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We had plans to meet Sarah's parents in Pai, a small town in the north of Thailand not far from the Burmese border. So upon landing in Bangkok we flew straight to Chang Mai. The next day it was a 3 hour bus journey to Pai. (After just one day of travelling in Thailand we realised how easy things were compared with Nepal and India especially!)
That afternoon, we headed to a nearby waterfall where we all went swimming in the pools. It was extremely cold, almost as cold as the waters in Scotland! For a few days we stayed in Cave lodge ( a lodge in the middle of the jungle about 1 hour outside Pai). Here we did caving and kayaking.We explored 3 caves in a day with the second cave being a very narrow stream cave with a waterfall where we were constantly commando crawling along. After a long day of caving and hiking we all agreed that Sarah's mum was the best caver she had the commando crawling down to a tee.
After Pai we continued on to an Island called Ko Chang in the Gulf of Thailand where we squeezed in some rest and relaxation.After 4 days we decided to move to Cambodia. As much as we had enjoyed our time in Thailand we were finding it quite expensive especially on the island.It seems Thailand would be fine for a two week holiday but now it is more difficult to live on a backpacker's shoestring budget.However we hope to return to Northern Thailand.
Next stop....Cambodia.
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Bigel I just got back from Thailand in March. We flew Eva Airlines, which was the cheapest we could find at the time. It was pterty comfortable and the staff was nice. Since they are a Taiwanese airline, they lay over in Taiwan. You may find another airline that flies cheaper/direct if you leave from England. We flew from California.If you can speak Thai, or are going with someone who does, you can get your hotel when you get there. Hotels are generally cheap because of the exchange rate, which was about 38 baht to a US dollar (not sure how a dollar converts to pound, about double I imagine). If you book your hotel through a travel agent or online agency, you will pay about 3 or 4 times what you should. If you get there and speak only English, you will pay about twice what Thai people pay.We had to hop around Bangkok because my wife's family lives scattered about, so if you want, send me a note about where you are planning to go/see and I can recommend you some places to stay.