Hello from Thailand! Rach and I have been touring around Bangkok and the Thai islands for the last week or so. From Siem Reap, Cambodia we took an eight hour bus ride to Bangkok. It was a pretty uneventful bus ride other than crossing the Cambodia-Thailand border. We waited for an hour in the Thai passport control line. For US citizens, you do not need to get a visa for Thailand in advance. You can get a tourist visa on arrival at certain border crossings that is valid for 30 days. Reading online it also says that you may have show an advance ticket proving that you’re leaving Thailand within 30 days but we didn’t run into this. As we got to the front of the line a Thai woman, in what I assume is the Thai border police uniform, came up to me and asked to see my passport. She took it and acted like she was looking at it while another man in a uniform took pictures of us on his smartphone. A bit awkward for me as I was about to get my passport checked which for some reason always makes me a little anxious. After the pictures were taken she chatted with some of the other border agents for a minute and then left. So I assumed that she was some higher up officer and I was part of some PR stunt. Funny experience. Anyways we got our visas and as our bus crossed into Thailand we immediately realized we were driving on the left side of the road! Rach and I didn’t realize that they drive on the left here (per Wikipedia Thailand is one of the few countries to drive on the left that were not once a British territory). As we got off the bus and walked to our hostel we noticed that it wasn’t super hectic on the streets. We were expecting Ho Chi Minh round two but were pleasantly surprised (I’m sure areas of Bangkok are insane but this area wasn’t at the time).
We stayed in Bangkok for two nights so we only had one full day there. Our time was short but we got to see a handful of different areas:
- We took an Uber to Chinatown at night. This street is famous from popular culture but it really wasn’t anything more than a cool street to walk down that had big neon signs in Chinese. We only spent an hour there.
- We explored one of the many extravagant Buddhist temples in Bangkok. The official name of the temple is “Wat Phra Chetuphon Vimolmangklararm Rajwaramahaviharn” (WTF?) but it’s more simply known as “Wat Pho”. It’s famous for the Reclining Buddha, which is a giant golden statue of the Buddha laying down.
- We stumbled on Thammasat University (the national university of Thailand). I ended up getting a cheap lunch here and it was delicious. Walking around the campus we felt like we were at any University back in California, it was interesting.
- We went to the Chatuchak Weekend Market (basically a GIANT flea market). However, it was Friday night so the market wasn’t nearly what it would’ve been on Saturday or Sunday which was a bummer.
- We attempted to go a rooftop bar that gives a great view of city but we got turned down at the door because we were wearing flip flops and there was a dress code. Sigh.
- We took a ride on the SkyTrain which was a really nice elevated metro system (they had air conditioning in the train car).
- We walked down the Soi Cowboy street. This is supposedly the “red light district” of Bangkok. A small street with a bunch of go-go bars and girls and ladyboys in bikinis. Kind of a mini Vegas.
- Rach here: I found the ladyboys here in Thailand very interesting and I did some research about them online. Here in Thailand, “ladyboys” are basically considered a third gender. I’m not the expert but from what I have read and seen, there aren’t necessarily more transgender people here in Thailand, they are just more visible because they have a specific place in Thai society (often times working in modeling, cabaret, restaurants, and salons). I found the Thai open mindedness to transgender culture very refreshing, although in some parts of the country, these people are shamed.
While a few of the touristy things we tried to do were a let down, overall we enjoyed walking around the streets. The skyscrapers are never ending in Bangkok and it’s a pretty crazy city to see. Coming from Vietnam, we noticed that Thailand (specifically Bangkok) is more developed. Parts of Bangkok felt like we were in New York. We also had delicious food here! Finding food is usually a struggle for us but we love Thai food and none of our meals disappointed us. It also helps that you can get Cashew Nut Chicken, Pad Thai, and a big beer for 300 Thai Baht (around $5). We’ve gotten too spoiled here by the cheapness of food! Back in California I never really ordered Pad Thai because I remember it being too sweet for my taste. But maybe I need to try it again because I’ve eaten it at almost every meal here and it’s always been good.
Leaving Bangkok we headed to a small Thai island called Koh Lipe. Thailand has different sets of islands. Some to the West in the Andaman Sea and some to the East in the Gulf of Thailand. We were on the islands to the West. To get to Koh Lipe we took a 50 minute cab ride to the Bangkok airport and then an hour flight to Hat Yai airport. We got on a minivan for two hours that took us to Pakbara pier. From the pier we got on a speedboat with 50 other people for a two and a half hour boat ride to Koh Lipe. An exhausting day of travel but we can’t complain too much because we arrived to the sight of paradise blue waters.
In total we spent four nights on Koh Lipe and five nights on a bigger island two hours away called Koh Lanta. As with most sunny tourist destinations, you see a lot of lighter skinned people that are absolutely fried and look like red lobsters. I made a comment to Rach as we walked to our hotel like “Psh you see all the burnt people? Typical white people, can’t handle the sun.” Being from Southern California I was cocky in making fun of all the burnt people. Well after one day in the sun, we were both left with pretty bad sunburns. I guess I got what I had coming to me! The sun shines pretty strong down here. The next day we bought SPF 50 and didn’t mess around anymore. I’m just going to sum up our time on the islands with a few bullet points since it was all more of the same:
- We soaked up the sun at the paradise beaches on Koh Lipe. The water there is that clear blue you see in pictures. We got up early to catch the sunrise one morning but were disappointed by cloudy skies.
- We did two snorkeling trips, one from Koh Lipe and one from Koh Lanta. The Koh Lipe snorkeling wasn’t anything special although we did go snorkeling at night to see the bioluminescent plankton which was a cool experience. It was a bit terrifying to be in the ocean at night and not be able to see anything around you other than glowing dots. We also watched an amazing sunset on the Koh Lipe trip. The Koh Lanta trip provided much better coral reefs and the snorkeling was great. We saw tons of clown fish and we didn’t get sick of taking GoPro pictures of them (I have to admit that they are really cute). Warning liberal and political comment here: while we did see plenty of fish we were a little sad after snorkeling and seeing some of the effects of climate change. It felt like the reefs around Lanta should have been filled with color and life but it looked mostly brown and dead. The warming of the ocean should not be taken lightly! We recommend watching “Saving Coral” on Netflix if you’re interested about the state of coral reefs around the world.
- The weather on Koh Lanta was a bit cloudy and rainy which was unfortunate but we still enjoyed spending two days driving around the island on a moped (even in the rain). There’s no better way to explore places than on a moped or motorbike. Especially out here where it only costs $6 to rent a moped for a day. You pay, they give you a key and a minute later you’re driving around. No helmet, no waiver, nothing (no helmets was a little risky). We did had a slight mishap one day as we were driving up a super steep hill from the beach. Our bike couldn’t support both our weight so we stalled halfway up the hill. Not knowing what to do I awkwardly tried to walk-drive it up but eventually just yelled for Rach to get off and awkwardly wobbled up the rest of the hill. We made it out with no major damage except Rach ripped her dress and I broke (later fixed) one of my sandals. Scary moment at the time but very funny looking back at it.
- Again we enjoyed all of the food we ate here (I got us in the bad habit of ordering a chocolate milkshake a day, oops). Being gluten free, I’ve come to the conclusion that either the soy sauce out here in Southeast Asia does not have any wheat in it or that I don’t get sick from foods with soy sauce with wheat in it. No complaints either way! I’ve gotten fried rice, pad thai or cashew chicken at almost every meal. I’ve also expanded my horizons and eat all types of curry now (thanks to Rach here, she pushed me to try curry). On that note, Rach doesn’t really make sense. She won’t even consider eating a piece of fish yet she indulges in all types of Thai curry, which is a pretty adventurous ethnic cuisine right? Strange girl.
Needless to say we have really enjoyed our time in Thailand and on the islands. Our world trip idea originally just started as talks about a vacation to Thailand. We were really looking forward to coming here and it hasn’t disappointed us! We recommend a trip to the Thai islands for anyone who is looking for a paradise vacation. Getting out here from the states is definitely a journey but it’s so cheap that it counters the flight cost! We opted for Koh Lipe and Koh Lanta because through our research they are typically known as the more laid back islands. Phuket and Koh Phi Phi are the most traveled islands in the Andaman Sea but they have a reputation for being party islands and we weren’t looking for that.
After spending so much time in Vietnam it was interesting to come to Thailand and notice some differences. From what I know, Vietnam was never really a tourist destination until more recently (probably a lot to do with the Vietnam War) while Thailand has been a destination for Westerners for a few decades. Most of the differences we noticed probably stem from this. Thailand is clearly more developed for Westerners compared to Vietnam. I don’t even know what Thai breakfast is because every restaurant you go to (as a tourist) serves eggs, toast and pancakes. In Vietnam they did serve eggs but you also saw a lot of different types of Vietnamese soups for breakfast. Another big difference we noticed is that while playing tourist in Thailand people aren’t as aggressive toward you as in Vietnam. In a few of the places we were at in Vietnam we were constantly hounded by people trying to sell you stuff or start a conversation so they could sell you something (“Where you from? How old are you? You look Asian.”) Here in Thailand we were never hounded like that. It’s been rare for a local Thai person to have an extended conversation with us (although most people have been very friendly and smiley). The guy at the front desk of our hostel in Koh Lanta always greeted us with “Wassup dog?”. I was always like “My man!” I don’t know how he knew I was an OG gangsta but it was funny.
From the islands we headed to Krabi which is a city on the mainland with an airport. After one night here we fly to Chiang Mai, which is the largest city in Northern Thailand. We’re spending a week there and have some exciting things planned. After Chiang Mai we made the spontaneous decision to fly to New Zealand! (We booked it in late December.) We’re spending a month driving around both the North and South islands. We also had the bittersweet moment of booking our return flight back to the US. From New Zealand we’ll be flying back to Los Angeles (late February). Rach and I feel lucky enough to have traveled everywhere we have in the past five months and are really looking forward to our next month of travel. While we’re sad that our trip is nearing it’s last weeks, we’re also excited to return to our life that we left back home.
But enough of those sappy ending notes, on to Chiang Mai!