Looking back on Southern Thailand and New Year in Bangkok

Oh Thailand! In 2016, I visited Thailand for the first time and found it really beautiful. It wasn't perfect, but it was the second country I extensively traveled to after America, and I had a lot of fun and fond memories. Unfortunately, this time it's not quite the same. We arrived at the airport in Bangkok on December 21st and took a bus directly towards the south to Hua Hin, which took about 4 hours. The only real highlight in Hua Hin was the train station, from where we took the train south two days later. Otherwise, Hua Hin was noisy, dirty, and the beach smelled of dead fish. The second stop on our Thailand trip was Khao Lak, where we spent three nights, including Christmas. We rented a scooter for the three days and drove along the coast, which was pretty cool and fun. The beaches were also beautiful and partly empty. However, the main street and the town of Khao Lak were dirty and not very inviting. There were a lot of unpleasant tourists in Khao Lak itself, and we didn't feel comfortable. For Christmas, we treated ourselves to sushi, which was very expensive compared to Thai standards, but at least it tasted good. Our resort was also old and slowly falling apart. All in all, it was okay, but not really nice and certainly not comparable to my trip in 2016. I was traveling on the other side of Thailand, especially on the island of Koh Phangan, and I was very impressed. However, since I had read in advance that there is non-stop partying on the island, especially during Christmas, full moon, and New Year's Eve, we decided to stay on the mainland this time. Maybe it was the wrong decision in retrospect. The negative highlight was then Phuket. Here, too, there was a very unpleasant crowd, everything was run-down, dirty, and smelled like garbage. On the beach, you couldn't see any sand anymore because of all the sunshades and people, and the waves were so high that swimming was no fun. After a day at the pool, we decided to fly back to Bangkok one day earlier, despite already having booked our flight and hotel. During this time, I also didn't feel like taking pictures with my camera or writing a blog. So, you're only hearing from us again today and getting pictures from Bangkok. Since December 28th, we have been back in Bangkok and are now living in a very nice and modern Airbnb apartment. We feel very comfortable in Bangkok and enjoy being in a city again. The high-rise building where we live has its own pool, and from the rooftop garden, you have a beautiful view of the city. I already knew Bangkok from my trip in 2016 as well, but back then I only had one day to explore Bangkok, whereas this time there were three full days. We not only visited the cultural highlights, such as the Grand Palace, Wat Arun, and the reclining golden Buddha, but also made a detour to Chinatown and went on a shopping tour. Now we are sitting in our Airbnb apartment, and in about an hour, the new year will begin here. Since there are an extreme number of people in the city, and we have already spent what feels like several hours in queues in the last few days, we have decided to avoid the hustle and bustle tonight. We still visited the places of tonight's celebration during the day and decided to watch the fireworks from the garden rooftop. So, we will take the elevator up again later and see if we can see anything :) Tomorrow, we will fly to the north to Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai for a few more days. Chiang Mai was also one of my highlights on the Thailand trip back then. Hopefully, it's still just as beautiful!