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Thailand Travel and Destination Guide
PLACES TO SEE
Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai has a striking mountain backdrop, over 300 temples and a quaint historical aura. It's also a modern, friendly, internationally-flavoured city with much to offer the visitor - food, accommodation and shopping are all top quality and cheap, and the nights are relatively cool.
Bangkok
Bangkok has dominated Thailand's urban hierarchy as well as its political, commercial and cultural life since the late 18th century. Distinctly modern and Westernised, Bangkok is still a sleepy Thai village with a louder soundtrack of traffic and nightlife.
Ko Samui
Party island Ko Samui has long been the locale of choice for paradise-seeking voyagers of all stripes. Its turquoise waters and sun-bleached, sandy bays are lined with multiple bungalows and resorts, a plethora of restaurants to satisfy hungry epicureans, and thumping nightlife providing a soundtrack to the temperate, starry nights.
Sirinat National Marine Park
Comprising Nai Thon, Nai Yang and Mai Khao beaches, as well as the former Nai Yang National Park and Mai Khao wildlife reserve, Sirinat National Park encompasses 22 sq km of coastal land, plus 68 sq km of sea. The beaches were looking rather glum in the wake of the tsunami, but they will recover in time and suspended park facilities will no doubt be restored.
Ao Phang-Nga National Marine Park
This sheltered pocket of the Andaman Sea is blessed with verdant limestone cliffs, odd rock formations, submerged karst caves and quaint fishing villages. Around the coast, turquoise waters and scenic islands await the swooshing of your paddles. Hire a canoe, kayak or private boat from the visitors' centre or join a tour organised through an agency in town.
Ancient City
Ancient City (Muang Boran), south of Bangkok, is billed as the largest open-air museum in the world. Over 100 of Thailand's most impressive monuments are rendered slightly less impressive in this 80-hectare (200-acre) collection of scale models. The grounds follow the basic shape of Thailand itself and the monuments are placed accordingly.
Wat Benchamabophit
Wat Benchamabophit, built under Rama V in 1899, is made of white Carrara marble and is a stunning example of modern temple architecture. The real treasure here is a rear courtyard containing a large collection of Buddha images from all periods of Thai Buddhist art.
Wat Traimit (Temple of the Golden Buddha)
Wat Traimit shelters a 3m-tall, 5.5-tonne, solid-gold Buddha image - an impressive sight. This gleaming figure was once covered in stucco, but during efforts to move it in the 1960s, the figure fell, cracking the stucco and revealing the treasure inside. The covering was probably intended to hide it during one of Burma's many invasions.
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