Bonny Boy

There are the three nearby islands in the Gulf of Thailand - Ko Samui, Ko Phangan (or some such) and Ko Tao. Visited Ko Tao in the summer of last year.

Samui was the backpackers favourite, and still has some beach hut areas, but has developed rapidly and has numerous resort type developments.

Ko P is where the infamous full moon parties are held, and is becoming more 'developed.'

Ko Tao is a small island and the least developed of the three. The west side is more developed - you do have mobile phone coverage/TV here - but I stayed on the east side in a beach hut - nice and quiet, a great place to chill for a week. Each collection of beach huts has an associated diving outfit, restaurant and bar.

I was content to spend much of the day doing a mixture of snorkelling straight off the beach and reading. Water nice and warm, crystal clear, nice reefs and a huge variety of colourful marine life - just fantastic. Evenings quiet - meal, a few beers, conversation.

You can island hop by means of a fast hydrofoil between the islands and Champon on the mainland. I travelled by rail Bangkok/Champon, but the hydrofoil service also connects in with a dedicated bus service from/to Bangkok.

Sky Blue

If you are there for a couple of months then you will be kept busy enough travelling round the country, I love the place have been there loads of times - In a couple and also with a few mates and have met lots of girls who were travelling single and who had no issues, as with anyone and anywhere take care and you should be fine and I am sure you will meet people soon enough.

I personally loved the north - yes Chang Mai and the trekking areas, you can go further north to the golden triangle and a trip to Laos on a boat is pretty special... My favourite place in northern Thailand and possibly South East Asia was a village called Pai set about 3 hours by bus from Chang Mai... Try not to miss if you go up north...

You are spoiled for Islands and Beaches - In the Gulf you have Koh Chang (nr -ish to Bangkok) which is a nice island, then down to Koh Tao (great for diving or relaxing), Koh Pang Yang (party island if that is your bag)... On the other side you have the amazing Koh Phi Phi (I think now recovered from tsunami) and Koh Lanta (very quiet when i visited)...

Its very laid back and made for tourists from backpackers to 5 star holiday makers, good trains and also tourist buses, you can get local ones but to be honest they are nearly the same price as the tourist ones!

You also could go to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia very easily from Bangkok so you need never be bored... I think if you teach, EFL is pretty easy to get invloved in...

I could go on and on, but its now lunchtime...

enjoy your trip...

Spugsy

I was in Ko Lanta a few years back and it was busy, we stayed in this great little place, £18 a night and hired a moped and went around on that, was brilliant.

Sky Blue

18 pound a night!!! Flippin eck that was my weekly budget...

shiva

sell everything you posess including soul.
go here http://www.mandarinoriental.com/bangkok/
never leave

job done

Blue Cat

looks really nice!!

shiva

beyond nice. makes any and every other hotel you've ever been in seem appalling. service level by which every other hotel is measured against and they all fail dismally.
its not the newest, swishest etc but for sheer unaduleterated class, service and hospitality it is outstanding.

in fact **** it i'm going back, gotta go check some dates

there isnt a single hotel in the uae that even comes close, in fact whilst chewing out the manager of the six senses (lovely location shite service and staff) zighy bay recently he conceded that they had some way to go before even approaching the orientals standards.

the only hotel i know of where guests get "homesick" after leaving and yearn to go back, myself included

Bambi in Abu Dhabi

I've just had a look on the site, it looks so lovely. What would you recommend to do during the day that's close by, if you stayed there for, say, 2 nights?

Spugsy

ooh we stayed in the shangri la on our honeymoon and it was awesome, we're back in feb so may give that a try,...

shiva

anything in bangkok really, grand palace, wat po, chatuchak maket etc etc.
personally i'd take a river taxi (station right next to oriental) up to the grand palace etc as the river is a far nicer and faster way to travel than through the dubaiesque traffic

shiva

yup the oriental is right next door but imho the oriental is better. we just love the atmosphere there and the way your treated