Thailand Report! (super long and pic heavy)
You know how I always say I'll make a post with photos and stuff when I've been abroad and it never happens... well this time I'm actually doing it! Just 3 months late ;) It was a pretty long journey so there's a lot to tell you about, but I will try to fill out the text with lots of photos :)
In general, I can say that it was an awesome journey! I was there for 3½ weeks (28 oct-22 nov) with my boyfriend Rasmus. It was my second trip to Thailand, last time was with my sister in the summer of '06 (we then visited Bangkok, Hua Hin, and Koh Tao - were we took our diving certificates - and I loved it so much that I knew I would go back!).
I guess the easiest way to do this is a brief summary of each day;
28 October - Bangkok: First impression
Around 20 hours after leaving Sweden, we arrived in Bangkok in the afternoon. We flew with Turkish Airlines from Copenhagen (they had the cheapest tickets, 5500 SEK for a return flight - that's around US$770) so we had to spend a couple of hours in Istanbul first, a very boring airport were we had the most expensive beer and juice ever...
Anyway, after settling at our pretty crappy but very cheap room at Pranee Building, we spent most of the remaining day at MBK shopping centre, just across the street. Rasmus was somewhat disapointed in the arcade games they had, but played a few anyway. He was so overwhelmed by the town, and it was definitely an experience for me too to travel with someone who has only been to Scandinavia and Greece before - it made me realise and appreciate even more just how different and totally awesome Thailand is.
We lived near MBK.
Travelling in three layers! Roads and skytrain-tracks.
MBKs top floor has an arcade.
Teaching the kid what's important in life :D
29 October - Bangkok: Chao Praya, Wat Pho and Siam Ocean World
We took the skytrain south to Saphan Takshin were we went on a tourist boat on Chao Praya river, were a guide talked about the different sites on the way. We got off near Grand Palace and walked around the area and street markets for a while, had lunch, found out that the Royal Palace was closing early (really, it wasn't a scam this time I assure you :P) and visited Wat Pho instead.
After Wat Pho, we took a tuk-tuk to Siam Paragon to visit Siam Ocean world. They had more stuff than last time I went, like the awesome 3D-movie with moving seats, wind and water-effects. We both enjoyed it greatly!
Huge reclining Buddha at Wat pho.
See the cat? :)
Hooge crabsies!
Travelling by boat on... an aquarium... full of sharks!
So, what's a car doing in an aquarium?
It IS an aquarium!
And so is this refrigerator...
... and this winecooler-thingy...
... and this microwave with cup-o-noodles in it...
... yes, it's a washing machine aquarium.
Shark-shark! They have one of those tunnels so you walk under the fish :)
Fish bath! The little fish nibbled our feat clean. It tickled... a lot.
Dead fish. In red balls.
Rasmus got to see a Mola mola! ... But it was dead D:
30 October - Bangkok: Dusit Zoo, Grand Palace/Wat Phra Kaew and Thanon Kao San
I hate to admit it because I am usually totally opposed to zoos, especially in countries were animals aren't always treated so great... but yeah, we went to Dusit Zoo. It wasn't that bad though, and we saw many animals that I have never even heard of before. They also had some pretty weird arcade games that entertained Rasmus.
Next stop was Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew, a pretty spectacular sight.
We spent the evening on Khao San Road, were Rasmus got his first impression of the horridness of mass-tourism. It was pretty traumatic for him. We had dinner, looked around, had a couple of drinks at a nearby, slightly less horrific street, and then never went back to that area of town again. Sorry, didn't take any pics there.
There were lots of wild water monitors all over the park and outside it.
This monitor might be harboring some kind of death wish...
There were lots of weird and interesting arcade games in the park.
Wat Phra Kaew.
Grand Palace.
31 October - Ayutthaya: Train ride and touring ruins
We took an early train north to Ayutthaya, which was really packed full of people so we had to stand up in the heat with our heavy backpacks for about two hours... not fun. But we finally made it to the town and the gorgeous Baan Lotus Guesthouse. The rooms were really nice and I LOVED the garden pond! We spent all of our evenings there drinking beer, listening to the frogs and watching the fireflies dance in the light of the full moon <3
On the first day we visited a couple of the ruins in town, which were amazing! Before the sun started setting, we took an organized tour by tuk-tuk to quite a few of the town's ruins. They were possibly even more spectacular after dark when spotlights lit them up! We got so many mosquito bites though >_<
Waiting for the train. My hair before the sun got to it ;P
Baan Lotus Guesthouse! *recommend*
I had veggies for lunch, Rasmus had a whole fish :P
A Buddha head had grown into the tree.
Someone was fed up with all the Buddha statues and started worshipping Doraemon?!
1 November - Lopburi
We took a bus north to Lopburi to watch the even older ruins, and of course, monkeys! This is probably the weirdest town I have ever been in.
We loved the ruins here, and the fact that we only saw two other foreigners during our whole day there made it even better. After a meal at the town's only "tourist-friendly" restaurant, we went back to Ayutthaya by train, and luckily we got seats this time. We also got a bottle of mosquito repellant from another tourist couple we met there, so big thanks to them! <3
You can already see the monkeys.
Count the monkeys!
Monkey find, monkey claim, monkey play! (monkey destroy, whoops)
The monkeys were everywhere, it was insane. They jumped up on a child and scared her. We crossed to the other side of the street...
2 November - Khao Yai National Park and Loi Krathong festival
Our first wildlife experience on the trip was in one of Thailand's oldest, largest and most visited reserves - a good, easy start for my dearest :)
We caught the earliest train east to Pak Chong to get to the park early, but apparently that train was expensive as hell... at least you got breakfeast served, lol. Upon our arrival, we bought a tour to the park, including a guide that took us on a forest trek, lunch in the park restaurant, and to see the waterfall were they filmed scenes from "The Beach".
Unfortunately we couldn't stay very long as we wanted to get back to the festivities in town, but during our short visit we managed to see, among other things, great hornbills, some form of large deer, monitor lizards, two species of millipedes, the regular maqaque monkeys but also a white-faced (?) gibbon monkey! It stopped in a low branch right above us and looked down curiously, but I was too amazed to pull up the camera, and by the time I had, it was far up in the trees already.
When we got back to Ayutthaya, the madness had already begun. The Thais celebrate "Loi Krathong" on the full moon of november, so everyone was out to celebrate, putting lotus flowers in the rivers and most of all going crazy with really loud fireworks and crackers! It was pretty insane but entertaining :)
See the gibbon? Best pic I got of him :/
Hornbill in the middle there.
Waterfall from the movie "The Beach".
Cool factory seen from the train back to Ayutthaya.
Full moon...
... party! :P
3 November - Kanchanaburi
We took an early minibus to Kanchanaburi, were we decided to stay in a cozy riverside bungalow at the Blue Star Guest House. After lunch we walked to "the bridge over river kwai", and the nearby museum of tackiness.
We then took a longtailboat south to the JEATH War museum. We walked back from there, and I must say it was a pretty nice town.
Our room was just by the river.
All the road signs in Kanchanaburi are fishes! :O
The famous bridge over river kwai.
Museum of win!
River boat ride! The kid didn't want his pic taken :P
THE BOMB. @ JEATH war museum.
Oh noes! No meat and porks!!11 ;D
4 November - Kanchanaburi: Erawan Waterfall, Hellfire-pass and Death Railway
We took one of the many tours organized from town, were the first stop was the amazingly beautiful Erawan waterfall, which has 7 tiers. We walked all the way up to the top, but still had time for a quick dip in the refreshing water before going back for lunch.
Next stop on the tour was the Hellfire-pass memorial, were we learned even more about the building of the "Death Railway".
We visited a cave by the railway before going on a short train ride back to Kanchanaburi, were we stopped at the bridge over river kwai (third time for me... but first time during sunset, so I took a few pics anyway :P)
The highest tier!
Hellfire pass.
The cave was used for medical purposes during the building of the railroad.
Found a frog back at the hotel. They had these in Ayutthya too.
Prettiest cat ever! He followed us into the room :P
5 November - Kanchanaburi: Daowadung Cave and Sai Yok National Park
We didn't find any organized tours to this cave and park, so we just hired a taxi for the day. Lucky for us a Thai couple who had fixed a guide arrived at the cave the same time as us. Though neither of them knew more than a couple of words of english, they helped us through the very large, dark and slippery cave and pointed out the different stalactites, animals and stuff. It was probably the best cave I've been to, spectacular!
After the cave our taxi-samlaew took us to Sai Yok National Park and the driver guided us around the place for a bit. We took a longtail boat up and down the river and despite all the little bungalows along the river edges, this was easily one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to (the photos don't really capture the magic here, unfortunately). We had lunch in a restaurant on the river (almost got a little sea-sick there!) and then went by ourselves into the bamboo-forest to find another cave. We didn't go into this one though, as it was pretty much just a big hole straight down into the ground!
Rasmus wasn't feeling very well (he might have gotten some of the bug spray into his mouth, not a good idea) so after a half-dip (didn't bring our swimsuits) in the river, we decided to head back to town and rest. I have to go back another time to see the rest of the park!
I don't think we would have dared to go down there at all without a guide. Just a little hole in the ground in the middle of the forest hill. It was dark and slippery as hell in there too!
Bats and their poo were all over the cave roof.
There is a scary bug hiding in this pic. I didn't want to get nearer so I didn't get a better pic..
Here's another one I did get close too! Never seen one of these before, amazing creature! Big too!
NOT very reassuring signs!
Finally reached the cave! Couldn't go in though, too steep!
Crab spider! I love them. Almost walked into this one though.
Captain Morgan?
6 November - Going south, via Bangkok
We had decided to go south to the Krabi province, which meant we first had to get back to Bangkok. After a minibus into town and taxi to the southern bus terminal, we had our VIP bus tickets. Since the bus wasn't leaving until several hours later, we decided to go back into town and kill time in one of the malls. Traffic was already starting to get heavy, so we only spent a short time in the mall, picking up some books and having dinner, before taking a taxi back to the bus station.
What a terribly stressful ride that was... it was rush hour and the traffic was absolutely horrible, we just stood still. We had thought we had a huge time marginal but we seriously started planning where to sleep that evening, because we were sure we would miss the bus. After an insane ride (the driver for instance drove in the wrong direction in the bus file for a few seconds, nearly killing us to save some time) we actually did make it in time for the bus. Biggest relief ever!
On the bus we watched the new Transformers movie dubbed in Thai before stopping at a roadside restaurant/shop where we found a cute little praying mantis. I luckily managed to sleep the rest of the 10 hour journey.
7 November - Krabi: Ao Nang and Ao Railay
We arrived in Krabi town early in the morning, and the bus stopped right outside a travel agency that helped us book a decent hotel and get transportation to Ao Nang. I knew what a horribly touristy place it would be (half the restaurant menues were in swedish for crying out loud) but I really wanted to make some day trips to nearby sites, so sadly we had to stay here for a few nights.
Rasmus had a harder time than me dealing with all the annoying tourists and shouting workers, I had to try hard to keep him calm many times! So yeah, don't go there unless you're the kind of person that enjoys that kind of place...
The first day, I wanted to check out Railay beach to see if it was any better to stay at, but Rasmus didn't like that place either since it was still pretty touristy and they were building new resorts everywhere so it was rather noisy and dirty. We walked around the place and had our first swim in the ocean though (oh how I had longed for it!!). Rasmus was, as exptected, very pleased and impressed with the warm water :D
When the sun set, we went back to Ao Nang for drinks and dinner at a beachside restaurant.
Seahorse pineapple! Pineapple seahorse!
He likes dem long island ice teas and I like dem fruity cocktails!
8 November - Krabi: 4-island tour
For our first day-trip, we took a "4-island-tour" by longtail. First stop was Koh Tup were Rasmus got to snorkle for the very first time in his life! The mask didn't really fit him though so he bought a new one in a dive shop that evening. Second stop was Koh Khai "chicken island" (we thought it looked more like a dinosaur or sea monster) were we snorkeled from the boat. Third stop was Koh Poda were we had lunch and swam a little more. Apparently I forgot to take any pics there :/
Last stop wasn't really an island, but the beach Hat Phra Nang on the southern end of the "Railay peninsula", were we... swam! :)
The beaches, islands and surroundings were just as beautiful as we had read!
In the evening we discovered the Indian restaurant were we were to eat for each of the remaining evenings in Ao Nang - really amazing food! Expensive, but soo worth it! And they had Bub in the menu! :D
After dinner, we walked all the way east on the beach, were we had some drinks at the last bar. Very nice, chilled out place.
9 November - Krabi: Tiger Cave Temple, Emarald Pool and hot springs waterfall
Yup, another tour that first took us to the famous Tiger Cave Temple. We knew we didn't have the physique to climb all the 1237 steps to the top, so we walked to a cave and large tree in the forest, then sat and watched the monkeys while waiting for the rest of the group to come back down. It took them a while :P
The rest of the group were then going to ride elephants, which we didn't (I did it last time and Rasmus wasn't interested, besides I don't know how the animals are treated and all that... they are spectacular to watch though!), so we got to go to a national park and visit a beautiful waterfall.
Third stop was what they call the "Emarald pool", which was a pretty warm, natural pool in the forest, very clear and beautifully turqoise coloured.
We were pretty tired by the end of the tour, so the last stop was a perfect place to relax and one of the most amazing experiences... a hot spring waterfall! The water burned the skin at first, and once I had gotten in I almost fainted from the heat and had to get up for a while and drink some water. When I went back in it was just soo relaxing and soothing though. I absolutely loved it. The fall was even shaped like little basins, like it was made to sit in :P Beautiful surroundings too, again in the middle of the forest.
He really wanted that light. The workers below used a slingshot to get him to stop :P
See the lizard? :)
Emarald pool.
Hot springs!
10 November - Pang Nga Bay and Wat Tham Suwankhuha
A minibus took us to the Phang Nga region, from were a longtail boat took us through the beautiful mangrove out to "James Bond Island". It was smaller than we had expected and crammed with tourists! We enjoyed looking at the little mudskippers though. The boat then took us to some caves over the water where a guy paddled us around to look at more mudskippers and stuff, really neat.
We had lunch at a floating village and then went back to the minibus which took us to another monkey-filled cave temple; Wat Tham Suwankhuha. The last stop was a park with a waterfall that we swam in, which is always amazing. I don't remember the name but according to my LP it could've been Raman Forest Park.
Super famous rock!
See the mud skippers? One on the log and one in the water to the right.
Floating village.
Monkey playground!
'nother reclining Buddha. The rest of my pics from this cave temple turned out crap :/
Rude monkeys trying to steal our bag!
Another rainforest waterfall bath, I never tire <3
11-18 November - Koh Ngai/Hai
While I had originally planned for us to stay a few nights on Koh Phi Phi, Rasmus was absolutely fed-up with all the tourists, so I agreed to go to a less touristy place with as good snorkeling. After a couple of intense hours at a hugely helpful travel agency lady and the help of Lonely Planet, we had booked 8 nights at Koh Ngai Resort, located on a private beach on the island Koh Ngai, further south towards the Trang province.
Being the earliest morning on our trip, we had to get up before sunrise to take a minibus to Trang. There we had breakfast at the cheapest restaurant we visited in Thailand (cocktails were like $2 for example, and no, we didn't have any for breakfast *pouts*). We also bought all the necessities to bring to the uninhabited island, were there were no shops, roads or anything, just a few resorts along two small beaches.
I admit I was a bit worried since we didn't know much about the place and we had already paid to stay for the remainder of our journey there. Knowing that we would be stuck at this single resort and beach for over a week, it could have ended badly. Luck was definitely with us on our journey though, and we were certainly not disapointed!
After a minibus-ride to the pier, we took a longtail out to the island. We passed Koh Mook on the way, which looked very nice as well, but had more resorts. Upon arriving at the island's very small and only pier, I was already pleased to see the masses of coral and fish in the clear waters underneath. We later met another swedish couple who joined us snorkelling, and they said it was better there than at Koh Phi Phi. Yes!
A pier we passed on the way out.
The mangrove-river ended and we were out on open ocean.
Koh Mook.
Also known as Ko Muk.
Finally reached our destination!
It was a pretty luxurious resort, and while it isn't really our style, it felt pretty good to be pampered for a few days! We stayed in the cheapest room, without aircon, so we suffered the first couple of nights, but then it got cooler, or maybe we just got used to the nightly heat.
The resort was set in a huge garden between the beach and the forest-clad mountains behind, and it was full of great hornbills (friggin' adore those birds!), smaller birds that I don't know the name of, huge monitor lizards (that were fed sausage by the staff at the breakfast buffet!), smaller geckos and tokays, several species of frogs (whose nightly songs made it impossible to talk while sitting on the balcony!) and loads and loads of cute little hermit crabs. We also saw a few rats running around the pool and restaurant in the evenings :)
We went over to the neighbouring beach once, but it was a pretty rough path and that beach didn't impress us, so we stuck to our little secluded paradise all of the remaining days. They did have day-trips to nearby islands (including Koh Mook, Koh Kradan etc), but we ended up never going since they were pretty expensive and we enjoyed just chilling out and being lazy after a so far pretty active journey.
Apart from the not-so-great international dishes and the prices in the restaurant, our days at this place were just total win <3
YES, they had dinosaurs in the garden!
The pond under our balcony, were the frogs played the nights through.
Beautiful frog. There were at least two different species though, the other ones were tiny but sounded really loud!
There were many tokays around the garden. We had heard them in other places before but this was the first time we got to see them.
We searched the beach for critters with our flashlight every evening. Lots of hermit crabs and other crabs.
These hornbills were right outside our balcony every day!
The beach was absolutely stunning, the view over the ocean and neighbouring islands amazing, and the water so warm and packed full of beautiful corals and tropical reef fishes. When we weren't snorkeling/swimming, we spent most of our days on the beach or by the pool, reading books in the shadow of the palm trees, drinking cocktails and just loving life.
The weather was very interesting during our stay here. The days began with beautiful sunny weather, but each afternoon clouds started coming in from the mainland, turning into rain and after dark there were crazy thunderstorms with the heaviest rain I have seen! I loved it so much. The nightly thunderstorms made the frogs in the small pond below our balcony go completely nuts, haha, gotta love those little buggers.
We were more or less alone on the beach every day, the place felt deserted. We loved it!
The restaurant, reception and the pier.
A pool just a few meters from the ocean :P
Low tide, just after the rain.
That little dot in the water down to the left... is me! Don't worry, I got up before the lightning reached our island.
This is the climax as far as photos from the journey goes. :D
19 November - Back to the City of Angels
Paradise couldn't last forever, and after doing practically nothing besides snorkelling, reading and eating/drinking for eight days, we were ready to head back to the big city. We had originally planned to take a 12-hour night bus back from Trang, but when we found out that the plane was not much more expensive and would give us one more day in Bangkok before going back home, the choice was pretty easy.
So by noon that day, we were back and settled at Muangpohl Mansion, just next to the place we had stayed in last time, but a little less shabby and a little more expensive. The room smelled like crap though (from the sewer I think) and the bed was hard as a rock, so I wont stay there again.
The following days were spent doing pretty much one thing: SHOPPING! Right outside our hotel we had MBK, Siam Discovery Center, Siam Centre, Siam Paragon and Central World Plaza. All of them are monstrously huge and have so much to look at (and buy ;)), enough to entertain us for days. We went to the cinema just once since there weren't any movies besides 2012 that we wanted to see.
This stuff is totally normal in Bangkok...
20 November - Bangkok: China Town and Central World Plaza
On the second day back in Bangkok, we decided to go to China Town. Maps didn't do us much good and we had a pretty hard time finding our way around the place. First stop was a chinese temple, then we walked around the markets. I was surprised to find so many doll shops there! I bought lots of dolly clothes and tried to find a Blythe rip-off that I liked, but failed.
We had read about a mall called Playground so we took a taxi to that part of town and spent a long time trying to find it, but eventually gave up and went back to the hotel. Some googling revealed that the place had most likely shut down. Doh! We took a walk over to Central World Plaza instead, where we stayed until bed-time.
China Town. Oh, and that's my hair in the lower right corner... after the sun of the south!
London? Nope, Soi Thonglor where we searched for the mall that didn't exist.
CWP has an entire floor with kid stuff!
A store full of clay figurines.
If it doesn't have at least 7 floors ... it's probably not a Bangkok mall.
Food that makes me forget I'm supposed to be vegetarian... *blush*
21 November - Bangkok: Chatuchak weekend market (and doll stores!)
We had planned early on to get to this market, and it was truly memorable. A huge market where they had pretty much everything. The pet part was horrible though, but had many cool fishes. My main goal this day was to find doll shops, and after a lot of searching, we did! Soo many Pullips and other dolls, you can imagine my excitement! I will make a separate entry about all the dolly stuff and photos later :)
I don't remember what we did after leaving the market, but I assume we went to one of the malls near our hotel :P
Bambino!! Separate entry for doll stuff coming up shortly!
22 November - Bangkok Art and Culture Centre + more shopping
After checking out and leaving our bags at the hotel, we visited the nearby Bangkok Art and Culture Centre ( http://www.bacc.or.th/ ). They currently had an exhibition of contemporary japanese artists, so of course we had to go! We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but neither the building itself nor the exhibition will be forgotten in the first place! Here's more about the exhibit, and a few pics if you click 'photo gallery', http://bacc.or.th/exhibition/detail/guid/43a26914a08818f15978c3a8e3eee125
As we were going home in the evening, we spent the remainder of our vacation on... spending the rest of our savings! Among other things we bought a new bag to pack all of our stuff in :P
The previous taxi ride to the southern bus terminal had taught us something about the traffic in Bangkok, so we left way early in order to be sure to make it to the airport in time. Turned out rush hour had already ended, and we arrived at the airport over 3 hours before the flight. And guess what? The plain had also been delayed by 3½ hours. Luckily for us, Bangkok's new international airport is... insane. It's like a small town... freaking HUGE and with all the stores and restaurants you can imagine. So we had absolutely zero problem killing nearly 7 hours there, and were glad to not have to spend any time at the airport in Instanbul as we should have.
Loved this sci-fi weirdo christmas tree!
Going home :( ... at least the view from the plane was nice!
All in all? Like I said in the beginning, an amazing journey. There were a few brief moments of not-so-fun (mostly transportation issues and minor annoyances), but in the end everything always turned out great. The gods know they have my deepest gratitude for taking such good care of us and letting us experience so many amazing things that we will never forget. I hope we can go back again before too long :)
Edit march 11 - Added more pics and captions!
In general, I can say that it was an awesome journey! I was there for 3½ weeks (28 oct-22 nov) with my boyfriend Rasmus. It was my second trip to Thailand, last time was with my sister in the summer of '06 (we then visited Bangkok, Hua Hin, and Koh Tao - were we took our diving certificates - and I loved it so much that I knew I would go back!).
I guess the easiest way to do this is a brief summary of each day;
28 October - Bangkok: First impression
Around 20 hours after leaving Sweden, we arrived in Bangkok in the afternoon. We flew with Turkish Airlines from Copenhagen (they had the cheapest tickets, 5500 SEK for a return flight - that's around US$770) so we had to spend a couple of hours in Istanbul first, a very boring airport were we had the most expensive beer and juice ever...
Anyway, after settling at our pretty crappy but very cheap room at Pranee Building, we spent most of the remaining day at MBK shopping centre, just across the street. Rasmus was somewhat disapointed in the arcade games they had, but played a few anyway. He was so overwhelmed by the town, and it was definitely an experience for me too to travel with someone who has only been to Scandinavia and Greece before - it made me realise and appreciate even more just how different and totally awesome Thailand is.
We lived near MBK.
Travelling in three layers! Roads and skytrain-tracks.
MBKs top floor has an arcade.
Teaching the kid what's important in life :D
29 October - Bangkok: Chao Praya, Wat Pho and Siam Ocean World
We took the skytrain south to Saphan Takshin were we went on a tourist boat on Chao Praya river, were a guide talked about the different sites on the way. We got off near Grand Palace and walked around the area and street markets for a while, had lunch, found out that the Royal Palace was closing early (really, it wasn't a scam this time I assure you :P) and visited Wat Pho instead.
After Wat Pho, we took a tuk-tuk to Siam Paragon to visit Siam Ocean world. They had more stuff than last time I went, like the awesome 3D-movie with moving seats, wind and water-effects. We both enjoyed it greatly!
Huge reclining Buddha at Wat pho.
See the cat? :)
Hooge crabsies!
Travelling by boat on... an aquarium... full of sharks!
So, what's a car doing in an aquarium?
It IS an aquarium!
And so is this refrigerator...
... and this winecooler-thingy...
... and this microwave with cup-o-noodles in it...
... yes, it's a washing machine aquarium.
Shark-shark! They have one of those tunnels so you walk under the fish :)
Fish bath! The little fish nibbled our feat clean. It tickled... a lot.
Dead fish. In red balls.
Rasmus got to see a Mola mola! ... But it was dead D:
30 October - Bangkok: Dusit Zoo, Grand Palace/Wat Phra Kaew and Thanon Kao San
I hate to admit it because I am usually totally opposed to zoos, especially in countries were animals aren't always treated so great... but yeah, we went to Dusit Zoo. It wasn't that bad though, and we saw many animals that I have never even heard of before. They also had some pretty weird arcade games that entertained Rasmus.
Next stop was Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew, a pretty spectacular sight.
We spent the evening on Khao San Road, were Rasmus got his first impression of the horridness of mass-tourism. It was pretty traumatic for him. We had dinner, looked around, had a couple of drinks at a nearby, slightly less horrific street, and then never went back to that area of town again. Sorry, didn't take any pics there.
There were lots of wild water monitors all over the park and outside it.
This monitor might be harboring some kind of death wish...
There were lots of weird and interesting arcade games in the park.
Wat Phra Kaew.
Grand Palace.
31 October - Ayutthaya: Train ride and touring ruins
We took an early train north to Ayutthaya, which was really packed full of people so we had to stand up in the heat with our heavy backpacks for about two hours... not fun. But we finally made it to the town and the gorgeous Baan Lotus Guesthouse. The rooms were really nice and I LOVED the garden pond! We spent all of our evenings there drinking beer, listening to the frogs and watching the fireflies dance in the light of the full moon <3
On the first day we visited a couple of the ruins in town, which were amazing! Before the sun started setting, we took an organized tour by tuk-tuk to quite a few of the town's ruins. They were possibly even more spectacular after dark when spotlights lit them up! We got so many mosquito bites though >_<
Waiting for the train. My hair before the sun got to it ;P
Baan Lotus Guesthouse! *recommend*
I had veggies for lunch, Rasmus had a whole fish :P
A Buddha head had grown into the tree.
Someone was fed up with all the Buddha statues and started worshipping Doraemon?!
1 November - Lopburi
We took a bus north to Lopburi to watch the even older ruins, and of course, monkeys! This is probably the weirdest town I have ever been in.
We loved the ruins here, and the fact that we only saw two other foreigners during our whole day there made it even better. After a meal at the town's only "tourist-friendly" restaurant, we went back to Ayutthaya by train, and luckily we got seats this time. We also got a bottle of mosquito repellant from another tourist couple we met there, so big thanks to them! <3
You can already see the monkeys.
Count the monkeys!
Monkey find, monkey claim, monkey play! (monkey destroy, whoops)
The monkeys were everywhere, it was insane. They jumped up on a child and scared her. We crossed to the other side of the street...
2 November - Khao Yai National Park and Loi Krathong festival
Our first wildlife experience on the trip was in one of Thailand's oldest, largest and most visited reserves - a good, easy start for my dearest :)
We caught the earliest train east to Pak Chong to get to the park early, but apparently that train was expensive as hell... at least you got breakfeast served, lol. Upon our arrival, we bought a tour to the park, including a guide that took us on a forest trek, lunch in the park restaurant, and to see the waterfall were they filmed scenes from "The Beach".
Unfortunately we couldn't stay very long as we wanted to get back to the festivities in town, but during our short visit we managed to see, among other things, great hornbills, some form of large deer, monitor lizards, two species of millipedes, the regular maqaque monkeys but also a white-faced (?) gibbon monkey! It stopped in a low branch right above us and looked down curiously, but I was too amazed to pull up the camera, and by the time I had, it was far up in the trees already.
When we got back to Ayutthaya, the madness had already begun. The Thais celebrate "Loi Krathong" on the full moon of november, so everyone was out to celebrate, putting lotus flowers in the rivers and most of all going crazy with really loud fireworks and crackers! It was pretty insane but entertaining :)
See the gibbon? Best pic I got of him :/
Hornbill in the middle there.
Waterfall from the movie "The Beach".
Cool factory seen from the train back to Ayutthaya.
Full moon...
... party! :P
3 November - Kanchanaburi
We took an early minibus to Kanchanaburi, were we decided to stay in a cozy riverside bungalow at the Blue Star Guest House. After lunch we walked to "the bridge over river kwai", and the nearby museum of tackiness.
We then took a longtailboat south to the JEATH War museum. We walked back from there, and I must say it was a pretty nice town.
Our room was just by the river.
All the road signs in Kanchanaburi are fishes! :O
The famous bridge over river kwai.
Museum of win!
River boat ride! The kid didn't want his pic taken :P
THE BOMB. @ JEATH war museum.
Oh noes! No meat and porks!!11 ;D
4 November - Kanchanaburi: Erawan Waterfall, Hellfire-pass and Death Railway
We took one of the many tours organized from town, were the first stop was the amazingly beautiful Erawan waterfall, which has 7 tiers. We walked all the way up to the top, but still had time for a quick dip in the refreshing water before going back for lunch.
Next stop on the tour was the Hellfire-pass memorial, were we learned even more about the building of the "Death Railway".
We visited a cave by the railway before going on a short train ride back to Kanchanaburi, were we stopped at the bridge over river kwai (third time for me... but first time during sunset, so I took a few pics anyway :P)
The highest tier!
Hellfire pass.
The cave was used for medical purposes during the building of the railroad.
Found a frog back at the hotel. They had these in Ayutthya too.
Prettiest cat ever! He followed us into the room :P
5 November - Kanchanaburi: Daowadung Cave and Sai Yok National Park
We didn't find any organized tours to this cave and park, so we just hired a taxi for the day. Lucky for us a Thai couple who had fixed a guide arrived at the cave the same time as us. Though neither of them knew more than a couple of words of english, they helped us through the very large, dark and slippery cave and pointed out the different stalactites, animals and stuff. It was probably the best cave I've been to, spectacular!
After the cave our taxi-samlaew took us to Sai Yok National Park and the driver guided us around the place for a bit. We took a longtail boat up and down the river and despite all the little bungalows along the river edges, this was easily one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to (the photos don't really capture the magic here, unfortunately). We had lunch in a restaurant on the river (almost got a little sea-sick there!) and then went by ourselves into the bamboo-forest to find another cave. We didn't go into this one though, as it was pretty much just a big hole straight down into the ground!
Rasmus wasn't feeling very well (he might have gotten some of the bug spray into his mouth, not a good idea) so after a half-dip (didn't bring our swimsuits) in the river, we decided to head back to town and rest. I have to go back another time to see the rest of the park!
I don't think we would have dared to go down there at all without a guide. Just a little hole in the ground in the middle of the forest hill. It was dark and slippery as hell in there too!
Bats and their poo were all over the cave roof.
There is a scary bug hiding in this pic. I didn't want to get nearer so I didn't get a better pic..
Here's another one I did get close too! Never seen one of these before, amazing creature! Big too!
NOT very reassuring signs!
Finally reached the cave! Couldn't go in though, too steep!
Crab spider! I love them. Almost walked into this one though.
Captain Morgan?
6 November - Going south, via Bangkok
We had decided to go south to the Krabi province, which meant we first had to get back to Bangkok. After a minibus into town and taxi to the southern bus terminal, we had our VIP bus tickets. Since the bus wasn't leaving until several hours later, we decided to go back into town and kill time in one of the malls. Traffic was already starting to get heavy, so we only spent a short time in the mall, picking up some books and having dinner, before taking a taxi back to the bus station.
What a terribly stressful ride that was... it was rush hour and the traffic was absolutely horrible, we just stood still. We had thought we had a huge time marginal but we seriously started planning where to sleep that evening, because we were sure we would miss the bus. After an insane ride (the driver for instance drove in the wrong direction in the bus file for a few seconds, nearly killing us to save some time) we actually did make it in time for the bus. Biggest relief ever!
On the bus we watched the new Transformers movie dubbed in Thai before stopping at a roadside restaurant/shop where we found a cute little praying mantis. I luckily managed to sleep the rest of the 10 hour journey.
7 November - Krabi: Ao Nang and Ao Railay
We arrived in Krabi town early in the morning, and the bus stopped right outside a travel agency that helped us book a decent hotel and get transportation to Ao Nang. I knew what a horribly touristy place it would be (half the restaurant menues were in swedish for crying out loud) but I really wanted to make some day trips to nearby sites, so sadly we had to stay here for a few nights.
Rasmus had a harder time than me dealing with all the annoying tourists and shouting workers, I had to try hard to keep him calm many times! So yeah, don't go there unless you're the kind of person that enjoys that kind of place...
The first day, I wanted to check out Railay beach to see if it was any better to stay at, but Rasmus didn't like that place either since it was still pretty touristy and they were building new resorts everywhere so it was rather noisy and dirty. We walked around the place and had our first swim in the ocean though (oh how I had longed for it!!). Rasmus was, as exptected, very pleased and impressed with the warm water :D
When the sun set, we went back to Ao Nang for drinks and dinner at a beachside restaurant.
Seahorse pineapple! Pineapple seahorse!
He likes dem long island ice teas and I like dem fruity cocktails!
8 November - Krabi: 4-island tour
For our first day-trip, we took a "4-island-tour" by longtail. First stop was Koh Tup were Rasmus got to snorkle for the very first time in his life! The mask didn't really fit him though so he bought a new one in a dive shop that evening. Second stop was Koh Khai "chicken island" (we thought it looked more like a dinosaur or sea monster) were we snorkeled from the boat. Third stop was Koh Poda were we had lunch and swam a little more. Apparently I forgot to take any pics there :/
Last stop wasn't really an island, but the beach Hat Phra Nang on the southern end of the "Railay peninsula", were we... swam! :)
The beaches, islands and surroundings were just as beautiful as we had read!
In the evening we discovered the Indian restaurant were we were to eat for each of the remaining evenings in Ao Nang - really amazing food! Expensive, but soo worth it! And they had Bub in the menu! :D
After dinner, we walked all the way east on the beach, were we had some drinks at the last bar. Very nice, chilled out place.
9 November - Krabi: Tiger Cave Temple, Emarald Pool and hot springs waterfall
Yup, another tour that first took us to the famous Tiger Cave Temple. We knew we didn't have the physique to climb all the 1237 steps to the top, so we walked to a cave and large tree in the forest, then sat and watched the monkeys while waiting for the rest of the group to come back down. It took them a while :P
The rest of the group were then going to ride elephants, which we didn't (I did it last time and Rasmus wasn't interested, besides I don't know how the animals are treated and all that... they are spectacular to watch though!), so we got to go to a national park and visit a beautiful waterfall.
Third stop was what they call the "Emarald pool", which was a pretty warm, natural pool in the forest, very clear and beautifully turqoise coloured.
We were pretty tired by the end of the tour, so the last stop was a perfect place to relax and one of the most amazing experiences... a hot spring waterfall! The water burned the skin at first, and once I had gotten in I almost fainted from the heat and had to get up for a while and drink some water. When I went back in it was just soo relaxing and soothing though. I absolutely loved it. The fall was even shaped like little basins, like it was made to sit in :P Beautiful surroundings too, again in the middle of the forest.
He really wanted that light. The workers below used a slingshot to get him to stop :P
See the lizard? :)
Emarald pool.
Hot springs!
10 November - Pang Nga Bay and Wat Tham Suwankhuha
A minibus took us to the Phang Nga region, from were a longtail boat took us through the beautiful mangrove out to "James Bond Island". It was smaller than we had expected and crammed with tourists! We enjoyed looking at the little mudskippers though. The boat then took us to some caves over the water where a guy paddled us around to look at more mudskippers and stuff, really neat.
We had lunch at a floating village and then went back to the minibus which took us to another monkey-filled cave temple; Wat Tham Suwankhuha. The last stop was a park with a waterfall that we swam in, which is always amazing. I don't remember the name but according to my LP it could've been Raman Forest Park.
Super famous rock!
See the mud skippers? One on the log and one in the water to the right.
Floating village.
Monkey playground!
'nother reclining Buddha. The rest of my pics from this cave temple turned out crap :/
Rude monkeys trying to steal our bag!
Another rainforest waterfall bath, I never tire <3
11-18 November - Koh Ngai/Hai
While I had originally planned for us to stay a few nights on Koh Phi Phi, Rasmus was absolutely fed-up with all the tourists, so I agreed to go to a less touristy place with as good snorkeling. After a couple of intense hours at a hugely helpful travel agency lady and the help of Lonely Planet, we had booked 8 nights at Koh Ngai Resort, located on a private beach on the island Koh Ngai, further south towards the Trang province.
Being the earliest morning on our trip, we had to get up before sunrise to take a minibus to Trang. There we had breakfast at the cheapest restaurant we visited in Thailand (cocktails were like $2 for example, and no, we didn't have any for breakfast *pouts*). We also bought all the necessities to bring to the uninhabited island, were there were no shops, roads or anything, just a few resorts along two small beaches.
I admit I was a bit worried since we didn't know much about the place and we had already paid to stay for the remainder of our journey there. Knowing that we would be stuck at this single resort and beach for over a week, it could have ended badly. Luck was definitely with us on our journey though, and we were certainly not disapointed!
After a minibus-ride to the pier, we took a longtail out to the island. We passed Koh Mook on the way, which looked very nice as well, but had more resorts. Upon arriving at the island's very small and only pier, I was already pleased to see the masses of coral and fish in the clear waters underneath. We later met another swedish couple who joined us snorkelling, and they said it was better there than at Koh Phi Phi. Yes!
A pier we passed on the way out.
The mangrove-river ended and we were out on open ocean.
Koh Mook.
Also known as Ko Muk.
Finally reached our destination!
It was a pretty luxurious resort, and while it isn't really our style, it felt pretty good to be pampered for a few days! We stayed in the cheapest room, without aircon, so we suffered the first couple of nights, but then it got cooler, or maybe we just got used to the nightly heat.
The resort was set in a huge garden between the beach and the forest-clad mountains behind, and it was full of great hornbills (friggin' adore those birds!), smaller birds that I don't know the name of, huge monitor lizards (that were fed sausage by the staff at the breakfast buffet!), smaller geckos and tokays, several species of frogs (whose nightly songs made it impossible to talk while sitting on the balcony!) and loads and loads of cute little hermit crabs. We also saw a few rats running around the pool and restaurant in the evenings :)
We went over to the neighbouring beach once, but it was a pretty rough path and that beach didn't impress us, so we stuck to our little secluded paradise all of the remaining days. They did have day-trips to nearby islands (including Koh Mook, Koh Kradan etc), but we ended up never going since they were pretty expensive and we enjoyed just chilling out and being lazy after a so far pretty active journey.
Apart from the not-so-great international dishes and the prices in the restaurant, our days at this place were just total win <3
YES, they had dinosaurs in the garden!
The pond under our balcony, were the frogs played the nights through.
Beautiful frog. There were at least two different species though, the other ones were tiny but sounded really loud!
There were many tokays around the garden. We had heard them in other places before but this was the first time we got to see them.
We searched the beach for critters with our flashlight every evening. Lots of hermit crabs and other crabs.
These hornbills were right outside our balcony every day!
The beach was absolutely stunning, the view over the ocean and neighbouring islands amazing, and the water so warm and packed full of beautiful corals and tropical reef fishes. When we weren't snorkeling/swimming, we spent most of our days on the beach or by the pool, reading books in the shadow of the palm trees, drinking cocktails and just loving life.
The weather was very interesting during our stay here. The days began with beautiful sunny weather, but each afternoon clouds started coming in from the mainland, turning into rain and after dark there were crazy thunderstorms with the heaviest rain I have seen! I loved it so much. The nightly thunderstorms made the frogs in the small pond below our balcony go completely nuts, haha, gotta love those little buggers.
We were more or less alone on the beach every day, the place felt deserted. We loved it!
The restaurant, reception and the pier.
A pool just a few meters from the ocean :P
Low tide, just after the rain.
That little dot in the water down to the left... is me! Don't worry, I got up before the lightning reached our island.
This is the climax as far as photos from the journey goes. :D
19 November - Back to the City of Angels
Paradise couldn't last forever, and after doing practically nothing besides snorkelling, reading and eating/drinking for eight days, we were ready to head back to the big city. We had originally planned to take a 12-hour night bus back from Trang, but when we found out that the plane was not much more expensive and would give us one more day in Bangkok before going back home, the choice was pretty easy.
So by noon that day, we were back and settled at Muangpohl Mansion, just next to the place we had stayed in last time, but a little less shabby and a little more expensive. The room smelled like crap though (from the sewer I think) and the bed was hard as a rock, so I wont stay there again.
The following days were spent doing pretty much one thing: SHOPPING! Right outside our hotel we had MBK, Siam Discovery Center, Siam Centre, Siam Paragon and Central World Plaza. All of them are monstrously huge and have so much to look at (and buy ;)), enough to entertain us for days. We went to the cinema just once since there weren't any movies besides 2012 that we wanted to see.
This stuff is totally normal in Bangkok...
20 November - Bangkok: China Town and Central World Plaza
On the second day back in Bangkok, we decided to go to China Town. Maps didn't do us much good and we had a pretty hard time finding our way around the place. First stop was a chinese temple, then we walked around the markets. I was surprised to find so many doll shops there! I bought lots of dolly clothes and tried to find a Blythe rip-off that I liked, but failed.
We had read about a mall called Playground so we took a taxi to that part of town and spent a long time trying to find it, but eventually gave up and went back to the hotel. Some googling revealed that the place had most likely shut down. Doh! We took a walk over to Central World Plaza instead, where we stayed until bed-time.
China Town. Oh, and that's my hair in the lower right corner... after the sun of the south!
London? Nope, Soi Thonglor where we searched for the mall that didn't exist.
CWP has an entire floor with kid stuff!
A store full of clay figurines.
If it doesn't have at least 7 floors ... it's probably not a Bangkok mall.
Food that makes me forget I'm supposed to be vegetarian... *blush*
21 November - Bangkok: Chatuchak weekend market (and doll stores!)
We had planned early on to get to this market, and it was truly memorable. A huge market where they had pretty much everything. The pet part was horrible though, but had many cool fishes. My main goal this day was to find doll shops, and after a lot of searching, we did! Soo many Pullips and other dolls, you can imagine my excitement! I will make a separate entry about all the dolly stuff and photos later :)
I don't remember what we did after leaving the market, but I assume we went to one of the malls near our hotel :P
Bambino!! Separate entry for doll stuff coming up shortly!
22 November - Bangkok Art and Culture Centre + more shopping
After checking out and leaving our bags at the hotel, we visited the nearby Bangkok Art and Culture Centre ( http://www.bacc.or.th/ ). They currently had an exhibition of contemporary japanese artists, so of course we had to go! We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but neither the building itself nor the exhibition will be forgotten in the first place! Here's more about the exhibit, and a few pics if you click 'photo gallery', http://bacc.or.th/exhibition/detail/guid/43a26914a08818f15978c3a8e3eee125
As we were going home in the evening, we spent the remainder of our vacation on... spending the rest of our savings! Among other things we bought a new bag to pack all of our stuff in :P
The previous taxi ride to the southern bus terminal had taught us something about the traffic in Bangkok, so we left way early in order to be sure to make it to the airport in time. Turned out rush hour had already ended, and we arrived at the airport over 3 hours before the flight. And guess what? The plain had also been delayed by 3½ hours. Luckily for us, Bangkok's new international airport is... insane. It's like a small town... freaking HUGE and with all the stores and restaurants you can imagine. So we had absolutely zero problem killing nearly 7 hours there, and were glad to not have to spend any time at the airport in Instanbul as we should have.
Loved this sci-fi weirdo christmas tree!
Going home :( ... at least the view from the plane was nice!
All in all? Like I said in the beginning, an amazing journey. There were a few brief moments of not-so-fun (mostly transportation issues and minor annoyances), but in the end everything always turned out great. The gods know they have my deepest gratitude for taking such good care of us and letting us experience so many amazing things that we will never forget. I hope we can go back again before too long :)
Edit march 11 - Added more pics and captions!