Thailand - Messy thread!

bigadaj

slinga wrote: »

Eh.

Are you kidding?
You get soaked out here and it can make you feel freezing cold. Even if there's only a light wind blowing.

Where is here?

And the main problem with warm rain in se Asia is that if you get soaked and then go into freezing aircon, Malaysia seems worse than Thailand for that.

PompeyPete

bigadaj wrote: »

Yes, all fine thanks.

I don't really understand your deleting the OP, it's an open forum, no one got into a massive argument and I think all threads were relevant to Thailand unlike so many other threads.

There are different itineraries that people can follow, I don't necessarily see the point in submitting a detailed blog as there is so much in the Internet anyway, but it's fine if you want to do that.

My backtracking point was going through a point you didn't want to do, so Bangkok in my example, we wanted to stop in ayutthaya and it made sense to do that between khao yai and kanchanaburi for us, whereas going back into Bangkok and then having to trek to a different station just seemed like more hassle, you could get buses in and out from Bangkok but that sort of defeats the point.

If I'd have been following your itinerary I'd have done exactly the same as you.....train from Pak Chong to Ayutthaya, one or two nights in Ayutthaya, then on to Kanchanaburi by road [public bus] via Suphanburi, and so bypassing Bangkok altogether.

But few people who use this forum will find themselves in Ayutthaya and then want to travel on to Kanchanaburi. The thread I started was simply intended for people who wanted an easy to organise side-trip by train to Kanchanaburi from Bangkok. As the thread quickly went off at a tangent I did what I did and started a new thread.

Incidentally, I've just been reading about Pak Chong and the Khao Yai National Park.....they sound really interesting. I think that Ayutthaya is underrated, too many people just seeing it as an easy day trip from Bangkok, whereas after dark it's got quite an enjoyable low-key nightlife, and sitting by the river with a beer watching the long barges crawl past as the sun sets is fun too.

eDicky

I feel more comfortable in Thailand during the rainy season than in the hot season, when it can really get too hot, for me anyway. But I've never been interested in cooking myself on a beach. Of course, the best time is the 'cool' dry season, sometime during November to January (except in the south).

bigadaj

PompeyPete wrote: »

If I'd have been following your itinerary I'd have done exactly the same as you.....train from Pak Chong to Ayutthaya, one or two nights in Ayutthaya, then on to Kanchanaburi by road [public bus] via Suphanburi, and so bypassing Bangkok altogether.

But few people who use this forum will find themselves in Ayutthaya and then want to travel on to Kanchanaburi. The thread I started was simply intended for people who wanted an easy to organise side-trip by train to Kanchanaburi from Bangkok. As the thread quickly went off at a tangent I did what I did and started a new thread.

Incidentally, I've just been reading about Pak Chong and the Khao Yai National Park.....they sound really interesting. I think that Ayutthaya is underrated, too many people just seeing it as an easy day trip from Bangkok, whereas after dark it's got quite an enjoyable low-key nightlife, and sitting by the river with a beer watching the long barges crawl past as the sun sets is fun too.

Yes, apologies if my earlier posts came across as critical.

Take your point about the itinerary, we were planning on going up to chaing mai as I've been to Bangkok and the south a couple of times before but getting variety in two weeks seemed a little difficult.

We went to khao sok a good few years ago, so things may have changed but khao yai is very well organised and laid out. Many of the resorts in and around it are a bit expensive, we booked a tour through 'bobbys' which was pretty good, bit rough and ready but we did a two and half day tour for about £100 each, park fee is a tenner out of that.

Most people recommended taking a minivan to pak Chong but as you say I prefer trains where reasonably practical, it's about an hour longer than a van but more comfortable and roomy.

We had two nights in ayutthaya and enjoyed it, much like kanchanaburi then many people seem to do day trips but it's all a bit rushed and we did the boat tour around the temples on the river one afternoon/ evening which is very atmospheric. Some of the temples reflect Angkor wat styles, though the city is generally much younger.

The minivan transf to kanchanaburi isn't well advertised on the net, but was shown in our guest house, and was the one really good transfer, driver was sensible and there was only one other couple on our trip, I think it's run by good times travel in kanchanaburi but book able thorough local accommodation.

The other drivers weren't great taking too many risks, speeding etc but that's the way of things in Thailand I guess. Given how little these guys get paid and the cost of vehicles it seems crazy but I suppose they are under pressure to earn and fit in as many trips as they can.

It worked out well for us, two to three nights suits us, and movements were two to three hours each.