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Traveling in Thailand is cheap, easy, and interesting. Let see 10 reasons that make you have to get a Thailand tour now.
1. Legendary beach bars
Thailand’s beach bars can be what makes a holiday, offering a multitude of options, from driftwood shacks playing Bob Marley where bar staff become lifelong friends, to remote hippy hideouts selling psychedelic mushroom shakes and swanky places to sip cocktails and dress up for.
2. Fabulous luxury hotels
Whether it is upmarket island bliss (try the Six Senses on Koh Yao Noi), or sleek 70s curves (see Iniala Beach House in Phuket) or the ewok-inspired tree dwellings of Keemala (keemala.com), also in Phuket, that inspire you, there is a wealth of choice in Thailand.
3. The world’s prettiest lake
In Udon Thani, Red Lotus Lake bursts into a riot of crimson lotus blooms between November and February. The wide lake – 15km long and up to 5km is little-known by non-Thais but is a beautiful sight. Guides lead small boat tours around it.
4. Gibbons in the Khao Sok National Park
An array of exotic species live in Thailand’s remarkably biodiverse park, including gibbons. With calls that can carry for up to two miles, gibbons are easier to hear than see but following their trail through nearly 460 square miles of pristine tropical evergreen forest is a great way to explore, perhaps catching glimpses of sun bears, leopards, tigers, tapirs, Asiatic wild dogs, gaurs, monkeys and deer along the way.
5. …and scary ones
The “Death Railway” is a line devised by Japan’s Imperial Army at the height of the Second World War to transport troops and supplies from Bangkok to Burma. As chronicled in the Fifties classic film Bridge On The River Kwai, they found a ready supply of labour in British prisoners-of-war captured when Singapore fell in February 1942. The line was completed in just a year, but it cost the lives of around 13,000 POWs and 100,000 native labourers. One man died for every sleeper laid.
Ride it today and your carriage will hug the sides of sheer cliffs, passing over a number of rickety wooden bridges.
6. See vegetarians do the craziest things
The annual Phuket Vegetarian Festival is a version of the Taoist Nine Emporer Gods Festival, but involving much more gruesome self-mutilation. Though festivities take place across Thailand, the biggest are in Phuket – which has a large Thai Chinese population. The unusual rituals attract thousands of spectators, with participants piercing their skin with all manner of unusual objects.
7. Unlimited opportunities for island hopping
The range of paradisical islands to choose from will please the pickiest of beach bums, whether it is a chic cabana and waiter service you’re after or just somewhere to string a hammock. Our writers have picked their favourite, most unspoilt islands here.
And then there are the hundreds of islands that you can’t even stay on, but which can be visited with the assistance of a local fisherman with a longtail boat and some time on his hands. Try Bamboo island, one of the Phi Phi Islands, home to one of our favourite beaches.
8. Afternoon tea in the treetops
A treetop treat in the jungle on the Thai island of Koh Kood that gives high tea a whole new meaning. Guests are suspended 15ft above the ground on Koh Kood island in a giant man-made replica of a bird’s nest.
“Treepod dining” is a simple idea,” said our reviewer. “Strapped to a seat within a nest-like pod just bigger than the accompanying dining table (and on a very strong pulley system), I was hoisted up high into the trees of the island, to have an elevated eating experience – a picnic taking full advantage of the height dimension.”
9. A temple that was fought over
Preah Vihear, a ninth century Angkorian temple on the boarder between Thailand and Cambodia, is now considered safe to visit after being the subject of conflict between the two countries since 2008. Surrounded in jungle and bearing similarities to Angkor Wat, it was declared a World Heritage site in 2008.
“Set on a promontory 500 metres above the Cambodian plains in the far north of the country, the temple’s remote and stunning location lends it a majesty that even Angkor Wat falls in the shadow of,” said Mark Hotham of Audley Travel, who visited just prior to the dispute. “Sitting on the steps of the temple at dusk with just a couple of local monks for company as the village cooking fires light up 500 metres below is one of the most resounding memories of all of my travels through Asia.”
10. The world’s cheekiest monkeys
The annual Monkey Buffet sees a spread of more than 4,000 kilograms of fruit devoured by a troupe in front of the Pra Prang Sam Yot temple in Lopburi province. The event is a way of thanking the monkeys for drawing tourists. In recent years monkeys have been given huge fruit ice lollies to lick on.
