After two years it’s finally time again: I can go traveling. Before I go back to Australia with the Working Holiday Visa for a long time I decided to fly over Thailand and Sri Lanka. Actually I had already wanted to travel to Thailand in March 2020 but because of Corona the trip was cancelled.

Goodbye Germany

22.04.2022: Well, two years later it’s finally time: I’m back on the plane, because finally all borders are open again. The flight to Bangkok was one of the best I had so far. I actually had a whole row of seats to myself in which to spread out. As a result, I slept a total of seven hours during the night.

First, after 10 hours of flight, a stopover was made on Phuket. There I already had an incredible view of the sea and the country from the plane.

Starting with Quarantine

After about an hour the plane flew on to Bangkok. Landed at the airport in Bangkok, I went first through immigration control. After I had picked up my backpack (I finally got rid of the suitcase haha) a taxi was arranged for me, which took me first to the test center and then to my hotel.

Currently, you can only enter Thailand if you take a PCR test immediately upon arrival and stay isolated in a SHA+ hotel room until the test result is there.

Fortunately, my quarantine hotel room in Bangkok was really nice, but I only had a view of the courtyard.

In the evening I got rice and spaghetti for dinner, which were put in front of my door. At 11 o’clock I went to bed, hoping to avoid a jet lag. At 1 o’clock at night, however, I was awake again and did not fall asleep for the next three hours. I also got the result of my PCR test at that time, which fortunately was negative.

After a rather restless night I got up the next morning around 9 o’clock and got ready. Before I went down to the lobby at 12 o’clock to meet the people from my tour, I had breakfast. The food was put in front of my door and was included in the price so I had no influence on what I could eat. So there was for me in the morning at 11 o’clock rice with chicken, which I unfortunately did not like. Luckily I still had two sandwiches left from my flight, which were not very tasty but by worlds better than the rice.

Meeting the Crew

When I had packed everything together at 12 o’clock, I met the first people from my tour in the lobby. Here in Thailand I do not travel alone, because I have booked an 18-day tour through the country with Intro Travel. After we had a short chat we went on foot to our hotel for the next two nights. Wet and sweaty, we arrived at our hotel seven minutes later. Although it was still cloudy at that time, it was incredibly humid and with all the luggage with us we started to sweat much faster.

In our hotel we checked in and were divided into two for one room. My roommate was very nice and I got along with her pretty good. We briefly brought our things to our room and then met all of us again in the lobby.

Exploring Bangkok

We had the afternoon off and could do whatever we wanted. First I got a SIM card with a few others and then we had lunch in a restaurant. From there we drove on in two taxis to Chatuchak Market. The trip took about 10 minutes and cost a total of 300 baths for six people, which is really cheap. Generally, here in Thailand everything is really cheap.

The market was huge and you could have got everything you need. About an hour we strolled across the market before we drove back to the hotel by taxi. There we took a short break in the restaurant right next to our hotel. Before we went to dinner at 7.30 p.m. we all went to our rooms to freshen up.

At 7.30 p.m. the whole group met again for dinner in the restaurant next to our hotel. Since I am not the biggest fan of Asian food I ordered a spaghetti carbonara, which was really good.

Here in Thailand, you get your food as soon as it’s ready in the kitchen. So it may be that you have already eaten your own food and someone else at the table still hasn’t received their food.

First night out

After dinner we all went to Kao Shan Road. This is a street in Bangkok where one club or bar is lined up next. The music roared extremely loudly from every club. I think that was the loudest music I have ever heard but it was also very interesting to experience. In a bar we finally sat down and ordered something to drink. The operators were super nice but also very intrusive. They’ve been trying to hit us all the time. They stood extremely close to us and put their arms around us again and again so we would finally order something.

Later, locals came to us and wanted to sell us grilled scorpions and spiders. Some of us actually tried them, but that was something I didn’t want to do.

Around 11:00 p.m., all the stores in Bangkok had to close. The music was turned off and everything was dismantled in record time. As I understand it, the police arrived at 11:00 p.m. and checked that the clubs were closing at 11:00 p.m.

As soon as the police were gone, all the bars and clubs started to set up the tables and chairs and serve drinks. Only the music was not turned on again. Since the atmosphere was not as good as before, some people of the tour and I went back to the hotel to go to sleep.

Visiting the temples

The next morning we had to be at breakfast at 10 o’clock. Freshly showered we got our breakfast. Afterwards, our tour leader prepared a small presentation for us, in which she informed us about the most important things in Thailand. She also told us what is coming for us in the next two weeks.

After breakfast we were picked up by our tour guide for the day. Our tour guide, a local from Thailand, was super funny and was able to make us laugh again and again.

First we visited a temple located directly opposite our hotel. We were less than ten minutes out of the hotel and we were all already sweaty. The shower in the morning had actually been completely unnecessary.

Visiting the temple was incredibly interesting, because compared to all Western countries Thailand and its culture is quite different.

Floating down the river

After our first visit to the temple we all got an ice cream and then we went on to the Chao Phraya River Canal. There we took a boat and drove with it over the river. In the meantime, our tour guide has always explained something to us. The view we had all the time on Bangkok was very interesting. We could also see the most different animals. We then got bread with which we fed the fish. It was really funny to watch how suddenly an incredible number of fish came to the surface of the water and grabbed the bread.

From the boat we went on to our next temple. Meanwhile, we were all soaked and sweaty and thankful for every bit of shadow. The next temple we visited was much bigger and in my opinion much more beautiful than the one we had visited before. Here we looked at three different Buddhas. One of the Buddahs was more than 15 meters long.

Trying some street food

From the Tempel we went with the Tuk Tuk back to the hotel. Tuk Tuks are much more expensive compared to taxis here, but the ride was already included in the tour price. It was also a really nice experience to drive through Bangkok with a tuk tuk. Back at the hotel we went to a streetfood restaurant to eat our lunch. After we had eaten all our lunches, we returned to the hotel. In the next three hours we could do whatever we wanted. But many of us stayed in the hotel to freshen up and come down a bit before it went on in the evening.

Party Night ahead

At 7.30 a.m. we all met again in the lobby. Together we went to a restaurant, which was just around the corner from our hotel. There we ate our dinner.

After dinner we are back to Kao Shan Road, which was right around the corner. The music was very loud again but I didn’t feel it as loud as the day before. Maybe it was because it was Monday.

First we went to a bar and we all ordered a cocktail. Only a short time later someone came again who wanted to sell us Scorpions. Together with a girl from my tour group, I had decided before that if we get the chance to try a scorpion again, we will do it. My scorpion was very small, no more than two centimeters long but it took me a lot of effort to put the scorpion in my mouth. When I finally dared, I had it in my mouth for no more than 1 second before I spit it out again. I can’t really describe the taste, it was a bit bitter. But knowing I had a dead scorpion in my mouth was so bad, I just had to spit it out.

Also embroidered bracelets with funny and dirty sayings were sold. Here we all picked out one and then gave it to our left-hand neighbour. I got a bracelet from my neighbour that says “I bang”.

After we had all our cocktails we walked down the street to a club. The night there was very good. We all had a lot of fun together. Around 1.30 a.m. we were all back in the hotel, because it went out quite early the next morning.

Rain in Bangkok

The next morning we met in the lobby at 11 o’clock. My room neighbour and I did not eat breakfast this morning, because we took part in a “Cooking Class” at 12 o’clock anyway. We left all our luggage in the lobby, as we had to check out our rooms.
It was raining outside at that time like anything else. We didn’t run 10 meters and we were soaking wet. The shower in the morning was so once again completely unnecessary.

Actually we wanted to walk the 15 minutes but with the rain this was impossible. So four of us took a tuk tuk each. Although we were there faster, nevertheless we were wet after the drive in the open Tuk Tuks.

Traditional cooking class

First we were welcomed by the locals and thus the owners of the cooking school before we cooked our first dish. Always two of us cooked a Tom Yam Soup. After we had eaten them, we then cooked a Pad Thai. These were rice noodles with different vegetables. After that, we did a contest. In teams of four, we should prepare a curry. The team that cooked the tastiest dish should win. In fact, my team won in the end. For dessert we got prepared by the locals mango rice with mango. Everything tasted very good, but I liked the Pad Thai and the mango rice with mango the most. Before we went back to the hotel, the locals taught us a Thai dance.

Fortunately it had stopped raining and we were able to walk back to our hotel without getting our clothes and hair, which were not quite dry anyway, wet again.

Back in the hotel we had about half an hour until we had to pack our things and then were picked up by the bus that brought us to the train station of Bangkok. There we had another hour until our train arrived. Overnight we took an “Overnight Train” which takes us to Surat Thani. In the time we were waiting for the train, we all bought something to eat for the night in a supermarket.

If you would like to know what I experienced during my time in Kaoh Sok Nationalpark. Please read my next blog post Adventoures time in Khao Sok Nationalpark – Thailand Travel Diary.