Robyn and I flew to Bangkok just before Christmas. We stayed
near KohSan road and spent a few days seeing the major Wats
(temples), the National Museum, Thai boxing, etc.. I was
reminded of why everyone always loves Thailand- it's clean,
beautiful, cheap, easy, exotic and many people speak English
- it's easy to love!
After Bangkok we spent about a week on beaches in southern
Thailand, first in Khao Lak on the peninsula, and then on
the remote end of the island of Ko Lanta, where we celebrated
New Years. The beach was beautiful, the days were slow and
everything was great except when we wrecked a rented scooter
while trying to get into the closest town (no-one was hurt
- only the scooter and keir's pride!).
We rounded off our short trip with 3 days in the National
Park of Khao Sok. The park had fantastic tree top bungalows
amidst beautiful jungle. The sounds of the jungle at night
were wonderful. Our bungalow operation had it's restaurant
over a natural swimming hole that was backed by a cliff
and often frequented by gibbons who occasionally made "monkey
love" to the ammusement of the restaurant guests!.
We did an overnight trip into the park which involved a
lot of long tail boat rides, hiking and staying in some
floating bungalows called raft houses.