geargrrl
Angel Diva
DH and I are planning three weeks in Thailand for our 30th anniversary, going in November. The actual anniversary is this May, we'll just celebrate a little later. (twice?)
Here are all the elements we are trying to put together. Fortunately a very good friend of mine is a professional dive trip organizer and works with a great travel agency. She can get great fares and do some of the booking. Frankly, I don't have time to do it all.
We are going to do 5-ish days on a high end liveaboard, diving and boating in the Andaman/Similan seas, up near the Burma, NW coast of Thailand, way N of Phuket. There are lots of little day trips to small islands, great food, and hopefully good diving for DH. I hope to take a couple of extra days for the national parks around there. One of the boats we are looking at is a high end sailing junk...
Another part of our trip is in the Northern mountain/tribal area, Chiang Mai. I hope to take some cooking classes here, and we are looking at a 3-4 day dirt road village-to-village bike tour.( Chiang Mai to Chaing Rai) We are hoping to take the overnight train from Phuket to here; the first class overnighters are supposed to fantastic and cheap, and I think the daylight hours it would be a great way to see things. Almost forgot - we have a ton of Hilton points that we can use in Bangkok or Phuket..... I'm not hot on Bangkok but staying at the Hilton could ease that a bit, lol.
Last but not least we are going to hit Cambodia for a few days, probably fly from Bangkok to Phnom Pehn and then bus up to Seim Reap, the city closest to Angor Wat. Anyone I know who has been there says that is it the "absolute must not miss outshines them all and will blow you away". I have a contact for a guide there that an acquaintance has worked with, who he highly recommends, so I'm going to try and set up a few days with him. I have a relative ( my half sister's half brother) who lives in Cambodia part time. I hope he's there when we are there... he doesn't know yet what his schedule is.
We've been talking about this trip for two years, it's exciting to be putting the plan into action!
Here are all the elements we are trying to put together. Fortunately a very good friend of mine is a professional dive trip organizer and works with a great travel agency. She can get great fares and do some of the booking. Frankly, I don't have time to do it all.
We are going to do 5-ish days on a high end liveaboard, diving and boating in the Andaman/Similan seas, up near the Burma, NW coast of Thailand, way N of Phuket. There are lots of little day trips to small islands, great food, and hopefully good diving for DH. I hope to take a couple of extra days for the national parks around there. One of the boats we are looking at is a high end sailing junk...
Another part of our trip is in the Northern mountain/tribal area, Chiang Mai. I hope to take some cooking classes here, and we are looking at a 3-4 day dirt road village-to-village bike tour.( Chiang Mai to Chaing Rai) We are hoping to take the overnight train from Phuket to here; the first class overnighters are supposed to fantastic and cheap, and I think the daylight hours it would be a great way to see things. Almost forgot - we have a ton of Hilton points that we can use in Bangkok or Phuket..... I'm not hot on Bangkok but staying at the Hilton could ease that a bit, lol.
Last but not least we are going to hit Cambodia for a few days, probably fly from Bangkok to Phnom Pehn and then bus up to Seim Reap, the city closest to Angor Wat. Anyone I know who has been there says that is it the "absolute must not miss outshines them all and will blow you away". I have a contact for a guide there that an acquaintance has worked with, who he highly recommends, so I'm going to try and set up a few days with him. I have a relative ( my half sister's half brother) who lives in Cambodia part time. I hope he's there when we are there... he doesn't know yet what his schedule is.
We've been talking about this trip for two years, it's exciting to be putting the plan into action!