cool! Then we paddled through more mangroves, caves and tunnels and into a lagoon surrounded by limestone cliffs. We saw a real live wild monkey! How cool is that?! It was up in a tree watching us as we watched it. We also saw a 3' lizard swimming along. We finished back at the shack and had some fresh fruit and drinks. It was really lots-o-fun.<BR> <BR>Back to town and we flopped on the beach for a bit. Then we ambled through town (the one street) and dined at an open air cafe (that's all there is!). I had an urge for pizza so that's what I had and Rick had garlic fried rice and stir fried veggies. Good stuff. Then we wandered up and down the street checking out the shops, etc.<BR><BR>Here it is Wednesday already. Time sure flies here! Today we went down to the beach and hired a longtail (motor boat) to take us to Railey beach, south of Ao Nang beach (the one down from our hotel) but beyond some limestone cliffs. I think the only way to get there is by boat. We hung out in the shade, snorkeled and saw some fish and generally relaxed. We had lunch at a cafe right on the beach. I think it was the Sand Sea Resort, which looked like a nice place to stay. Then we explored the peninsula, which is packed with cheapy bungalows. Around 2:00 we hired a longtail to take us to Poda island, one of the many islands around here. The trip was about 20 minutes and the guy waited on us for 2 hours, then brought us back to Ao Nang for 600 baht ($14). It has a beautiful beach with soft white sand, gentle waves, a gently sloping drop into the ocean so it's chest high not too far out, no seaweed, etc. Ahhh.... We snorkeled around some rocks and saw lots of fish. Then we flopped, swam, snorkeled, etc. Ahhh... Very pretty. We were back at Ao Nang around 5 so we went back to the hotel and showered and watched the gorgeous sunset from our fabulous balcony. We walked back to town for dinner and ate at the same place again. It's advertised as an Italian place but they have lots of Thai food. Rick had garlic rice and stir fried veggies (he really liked it last night!) and I had pineapple fried rice with cashews and sweet and sour veggies. YUM!!

February 8, 2002<BR>Yesterday we had the perfect beach vacation day. We slept in, then wandered down to the beach to hire a boat to Chicken Island, just past Poda island where we went the day before. We found a friendly guy (one of the official Ao Nang longtail boat drivers) and hired him for 500 Baht ($11) to take us, drop us off and come back at 3:00 to take us back to Ao Nang. What a way far cool beach and island!!!! There were other people there (it's a popular place) but it wasn’t too crowded. It's actually a little bitty island connected by a partially submerged sandbar to another bigger island. He dropped us at the tiny one and we waded through the crystal clear water to the other island. Ahhh... simply gorgeous. Crystal clear water, white sandy beaches and loads of coral and critters in the water. We dumped our stuff on the beach and headed into the water to snorkel. There is lots of coral there, all alive. We swam across fields of antler coral teaming with little colored fish and sea urchins, lots of scorpion fish (mostly hiding under rocks), funky little fish, giant purple clams, and coral out the ying yang. Out about 100 yards it dropped off from 3' to 20' and there was amazing huge coral and bigger fish out there. Way far cool!!! After awhile we packed up and moved around the island and I snorkeled a bunch more. I saw more of the same and it was equally as fun. We met the driver back on the other island at 3:00 and went back to Ao Nang beach. We wandered down the strip and bought t-shirts, etc. We went back to the room and cleaned up then back down to the strip. We found a pedestrian street we'd missed before along the beach past the north end of the road, lined with restaurants with balconies directly over the beach. We dined right next to the beach and had fried rice in a whole pineapple (with the stem and all!), stir fried veggies and fried rice in a whole coconut. Quite tasty.

Today is Friday. Last night we arranged to hire a car and driver for the day, for 1500 baht ($35). He picked us up at 10:00 and was at our disposal till 6pm. First we went to Tiger Cave monastery. It's inland maybe 10 miles, in the jungle. We climbed the 1227 steps to the top of a limestone karst where there are a few little Buddhist temples and a great view. That took some effort. Many of the steps are over 12" high and overall it's a very steep climb and it was quite hot even at 10:30. We survived and got to see the fantastic view for our suffering. Back down and almost at the bottom, we were suddenly overwhelmed by MONKEYS! Everywhere!! Hee hee hee hee hee!!! They were playing in the trees, chasing each other across our stairs and all over the place. We giggled nonstop and took dozens of pictures. Some Canadians came along and apparently the lady had anticipated them and brought snacks to feed them. She was really nice and gave us handfuls and we got to feed them, too. Hee hee hee hee hee!! They were wild monkeys, but I suspect they live near the monastery and are used to people. They were the cutest little things, mostly brown with really long tails. They would sit next to us, politely waiting for food, and when we offered it to them, they'd gingerly reach over and take it with their little fingers and look like they were saying, "Why thank you, don't mind if I do." ar ar A few were more aggressive and would climb into our laps or paw our feet (although they don't have paws) then politely take whatever we offered. One or two had really bad manners and would try to grab the whole bag. hee hee. This was the most fun we'd had in days. It was really a hoot!! We stayed with them for probably an hour and bought some banana chips to feed them. hee hee hee I should add a caveat here. I just read about a woman who was bitten by a monkey and had to undergo lots of rabies shots and treatments. Ugh. I’d read warnings about staying away from critters but that never crossed my mind when we were there!

After awhile we headed off to follow the nature trail. It took about 30 minutes and went along the limestone cliff where there are lots of monks' quarters in little caves, then through a jungle-like forest. There were some HUGE banyon type trees with roots around the trunk starting at ground level and forming solid walls up to 10' high and maybe 4" thick. We ended up staying in the area for about 3 hours, then found our driver (a cool local guy that spoke good English) to go to lunch. He took us to a really neat restaurant. It's outside in a garden with a little stream running through it and lots of plants. Even their menu was in English and Thai. We had spicy veggy and shrimp fried rice and pineapple and curry fried rice. Very tasty and with drinks was only $7. Then he drove us to a national park with a waterfall with 7 pools. Another way far cool spot. Only a few other people were there so each time we hung at a pool, we were the only ones there. We climbed to the highest pool, along a rugged, steep trail along the stream. Each pool was crystal clear and had a water fall dumping into it and it dumped into the one below. The hike to the top all but killed us in the heat after the million stairs we climbed earlier, but it was sooooo cool at the top. We sat on the rocks and let the waterfall crash around us and swam in the pool. Very much like a movie. Then we checked out the other pools as we descended and found one with water so deep we couldn't touch the bottom. I tried not to, but I kept wondering what kind of snakes might be around. We were in the jungle! Fortunately we didn't see any unpleasant critters. We hung around there till about 5pm then went back to meet our driver, 2 pooped pups. He dropped us in town and we went back to the same row of restaurants along the beach as last night. We found a nicer one, the Moon Terrace, and had a mai tai and watched the sunset. Very romantic. Afterwards we had dinner: stirfried shrimp and garlic with rice (be still my heart!!), stir fried veggies, fried noodles with veggies. The last one is called that on the menu, but it's really just wide, flat, rice noodles (I think) with stir fried veggies with an egg mixed in and a light, brown sauce (don't know what it is but it's really good!!). Cheap, as usual. It's so nice to sit right above the waves while dining, and not across the road and traffic.<BR>

February 11, 2002<BR>Saturday was our last full day in wonderful, beautiful Thailand. We had arranged to take a snorkeling trip and the guys picked us up at 9:00. The dive shop (Sea Fa Divers) didn't have anyone booked for Saturday, so they said they'd take us wherever we wanted to go. Cool! They have the one and only speed-dive boat in the Krabi area so we were able to get to the Phi Phi Islands in less than an hour, compared with 2-3 hours with all the other boats. On board was one of the owners (a Brit about our age), a German divemaster, 2 guys driving the boat and us. The Phi Phi Islands are south of Krabi and in crystal clear water teaming with sea life. We stopped first alongside Phi Phi Don, near some big limestone karsts jutting out of the water. We jumped in and snorkeled for over an hour and saw lots of fish and coral. Very nice. Then we piled back in and cruised up to the main area of the island, had lunch on board then waded to shore. Phi Phi Don is shaped like a butterfly and has a narrow strip of land connecting the 2 sides. This is a VERY popular place to go and was crawling with people! The whole little area is full of shops, restaurants, etc and people!! It looked like spring break in Cancun or something. The island is really beautiful! The sand is soft and white, the water crystal clear and just looks perfect! We met the guys back at the boat after 1 1/2 hours on shore then headed to Phi Phi Ley and Maya Bay, the infamous beach from the movie, "The Beach." We anchored out in the bay and could see way too many people on shore. But, it was a great place to snorkel! Lots of cool stuff to see. We even saw the dreaded black and white striped sea snake! COOL!! Their poison is deadly. It didn't seem too interested in us and just slithered by and into some rocks. This was the only place we saw any garbage in the water. Not much, just a plastic bag, a discarded net, a food wrapper, but seeing ANY garbage in the water is too much. We stayed out there for a while and saw loads of cool fish then piled back in the boat and headed to Bamboo Island. Only a few other boats were around but not anywhere close to us. We anchored just outside the reef in maybe 20' of water and even from the boat we could see the millions of fish in the water. We jumped in and it was like being in the middle of a crowded aquarium! In every direction were schools of fish, different colors and sizes but mostly smaller than 4". Zillions and zillions of fish! We floated in the midst of them for a while then headed towards the island over the coral. We both agreed that it was the most interesting selection of coral we'd seen yet, in crystal clear water no less. Bamboo Island was no doubt one of the best places we'd ever been snorkeling!

We got back to the hotel around 5:00, cleaned up and went to the same place as the night before. We got a table right over the beach, ordered mai tai's and watched the gorgeous sunset, one more time. Had dinner afterwards of fried noodles and veggies, fried veggies, fried shrimp and ginger over rice. YUM!!! Then wandered up and down the street spending the last of our Thai Baht.<BR><BR>Sunday, time to go home. POOOOO!!!! Off to the airport for our 10:30 flight back to Bangkok. Our connection there was a bit amusing. We had one hour to collect our luggage, get to the international terminal, find Thai Airways, recheck our bags, get through security and find our gate. It worked out well and the only snafu was getting through security. Our flight was already boarding when we got to that point and there were at least a few hundred people queued waiting to go through the metal detectors! We managed to slip through the one reserved for flight crews and got to our flight just in time. <BR><BR>We absolutely adored Thailand!! What a great place to visit!!!

Other observations…<BR><BR>Toilets – Most places we went had western toilets but we did encounter some squatters. The squatters frequently had a tub of water next to them from which you scoop to flush. Maybe half of the toilets we used provided toilet paper, so it’s a good idea to have some with you. Most were free but some charged 3-5 Baht. The other interesting thing was that many toilets had sprayers attached, like the dish sprayer in a kitchen sink. <BR><BR>Water – We didn’t drink the tap water. Our hotels all provided 2 bottles per day for free. Bottled water is cheap and readily available (at least where we were). <BR><BR>Hotels – I booked the Siam Intercontinental through hoteltravel.com, no problems. There are lots of these internet booking sites that all seem to be decent, like asia-hotels.com, asiatravel.com and others. I booked the Riverview Lodge directly via fax, and the Pavilion through my travel agent.<BR><BR>Language – Most people we dealt with had at least a little knowledge of English and most places we went had things in Thai and English. We took a little phrasebook, which proved pretty useful a few times. Taxi drivers didn’t seem to speak much English so it’s a good idea to either have a map with names in Thai (not the Thai pronunciation written in Roman letters, but actually written in Thai letters) or get your hotel to write the names of places you want to go in Thai.<BR><BR>Maps – The best map of Bangkok I had was the Insight Fleximap. I also had Lonely Planet’s Bangkok map which proved pretty useless. Once in Thailand you can find Nancy Chandler’s maps of Bangkok and Chiang Mai. She lists interesting shops and restaurants. Her map of Chiang Mai was the only one we used.

Paige--What a great report! It brought back memories of my two Thailand trips a few years ago. We're planning on going again next spring, so it's good to read other peoples' experiences.<BR><BR>Thanks for posting your report here for us to enjoy.

Paige, thanks for the report!! I took lots of notes for my upcoming trip to Bangkok and Chiang Mai...<BR><BR>Sherren

Hi Paige:<BR>Great report. Did you go to any of the beaches? I'll be in Thailand for 4 days 3 nights ( I actually only have 3 full days). <BR><BR>I want to visit a beach. I know that Phi Phi and Phuket are too far away from Bangkok. Any suggestions for local beaches near bangkok?