Bangkok & the Beaches Handbook

by Joshua Eliot & Jane Bickersteth

• ISBN13: 9781900949781
• ISBN10: 1900949784
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2001-01-01
• Publisher: Footprint Handbooks

Summary

Thailand is an Asian clich?. Exotic, inscrutable, hot, Oriental, delicate, sumptuous... Take the first few hours of an average visitor's arrival in Bangkok. Off the plane and into a gleaming new airport terminal. Lilting Thai voices, and a strange alphabet. Into the city along an elevated highway in the company of an apparently deranged taxi driver with a magic diagram inscribed on the roof of his car, a picture of a long-dead king lodged reverently in the tachometer, a cheap gold Buddha glued to the top of the dashboard, and a garland of plastic frangipani hanging from the rear-view mirror. Out of the taxi and into a quiet, cool hotel with copies of the Asian Wall Street Journal artfully arranged in reception and CNN in the bedrooms. Or into a small guesthouse run by a Thai bobbing to Bob Marley and offering sweltering rooms the size of chicken coops for the price of a dozen eggs. Covers Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya, Koh Samui and Hua Hin, Koh Samet and Koh Phi Phi. Features include history, culture and nature, out of the hammock and away from the sand!

Table of Contents

1
A Foot in the Door	3	(8)
2
Essentials	11	(58)
Planning your trip	13	(1)
Before you travel	14	(3)
Getting there	17	(3)
Touching down	20	(10)
Where to stay	30	(1)
Getting around	31	(7)
Keeping in touch	38	(2)
Food and drink	40	(5)
Shopping	45	(1)
Holidays & festivals	46	(2)
Health	48	(10)
Travelling with children	58	(2)
Futher reading	60	(5)
The internet	65	(4)
3
Bangkok	69	(12)
Background	72	(9)
Sights	81	(1)
Getting around	81	(1)
The Old City	82	(9)
The Golden Mount, Giant Swing and surrounding wats	91	(4)
Chinatown and the Golden Buddha	95	(1)
Thonburi, Wat Arun and the Khlongs	96	(6)
Dusit area	102	(2)
Other sights	104	(11)
Excursions	108	(5)
Tours	113	(2)
Essentials	115	(1)
Sleeping	115	(15)
Eating	130	(10)
Entertainment	140	(4)
Festivals and major events	144	(1)
Shopping	144	(6)
Tour operators	150	(1)
Transport	151	(3)
Directory	154	(3)
4
The Eastern Seaboard	157	(3)
Development and tourism in the East	160	(1)
Chonburi to Pattaya	160	(5)
Pattaya	165	(13)
Pattaya to Koh Samet	178	(2)
Koh Samet	180	(6)
Chantaburi	186	(5)
Chantaburi to Koh Chang	191	(3)
Koh Chang	194	(9)
5
The Isthmus	203	(3)
Southern Peninsula: Phetburi to Chumphon	206	(1)
Phetburi	206	(7)
Hua Hin	213	(15)
The West Coast: Chumphon to Phuket	228	(17)
6
The Andaman Sea coast	245	(3)
Phuket Island	248	(15)
Phuket's beaches	263	(10)
North from Patong	273	(5)
Phuket to Satun	278	(23)
Koh Phi Phi	301	(21)
Turatao National Park and the Adang-Rawi Archipelago	322	(5)
7
The Gulf of Thailand	327	(3)
The East Coast: Chumphon to Phattalung	330	(6)
Koh Samui	336	(23)
Koh Phangan	359	(16)
Nakhon Si Thammarat	375	(14)
The Far South	389	(1)
Hat Yai	389	(9)
Songkhla	398	(29)
8
Background	427	(24)
History	429	(14)
Religion	443	(5)
Land and environment	448	(3)
9
Footnotes	451	(2)
Glossary	453	(5)
Words and phrases	458	(2)
Food glossary	460	(1)
Fares and timetables	461	(3)
Shorts	464	(1)
Index	465	(3)
Map index	468	(5)
Coloured maps	473