Somchai Jaidee - Easy Thailand Visa (Page 14)

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Islands & Beaches

Koh Chang Is the Island Nobody Puts on the List and It Should Be

Thailand's third largest island, four hours from Bangkok, a road you can cycle and a waterfall on the far side. It is not on anybody's map.

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Slow Travel

The Mae Hong Son Loop Is Four Days on Two Wheels and Two on a Bad Idea

Eight hundred kilometres, the highest road in the country, a Karen village in the clouds and a very specific way to ruin it, which is trying in a weekend.

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Practicalities

The Cheap Flight to Thailand Is Booked Six Weeks Out and Nobody Tells You

There is no secret airline and no secret route. There is a booking window, a calendar, and four demand spikes that account for most of what you pay.

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Money & Costs

Fifty Baht Is Called Two Things and Knowing Which One Saves You Money

Joh, song, sao, and the small silver coins nobody has used in fifteen years. The price system is not complicated, it is just not English.

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Practicalities

Solo Female Travel in Thailand Is Mostly Fine and the Exceptions Are Sharp

There is no restriction on it, the country is easy, and the genuine risks are four specific ones that almost nobody tells you about.

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Slow Travel

The Golden Triangle Is Three Countries Meeting in a River and Two Are Worth Skipping

The Mekong, the Ruak confluence, a white temple built by one man over twenty years, and a long-neck village you should probably not go to.

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Slow Travel

Khao San Road Is a Good Place for One Night and a Bad Place to Live

It is loud, it is cheap, it is full of people who just arrived, and the airport bus goes straight there. That is one night's worth of value.

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Temples & Culture

Sukhothai Has Three Hundred Temples and You Need a Bicycle

Two UNESCO cities, one river and one bike hire, and a real difference in what you get. Ayutthaya is easier. Sukhothai is better.

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Temples & Culture

The Nine Days Thailand Goes Fully Vegetarian Are the Part Nobody Expects

Chinese New Year is a national event here, and the Vegetarian Festival that follows it means meat is genuinely hard to buy in Chinatown for nine days.

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Street Food

The Floating Market Runs on Weekends Only and Nobody Tells You That

It opens on Saturday and shuts on Sunday night. Turn up on a Wednesday and there is nothing there at all, and people do this constantly.

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Practicalities

Nobody Asks for a Yellow Card and Then They Ask for the One You Skipped

Almost nothing is required to enter Thailand. That is not the same as nothing being worth having, and the gap between the two is where the bad trips happen.

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Slow Travel

Isan Is a Fifth of Thailand and Nobody Goes There

Twenty million people, a genuinely different food culture, the country's best river, and a dialect continuum that barely relates to central Thai.