Thailand is a great place to visit. Probably the easiest to visit too. Their transportation system is fairly well organized and the main city Bangkok is great for anyone trying to find a bargain on expensive knock off items (most seem to be the exact same, just not sold in that particular store). There were so many markets and shopping malls you could easily lose yourself in. The country side is quite a nice contrast to the hussle and bussle of the city. We checked out Ko Samui and island on the gulf coast of southern Thailand which was very nice, however we did not get to explore it as much as we'd liked to due to health issues. There are many islands to explore all over thailand, we figure the more secluded the better. Kanchanaburi is also a big touristy place to visit, however unlike Bali and Cambodia, Thais seem to take holidays too and we were able to see the them relaxing and enjoying the natural beauty that surrounds Thailand.
Bangkok
Bangkok was a pretty good city with lots of charm, markets, shopping centres, Buddhist Wats, tuk tuks, taxis and traffic everywhere and very spread out with many temples with a fairly nice architecture, just like any other nice city really. There were 7-11's and McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, Pizza Huts everywhere. Bangkok was best for shopping for the new and trendy things but at low prices, most things were knock offs, but you either couldn't tell the difference or they were the real thing, just not sold in the 'real stores'. (there were the expensive same old mall type places with all the high end, (no knock-offs) stuff, but why bother going there if you can find that stuff anywhere in the world?
We used Bangkok as our base, and during one of our few stop-overs we checked out the Grand Palace. Since it is a Buddhist temple and many people are there on pilgrimage, it is required that men and women wear long pants and arm covering shirts, just our luck we picked quite possibly the hottest day visit. We checked out the infamous Emerald Buddha, although couldn't get that close or take pictures. Steph met a young Laotian novice who was there on pilgrimage. They had a good conversation, and he was most interested to know how many sons we had, we had disappointed him when we informed him we had none, however he said he was very happy to have met us and hopes we can one day visit him in Vientiene. We said there is always a possibility. From the Grand Palace, where Dave got into a small altercation with the supervisor of palace (you are not allowed to re-enter once you have left, and we had missed a key sight to see), anyway the matter was solved when we ignored the supervisors instructions and re-entered through the "do not enter" area. You might be thinking, how cheeky of them, but there were guards there and they said nothing at all, had they stopped they would have of course complied. From the Grand Palace we headed to Chinatown, where we walked through the Thieves Market, any electronic item you can imagine in available there. The one downside to the market is you are jammed in there with all the people and it is impossible to move. We also checked out the Chatuchat (sic) [spelt and pronounced many different ways] market, with over 15,000 stalls. It was amazing, we never thought that we would say it but it was too overwhelming to shop.