There has been so much buzz about PRIMO POSTO, a Tuscany style cafe located near Khao Yai National Park, that I decided to check it out myself. So on one early Saturday morning in late November, I made a special outing to Khao Yai - about a 2½ hours drive from Bangkok - accompanied by my friend, Khun Moongmink.

The landscape near Khao Yai - gentle, rolling green hills and haystack like mountain peaks – was somewhat reminiscent of the wine country in Northern California. An important grape growing region in Thailand, there was a number of wineries in the area as well.

I wasn’t really aware how popular PRIMO POSTO was until we pulled into their parking lot only – it was packed with tour buses, minivans and many cars, mostly Toyotas and Hondas. A long line formed in front of the entrance – mostly tourists from Bangkok - where a young lady collected an admission fee of 55 baht per person, which can be applied towards the purchase of ice cream (most popular item), coffee, food from the cafe or restaurant or anything from the gift shop.

My Impression of Primo Posto? It has to be the Biggest Tourist Trap in Thailand. Framed by the haystack like peaks of Khao Yai, Primo Posto - with its stunning Tuscany style architecture & lovely Mediterranean gardens - attracts thousands of visitors from Bangkok, mostly on weekends during the high season. Most people stop here just to have themselves photographed in the gardens -the food is not the attraction here!

While Primo Posto was very lovely, I couldn’t wait to get out of the place as the gardens were way too congested with photo happy, camera toting tourists. The average visitor stayed no more than 20 minutes, just enough time to take a couple of pictures before they moved on.

My friend talked to the manager who told her that during the high season November – May, Primo Posto received on the average an astounding 5000 tourists from Bangkok on the weekends. At 55 baht per person (1.40USD). You can do the math! Primo Posto was doing quite a brisk business. PRIMO POSTO WAS INDEED A REAL TOURIST TRAP!

Check out my Khao Yai/Primo Posto Photo Gallery!

After leaving Primo Posto, we had lunch at the nearby Terano Cafe, a very lovely and quiet place without all the photo happy tourists of Primo Posto. The food was very delicious and the setting was very serene.

I had taken care all of my travel arrangements over 2 months ago for my upcoming odyssey to Southeast Asia, November 18-December 30, where in a 42-day period I will be visiting Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. However there was one very small loose end to take care of - since my air ticket to Thailand was for more than 30 days, I had to apply for a tourist visa with the Thai Consulate.

I thought I was catching a break as The Thailand Government was waiving the $25 fee for the tourist visa for all travel between June 2009 – March 2010. Little did I know that this small procedure would be turn out to be real hassle - call it The Passport Follies!

About a week after I sent my US passport to the Thai Consulate in Los Angeles by certified mail, I received a call from a representative at the Consulate. She advised me that they couldn’t issue the tourist visa at this time because all the visa pages in my passport were used up, so she was returning my passport to me. I would have to get extra visa pages inserted; upon accomplishing that, I was instructed to return the passport to their office for the actual visa.

After doing some research, I discovered that I had to send my passport to the Passport Office in Philadelphia. Although there was no charge for the addition of extra visa pages, in order to get the passport back in a reasonable amount of time, they suggested I pay for Expedited Service which costs $60.

Without the Expedited Service, the anticipated wait time for was up to 3 months or longer – so the decision to shell out $60 was a slam-dunk! Furthermore there was the additional expense of sending (and receiving) the passport by express mail. Of course, as soon as I receive my passport, I will have to send it to The Thai Consulate by express mail (and pay for return by express mail).

Bottom line – Total damage for adding a few measly visa pages to my passport - about $130 - includes the Expedited Service and all mailing fees, and I can expect to receive my passport (with the tourist visa) about 3-5 days before I am scheduled to depart. It looks like I’m cutting it kind of close. There is a lesson to be learned from this experience!

I have a friend by the name of Lek in Northern Thailand who hosts a meditation retreat on her large sprawling estate in Chiang Dao, a small rural community located about 75 minutes north of Chiang Mai, a major tourist hub. With the majestic Doi Chiang Dao, Thailand’s 2nd highest peak, rising high above the landscape, it is an absolutely idyllic setting.

Up to 40 people – mostly friends and family - attend the meditation retreat, which is held at least once a year. There is a dedicated area on her compound - separate from the main house – where people camp out in tents underneath simple palm thatched lean-toos. Tents are provided to campers as a courtesy of Khun Lek. Clustered together in the camping area are a number of gazebos and platforms which are used by the campers for their group meditation sessions. Scheduled twice a day (at 4:00PM and 8:00PM), these meditation sessions are supervised by her younger brother, an ordained Buddhist monk.

Lek’s Meditation Retreat is not a social affair - the focus is on meditation and spiritual purification. Typically people will eat, sleep and talk less. Breakfast and lunch are ordered from a nearby food shop for about $2.00USD per person, although many of the campers will bring some food and cook together. Most of them will skip dinner and just have some hot cocoa and fruit. Although, Khun Lek does not charge participants any monies, they are welcome to make donations to help subsidize the electricity and water bill.

After about a week or so at Khun Lek’s, the meditation retreat goes mobile - the group will travel around Northern Thailand and Issan by car(s) for about 1-2 months, visiting many places and setting up camp at any number of National Parks. Sounds like fun if you’re seriously into Meditation, Buddhism and Nature! Since Khun Lek and her people speak minimal English, outsiders (hence the tourist crowd) do not attend her meditation retreat as they would feel a little awkward.

For tourists who’d like to escape from the rigors of the daily grind and chant their way to nirvana, you might want to check out the Middle Way Meditation Retreat in Thailand, one of the top international retreats in the world. Located near Phu Ruea National Park in the Northeastern (Issan) province of Loei, this retreat is farang friendly and has more in the way of creature comforts and amenities then Lek’s place in Chiang Dao. For a one-week all-inclusive package, the rate is $156 per person. While I have never been there myself, there was a very good article about this retreat in the June Edition of Conde Nast Traveler. Sounds good to me!