We had a great time in Thailand from north to south a beautiful country. It is much more developed than expected and the tourism industry has explored without much structure or legislation so it is a little crazy.
We took a good amount of time to catchup with some reading so we are behind with the written entry of this post. Hopefully we can get to do it soon.
In the mean time here are the pictures
After 22 days of traveling through Thailand, we can say that we have a very good idea about what is going on in this beautiful but crowded country. We booked a long stay there because there is a lot to see and we needed some down time to recharge batteries from the last two marathon months in Asia.
After saying goodbye to Ana in Lao we flew to Chiang Mai in the northern part of Thailand. There we got to see some famous wats and monuments, visited some museums to learned about Thai history, walked the endless Sunday night market and see some live Mothai fights.
Tourism is probably their biggest economic sector in the country. Therefore, there is something to do for everyone at a good price with good weather. The perfect place to welcome everyone who wants to relax and/or explore. After a few days in Chiang Mai we took a bus south to Sukotai, a beautiful ancient Boudhist complex that is worth visiting in Thailand. The park is well organized and the ruins are in good condition. Sukotai is also linked to the complex we visited in Lao some weeks back so it was interesting to see how the history was linking along the way.
We took two days to visit Sukotai and relax by the pool in the hotel before we headed south on an overnight train to Bangkok to take another train, bus and a fast boat to make it to a small island in the gulf of Thailand called Ko Pha-Ngan. Getting there was a painfull and long journey that took more than 24 hours with the waiting times but it was worth it. The ocean had a nice color in this part of the world, and the beaches on the island were clean and quiet because we were there in the slow season so there were not many people around. We took advantage of the location and the weather to do some diving in the golf of Thailand. We really enjoyed diving there, it was very pretty and different from what we have seen before. No big fish here this time but there was a lot to see.
Claudia got us a bungalow at a place called Shiralea. The hotel was well organized and there was plenty of active night environment to have some fun. We rested a lot and caught up with some reading. Claudia read probably three books in 5 days while I am still working on finishing my one long book about the war in Iraq. We really liked this island because it was quiet and it had fantastic green mountains surrounding the many bays. Getting around was not very easy, transport was not ideal and we never got our head around hiring a moped so we did not explore much.
From Ko Pha-Ngan we took a fast boat and a bus to Krabi where we stayed only one night waithing for our new travel companion Amparo, Caludia’s mother. She joined the trip to explore some of Thailand’s west coast with us. As soon as she arrived we took another fast boat to Ko Phi Phi. This is a small beautiful island that became famous after Leo’s movie “The Beach”. The island and the surroundings are truly majestic. However, the overdevelopment of the tourist industry in the area is destroying the ecosystem. We think it is going to take close to 5 years to destroy everything completely. From waste management to noise pollution to overfishing. It is sad to see that the goverment is not doing anything to manage this soon to be natural catastrophe.
From Ko Phi Phi we ended up on Pucket island where the local culture has been completely overrun by tourism. The area has beautiful beaches and interesting landscape. There we rented a fully equipped apartment so we did some home cooking and had some down time by the pool. We also took time to explore some nice places on the island like Wats, the big (massive) white Budha, the old colonial town with it’s Portugese architecture and a few other places. Pucket is a strange place at night, we can described it as a combination between Vegas, Amsterdan and Hong Kong. It is for sure the most sexualy liberal place we have visited on this trip. This is the real Sin City.
Thai food in general is very spicy and flavorfull. However, it did not surprised us as much as we expected. The best meals were the fresh grilled fish available in many places. We were probably just not lucky picking the places but who knows. However, we did learned a lot about new flavours so we spent a lot of time contemplating alternatives in how to cook some nice food with the new flavors once we are back in the US.
Thais are nice people, friendly, simple and welcoming so it is very easy to get around and find help. They are also very quick to make a buck so there was not any issues getting things done. At the end of our beach time we flew to Bangkok to explore the city for a couple of days. It ended up being a much more manageable place than we had imagined. It is big for sure but the interesting places to see are close to each other. We took a boat to do a tour around in the river and the many canals that go around in the old city. Some of the areas we saw transmitted the feeling of a floating city. It looks like all the houses and wats are suspended on water even though that is not the case. We visited the former house of American designer Jim Thompson. His story is very interesting and enigmatic. We learned a lot about the process of working with silk and had a good time there.
We finished our time in Thailand with mixed feelings about the experience. Yes, some places and areas are beautiful, the food is good, the price is ok but the lack of controls on the development of the tourist industry is crushing natural ecosystems and the local culture.
Cambodia here we go.
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