Hello, hello!
Remember that childhood joke from way back in your elementary school days?
We’re already missing Thailand’s lush, tropical landscape and perfect climate but are kind of happy to be back in Osaka at the same time. It seems like spring is in the air here—yesterday was the first day we didn’t need to turn on the heater (yay!) and this morning was the first time since September that I heard birds singing. I think the cold stretch of weather is finally coming to an end (or maybe I’m just hopeful).
We stumbled off the plane around 6:30 a.m. last Saturday morning and had to struggle to stay out of bed when we got home. Of course, we would have slept if we didn’t have to work that same day. Haha....let’s just say, Saturday was a very painful day at work. We spent most of Sunday catching up on missed z’s.
Scott and I both had an excellent time in Thailand. We left last Sunday from the Kansai International Airport in Osaka and arrived at the Suvarnabhumi Airport around 10:30 p.m. Our initial impression of Thailand was pretty funny because the first person we had an extended conversation with was our cab driver (who understood little English) and thus, resulted in pure hilarity. Since the airport is located on an industrial strip of the highway (located about 40 minutes from the Bangkok city centre, where our hotel was), we had ample time to chat with our cabbie. He seemed pretty interested in getting to know us and asked us some typical questions that he’d probably memorized: “Where are you from?” “What do you do?” “How long are you staying in Thailand?” etc. Scott told him we were staying in Bangkok for a couple days then heading down south to Ko Chang island. I guess to him, “Ko Chang” sounded more like “cocaine” and he seemed pretty confused. Scott tried to explain the “ch” sound to him, but he still didn’t get it. I guess he thought we wanted to do drugs or drink because he kept saying, “Whiskey, no cocaine” and kept chuckling.
After paying about 300 Baht (about $9) for the whole cab ride, we arrived at our hotel, The Prince Palace, located in the heart of Bangkok. We were surprised at how lavish the hotel was considering we only paid about $50 per night and they even upgraded our room to a suite. We spent the night exploring our new surroundings and also grabbed a drink at the poolside bar .
Bangkok looked so much different in daylight and we spent the whole next day exploring. Our hotel was connected to a market and shopping centre, so after breakfast, we browsed around for an hour, bought some stuff for next to nothing, and then ventured around the city in a tuk tuk (a Thai taxi that’s more like a motorbike with a seat in the back). Our driver took us around to see some city attractions such as the Golden Mountain, the Marble Temple, and endless Buddahs. Later in the day, we also stopped in at a tailor (that a Thai native recommended to us) and got fitted for some suits.
We made our way by tuk tuk to Bangkok’s Chinatown, where we ate our first delicious Thai meal by the water before heading back to the hotel. We had to be back by 8 p.m. because the tailors had to come to the hotel to do a fitting. After the tailors left, we ventured off to explore Bangkok’s nightlife, which included watching an interesting show and walking down Khao San Road. This road is probably one of the most well-known venues for foreigners/tourists in Bangkok and is absolutely overflowing with backpackers and drunken people from all over the world. We made some more purchases here, ate some authentic street Pad Thai, and just wandered around and chatted with people.
The next day, we had to wake up early to catch our bus to Ko Chang. Originally, we had thought we could hire a taxi to take us there (about 350 km) for $50, but when we got to Bangkok, we discovered that Bangkok taxis couldn’t go that far because they weren’t able to pick up passengers in another province. Ko Chang is Thailand’s second largest island and is located in the province of Trat, which is well known for heavenly beaches and surreal landscapes. Anyway, our tuk tuk driver from the previous day had taken us to a tourist agency, where we bought bus tickets for a pretty reasonable price. Although the bus ride to Ko Chang was rather long, we got to see a large portion of the country and some more rural landscapes we wouldn’t have seen if we flew to Ko Chang or stayed in Bangkok for the whole vacation. After we got off the bus, we boarded the ferry to Ko Chang and when we arrived on the island, the long bus ride made everything seem worthwhile. Everything was absolutely breathtaking.
We hopped on a taxi and were a little surprised when we arrived at our hotel, The Grand Orchid Resort and Spa. It looked nothing like the pictures we had seen on the Internet and was nowhere near the beach. On top of all that, the whole resort seemed like a ghost town—there were no vacationers whatsoever. Shortly after checking in, we left the hotel for White Sands Beach, a very popular beach town on Ko Chang about ten minutes from the hotel. We knew the instant we saw the beach that we wanted to stay there, so we scoured the area for a nice, cheap accommodation and luckily found one at a nice bungalow community called San Arun. We went back to the other hotel, checked out, got a refund (minus a small cancellation fee), and our happiness came rushing back. Our new bungalow was literally a two-second walk to the beach and offered everything we needed for a pleasant stay. The owner was also super friendly (unlike the people at Grand Orchid) and gave us a discount for our three-night stay.
Night life on White Sands Beach was very vibrant, especially at Sabay Bar. They had fire shows, live music, and great people to socialize with. We met so many nice people and had a great time!
The next day, Scott and I rented a motorbike for only 200 Baht ($6) for 24 hours. It was funny coming from a country where everyone uses bicycles to a country where everyone has a motorbike. The bad thing about this was the air was so much more polluted and we could both really tell the difference. Thailand isn't exactly the cleanest country and Bangkok has dumps and garbage piles in the middle of the city. What's even crazier is that the people take their babies on the motorbikes. I thought it was crazy to see babies on bicycles in Japan, but Thailand was absolutely ludacris...especially with the risque driving style. Anyway, We biked almost the entire length of the island (30 km) and stopped at a famous waterfall, which we hiked to see. We were simply amazed when we arrived at the waterfall because there was a swimming hole as well and we spent a lot of time just relaxing and admiring the natural beauty of the landscape. This was definitely my favourite part of the trip!
On the way back from the waterfall, we stopped to do a little shopping on the southern part of the island and also ate Pad Thai and drank banana shakes at a local restaurant—which were so tasty (and cheap too)! We finished off the day with a traditional Thai massage and then ate dinner on the beach.
When in Thailand, you must ride an elephant, so the next day, we did just that. We thought it was one of those things you just have to do before you leave and we didn’t regret it!
The next day, we left Ko Chang and headed back to Bangkok, which meant another ferry ride and bus trip. The people of Thailand really respect their king and one thing I noticed on the bus trip was that the highways and urban areas have large pictures of him and the royal family everywhere. One of our cab drivers also told us that the king’s sister recently passed away, so it was going to be an unlucky year for them (which also might explain why all the temples were packed with people—they were probably praying for the king’s sister).
When we arrived in the city, we went to the tailor’s to pick up our suits and then spent some time on Sukhumviht Road (a touristy road with great shopping and lots of hotels). We ate dinner at a lovely Indian restaurant (because we were kind of Thai-ed out) and then headed to the airport.
Although our vacation wasn’t so long, we had an amazing adventure and got to see so much in such a short time and we both agree that we want to visit Thailand again and explore other areas of the country. There are definitely some things we won’t miss though, including the bugs and the overly-relaxed attitude of most Thai people we encountered. I’m surprised we made our flight (after waiting for a cab for one hour and waiting in the customs line for nearly an hour too). Although it was a pain waiting for so long, it was even more hilarious to see how antsy the Japanese people were getting. The look on their faces said it all! I guess it wouldn’t have been such a bad thing because we wouldn’t have had to go to work the same day. Ah well!
Hope all is well back home!
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