Thailand

[tinaja]

How difficult is it to get around being an English speaker (who can get by in French and is willing to study up on the local phrases)?

Has anyone ever hired a private tour guide?

I'm getting obsessed with seeing the Boon Lot Elephant sanctuary in Baan Tuck Sukhothi, up in the north. I just don't want to be part of a tour group cluster fk but realize sometimes it is a necessar evil.

[shilgia]

May 19, 2014 11:20:19 GMT -5 tinaja said:

I just don't want to be part of a tour group cluster fk but realize sometimes it is a necessar evil.

Maybe, but I'm not sure why it would be in this case, though. It's pretty easy to get to.

[tinaja]

The Asian continent seems a little daunting to me. Just because I have not yet been there.

[Phar Lap]

Fairly easy for the most part, I didn't find language a barrier. The odd occasion, nothing more.

[shilgia]

If you do want to do a tour, I know someone in Thailand (she is Thai) who has recently set up a social enterprise doing sustainable tourism. She can arrange day trips, longer trips, etc. Seems a very responsible hardworking person. Based in Bangkok.

[cakemonkey]

I found it easy to get around speaking English in '98 so I suspect it will be even easier now given the popularity of Thailand. I learnt to say hello, thank you and please in Thai and that went a long way. People appreciated the effort. I think you could do it without a tour but I'd understand why you might want to take this option.

[Bastet]

May 20, 2014 1:43:40 GMT -5 cakemonkey said:

I found it easy to get around speaking English in '98 so I suspect it will be even easier now given the popularity of Thailand. I learnt to say hello, thank you and please in Thai and that went a long way. People appreciated the effort.

That ^ I found it very very easy in 2012. Didn't go on any tours.

[sprite]

2013, chiang mai, sukothai, bangkok. no problems with language at all, although we did try to use some of the polite phrases.

we only hired a private guide for one day, for a trip to a buddhist temple just outside chiang mai. he was great--we know very little about buddhism, so he was able to tell us what we were looking at, and also gave us a run down on the political situation during the drive there and back.

we did go to an elephant place, but only for a half day. we enjoyed it, but i suspect it wasn't one of the best places. supposedly the best sanctuary is the one where you can't ride the elephants at all. ah well.

[wombatrois]

We go to Thailand nearly every year, so it's very familiar. We never have any problems with language - even in remote places point and one word of Thai (or for them, one word of English) can get you a meal.

We generally hire a car and drive around - there are English road signs on the bigger roads - so it's really geared up for tourism.

We're about to go to Burma, so we'll see if the language barrier is as lacking there. Of course we will finish off the trip in Bangkok - it's hard to wean ourselves off Thailand!

Without a tour would be easy in my opinion, although it looks like the place is fully booked till September, so you'd need to base your trip around availability if you wanted to stay in the cabins (you probably know that).

Sukhothai is also a great place to visit for its historic city, and also Si Satchanalai (which in my view was far superior - less crowds, more ruinous - which is my thing (ruins)).

[tinaja]

I wonder if the military coup yesterday/today will mess up this plan?

[sprite]

i'm waiting for a friend in bangkok to post on this, but it may well only affect certain areas. would be worth checking to see if your travel insurance suddenly won't cover certain things.

[shilgia]

They have coups and protests all the time; I doubt that it will affect your plans very much. I was just in Bangkok for a few weeks and there were protests all the time. The practical effect was that taxi drivers would sometimes refuse to go to certain areas. Other than that, nothing.

[mei]

it sounds a bit more serious today - but I think the tourist areas will still be fine. but anyway, when are you planning this? I'd just wait and see what happens the next few weeks, can't quite imagine that it'll escalate into a big security threat for tourists... (but of course, you never know)

(and I agree that Thailand is probably easy to travel around on your own, in English)

[wombatrois]

We were in Thailand when the last coup happened and apart from articles in the newspaper you wouldn't have known!

But check insurance cover so it's not void.

[sprite]

my friend's comment:
"2006 was more entertaining."

[wombatrois]

Yes, it does seem a little more tense and serious this time, although we have the prism of foreign media comment this time. And we were also on the gulf coast in 2006, so away from Bangkok, but even when we returned to Bangkok there was no evidence of anything untoward.

We have remarked that it's amazing we're not in Thailand at the moment as we always seem to be there when things happen (or recently there) such as tsunamis, coups, floods, airport invasions (where we had to hightail it out of the country via bus because we couldn't fly). We missed the tsunami by a couple of weeks - the place we had been staying was completely flattened.

[sprite]

maybe you should stay away from thailand, you jinx.

[tzarine]

so true about the coup & taxis.
we're off to bangkok in june. it's the first time for tzar & tzarevich

what i loved most was the river taxis & street food. i oded on temples

tzarevich will want to ride skytrain. then we'll head off to the beach.
any recommendations?

[wombatrois]

June is a good time for the central east coast. We don't do islands these days, but I really like prechuap kiri khan - the town and the province (ban Krut and ban Saphan in particular).

Maybe others can advise on Samui or other islands if you wanted to go to an island. General consensus on Lptt is that you can find a quieter beach on Samui.

[tzarine]

i was at samui back in the day when you took the overnight ferry from surithani & there was no hilton

thanks, wombatrois