Thailand

I don’t know if I can really begin to put my trip to Thailand into words–but I’ll attempt to. The trip was planned and finalized during the spring when my brother, John, and I decided that we wanted to travel together. I had never been to Asia before and Thailand was pretty high up on my list of places to visit. I went for just over two weeks and John continued on to Cambodia, Vietnam and Singapore. Now I’m back in New York and I have to complete my thesis before I can even think about planning my next trip (but hopefully I’ll manage to swing something in the fall/winter).

Here’s a bit about each of the cities we visited:

Bangkok

I had been apprehensive about visiting Bangkok because it had mixed reviews from people who have visited before, but I really enjoyed what the capital city had to offer. We could have used a bit more time to explore since we were only here for 3 nights and didn’t get in until around midnight, but in that time we managed to pack in The Grand Palace, Wat Arun, Chinatown and Khaosan Road. The Grand Palace was a must-see, Wat Arun was difficult to get to, but had great views, Chinatown was fun to explore and the food was great–but not fantastic as far as big city Chinatowns go and Khaosan Road was an experience–fun to visit and even though it’s the backpackers road I definitely would not recommend staying there because of the noise/chaos. It’s a bit like Bourbon Street in New Orleans–fun for the spectacle and a must-see at least once while you’re there, but it doesn’t offer a truly local and authentic experience of the city. The bars blast competing EDM that results in a terrible cacophony, while men and woman try to get you to see ping-pong shows and vendors sell street food, cheap clothing, fake sunglasses and watches and bugs and scorpions for consumption. Our hostel was in Siam Square, right near the skytrain–which made it easy to get to the airport and the river, but there’s also a lot that the skytrain line doesn’t reach (you could transfer to a ferry to get to Wat Arun).

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai was definitely my favorite stop on the trip. The food was amazing and cheap (a whole dinner of stewed pork leg from a street vendor cost 30 Baht–or less than $1), our hostel/guesthouse experience was great and allowed us to meet a lot of cool people, the surrounding area is beautiful, the 2-day trekking adventure we arranged through the hostel and we got 1 hour Thai massages for 180 Baht ($5.66 USD). Our trekking trip (1400 Baht or $44.98 USD), which included food, transportation, a tour of an orchid/butterfly farm, elephant trekking/feeding, an overnight stay with the Lahu hill tribe, a couple waterfall excursions, whitewater rafting and bamboo rafting, was the highlight of the trip. The overnight stay with the hill tribe after a full day of trekking was what finally got me to relax and enter full vacation mode–which is sometimes hard when there’s a lot on your mind from back home. Our guide (a cheeky Thai man named Don, who was married to a British woman and loved using strange English phrases, like many Thais do) and tribe mother cooked us dinner after we showered with cold bucket water and we ate with our temporary family for the stay. After dinner, we drank and played stick games and were serenaded by Don, who played us a bunch of Western songs (he knew about 1/4 of the words and just mumbled the rest) including “No Woman, No Cry,” “Wonderwall,” “Hey, Jude,” “Zombie,” “Numa, Numa,” “Hotel California,” and “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Unfortunately (or perhaps in an act of fate), after our trip and return to Chiang Mai, it was Buddhist holiday and all the bars were closed for the following two days. John and I explored some of the local temples, got massages from “ex-prisoners” and hung out and drank shitty Thai beer (Chang and Leo) and played cards (President, mostly) with people from our hostel.

Koh Phi Phi

I mistakingly booked 5-nights in Koh Phi Phi, which John and I frantically changed to three after our arrival and realization that Koh Phi Phi was a terribly-overpriced tourist trap/non-stop bro party. It was pretty crappy getting to Koh Phi Phi after such an awesome time in Chiang Mai because the food was disappointing, there wasn’t as much to do, and there was bit of a weird, eerie and hazy overcast dampening the mood as well. The experience overall was redeemed, in the end. Our hostel was at the top of a terrible series of stairs, next to the Tsunami evacuation and lookout point. John did happen to run into a friend from school and his traveling buddy so we got to hang out with them one night and went to a great, chill spot called Banana Bar where they play movies and 90s hip-hop music videos on screens. They also have a great rooftop and a lot of cozy cushions. We booked a day-trip to the surrounding islands that included a bunch of surrounding spots, snorkeling and Maya Bay (where the movie, The Beach was filmed). Maya Bay was breath-taking and worth the entire trip–you had to swim, climb a rope wall and venture across the island to actually get to the beach. Our last night in Phi Phi, John and I went to Reggae Bar, which is actually just a big boxing ring that hosts Muay Thai matches AND (the best part) matches between eager testosterone-amped tourists (with the incentive of a free bucket). You may accuse me of lacking class, but watching drunk bros voluntarily kick the shit out of each other is awesome. John made friends with two Brits sitting next to us who introduced him to betel nut (or Maht, in Thai).

Koh Lanta

Koh Lanta was a nice escape after the chaos of Phi Phi. It was quiet and pretty deserted because it’s the off-season there now. Our hostel owner was a very friendly and helpful Swiss man who married a Thai woman from Koh Lanta. A couple nights was enough time to explore the 30 km long island and we rented a motorbike to venture around. We were within walking distance of one of the island’s several beaches, Long Beach and we biked to the national park where we saw a bunch of monkeys and a short hiking trail that led to a small waterfall. The food was a lot better than in Phi Phi and the prices a bit better too.

Phuket

Three nights in Phuket were three nights too many. We stayed in Patong Beach, which is like the worst of Jersey + Vegas all wrapped up into one trashy, touristy, pricey, awful place. The worst part is the prevalence of old, usually fat, western guys with Thai hookers. John and I ventured to a little bit outside of Patong where we found a Thai/Chinese seafood restaurant, which became our safe haven for all three nights. Highlight of Phuket: Meeting up with our friend Ian we met in Chiang Mai who stayed at our hostel + went on the trekking trip with us. The beach wasn’t terrible, but there was a lot of garbage everywhere. John went parasailing and we took a bus into Phuket Town one day to escape the awfulness that is Patong. While there wasn’t much to do there, it was good to get a good local meal and be away from Patong.

I ended the trip in Bangkok with a 12-hour layover after Phuket and had the pleasure of meeting up with a friend (Chris) I met in Chiang Mai who happened to be house-sitting with his Aussie friend at the time. It was great to meet up again, catch up and not have to kill all of that time at BKK. We had a couple of beers, hung out with the two house cats, and got a fabulous Thai dinner. Wonderful ending to a wonderful trip.