Rides in Thailand

Rides in Thailand come on four kinds of vehicle. The tuk-tuk is Bangkok's: evening routes climb the Golden Mount at Wat Saket, a hill crowned by a chedi gilded in the nineteenth century, then cut through Chinatown to Pak Khlong Talat, the flower market that never closes and is busiest before dawn. Chiang Mai's circuit is slower and daylight: Wat Phra Singh, then the Three Kings Monument, raised in 1983 for the rulers who founded the city in 1296. The sky offers balloons at sunrise over Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. Off-road means quad bikes, with tracks around the hill of Phuket's 45-metre Big Buddha, in the hills of Krabi and through Koh Samui's coconut plantations, where open 4x4s also reach waterfalls. Outside the cities, Muang Boran is an open-air park of replica monuments in Samut Prakan, reached from Bangkok by BTS Skytrain.

Lengths are short. A quad ride runs from one hour to three, a night tuk-tuk circuit three to four, a balloon morning about two to three including transfers, and a Samui jeep safari five to seven. Full-day Phang Nga packages tie quad bikes to rafting and zipline in nine or ten hours, and some add an elephant ride. Welfare groups advise against riding elephants, and the same days run without it. Tuk-tuk tours go private or in small groups; most quad and jeep days are shared.

Practical. Bangkok reaches 33C in January and 36C in April, which is why the tuk-tuk circuits run at night. Balloons fly from November to February and stand down in wind. Smoke around Chiang Mai thickens from February to April. Phuket sits near 33C in January and 31C in September, the wettest stretch being August to October, when quad tracks turn to mud. Closed shoes and trousers you can ruin suit every off-road day.