First thing to know. If you fly into Bangkok Aiport (AKA Suvarnabhumi Airport), then you are about an hours taxi drive from much of interest. Fortunately that taxi drive is relatively cheap (around 400baht/£8GBP/$12USD).

The first half of Thailand was not much fun for me. We met up with another friend (Charlie) on Kao San Road. This road is backpackers central. If you ever get lost in Bangkok, this is the place you want to be. We spent a few days here which consisted mainly of drinking, smoking, and charlie getting dreadlocks.
We then utilized a series of tuk tuks, taxis, and the sky train to travel to Nana, in central Bangkok. We stayed in a very nice hostel which was very cheap, and very comfortable (including awesome aircon, and free breakfast. Check it out: Suk 11.

At this point doing nothing, and doing nothing was getting tedious. I did not travel half way around the world to drink, and smoke on a rooftop, and then sleep all day. Eventually I got off my arse and went off alone.
Tip Travel alone. It took me a few weeks to work it out.. a few weeks of feeling shit. I took the plunge, and had an awesome time. Being alone means you HAVE to meet people, and most of the time you meet many more, and significantly more interesting people than those you are with.

In Bangkok I visited the Golden Palace, and saw the Golden Buddha. These are MUST see things. I met up with some mates from home and experienced the nightlife too. Nana plaza is a fun night out… 3 floors of strip clubs… we found a little haunt on the 3rd floor with a bucking bronco and hot thai strippers doing unspeakable things to one another in return for ping pong balls.

N.B This is NOT the infamous ping pong show. I never went, and I advise you dont… Sounds rough.

Fun Tip: Ping pong balls are essentially tips for thai strippers… they have some arrangement with their employers.
Fun Tip?: You can buy almost any local woman in Thailand (as sad as that may be)

I headed down to the Koh Phangan for the infamous Full Moon Party. I went with Andy & Charlie, although I essentially did it on my own. The day before the party we went to Mushroom mountain which sells what it sounds like it sells. This was an experience for me, but not so much because of the bad company.
The day of the party put simply, got very drunk very early, was sick….. so I got straight back on the booze ! Danced with a Thai girl, and at around 2am heard those dreaded words “Tom, That is a man !”. Now in my defence it was NOT, I did my checks… but it still scared me shitless.
I passed out at 4am, and woke up at 9am with people dancing around me. I to this day do not know how, but I still had all my possessions on me…

Tip: Do the following tests with any thai ‘woman’ (better to be safe than sorry). Adams apple?, Voice?, Big Hands?, Big Feet?, Hairy?, BALLS?!

After the party I went off alone (for real). I went up North to Had Yao: the most idyllic beach I have ever seen. 1 mile of golden sand, lined with little beach huts, and gorgeous warm blue sea. Fresh seafood barbecques every night, awesome people, and awesome bars. Out of anywhere in the world, you HAVE to go here.

Top Moment: Being propositioned by a 60 odd year old Sweedish woman to pretend I was her lover to annoy her friends.

I headed to the port on Koh Phangan for Songkran: Thai new year. They celebrate it with a massive waterfight.. literally everyone on the island meets here, and anialates each other with water (hot + freezing). The children like to come around and put deep heat on your face to burn you ! An amazing experience.

Top Moment: A woman in an armani dress walking down the street exclaiming “I am not playing”. Stupid !

After this I headed over to Koh Samui for a music festival. Long story short… as I had lost my wallet in HK, my parents were sending money by Moneygram. I did not realise that all the banks were closed on Songkran, and thus It was not fun on an island you do not know, with no money. The music festival was not great.

After this I headed over to Phuket. I did a tour, and visited some awesome places including James bond island. There are an abundance of awesome islands to visit around here including Phi Phi island (from ‘The Beach’).

In Thailand, I did 3 main areas. To get between them I went on bus/boat. Buses are cheap, but painful. 17 hours on a bus with no air conditioning, no legroom, nasty toilets etc sucks. You can talk to the people… but try talking to the same people for 17 hours. Id do a 5 hour bus just for the conversation, but 17 is too much.
From Koh Phangan to Phuket was meant to be a 7 hour bus. The Thai are BAD with timings. It took 14+. Now all I will say… after about 5 hours I got the most horrendous abdominal pains (food poisoning). Be careful… the driver spoke no English, and did not understand ‘Toilet’. That journey sucked.

Tip: On the topic of food poisoning.. people warn you to be careful with Thai street food. It is nice. Do you due diligence, and you should be fine. I got food poisoning off McDonalds…. put it that way.

Thai scams are pretty common. They are not the most integral people in the world. Thus a few things to be aware of.
- If you rent a motorbike and/or car be very careful. They often take your passport as deposit, and then wont return it until you pay vast sums of money claiming you scratched/broke various parts.
- In taxis demand a set price before hand, and haggle for your life. With meters they rip you off… they drive you around the block 10 times etc etc
They don’t like set prices but it saves you a lot of money. We mastered haggling.
- Be careful. There is a lot of collaboration with the police. Do NOT buy drugs. People sell it to you, phone up the cops. You get imprisoned, and an extortionate fine.. the seller gets his drugs back and a commission !!

If I was going to Thailand again, Id spend my whole time on the beaches of Koh Phangan. Im serious.