The beginning of our backpacking trip around SE Asia - Hello Thailand!
Bangkok and Koh Samui, Thailand
Eleven days ago we arrived in Bangkok Airport excited, a little overwhelmed, under slept, and raring to go. I’d had a million thoughts on our 16+ hour journey. Have I packed enough? Have I packed too much? Are we prepared? But as soon as we arrived, everything just fell into place. We ordered a Grab (Thai taxi service) and arrived at our hostel at 8am local time. Far too early to check in but they let us shower and leave our bags so we could go and explore. We stayed at Khao San Social Capsule for two nights and loved it, everyone was very friendly and welcoming and they have free yoga on the roof terrace every evening…bonus!
My first thoughts of Bangkok? It is HOT! The humidity was unbelievable and those electrolytes I talked about in my last post were an essential. We took a wander around to get our bearings, I had my first Pad Thai (marketed as the best in town but IMO it wasn’t) and a much needed massage. I’d never experienced jet lag before this trip but wide awake at 1am for a few nights on the trot I found myself watching comforting shows on Netflix and praying for some sleep. A week and a half later and I’ve just about adjusted.
Whilst in Bangkok we went to see the reclining Buddha which is absolutely ginormous! We’d seen it on the most recent series of Race Across the World and to be there in real life felt really special. The surrounding temples are beautiful too, I’ve never seen anything like it. We even got to witness monks leading a religious prayer service. We then took a slow, hot walk into China Town. I had my first fresh coconut…I don’t typically like coconut water but the fresh coconuts here are divine, I’ve had one pretty much every day. In China Town we stumbled across a gorgeous tea house and had the most stunning Thai tea I have ever had in my life. I’ve been dreaming of it since. I also tried a plant-based pork bao bun from a vendor that’s been running for over 100 years and some deep fried yellow tofu - delish! We got a tuk tuk back to our hostel, relaxed for a couple of hours and then tackled Khao San Road for dinner. It was surprisingly calm and enjoyable considering what we’d read online, but we did visit early evening. We tried one of our favourite dishes of the trip so far…mango sticky rice! If I can recreate that one day I’ll be one happy girl. I also ordered some veggies to get some solid plant points in!🪴 We saw some…questionable things….including tarantulas, scorpions, alligator...things I quickly looked away from!
On our second full day in Bangkok we decided to get into full tourist mode and visit the train market and a floating market. The train market was hot, busy, and stuffy but somehow still very cool! Market stalls lay both sides of the tight street selling all sorts from iced drinks to eels, coconuts to raw meat. It was an experience! We paid 20 Baht (43p) to get a seat and watch the working train pass just centimetres away from us. After, we headed to a floating market. These markets have seen vendors trading for centuries and it was brilliant to see. We saw Komodo dragons in the river which I was not expecting!
After two days in Bangkok it was time to head to our next destination, Koh Samui! We did an overnight journey that took over 15 hours by bus and boat. It invovled very little sleep but it was absolutely worth it. As soon as we arrived we knew we’d made a great decision. We booked a small bungalow for 4 nights and extended to 5 because it was just so magical. A 60 second walk away from our bungalow was the most beautiful sea I have ever been in and every time I walked in it (a lot) I felt soooo lucky. The only way I can describe the water is smooth and silky.
Whilst on this stunning island on the Gulf of Thailand we rented a scooter (terrifying and exciting in equal measures for me but Luke had the time of his life!) and went snorkelling on Coral Cove Beach. It wasn’t too clear but we saw some coral and fish! We also visited Pig Island (Koh Mudsum). I am very conscious of animal-based activities and feel it’s really important to put animal welfare first. However, after reading up on Pig Island (and there are many different opinions), the tourism is what keeps the pigs fed and watered. Whilst this is not ideal, the pigs appeared to be well-kept, content and quite happy for people to approach them and stroke them. They would often snap at each other if one pig was stealing food so they definitely had the ability to protest, but never did at tourists so I assumed they were okay with people being around them. After seeing this I really enjoyed being with the pigs and thought they were very cute! I’d love to hear any opinions on this as it’s really important to consider all aspects.
The food was delicious in Koh Samui and I had lots of vegetarian options. We ate mango sticky rice, spring rolls, cashew nut stir fry, fried rice, tofu with ginger and Thai basil and we drank coconut after coconut after coconut. 🥥 One afternoon we went on our own fruit tour and tried durian (awful with a capital A…IYKYK!), mangosteen (delish), lychee (lush), and rambutan (a less lush version of lychee). The fruit here is on a different level and I’m enjoying it every day!
On our final day on the island we got to meet 4 amazing elephants and had the most magical experience. Similarly to the pigs, I did my research. There are lots of elephant ‘sanctuaries’ in Thailand, lots of them claiming to be ethical. We decided to go with a company called Elephant Jungle Sanctuary (Samui Elephant Sanctuary also looks brilliant). EJS states that their elephants have been rescued from circuses and logging and they do not allow anyone to ride them which was immediately a good sign. I was feeling nervous on the morning of our visit as I feared we’d made a mistake and were going to see some upsetting things, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. There were 4 elephants in total and 7 of us visiting so it didn’t feel too overwhelming or overrun for them. They had space to roam, weren’t tied to anything, and there were no chains that I could see. The mahouts (elephant keepers) always stuck by their own elephant and they handled them by talking to them and through light touch, nothing forceful. The only thing I was sceptical about was each elephant had a rope around its neck, nothing too tight, but it still looked a little unsettling. I asked our guide about it (he was amazing and so knowledgeable) and he said each elephant was given a blessing from a monk which included a rope necklace. I’ve heard of visitors receiving these as bracelets so whilst I hope he was telling the truth, I’m a little unsure. Perhaps they are there as a safety precaution, too. Again, any comments are welcomed.
We did a half-day experience and got to feed the elephants watermelon and supplement balls (tamarind and probiotics for good digestion, the nutritionist in me was happy to see this!). We learnt how to do a physical examination by checking the health of the elephants’ eyes and skin, then we scrubbed them in a pool and gave them a mud bath to protect their skin from the sun. We learnt a lot about them too - they only sweat through their feet and you can measure their height looking at just their footprint! If you measure the circumference of their foot and multiply it by 2, you get their height…how cool is that!
Thailand was an amazing place to start our adventure. A beautiful country with the friendliest of people, and I hope we’ll be back one day. We’d love to visit the west coast but as it’s rainy season we decided to save that for another trip. We’re now in Malaysia and I’ll be back with some more stories soon!
As always, thank you for reading! If you have any stories of your own from Thailand, please share!
