A Tale of Two Minks': Thailand

Chinese New Year or Spring Festival is the biggest holiday of the year for the Chinese. It's comparable to our Christmas/New Year break where schools get a few weeks off and everyone travels home to be with their families. Literally millions of people are traveling during this time so for us it's best to get out of China and avoid the massive crowds at train stations and airports. We deliberately leave before the festival starts and make sure to not return till it's over. It also gives us a good opportunity to explore other surrounding countries. We had originally decided to travel to just Thailand this year, but when we found out our school break was about 10 days longer than we expected, we were able to change flight plans and add Malaysia and Singapore to the itinerary for fairly cheap. And since they are all close to each other, it was a perfect opportunity to knock out three countries in one trip.

Bangkok

Our first stop was Bangkok, which we didn't really expect much from. We have been to plenty of Asian cities by now, many of which are very similar. However, as Thailand's capital and one of the more famous cities in Southeast Asia, we knew we needed to stay at least a few days there. Pretty much as soon as we arrived though, we knew it would be a cool city. Even though it isn't the cleanest of places, Bangkok has a lot of personality. Like many Asian cities, there is a cool blend of old and new: modern skyscrapers across the street from hundred year old temples; businessmen in suits walking past barefoot monks in their traditional orange and yellow robes; five star restaurants down the road from $1 noodle houses. It's also cool to see the local homes with small herb gardens and traditional Thai decor outside the front doors. Bangkok also has a pretty unique method for traveling across town with what they call the 'river taxis.' Because traffic in the city is notoriously bad (one of our tour guides boasted that is recently surpassed Jakarta as the worst in the world), dozens of ferry boats can be seen traveling up and down the river stopping at various points similar to a bus. The fare was only 15 baht, or about 50 cents, per person and allowed you to ride the entire length of the city if need be. It's wasn't a particularly fast method of transportation, but very cheap and convenient as our hotel was right down the road from a stop.

We started the trip with a street food tour that we booked online ahead of time. We've discovered this is one of our favorite things to do when traveling to a new city because we get the opportunity to try all kinds of new food we would have never thought to get on our own. Seafood noodle soup, duck fried rice, lemongrass chicken and spicy papaya salad were just a few of the dishes we got to try. Then of course there is the national dish, Pad Thai fried noodles, which wasn't on the tour but we had no problem finding on our own. A plethora of different types of curries with varying levels of spice are also widespread and we had plenty of opportunities to try them all during our stay.

Another major tour we participated in was a day trip to the formal capital of Thailand, Ayutthaya. It was about an hour bus ride with a very bubbly tour guide who gave us lots of cool facts about the history of Thailand on the way. When we arrived we got to visit several ancient temples including the Temple of the Reclining Buddha and the ruins of Wat Phra Mahthat. We were even blessed by a quirky old monk at a Buddhist shrine who kept laughing at all the foreigners. He probably actually put a curse on us. It's cool though. We finished the day with a river cruise back to Bangkok which included a buffet lunch of more delicious Thai food. Our last full day in Bangkok was used for a trip out to a nearby floating market. This was defiantly a unique experience and it was very cool to see all the boats that make up the market, but we were a little disappointed that we weren't able to get our own boat and float around a bit on our own. We mostly just watched from the balcony of a gift shop. We did get to take a cool boat ride down some, back canals on the way to the market though. It was a cool experience though and a good way to end our time in Bangkok. We had to get up early the following morning for a flight to our next stop, the beautiful island of Phuket.

Phuket

To be perfectly honest, our first impression of Phuket was quite disappointing. The most popular beach area, Patong, was overrun by overpriced bars and restaurants, hockers peddling cheap merchandise that had nothing to do with Thailand, and massive crowds of tourists who look like they belong on the cast of Jersey Shore. Our hotel was on nearby Karon Beach and, although slightly less crowded, wasn't much better. The entire area completely embodies the term 'touristy' and to me is a sad example of how a beautiful country full of rich culture can completely sell out. It was hard to not compare Phuket to El Nido, Philippines, which was our Spring Festival destination last year. El Nido does an amazing job of catering to tourists without giving in to the Hiltons and Hooters of the world (both of which are available in Patong). The Filipino government actually prohibits mega corporations from setting up shop in tourist areas and regulates the number of tours allowed each day to the beautiful islands right off the coast. Phuket tours are the exact opposite and seem to be all about money: unorganized and cramming as many people as possible into speedboats to ship out to popular destinations that are also, unsurprisingly, overcrowded. Lastly, (the 'but' is coming soon, I promise) Phuket tour guides seem pretty unqualified in giving tours. Most speak broken English at best and have little to no historical or cultural knowledge of the area they were guiding. Several even fell asleep on the way to our main destination.

(Here it comes) But, we were able to do a little research and find out where the more secluded areas of Phuket were. After a short walk to nearby Kata Beach, we were able to find a motorbike rental place that gave us bikes for only 300 Baht (about $10 USD) a day. We rode through some pretty awesome windy back roads that included secluded jungles, hidden elephant sanctuaries, and mountain top views of beautiful beaches. After several stops to make sure we were still on the right track, we arrived at Ao Sane beach, which was definitely more our pace. A secluded beach of no more than 100 yards with only a few restaurants and a very small bed and breakfast type hotel, we almost immediately regretted not staying there. We were able to sun bathe in peace, order a very reasonable lunch and drinks, and rent snorkeling equipment for very cheap compared to the rest of the island. It was definitely the relaxing beach vacation we had been hoping for when we started planning this trip back in October. So even though it wasn't quite what we expected, we were able to make the most of Phuket and still had an amazing time. It's a beautiful place that we're both excited we got to experience. After a great week we had another early rise to catch our 7:00 flight to our next destination, Malaysia.