Thailand in One Week

สวัสดี

This is the Thai word for hello! The Thai language is beautiful, full of meaning, and still a complete mystery to me. I spent an incredible week exploring Thailand and all it had to offer this summer, and it was full of chowing down on delicious food, wandering through old cities full of temples and tradition, and hopping between neighborhoods in tuk tuks with people who barely spoke English. It was enlightening, to say the least.

This blog post is all about my week spent in Thailand, from where we went and what we did to the foods we tried and the money we saved!

Day 1: Bangkok

After 35 hours of traveling with stops in Texas and South Korea, we landed in Bangkok, a bustling and bright city that reminds me of New York City with its quick pace and terrifying traffic. We met up with friends of ours who were on their honeymoon and who let us stay in their hotel room.

First stop of the night: Sky Bar. Sky Bar is an 820-foot open air bar, one of the tallest in the world actually. It's at the top of the State Tower, on the 64th floor, in the business district and is NOT CHEAP but TOTALLY WORTH IT. The views alone were out of this world, and everyone was friendly and inviting. We drank champagne on the balcony as the brilliant purple and orange sunset transformed the city into a magical scene, and we celebrated our friends.

Next, we went to Khaosan Road, which is an extremely touristy market, but it was one of the most fun places we went! We were immediately greeted by a man selling fried scorpions, which we tried, of course. All along the road were food vendors, bars, merchants, backpacker hostels, and night clubs. We purchased gifts, drank beer, and tried weird foods before heading home to catch a few hours of sleep before our 5 a.m. flight to Chiang Mai.

Day 2-4: Chiang Mai

We arrived in Chiang Mai around 6:30 a.m. and went straight to our Airbnb, which happened to be a room in a hostel. It was called Hillside 2 Condominiums and was very nice! It had a small food mart and massage center downstairs, and it was in a really great location in the middle of the city. I wanted to stay in Nimmanhaemin area because after my research I decided this was a really trendy area with good food and cool shops that we would probably enjoy. After dropping our bags at the front desk, we began what would be a very long journey to Wat Phra That, a temple that rests at the top of Doi Suthep overlooking the city.

After a tuk tuk ride with a man who had no idea where we were trying to go, we found the start of the trail to Wat Palad, the hidden monk's temple about an hour down the trail on the way to Doi Suthep. I had the name of the temple and a picture of the start of the trail that I found on Pinterest, and the man even had to call a friend he thought could help, but we eventually found it! Check out my blog post about hiking Mount Suthep to read more about our hike.

After making it back to the hostel, we went downstairs for a traditional Thai massage. It was by far the best massage I have ever had in my life, and I paid a grand total of 200 THB, or about $6 USD. We followed that massage with a foot massage down the street! Another $6. Every massage ends with a cup of tea and a big ขอบคุณ (thank you).

The next day was elephant day! We made our way to Elephant Jungle Sanctuary to spend the morning with some beautiful elephant friends. I chose this organization because it rescues elephants who have been used for working in fields or have been abused and re-homes them at their sanctuary. Read all about our elephant encounter here!

We returned to our hostel and did a quick wardrobe change before heading to Old City to go temple hopping. Old City is the original location of Chiang Mai and is built within a medieval wall that used to protect the city. There's a temple on every corner within Old Town, and it was a beautiful day full of vibrant colors and Thai tradition. You can read all about the best way to maximize your temple visits here.

A temple in Old City, Chiang Mai.

We spent our last night in Chiang Mai at the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar, which was basically an entire street of shopping. There were individual karts as well as an inside area with food and music. I did all my shopping for friends here because the deals were so amazing! You could haggle with the merchants and find almost anything you had your heart set on. I bought everything from a funny T-shirt to a hand painted incense box.

Days 5-6: Phuket and the Phi Phi Islands

Our last day in Chiang Mai began with a trip to the Grand Canyon of Chiang Mai. It was really just a giant water park with floats, zip lines, and a jumping platform. We wanted to go "cliff diving" and jump off the platform. I had found it online the day before, and I thought it would be a fun way to end our stay in the city! We got there at 8 a.m., but they didn't open until 9 a.m. However, the workers let us in early so we could jump before our flight. It was about 32 feet down into pretty blue water.

After a quick flight, we landed in Phuket, where we booked a seat on a minivan taxi for about 150 THB, or $5 USD. We shared the van with 9 other passengers, and the driver dropped off each group along the main road down the island. The only downside to this option was that we had to wait about an hour and a half for the van to fill up before it would leave. They would only leave once that had every seat filled. However, it saved us a lot of money.

Our bungalow, which we booked on Airbnb was called Kata Beachwalk Bungalows and was a cute room that overlooked the sea from the top of the hill. It had air conditioning, a refrigerator, and a coffee maker. We chose to stay in this area because Karon Beach/Kata is very centrally located with easy access to everything we wanted to do. There were a lot of neat shops, such as a soap shop and local art displayed at night.

We decided to go immediately to the beach across the street to spend some time in the sun and watch the sunset. The beach was only slightly crowded, but it was COVERED in garbage. It was actually hard to walk in the water due to the plastic bags and bottles. After the sun had set, we walked down the beach to a restaurant on the beach!

The next morning was a bit of a whirlwind getting to Rassada Pier to catch a ride to the Phi Phi Islands. We end up tooking a speedboat there but a ferry back. After an hour ride through the Andaman Sea, we arrived and booked a half day tour around the islands. For a more detailed account of everything we did and saw on this excursion check out my blog post about the Phi Phi Islands.

The next day we had plans to kayak in Phang Nga Bay, but the next day was gray and stormy and not a good day for water sports. We decided to sleep in, and later my friends went to rent mopeds while I spent the day eating papaya, reading, and journaling on the porch. When my friends returned, it turned out one of them had taken a tumble on the moped and skinned her nose. So, naturally, I agreed to ride on the back of one of the mopeds to return them. Of course, we crashed going about 2 mph around a corner and ended our time in Phuket with busted knees and elbows and a slightly bruised ego.

Day 7: Back to Bangkok

Our very last day in Thailand was spent back in Bangkok, where we landed around 6:30 a.m. I don't know what it was, but I loved Bangkok. The sights and smells and sounds. Even though barely anyone spoke English and there was Thai writing on every street sign, I felt so comfortable there. We stayed in a cute Airbnb condo that we weren't actually supposed to rent, but the owner let us rent it on the down low.

I had signed up for a cooking class this day, so I headed to the mall to be picked up. You can read all about the yummy foods I learned how to cook on my Bai Pai Thai Cooking School blog post.

I do not believe I am done exploring Thailand. I would love to go back and explore the temples of Bangkok, especially the Grand Palace. I would also like to visit Chiang Rai, Pai, and Krabi. But I was really happy with how this trip turned out. We were able to save a lot of money and see some breathtaking sights.

Here are some tips that really helped saved money and allowed us to navigate Thailand a little more easily:

• I took out a set amount of cash at the beginning of my time in Thailand. This helped me to control how much money I spent and allowed me to avoid the charges for using a credit card that some banks enforce.

• Haggle for the best tuk tuk prices or choose to ride in a taxi with a meter! The cheapest ride we took was in Chiang Mai Old City, where we found a tuk tuk offering rides for 30 THB, or about $1 USD, per person. With a metered taxi, you will know exactly what the cost per km is, so you should be able to calculate how much you will pay. Our group definitely overpaid for a lot of rides, and looking back on it I think we could have done a lot better. However, we also went pretty far distances on our rides, so we would often pay 300-500 THB, or $10-15 USD (about $5 per person), for all three of us. Basically, know where you're going and how much it should cost and then don't let the drivers pressure you to pay too much.

• When looking for a restaurant, don't settle! For every overpriced restaurant, there is a dirt cheap, authentic, better one around the corner. A lot of the restaurants would try to pressure you to sit down and get a table. However, almost every restaurant had their menu posted outside. So take the time to scan over the prices and keep looking if they seem too high.

• We used our internet on this trip because we often had trouble navigating. Looking back, I could have saved a lot of money on international cell phone charges if I had done a little more research and downloaded maps and directions. Luckily, my internet plan only cost $10 per day IF I used it that day. The days I didn't use it, I was not charged.

Here is a breakdown of the more expensive things we did on this trip:

• Elephant Jungle Sanctuary: 1,700 THB, or $53 USD

• Day trip to Phi Phi Islands: About 3,100 THB, or $96 USD

• Bai Pai Cooking Class: 2,200 THB, or $69 USD (plus about 400 THB, or $13 USD, for souvenirs)

If you have questions about my trip or wish to share your own stories, feel free to reach out to me! I would love to share more about my experiences in Thailand.