We’ve finally made it! The last day of my Thailand trip (not including travel home). To finish off my trip as much as I loved the beaches, I needed to get back up to Bangkok to be able to fly home. So after a delicious breakfast at my hotel on the beach, my hotel shuttled me to the airport to be able to fly back to Bangkok for one final day in Thailand.
I arrived at the Koh Samui airport and realized I might be in the most beautiful airport in the world. The island has set up their airport completely outdoors, with covered areas for seating, but otherwise completely open air. Even the tarmac looks surprisingly pretty with water features along the sides. I enjoyed snapping some photos, swinging on an outdoor swing, and even doing some birding before boarding!
They had a little trolley of sorts take us out to the tarmac to our plane. Once on board, I was startled because though it was a short flight (less than two hours) they serve a meal on board. It actually worked out well because it was getting close to lunch time.
Back in Bangkok I grabbed my bags and called a Grab Car to head back into Bangkok. I was once again staying at the same hotel as I had on arriving, the Lamphu Tree House. I’d had a good experience there so was eager to return.
I had planned to just drop my bags and get going, but thankfully was able to check in early. I therefore left my things and took off again.
I called a Grab Car to get me over to the Jim Thompson House Museum, something I’d really wanted to do in Bangkok and hadn’t been able to on my first stay.
James (Jim) Thompson was an American businessman who founded a silk company and apparently helped revitalized the Thai silk industry. He kept a house in Bangkok where he housed a lot of beautiful artwork and other antiquities. After his disappearance (yep the man simply vanished on a trip to Malaysia and was never heard from again), the house eventually became a museum.
At the house I was able to hop on a guided tour (the only way you can see the house) and enjoyed getting to see the beautiful museum. It was a fun experience and one I was very glad to be able to squeeze in during my time.
I stopped for a milk tea at the museum shop and enjoyed the beauty of the scenery before debating what to do next.
Once finished at the museum, I thought about catching a bus back to my hotel, but instead decided to walk and enjoy some more sights in Bangkok. As the afternoon was well underway it was unlikely I’d have time to do much else. And besides, the Bangkok heat was once again wearing me out.
I walked the two and a half miles back to my hotel, stopping from time to time to admire various scenery and absorb more of the Bangkok atmosphere. It is such a huge noisy dirty city, but it does have its charms and I enjoyed simply exploring them on my own.
At the hotel I had a little pool time before heading out for my last Thai meal. I simply went to the place right near my hotel as it had good reviews and was cheap so I didn’t have to withdraw anymore baht before I left. The place was called The Family and was set up along the canal. I opted to have some Pad Thai to finish off the trip and watched as the sun set along the canal.
I flew home the next day, once again enduring the 3 hours to Taipei and then another 14 back to LAX and one more flight to my hometown. It was an amazing trip I was so glad to be able to do. I’ll never forget the beautiful natural landscapes, incredible culture, delicious food, and much more than I enjoyed in Thailand. I definitely would love to return some day, but for now I’m content to have at least seen a little bit.
Stay tuned for future blog posts about my most recent adventures in South Africa!
Though I had wanted one day to relax on the beach, my next day what I had planned was to do some more adventuring. Which was why I’d booked a boat trip out to Ang Thong National Marine Park.
The Marine Park sounded incredible, so booking a tour was an easy way to get out there and enjoy it to the fullest. I booked a full day tour through Get Your Guide to be able to take a boat out to the park, do some snorkeling, hiking, and kayaking.
They picked me up with a van at my hotel and drove us back to the marina. The company even provided a light breakfast before we took off, which was good because we’d left early enough I wasn’t able to eat at the hotel.
The weather was perfect compared to the day before with sunny clear skies. The sea still felt a little choppy, but they provided some motion sickness tablets before we took off, so I didn’t deal with any nausea onboard.
There were probably thirty other people on the tour. We boarded a good sized motorboat and set off into the sea towards the marine sanctuary.
Our first stop was in a bay to enjoy some snorkeling. I’ve never had much luck with using my camera underwater in those protective cases, so sadly no photos from the snorkeling, but it was still a great experience. I saw lots of beautiful fish and enjoyed the calm waters to get to swim around and explore.
After a while I headed back to the boat to snap a few pictures and dry off. Most of the others began heading back onboard as well, so we did take off for our next destination.
The boat headed around some of the islands (the park is made up of 42). We enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the dramatic limestone jutting out of the vibrant ocean waters.
At last we arrived at Mae Ko Island where we disembarked and took a short hike up the hill to get a view of the Blue Lagoon, a beautiful lake in the middle of the island. It looks stunning but apparently isn’t great for swimming due to snakes and jagged rock edges. Still the view was gorgeous and we enjoyed ourselves before heading back to the boat.
Once back on the boat we had another short ride before stopping on a sandy beach on the other side of the island. There we disembarked and had a lunch at a small picnic area. We had rice, vegetables, and some chicken. It was tasty and hit the spot after so much activity that morning.
There was a short break to enjoy the beach before heading back to the boat to head onwards to our next activities.
On the island of Ko Wua Ta Lap we were offered the chance to do some kayaking. Unfortunately the kayaks they had were all for two people, no singles. I asked the guide and he just said I could go with him, but as it was my very first time possibly kayaking I didn’t really feel comfortable possibly capsizing someone else. I’ve done rafting and canoeing, so probably would have gotten the hang of it, but it just didn’t appeal to me to not be able to try on my own or with someone I knew.
I instead headed over to the beach to do some swimming. The water felt great.
When our guide got back with the kayakers he led a hike up the Pha Jun Jaras Nature Trail, a steep climb to the top of the island for incredible views. I opted to go, though I trailed behind much of the group as it was a pretty steep climb. It was only five hundred meters, but the signs at the bottom estimated it would take an hour. I’m not quite sure how long it really was for me.
Still, the view from the top was spectacular and well worth being out of breath and very sweaty for.
Back at the bottom I bought myself some ice cream and a milk tea and enjoyed the beach for a bit longer before being called back to the boat. Onboard, we headed back to Koh Samui to disembark for the day.
We again met vans back at the marina which drove us back to our hotels. I had been the last picked up in the morning so was the first dropped off. It was still pretty early in the afternoon so I just kept my swimsuit on and opted to go enjoy some time by the beach and pool for the remainder of the day.
At long last, I did get cleaned up and went to find some food. I didn’t feel like walking quite as much after a busy day, so settled for a place a little closer to my hotel. It was called Super Chef Restaurant. I had some spring rolls, a mango smoothie, and I believe a chicken and basil dish. It was delicious and filling and the perfect thing to finish off a great day.
I definitely stopped on my way home to get some ice cream and enjoyed a relaxing evening on my hotel porch in the ocean breeze. Definitely a good way to finish off my time in Koh Samui.
I grew up with the idea that vacations were exhausting. Rushing to and from each attraction, going from place to place with hardly a moment to breathe. So it’s no surprise that I’ve sometimes craved that relaxing beach vacations I see others take.
My problem is that I’m cursed. No, I joke, but honestly it does seem like a lot of times when I set aside beach time on a vacation something goes wrong either with weather (I literally had a hurricane come in one year in Mexico) or illness, or something else out of my control.
This vacation was no exception.
I’d opted to end my trip along the beach (other than one last night in Bangkok to fly back home). I like beach endings to vacations as it often allows time for relaxation if you’re worn out from the trip.
I took a van out of the national park back to Surat Thani (the largest town in the area). There I caught a second van that took me to the ferry and then over to the island of Koh Samui. The drive was once again beautiful, stunning mountains and beautiful jungle.
I had asked my hotel to pick me up from the ferry, but there was some kind of miscommunication and the driver went to the airport instead so I had to catch a taxi. It was a little more expensive than the shuttle would have been, but nothing outrageous. Besides, Grab cars aren’t really available on the island, so it was pretty much my only option.
I stayed at Pico Samui, a boutique hotel on the beach. I arrived and settled into my room after the exhausting travel of the day.
I’d made minimal plans for the afternoon figuring I could spend time lounging at the beach or the pool. Instead it began raining right about the time I got my swimsuit on. So I snapped a few pictures and reluctantly headed back into my room to relax until dinner time with some tea.
Thankfully the rain did stop when I wanted to get food. I headed over to Fisherman’s Village, an area that used to be used for fishermen, but now is more of a walking street and night market.
I stopped at Aroy Dee, a restaurant slightly off the street that looked like it had good food even if it didn’t have ocean views. I had a pina colada, shrimp cakes, and some kind of stir fried glass noodles with vegetables and chicken.
After that I did a bit of wandering through the night market before deciding it was time to go back to my place for the night. The weather had cleared up some so I sat on my porch and had some ice cream to finish up the night.
So it was beautiful and sunny when I got up in the morning. I was actually already sweating just walking over to breakfast in my long sleeves and long pants (which was what I’d been instructed to wear to be more covered up during my jungle trek).
I had breakfast at the hotel: toast, eggs, and pancakes as well as some pineapple and some fruits I don’t know the names of, but ones that were clearly picked from trees right at the hotel grounds. Apparently the same ones the monkeys like to snack on when they come visit the hotel grounds.
Then I was picked up and driven over to the national park entrance. I paid my fee and then met my guide to go trekking. I was the only one signed up that day, so got a private tour. I would have preferred a group especially after the fun I had in Khao Yai, but I nonetheless wasn’t going to turn down the opportunity to go into the jungle.
We started out on a nice wide flat trail. My guide pointed out lizards, insects, spiders, plants and more.
The trail then took us down along the river which was absolutely beautiful.
After a while walking on that trail we arrived at a little rest area with restrooms and a covered shelter. We took a short break and ran into a little dusky tree monkey there. He was clearly very comfortable with people, grabbing chips from the little snack stand, climbing on people, grooming my guide. He tried to bite me actually, so I gave him a wide berth after that and was definitely glad I’d been wearing pants so his teeth didn’t break my skin.
We took off again into the jungle, this time heading on a very narrow windy up and down trail along the river. It was very pretty. We saw some more monkeys: macaques and more dusky tree monkeys.
Probably thirty minutes along that trail it started to rain. I initially thought it would just be a sprinkle, but it became a steady downpour. I tucked my phone away in my dry bag I’d thankfully thought to bring as my pack for the day. I didn’t have time to tuck it in the little waterproof case since I wanted to protect everything else in my bag. Hence why my photos are somewhat lacking for the rest of this post.
The guide and I kept going. I think he and I both thought it would stop or slow down at some point, but just continued coming down harder and harder. The trail became pretty slippery in places and I went down hard on my bum in a puddle of mud at one point.
We stopped at a place along the river and the guide told me I could swim if I wanted. My suit was in my bag of course, and figured it wasn’t worth opening at that point. But as I was pretty much soaked from head to toe anyways and could use a chance to wash off some of the mud I went ahead and went in about waist deep. With the clothes on I didn’t feel comfortable enough actually swimming, but did feel nice to get some of the muck off my body.
My guide gave me some oranges to eat. I think it’s normally where he stops for lunch on the route, but as the rain was still coming down so hard there just wasn’t a good way to eat easily. He asked if I was okay going back a little early. The trails were really becoming hard and the wildlife just wasn’t able to be spotted super easily.
I agreed maybe turning back was for the best. So we started back along the trail, clambering up muddy inclines and carefully going down steep and slippery descents. I did get one leech on my leg, but it didn’t seem to break the skin before I caught it. Otherwise I was okay, even without leech socks on.
We stopped back at the shelter where the monkey was. My guide gave me some fried rice and eggs to eat and some pineapple he chopped up fresh. He then asked if I drank coffee. He made a fire and then a few minutes later brought me over some coffee in a little bamboo cup he’d made with a stir stick. I’d seen him chopping some bamboo when we stopped. I went ahead and tucked it away to take home as a souvenir.
After lunch we headed back down the trail, thankfully the flat and wide part that was easier to do. But even that had become super slippery and muddy. It had basically just become a pathway for water at that point.
We got back to the park headquarters and I just walked back to the hotel rather than waiting for a ride since we were early. It was very close, and honestly at that point I couldn’t get anymore wet than I already was.
At the hotel I showered with my clothes on to get all the dirt and grime off before taking them off to try to dry out. Everything actually was dry by morning other than my tennis shoes. Thankfully I wasn’t planning on doing anymore hikes or trekking so I figured I’d be fine with sandals and could let them dry out the next day.
I had a lazy afternoon on the deck of my place drinking some more coffee and admiring the birds and squirrels in the trees as the rain slowed. No more monkeys sadly, but it was still very beautiful and peaceful.
Again, my restaurant options were limited in the park area. Since I was disappointed with the Thai food I had the day before, I opted to get pizza instead at Chao Pizzeria. The location at least was beautiful right along the river. I had one with olives, mushrooms, ham, and artichokes on it. It was pretty good overall, definitely hit the spot after such a crazy day.
I then went back to the hotel for the night. It had finally stopped raining. I scanned the area for anything interesting as it was getting dark and saw a couple frogs but nothing else too interesting. Headed to bed, exhausted from the busy day, but ready to go on to some beaches and islands the next day.
It was a much less exciting day due to largely being a travel one, but I figure it’s still worth mentioning. My next destination was Khao Sok, another national park in the area famed for its beautiful landscape with dramatic limestone mountains and the oldest evergreen rainforests in the world. I’d arranged a van to take me there.
In the morning I ordered breakfast at the hotel (a little extra charge but figured it was worth it). Some eggs, toast, and sausage (though every time I had sausage in Thailand they were more like hotdogs, which was fine with me). Then I got a Grab car to take me over to the van station in town. The van picked me up and we drove for about three hours, stopping every once in a while to let people off at various stops. I was a bit surprised, as in Europe most buses I’ve taken that don’t have a bathroom will do a stop or two along the way at a rest stop or gas station. That didn’t happen, but thankfully it wasn’t a long enough drive to be a problem.
I just enjoyed listening to some podcasts and staring out the window. It was a very pretty drive, especially once we neared the park.
I arrived at the van station outside of Khao Sok. It was only like a kilometer and a half to the hotel, and the road was actually in decent condition, so I opted to walk.
I stayed at Khao Sok Jungle Huts resort, a little place with guest houses outside of the national park. At the hotel I was shown to my little jungle bungalow. It’s pretty cute, up on stilts with a little porch area. Mosquito net around the bed and AC, which are both good to have.
I scheduled a full day trekking tour the next day to go through the jungle looking for wildlife. But the resort didn’t really have anything else I could do for today. The lady at the desk suggested I just “relax” until tomorrow. But that’s not really my style. I asked about a night tour that evening, but she said it would be the same route the next day so she didn’t recommend it.
I was a little disappointed, but honestly figured it might be for the best.
I went and walked around a little bit instead, had some snacks and water. I used the hiking app I have on my phone (AllTrails) to see if there were any trails outside the park I could do on my own. There was one listed nearby that was short to the monkey temple. I opted to try that.
It was basically just following some dirt roads down to the temple. Not really a “hike” but it was a good opportunity to enjoy some wildlife, take some pictures, etc. Saw some monkeys along the way who got super close to me, but seemed uninterested thankfully. I enjoyed taking some pictures of them. They were long tailed macaques, so a different variety than the ones I’d seen earlier in the trip.
I arrived at the monkey temple and it looked like it was being repaired, and also wanted me to pay to go in. I just opted to look through the gate and snap a few pictures of some monkeys I saw before heading back.
I did a little more wandering down to the main gates of the park and exploring the tiny town, but eventually headed back to my place.
I had a leisurely afternoon having some coffee on the porch, and cleaning up from getting all sweaty on my walks, and then eventually went to find dinner.
Had some Thai food not too far from my hotel at Pawn’s Restaurant. Most of the food around the park area was European… I mean it’s a very touristy area so maybe they just assume that’s what people want. I went ahead and just had Pad Thai, and it was the most mediocre of the trip. Unfortunately in an area so dominated by tourists I think they can get away with not making the food quite as good and flavorful.
I had some pineapple fritters to finish off the meal which were delicious. It began pouring rain, but thankfully slowed down a bit around the time I was done eating. I headed back to the hotel to get an early night’s sleep excited to go jungle trekking the next day.
So I had a leisurely morning at my hotel in Chiang Mai eating breakfast and everything. I checked out and left my bags with the hotel. I had a flight in the evening to head down south to get some beach time, but I plenty of time to kill before going to the airport.
I decided I wanted to go to the temple up on the mountain, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. The Spanish guy I’d talked to at the elephant sanctuary mentioned he’d hiked up but said it was a little slippery in places. I initially thought about hiking it. My phone said it would take about 2 hours… but since I no longer had access to a shower, I decided maybe that wasn’t the best idea to get super sweaty and gross.
So I figured, I’d get a ride up to the top and then walk down. Sounded like an easy idea.
The driver who picked me up immediately started negotiating about picking me up on the way back too, but I told him I was going to walk back. He was in disbelief, but told me I could just pay him 280 for the one way.
As we drove up the mountain, I wasn’t seeing any clear pedestrian trail. I think there is one, but it just wasn’t obvious. The road was very narrow and it didn’t seem good to walk up and down. It also had several long curves to get you up to the top, so was longer than the distance my phone was indicating. I decided to be smart and just not do that to myself.
Sure enough, the driver asked me a few minutes later if I was sure I wanted to walk down. I told him as it was further than I thought, yes I’d appreciate him taking me back. Could he wait an hour and would it be the same amount?
He told me he’d come back in an hour and a half. I thought he said yes to the same amount, but I think there was a miscommunication somewhere (yay language barriers). I had just enough money to be right at 600 baht, so a small tip on top for him.
Up at the temple I climbed the huge stairs up to the very top and wandered around. It was very pretty, very peaceful and had good views. I definitely didn’t feel like I needed an hour and a half, but went ahead and sat down for a mango smoothie and then looked around for some wildlife.
I went and waited where the taxi driver had indicated. The time he’d told me rolled around, and then five minutes, and then ten.
I noticed there were kind of open back trucks heading down the mountain that would take you to the downtown area for 100 baht. I gave him a few more minutes and figured I could take one of those if needed.
Thankfully, just about the time I was about to get one of the trucks, the taxi driver appeared, apologizing profusely for being late. He drove me back down to the town. Unfortunately, I guess because he’d waited he now wanted 800 for the round trip. I did not have that much in exact cash so had to just give him 1000 for the whole thing (about 30 dollars). I was pretty miffed, but just let it go. What could I really do?
I went ahead and found some lunch in the city, determined to make the rest of the day better. Had some fried rice and Thai milk tea.
Then I headed over to one of the museums I’d wanted to try called the Lanna Folklife museum. It was in an old city courthouse, so a fun building, and just gave an overview of the people who had lived in the area. It was originally the Lanna kingdom before Siam took over.
It was a good museum, fun building, good exhibits in English as well as Thai. But it didn’t take me very long. I’d planned to be back at the hotel around 5 to collect my bags and everything, but it was only about 2.
Looking online there was another museum not too far away (literally across the street), so I headed over there. This was the Chiang Mai City Arts and Culture Center. Essentially just a museum dedicated to the city itself.
Again, it was a good museum in a beautiful historical building. It was somewhat small, but overall I enjoyed it. I still had to time to kill, so I sat down at the museum coffee shop for an iced coffee. It actually was probably the best coffee I’d had the whole trip, so that was something at least.
I still had time so walked down to the 7 eleven near my hotel and bought some snacks. I wasn’t sure what options I’d have for dinner at the airport, so thought I’d at least make sure I had something (just wasn’t hungry enough for real food at 4 PM. I ate by the moat around the city and started noticing the traffic was getting pretty bad, so I figured I’d go ahead and head over a little earlier than I’d planned.
Got my bags and took a Grab car to the airport. Compared to most cities the airport is not actually not way out in the middle of nowhere, so the drive didn’t take super long even with traffic.
At the airport there were definitely limited dinner options so I had a ham and cheese panini just to get some protein and carb. I had figured the plane might give me a snack, but it actually ended up being one of those really budget airlines that makes you pay for everything. So thankfully I was not super hungry anyways and just skipped that.
We arrived in my next destination of Surat Thani about thirty minute early. I was very surprised by that, but I figured the process of getting my bags and using the bathroom and all that would take time. I figured I could maybe buy some water at a shop so I’d be set for the night (wasn’t sure what all would be available where I was), and could find an ATM and get a little more cash to be ready for the next day
However, bags came out within like 3 minutes. I’ve literally never seen baggage claim go so fast. I went to the bathroom, and came out into the lobby only to find the airport started shutting down after 8:30 PM. No water to be bought, no ATM in the immediate vicinity. However, it was just about when I’d told my hotel, Inn Khun House I’d arrive when I’d booked a shuttle service ahead of time so I started looking around.
No sign of anything in the lobby area. Went outside, no immediate sign of anything out there. The hotel had referred to it as a shuttle service, so I kind of expected an official “shuttle”. A lady working for the airport asked where I was going and tried to pass me off to a taxi driver. I turned him down and told him I already had a ride scheduled.
It was getting well past the time I’d said, so I went ahead and called the hotel to ask where I should meet them. My phone had terrible service and I could barely hear anything, especially in all the hustle and bustle of everyone leaving. All I could hear was the man telling me the price for airport pickup. I told him I’d already asked to be picked up, would that not work.
Unable to hear anything else I gave up and hung up. Started to call for a Grab car, but nothing was in the immediate vicinity.
At this point there were maybe ten people left outside the airport.
Thankfully, the hotel managed to message me on the booking app and say they could be there in 15 minutes if that still worked. They asked if I was okay, since I guess I sounded a little frazzled.
I agreed to wait the fifteen minutes, though almost everyone else was gone at that point.
Finally the driver did show up in a car and drove me back to the hotel. I guess he did remember scheduling but must have figured he didn’t need to be there right at the time I’d said figuring it would take time to get bags and everything. I actually had neglected to say what flight I was on, so he definitely didn’t know I was early, but even so apparently had just thought showing up late was okay.
Anyhow, I will say it was the one time the whole trip I was uncomfortable and wished I hadn’t been by myself. Definitely learned my lesson to not fly into small towns late at night even with a transportation plan in place. I’m just thankful it all worked out.
We arrived at the hotel. It was very basic but okay for the night. I turned in as I was super tired from the long crazy day, and just grateful to have arrived safely.
My morning started off with a rushed breakfast at my hotel. I had scheduled to visit an elephant sanctuary and my confirmation had said I’d be picked up between 7:30-8. Of course at 7:28 someone was looking for me already, so I was glad I’d brought all my things down from the room and was ready to go.
We drove around the city picking up two more groups from hotels. One lone Spanish guy, and an American family of five (didn’t catch where they were from). We drove off into the mountains to the elephant camp.
Elephant sanctuaries are tricky. While elephants that have been raised in captivity can’t necessarily be released back into the wild, they still sometimes end up being exploited at so called “sanctuaries”. In particular riding them is supposed to be something that is very bad for them, so any place that is offering rides really lacks an ethical approach. Likewise some of the places don’t have enough space to truly allow the elephants to roam and live their lives. It was important to me that if I was visiting a sanctuary it actually was helping elephants rather than just using them to make money.
This was the reason I chose Chang Chill. They were supposed to be one of the more ethical elephant rescues. In particular they didn’t allow any human interaction with their elephants (no bathing, touching, or riding) and allowed the elephants to roam on a large swath of land with a keeper nearby to keep an eye on them.
We headed up into the mountains for the day and started out by hiking around the camp looking for the elephants. There are four of them in the camp, all female adults (one mom and daughter and two others who weren’t related). We quickly found one eating and hiked down into the brush to get a better view. We watched her eat for a bit, and then headed back up to the road. The other three were all along the main road. Mom and daughter apparently like to stay very close together since they were separated for 10 years. Sounded like some of them had been giving rides to tourists prior, and a couple worked in the logging industry hauling stuff. Either way it was good to see them be happy and free enjoying life as much as they could outside of the wild.
After maybe an hour and a half of admiring them in their natural habitat we headed back down to the camp. We helped prepare their lunch for them (sugar cane and bananas). Got to use a machete to hack up the sugar cane as one of them is getting older and her teeth don’t work as well, so it needs it a little easier to chew.
Then we had our own lunch. A vegetarian Thai food buffet (rice, curried potatoes, noodles and tofu, vegetables, and watermelon).
The Spanish guy and I sat and chatted for a bit exchanging travel advice and talking about what we were doing in Thailand. There were also a few other groups there, but they seemed like they were all together, maybe some kind of college trip or something.
After our lunch we headed down to load up the feeding stations for the elephants. We waited for about twenty minutes and finally the four elephants appeared. They were very excited to eat (I guess they have some pretty big sweet tooths so sugarcane and bananas are some of their favorites).
We got to watch them eating for a bit before loading up the van and heading back to Chiang Mai.
The weather was supposed to be stormy, but thankfully held off so I just had a relaxing afternoon by the pool before cleaning up for dinner.
I found a cute place to eat called Dash. I had Gaeng Phet Phed Yang (duck in red curry sauce), a watermelon smoothie, and a mango cheesecake to finish. It was all very tasty.
Then I walked over to the Night Bazaar to at least check it out. It was basically a big market that takes place after 7 PM most nights with food, music, artists. It was huge and very fun, though I didn’t see anything I really wanted to buy.
By that point I was exhausted. Opted to get a Grab car back to my place. As it was after dark I felt a little anxious getting into a stranger’s car, but thankfully Grab offers an option of women drivers for women, so I opted for that. She dropped me off at my hotel and I packed up my stuff for the next day and set about getting a good night’s sleep.
I’m attempting to get these Thailand posts done so I can update on my latest adventures. Most of them are thankfully written out just need to be edited and have photos added. Stay tuned for the last couple days about Thailand and then on to South Africa!
Day nine was actually my most unplanned day. Anyone who knows me is aware that my travel tends to be extensively planned. I not only book all my accommodation and transportation ahead of time, but often have a daily itinerary planned out.
However, day nine kind of ended up falling apart.
I’d booked a caving tour outside of Chiang Mai. But the night before I looked and realized I had accidentally booked the wrong day. I was able to cancel for no charge, but unfortunately by the time I realized, it was too late to book for the next day.
Therefore I woke up and had a day with nothing planned. Which actually was a nice change of pace.
I had a very lazy morning at my hotel. I let myself sleep in a little before grabbing some breakfast downstairs.
I don’t think I had any hotels with bad breakfast, but this one definitely stood out. They had a huge variety, both typical western fare of eggs, toast, yogurt, but also some pineapple fried rice, passion fruit, and some kind of Thai dessert (I never did find out exactly what it was but it was sweet and sticky, pictured below as the pink rose).
I had a leisurely breakfast, finding an app for my phone to be able to make my own walking tour of the city. I used GPS My City, which worked well for putting in destinations that looked interesting to explore and then looping them into a logical walking route.
Before I left the hotel, I also decided to make a plan for my afternoon. I decided to book a Thai massage.
Anyone who knows me well is aware I really am not a fan of touching. Only really close friends and family are allowed to even hug me. I’ll tolerate cuddling with a significant other, but most of the time I just prefer to have my own personal space bubble. For that reason, it has never really occurred to me to book a massage. But, it really was something I’d heard people speak highly of, and the prices were so low (about $10) that it was difficult to resist. Besides, Thai massage was supposed to be very different from traditional western style massages. I’d seen things that described it more like assisted yoga.
I planned to be back in the late afternoon to enjoy some time at the pool and then get ready for my massage. But in the meantime I was determined to take off and see as much of the city as I could.
I followed the route the map suggested, stopping at a few temples including Wat Phra Singh, Wat Chedi Luang, Wat Samphoe. I admired both of them, snapping pictures, reading a few signs and reading what the app had to say about each location.
I was a little surprised at the second temple to see a sign saying women weren’t allowed in certain parts. There was a sign explaining that it was to avoid the possibility of a menstruating woman entering the temple and thereby making it unclean. There was plenty else to see, but it was my first encounter with something like that before and it definitely had me surprised. There will always be some downsides to being a female traveler, and unfortunately this was one. Places that will never be accessible to me simply because I’m a woman.
I walked past the Tha Phae Gate and then onwards through a market and to a Chinese temple the Pung Thao Kong Shrine. It was actually fun to get to see the different styles of a temple built by those who weren’t Thai.
After that it was just more wandering, mostly admiring some very beautiful flowers. I stopped at Katam Corner, a remnant of a fortification wall from the 13th century.
Then it was over to Wat Sri Suphan, the silver temple. I paid a small fee to get in and then wandered around, admiring the beautiful shining temple apparently made of silver, nickel, and aluminum.
My final stop was Nong Buak Haad, a public park with beautiful flowers. I took some pictures and a little break, but then decided I needed to head onwards.
I was getting hungry and quite warm, so I decided to stop and get some lunch. I ended up at the Phordee Bistro and had chicken with cashews and a mango smoothie. Absolutely delicious. As I was heading out, I had one of the servers run after me because I’d somehow forgotten my phone. I definitely would have noticed pretty quickly, but I still was glad of the kindness in making sure I didn’t have to come back.
The day was getting later so I headed back to the hotel. I spent a little time in the afternoon in the pool before getting ready to head to the massage area.
I was led into a darkened room with a couple of massage tables and a couple of other people already in the middle of massages. I was given some loose clothing to change into and then brought over to a table.
What followed was one of the most painful experiences of my life. This small Thai woman started with some kneading. I definitely wouldn’t call it gentle. She made sure to work pretty much every part of my body. On top of more of a typical massage, she also did pull my body into some different positions, some of which were quite painful. Nonetheless, I persevered. I knew no massage would really be my thing, but this at least was something different and unique and I hoped maybe it would help me feel a little bit better the next day.
The masseuse did tell me I was “very strong” when she was done. I wasn’t quite sure if that was a compliment or she was remarking on me resisting her movements, but either way I thanked her and tipped her before changing back into my clothes and going back to my room.
I then headed out to find dinner. I ended up at a casual restaurant called Kat’s Kitchen. I started with spring rolls and a passionfruit smoothie before moving to a yellow curry. I was asked my spice level and asked for medium. I often don’t think of myself as very good with spice, but then I meet people who tell me things they find spicy that make me just laugh. So I figured medium would probably be just right and it was.
After that I did a quick night walk, going back to Katam’s Corner to admire it all lit up and then past a couple of the temples as well.
All in all a great day, but I turned in early to be ready for more adventures on the next one!
With school starting back up, I’m unsure if I’ll actually be able to finish these posts, but I’ll certainly do my best.
My eighth day in Thailand was one of my transition days, so not spent doing quite as much as adventuring. Nonetheless, there were still some fun experiences I’d love to share.
My next destination for the trip was Chiang Mai, which is a city all the way up in the north of Thailand. I’d heard lots of good things about it, so in spite of it being a little further away, I opted to make it a priority.
Many people take the night train to get up there, but looking at prices I noted there were cheap flights from Bangkok, and with that I’d only spend a shorter time traveling for a similar price. The train was more than twelve hours, while flying was under an hour (though it would take a little more time to get a van back to Bangkok and then to the airport).
I woke early in the morning in Ayutthaya, had some breakfast at my hotel before calling a Grab Car to take me to the van station. My ticket had suggested showing up 30 minutes early, so I did so. This meant I actually ended up catching a 30 minute earlier van, and getting on the road earlier than I’d intended to. The van was pretty crowded, so I was crammed in a back seat with my backpack on my lap. Not the most glamorous ride, but cheap and effective to get back to Bangkok.
I arrived at Bangkok plenty early, called another Grab car to get to the airport.
Since I’d given myself plenty of leeway in my flight times (accounting for possible delays on the road, traffic etc), I had time to kill in the airport. So I had a coffee at a shop and relaxed for a bit and then even went to do a sit down meal for lunch (some kind of noodle dish and milk tea). I also wandered around a bit, as I hadn’t seen much of the place when I was coming in on my first day.
I had to admit it was very interesting to me that in the Bangkok airport for domestic flights you don’t go through security until you’re headed to your gate. I saw people with stickers saying they’d cleared security so they could then go back out and eat, but I opted to just wait until I was ready to go to my gate rather than coming and going. A short bit before my flight I went ahead and headed through a quick security line and headed to my gate.
The flight was very easy, and as it was so short I chose a window seat to really get the most of the views. Bangkok was fun to see from overhead, but I was most interested in seeing more of the North which I’d heard was lovely. Sure enough, the beautiful lush green surroundings to Chiang Mai were beautiful overhead.
When I’d booked my hotel on Booking.com it came with a complimentary taxi service, so I opted to use that for convenience. My driver picked me up and took me straight to my hotel, making things very easy.
I had opted to stay at the Twenty Lodge, a boutique hotel in the heart of the old city of Chiang Mai.
I checked into my hotel. They gave me some kind of refreshing tea that I really enjoyed and then showed me to my room. I set my stuff down before taking off to do a little exploring.
I enjoyed walking around a bit, mostly looking around some of the temples in the area, and admiring the canals surrounding the old city. I also spotted a few fun pieces of street art. Feel free to look through some pictures in the slideshow below.
Then I went back to my hotel and lounged by the pool for a bit.
At last I was ready to get some dinner. I cleaned up and then headed to find a restaurant.
I ended up settling at The House by Ginger, this lovely little restaurant in an old colonial home. I ordered a Chiang Mai Sling (white spirit, coconut liquor, lychee syrup, lime juice, white sugar, and pomegranate) and some fried rice with crab meat for my main course.
Everything tasted delicious, but what I loved the most was the atmosphere of the old house. It was just so fun, such a lovely romantic space with candlelight and an eclectic mix of couches and chairs at tables.
I was unable to resist dessert as well. I went with a brownie and ice cream, which was delicious and decadent. Definitely the perfect thing to end a busy day of traveling.
After I was finished eating, I headed back to the hotel. I’d been told the pool was open twenty-four hours so I opted to take one more swim before turning in for the night.
And that concluded another amazing day. Follow along to read about the other amazing days!
I woke up in my hotel in Ayutthaya and went to grab some breakfast in the courtyard before starting out on my explorations. My hotel had a nice breakfast with toast, juice, coffee, and fruit and then a main course of your choice (either more traditional Thai fare with rice etc. or more Americanized options). I went ahead and had eggs and sausage as I figured the protein would fill me up for a busy day.
Once I’d had my fair share of food, I took off towards the historic city. I started at Wat Ratchaburana . I bought a ticket to be able to get into all of the different archeological sites in the city and then headed into the first one I’d chosen to visit for the day.
Lizard spotted on the way to the temple
As with the day before, I wandered through the ruins, getting pictures and admiring everything there was to see. Wat Ratchaburana actually ended up being one of my favorite sites. One of the phrangs was actually open to go up inside. There were even some bats up in the corners of the chamber and you could admire the view of the temple from the top.
It didn’t take too long to see everything there was to see. Temperatures were heating up so I took off to the next site I’d planned to visit as quickly as I could, stopping a couple of times along the way to see other interesting things.
So as I mentioned in my last post, Ayutthaya is very spread out. Which is why a lot of people visiting more than one site choose to rent a bike. Unfortunately, overconfident person that I am, I looked at the distance and figured “oh I can just walk it”.
You’d think I’d have learned my lesson the day before of realizing Thai streets are not always built for walking.
Still, I went ahead and walked down to Wat Thammikarat, another site that was open for no charge.
Next was probably my biggest priority, heading to the site of the old palace (Wang Luang). I started by visiting Wat Mongkol Borpit. Much of Ayutthaya is in some amount of ruin, bases of buildings, crumbling phrangs, and chedis that are just exposed brick. This temple was a little more modern (1500s rather than 1300s), but it was also in a restored state and is still currently a working temple.
Picture of the temple before restoration
When I was done seeing the inside of the temple, I decided it was time to take a little break. Temperatures were continuing to rise. I know the hottest temperature I saw in terms of “currently feels like” was 109 degrees F (42 degrees C).
So I had a milk tea and some water and relaxed in the shade for a little bit.
Finally, I felt refreshed enough to continue, so I went on to visit the old palace. I wandered through, taking breaks in the shade of some trees as needed.
When I finished up seeing everything there was to see at Wang Luang, I headed over to Wat Phra Ram. I did stop to admire the elephants doing rides outside of the temple. Sadly, modern research shows that riding elephants can be harmful to them. So while I definitely would have loved to ride one in theory, I made a conscious decision not to participate. Still, I snapped a couple photos of the elephants walking by. They are definitely beautiful creatures. I hope one day Ayutthaya will get rid of their elephant rides, but sadly that’s probably a long way in the future at this point.
Still, I headed into Wat Phra Ram and saw everything there was to see there.
It was getting to be almost noon, so I hastened my pace a little, determined to see everything on my list before the heat became unbearable.
So, as quickly as I could, I made my way across the river to Wat Chaiwatthanaram, another ancient temple right along the Chao Phraya river.
I had thought about stopping for lunch, but again just felt any long break would only let the heat continue to increase. So with that in mind I grabbed some snacks at the 7 Eleven and then continued on my walk to the temple.
Some might feel like “well it’s just another crumbling temple, if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all” but for me, I enjoyed the uniqueness of each one I saw. Wat Chaiwatthanaram had several very detailed parts, and several terracotta impressions of stories from the Buddha’s life. There was some restoration work being done, so there was some ugly scaffolding on a couple parts, but otherwise it was still impressive to see.
As I was already on the other side of the river, I opted to head down to Wat Phutthaisawan. It was one of the few temples that wasn’t completely destroyed during the collapse of Ayutthaya so it is actually still in beautiful condition and still used today. Unfortunately, it too was having some restoration work and had scaffolding, but it was still interesting to see what the former city might have looked like in its full glory rather than the crumbling archeological site that it is today.
The temperature was reaching its peak, and in order to get back across the river to my hotel, it would be a long walk. I opted to have a Grab car pick me up and take me to the Ayutthaya Historical Study Center on the other side of the river.
The study center was a small museum talking more about the history of Ayutthaya and giving more information about the various archeological sites. I particularly enjoyed that it was airconditioned so I could start to cool down after so much time out in the sun.
After I’d seen everything there was to see inside, I headed back out. I debated if I wanted to go elsewhere, but honestly I was exhausted. I’d walked about 14 miles (22 km), so I needed a break.
I headed back to my hotel, had a cold shower and otherwise just relaxed for the remainder of the hot and humid afternoon.
I was definitely getting pretty hungry though, so I soon mustered my strength and went back out to find some food. I ended up at Malakor Kitchen and Cafe.
I sat on their porch as the inside had open windows as well, so wouldn’t be much cooler. They did have lots of fans at least, so that definitely helped with the heat.
I had a passionfruit smoothie, some spring rolls, and a curry with pork and betel leaves (a leafy green kind of like spinach). Everything was delicious.
After finishing up dinner, I took a few more pictures of the temples lit up at night before heading back to my hotel. I needed to get packed as I would be taking off for my next destination early the next morning. However, I definitely had enjoyed what Ayutthaya had to offer. I saw so much beautiful history and it’s not a place I’ll forget anytime soon.
To Roam the Roads of Lands Remote 