Thailand Travel Forum

Hi all,

I'm planning on going to Thailand and Malaysia this year, and need some help planning my trip -

1. Anyone has any experience Island hopping in the south end of Thailand ? I was thinking maybe hopping between Thailand and Malaysia, and need advice on how to go about there. Is crossing the border between the countries while Island hopping a problem ?

2. What do you say about the east end of Thailand ? I heard some say it's not safe for tourists. Anyone knows anything about that ?

Thanks !

Andrea

The short answer to your question is NO. Usually not a problem between Malaysia and Thailand. Fastest way is air of course, but a lot of people use the train out of KL or Butterworth into southern Thailand. Then depending on your Thai destination you'll need to take a bus. Transportation in Thailand is pretty reliable and efficient and cheap. As far as safety is concerned, only the deep southern Thailand are they having trouble. I don't believe the insurgents have directly targeted foreign tourist/expats, but should you find yourself in these cities, Hatyai, Songkla, you are always prone to becoming a victim of the random bombings that are going on in public areas. Generally speaking, anything north of these cities are not having any problems. So far I have not heard of any issues with the islands in the south that tourists frequent.
As far as the "east end" of Thailand? not sure where specifically you are talking about, but if you are referring to the Thai/Cambodian border, I have not heard of any problems in the past 20 years that is of any concern. In the old days the Vietnamese army still occupied Cambodia and periodically they would launch spring offensives chasing rebels and would cross over into Thailand. Long time ago!
Good luck and have fun!

the best to cross border between thailand and malaysia by train,,,,u can reach either from bangkok or kuala lupur,,,,u also can cross border by boat from langkawi island to satun,,,,from satun u also can make island trip to the tarutao national park which have koh lipe, koh adang, koh buloh etc,,,,all have trip from pakbara pier in satun.....