Thailand

19 days in February 2004

My wife and I wanted to celebrate our 12½ years anniversary with a different holiday and as this special day happend to be in February we decided to go to Thailand, because this is the best time of year to go to that part of Asia.
We arranged the tour through a Danish travel company, C&C Travel, that offers individual planned tours but with everything arranged beforehand.

The pictures from Thailand are slide photos taken with my old analogue camera. Later I have made digital copies. The quality is not that good and the picture seem to turn a little dark in the proces.

About Thailand (click on the map for enlargement): Thailand is located in the southern part of Asia between Myanmar (former Burma) in the west and Laos and Cambodia to the north and east. To the south Thailand has a short border against Malaysia. South Thailand has the Andaman Sea to the west and Gulf of Thailand to the east.

Bangkok is the capitol of Thailand and placed in the middle of the country. Population is estimated to have about 12 million inhabitants.

Flying time: From Copenhagen via Frankfurt in Germany to Bangkok takes about 1½ + 10 hours (click for map). During the flight you have a great view over the Himalayas.

From Bangkok we went by train to the city Chumpon in the south-east of Thailand (illustrated by a blue line on the map). After a few days in Chumpon we continued by boat to Koh Phangan and Koh Samui (yellow line) and finally we returned to Bangkok by plane.

Time difference: Thailand is 7 hours ahead of CET (in the summer it is 6 timer).

Distances: Greatest distance north to south is 1500 km and east to westis 800 km. The land is very narrow on the southern part. Just about 12 km.

Area: 512000 km².

Currency: Thai Baht.

Climate: Common to the most of the country is avarage temperatures between 28 og 35 °C. Hottest in April.
Rainy season from May to October. In Thailand it mostly meens short lasting heavy rain.
You can go on holiday in Thailand all year but to som people the very high humidity in the rainy season can be unpleasent.

Transportation in Thailand: Many choose to fly between the bigger citys because of the distances. But do try out the railway system. It is really a great experience. As said we went by train from Bangkok to Chumpon which is about 450 km. It takes just about 6 hours and costed 10 Euros in 2004. Included in the price was two meals and fruit juice. This is traveling first class. If you choose second or even third class the journey will be different !

Population: Thailand is a kingdom and the royal family is widely loved and supported by the people.

94% of the people are Budhist, 5% are Muslims and just 1% are Christians.
In Chumpon we had a great impression of the country as there are very few tourists in this area. Every where we were met with the smile that Thailand is known for.

Climate: When it rains in Thailand it relly rains !

The first few months of the year are supposed to be very sunny but as you can see from the photo it does occasionally rain at this time of year too.

The nature was not our main purpose to come here but from the train we had a chance to watch the landscape in the south.
It is mostly agriculture and jungle. Northern Thailand has a lot more to offer in respect of great landscapes and green mountains. We wil have to go there some time.

On the island of Koh Pangang we went for walks in a remote jungle area.

The hotel Baan Panburi on Koh Pangan island is one of the best we ever stayed at. The private bathrooms only had cold water in 2004 but I have seen on the net they now have hot water as well. The restaurant was outstanding.