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Here you can find articles on Thailand Travel & Tourism. Rather than list the normal tourist places, I'll be showing articles on events, pointless micro-detail, and anything that relates to a location. You won't tourist find things to do on your holiday, but you will find ideas for what to look out for to enrich your visit.
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There's a temple, a short trip east from Bangkok, on a pier in the sea in the gulf of Thailand, called Wat Hong Thong and it's one of the most beautiful temples I've seen in a long time. Picture the scene, it's a hot humid day, you sit on a pier with a cooling sea breeze blowing in from the gulf, and the gentle sound of thousands of bells.
Up on the top floor inside the pagoda is a Buddha surrounded by colourful paintings telling the story of his life. Outside other views show slices of the temple roof next door amid glimpses of the sea. There's a great view from up here, of the whole temple complex.
Bang Saen beach is a beach frequented by Thai's, it's in Chonburi province, the same province that has Pattaya City, and is only an hour and half by bus from Bangkok, making it perfect for a day trip to the beach. I've visiting during Songkran to see the sand sculptures, Songkran runs from 13th-15th April, but here in Bangsaen the peak is 16th-17th with some Thais partying till the 20th.
Koh Kood (aka Ko Kut) island is south of the more popular Ko Chang, and as you'd expect it's quieter, less spoilt, peaceful and much more about relaxing than the jet-ski disco culture of other Thai resorts.
The holiday didn't get off to a good start, with one of our friends getting shortchanged at Ekamai Bus Terminal and we had problems with the resort. We stayed at Away Resort, but I can't recommend it. We were told the kayaks are first-come-first-served, but when we wanted to use them, we were told the owners son and his friends had first call on them. We tried to book them for the next day, but even then the woman at the Spa was reluctant to let us use them... "what if the owners son wanted to use them again?"
Little things like this can really throw off a holiday.
In Samut Prakan, east of Bangkok they have a traditional festival where a boat procession travels down the river, locals throw lotus flowers into the boats. Make a wish in the form of a prayer, throw the flower at the boats, if you get it into the boat the wish may be granted. Get it into the big boat, the one carrying the Buddha image, and that's you're best chance that your wish will come true.
This year the festival is October 11th, and I'm going to make a full day of it, and since it's a temple festival, I'm going to do a tribute (known as a tambone) to my dad, who sadly died a few years ago. Tambone time at the temple is 6am-7am, boat procession is about 8-10am. First the tambone and the warmup:
It's busy in the town center, the locals all have their seats ready for the lotus throwing, camera crews everywhere with big professional camera and big professional camera men. They're part of the show too, so naturally I got close ups of Channel 7 filming the boats.
Continue reading "Lotus Festival Banphliyainai 11 October 2011" »
This is another of those floating markets that Thai's visit, rather than tourists. It's right in an island in the center of Bangkok, open at weekends, a short taxi ride across a bridge from the city center. It's called 'Bangnarmpheung Floating Market', but really it's a craft and farmers market set next to small canals, rather than a true floating market.
There's so many interesting things to see there, that I didn't cover in the video. For example, these are giant mushrooms, an ice cream seller had this pot of mushrooms on his stand, not to sell, just to attract attention in a competitive market!
