I dedicated this post to my close friend who traveled all the way from Brazil to explore this country with me and made this trip very special, Gisele Paiva.
To start with before you go to Thailand, it is crucial to know that:
-You cannot insult the Thai royal family; otherwise, you may go to the prison.
-You must cover yourself to see the temples, which means shoulders and long skirts, no pants!
-If you have any food intoxication, treat yourself over there as they know their medicines to cure it. Don´t come back sick to your country!
Bangkok
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| Grand Palace - Wat Pharakareo - Bangkok |
One of the craziest cities I have been, mainly the small street Khao San Road, full of shows, backpackers, and cheap accommodation. Capital of Thailand, Bangkok is the largest and most developed city surrounded by grand palaces, temples, weird museums and cheap protein knowing as bugs and insects. Some places to visit in Bangkok include:
Wat Pho: it is famous for its reclining Buddha measuring 46 meters long and 15 meters high.
The Grand Palace: the most glorified and world-renowned landmark in the capital.
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| Grand Palace - Wat Phrakareo - Bangkok |
Wat Arun: the temple is covered from top to bottom with tiny pieces of colorful glass and Chinese porcelain.
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| Wat Arun - Bangkok |
Sky Bar: the tallest building in Thailand is a fancy place for a drink and a viewpoint of the Bangkok.
Ayutthaya: it can be done one day trip from Bangkok, the World Heritage protected ruins.
It is famous for the iconic Buddha head entwined within the roots of a banyan tree at War Maharat.
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| Ayutthaya |
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| Ayutthaya |
One option of 3 stars Hotel is
Dang Derm Hotel on the heart of Khao San Road, where everything happens. The swimming pool, on the top of the hotel, is delightful.
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| Erawan National Park - Natural Spa Treatment |
Erawan Falls – close to Bangkok:
Located in Kanchanaburi, it is five hours away from Bangkok, and it is a complex of waterfalls with seven levels with an incredibly blue and emerald colored waters. It is a place for local people as you don’t see too many tourists. The particular waterfall in my opinion was the first one on the button with fishes eating your dead skin and doing a free spa treatment; I must agree that it was the gratifying moment to feed them.
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| Erawan Falls |
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| Erawan Falls |
Tip: if you make one day trip with any company you book on Khao San Road, chose for going straight as the waterfall is quite big and you need proper time to explore it. There are other packages including this waterfall plus additional places, but then you will not see properly. Don´t forget that the trip is already 5 hours from Bangkok. However, if you are really into waterfalls, the best idea is to book a hotel close to it.
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| Khao San Road - Food options |
Krabi – Railay Bay
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| Phranang Cave Beach - Krabi - Railay - Thailand |
Railay Bay is a peninsula with dense jungle, cliffs for climbing, and a relaxed spot to be. Railay Bay is not a party destination but a place to relax and have amazing experiences. I had a few memorable highlights from this bay starting from when I arrived there. We saw many people full of mud from the bottom to the top, and I was wondering which party or tribe they were coming from. When we were exploring the island, we could see a steep hill with some shoes on the floor and from that moment I decided that it was a place to go.
How to arrive in Railay Bay: fly to Krabi, get a shuttle bus from the airport to Ao Nang (45 min) go to Ao Nang by bus and get a long tail boat to Railay (15 min).
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| Phranang Cave Beach - Long Tail Boat - Railay - Krabi |
Phranang Cave Beach: the east side of the Railay Bay is surrounded by limestone cliffs, stalactites, and stalagmites where many people come mainly for that, as it is one of the top places for rock climbing in Thailand which fits beginners and advances. You can also walk and swim around this cave which makes an exceptional place to be. Also, the sunset was out of this world. You really must stay there to have the full experience of this place. A small cave is also very famous there, Princess Cave, which an extensive collection of carved wooden phallic symbols, close to 100 phalluses.
Railay Viewpoint: for the best view in Railay, a hike up is a must. The hike itself isn´t particularly long in the distance but is difficult where requires scaling and incredibly cliff using nothing but your strength and your bare feet digging the mud; otherwise, your shoes will be stuck there. I confess that it was terrifying and exhausting, manly if you look down.
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| The beginning of the hiking for the Secret Lagoon. After that, I was too busy to think of any picture |
Secret lagoon: If you made the hike to the viewpoint and feel like getting more from it, follow the mud to the “Secret Lagoon”. The hill down into the lagoon can test your limits, especially if it has rained recently and the trail was full of mud, which was my case.
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| Railay Bay - Secret Lagon - Krabi, arriving in the late afternoon. |
I confess I was shaking, not sure if for the exhaustion, fear or excitement to reach the lagoon and to ask everybody which were coming back from there if there was still someone. I didn´t want to be 100% alone in this hiking, even if I was apparently alone. Finally, I saw the lagoon, and there were still three people! All sides enclose the pool except for a wide opening at the top. As I went in the late afternoon, my view was the moon in the middle of the lagoon, feel like a small grain of sand in the button of a cup surrounded by night insect’s noises like cricket and birds around the caves. The best period to go is in the high tide when the ocean fills the lagoon deep enough, which was my case. Yes, I put my tongue to check if it was salty to guarantee that was coming from the ocean. After this personal conquest, I made my way back alone but not alone. My goal is with the other 3 and arrives while I still could see something and not hurt myself because it could be a big deal, but my desire was stronger than my sense of judgment about conditions.
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| The lagoon and the moon on the top |
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Poda Island - Long Tail Boat - Krabi
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Day trip: there are some packages to see the islands around from Railay Beach: Chicken Island, Poda Island, Tupi Island, etc.
Tips: Watch out your things. Monkeys are everywhere, and I saw an organized attack on tourists where they came together along the beach and stole in the same time bags, wallets, food, a bottle of soft drinks and cigarettes. After that, they run on the top of the trees and opening every pocket to check if there was any food, while coins, cards, cash and the mobile phone, all of them fell all over the place.
To stay: Avatar Railay Resort, a friendly, and affordable 3 Stars Hotel on the west side of the Island, with the mangrove view.
http://www.avatarrailay.com/
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| Maya Bay - The Beach - Phi Phi Island |
Phuket – Phi Phi Island The deadly 2004 tsunami destroyed the island, and the entire coast was devastated. They rebuilt it and now is even more touristic than before. The main reason for people visiting Phuket is Phi Phi Island where the main attraction is Maya Bay, famous by the movie The Beach, with clear crystal water, white sand powder and lush tropical vegetation. The other strong reason is the night parties where you see a lot of shows with fire around the beach. I need to assume that it wasn´t my favorite place comparing with others I have been on the same trip, Railay Bay, for example, my favorite beach. However, I was surprised by the marvelous sunset from the viewpoint, and for this reason, I didn´t regret.
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| Phi Phi View Point - Phuket |
Phi Phi View Point: the most stunning sunset in Thailand you can reach the top in 20 minutes and wait for the show. This mountain was the place where many animals run all the way up to save from the Tsunami, and we can see the pictures before and after this fatal disaster on the top.
Islands around: there are other islands to see, apart from Maya Bay, such as Bamboo Island, Mosquito Island, Koh Phi Phi Leh, for example, where they sell a day trip package.
Phuket City/Patong Beach: I don’t have anything exited to tell about the city. The only thing is that I was impressed by the parasailing activity at Patong Beach, the main beach at Phuket. However, a couple of weeks after my trip there was news that an Australian fell to death parasailing in Phuket.
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| Parasailing - Phuket |
Chiang Mai
As Chiang Mai sits at a higher altitude, the temperature was less hot than other cities, but it still a boiling city. However, if you visit the highest peak which we did, it was freezing! A laid-back town, Chiang Mai is the most affordable place I have been on this trip to Thailand, from accommodation, Thai massages, food, and market in general. Furthermore, if you want to have teeth treatment, it is also a place to go. The city is quite small, and with a bicycle or a motorbike, you can smoothly go around.
The way they sell it is a sanctuary where you can feed, observe, bath and walk with elephants. I am not here to judge if this is an indeed “sanctuary” of elephants or not. I intended to go to a place where I believe they didn´t mistreat them as a circus. However, this experience made me question a lot about this tourist activity in Thailand where animal cruelty is prevalent but well-hiden.. Elephants are huge animals, brilliant and hard to control them. If they want to break trees, cars, motorbikes or even kill people they do it. Also, mahouts “need to control them” not to hit tourists, to behave themselves and probably the way to “teach” elephants are not the nicer we think. I heard that if an elephant kills or hit a person, which happens quite often, they sell to “another” sanctuary to “retreat” the elephant. But they also say that a bad elephant will always be a bad one, and they cannot keep it as they are not good enough for the “sanctuary”.
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| Chiang Rai - White Temple - Wat Rong Khun |
Chiang Rai White Temple (Wat Rong Khun): A day tour from Chiang May, the temple is a contemporary, unconventional, privately-owned art exhibit in the style of a Buddhist temple in Chiang Rai Province. The main temple is reached by crossing a bridge over a small lake with hundreds of outreaching hands that symbolize unrestrained desire. After crossing the bridge is the “gate of heaven”. It is a shocked place to be actually.
Gold Triangle Day Tour: it is not worth it. The trip stops at hot springs but nothing that you can enjoy it and continue to the border between Thailand and Burma. They took us to a market which was supposed to be cheaper in Burma as there is no tax charge, but no difference in the price and I ended up buying nothing so far. The only thing that was cheap was pear but when the van stopped before going to Burma.
Long Neck Hill Tribe Village (Karen Tribe): they are world famous for their women, who wear golden rings around their necks, from the time they are 5 to their 21st birthday, each year one ring is added to their collection. They take them off only once a year for 3-4 yours as their necks could break if the rings weren´t worn for longer than that. The tradition started to protect the tribe from the tiger attack as the neck is the first part of the body to be attacked. Nowadays, according to them, the longer the neck, the more beautiful the woman who wears them is. It looks like a human zoo where you can take pictures of women dressed in colorful outfits with a neck so long which looks like a giraffe. They are not allowed to leave their villages. If they want to stay in Thailand, they must remain in the land they were given. They are Burmese refugees who are not recognized as a citizen by the Thai government, and they are denied education, healthcare, geographically confined and often exploited for the tourism economy. Poor ladies who maintain these rings for money and surviving from humans who want to take selfies of the human zoo.
Chiang Mai Night Market: the best place to buy stuff in Thailand from the places I have been, definitely, if you want to buy anything, better here than Ko Phi Phi, for example.
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| Night Market in Chiang Mai - What a leg! |
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| Doi Inthanon - Doiangkha - Agkha Nature Trail |
Doi Inthanon National Park: It is famous for its number of waterfalls, rice fields, viewpoints and cold weather. It is the highest place in Thailand, especially the Summit, the highest Point in Thailand with a short walk from the parking in the middle of the humid forest which reminded me amazingly Tasmania.
The Twin Royal Pagodas of Phra Mahathat Naphamethanidon: the two pagodas were built to commemorate the King and Queen´s 60th birthdays. When we went there it was raining, so, the fog made a place a mystical and beautiful garden
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| Naphamethanidon |
And to finalize it, one more picture with cheap protein. From north to south, bugs are everywhere, it means that you should try it because, trust me, it is not too bad.
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| Warms, bugs, cockroaches, scorpions and so on |
