Thailand - Beauty Spa

Take a Dose of Healthy Tourism

Thailand has become the fountainhead of the spa business in Southeast Asia. Most of the country’s major hotels have a spa, where you can opt for everything from facial treatments to holistic treatments, based on traditional Asian methods of healing, which strike a balance between the physical and spiritual. Many of these spas are opulently appointed with art and antiques to help rejuvenate all of your senses.

What’s more, plenty of people come to Thailand to get their teeth done (yes, there’s even a dental spa in Bangkok, too) because, for the fraction of the price in the West, they can enjoy quality dentistry and then use the savings to bankroll the rest of their vacation.

As obesity, stress and a lack of physical exercise claim more and more lives each year, good health has become a matter of life and death. No wonder so many tourists are choosing health-conscious holidays. These might entail a week-long fasting and colonics program on a tropical island; or working in some spa treatments after doses of sightseeing; or making sure your hotel has a decent gym and pool to keep yourself in good shape.

These days, holidays are not just exercises in gluttony and sloth. (Read More about Spa in Thailand)

Mango

thai mango with vanilla ice cream at the side

Thai food

Real Thai food...in Thailand...mmm.

Top left: Pad Thai

Top center: Papaya Salad

Top right: Fish CakesCenter left: Seafood Fried Rice (at back: Pork Leg Rice)

Center center: Rad-Nar (thick rice noodles in sauce)

Center right: Dessert (see description in earlier photo)

Bottom left: Chicken Rice with the best damn dipping sauce on the planet

Bottom center: Sticky rice in bamboo containers

Bottom right: Laab (spicy shredded pork)

Bangkok Food & Drink

Like just about any big city, Bangkok is home to restaurants, bars and pubs of just about every type, size or description. You'll find a lot of Thai restaurants of course, representing all the major regional variations of Thai cuisine, plus most of the popular world foods like Italian, German, Indian, Japanese, etc. The bar scene is something for which Bangkok is famous, if not infamous.

Restaurants

Bangkok is home to an amazing range of restaurants representing all the world's major cuisines. Single outlet 'mom and pop' restaurants tend to come and go as styles -- or rents -- change, so we avoid listing them here. Several listings magazines, some of which are free, are available at many hotels and other tourist venues around town. Check these out for ideas on the current best places to eat in Bangkok.

Restaurant Chains

Thailand has its own home-grown national chains -- in addition to the international fast food franchises -- with branches in most major shopping malls around Bangkok. The food is generally of a high standard and these places often make a good place for a quick meal, plus you can always be sure they'll have a menu in English.

Black Canyon

Thailand's largest restaurant chain, Black Canyon has over 150 branches nationwide. Most branches are located in shopping centers, and they also have kiosks in many Skytrain stations in Bangkok. Black Canyon is mainly know for its extensive menu of coffees, but also serves a full food menu in most branches. In 1999 they introduced a new "fusion" menu with dishes that combine the tastes of East and West.

Daidomon

A Thai take on Japanese barbecue, these restaurants feature tables with their own small grills on which you cook your own meats and vegetables using fresh ingredients you select from the menu.

MK Suki

Although Thais call it suki, its more and adaptation of Japanese shabu shabu. Each table will have a small electric pan which is filled with a light chicken stock. You then add whatever meats and vegetables suit your fancy. This is definitely something a little different for most westerners, and it's a good choice for larger groups. Most shopping centers will have an MK Suki branch.

S & P Restaurants

S&P offers a large menu of standard Thai dishes that are well suited to western palates. The food is good if not very special. You'll find S&P restaurants all over Thailand, mostly in major shopping centers.

13 Coins

A small chain of diners with an extensive menu of Thai and western dishes. Some branches in shopping centers, but also many branches in out of the way roadside locations. These often have a "roadhouse" feel to them.

Joom Saap / Barbecue Plaza

Most locations combine two styles in one place. Joom Saap is a shabu shabu concept along the lines of MK Suki, although the stock provided has more herbs and spices than MK, making it one of our favorites. Barbecue Plaza is similar to Daidomon, in that you cook your order on a hot metal dome at your table.

Bars and Pubs

Bangkok is full of bars, pubs and nightclubs of just about every size and description. In local terms, a bar serves only drinks and any food is usually limited to snacks, while a pub serves cooked food in addition to mixed drinks. Some pubs are more popular for their food than for their drinks.
Like restaurants, drinking establishments tend to come and go as trends change, although there are several old 'institutions' around town. The list below is the result of suggestions submitted by our visitors. If you would like to suggest a site for inclusion here, please use our site suggestion form.

Q Bar Bangkok

"The undisputed heart of this party city, Bangkok Thailand, Q Bar has ushered in a new standard for bars and nightclubs in South East Asia. Located on Sukhumvit Road, Soi 11 Q bar hosts the largest selection of spirits and cocktails in Bangkok. The resident DJ's spin the latest grooves from around the world, such as House music, Hip-hop, chill out lounge, and Soulful Jazz. All packed into a New York lounge style atmosphere with a retro 1960s decor. Nightlife in Bangkok will never be the same."

Phang-Nga

Phang-Nga is a primarily agricultural province in the south of Thailand. The chief cash crop is rubber, and rubber plantations cover a considerable area, especially noticeable along the roads. Aside from that, however, large areas are also given to food crops; considerable amounts of rice, vegetables and fruits are produced in Phang-Nga. The Phang-Nga province has and area of 4,170 sq. kms., a large part of which is forest.

Boundaries
The North Phang-Nga adjourns Ranong Province and Surat Thani Province.
The South Phang-Nga adjourns Phuket Province and the Andaman Sea.
The East Phang-Nga, Surat Thani Province and Krabi Province.
The West Phang-Nga adjourns the Andaman Sea.

Krabi

Krabi is a southern province on Thailand's Andaman seaboard with perhaps the country's oldest history of continued settlement. After dating stone tools, ancient colored pictures, heads, pottery and skeletal remains found in the province's many cliffs a caves, it is thought that Krabi has been home to homo sapiens since the period 25,000-35,000 B.C. In recorded times it was called the 'Ban Thai Samor', and was one of twelve towns that used, before people were widely literate, the monkey for their standard. At that time, c.1200 A.D.,Krabi was tributary to the Kingdom of Ligor, a city on the Kra Peninsula's east coast better known today as Nakorn Sri Thammarat. At the start of the Rattanakosin period, about 200 years ago,when the capital was finally settled at Bangkok, an elephant kraal was established in Krabi by order of Jao Praya Nakorn(Noy),the Rajah of Nakorn Sri Thammarat,which was by then a part of the Thai Kingdom.He sent his vizier, the Pra Palad to oversee this task,which was to ensure a regular supply of elephants for the larger town, So many emigrated in the steps of the PRA Palad that soon Krabi had a large4 community in three different boroughs:Pakasai, Klong Pon,and Pak Lao. In 1872,King Chulalongkorn graciously elevated these to town status, called Krabi, a ward that preserves in its meaning the monkey symbolism of the old standard. The town's first governor was Luang Tehp Sena, though it continued a while as a dependency of Nakorn Sri Thammarat, This was changed in 1875, when Krabi was raised to a fourth level town in the old system of Thai government in Bangkok, and Krabi's history as a unique entity, separate from the other provinces, had begun.

During the present reign, the corps of civil servants, the merchants, and the population generally of Krabi and nearby provinces have together organized construction of a royal residence at Laem Hahng Nak Cape for presentation to Her Majesty the Queen. This lies thirty kilometers to the west of Krabi Town on the Andaman coast.

Present Day Government

Krabi is divided into eight districts: Muang(Krabi Town),Kao Panom, Klong Tom,Plai Praya,Koh Lanta,Ao Luk,Lam Tap,and Neua Klong.

Size, Location, and Boundaries

Krabi is on the Andaman Sea coast west Thailand,between 7'30" and 8'30" north latitude, and 98'30" and 99'30" west longitude, Total area is 4,709 square kilometers bounded thus:

On the North: Lie Phang-nga and Suratthani Provinces .
On the South: Lie Trang Province and the Andaman Sea
On the East : Lie Trang and Nikon Sri Thammarat Provinces
On the West: Lie Phang-nga Province and the Andaman Sea

Population

Krabi's estimated population,as of 30 July 1998,was 368,249.

Geography

Krabi's mountainous physical geography is broken by highlands and plains on the mainland; the provincial administration also covers more than 130 islands big and small in the Andaman. Natural forest cover is chiefly mangrove and Cassia trees. Krabi's sandy clay soil conditions are perfect for a variety of agricultural products, including; Rubber trees, palms,oranges, coconuts, and coffee The Krabi River flows 5 Kilometers through the city and falls into the Andaman at Tambon Pak Nam. There are other streams as well: The Klong Pakasai; the Klong Krabi Yai; and the Klong Krabi Noy; these have their source in the province' shighest range of mountains, the Kao Panom Benja.

Climate

Weather in Krabi is typically that of the tropical monsoon, providing the province with just tow seasons, the hot season from November to April, and the rainy season from May to October. Moms winds, which change according to season, blow from the southeast, the southwest, and the northeast. Temperatures for the year range between 16.9 and 37.3 degrees Celsius; yearly rainfall averages 2,568.5 Millimeters.

Phuket Island

Phuket Island has a long recorded history, and remains dating back to AD 1025 indicate the island's present day name derives in meaning from the Thamil manikram, or crystal mountain. For most of history, however,it was known as Junk Ceylon,which,with variations,is the name found on old maps. The name is thought to have its roots in Ptolemy's Geographic, written by the Alexandrian geographer in the third Century AD He mentioned that in making a trip from suwannapum to Malay Peninsula it was necessary to pass the cape of Jong Si Lang.

Phuket was a way station on the route between India and China where seafarers stopped to shelter. The island appears to have been part of Shivite empire (call in Thai the Tam Porn Ling) that established itself on the Malay Peninsula during the first millennium AD Later, as Muang Takua-Talang, it was part of Srivichai and Siri Tahm empire. Governed as the eleventh in a constellation of twelve cities, Phuket's emblem,by which it was known to others in those largely preliterate times, was the dog.

During the sukothai Period Phuket was associated with Takua Pah in what is now Phang-nga Province, another area with vast tin reserves. The Dutch established a trading post during the Ayuthaya Period in the 16th Cent. The island's northern and western parts were given over to the tin trade, a concession in the hands of foreigners.

After Ayuthaya was sacked by the Burmese in 1767 there was a short interregnum in Thailand, ended by King Taksin, who drive out the Burmese and reunified the country. The Burmese, however, were anxious to return to the offensive. They outfitted a fleet to raid the southern provinces, and carry off the populations to slavery in Burma. This led to Phuket's most memorable historic event. A passing sea captain, Francis Light, sent word that the Burmese were en route to attack. Forces in Phuket were assembled led by the two heroines, Kunying Jan, wife of Phuket's recently deceased governor, and her sister Mook. After a month's siege the Burmese were forced to depart on 13 March, 1785.Kunying Jan and her sister were credited with the successful defense.

In recognition King Rama I bestowed upon Kunying Jan the honorific Thao Thep Kasarti, a title of nobility usually reserved for royalty, by which she is known today. Her sister become Thao Sri Suntorn. During the Nineteenth Century Chinese immigrants arrived in such numbers to work the tin mines that ethnic character of the island's interior became predominantly Chinese, while the coastal settlements remained populated chiefly by Muslim fishermen. In Rama V's reign, Phuket became the administrative center of a grape of tin mining provinces called Monton Phuket, and in 1993, with the change in government from absolute monarchy to a parliamentary system, the island was established as a province by itself.

Location and Boundaries

Phuket is an island connected by bridges to southern Thailand's Andaman Sea coast, in the Indian Ocean, lying between 7'45" and 8'15" north latitude, Thailand's largest island, Phuket is surrounded by 32 smaller islands that form part of the same administration, with a total area of 570 square kilometers. Measured at its widest point, Phuket is 21.3 kilometers; at its longest, 48.7 kilometers. It is bounded thus:

• On the North: Lies the pak Prah Strait, spanned by two bridges running side-by-side, the older Sarasin Brides ,and the newer Thao Thep Kraratri Bridge.


• On the South: Is the Andaman Sea.


• On the East:Is Ao Phang-nga Bay(In the jurisdiction mainly of Phang-nga Province).


• On the West: Is the Andaman Sea.

Economy

Since the early 1980's the tourist business has been Phuket's chief source of income. Hotels, restaurants, tour companies, and souvenir shops are mach in evidence on the west coast. However, while once all-important tin mining has ceased, tourism is by no means the is land's only activity. Agriculture remains important to a large number of people, and covers by far the most part of the island. Principal crops are rubber, coconuts,cashews,and pineapples. Prawn farming has largely taken over the east and south coasts. Pearl farming is also important. Phuket's fishing port is at all times filled. and processing of marine products,mainly fish,makes a significant contribution to the economy.

With so many healthy industries supplying income, construction has become a major factor in employment. This ranges from massive public works projects, large office buildings and hotels, and housing estates with hundreds of units, down to single family homes, apartments and additions.

Population

Official population as of December 31, 1998, was 231,206. This figure numbers those who are registered as living in Phuket. Phuket's attraction as a center of economic activity has resulted in many living on the island whose registration is elsewhere. The total population of Phuket varies considerably depending on the time of year, though it is never less than the figure given above.

Government

The island is divided into three districts, Talang in the north, Kathu in the west, and Muang in the south. Thailand's system of government relies upon a strong central appointed by the Interior Ministry in Bangkok, as are the Nai Amper, or District Chief. The cities of Phuket and Patong have their own city governments, with elected city councils, the leading members of which serve as mayor. There are also elected provincial, district, and sub district, or Tambon councils. The local constabulary is part of the Interior Ministry.