Blooming Sunflower Festival and Chiang Rai Flower Festival       Buatong Ban or Blooming Mexican Sunflower Festival is held in November, affording people the opportunity to see the sunflower fields, waterfalls and mist at Ban Hua Mae Kham, Amphoe Mae Fa Luang. There are also hilltribe performances.     Sunflowers have become a popular seasonal attraction in Lop Buri Province, lying 154 kilometers north of Bangkok. Each year, a...

This annual fair is held during April-June to celebrate the abundance of such local fruits as durian, mangosteen and mangoes, then at their peak of succulent pipeness. Besides stalls selling the produce of surrounding orchards and local products, there are colourful processions of floats decorated with fruits and flowers, beauty pageants friuts contests, cultural shows, exhibitions of provincial handicrafts and agricultural produce, and local entertainment. Nonthaburi...

The Wat Phra Kaew or the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the full official name Wat Phra Sri Rattana Satsadaram is regarded as the most important Buddhist temple in Thailand. It is located in the historic center of Bangkok, Phra Nakorn district. The stunning temple was completed two years after the capital was moved from Thonburi to Rattanakosin in 1784 by King Rama I who founded Chakri dynasty. It consists of over a hundred brightly colored buildings, golden spires...

Dream World Dream World is the absolute stuff of kids! You won’t get out of here until they are exhausted… and you know how long that takes! This is a big American-style theme park with all the trimmings. Corkscrew, Bumping Cars, Swinging Viking Boat, Rollercoaster – they are all there, and more besides. My personal favourite is the Giant's House where everything is 50 times as big as it should be – very convincing and it would be an absolutely great place...

The Theravada Buddhist temple is located in the Saiyok district of Thailand's Kanchanaburi province, not far from the border with Myanmar, some 38 km north-west of Kanchanaburi along the 323 highway. It was founded in 1994 as a forest temple and sanctuary for numerous wild animals. In 1995 it received the Golden Jubilee Buddha Image, made of 80 kilograms of gold. According to the abbot and others associated with...

Pai (ปาย) is a small town (pop. 3000) in Mae Hong Son Province, Northern Thailand. It is part of the Mae Hong Son Loop, which is route 1095 fromChiang Mai to Mae Hong Son. The city is named after the Pai river. Pai is a predominantly tourism-oriented town, offering a relaxed atmosphere with a broad traveller and backpacker scene. In early 2006 a sudden boom in guesthouse and bar construction has resulted in a great deal of spare capacity...

Ko Chang (Thai: เกาะช้าง, pronounced [kɔ̀ʔ tɕʰáːŋ], also Koh Chang) is the second largest island of Thailand (largest island in the Ko Chang Marine Park archipelago), located on the Thai east coast 310 km away from Bangkok near the border to Cambodia in the Gulf of Thailand. The name means Elephant Island. Ko Chang was named for the elephant shape of its headland, although elephants are not indigenous...

Hua Hin (Thai: หัวหิน, IPA: [hǔa hǐn]) is a famous beach resort town in Thailand, in the northern part of the Malay Peninsula, some 200 km south of Bangkok. It has a population of 84,883 in an area of 911 km², and is one of eight districts (Amphoe) of the Prachuap Khiri Khan province.Hua Hin is closely associated with the Thai royalty. Merely 25 kilometers apart, Hua Hin in Prachuap Khiri Khan province enjoys a wealth...

Ban Rak Thai (the Thai-loving village) After the Communists took This history of movement and conflict seems all but gone from Mae Aw, but not forgotten, and has in its wake left this quiet Chinese outpost amid boundless tea farms and the whispering pine forest. Because of the altitude and pine forest, things are unusually cool here for Southeast Asia, even during the hot season. The day that I go is a hot day, unusual I am told for Ban Rak Thai. I feel the...