My Thai

AsiaTravel

Aug 22

Written By

With our first day in Thailand, we researched activities and had a very relaxing day by the pool (MF) or at the beach (AB).

Wake Up in the Morning (feeling like a zombie)

Now that we could see our room, we were actually really impressed! Our bed was really big and comfortable and we had plenty of space. Most likely, our favorite part was the free AC and the big bathroom. In hindsight, we were expecting the worst after our amazing experience in the Maldives so we were pleasantly surprised!

Thankfully, the hotel has an on-site restaurant led by a British manager/waiter/everthing. While he was extremely happy about the morning, we were not ready for his sunshine! By the time he served us food, we were equally ready for the day! Morever, our simple easy breakfast was only 400 bhat - which is “expensive” for Thailand but incredibly cheap compared to our breakfast yesterday.

Research and more Research

Because everyone advised not to pre-book anything in Thailand, I barely did any planning. Plus, I figured MF would want to continue her relax in the sun attitude. Boy, was I wrong!

After breakfast, led by MF, we attacked Trip Advisor on two specific adventure topics - scuba diving and island tours. Because our flight was Tuesday morning (more on that in a second…), we would be against the time needed to recover from the underwater pressure before flying. Every option looked amazing, so it was up to whether or not we wanted to learn how to scuba or sight see on these amazing islands!

As we chose the islands, we first chose the operator. During MF’s research, she found Simba Adventures, who had a last minute deal for the sunrise Phi Phi Islands tour. Yes, we were considering a sunrise tour! On every review, folks recommended this operator because they often beat the other boats and that was worth the extra cost.

As one can surmise, we had a tough decision! We decided we would go with scuba first, if they had availability, and then go to the islands as a Plan B. However, my “expert” pre-trip planning threw us a curve ball...

Uh Oh

As I alluded to earlier, I made a massive travel “mistake.” Whilst I did not do much planning, I did plan our departure from Phuket to Chiang Mai. However, I did not read carefully WHEN we would be flying from Chiang Mai to Phuket. Luckily, we had some wiggle room as we likely could extend our stay in Phuket and our AirBnB in Chiang Mai wasn’t too pricey to miss one night. However, the only activity I did plan was the Elephant Nature Park, which was MF’s number one bucket list item or must-do activity for our entire spring. Whoops…

I quickly sent out feeler emails to the Elephant Park and scuba to see if we could do both or none and decided to wait on the Simba tour…
Thankfully, it wasn’t a bad deal as I purchased the tickets for $50 total months ago and the new tickets would be $200. I like to think this challenged us to be more spontaneous and Thailand is the perfect place for this type of “mistake” to happen! While it did not go according to “plan”, it was very worth it!

Splitting our Sunny Day

For the first time in the trip, we decided to split up and head our separate ways. I wanted to see the famous NaiHarn Beach while MF wanted to lounge by the pool. By the way, the pool was 20 feet from our room while the beach was maybe an hour…

For my walk to the beach, I quickly learned why the summers in Thailand are sweltering. Boy, I was instantly sweaty and hot within five minutes! Because I was burnt in the Maldives, I had a strict 10-10-10 plan. I would spin 10 minutes on either side and then a final 10 minutes in the water trying to cool down. It eventually whittled down to “can I make it to 5 minutes” before I had to run into the sea!

Sunsets Are Magical

Because she didn’t want to go to beach earlier in the day, we went for sunset as this is the most southern point so is very popular at sunset! Boy, they were not wrong! The beach was very peaceful at night as most of the day-trippers had left and people “forgot” about the beach for the sunset somehow. We sat on the beach and loved the serene beauty of a Thai sunset. I think we preferred it to the Maldvian sunset!

Sunsets are magical
Sunsets are magical
Sunsets are magical
Selfie time!
Sunsets are magical
Sunsets are magical
Sunsets are magical
MF and Sunset

My Thai

After dinner, we walked to a local hotspot called Thai Lagoon rather than the “Western” onsite hotel restaurant. While it was a bit of a walk, we instantly found a winner in our minds! First, the family run restaurant (we think) barely spoke English and the staff were chilling in the kitchen similar to any Italian kitchen.

For our appetizer, we had fresh, warm veggie spring rolls that were absolutely tasty! Next, for our mains, we both had pad thai as it would be a problem if it wasn’t our first proper Thai meal. To properly end the meal, I ordered mango sticky rice - which is VERY healthy as it is just rice, mango, and coconut milk… totally healthy, right?? By far, my favorite moment was paying the bill. It was a whopping 400 baht for one of the best meals of our trip!! The mains were 75 each while the beer was 85… It was amazing!!