Bangkok - When visiting Bangkok, the SkyTrain is the best choice for traveling around the city. We spent our first night there before taking a direct flight to Krabi in the south. Although traveling by train is an option, it depends on how much time you have. The price difference is not significant, so if you want to save time, flying is a better option.
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From Krabi airport, we took a minivan to our first destination, Ko Lanta. The island is an excellent place to acclimatize, as there are not many tourists. We rented a scooter and explored the jungle and rode an elephant. I heard my first Czech word, "děkuji" (thank you), spoken by a local girl when I bought a shake.
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After a few days, we moved to the Phi Phi islands, which had considerably more tourists. And we were robbed by a monkey there :-). However, we enjoyed visiting Maya Beach, where some scenes from The Beach movie were filmed. Snorkeling and visiting Monkey Beach were also fantastic.
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We kayaked in the northern bay and visited Monkey Beach again, which was a great experience.
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From there, we moved to Phuket, with a lot of tourists, where we relaxed and stayed near a nice Rastafarian bar.
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Travel agencies are offering interesting trips on the island, so we decided to try one. It was worth it, we saw Wat Suwannakuha, a cave with a big gold reclining Buddha, Ko Pan Yi fishing village, James Bond Island, and took a kayak ride in one day.
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On a second private trip with a local taxi driver and owner of the Rastafarian bar, we visited the Big Buddha statue and a local Buddhist temple.
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In the end, we flew back to Bangkok, where we spent our last day. We visited the city center and Wat Pho temple complex, which houses the biggest reclining Buddha statue.
In the afternoon, a tuk-tuk driver took us to Wat Saket, the Golden Mount, another Buddhist temple, and Wat Intharawihan, a standing Buddha statue.
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We managed to negotiate the price down after some discussion with the driver. By showing interest in local tailors' work for at least ten minutes, we were able to lower the cost of the trip by a few dozen Bahts. And I heard another Czech word from one local tailor - "košula" :-) (one of the Czech versions for "shirt" word).
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| Chao Phraya River during sunset |
During our trip, there were big anti-government protests in Bangkok, which blocked many roads. One day after our departure, martial law was declared.
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| Anti-government protests in Bangkok in January 2014 |
Additional remarks:
- Upon our arrival in Bangkok, I remember the small bananas wrapped in plastic, one by one - very strange for me :-)
- The second thing is the high humidity and temperature when we left the air-conditioned airport hall. The smell of spices in the city was also noticeable.
- The food was awesome, and my favorite soup was Tom Yam Kung. I also enjoyed Pad Thai, soups with glass noodles, and pancakes, along with different shakes.
- We usually bought breakfast at 7-Eleven, where they heated our meals in the shop's microwave oven. One meal that stood out was the shrimp burger, and we also liked Chang beer.
- However, we found that Thai food was not the best for curing hangovers, especially when we craved something greasy. Even hamburgers were too healthy for us. :-)
Some videos from our trip are here
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