Thailand October 2014 We both enjoy the East, so we looked forward to our main holiday in Thailand. Generally we enjoyed the North more than the South. There were many more tourists in the South and we both like to get away from too many from our country. We flew to Bangkok and stayed at the same hotel as we had before, The Asia Hotel, very convenient for the Skytrain and the train from the Airport. We started our holiday with a short bus ride to Kanchanaburi to see the Bridge over the River Kwai (part of the Burma Death Railway). Lots of people. We went to the Thailand Burma Railway museum which was extremely interesting and across the road to the Allied War Cemetery (these cemeteries are very well kept by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission). Our next stay was in Chiang Mai, which we both loved. It is a nice city in which to spend a few days. We organised a driver to take us North for a few days. We had a simply wonderful drive with many bends to Mae Hong Son. While in the North we went to a coffee farm, went in a boat into a cave, Chinese Village, interesting crystal caves, rock paintings amongst other things. We just enjoyed the North for a few days Next it was a bus to Phayao where we were lucky to see the Light Celebrations ( a very very big festival in Thailand, not to be missed). This mainly involves putting lots of flower decorations and floating them on the river, then thousands and thousands of lantern lights were lit and floated up into the sky, some with sparklers hanging from them. Chiang Mai usually closes the airport the night as the lanterns are dangerous for the planes. We had floats, dancing and lots of other celebrations. A nice town and worth staying in. On to Phrae, a place to be avoided and certainly did not live up to the Lonely Planets. Sukhothai (excellent hotel, Baan-George, with nice pool) was our next and lovely place to stay. We spent the day in the Park with interesting temples – one could ride a bike around or just relax walking round the park. We then had to detour to Mae Sot on the Burma border to extend our visas. We had hoped to cross into Burma and then return after a few hours. No good as the rules had been changed, so after visiting the immigration office and parting with a hefty fee our visas were extended. Back done to Bangkok on overnight bus and then to Don Muang airport for flight to Krabi We went south to Krabi for a few nights by the coast, very touristy and not really our cup of tea. 8 hours in a Minivan took us just South of Bangkok to Prachuap Khiri Khan – possibly one of the best places to stay near to Bangkok as it was very quiet and had a wonderful beach just inside the airport. Relaxing here was great and we could certainly return to this little place. A good holiday enjoyed by both of us.