Photo Credit: Getty Images

EAT

Baan Khanitha and Gallery
69 South Sathorn Road
Sathorn, Bangkok
www.baan-khanitha.com

Art and food harmonize in this “home-style restaurant and gallery,” opened a decade ago by former fashion designer Khanitha Akaranitikul. The cuisine served in the ground-floor restaurant, much like the traditional hardwood décor, focuses less on flash than taste, while the gallery upstairs hosts exhibitions by local and foreign artists. There is, however, no restraint in the breadth of their wine selection.

SLEEP

The Davis
88 Sukhumvit 24
Klongteoy, Bangkok
www.davisbangkok.net

Billing itself as “the first boutique hotel in Bangkok,” the Davis is indeed a unique experience. Sixty percent of its rooms are individually designed—mostly in a traditional-modern hybrid—and in addition to its Main Wing and budget-conscious Corner Wing, it also offers ten Thai-syle villas in a sort of miniature village that will quickly make you forget you’re in a hectic city of nine million people.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

SHOP

Pahurat Textile Market
Pahurat Districtr, Bangkok
The market is located on Pahurat Road, across the street from the Old Siam Plaza.

Known as “Little India,” this indoor textile market is Bangkok’s largest—and thus, your best option for buying wholesale Thai fabrics. You’re likely to get lost in its dizzying, colorful pathways. There is, of course, much more on offer than textiles, including accessories, footwear, and the ubiquitous pirated DVDs. As always, be sure to take your time to comparison shop. Haggling is a fine art here.


Sop Moei Arts
150/10 Chareonrajd Road, Watgate
Muang, Chiang Mai
www.sopmoeiarts.com

Though Sop Moei Arts also has a store in the capital, their Chiang Mai shop is worth the trek, as its larger showroom allows them to display woven baskets, giant cushions, silk bedspreads and intricate wall hangings that wouldn’t fit in their Bangkok location. What’s more, your purchase helps support this non-profit organization’s efforts to develop sustainable incomes for the craftspeople in the surrounding, impoverished villages.

SEE

Koh Lipe
www.kohlipethailand.com

In a country as popular with travelers as Thailand, it’s not easy to get away from it all, but the island of Koh Lipe, in the Andaman Sea near the Tarutao National Marine Park, comes close. There are no cars and no ATMs, and some of the hotels and restaurants shut down during the low season (May - October), but its four unspoiled beaches and ample marine life make this a spot worth visiting any time of the year.


Sbun Nga Textile Museum
Old Chiang Mai Cultural Centre
185/20 Wualai Rd.
Muang, Chiang Mai
www.chiangmaichimes.com/museums-chiang-mai/sbun-nga-textile-museum.html

Sbun Nga houses perhaps the most impressive textile collection in the country, with over 1,000 ethnic articles spread throughout five rooms. Amassed over twenty years by Khun Akadet Nakbunlung, the collection includes pieces from Burma, Laos, Vietnam, China and of course Thailand, including shirts with mystical prints worn by Lanna soldiers centuries ago.


Nan Province

Sometimes referred to as the “virgin province” because it’s relatively untrammeled by tourists, Nan is a largely rural region home to several hill tribes and an unrelenting natural beauty. The town of the same name, meanwhile, has the best regional museum in the country (the recently renovated Nan National Museum), a wealth of textile shops, and the Nan Art Gallery.