"AGBAT's new Thailand Page" a Thailand Travel Page by AGBAT

I lived in Thailand from 1960-1964 and went back for a visit in 1997. The country had elephant, tiger, gibbon, dense jungle, clean air, and almost impassable dirt roads in 1964. In 1997 the animals and jungle are almost gone and the air is filled with smoke from uncontrolled fires, but the roads are paved. Progress??

Anyway, I would strongly recommend taking several good guide books. We used Lets Go, Rough Guide, and Lonely Planets Guide to Thailand. The three sources all have slightly different perspectives and values, but had hotel, restaurant, and sight seeing information for each town we stopped in. We used these as we traveled from town to town between Chang Mai and Bangkok. We used buses, trains, taxis, and bicycles to travel and tried to have a hotel in mind before we arrived in a town. We traveled half day at a time so we would have enough time to go to more than one hotel if the first one was not what we were looking for. We only changed hotels once after checking in-we booked into a whorehouse that looked like an American Best Western in Tak. It was fine during the day but at night tended to be a little noisy ;-) We had reservations in Chang Mai for our first night in Thailand, and in Bangkok for the time we spent there. I would make reservations in Bangkok in the area of town you want to stay in. Moving around in Bangkok is to difficult to be doing it to search for a room. I recommend a hotel on the river so you have the option of using a river taxi. Bangkok has very bad traffic jams and most times the river is your best option. You can get to the Temple of the Dawn, The Reclining Buddha, The Royal Barges, the floating Market, and the Old Grand Palace, to name a few, from the river. You will also get a good rate by making reservations in advance from a travel agent-at least we did-The Royal River Hotel was fabulous and for the level of accommodations very reasonable. The Map shows the River and attractions near it. Others VT sites have all the information you could want about Thailand. I recommend you check out pinetree’s for one.

I would add the warning that you must remember to pay an exit tax at the airport when you leave. Do not arrive at the airport broke without any Baht. They do not take Visa or American Express ;-) We saw one poor woman miss her plane because she did not have the exit tax. Check when you arrive what the current amount is and have it handy when you are getting ready to leave.

Good luck and enjoy yourself-Agbat