BACK TO BANGKOK & ALLLLLL THAILAND RECAPS!!

Dec 3

(PICS NOT LOADING, WILL TRY AGAIN AT AIRPORT TOMORROW MORNING MY TIME BUT HERE IS THE INFO POST)

DAY 44 – NOV 28 – AO NANG, KRABI back to BANGKOK, THAILAND

Saying goodbye to my wonderful hosts was a little sad – Bancha and Rita are fantastic people!

Bangkok is an adventure to say the least. There is no downtown area really, there are many ‘downtowns’. My first stay here was close to Khao San Road. This stay is close to Lebua Sky Bar. A 30 minute drive apart from eachother.

I finally found my AirBNB room, basically settled in. I decided to walk to Lebua State Building to see the Sky Bar. Got myself up to the 64th floor and found the bar. WOW. Impressive. It is a 360 degree view of city and skyscrapers. Literally a massive city with ‘downtown’ pockets wherever you look.

Met Airom, originally from the Phillipines but living in L.A. since she was 9 years old. Super cool gal, gave me some great Bangkok tips. I was up there before sunset, stayed until after sunset, then walked to a mall area to grab food. I had a hankering for American food, been eating Asian food for 6 weeks. I got a Big Mac meal haha, then ordered a Grab to take me back to my place. This would be the only way I would travel in Bangkok – a car takes too long. A motorcycle squishes between cars and even goes against oncoming traffic which saves much time.

Came home and watched a Christmas movie on Netflix with a Big Mac meal after a shower. Nite Nite.

DAY 45 – NOV 29 – BANGKOK, THAILAND

Started out early on a Grab to run some errands. Then made my way to ICONSIAM. Yikes!! Insane mall.

The main floor is a replica of a floating market with 100’s of food kiosks. I spent so much time in this area just walking around, taking it in.

When I thought I was done, I figured I would take the elevator to 2nd floor out of curiosity. WELLLLLL….. the elevator let me out to an entirely different world. Massive massive Bangkok mall. When I was in the elevator, my eye happened to catch a glance that said Starbucks. I remembered Airom saying something about this being the largest Starbucks in Thailand… so I put it in my mind to go see it before I left for my place…. Out of curiosity.

I ended up shopping around for a few hours.. found a Lululemon to replace my white water bottle!! A super super happy moment for me .. oh my, I have my water bottle back!

Went up to see the Starbucks. Unbenownst to me, it was the top outdoor floor overlooking nthe Phraya River and the Bangkok skyline. Incredible.

Came home, had a long zoom call with my parents. How fantastic to catch up!!

I was up till 4:30am – I bought Jado a scooter for the day to explore Kona since most of his campus flew home for American Thanksgiving. I couldn’t sleep knowing that his time 10am his time he would be checking in, 3am my time.

He called me from the shoe store to buy hiking boots for the Himalayas – he is just so sweet. Black Friday sale, he found hiking boots and casual loafers. I finally went to sleep.

DAY 46 – NOV 30 – BANGKOK

I slept in till 8am or so. Chatted with Jado. Got up to put laundry in the washer in my unit. It said 1 hour 40 minutes.

I decided to stay home today, work on blog and go to the pool. I turned on the documentary ‘We are the World’. I kept hearing the water gushing in the kitchen. I finally went to do the dishes, an hour and 40 min later… at which point I realized the water had been gushing for the past hour and 40 min onto the outside deck, the hose was disconnected. Crazy. I fixed the hose and started the laundry again.

ALLLLLLLL THE THAILAND RECAPS!!!

RECAP PATONG BEACH, PHUKET

Phuket is an amazing place. It is a small city with 15K people. Phuket city has 75K people, Phuket province 525K… not a huge place. I loved Patong Beach, and I loved Phuket old town… the energy of this place is incredible. It is not super busy or overcrowded. It seems like a smaller fun place. I love how it is nestled at the bottom of a hill, curvy roads coming in.

Patong Beach reminds me somehow of California and Costa Rica both. The traffic is not horrible, I really like the feel of Phuket.

Beaches are amazing, the elephant experience I had here was a top memory for me, so many good memories here. I loved my location. I would give Patong Beach, Phuket very high marks!! Highly recommend.

Looks like I am heading into typhoon season – rain rain ahead!!

RECAP AO NANAG BEACH, KRABI

Krabi is so totally entirely different from Phuket. Ao Nang has a population of 15K, and the province of Krabi only 33K. Small population! Krabi has massive rocks jutting out of the ground everywhere. Patong Beach is nestled at the base of a mountain on the ocean. Krabi is slow paced, fewer people, traffic is fast-flowing.

I quickly realized that this is a great city to get my own scooter so I rented one for a week. Best decision ever!! I zipped around Ao Nang every day, I got a real feel for the city. Super simple to navigate, super simple to flow with traffic. I never felt stuck… loved it.

I met a lot of great people in Ao Nang. I visited incredible beaches in Krabi. I had amazing AirBNB hosts! I had a lot of relax time. Only thing was it rained a lot while I was there but it was fine. I didn’t need the beach time, I had many other activities.

Ao Nang, Krabi – you also get very high marks from me. Amazing!!

RECAP BANGKOK, THAILAND

Bangkok is insane traffic with almost 11 Million people living there. Many cars, not as many motorcycles. A Grab motorcycle is my favorite way to get around because it is so much faster than a car, and so much cheaper.

Motorcycles drive between cars and into oncoming traffic so they save a lot of time in traffic.

Bangkok is dirty almost everywhere. I didn’t see a lot of beauty in Bangkok. I feel like I did the most important things, I enjoyed them. I guess I liked the city a little more than I initially gave it credit for – but really it’s not my favorite city. Would I come back? Yeah, probably .. but not my #1 choice.

People are friendly, skyline is gorgeous, weather is great, food is good. Bangkok – you get a 7/10 from me.

THAILAND RECAP

Thailand, I HEART YOU!! Really, I love you and will prob be back one day. You are chill, beautiful, fun, great food, great people, great weather, good prices.. what more can a girl ask for?

Overall, one of my top pics so far on this trip. Thank you, Thailand, for a great experience all around. I know that if I come back, I could experience an entirely different trip if I decided to visit more quiet, quaint village areas. Something to consider down the road. For now, it has been a pleasure.

Thailand, you get a 9.5 / 10 from me.

It is tough.. thinking back on Vietnam, I almost preferred it to Thailand – but I gave Vietnam a 9. I think because it is more likely I would visit Thailand again before Vietnam. Not sure. Tough call on these 2 countries.. both amazing.

PICS BELOW:

1 welcome to Bangkok my ride awaits

2 my place was impossible to find, these 4 young men helped me find my hidden key lol

3 kids like this all over the streets, many school uniforms all over Asia

4 common street while I was walking

5-8 many local tiny restaurants in every back alley for lower priced eating out options, mostly locals eat here

9-10 riding the streets of Bangkok on a motorbike, loving the sites

11-12 Lebua sky bar views - I had a view of this sky bar from all my air bnb windows

13-40 ICONSIAM mall was nuts and so fun

41-44 heading home after shopping with my new groceries lol

45 I was beside myself to find a Lululemon to replace my bottle, feeling so happy, this bottle made my life so much easier lol

46 every country has different currency so that has been an interesting challenge recalculating every few days