Thailand Part 1: Bangkok and Chiang Mai

In order to be at the border crossing to Thailand as early as possible (and thus avoid the long wait), we took the night bus from Siem Reap towards the Thai border. That was the plan, at least, because after we arrived at the border at 4 o'clock in the morning (the border opens at 5:30 a.m.), our bus driver and 'tour guide' decided to take a nap, only to wake up again around 6:30 a.m. As a result, the border crossing was already quite busy, and there was a line of about 200 people ahead of us when entering Thailand. Doesn't sound like much, but only for those who don't know the work pace of a Thai border officer. After about 30 minutes (and moving forward about 3 meters in the line), we started timing the average time it took for each person to match their passport (photo) with the person in front of them and stamp their passport twice. Since two counters were open, we had a nice pastime of taking times and calculating averages. The employee at the left counter was much faster than his colleague at the right counter. He took about 1 minute and 10 seconds, while she took about 2 minutes and 5 seconds per person. Therefore, we spent nearly 2 hours standing in line, hoping that a third counter would open and measuring times. When we were back on our bus shortly before 9 o'clock, our travel group made good progress, and we arrived at our hostel in Bangkok at noon.

Everyone had warned us about Bangkok and said that one night was enough. The city is noisy, dirty, expensive, it's hot, and there's not much to do. Well, we found it rather calm (Phnom Penh and Siem Reap were much louder and more stressful, and there are even sidewalks here! Pure luxury!) Plus, Bangkok is a very clean city. We didn't find it to be expensive either, and we were quite busy with sightseeing, so only the heat was actually true. Because it was hot here nonstop...

After exploring the neighborhood around our hostel, including the famous Khao San Road, and having a good dinner, we went back to our hostel to freshen up. But what was supposed to be a short stop turned into a longer one, because we met Nathalie and Dominik from Munich, who had also just arrived in Bangkok (after traveling through India for 2 months, crazy people.. ;-)) and we had a little rum and cola with them and exchanged some stories. Around midnight, we went to bed, as we had plans to meet Maria (from Barcelona), who was also staying in our dorm, at 8:30 a.m. the next day.

At around 5 in the morning, I suddenly woke up because I heard Dominik getting up and going to another bed and loudly saying, 'Why have you stolen my blanket?' At first, I didn't understand anything, just that the drunk guy in the furthest bed had apparently gotten up and stolen Dominik's blanket. Why? No idea. I just saw Dominik trying to talk to him, but the guy fell asleep again, even though Dominik was shaking him and talking to him. Dominik took the blanket and walked back to his bed, but halfway there he said, 'shit, it's wet!!!' He went back to his bed and found that his bed was half wet!! Now he was really pissed off, because the drunk New Zealander had mistaken Dominik's bed for the toilet (a door away) and let it run over him and his bed. Dominik, now really angry, went back to him, tried to wake him up and yelled at him for peeing on him, but the guy was so out of it that he didn't understand anything and kept falling back asleep. Dominik then went to take a shower and went to the reception to report the incident, and then he went to sleep in the still available bed in our room. I just lay there and thought, what the hell is going on and how lucky I was, because I was right across from them and in the end it could have hit me too. I just don't know if I would have stayed as calm as Dominik did, hats off that he let it go. Of course, the guy was completely out of it, but I'm not sure if I wouldn't have totally freaked out in that situation. Anyway, the two guys sorted out the incident the next day without throwing any punches, and we had an ongoing joke for our room. Oh, by the way, the bed wetter had already paid for 5 nights at the hostel, so he had to stay there from now on and live with the ridicule, which was obviously uncomfortable for him afterwards. But someone who is so drunk that he can't tell the difference between a bed and a toilet deserves even more ridicule...

Anyway, there wasn't as much sleep as hoped (and the night before in the night bus wasn't that great either), so I was pretty exhausted the next day. But we had a big tourist program ahead of us, and the girls had a lot planned...

We started with the Grand Palace, and people, that's what I call a palace. Really awesome! Huge complex, various buildings with lots of decorations and and and. The dress code was a bit strict, even I as a man had to wear long pants (luckily I could borrow one on site), but other than that, it was really amazing. After that, we went to the Wat Pho Temple, where the huge reclining Buddha is housed. It was impressive as well, but after the Grand Palace, it can only pale in comparison. Between the Grand Palace and Wat Pho, the Thai navy distributed free food and drinks to the people. This was done at the request of the royal family in honor of the late king. It was a great gesture for the people (not just the temple visitors). After that, we took a boat tour on the Chao Phraya River and then returned to the hostel around 4 p.m., quite exhausted. There we met Bram from Holland, who had also moved into our room. He had been in Bangkok for the second time and was flying back home 2 days later. So he knew the city much better than us, and we left the evening planning to him and took a nap.

In the evening, we went out to eat with a big group (6 of us) before moving on with Maria and Bram (Nathalie and Dominik couldn't join us unfortunately, as Nathalie was still a bit unwell) towards Cloud47 (rooftop bar). The TukTuk ride was an absolute highlight, not only because our driver was already worth his money and the Bangkok TukTuks are definitely the fastest in all of Thailand, but also because we were challenged to a little race by another TukTuk at a traffic light. Unfortunately, we couldn't keep up, which was due to the unequal distribution of passengers in the TukTuks, but both drivers gave it their all at the start. There were two starts in total, and unfortunately, we lost both times, but that was no problem, because the fun factor was indescribable.

Arriving at the rooftop bar, we ordered a tower of beer (3 liters), and for some reason we got an extra liter for free. Definitely a fair deal, even though Maria thought the 3 liters were too much. After about 2 hours, we left the bar and made our way back (unfortunately, this time with a regular taxi), as we wanted to make a little detour to the famous Khao San Road, especially known for its nightlife. It was quite amusing there, but we now understood why the toilet and the bed had been mixed up the night before, because late at night, it's actually only bearable here in an advanced state of intoxication! Although we were already slightly tipsy, we definitely wouldn't reach the level required to hang out with the people here for a longer time and party properly (and we didn't want to either...). Let's just say it was "greeting the Mallows".

The night went by without incident this time, so we could pack, check out, and visit the Golden Mountain before taking the night bus to Chiang Mai in the evening. Unfortunately, everything didn't go as planned, because just as we were about to start the journey, I had some health issues (digestive problems), and the ride became very uncomfortable. Unfortunately, it wasn't just for one night, but I was knocked out for the entire following two days, so on the third evening, we had to go to the hospital. There, I was examined, received a huge injection (no information was given about its contents, but at that point I didn't care), and was given antibiotics. It took two more days until I was somewhat fit again and able to leave the hostel, so all our plans for the north (a 2-3 day jungle trek, going up north to Pai) were unfortunately ruined.

From here on, I (Rahel) will better continue writing. Stephan unfortunately couldn't do much during the first few days in Chiang Mai...

I spent this time exploring Old Town a bit (the center is surrounded by a huge square moat, and parts of the old city walls and gates are still preserved). Chiang Mai has plenty of temples, but after the Grand Palace in Bangkok, I focused more on dilapidated stone structures, as I hadn't seen many of them yet. On Sundays, there was a big night market, and the next day, I could take a bike from the hostel and ride around the entire city (although I think I was the only one who rode a bike on the three-lane ring road... it was quite adventurous!).

As an old TV kid, I also enjoyed spending an afternoon keeping Stephan company in the hotel room and watching a few series (I'm going through withdrawal here ;-) ). Another activity was walking to the Italian restaurant and getting spaghetti with tomato sauce for Stephan. Understandably, he couldn't stand any of the Asian food, and the pasta was really delicious!

Unfortunately, there were no big jungle trekking tours, but when Stephan started feeling better, we rented a scooter to go to the Doi Suthep National Park. It was quite a winding road, and at the top, the temperatures were a bit cooler (for Thai standards), but the view was breathtaking! However, it's incomprehensible how some groups can make such a loud noise in this idyllic place instead of enjoying the view (Chinese people taking pictures and Spaniards loudly conversing, sitting with their backs to the view and blocking the best photo spot...). Well, sometimes you can only shake your head.

The next day, we went back on the scooter to Huay Tung Tao Lake, a large reservoir where you can just relax in a hut and enjoy drinks and food. That's exactly what we did the whole day, and in the evening, we treated ourselves to our first Thai massage! Really just what we needed after a long scooter ride...

On our last day, we headed south to visit two temples and then went to the 'Grand Canyon'. After accidentally driving 10 kilometers too far to a lake (which was also called Grand Canyon on maps.me), we finally found the well-known tourist attraction. As often, everything looks a bit bigger/higher/better in the promotional pictures, but the 'not so grand canyon' was sufficient for a quick refreshment and some sunbathing.

The last evening had another highlight in store for us: we went to the Muay Thai Fight Night! Seven fights, including two women's fights and a special fight where 6 guys with blindfolds try to hit each other somehow (well, this fight might not have been as serious as the others, but it was quite entertaining. Especially when the referee got caught in the crossfire and simply started boxing/kicking himself!). The last fight was a German Thai boxer against a fighter from Chiang Mai, and unfortunately, he lost (to the delight of the audience) quite convincingly.

All in all, it was an entertaining evening and a good end to our time in the north. Now we're heading south to finally enjoy the beach and the sea again!