Thailand – Bangkok / Khao Yai Itinerary 2017

Before ushering in a brand new year, Mummy went on a 5D4N trip to Bangkok and Khao Yai to rest and recharge for the upcoming year.

Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand, as a travel destination needs no introduction as it is one of Singaporeans’ favourite destination for shopping and dining. Khao Yai National Park and town is around 2.5 to 3 hours drive from Bangkok (depending on traffic conditions). Its town has gained much popularity in the recent years among travellers. Khao Yai National Park is one of five parks in Dong Payayen – Khao Yai Forest Complex, which was named as a UNESCO natural world heritage site in 2005. The entire forest complex is home to more than 800 species of fauna, 392 bird species and 200 reptile and amphibian species. We did not visit the National Park but spent 2 days in Khao Yai, exploring the town and its attractions.

Day 1:

Reach Bangkok in the evening. After checking-in, we walked over to MBK center for some shopping and dining. MBK Center (Mah Boon Krong Center) is a large 8-stories high shopping mall with around 2,000 retail outlets and restaurants. While shopping here, don’t forget to bargain for everything.

Overnight in Hua Chang Heritage Hotel.

Day 2:

We left Bangkok for Khao Yai early in the morning before sunrise at 6am. Along the way, we made a pit stop for breakfast but still managed to reach Khao Yai in good time by 9am.

The Bloom by TV Pool

We first visited The Bloom and spent a pleasant 2 hours walking around the place enjoying the landscaped garden. The Bloom by TV Pool in Khao Yai is the biggest flower garden in Thailand with an area of 100 rai (16 hectares). Located on the Pak Chong side of Khao Yai National Park, the garden has over 30 species of temperate flowers.

PB Valley Khao Yai Vineyard and Winery

Next we visited PB Valley Khao Yai Vineyard and Winery for lunch and a guided tour around the winery and vineyard. PB Valley Vineyard is the largest vineyard in the Thailand’s Khao Yai region. Named after its founder, Mr. Piya Bhirombhakdi and opened in 1997, its winery is said to be the largest in South East Asia, with a total of 150,000 liters of wine produced every year.

Primo Piazza

The third attraction we visited on Day 2 was Primo Piazza, where the buildings are Italian-inspired, creating a Mediterranean atmosphere.

Rai Manesorn Sunflower Field

In the late afternoon, we visited Rai Manesorn sunflower field in Pak Chong. Khao Yai sunflower fields are blooming with yellow flowers at this time of the year. We enjoyed soaking in the atmosphere provided by the sprawling flower fields.

Overnight in Escape Khao Yai Hotel.

Day 3:

Jim Thompson Farm

The first part of Day 3 was spent traveling to and from Jim Thompson Farm and within the farm. Jim Thompson Farm is a popular agro and eco tourist attraction in Thailand. Since it is open only in December and January so we thought we should make a trip there to see what’s the fuss about. The car ride took around 2 hours per way; a good stretch of it was along a single lane bumpy road. Jim Thompson Farm has five attraction zone with varied and interesting offerings. This coupled with its limited opening period are the reasons why throngs of visitors swarm the place when it is open.

Granmonte Vineyard

After a late lunch, we made a brief trip to Granmonte Vineyard. Granmonte Vineyard is another popular vineyard in Khao Yai that is open to the public. It was not as crowded as PB Valley, which we visited the preceding day. We were even offered a place on their vineyard and winery tour as we entered. But having toured PB valley, we decided against taking another tour. We did some shopping in Granmonte’s gift shop and found that the prices here are slightly steeper than PB Valley’s.

En-route to Saraburi sunflower fields, we stopped briefly at Dairy Farm and Shop.

As we reached Saraburi in the late afternoon, our driver stopped at the first sunflower field we saw. Having seen the sprawling Khao Yai sunflower field at Pak Chong the day before, this particular Saraburi sunflower field looked less extensive in comparison. The flowers also seemed to be at the tail end of their bloom. And quite surprisingly, there were no one in the field as well. When we enquiries about the other sunflower fields in Saraburi, our driver told us they were similar, we therefore decided not to tour the fields but head back to Bangkok.

Overnight in The Berkeley Hotel Pratunam.

Day 4:

Shopping Day

It’s shopping, shopping and more shopping on our last full day in Bangkok and we ended up with no time for any re-visit of the city’s major attractions. We did some serious mall-hopping and bargain-hunting from The Platinum Fashion Mall to CentralWorld, then on to MBK Center before heading to Big C Supercenter.

Platinum Fashion Mall is a 6-stories high mall with 1300 shops specialising in fashion clothes and accessories retail and wholesale. CentralWorld is the tenth largest shopping complex in the world with 50,000 square metres of mall space and 1,024,000 square metres in total when the hotel and office towers are included. Big C is one of Thailand’s biggest hypermart operator. The Big C Supercenter at Ratchadamri store stocks fresh produce, grocery, household items, home appliances and discount fashion. There are also other shops, dining outlets and services in the building.

Overnight in The Berkeley Hotel Pratunam.

Day 5:
Made a last ditch attempt to spend off our Thai bahts at Pratunam Wholesale market. It is Thailand’s largest clothing market and opens from as early as 4.30am. The shops are lined along small alleys and can get warm and crowded but there are chances of getting good bargains. Wholesale prices are usually offered only if you buy a few pieces.

Head for home on a noon flight.

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More Information on Khao Yai Trip Planning

Much of Khao Yai town is still quite inaccessible. As such, we took a standard 2-day taxi service within Khao Yai and added on transport to and from Bangkok. The taxi service cost us 7,700 baht, inclusive of a 500 baht additional charge for return travel to Jim Thompson Farm. This gave us the flexibility to hop on and off the taxi, decide where to go and how long to stay at each place. We were also lucky to meet a friendly driver who, though can only speaks limited English, is good-humoured and suggested the sequence of visits as we went along.

If you are keen on flowers, December will be a good month to visit Khao Yai and it nicely coincides with Singapore school holidays. The sunflower season in Khao Yai usually starts in November and ends around January or February, depending on the weather. Jim Thompson Farm is open only for a few weeks in December to January.

A 2-days stay in Khao Yai is too tight to visit all their attractions at a comfortable and relaxing pace. We did not manage to visit all the popular attractions in Khao Yai during our 2 days in the town, preferring to spend more time in those we visited. Hopefully some time in the future I can re-visit the place with the little ones. Watch this space for more about the individual attractions.

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Here’s a quick recap of our itinerary for our 5D4N trip to Bangkok and Khao Yai:
Day 1: Reach Bangkok
Day 2: Khao Yai – The Bloom, PB Valley Vineyard and Winery, Primo Piazza, Rai Manesorn Sunflower Fields
Day 3: Khao Yai – Jim Thompson Farm
Day 4: Shopping and Dining in Bangkok
Day 5: Head for home

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How much did I spend on a trip like this?

Travelling during Christmas peak period, I ended up spending more on this trip at S$910 per person, excluding souvenirs and gifts. Here’s the cost breakdown:

• Air Ticket: S$420
• Accommodation: S$250
• Transport: S$120
• Meals: S$85
• Admission: S$35
• Total Cost: S$910

What was included?

• The main cost came from the air ticket; we took Singapore Airlines instead of low cost carrier.
• We skipped a couple of meals during the trip. Otherwise, we had our meals in mass market eateries and restaurants.
• Transport-wise, we took public transport in Bangkok but hired a 2-day taxi service for Khao Yai.
• We took BTS Skytrain from airport to city centre upon arrival and cab to airport on departure.
• Hotel-wise, I managed to get promotional room rates during sales on hotel booking platforms. We took a Deluxe Room plus extra bed (for 3 adults) at Hua Chang Heritage Hotel (4-star) and Escape Khao Yai Hotel (4-star), and a Family Premier room at The Berkeley Hotel Pratunam (5-star)