Hello

I am brand new to this site, my name's Jess. I 'm an Aussie but have been working in Europe since January. My boyfriend and i are planning on spending two weeks in Thailand in September on our way home (1st-15th) and i am sooo totally overl oaded with information that is of absolutly no use to me. I think i have googled every possible combination of 'thailand+backpack+islands+monsoon season+blah blah blah'. So this is the end of the line, if i can't find any helpful info here then i think we will just turn up in bankok and see what happens. But i have been checking out this forum and you guys know what you are talking about, so if there is one place where i can get some good info then this is deffinetly it. I have a few questions already...and really, any advice you can give me is appriciated soooooo very very much.

1.We are thinking of doing a week in Bangkok first, what are some must see's? I def want to do a lot of shopping and loooove markets. What are some good day trips out of the city?

2.we want to spend the second week on an island, it will be in the off (or low?) season (i think...i am not even sure of that!) and we want to find somewhere kind of quiet and very relaxed with reasonably cheap accomodation (max 1300bahts). Mainly we want to avoid really touristed areas but dont want to feel totally isolated. Seeing as i want to spend most of my week on it a decent beach is kind of important to me and it would be cool to do some snorkelling...although i wont go diving, tried that on the great barrier reef and totally freaked out, too claustrophobic or something.

Well i think that is more than enough questions for my first every post!!!

Thanks for you time,

Jess