Typical highway town inThailand
To the foreign
and Thai visitor, southern Thailand has a lot to offer: lush tropical
islands, dazzling palm-fringed beaches, coral reefs teeming
with colorful marine life, picturesque fishing villages with distinctive
hand-painted boats, steep but not necessarily high hills that
could be defined as enormous rocks, often more than 100
meters high spread through plains of rice fields, numerous
caves (many of them of religious significance), waterfalls,
remote National Parks (16 all in all), scenic wildlife
sanctuaries, historic cities and the juxtaposition of Buddhist
temples and Islamic mosques.
By far the
most famous destination is the island of Phuket, with a
well developed touristic infrastructure and its own international
airport. For the more hippie type of travelers, Ko Samui
has long been a favorite destination. But more and more other
destinations, such as Krabi Province, have been discovered
in recent years by those visitors to the Kingdom who like places
where tourists are not as massed as on Phuket. For visitors from
Malaysia and Singapore, Hat Yai is a well established destination
though traditionally not for the (non-existent) beauty of the
place but rather the nightlife.
Geographically,
southern Thailand extends through the Kra Isthmus from
Chumphon, 460km south of Bangkok, to the Thai-Malaysian
border. To the east is the Gulf of Thailand, to the west the
Andaman Sea of the Indian Ocean.
Additional
information on South Thailand:
Regional Division
Landscape
Economy
Cha-am
Hua Hin
Khao Sam Roi Yod National Park
Prachuap Khiri Khan
Ranong
Phang Nga
Phang Nga Bay National Park
Phuket
Krabi
Phi Phi Islands
Ko Samui
Ang Thong Marine National Park
Additional information on Thailand:
Travel
Information
Bangkok
Central
Thailand
North
Thailand
South
Thailand