Mountains and Rainforests

When’s the best time to visit South Thailand? Thailand’s long, thin shape and complex geography mean that the climate of the south varies significantly to that of the north and northeast regions of Thailand and correspondingly, our answer to when is the best time to visit South Thailand will be substantially different. South Thailand refers to the peninsula region, beginning…

12 best Thai dishes that locals eat As with many ‘exotic’ cuisines, preconceptions are far from the on-the-ground reality and indeed what most Thai restaurants in your home countries would have you believe. Rather than what visitors assume are the most popular Thai dishes or what Thai restaurateurs in tourist-orientated resorts choose to offer to visitors, our rundown includes the…

Thailand World Heritage List Update Following on from the addition of Si Thep ancient city in 2023, UNESCO has recently seen fit to update the Thailand World Heritage List with the addition of one new site and confirmation of 5 cultural sites on the tentative list. Inclusion on the latter is no guarantee of ever receiving full World Heritage status…

Visiting Bangkok According to pretty much any survey you consult, Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, is right up there on the list of most visited cities. It is a national and regional transport hub so to put those statistics in perspective, most visitors heading anywhere in Thailand can hardly avoid at least passing through Bangkok while a stopover at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport…

Budget for a trip to Thailand The question, how much to budget for a trip to Thailand – as with a trip to anywhere else – is of course something of a ‘how long is a piece of string’ question, but it is one we get frequently, so, here’s our best shot at providing at least a rough idea. Before…

The best time to visit Thailand? If you were to search for ‘when’s the best time to visit Thailand?’, most travel sites and guidebooks will simply say – the cool season from November to February. However, Thailand is a relatively large country with varying climatic zones and our answer would be more complicated – read nuanced. To optimise your Thailand…

Southern Thailand Tour We’ve tweaked a few details on our 2-week Southern Thailand small group tour, Mountains and Rainforests, so here’s a selection of recent photos – mostly by Wi (Wipaporn) – taken on a couple of recent trips down south, mixed in with a few old faves. Spot on view from this Bangkok coffee shop overlooking the UNESCO-listed Royal…

Thale Noi Thale Noi is a large lake or inland, freshwater sea situated between the southern Thai provinces of Phattalung and Songkhla. The protected wetland, covering some 500 square kilometres, is one of the largest lakes in Southeast Asia and its wide biodiversity gives rise to a rich flora and fauna, including numerous resident and migratory birds as well as…

Thailand World Heritage – Cultural Sites Thailand World Heritage Sites are at present limited to 3 cultural and 2 natural sites. A rather meagre result we feel, considering the country’s rich history and magnificent and highly varied flora, fauna and landscapes. Of the 3 cultural sites, we’d also point out that early Bronze Age Ban Chiang, while of undoubted great…

Khao Sok National Park We confess this is just an excuse to compile a few pretty pics of south Thailand’s Khao Sok National Park which, with its turquoise, jungle-fringed lake and jagged limestone scenery, certainly features some of the country’s most awe-inspiring and picturesque landscapes. Khao Sok National Park lies in Surat Thani Province in the south, central section of…

Hiking at Hellfire Pass. The infamous pass, or Konyu Cutting to use its original name, is one of the most notorious stretches of the Death Railway, constructed during the 2nd World War by the Japanese army using Allied prisoners of war and conscripted Asian labourers. The site is located in Kanchanaburi Province’s Sai Yok District, some 2 hours or so…

A brief run-down on what are considered polite table manners in Thailand. Don’t mean to sound snobby, but we reckon many people would be put off by the sight of other restaurant diners consuming their meals in what they consider an impolite manner! However, whilst every culture in the world has its own accepted eating etiquette, this does differ widely…