There is so much to say about my Thailand trip, I had to break up my posts into 4: Bangkok, Chiang Mai, beach town and general tips for Thailand travel. Because there is always a camera glued to my hand, you can get an idea of our trip with this video we made:
This post has general tips, what to eat/where and FYIs:
The most golden tip I can give you is to get a business card with an address from your hotel to show taxi drivers getting you home. Also get your hotel concierge to talk to cab drivers picking you up to ensure they are going to the right spots.
Check to see if your hotel has laundry service and use it so you can carry on bags, Thailand is hot. Hot weather clothes are small. It will fit. (We did fly home with an extra duffel bag of gifts and souvenirs)
Buy a lot of things. Thailand is so cheap, it is super fun to buy a bunch of stuff at markets.
Hand sanitizer. A lot of it. All day. We even used it to wipe down utensils before eating street food.
Clothing for temples: women need to cover their knees and shoulders. Buy elephant pants once you're in Thailand, They're loose and breezy. No flip flops allowed, but I did see some people getting away with that one. If you are a woman and you're not dressed properly, they will not let you in or will make you wear a weird robe-like thing that looks hot and ridiculous.
Negotiate tuk tuk/cab/any transportation prices before the ride starts. It sounds more difficult than it is, we'd just walk up and say 100 baht to go whenever and they'd usually just say ok.
Be aware of your surrounds but we really never felt threatened or unsafe.
Bathrooms are terrifying - BYOT bring your own toilet paper always because they probably won't have any. Again with the hand sanitizer here, there might not be a sink with soap for hand washing. So much hand sanitizer.
Bring bug spray - mosquitoes weren't bad in Bangkok but I got eaten alive in Chiang Mai. You can also buy it in Thailand, there are corner stores everywhere.
Everything is outside, even restaurants, you'll get used to the heat. Pack cool clothes but men should bring at least one pair of pants. I wore a lot of sun dresses, workout clothes and then elephant pants to temples.
Hotel wifi is usually pretty good. Before leaving the hotel, screen shot maps of where you want to go to show cab/tuk tuk drivers.
Drink lots of water whenever you can, the heat makes you need to hydrate. But... keep in mind how terrifying public bathrooms are so drink for peeing convenience.
FOOD TIPS: every region has a completely different and amazing cuisine so pay attention and ask your hotel for restaurant and ordering recommendations.
In Thailand you order several different dishes and share, you don't each just order one thing per person. And if you're like me, you'll be order A LOT. Everything is so cheap so get adventurous and try a lot of things.
Street food: eat it but be mindful of the stall's cleanliness and make sure the food is fresh. Don't eat something that has been sitting out.
Bangkok: Eat grilled prawns, pad thai, chicken satay and papaya salad.
Eat mango sticky rice everywhere. As often as possible. You unwrap the rice, pour all the coconut milk on the rice and then eat it with a bite of mango. It will blow your mind.
Chiang Mai: Eat Khao Soi (as often as possible), Tom Yum soup, whole fried fish (in restaurants, not stands), cashew chicken and panang curry. Khao Soi is the best food I've ever tasted. Sausage is a Chiang Mai specialty, we tried it and didn't love it but maybe that's just the spoiled Texan in me.
Don't order Khao Soi in Bangkok and don't order Pad Thai in Chiang Mai. Each region does its own cuisine exceptionally well but doesn't do another region's cuisine well. Stick to the region's specialty.
Don't order beef. In any capacity. Ever. You won't die or anything but its gross.
Literally the best food I've ever eaten, most fun I've ever had with locals and temples and beaches like you've never seen before. Unless you've been to Thailand too. There is so much to say, I am breaking my Thailand post up into 4 posts: Bangkok, Chiang Mai, beach town and general tips for Thailand travel.
Watch this video of our trip:
I've gotten a lot of questions about my trip and I always answer with: You have got to go. From Bangkok to Chiang Mai to Ko Lanta every stop was uniquely adventurous. Our trip was so perfect, I'd recommend anyone follow our lead...
First stop: BANGKOK
HOTELS:
We stayed in two different hotels in Bangkok, one on the river (more peaceful and relaxing) and one in the heart of the crazy. Our first hotel was The Peninsula Bangkok and if we were to go back, I would stay here the entire time while in Bangkok. For around $200 a night you get a massive room, balcony, 15 white gloved staffers welcoming you in Thai and smiles every time you walk through the door. It's NICE. A hotel like that in America would probably run you $800 a night.
I was sick with a cold for our first few days here so we did a lot of eating at the hotel. There were four different incredible restaurants in the hotel and it was nice to have a spot to eat where you knew you didn't have to worry about getting 'Bangkok Belly'.
Our second hotel in Bangkok was Ariyosomvilla, a smaller boutique hotel. This one was a bit pricier (about $250/night) and just off Sukhumvit Road. Our room was fabulous and the hotel was definitely more low key but in walking distance to all the craziness. The thing is, getting around Bangkok is so cheap that location isn't as important as normal. Keep in mind though that traffic is a bitch here so pick a hotel at least near something you want to do.
From The Peninsula we walked out of the driveway, turned right and got several $6 massages at a little massage spot. Thai massages are definitely worth a try, I bet you never thought your leg could be bent backwards over your head... they'll make it happen. They also offer "relaxing massages" which are more like what we are used to.
Floating markets are all the hype in Bangkok according to travel sites... but most of them are really far outside of Bangkok. We didn't want to waste the time in traffic going outside of Bangkok so we taxied to Taling Chan floating market which is less than 10 miles from downtown.
I would recommend getting there early in the day. It starts shutting down around 2 or 3 pm depending on how many people show up. First of all, it was beautiful, with so many colors and vendors in boats selling weird thing to eat while tied up to the dock.
Just looking around was an experience in itself but you have to eat. These prawns were freshly grilled right in front of us and were bigger than my face. And don't use that beer as a reference for measurement - beers in Thailand are about three times the size of American ones. You also must eat chicken satays.
Our next adventure is a pretty unusual one... and that made it pretty incredible. Fishing. But... in true Thai fashion it was over the top.
Did I mention fish terrify me? Tap was our guide. He picked us up from the hotel and drove us out to this lake. He studied abroad in America and his English is basically perfect. He was super not creepy and really entertaining.
Bangkok Fishing Guide Service stocked the lake with rare Amazon fish and the catching was easy. Well hooking them was easy... reeling these monsters in took some muscle. Also... this fish as teeth. Human-like teeth.
We tuk tuk-ed around to all the places near the hotel. Just tell them how much you'll pay before riding so they don't jack up the price after. This all sounded stressful to me before going but they were really easy to negotiate with. No big deal.
We ate. We ate so much and as often as possible. The food is the best I've ever had.
It took a bit of a walk to pick the cleanest looking vendor with the freshest looking food. This one was near our hotel and was actually wearing gloves while preparing the food. We did wipe the utensils down with sanitizer before using them. It was delicious. Shrimp balls are the MVP.
We also made a very miss-able trip to Sky Bar from the Hang Over 2. It was super crowded and drinks were super expensive. I wouldn't go back but if you do go, men have to wear pants and everyone has to wear close toed shoes. We had to rent shoes from a genius lady who set up a shoe and pants rental stand across from the bar.
Now we venture to Ariyosomvilla hotel. It's a small, absolutely stunning room but I still preferred The Peninsula. But this is an entirely different part of Bangkok with entirely new adventures for us to explore. First stop was exploring the different streets around there (or Soi as they are called).
Sukhumvit is the longest road in Thailand. This is where you can go get a custom made suit or dress for cheap. Stores as far as the eye can see. The side streets, Sois, have restaurants and hopping bars and clubs.
We strolled on down to Soi 4, the red light district aka Nana Plaza. The photo below is a "lady boy" which is pretty self explanatory until you look at the photo. They really look like women. Soi 11 was a fun bar hopping area.
We spent one night exploring Khao San Road aka backpackers road. The area was busy with tourists, but not in an annoying way. It was a really interesting melting pot of people from all over the world. There are vendors selling things on the side of the road, from tarantula and scorpion on a stick to elephant pants and soft t-shirts.
The bar scene here could be comparable to Bourbon Street in New Orleans. There was a ton of live music - Thais singing American songs with a thick accent - it was a total blast. Don't miss this.
On our way home we stopped and ordered some grilled prawns on the side of the road and sat outside and ate them. The seafood selection is really stunning. We made sure they got us the prawns that were right on the ice to ensure their freshness. They grilled them right there in front of us. This is everywhere in Bangkok, choose wisely and eat at one.
We got a tip for the best way to view the riverside Wat Arun (which unfortunately had scaffolding covering the majority of it while we were there). There is a restaurant inside Sala Arun Hotel, with a spectacular view of the temple and river. It also has a balcony but we needed a little AC.
On our side of the river is Wat Po. This is where the giant reclining Buddha is, but that wasn't really the best part of this temple.
The temples sparkle. They are beautiful. Grab a coconut from a nearby stand and wander through the buildings. Photos can't really capture how ornate these buildings are.
We popped in to see the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, took a kneeling squat in the temple, crawled up to a monk who was blessing people, let him bless us, he tied a bracelet on us and sent us on our way.
We did all these temples and the Grand Palace in one afternoon. That's a lot of outside in the heat time so we went through a lot of bottled waters and sun screen. We bought tickets, did a quick spin through the inside and ran into a nearby restaurant for a drink and some AC. The Grand Palace has a very appropriate name and is worth a visit.
Bangkok is a giant busy city with ample food on every corner. Literally. Important to note that we never felt unsafe.
Next we flew to Chiang Mai. This was my favorite spot on our trip. I thought it would be historic and old, but there is a teeming youth culture overflowing the city with graffiti, break dancing, friendly locals and the best food in the world. Read about our next stop in Chiang Mai in the next blog post. Also see Thailand travel tips.
