We visited Thailand in two parts in 2013. The first part is shown below and will link to the next page (Laos). The second is located further down and will be where to follow on from when / if you return from (Burma).
Upon arriving in Chiang Mai we were surprised by just how hot it was coming from 3 or 4 celsius in China. Even at ten o'clock at night it was 32 celsius. Upon arriving at our
hotel we saw the sign "FULL" that we now have become accustomed to meaning you have been screwed by the hotel as they have given away your room. Indeed after ringing their out
of office number this was confirmed to be the case. We almost expect to have this happen when we are arriving after 9pm so we had been keeping our eyes peeled for other hotels
on the way in. Luckily for us the second one we entered dripping with sweat had a room available. They were shocked for us to request the fan only room, most likely because of
the lake which had formed on my forehead, but hey AC costs too much.
The first day here we went to see some of the local temples such as Chedi Luang and Wat Prah Singh and book our bus ticket to Chiang Rai. The second day here we booked on a tour
to see the Mao hilltribe and the Doi Suthep temple. At the Mao hilltribe we got to sample raw opium from the poppy plant. This was a) disgusting, b) impossible to get rid of
taste and c) made your mouth numb. The next day we left Chiang Mai on a bus to Chiang Rai.
The drive from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai was relatively long. Thailand has 4 classes of buses. The VIPx class which is a bus with only VIP seats, the VIP class which is a bus with both VIP and normal seats, the X class which is a normal bus with an onboard toilet and the A class which is a bus without a toilet. We opted for the X class even though most travel forums recommended the VIP class. We were pleasantly surprised to find the seats extremely comfortable and made from leather. We really saw no need to ever travel this route as VIP and laughed at all the white people we had seen waste their money on the VIPx which departed shortly before our bus. Upon arriving in Chiang Rai we booked on a tour to go and see the Akha, Yao and Karen "Long Neck" hilltribes along with Mae Sai (a point at which Thailand overlooks Burma) and the "Golden Triangle". We also went to see the Monkey Cave & Temple, White Temple and Black Temple. A lot of the tour wasn't really our thing, at least to start off with. However as always we made the tour our own by deciding which bits to do and which bits to avoid and instead take strolls around local villages and markets. All in all though by the end of the day we had had a great day. The next day we left on a truly local bus to Chiang Khong.
The scenery on the bus on the way to Chiang Khong was amazing. One of the best parts of travelling is the travelling you do not via plane but via boat, bus and other road transport. Chiang Khong is a small Thai border town on the side of the Mekong River. Other than one 7/11 the only other restaurants and shops are little wooden shacks. We ate some awesome food for almost nothing here. We stayed at the River House Hotel which is a very nice hotel on the edge of the small town overlooking the Mekong river. We only came to Chiang Khong in order to cross the border into Laos before heading down the Mekong via slow boat to Luang Prabang (via Pak Beng), but we were glad that we had stopped here for a night over Houay Xai (the Laos equivalent). The next morning we headed into Laos.
This marks the end of part 1 of our visit to Thailand in 2013. We continued our journey through Laos which you can follow by clicking the below button.
Next PageWe arrived in Bangkok at Khao San road just in time for Kat's birthday. This was good as it allowed us to let our hair down properly for the first time this year, or at least slightly. :) The many bars & cheap alcohol made this a perfect place to be in order to celebrate & celebrate we did as we watched many drunken tourists and lady boys parading past us on the street as we sat on plastic chairs on the side of the street drinking. While we were in Bangkok we also managed to squeeze in viewing the palace one of the few things that we missed when we were last in Thailand in 2007. We also both got a bamboo tattoo done here after having unfortunately just missed out on it in Chiang Mai. Bamboo tattooing was the original form of tattooing and is still used by many remote tribes today. A bamboo tattoo uses the same principles as a tattoo gun but is all done by hand and therefore requires more time and pain. :) Needless to say there are very few places in the world that you can get a bamboo tattoo and even less where the work is done by a professional trained in the art who isn't self-taught.
Next we arrived in Phuket and headed towards the Kata Beach area where we had a short stop before we started island hoping our way into Malaysia. Considering that we had expected Phuket to be terrible we were pleasantly surprised by the beaches Kata had to offer in the way of Karon Beach & Kata Noi beach even if they were overpriced rip-offs trying to con mis-guided russian tourists. Next we left on our first tigerline ferry to the island of Koh Phi Phi which turned out to actually be a bumpy speed boat trip.
Koh Phi Phi an island made famous the world over by the film "The Beach". The film only ever used one tiny cove on the island which has many other areas and beaches on offer. Staying in Koh Phi Phi was nice as many tourists simply visited the south island on day trips and as such the island itself was mostly quite quiet. During our first day here we explored the entire island and found a couple of quaint beaches. The next day we went out on a sea gypsy long tailed boat. These aren't really designed for sea conditions and we had some hairy moments due to rough seas and got absolutely soaked through on numerous occasions. On our tour we went to snorkel at shark point (an area where lots of reef sharks gather), followed by a visit to the monkey beach, followed by a stop at Bamboo island where we got to enjoy lunch on a remote island which nobody inhabits, followed by more snorkelling at moskito island where there were thousands of fish literally swimming into your face as the school tried to pass you. Next we travelled to Pi-Leh Lagoon where we were able to swim in the crystal clear waters for a while before we travelled on to Maya Bay (the beach where the film "the beach" was filmed). In order to get to the beach we had to swim to the steps and then hike across the island where we then came down to the beach. As we had expected the beach was very busy and certainly not the best part of our day. The next day we left on the next leg of our tigerline journey bound for Koh Lanta.
Koh Lanta was a much larger and yet surprisingly much quieter island than Koh Phi Phi. We had on average at least a couple of kilometres to ourselves most of the time. Unfortunately due to the rough sea conditions over the last few days the beach was quite dirty from both manmade and natural rubbish. After a few days though the sea conditions improved and the beach became much cleaner. During our time here we stayed on Klong Dao beach a 4km long beach. On one of the more rough days we headed down to Kan Tiang Bay to see what it had to offer. We were surprised to find a much nicer beach and even under non-ideal conditions it was very nice. Unfortunately on the whole we found that Koh Lanta just lacked any vibe and this made it hard to enjoy it as much as some of the other islands even if we could sit out drinking a £2 margarita on the beach with only the beach and sea in front of us under candle light. Next we left on our next Tigerline ferry to the island of Koh Lipe.
Koh Lipe is only accessible by Longtail boat due to the extensive coral reefs around the island. During our time here we stayed on Sunrise beach which ironically we were able to enjoy both sunrise and sunset on. We stayed in a bamboo hut located on the beach cooled with a fan and had a very basic bathroom. The fan wasn't really needed though due to the hut being made from natural materials meant that it was almost always the right temperature. We explored the entire island by foot in a morning and spent most of our time between the crystal blue waters on Pattaya beach and the beautiful sand and tranquillity on sunrise beach. Although it rained at least once every day on Koh Lipe it only lasted for a short while and lead to some awesome sunsets even if we did have to run a kilometre down the beach back to our beach shack for shelter on more than one occasion. Watching the sun come down with only a handful of other people while enjoying a cold beer was one of the most amazing things one could do in Koh Lipe. We were also lucky enough to be on Koh Lipe for the start of Songkran "Thai new year / water festival". This is a period where Thai people celebrate the soon coming monsoon rains by soaking everyone and throwing dyes, flour and paints at each other. Needless to say that we got soaked as the entire village centre got gridlocked with locals and foreigners alike drenching each other and throwing dyes etc at each other.
Next we left on our final tigerline ferry to the Malaysian island of Langkawi and onto country number 9.
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