1) I believe the train stops around midnight. It is very simple to get a cab from the taxi line at the airport. Just be sure to pick up some baht at the airport

My favorite place to get "street food" is actually on the lower lever of the Siam Paragon Mall. Buy a pre-loaded card near the escalator to purchase your food from the numerous stalls. When you're done, go back and get a refund for any balance on the card. I love the papaya salad & fried chicken at the first stall away from the card booth. The guy pounds it from scratch in a huge mortar while you wait.

3) The boat trip to Battambang is fun, but you'll need to see if the water levels are high enough in March. if not take the bus, as BB is a great town. Even if the water is high enough, you'll only want to do the boat trip once way. Hire a tuk tuk in BB or rent motor bikes to explore the surrounding area.

4) I have Dawn Rooney's book, but I'm so glad I took a guide the first time. I find it hard to get my bearings inside temples, and honestly, a lot of the walls and courtyards look a lot alike! I guess if you'd really studied the book, and created some maps it would work, but even a mediocre guide can at least point out and tell you what you're looking at! A good guide will bring it to life, tieing the various sites together.

1. Take a taxi - it's your honeymoon.
Regarding the food I'm not an expert, but for instance around Khaosan road the food is not bad.

3. I haven't done it, but the area between SR and PP is just plains, not that interesting. And I've read reports of people who got sunburnt while doing this boat trip.

4. In any case you'll need transportation. The best would be to rent a car. A guide is not really necessary and sometimes the driver can act as a guide.

5. I wouldn't rent a car there. It's also more fun to rely on tuk tuks and taxis.

In Krabi town near the jetty in the evening there used to be food stalls (street hawker) making delicious food. Then there was this tourist restaurant preparing these delicious dishes:
http://www.molon.de/galleries/Thailand/Thaifood/
(pics 1-11, I used to eat in this restaurant)
Who knows if the restaurant still exists, it was in Thanon Chao Fa road (near the jetty).

1. I agree - take a taxi from the airport. Easy and pretty cheap - maybe 350 baht - a bit over $10 US.

2. I have no knowledge or experience with Extraordinary Elephants Day Trip out of BKK. But I do know about how elephants are usually treated at tourist attractions. The only elephant camps I would recommend are outside of Chiang Mai - either the Thai Elephant Conservation Center or the Elephant Nature Park. If elephants are really important to you, take a side trip to Chiang Mai (perhaps by cutting PP). What I can find about it on the web are all TripAdvisor reviews which give us no info on how the elephants are treated. The day trip involves some other very touristy activities like the floating market, which I consider to be eminently missable.

3. I haven't done this trip, but the reviews of other travelers don't inspire me to do it. Indeed, they inspire me to avoid it.

4. I'm one of those people who chose not to have a guide at Angkor. I'd been studying Angkor for many years and we took along Dawn Rooney's book. We loved having many of the minor temples to ourselves and appreciated the quiet of being there without a guide. It's not for everyone, but if you think you might prefer to go it alone, try it one day. You can always hire a guide the next day.

5. Certainly you can rent a car in Krabi if you want (I wouldn't say the same thing about Bangkok, for instance), but decide just how much driving you plan to do. If not much, the car will be more money and more hassle than hailing cabs and tuk tuks. I expect there may be a car rental desk at the hotel, so if you decide you want a car for a day or two you can get one.

Have a wonderful trip.

Thank you all for the responses. These are very helpful, particularly with the details that you won't find in any guidebook.

@lcuy - Siam Paragon is on our list, so we hope to find that papaya salad and fried chicken.

@amin - Point taken on the taxi ride to the hotel upon our arrival.

@Kathie - We have enjoyed reading your posts on the site! Re: Chiang Mai, that was part of our original plans, but then we started to read about the burning season and it didn't seem like such a great idea to head up there. Would the effects of it be over/largely gone by late February? Still, would like to see PP at least for a bit to visit/learn more about the effects of the war, though understand from what I've read that it can be pretty somber.

Thank you again.

March is often the worst of the burning season. If you went to CM first thing you might be ok. I does vary from year to year. No doubt it is safest to skip CM.

A guide for sue in sr...an ac car too==survival...

Car rental at karabiner...you might try pure car rentals...I think they service Krabi...

Easy to drive there with no hassles...

Gave knocking at amari...amazing

Bag your bkk hotel and choose anantara or chatrium riverside instead... Penn for sure for final splurge bites...

I have a restaurant listing, ask me at rhronthailand@msn.com for it...also ask me tHERE FOR BRABI BOATMAN CONTACT...

you might like tour guide tong to take you to elephants and or monkeys outside bkk....www.tourwithtong.com
I can guarantee the experience with her will be the highlight of your trip

Bob

Bob must be typing on the ipad... lol.

Thanks so much Kathie and Bob for your guidance! Bob, I just e-mailed you at your MSN account. Thanks again.

For sure trying out the new iPad...tough

Bob

Hi Bob,

I tried to reach you at rhronthailand@msn.com, but the e-mails don't seem to be going through. I also tried reaching you at rhkonthailand@msn.com (rhk instead on rhr, given that you were using an iPad). That seemed to go through.

If either of these are incorrect, could you please let me know where I could reach you.

Thank you for your time.

I am away from home until Saturday so will read the rhk site then and follow through