Never having visited Thailand, this Odyssey travel package seemed to my wife and myself to be an ideal way to obtain a first impression of this popular Asian country. After signing up and arranging our flights we took off in early February for two nights in Bangkok, four in Chiang Mai and four in Phuket. We were a little nervous about the Bangkok stay as the day after our arrival coincided with the much publicized government elections. With this in mind we organized a day trip which took us out of the city to visit a floating market and the famous tiger temple, an excursion that we thoroughly enjoyed.<\/p>\n
As it turned out, we need not have been concerned as the elections were conducted in a peaceful and orderly manner with none of the outbreaks of violence that had been reported in the press over previous days. Coupled with the fact that our hotel was some way out of the center of the city, we actually saw and heard very little associated with the voting.<\/p>\n
Bangkok itself is a big and busy city that is not conducive to the type of tourist wanderings that my wife and I enjoy. As we are not into \u201cretail therapy\u201d we were not at all unhappy to leave after just two days for the more peaceful surroundings of Chiang Mai and the lovely Karma Royal Bella Vista Resort. Situated in the mountains behind the city of Chiang Mai, the resort is about a thirty minute drive from the town centre and in a secluded and isolated rural setting. Ideal for a quiet and restful stay, this is not what we had in mind so we were thankful for the efficient and well-organized shuttle service that ran from the resort to the city. Although not free, the rates were reasonable and the drivers were charming and prompt at all times.<\/p>\n
Chiang Mai and Bangkok are like chalk and cheese! In Chiang Mai we were able to wander around the city to our heart\u2019s delight, enjoying the many wonderful temples, the cafes, bars and restaurants and the famous and popular night markets in the old part of the city. We spent one morning riding mountain bikes through the villages and countryside around Chiang Mai \u2013 challenging for 68 year olds but a great way to see how the people lived and worked outside of the town. No doubt a major highlight of our stay here was an excursion that took us bamboo rafting down the river to an elephant farm where we watched the elephants perform and then traveled back by elephant to our starting point.<\/p>\n
All too soon our stay in Chiang Mai came to an end and we flew down to the Odyssey Lighthouse Lagoon Villas in Phuket. Once again, the resort is located some way from the center of action and on the opposite side of the island to the famous Patong Beach. The villas are exceptionally spacious and well equipped, however, being two stories with bedrooms on the top level and a commodious kitchen and living area below. There is a nice pool in the resort and a number of different restaurants within the complex ( nothing in the surrounding environment outside the confines of the resort though). We took a motor boat trip to swim and snorkel around Phi Phi island one day and also used the taxi shuttle service to visit the popular beaches on the west side of the island for a swim and a massage.<\/p>\n
No trip to Phuket is complete without a visit to the (in)famous bar and club environment behind Patong Beach and a boisterous and eye-opening evening was spent from the safety of a number of kerbside bars observing the ping pong ball spiffs at work, the \u201clady boys\u201d on display and the fascinating passing parade of visitors from all walks of life and all around the world.<\/p>\n
In what seemed almost the blink of an eyelid our ten days was at an end! The trip had been most enjoyable with good accommodation in Chiang Mai and Phuket and efficient and friendly service from the Odyssey staff. Although we arrived home and our luggage did not arrive until three days later, this was no reflection on the Odyssey team and did not detract from what was a great exposure to the delights that Thailand has to offer.<\/p>\n
John and Felicity Woods<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Never having visited Thailand, this Odyssey travel package seemed to my wife and myself to be an ideal way to obtain a first impression of this popular Asian country. After signing up and arranging our flights we took off in early February for two nights in Bangkok, four in Chiang Mai and four in Phuket. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[944,221,220,89,946,1071,68,222,417,942,122,945,37,98,943,924,364,54,100,462],"class_list":["post-348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-karma-postcards"],"acf":{"image":false,"name_title":"John Woods","join_title":"Part of Karma Group since 2009"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmagroup.com\/karma-moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmagroup.com\/karma-moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmagroup.com\/karma-moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmagroup.com\/karma-moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmagroup.com\/karma-moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/karmagroup.com\/karma-moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3901,"href":"https:\/\/karmagroup.com\/karma-moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions\/3901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karmagroup.com\/karma-moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmagroup.com\/karma-moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmagroup.com\/karma-moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karmagroup.com\/karma-moments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}