Finally, the day has come!
After being on my bucket list for more than 10 years, I was finally going to Thailand.
As is true to my style, I decided to take a reasonably circumvented route through Singapore with an 8 hour layover.
What’s new to this, however, is that I’m not alone! For once, after all those years of unsuccessfully convincing people to travel with me, someone is traveling with me! Jean! Jean is pictured below. I like him.
I will preface this travel by saying that we did not necessarily do the most touristic trip. We had the honor of being invited to a very close friends wedding in Hua Hin which is not necessarily a destination you would expect most European or American travelers to venture to on their first time in Thailand. Nevertheless, if you do go, you’ll have a fantastic time.
First things first. Singapore Airlines.
- Singapore Airlines slaps
- Singapore Airlines food slaps
- Singapore Airlines has ramen a volonté
- Singapore Airlines has leg space for tall people and not tall people
- Singapore Airlines people are slapping
- Singapore slaps
- Singapore airport slaps
- Singapore airport butterflies slap
- Singapore airport sun flows slap
- Singapore lounge sofas slap (and sleep)
- Singapore deserves its own post.
- (I am not sponsored by Singapore Airlines however I will be more than happy to do so)
- ((I wrote this part while being slightly sleep-deprived. I stand by it).
More importantly, we landed in Bangkok, spent the first night at 7/11* and slept.
*this absolutely was a recurring theme.
Day one (officially): Ayutthaya
On our first real day in Thailand we said we should be productive members of society and decided to go temple hopping.
Pictured above is the King’s summer palace.
Ayutthaya has an immense amount of history with temples from the 16th century and the ever famous Reclining Buddha. The city itself dates from around the 14th century.
The sheer grounds of the temples were impressive on their own. I will say though that there wasn’t much in the way of written history so I can’t actually tell you what the temples represented or when they were built.
They were old.
We had a quick stopover for lunch and ate SHRIMP. Another recurring theme this trip.
The rest of the tour was fairly similar, temples and tours. However. What happened next will shock you to your core…
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(That line is just for clickbait it wasn’t that bad).
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Remember that saying that if you don’t rest your body, your body will rest for you? That happened. I think I died.
I vomited a lot.
So I died and made Jean eat his 7/11 dinner of chips in a corner of the room because I couldn’t stand the smell of the chips.
Sorry Jean.
Day two: I’m alive!
Guess what guys!!! I wasn’t dead and was very much alive!!
On day two we went to see the temple Wat Arun, the temple of Dawn. We took a little ferry to the other side of Bangkok.
Wat Arun was very much worth it. The temple was beautiful, and a hot spot for families to dress traditionally to take pictures.
From there we took the ferry back (5baht or 0.15EUR per person) and went to see the Grand Palace and Emerald Buddhas.
Oh it was busy. Oooooooh it was SO busy. And mind you it’s about 30 Celsius with 90% humidity. It was. Hot. Another recurring theme!
If you are in Bangkok as a first timer, I would recommend going. It is rich in history (when you read about it online). The infrastructure is beautiful and well maintained.
More importantly, we had lunch right after on the river banks. I had soft shell crab. It was good. I enjoyed.
But wait! The best is yet to come!!
We went to the restaurant where the VERY first Pad Thai was ever invented. It was incredible. The shrimp were the size of my face. I was so happy (see picture). The pad Thai was also incredible. It till hit differently from all other pad thais.
There will be a wait, so get there early. The food is worth the wait.
So, no 7/11 dinner. I know y’all were waiting for that.
Day three: travel day
Today we were to travel to Hua Hin. Our friends’ sister very kindly offered to drive us down. We had some time to kill beforehand so we figured why not try the infamous Khao San road.
Eh.
It was just. English people? Is that normal? It genuinely didn’t feel like Thailand anymore (until we heard people loudly offering massages) (we obliged and got a massage which was fantastic).
My favorite part about this is, it was 10:30? 11? Smirinoff ice was about and in full force.
We did not partake in the traditional ‘foreigener going to a South East Asian country and having alcohol stupidly early’ and ate mango sticky rice. A genius concoction.
Day four: Wedding day
Our friends had a beautiful intimate wedding on the beach. For their privacy’s sake I will keep it at that. I will only say that I cannot thank these friends enough for everything since day 1.
Oh we had charcoal margaritas at the after drinks which definitely made me feel healthy (or as Jean would say, like Teddy, our dog, to whom we give charcoal when he has an upset stomach).
Day five: travel day
We continued our travels to Kanchanaburi. At this point we’re the 30th of December.
Kanchanaburi is about 2/2.5 hour drive west of Bangkok. While in general we had a good time here, a day trip would probably have been enough. It’s a very nice village on the banks of the River Kwai, but there isn’t much to do apart from spending a bit of time at the WW2 museum and venturing to Erawan Falls for the day (easily reachable from Bangkok).
Day six: Bridge on the River Kwai
That said, we did go to the Bridge on the River Kwai museum and the bridge itself which was reconstructed after some time. The original bridge was destroyed at some point in 1945.
I wasn’t feeling wow. Hey remember that humidity and my apathy towards wearing hats in the glaring sun? Yeah makes for a great combination.
Anyway we got massages.
Jean got a one sided wrestling match.
Or how it’s known locally, a Thai massage. It was at that moment he learned to research things before trying.
Oh and it was New Years Eve! We did what we do best.
Eat sleep rave repeat.
Oh that’s auto correct. It should say:
Eat sleep eat repeat.
We had dinner at a really nice riverfront restaurant that had live music and it was a great way to end the year. Knowing Asia’s affinity to fireworks, we made sure to be at our guesthouse so as not to be…. fired up.
We managed to stay awake till 12:05!! There are worse ways to spend your New Years Eve and I’m happy I got to spend it in a new place, with someone very important to me.
And with that, we wrap up 2024. What a year. Sincerely, my personal life has never flourished as much as it has this past year.
Thank you to all who made it spectacular.
We spent another 7 days in Thailand. To do it justice, I’ll post a second post. (Don’t you hate that, when you use the same word twice in one sentence. I hate it). I’ll do the ‘Suggested Lazy Itinerary’ in that next post as well.
