Thailand – Out first time
A friend told us about his trip to Thailand and was very fascinated by this country.
So my (ex)-girlfriend and i decided to book a trip as well.
We heard that flights in November are very cheap and so we looked for the cheapest flight in November. We found a non-stop flight from DUS – BKK outward and return flight with Eurowings, costing 500 € per person.
The flight took approximately 11 hours.
November is a pretty good time to take a trip to Thailand beacause it is the first month when the rainy season is nearly over. And you can do allmost every activities. (E.g. the hiking in Chiang Mai isn’t possible in Oktober).
We booked all the flights and hotels in advance, so we focused on relaxing and enjoying the activities when arriving in Thailand. Less stress on site 😉
Our route:
- Bangkok
- Chiang Mai
- Krabi
- Bangkok
Bangkok (1) – “Man it’s hot in here, but the foood 😍”
The first 2,5 days we spent in the capital city of Thailand – Bangkok. Bangkok has a lot to offer but it is a really noisy, hot and criminal place.
We arrived at the airport and took a taxi-transfer to our hotel. This time we were lucky, the driver turned on the taximeter and we got a really cheap price. More to the taxi rides later on. Our hotel was very nice and the employees were very friendly.
Khaosan Road and food
There is a lot to explore in this city. We focused on what out friend told us: Food, temples and shopping.
On our first day we had to fight with a little jet lag, so we only went to a small restaurant nearby and i tried my first Pad Thai, which is the national dish and i loved it!
Our hotel was only a 10 minute walk away from the most known street in Bangkok, the Khaosan Road. During the day this street is full with small stands, where you can buy food and clothes and other stuff. In the night this road becomes a party mile.
The second evening we drank some cocktails out of plastic cans in the Khaosan Road, wich was really weird and some beer. If you have a more sensitive stomach be careful with the ice-cubes. My girlfriend had bad stomach discomfort the next day. The hygienic standard is really low in Thailand. Nevertheless the evening was pretty funny.
Temples and shopping malls
We also visited one of the temples in the city and a shopping mall the other day. Because we didn’t focused that much on the culture one temple visit was enough. I even didn’t enjoy it very much and there was a big rain shower that day. The shopping malls are pretty similar to the ones in europe, which is curious, cause the street life and culture is so different.
Criminality and taxis
Out experience was that it is really hard to find a taxidriver in Bangkok who turns on his taxameter. After out visit to the temple we asked about 5 taxidrivers to turn on the taxameter but none of them was ok with it. So we had to make a fixed price, which is always more expensive. But it’s still not very expensive compared to germand taxirides.
If you take a ride with a Tuk Tuk it is normal that you make a fixed price. By the way this is a very unsafe vehicle, but really fun to ride! My recommendation is to ride it at least once.
We had some bad experiences with the taxi rides by the way: The second airport transfer the taxi driver had a taxameter which was way to fast. The taxidriver who took us to the temple said the temple was closed, which was a lie, and told us to take a trip to some other locations. So be careful.
Summary
All in all Bangkok is a very interesting place and has a lot to offer. The food is awesome, but be careful if you have a more sensitive stomach. Because it is full of tourists there are many people who want to trick you. I recommand to stay a few days here, but no longer than 3 or 4 days. It is very stuffy and Thailand has much more to explore.
Chiang Mai (2) – Fresh Air and Elefants
The north of Thailand is very beautiful! You have a lot of green nature here and there is much less infastructure than in the south. The fresh air is not comparable to the air in Bangkok. We planned to stay 4 days in Chiang Mai. We decided to book some trips in Chiang Mai. We booked one in the internet and another one in the hotel lobby. The trip we booked in the lobby was the worse, but it was still okay.
Trip to the Doi Inthanon – Biggest mountain in Thailand
The trip to the mountain was a day filling activity. Early in the moring we took a ride with a taxi to the mountain. All in all the trip was a bit too stressful cause we had a lot of stops on the trip, but only a short stay on every stop. (village market, waterfall, rice fields, top of the mountain). The food for lunch was really bad. But in the beginning we hiked for approximately 1 hour in the forrest on top of the mountain which was nice. The guide was nice and friendly and took some pictures if you asked him. The waterfall was also very fascinating. All in all beautiful memories arised that day.
Trip to an elefant sanctuary
The second trip was beautiful in every way. Before visiting the sanctuary we drove to a elefant poo poo paper manifactuary were they create toilet out of elefant poo. Afterwards we rode to the sanctuary. Here we learned a lot about the elefants and pepared some food for the elefants and fed them in the beginning. Afterwards we walked with the elefants and in the end we even took a bath with them. The food for the humans was also really good 😛
I learned a lot about elfants that day and had much fun. You should definitely visit one of the sanctuarys if you are in the north of Thailand.
Krabi (3) – Beautiful Islands and relaxing
The most time of our holiday we stayed in Krabi. Here we focused on relaxing at the beach and enjoying the food. But we also booked a trip to 4 islands one day. We decided not to visit Phuket, because we heard that the island is overfilled.
Food
Every evening we ate at a different location. We looked up the locations on the tripadvisor app and we weren’t dissapointed once. The food was delicious and cheap. Beer and coffee are the only beverages which were expensive. You payed like 10 € per person and got a whole meal.
4 Island Trip
We booked at the hotel lobby again and it was a mistake again. The islands we visited were beautiful but we only had a short stay on each island. The islands itself were stunning beautiful. Again the food we had at lunch was terrible. Be careful with the sun! In the ende we did some snorkeling in the bay on one of the islands. Before the trip i thought snorkeling is boring, but it was kinda fun. Maybe next time i would just order a bootdriver who takes me to the islands and i would explore them by myself.
Bangkok Again (4) – One last day and night in Bangkok
Because our return flight took off from Bangkok we had one last day in Bangkok. We decided to book a klong tour. The klongs are the water channels in Bangkok. So what can i say. This trip is very overrated. The klongs are very dirty and the price was too high. There was nothing beautiful to see during the klong tour. By the way the weather was cloudy that day. We drank some cocktails in a cocktailbar and enjoyed our last evening in Thailand.
