Bangkok & Phuket
Thailand. Where does one begin?! My best friend and I share birthdays in September and for years we have been saying "lets do something big!". Over 7 months ago, she sends me a text message with a link to an amazing Groupon deal to Bangkok and Phuket. "Birthday trip??" she says. I instantly replied with HECK YES!!! That evening we were booked for our birthday celebrations in Thailand. Our trip was a total of 10 days. 2 in the air and 8 on land. Way to short right?! But totally worth it!
Bangkok
We stayed at the beautiful Pullman Hotel G. Modern, swanky and most importantly clean. The staff was super accommodating as well with our nightly requests of ice for our mixed drinks. The daily morning buffet had just about everything. It was new to me to have noodles and rice for breakfast but I liked it! The rooftop bar had breathtaking views of the city as did our room. From the hotel we were able to walk to a few markets for some shopping and some of the best pad thai ever from a little alley.
Day one started bright and early with a tour of the Temple of Golden Buddha followed by The Temple of Reclining Buddha. Both of which were just gorgeous! Make sure to wear clothing that covers both your arms and legs. They are pretty strict about that. We grabbed a lunch then continued to check out the gem and silk factory. We made it back to the hotel at a decent time and decided to get dolled up for a night on the town. We took a tuk tuk to check out a club we had heard about called Shock 39. It was a blast and felt super local!! It was a little sketchy walking up because the building is pretty rundown and the steps outside were lined with men. Thankfully, once you enter the scene changes completely. Go get your dance on! We did! Till 4am! Time flies when you're having fun! I had a friend from AZ visiting Bangkok at the same time. We all met up after the club, had pillow fights, a few more drinks, met a new friend from Scotland whom bought us a breakfast beer (Like 6am breakfast beer! He was a trooper and we saw him every morning outside drinking his pint of beer and smoking his cigarettes) and just when we hit our max! What should have been bedtime...We ended up dragging ourselves to our next venture of zip-lining. This 28 line zip-line was something else! Adventures! At the moment it wasn't my favorite thing to do, but hey! I'm so happy we did it and the memories we made.
I'm not sure what day I'm on now. 3 or 4? Either way, the next day was a little less crazy. I was looking forward to this day the most. We woke up very early and met our group to take a couple hour bus ride to the Damnern Saduak Floating Market. This was so great! It's amazing what people can do on a canoe. Women cooking up pad thai, selling fresh fruits and veggies. We did a little shopping and I got to hold a slow loris. It was sooo freaking cute!!! I wanted to bring him home! Afterwards we headed to Kanchanaburi to visit the war cemetery and the bridge over River Kwai. The rest of the day involved elephant trekking and bamboo rafting down the Kwai River. It was a perfect day. That evening we went out for dinner got a foot massage which was incredibly good and so inexpensive! I wish I would have gotten more of those! Speaking of a foot massage! I tried to get a fish pedicure... Tried being the key word. I am extremely ticklish! The moment I stuck my feet in that tank I screamed. I'm literally laughing out loud right now thinking about that moment. The pedicure was only supposed to be 15min and I seriously couldn't keep my feet in the tank for more than 2 seconds. You'll see in the pictures below. I might have 1 fish sucking on my toe as opposed to my friends feet which you couldn't even see. All I could do was envision me pulling my feet out of the water and there being a ton of fish still attached. Im actually really surprised I didn’t kill any by accident with all the kicking I was doing.
What else did we do…? Oh! I ate some pretty nasty creepy crawlers one night! I had a scorpion, frog and some other thing. Who knows what it was! No, I didn’t get sick and the scorpion tasted like bbq beef jerky. Lol We went to an authentic muay thai fight where we later got to meet the winner and lets not forget the Bangkok bucket. A bucket full of liquor, a soda and straws. Have at it!
Phuket
On the sixth day we took a short flight from Bangkok to Phuket. After watching the movie The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio I was stoked to check out this island. The movie totally did it justice. Phi Phi Island = AMAZING. I wish I could have spent a lot more time here. Crystal clear waters, fresh coconuts and fruit, tropical cocktails, monkeys swimming around, beautiful rock formations coming out of the water. It was literally a scene from the movie. This portion of the trip flew by! We stayed at the Novotel Hotel on Kamala Beach. The rooms and property were nice! A little older than the pictures show, but still a good choice. Keep in mind that this one is a ways out from all the shopping and Patong beach. Each way will run you about 50 baht. The #1 thing on our list for this part of the trip was Tiger Kingdom. Being able to pet, lay with or feed tigers was heart warming. I was happy to see how well they were taken care of as well. Best time to go is in the morning before all the tour busses start coming in.
We did a little more shopping here, checked out the nightlife at Patong beach where we got some pretty funny pictures with the infamous lady boys and again, spoiled ourselves with more massages and “pancakes” from street cars. These pancakes are basically crepes with fresh fruits and any toppings you want. They are sooo good! I’m sure I’m missing a ton, its tough to summarize a 10 day trip on a blog… I hope you enjoyed the post! Stay tuned for more!!
