Time for a new continent! After over 7 months in Europe, we made it to Asian shores. Early on in our trip, we decided to make our way home via Thailand for a month, as it would give us a chance to see something completely different, help us stretch our budget, and as an added bonus, break up our long distance travel home to Australia. So, in this first belated post covering our time in Thailand, I’m going to cover our first few weeks – in hectic Bangkok, on beautiful Koh Tao and just hanging around on Koh Phangan.
Bangkok
Bangkok was a whirlwind. After a pretty gruelling set of back-to-back flights, we rolled in to our <$30 dollar a night hotel (glorious Australian dollar to Thai Baht conversion rates were a theme of our time in Thailand) at a crazy late hour and pretty much collapsed in the hotel for a couple of days. We did emerge for the breakfast buffet, where we got our first taste of distinctly Thai food – spicy meats, vegetable and rice. Definitely an unusual breakie but we embraced it!
Every time we emerged from air conditioned comfort, we were absolutely smashed by the sheer heat and humidity of Thailand in the wet season. We thought southern Europe was brutal for heat – but combining heat with humidity was a whole new level of challenging. Sweat was a constant companion on any outdoor adventure. We thought we would walk a lot in Bangkok, but ended up using “Grab” (Thai Uber, super cheap) a lot just for some respite from the conditions.
One thing we did manage do get out and do was spending an action-packed half-day at the Chatuchack Weekend Markets. This market has more than 15,000 stalls, all crowded in next to each other in tiny spaces, with hordes of locals and tourists everywhere buying everything from food to clothing, and herbal medicine to crockery. It was an overwhelming combination of sights and smells (worth noting Bangkok has an extraordinary range of smells everywhere – good, bad, and ugly). Eventually, having purchased clothes, cloth, and multiple serves of delicious coconut ice-cream (an ongoing Thai obsession for me), we escaped with our budget only slightly damaged.
Of course, we had to visit a Buddhist temple during our stay. We ended up visiting Wat Sa Ket, an impressive golden temple on an artificial hill in suburban Bangkok. We saw many temples across our Thailand travels, and whether big or small, what always struck me is both how brightly coloured they are, and how cheaply built they are compared to European religious monuments. Everything is gold paint and plaster! Regardless, they were always beautiful and worth a look. One of the most impressive things about this temple was actually the view of the city. Bangkok is a city of 10 million people, and so in every direction the city stretched out, seemingly indefinitely.
One afternoon, while wandering down one of Bangkok’s more touristy streets, we noticed everyone packing up anything outside their shop and hurrying indoors. We didn’t know what to make of it, until the heavens opened and the heaviest rain I have ever seen starting bucketing down. We sat it out at the nearest cafe, just watching as the street became a river!
I’d love to make it back to Bangkok one day – feels like we barely scratched the surface in our few days there.
Koh Tao
Before we knew it, we were back at an airport, and off on yet another travel day. A plane to a tiny airport in the middle of nowhere, and a couple of slightly queasy hours on a high speed ferry later, and we were on Koh Tao. This tiny island in the gulf of Thailand is only 7 kilometres long, and is a backpacker paradise – cheap accommodation, minimal high-end tourism, and beautiful beaches and coral reefs everywhere. We thoroughly enjoyed living life at a slower pace here for a while after a busy run – we ended up staying for a couple of weeks and soaking up the tropical island lifestyle.
Early on in our time on Koh Tao, we spent an epic day on a snorkeling tour around the island. We got on a jam-packed boat bright and early and stopped at a number of different reefs over the day, following unbothered fish around on their merry way, and even a gigantic turtle at one spot. Combined with an included buffet lunch, it made for a pretty good day. The ocean around Koh Tao is pretty consistently 30 degrees celsius temperature-wise, so despite hours in the water, we didn’t get cold at all.
One of the main tourists attractions that draws tourists to Koh Tao is scuba diving. We had been sitting on the fence about whether we would try it or not, but the chance was too good to resist, and so we signed up for a 3 day “Open Water Diving Course” with a company called Master Divers. Over three jam-packed days, we went from whiteboard/classroom learning, to a swimming pool with scuba gear on, and before we knew it, we were out under the waves, going right down to our limit of 18 metres (you can only go deeper with further training). It was a totally surreal experience to hover and move around underwater – initially, your brain just can’t quite comprehend that you can breath in that situation. We enjoyed it so much we signed up for a couple of “fun dives” in the subsequent days. We swam through schools of thousands of fish, watched our instructor cut a stingray loose from a fishing line, and even got nibbled on by “cleaner fish”, as well as seeing an incredible amount of coral and random marine life doing their thing. Definitely a highlight of our time in Thailand.
Of course, eating low cost, delicious Thai food was a daily delight across our Thai travels. For 2-4 dollars a serve, we ate noodles, curries, and stir-fry galore. I would often have 2, and occasionally 3 “meals” for dinner, as serving sizes weren’t huge. By the end of our time in Thailand, we were still eating Thai food twice a day – we may have been a little sick of the sheer amount of oil we were consuming, but I was still obsessed with the flavours and price of thai food. My favourite was either a good Massaman Curry or noodle dish, while Charlotte loved the Papaya Salad.
We did spend just a couple of evenings out on the town during our stay – turns out being a backpacker island means there is quite a vibrant nightlife (though we were staying in a relatively quiet area near the port, so a bit of walking was required to get there). We played (and won!) trivia at an Australian bar with some new friends we met diving, played pool next to the ocean, and watched in amazement as literally hundreds of people went past us on a “pub crawl” around the island.
Koh Phangan
Our time on legendary party island Koh Phangan was, in very much classic style for us, the opposite of partying. We had initially planned longer here but we made the decision to stay longer on Koh Tao instead. So when we did make it, we spent a few days riding a scooter around the island – exploring the more interesting little corners and styaing out of trouble. Riding a scooter around was a crazy experience in itself. Charlotte and I shared a scooter, and I spent my time on the road weaving us through the crazy combination of cars, trucks, taxis and other scooters that play what feels like “chicken” on the road – most confident has right of way. We had a ball though, and the additional mobility meant that we could explore everything the island had to offer.
The ocean water next to where we were staying was the hottest ocean water I have ever experienced in my life – it must have been mid 30s celsius. It was only around a metre deep for a significant distance, so I’m guessing it just gets a lot of solar heating and not much in the way of currents or water movement. It was far too hot to be refreshing during the day, and was much more like a bath really.
One highlight was a visit to a local lookout over the southern part of the island. The lookout was nice enough, but the real surprise highlight was seeing monkeys in the wild! They were busy munching on grass, and when they saw us, grumpily made their way down the hillside, grabbing one more handful of grass for the road.
The highlight of our stay on Koh Phangnam was definitely a visit to Mae Haad beach. During the right tide times, a spit of sand connect the beach to an offshore small island, creating two incredible bays and a great walking path. We spent quite a bit of time here, swimming, wandering, and relaxing by the waves.
So, that takes us to half-way through our time in Thailand. I strongly recommend the Gulf of Thailand islands – relatively close to Australia, cheap to get to (Jetstar flies to Thailand) and a great spot to slow down, eat delicious food, and get in the water. Keep an eye out for our last trip post, coming shortly!
Next Stops: Koh Samui, Chiang Mai and surrounds, Home!