After being home now for about a month and a half and being an avid procrastinator, I figured it was probably time to finish my journals and write about my time in Thailand!
The first sites of Phuket, Thailand were dark and dreary. We landed around 10:30 pm and didn’t arrive at our hostel until after midnight. We got some sleep and woke up the next morning ready to explore! Not knowing what to expect, we walked around a bit to check out the condition of the roads and to observe the craziness level of driving in Thailand. Thankfully the traffic didn’t seem as bad as it was in Bali and we decided to rent a scooter for the next two days. It just so happened that at the same time we were renting our scooter, a guy from New York named Rich was also getting one, so he decided to tag along with us for the day to see the big Buddha statue and Wat Chalong temple. Both sights were beautiful with amazing views.
What was even more special at the big Buddha was that I received a blessing from a monk and a special bracelet. It was perfect.
On our way back from the temples we were headed to the beach but we stopped just short of the sand and grabbed some dinner. I had chicken pad thai and it tasted good initially, but as soon as I was done I just knew that something wasn’t right again. My stomach had felt the same way it had felt that first night a couple of weeks ago when I had gotten food poisoning. We paid our bill and I told Ron he has a solid 10 minutes to make it back to the hostel before I would get sick again. I hoped on the back of the scooter with a wheezy stomach and we made it back in about 5 minutes, just enough time for me to make it to the bathroom and loose my entire dinner I had just eaten. Thankfully, this only lasted for about an hour this time until it was over but I was left with an intense pain in my abdomen. I was in so much pain and in my gut I just felt like there was something wrong. Not wanting to chance something because I was in pain, we shelled out the astronomical taxi fee to get to the hospital.
After much headache, words being lost in translation, and our cab driver being lost, we finally made it to the hospital.
I had looked up the hospital ahead of time to make sure there would be staff who spoke english. Unfortunately the doctor took one look at me, touched my stomach and just said “meh, just food poising”.
I was so happy that the pain had subsided by the time we arrived at the hospital but since I wasn’t in much pain by the time we got there, there wasn’t much that the doctor could do. Instead we dipped deeper into our pockets to pay for the pills that the doctor had prescribed. Of course we still had to get home somehow so again we shelled out the rest of the money we had left for the hour ride back home in a taxi.
Food poisoning-2
Cally and Ron bank account – 0 😂😂
On the bright side, I was able to get some sleep and rest throughout the night and the next day I was ready for more scooter adventures!
We took off early with a friend we met in the hostel and got some breakfast at a beach restaurant. (I was back to my “day after food poisoning” cracker and water diet.) Even though I wasn’t eating, the view to the beach was absolutely beautiful.
Right next to the beach were also a number of little shops and food stands that were fun to explore. When we were finished we headed down south to check out Yanui beach. Just as promised, the beach was gorgeous, and getting there on the scooter with all of the amazing scenery was even more fun. The beach was more secluded than the other tourists beaches and you couldn’t help but feel special because it seemed that not many people knew about this hidden gem.
After we had explored a bit down south we headed back up the coast to hit another well known beach.
Just our luck, on our way back up north, there was a road block where police officers were pulling over everyone on a scooter and asking for their license and paper work. Of course we did not have ours – but even those with the proper paperwork and license were still receiving tickets because the police officers were arguing that they were not correct.
We lost another 500 baht paying off the officers.
Trying to shake off our pitfall with money lately, we continued onto the next beach. On our way, we passed a dinosaur put-put golf course and the child in me could not resist so we decided to drown our sorrows in a game of put-put golf; I won of course 🙂 The game was fun, but the best part was walking into one of the man-made caves on the course and finding real bats that had made their home inside.
After we had our fill of dinosaurs, we hoped around town a little more and ended up discovering a pretty cool night market filled with fruit, fresh street food and all of the shopping you could imagine. I will have to say that I have had amazing will power with shopping so far and only buying a few items because the shopping here is so great and cheap!
While we were wandering around back to the hostel we saw some friends in a pizza place and decided to stop and say hello, which ended up being an amazing decision. Since I had only been munching on dry crackers all day I was so hungry and the pizza looked delicious, so Ron and I split a cheese pizza with balsamic glazed onions. It was seriously to die for. Not only was this the best travel pizza I had ever had but probably one of the best ever! Pizza always equals good life choices.
From the pizza place, we met up with a good group of people from our hostel and started a party at a nearby bar. There were games of pool going, an extreme game of Jenga, and game where you had to hammer nails into a block of wood with the pointy end of a welding hammer; this was all while Mariah Carey sang Christmas music through the speakers. It was a great night.
The next morning we woke up and made plans with Rich to grab a cab to the airport as we headed toward Bangkok! By the time we landed it was already dark outside but we were able to navigate our way to the Bangkok skytrain and take that closer to our hostel we had booked. Rich parted ways with us as we headed toward our hostel and he headed out for Indian food.
As soon as we arrived, I instantly regretted booking the hostel. There wasn’t much space to hang out at, it was small and cramped, and when we got to our room it was even worse. I sat down on my bed and instantly realized that I was not sitting on a mattress but yet a piece of wood with a dip in the center. Upon closer inspection, we realized that there was a mattress, that someone had put a piece of plywood on top of for some ungodly known reason. We checked the other beds and they were all the same. Not only that, but we had paid for a room with AC because Asia is incredibly hot, but right away Ron realized that it was not working. It was blowing out air but just room temperature air. All in all that’s the game of traveling, sometimes you win and sometimes you loose. Feeling defeated with our hostel choice we headed out for dinner and a few drinks.
We found a small restaurant just down the road and sat down for a great meal. After diner we wandered around looking for a bar with good wifi so we could plan our next move for tomorrow because we knew we would not be staying at our current hostel. Walking around we bumped into the neon market which was apparently a market just opened for the holiday season. It was filled with everything you could ever want including clothes, novelties, fresh smoothies, or scorpions on a stick. At the end of the market there was a row of bars, all with small roof top seatings and each had a small band or performer all competing to be the loudest. The atmosphere was great and sitting on the elevated roof platform gave us a great view for people watching.
Once we figured that we had stayed out late enough, we sadly walked back to our hostel and endured the worst night we have had so far while traveling. First off, when we walked in the room it was so unbelievable hot that we knew it would be a bad night to start. On top of the heat, again the beds were so uncomfortable that we took both of our blankets we had and laid them down to try to get more cushion on top of the board. To add to our discomfort, the man that came in a little later than us started watching Facebook videos on his phone on and off all night long with the music on loud. That was on top of the coughing and hacking going on all night from the other occupants.
The next morning we could not get out of the hostel soon enough, we packed our bags and walked out forfeiting the money we had already paid for a second night. Feeling defeated, we started walking to our next hostel with our big bags on and eventually waved down a tuk-tuk. But our bad luck wasn’t over yet, we instructed the driver to take us to golden mountain but he must have just heard the work “golden” and instead took us to golden Buddha. Golden Buddha however was no closer to the hostel at all just in another part of the city. Once we were in the tuk-tuk and realized this mistake, it was too late .
We tried to correct the man to bring us the right way but the language barrier was too strong. We also asked him to pull over so we could just get out but he was adamant about taking us to our destination. We were so frustrated but we weren’t angry at the man at all because it wasn’t his fault that he didn’t speak our language. If anything it was our fault that we came into Thailand not knowing enough Thai to communicate. So accepting our fate when the gentleman dropped us off, we paid him and thanked him. Not wanting to waste any more money on transportation, we strapped our bags on again and started what would be over an hour walk to our hostel. Thank god, when we arrived the hostel was just what we were looking for. The staff was friendly, the beds we so amazingly comfortable, the rooms had AC and we even had a hostel mascot dog, Pow Wow. We instantly knew that this is where we would be settling in for the next few days in Bangkok. We ended up staying about 4 nights at the hostel in Bangkok which was just enough time to see the city slowly and take it easy for a while.
Some of our highlights of Bangkok included just walking around checking out the temples and sights, some of the amazing food we sampled, walking and partying on the famous Khao San Road, witnessing a Muay Thai fight, and walking along the river at night watching a lightning storm.
I would have to say that the highlight of Bangkok was definitely the Muay Thai fight. Ron and I were both so excited to see the national sport of Thailand up close and personal. Thanks to the hostel manger who we made friends with, he told us about a free fight we could get into just a 15 minute walk down the road. We arrived early and got third row seats right next to the action. We were able to watch 7 different fights, one of them included a title fight. Each fight was amazing and entertaining, but what really made the Thai spirit come alive was the traditional music played during each match. At one point the musicians started playing a rendition of jingle bells while one match was going on. It was just perfect.
To sum it up, Bangkok was an absolute crazy city full of energy and life. We were happy we spent the time there that we did and we were able to take our time, explore, relax and meet other traveler’s from around the world.
Oh my gosh I almost forgot the most mundane but intense part of Bangkok that definately deserves an honorable mention. You have not experienced difficulty as a couple until you try to give you husband a hair cut in a 3 foot by 3 foot hostel bathroom that is well over 100 degrees and humid, while trying no tot get hair on the floor, or all over yourselves😳😳 No pictures needed, but this was a few hour process with us both dying of heat and sweating bullets. But on one hand we have come so far from the first time I tried to cut Ron’s hair about 5 years ago at a campground in Switzerland . Progress that we can now take care of this task anytime anywhere ! 💪🏻
So after spending a good amount of time in Bangkok, we headed north to Change Mai…