Thailand: Part 1
It was a challenge of getting back on Pacific Daylight Time [-14 hours] and then we had friends in town from San Francisco. Taking naps Being good hosts trumps recapping one of the craziest trips of my life. I’ve actually struggled with how to summarize it. Italy [1, 2, 3, 4] was easy. It’s Europe. It’s glamorous. It’s full of good food and wine. Easy.
Thailand is different. It’s also beautiful and delicious, but it’s grittier. It’s more intense. It’s a total assault on the senses like no other. I was absolutely exhausted by the time we came home. We spent nearly the same time [three weeks] in both places, and Thailand felt infinitely longer.
We started the trip with a super long flight series. Portland –> Seattle –> Tokyo –> Bangkok. 6am Portland time to midnight the next day in Bangkok. You lose a day flying into the future, which sucks, but you’ll gain it back on the way home. We checked into the Courtyard Marriott for the first two nights. It’s the only hotel plans we had made in advance. Every other travel decision was made on the fly [or within 24 hours]. Low season is perfect for that. We never ran into any issues at all. You never felt pressured to stay anywhere for longer than you wanted to, and there were no reservations breathing down your neck that tear you away from a city that you’re in the middle of exploring. It worked out to being about four nights per area, though, which is what we expected.
Suvarnabhumi Airport isn’t near anything, so once we got checked into the hotel, it was pretty much straight to sleep. The hotel was in a touristy/shopping district. There is plenty to walk and to see. The humidity and smells aren’t escapable in this big city. It’s dirty. It was only really raining at night, and it would all evaporate by the time the sun would come out. 8am shows the world waking up. A lot of things aren’t open until closer to 10am, and a lot of people are headed to work. Street carts are everywhere. You can’t take a few steps without running into something to eat or drink. They’re big fans of iced drinks whether it’s coffee [Nescafe with sweetened condensed milk] or a fruit shake. For about 30baht [$1], you can have either one. They tuck them into plastic sacks so you don’t actually hold onto the cup.
Breakfast turned into a shrimp stir fry on the sidewalk with a bunch of locals. We pointed at a lot of things the first few days. Menus weren’t really in English at a lot of places, so we’d wait until we saw something we wanted, and then pointing did the rest. I don’t think we paid more than 120 baht [$4] at a street cart meal for two. The most expensive part of this whole trip was flying to/from the US/Bangkok. The rest can be super, super cheap if you want it to be. The rest of the day we clocked about 14 miles of walking [thanks, pedometer!] through the city, stopping to drink coconuts, check out stores, and eat. I unlocked my old iPhone before we left to be able to purchase a Thai sim card. For $30, we had unlimited internet on the phone for a month. It was perfect for using the GPS, turning it into a wifi hotspot for the iPad, or booking a hotel on the fly [I highly suggest agoda.com]. It’s the one thing I regretted not having in Italy. While I can read a map, it’s not easy to tell where you are on said map. GPS for the win.
The most random thing that happened that day was stepping inside the National Stadium indoor gymnasium to catch some National Badminton Championships. It was intense [and air conditioned]. It was around 85°F+(30°C) most of the time, and humid as hell, so anytime you could dip inside to get some relief, it was welcomed. Over at Lumphini Park, there are monitor lizards just wandering around at their leisure. There’s also a really big emphasis on being active, so lots of places to run or little gym areas outside with older gym equipment. It’s weird to see, but also nice to see. People care about being in shape. This would continue to be a theme at every park we saw.
Food for the rest of the day would consist of this chicken stir fry topped with a fried egg, and a bowl of soup with various chicken parts and noodles. You eat less when you’re walking everywhere, and you’re hot and sticky. The Thailand diet would shrink my stomach over the next few weeks for sure.
The next day, after a breakfast of liver and eggs over rice, was a trip on BTS [their train system] to the river to take the Chao Phraya tour boat down to the Tien Pier and then the ferry over to Wat Arun. It’s probably my favorite wat in Thailand [wat = temple]. You get to climb all over it, see the ornate details, and take pictures of the great views from the top. You’re surrounded by tourists, but it’s worth it. It’s not like you’re going to see anything like this back home. If you cross back over the river, it’s just a short walk to Wat Pho, which has the large reclining Buddha. It’s impressive. The rest of the grounds also have smaller Buddha statues and little nooks and crannies to explore. We had to check out of our hotel, or we probably would have continued checking out the other wats in the area, or the Grand Palace. We only ended up seeing it from the river, which is impressive in its own right.
Chinatown was a different place whether it was night or day. One of my favorite mornings of the trip was wandering through narrow alleys of Chinatown with an iced coffee in hand, dodging merchants setting out their wares or people navigating the markets for some early shopping. We were getting stares, but in a good way. They were surprised to see us. I’m guessing most tourists don’t go creeping through these side streets, and certainly not that early in the morning. We stopped at a little food cart for some soup, and the cook and her husband were really proud that we had chosen them for breakfast. It was really just an amazing thing to watch the world wake up from the street side table, slurping on some noodles.
We booked our flights to Krabi from Bangkok’s smaller, northern airport, and would head there the next morning.
Awesome reading your recap!
Your trip sounds amazing & kind of overwhelming! I’m super jealous of the food, of course. 🙂
so I wrote out the longest comment ever and now I don’t see that it’s posted — I’m hoping my computer is just being stupid and that it actually got to you (ironically enough, I complained a bit about technology in my comment. it looks like the internet heard and is being a pain in the ass on purpose to spite me). if you didn’t get it though, let me know, and I’ll give you like a 3 sentence recap haha
Noooooooooooooooo. I didn’t get the long comment. Recap please!
Nooooo I hate when that happens. To start, I said that having gps/wifi makes such a difference on a trip, and I think it’s awesome that you were able to use it – and I’m sure it most definitely helped out for being able to make all your plans within 24 hours while traveling. I think it’s so hard to travel (or, um, live) without having a smart phone with things like maps and internet. That being said, the idealist-in-me thinks its a little sad how it truly is impossible to disconnect and disappear, no matter where in the world we go. Did you still feel very disconnected, even though you had your wifi hotspot?
ummm forgot what else I had said, something about I like how you adjust completely to the food when you’re there — even if it means having to shrink your stomach a little. (gasp! I like how you have a big appetite and I hope the trip didn’t do too much damage on that.) and ummm something else like ha ha to your first statement that talking about europe is easy. and it is. it is pretty and the food is awesome and that’s all there is to it. 😉 then again it’s nice to get away from that, I’m sure…
Believe it or not, I still felt really disconnected. I think being +14 hours from home helped. We had a pretty strict “nothing but maps or Foursquare” unless we were back at the hotel for the evening. By that time, everyone might be getting up for work, so nothing has been going on. It was great. I even turned off my work email. I was so proud.
The only remnants of my “trip stomach” is that it’s still a little smaller. I get fuller faster, but it burns off quick and I’m ready to eat again. I’m still eating all kinds of fatty, carby goodness. That is one thing I missed. Rice and rice noodles and soup just doesn’t fit those guidelines, y’know?
You have no idea how jealous I am. Or maybe you do, since I may or may not have been drooling all over your trip before it even happened. The sights, the sounds, the smells, the shrimp for breakfast! Plus Nescafe, I swear whatever it is they sell as Nescafe outside the US is nothing even close to what that product is IN the US. I mean, how does it taste so good elsewhere, and like instant coffee dirt here?
I also had no idea Thailand had a Chinatown. I guess every big city does, but still, surprising. Okay, I have to go read part two now, and get even more excited for the day I get back to figuring out my life (aka saving money) and can actually plan a trip of my own.
I wondered if you’d end up reading this! I miss you!
I actually had an “Allie would totally dig this trip” moment while I was there. You’re one of the few people I know that appreciates the kind of adventure this trip provides. It’s totally exhausting and amazing and awesome.
The Nescafe thing blows my mind. We actually contemplated getting some now that we’re back, but I know that’s just going to be a bad idea. It’s already been a challenge getting back to good ol’ bitter coffee. It was so much sweet all the time. Then turn around and eat all kinds of spicy, sour, sweet, and salty. I love that almost every meal came with all of your condiments. You can make it just as spicy as you want. It’s so, so awesome.
Figuring out your life is overrated, btw. That said, I’m about to start a new job, so I doubt I’ll get three-weeks off any time soon.
I was kind of surprised about Chinatown, too. There are all kinds of immigrants there, though. They have really high percentages of Japanese, Korean, and Russian tourists, so they cater to them. You can find Italian food everywhere, too. And Burger King/McDonalds. Shocking, I know.
It’s not everyone that can enjoy that sort of vacation–I know what you mean about being utterly exhausted (and overwhelmed) and yet it’s such an amazing experience, vastly different world/culture that you love every minute of it. And oh, what’s the new job??
You mean I didn’t write back to this? I thought I did. Damn.
The new job is a mild extension of my current job. I’m moving to a CPA firm to start their family office services department (what I do now), work on my CPA license, and prepare taxes and all that. Should be exciting (with a TON of overtime).
I loved reading your Thailand posts! Sounds like the opposite in England in terms of coffee. Over here if I ask for an iced coffee outside of July people say, “Why would we have ice? It’s not summer.” No joke. Unless it’s Starbucks many cafes will simply laugh at the suggestion.
Also, I am a HUGE fan of walking now. I love walking miles and miles, especially through cities. I’ve totally rediscovered London since I’ve been walking part of my commute. Were you in good shape before the trip? On some vacations where I’ve walked a lot it’s been a bit of a death march, but now that I’m in good walking shape I’m eager to try it out again!
Random question – why did you decide on Disqus as a commenting system? I’m just wondering because I feel like I’m missing something! A lot of people use it but I find that it makes it difficult to leave comments. I use to sign in with my Twitter, but my Twitter kept getting hacked and it was due to applications so I had to revoke access to all things connected to my Twitter.
I think it’s in a coffee shop’s best interest to have ice. They’re able to sell less actual product (coffee) for more money (cost of ice). The displacement actually drives me insane, but sometimes I just NEED iced coffee. There are a couple places here that keep cold brew on tap. It’s glorious.
Walking miles and miles is the best way to see cities. I’m convinced. I don’t get to walk nearly enough when I’m home, and it drives me crazy. It’s half of the reason why I go to the gym at lunch most days. I need the exercise. I’m going to start taking mass transit here soon, so bring on the walking! I’d say I was in pretty good shape before the trip, and it was necessary. When we were walking around the (uphill) zoo, we commented that if you couldn’t run a mile without stopping, you might reconsider going. It’s just a huge physical commitment to get around in that humidity sometimes. We would practically pass out at the hotel as it got dark because you spent so much time out and about during the day time.
I’ll be honest, half of the reason I went with Discus is I had a friend who suggested it. I wanted something that could send emails that replies were made, etc. I haven’t had any issues with it personally on other websites that use it, so I went with it. That so weird that it’s been hell for you (and who hacks Twitter accounts anyway?).
Totally agree about the ice. It irritates me that you get less, BUT I enjoy it for so much longer. With a hot drink I feel like I have to drink it super fast, otherwise it gets cold quickly and is gross. With an iced drink, say from Starbucks, I’ll be sipping on it for more than an hour.
About Disqus – is it just me or is it hard to connect it to my blog?? On other sites it’s easy to just put your name and blog address and then comment. Maybe I’m just not getting it haha. I don’t know!!