THAILAND - Recreation before Culture

Hello dear ones,

I finally found some time to continue the blog or I was motivated :P

Even though it's been over 10 months, I still remember the time in Thailand.

In my first two weeks in Thailand, I traveled alone. From Ho Chi Minh in southern Vietnam, I flew to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. The first thing I noticed was that the people in Thailand seemed friendlier. Thailand has significantly more tourists than Vietnam, so the Thais are more used to backpackers and the language barrier is not too great anymore. Vietnam has exhausted me quite a bit, so to be honest, I wasn't very eager to explore the area. Nevertheless, after spending a whole day in the accommodation, I took a walk through the old town of Chiang Mai. Starting with a classic Thai dish - Papaya Salad.

There followed many temples that I had not seen before - just like all the monks who were out and about in the city.

There are more than 300 temples in the city overall. As impressive as they are, after four temples, in the midday sun and with a feel of 40 degrees, I didn't have much energy left to explore more temples.

In the evening, I strolled through the night market with 3 other backpackers, where you can get everything from clothes to souvenirs to fresh Thai dishes.

The next day, I found myself on a tour to the White Temple in Chiang Rai. On the way there, we made several stops, including a stop at hot springs.

There was even a geyser there - I didn't expect that in Thailand.

However, the construction of the detailed and completely white temple has not yet been completed. The complex is not expected to be finished until 2070.

From Chiang Mai, Vic and I continued to the north to Pai. Here we rented scooters for a day and honestly drove around aimlessly.

When you are traveling alone, you always have to make a plan of what you want to see and how to get there. However, when you are in a group, you can divide that a bit - usually resulting in a tour without a destination :D

Even in Pai, I decided to meet up with Jacqui in Bali. I wasn't ready to explore a new country on my own, so the idea of ​​returning to my favorite island and meeting Jacqui was more than welcome.

Before returning to Bali, I spent 2 days in Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya is only 1 hour away from Bangkok and was therefore the perfect end to my first visit to Thailand.

The place is particularly known for the temple complex Wat Mahathat. After heading out again in the midday sun and realizing after a 40-minute walk that I had nothing to cover my legs, I was about to crawl back into the accommodation.

But luckily, the tuk-tuks are quite cheap, so I finally made it to the temple :D

As I said, I then went to Bali for 2 weeks, which I already wrote about in the last report.

The following 3 weeks in Myanmar are also on my blog. But then I went back to Thailand.

Also, this time it wasn't necessarily a big exploration tour. Vic and I just wanted to relax on a Thai island before returning to New Zealand and thus back to work.

The first stop was Koh Phangan, an island in the southeast of Thailand. A beachfront accommodation was the perfect setting for our relaxing vacation. We drove a lot along the coast and through the jungle with the scooter. Nevertheless, we managed to motivate ourselves for a hike one day. On our offline map, we found a hiking trail to a beach that can only be reached by boat or on foot.

The beach was beautiful, but our enthusiasm was a bit clouded because we had to walk back again. From the way back, it was a bit more pleasant, if you ignore that we heard monkeys and got a bit panicked :D

Yes, we won't forget this hike anytime soon.

After two relaxing weeks, it was back to New Zealand. We missed it very much and were ecstatic to be back!