We spent the latter part of our Thai holiday at the beach. We chose Ko Chang, an island near Cambodia, primarily because of elephants.

We took a short (and cheap) flight on bangkok airways and besides the fruit in the lunch smeeling exactly like bleu cheese, it was pleasant. Trat airport is tiny - an airstrip and a couple small pavilions. Then a shuttle takes you though some durian and rubber orchards to the ferry to the island.

Ko chang is a jungle island that is in some way supposed to resemble an elephant, but I don't get it. But they do have elephants here, and we rode one (I bathed and Allison fed it too). Allison asked our elephant's name and the mahout said "sii nueng" which means "41" in thai. But the elephant riding was great - we had a long ride though the jungle.

The beach was very nice too, the water was crystal clear and warm. One big problem of Ko Chang is transportation. The island is big enough that you can't walk to places but there are no real taxis/tuk tuks/ any hireable transport. On top of this our hotel would shuttle you around but at truly exorbitant fees (we're talking $20 US one way for a couple of miles and no way back, when we had maybe paid $20 total so far in the trip for taxi type transportation) This may have to do with the islands status as a national park, and I'm all for that, but it meant for us that we had to eat in the hotel a lot (the hotel's food was good though). Finally we solved this dilemma by taking our lives in our (my) hands and renting the ever popular motorbike, which I then drove us around the mountainous island on the left side of the road on.

The other thing Ko Chang is famous for is waterfalls, and the one we went to (Klong phu) was very cool, literally and figuratively. You hike up a sort trail to the waterfall where you can swim in the icy, pristine, water. I loved it, though I got in trouble from a thai park ranger (I guess that's what he was) for swimming in the upper pool of the falls - I thought I had seen other people do it.

Ayuthaya has some of Thailands best (and most hyped and touristed) ruins. It is also a pleasant little town if you prefer that to the rush of Bangkok.

One note - we stayed @ the Krungsri River Hotel, which is very convenient to the train station but on the wrong side of the river for the tourist stuff and the restaurants, and the only way across is a giant highway bridge with no sidewalks, thus any time you want to go anywhere you enter the tuk tuk/saamlaw gauntlet - you will have to negotiate the price of a ride. Lots of the guys are fair enough with you but some aren't and this can be stressful wen you just want to get something to eat and wish you cold walk but know you can't. I had an altercation with one guy who told us one price and then asked for almost double when we got to our destination - feigning misunderstanding. After some heated argument we met in the middle and I realized we were fighting over something like US $2, but mostly I resented being taken advantage of.

We came to Lopburi for monkeys and ruins and it did not disappoint. As I was telling Allison to secure all her belongings a monkey ran up and snatched her bag containing a water bottle. He then sat down, unscrewed the cap and drank her remaining water. I tried to get the bottle back from him but he ran off with it, and chewed on it some more. I guess he figured if I wanted it back there must be something good about it. We also got a good meal in Lopburi - duck noodle soup from a street vendor, there were plenty of mystery parts floating in there, some of which I determined to be liver, but still it was delicious.

And while you couldn't describe Thai trains as comfortable, they really aren't that bad either. Aging yes, and on the way back, no AC but not overly crowded, and not full of livestock.

Bangkok is a megalopolis with around 7 million people, but apart from the traffic, it is not nearly as daunting as others (such as Mexico City) because for the most part there are clusters of skyscapers popping up from large expanses of area. But development continues out from the center, seemingly forever.

We took a a couple of different boats (one a scary fast longtail boat and the other a relaxing ferry) to get to the historical district downtown. This was in the thick of summer and Bangkok's weather was typical - brief rain in the morning, and balmy sun for the rest of the day with big fluffy clouds providing a little shade and a spot shower or two. Allison found the heat stifling. I got a hat to cover my freshly shaved head and was comfortable (if profusely sweaty, but that doesn't bother me most of the time). We visited the ornate Grand Palace complex, the giant reclining Buddha at Wat Pho, and the urban crunch of MBK.

A note on green papaya salad (som tam). It sounds delicious, and it can be. But there are whole dried chilis in there. I don't know if you are supposed to eat these, and if so, how, but I (who likes spicy food mind you) tried valiantly to eat this but made myself pretty sick and couldn't even eat whatever noodles I had ordered besides. So I say if you order this, pick those peppers out before you start eating.