"Thailand" a Thailand Travel Page by mistyp

bangkok has many temples and was a fabulous place to visit with various types of travel, the fastest easiest and most efficient I found to be the sky train and the boat taxi.
you do have to beware of anyone being friendly, I am a true sceptic but still managed to fall into a tourist trap.
I have to say on a good note, my girlfriend got injured when jumping onto a boat and cut open her head. the locals were very helpful and helped to clean up her injury and found us a taxi to a hospital. there are many hospitals in Bangkok and the taxi did not take us to the nearest one. but the one we did visit is the cleanest, friendlist, most efficient service I have seen. the NHS could learn some serious lessons. The staff had a good use of English and although watching my girlfriend be sewn up I understand she could not feel anythin.

this was a day trip from Bangkok where we took the local transport. we went to the bus station which was to the north west of the city. this was a little bit of a trip, going by boat and then finding a bus stop to stand at for a bus to take us to the main bus station. when we got to the main station there was a lot of people wanting to gain our attention for one reason or another. we continued into the station where you can read on the windows where you need to get a ticket for the bus. they have 1st, 2nd and any other class buses. but all easy enough and cheap.
the bus drops you of in the down which is convenient for the JEATH museam which is really worth a visit and then we took a shared van transport to the bridge. we did have trouble finding a return taxi which cost us a few £'s.
this is a great day out and if you have time and can walk then the 5 km to the bridge is not that far...

Chang Mai is to the north of Thailand. we stayed in a fabulous hotel which names excapes me, but it was not the cheapest and the staff were very helpful but a little too subservient and bowing very low, which made me feel a little uncomfortable.
from Chang Mai we took a day trip to James Bond Island, the monkey cave.
also took a trip out on an elephant and then took in a trible village on return. the village is set up for tourists where they have shipped in various tribes and placed them all in one settlement with their own areas and then tourists pay to visit and this is how they manage. it felt very intrusive and exploitative although the guide was trying to convince me that they have a better life here...I think that comes down to values, some of the tribes ppl are brought from Burma, they do not have any passport or right to be in Thialand so they are not allowed to leave the settlement!
out of the city the poloution is less, but still poluted all the same.
still a great place to visit as was extremely different