Sawadee krup from Thailand
At December 15th we went for a week of vacation at Thailand, actually Phuket and Bangkok. This is our first time to Thailand, we knew nothing about it before neither did we read any tourist guide. We just booked the trip package from ctrip [携程]. Two days before departure, I ran to a bookstore nearby but couldn’t find any guide on Thailand, there were all other unusual country guides such as Hungary, Mongolia and Angola, but no Thailand. I guess it is a really popular destination and all booked were sold out. Saturday morning we started to pack our stuff and left for the airport at 2:30PM.
Three weeks before the trip, I had no idea that I would go to Thailand for vacation, that has never been in my vacation plan. We planned to go to a famous places in China, such as Xi’an, Tibet, Yunnan or Guilin, etc. But when I saw the photos taken by a friend on our trip to Hangzhou together, I thought to myself, it’s been really longtime since I didn’t swim at a real nice beach, I kinda miss blue sky, really! In the past I avoided Thailand because of the political instability, maybe I was reading too much newspapers and mainstream journalists tend to exagerate conflicts and threats. Coincidentally, I went there during the week of election, one year after the former Prime Minister was sacked by the temporary military government. If trouble is to happen, this would be a good time for that, but I was not aware of the election until I was there… It turned out just fine, no explosion, no mass protest on street, just a peaceful election, but messy results…
Phuket
We arrived at Phuket international airport at 11:55PM, by the time we got our baggage it was already Dec 16th, bad planning on our part. We easily spotted the ctrip shuttle bus, took us almost an hour to arrive to our hotel, Le Méridien Phuket Beach Resort, at Karon beach which is just south of the populous Patong beach. Upgrading our package for this hotel was the best decision we made for this trip. This is one of the best hotel that we’ve stayed at so far, excellent service, nice view, quiet spot, isolated but very close to Patong, excellent breakfast. But most important of all, it has a private beach behind it! You wake up the morning, go to the impressive breakfast, then walk quietly to the beach without crossing the street and hear all the noise, no need to bring anything because it’s all included (except coconut on the beach). You don’t have to deal with anyone to find a seat, no street sellers, no dogs running around, just kick back and relax!
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My impression of Phuket is quite positive. The people are very friendly to tourists, most of them understand and speak some English, they don’t seem to cheat tourists like at Vietnam… Patong beach is nice and easy to walk around, plenty of excellent Thai restaurants, though a bit over priced I think.
We went to stay at Phi Phi island for one night, which was a stupid choice proposed by the package. By the time we got off the boat there it was already 5PM, too late to swim, and the section of beach in front of our hotel has too much raw sand, it’s plain dirty and uncomfortable, and too big wave. Then next day we had to check out early to catch the boat to return to Phuket island, so we’re checking in and out for nothing, didn’t have time for swim neither snokkering. Next time I’d rather staying at Le Meridien all the time, take a one-day trip to PP island, and another one-day trip for riding elephants. That’ll be smarter use of time and more comfortable.
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Bangkok
From Phuket we flew to Bangkok afternoon. That night we went to shopping at Siam Paragon and Siam Discover Center, bought a special but unexpected gift and we were all happy! The next day at Bangkok was really a marathon day for us. We checked out at 9AM, took the subway to the terminal station close to the tourist attractions. From there, we got a really nice tuk-tuk ride (with help of a hotel worker passing by) to four smaller temples, including the Wat Benchamabophit (The Marble Temple).
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Afternoon we took the boat to the Grand Palace and the fabulous Wat Phra Keoe (Temple of the Emerald Buddha). It really is an amazing temple, all golden and well maintained, but just a bit too crowd, naturally. We were not allowed to visit this temple in short, which I was wearing, so I had to borrow a pant from them, just like hundreds of other men and women did everyday, no charge! We didn’t have a guide explaining stories to us, so just walked around taking photos. That was the most interesting attraction of Bangkok to me.
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We would love to see a floating market and Chatuchak market, but they were closed that day or too far to go. So we simply finish our trip with an hour of boating to the old-Bangkok. Yeah it is old, not pretty and poor, that reminded me of a lot of memories of my youth…
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Thai food
For the whole week that we were there, there isn’t a day that we were not eating Pad Thai and Tum Yum Kung, and drinking coconut. Thai cuisine is spicy, mostly fried, and garlic is found in almost every dish. We both love it since very long time ago at Montreal. There are lots of spices, curry, fresh vegetable and affordable seafood. Yummi!
To finish, you should try some Thai massage if you go there, it’ll stretch the hell out of you, but you’ll feel good afterward.
You can see the whole album here.
January 3rd, 2008 at 11:13 pm
참 이쁘네요