Okay, I’ll be honest, I had anxiety from when we booked our flights to Thailand all the way until we actually landed in Bangkok, Thailand. Now, as some of you know, traveling is obviously my favorite past time and any time I can book a vacation, I will. I’ve been to Africa and Europe (London, Italy and Germany) so how was this different? Well, flying 15 hours straight terrified me. I am not the “chillest” person and the thought of being locked in an aircraft for 15 hours….I mean what was I going to do to keep busy?! Below you’ll read about my Thailand Trip in Ten Days!
We flew out of CHI to TPE (Tepei, Taiwan) at 1230am (CST). We did not check bags and carried-on our luggage (also, something new to me for an international flight). When we checked into our flight, our boarding passes were handed to us and my anxiety almost immediately went away. (Well done, Eva Airways!). We were in fact going to fly on the Hello Kitty Eva Airways international aircraft! My focus went immediately from “Oh My Gosh what am I doing to do for 15 hours” to “Oh My Gosh I have to show everyone our plane!” We boarded the plane, were served two meals, multiple snacks and beverages and the 15 hours flew by (no pun intended) and the next thing I knew, we were landing in Taiwan for our layover.
After a 3.5 hour layover in Taiwan, we boarded another flight (Eva Airways) to Bangkok, Thailand (Suvarnabhumi airport). This flight offered a meal and was 4 hours.
Bangkok, June 7, 2019
Landing in Bangkok, Thailand was a breeze. We landed about noon Thailand time and the weather was around 87 degrees fahrenheit (didn’t get lower than 85 the whole trip—yes, even at night). Our transport was arranged via Expedia after we booked our hotel and our private driver was waiting for us at “arrivals.” The ride from Suvarnabhumi airport to our hotel (Riva Arun), felt like F-O-R-E-V-E-R. Not because I was super stoked to be in Thailand, but because it truly was a long ass ride. It took over an hour to get from the airport to our hotel when our GPS said about 30 minutes. Bangkok traffic is NO JOKE. It was stop and go traffic for the whole ride. Finally, we arrived at our hotel.
Riva Arun hotel, ahhhhh, finally a clean bed I can relax in and a shower I jump in. I cannot say better things about this hotel. Boutique style/decorated, very clean (besides random underwear in our balcony hot tub?), friendly/exceptional/wonderful staff, air conditioned, toiletries were included and our suite had the largest balcony attached to it I’ve ever had with a hotel room. The balcony overlooked the Chao Phraya River and the Wat Arun Ratchawaram “Temple of Dawn.” I loved this hotel and if I were to go back, I would hands down stay at this hotel again. (No, this is not sponsored).
Later that night, room service stopped by our room to fill/prep our balcony hot tub for the sunset. Unfortunately, the weather was stormy and rainy at this time so no sunset, but we were still interested in sitting in our hot tub that night since our balcony was covered/shielded from the weather. While the hot tub was being filled we roamed around the area around the hotel and got acclimated to our surroundings. We ate at a small restaurant called “The Gate” and here is where we had our first taste of authentic Thai food. We were so excited, below is our first meal! Lastly, we hot tubbed and went right to bed (jet lag will get ya).
Bangkok/Chiang Mai, June 8th, 2019
Our first morning in Bangkok. We ate breakfast on the rooftop of our hotel (Riva Arun) and below was the amazing view of the Wat Arun temple during our morning meal. Fresh out of a magazine, am I right? We were so lucky/grateful to be able to experience this amazing view. The breakfast was not included in this hotel stay (but, it was worth paying for that amazing view while eating, right?).
During breakfast, we planned our day. Due to jet lag and our bodies adjusting, we were up at 4:30am and ate breakfast right at 6:30am when they offered it sooo needless to say, we had some time to waste while at breakfast. Luckily, our hotel is only a 3-4 minute walk to/from the famous temples so we didn’t have to plan too much.
We decided to hit Wat Pho first as its hours of operation are 8:00am-6:00pm. The entry fee is 200 baht/person. At all the popular temples, it is important to note you must wear clothing that covers your knees and shoulders. If you are not dressed appropriately, they do not allow you to enter these temples. No sweat though, there are shops nearby the temples where you are able to purchase long pants/long sleeve shirts if you just so happen to forget your brain that day! Here is where the famous leaning Buddha resides and this specific temple inside Wat Pho does not open to the public until 9:00am. You must remove shoes before entering temples and no flip-flops are allowed at Wat Pho grounds (so they say, I did not pay attention to see if people we wearing flip-flops or not, we did not though). Next to Wat Pho is the Grand Palace. We actually skipped this temple, but have hear wonderful things. The hours of operation are 8:30am-3:30pm and is 500 baht/person to enter.
It was so hot and muggy outside, we were both sweating and beyond warm. We stopped back at our hotel to cool off and drink some water (again, so glad it was so close to all the temples so we were able to do this). It is strongly encouraged to keep drinking water, even if you’re not thirsty, to keep hydrated during this time in Thailand. The heat is hot and the air is heavy. Coconut waters are easily accessible in Thailand (which is helpful for hydration—so they say).
Next up, Wat Arun. We walked to “pier 4” which was about 5-7 minute walk from our hotel and jumped on the ferry to Wat Arun. The ferry felt safe and was 4baht/person to ride. The ferry brought us right to Wat Arun entrance and it was 50 baht/person if you want to access the actual temple. You are able to access the first two “layers” or “floors” of the Wat Arun temple if you desire. While we were here, this was literally an instagram influencer/models dream. Everyone was taking pics on/near the temple and posing all sorts of different ways. IT WAS WAY TOO HOT for this for me. So, here are some pics we captured instead.
We ferried back to the hotel and cooled down/drank water/packed up our things to checkout at noon. While checking out, our hotel offered to arrange a taxi (500 baht flat rate) to transport us to Suvarnabhumi airport. We stored our luggage and walked around/ate lunch until our taxi came (we had roughly three hours). We ate lunch at Baan Thatien Cafe (super cheap) on the corner of our hotel street. Then, we returned to our hotel (we clearly could not get enough of it) and had some drinks on our rooftop and enjoyed their free wi-fi before we had to go to the airport for our next journey!
Transport picked us up from the hotel, we sat in traffic for some time and finally made it to the BKK airport. Flight (Thai Vietjet Air) from BKK (Suvarnabhumi airport) to Chiang Mai at 5:15pm and landed at 7:45pm. Transport from Chiang Mai airport to Chiang Mai hotel was arranged via Agoda.com (where we booked our hotel from). Total for transportation from Chiang Mai airport to our hotel (Villa Sirilanna) was only 12 baht. We checked into our hotel (Villa Sirilanna) around 8:00-8:15pm (only 15-20 minute ride from airport—no traffic). We immediately went to bed when we got there.
Chiang Mai, June 9th, 2019
Once arrived in Chiang Mai we checked into our hotel, Villa Sirilanna, which was located within the Chiang Mai old city walls. It did not help that we came from such an extravagant hotel in Bangkok, so maybe we had high expectations, but we weren’t too impressed with this hotel. We booked this hotel because we wanted more of a “Thailand feel” during one of our hotel stays…and why not while we’re in the more “jungly” area of Thailand? My review of this hotel would be a 7/10 (10 being extravagant like our Bangkok hotel). This hotel was definitely the “Thailand feel” we were looking for. Unfortunately, there were stains on our sheets/comforter and robes, some toiletries (no soap or conditioner), dated blow dryer, safe didn’t work, only had breakfast available (very mediocre) and no bar/restaurant. Now, I’ve never been to Chiang Mai before so I cannot relate this to other hotels (this could be extremely nice compared to others…who knows?!). Also, this hotel does not have a 24 hour check-in (please keep that in mind if you stay here and have a late flight). On another note, the staff here was very accommodating and friendly.
Chiang Mai, June 10th, 2019
Our first day in Chiang Mai. We ate breakfast at the hotel (included in our hotel cost). Afterwards, we explored Chiang Mai old city with a walking tour on our phone (found on google trips “day plans”). We saw Tha Phae Gate, Wat Chiang Man, Wat Pa Pao, Three Kings Museum and Wat Phra Singh. We skipped some as it was SO hot we didn’t want to walk too far. (Also, M’s stomach was upset so that hindered us a bit ha!). Anyway, afterwards we returned to our hotel and laid by the pool/read/had some drinks. For dinner, we ate across the street (10 steps from hotel) from our hotel at The Corner. We liked this place, it was cheap and had good food. That evening, we scheduled a couple one-hour Thai massage at our hotel (350 baht each). WOW. This massage starts with the masseuse rinsing/cleaning your feet and changing into Thai pants/shirt. Good thing I wore bathing suit bottoms to the massage because I had NO idea how to tie this ensemble and i’m pretty sure my ass was hanging out of my pants for most of the massage (whoops!). For the record, M didn’t know how to tie it either haha. Anyway, this massage was enjoyable/laughable and M was definitely sore the next day. I wanted to laugh so hard listening to this little Thai lady basically put all of her effort into massaging M right next to me. Hearing her hit and basically walk on him to apply enough pressure easily distracted me from my own massage. BUT, it was all amazing and the ladies were extremely nice and friendly. We tipped them 60 baht each and they were on cloud 9. Afterwards, M did some work on the balcony while I napped and then we accidentally slept until morning. That’s what vacation is all about though!
Chiang Mai, June 11th, 2019
Chiang Mai day two, we ate breakfast at the hotel and went to the Karen Elephant Sanctuary! This was an hour and a half drive away from our hotel and 5000 baht/person. Please read my blog post (https://thedailyallis.com/karen-elephant-sanctuary/)on the Karen Elephant Sanctuary—it deserves it’s own post 😉 This was such an amazing experience and I will forever be grateful I was able to volunteer with these sweet sweet animals. Honestly, if you do anything in Chiang Mai…it has to be this!!
Later that night, we walked around Chiang Mai and went to several expat bars (The Hut, Dash and THC The Rooftop Bar).
Chiang Mai/Phuket, June 12th, 2019
Day three in Chiang Mai. Ate breakfast at our hotel (surprise!). Then received free transport from our hotel to the Chiang Mai airport. Departed for Phuket at 1:00pm and set to land at 3:00pm. Flight was ThaiAirAsia.
Arrived in Phuket at 3:00pm and transport was arranged via EDreams (where we booked our hotel). Transport was $24.00 US dollars which would be about 737 baht. Checked into our hotel (Wyndham Grand Kalim Bay pool ocean view room) at 4:15pm. This hotel was exquisite. I do not think I’ve stayed at a hotel with such amazing views in my life. The hotel room and private pool was clean, comfortable and large. The staff here were friendly and very accommodating (tons and tons of staff at this resort). We had dinner at the hotel (Latitude 98) which was a pricier meal, 1842 baht (around $60 US dollars). We then had drinks at the hotel (Infinity Lobby Bar) happy hour (buy one get one free from 8:30pm-10:00pm). We then swam in our own private infinity pool off of our balcony that over looked the ocean/jungle and went to bed.
Phuket, June 13th, 2019
Day one in Phuket. Ate breakfast at the hotel (included in our hotel price) and this breakfast buffet was huge. The buffet offered an array of different breakfast items for every culture in the world. It was SO good and had fresh fruit juice (my fav!). The breakfast was also located at the hotel Latitude 98 restaurant where we ate our first night. Afterwards, we toured the hotel grounds (quite large) and decided to swim/lay out/drink at the hotels main pool for a couple hours. At around 5:00pm, we took our free hotel shuttle to Patong Beach (about 15-20 minute ride) and enjoyed the sunset over the ocean. We ate dinner at Laimai restaurant/courtyard. Every thai dish here was 320 baht flat rate. Then we explored Patong Bangla Road (per research, this road is famous and quite the experience after hours). So, we checked it out. To me, this road was a mix of the Las Vegas strip after hours and Nashville’s strip after hours combined. Wild people and bars everywhere. After walking up and down the road our free hotel shuttle was at Patong Beach to bring us back to our hotel (last shuttle runs at 8:30pm).
Phuket, June 14th, 2019
Day two in Phuket. Ate breakfast at the hotel (Latitude 98). Are you sick of reading that yet? Afterwards, we swam in our private infinity pool off our hotel balcony and then moved it to the main pool to enjoy some drinks while we swam. We then went to Patong Beach around 4:00pm so M could swim in the ocean before dinner. I didn’t want to walk around/sit in a wet bathing suit all day so while he swam I sat on the beach and watched him while dodging the sun (FYI: There is NO shade at this beach….none, zilch, not even one little tree branch shadow). To rent a beach lounge chair (they sell in two’s) and an umbrella (it’s a package deal lol) it is 200 baht/person. I did not feel like paying 200 baht for about 30 minutes so I toughed it up, put my hat on and sat on my towel behind some beach chair to receive (some) shade while M swam for a little bit. Afterwards, we ate at a bar on the Patong restaurant strip (think it was named Terrazzo). We split a pizza (yes I know, first meal that wasn’t Thai food—eee!) for 520 baht and enjoyed some drinks (happy hour ayooo!). We then went to Bangla Road again and saw a Ping Pong Show. Let’s just say, I can never unsee what I saw this night. If you do not know what this is, GOOGLE.IT.BEFORE.YOU.GO.
Phuket, June 15th, 2019
Day three in Phuket. We booked the “Early Riser Phi Phi Island Tour” via expedia. (2764 baht/person with my expedia discount code). Our tour driver picked us up from our hotel lobby at 4:30am. This seems early, but when you’re still not truly adjusted to Thai time, you wake up with no problem. We then picked up another passenger and at the Royal Phuket Marina at 5:30am. Here is where we were served a light breakfast (toast, fruit, coffee, danishes, juice etc) and picked out our fins, took some Dramamine and grabbed some towels. We were guided to our large speed boat (holds about 20 people or so) and off we were to the Phi Phi Islands. The trip was about an hour to the islands. Waves were choppy and big, but the driver handled it like a BOSS. Our captain, “Wit”, his intern, “Woody” and the photographer/videographer, “Bear”, (along with the other staff that I cannot remember their names) were amazing! They really made sure we were all comfortable at all times and when two passengers got sea sick (waves were that bad) they had every concoction readily available (anti-nausea home remedies, medications, puke bags, ice etc). The driver was very trustworthy as he literally had all of our lives in his hands and he made it look so easy. First, we went to the Maya Bay (famous for the movie “The Beach” starring Leonardo DiCaprio). Here is where we could only take pics as it is not an island where people can get out and swim at (on this side of the island at least). The sun came out a little at that time. Then, we went around to the other side of the Maya Bay to Pileh Lagoon. Here is where we got to swim and relax in the water (can’t touch the bottom) and we were in between two cliffs, floating in the water (our boat was the only one there because we were very SO early). Then, we went father out of the lagoon to snorkel. The water at the end of the cliffs were clear and I’ve never seen so many colorful fish in my life. I saw so many rainbow bright fish, Nemo, Dory, and the mean fish with the long stringy top (from finding Nemo, cant remember his name). Anyway, it was absolutely beautiful. The coral was even beautiful and fun to look at while we snorkeled. After this we went to Monkey Island. We saw a few little monkeys, but we didn’t get out of the boat as our captain said the monkeys are mean and steal from humans ha! Afterwards, we went to Koh Phi Phi island. Here is where we had lunch and I bought some souvenirs. Beautiful island. Popular with boats. Then we went off the coast of Koh Phi Phi island and went snorkeling again. This snorkeling area had crystal clear waters and tons of coral! Did I mention crystal clear water…not exaggerating here folks. See pic below! Some fun colorful fish here, but mostly tons of pretty coral. Later, we got back into the boat and went to Bamboo Island where we docked our boat and were able to swim at the beach/snorkel again or relax on the boat/beach. I would highly recommend having water shoes at this beach, a lot of coral on the beach (in the water) and could easily tear/cut your feet (helloooo infection). We were at the island for about 20 minutes before it started to pour on us. This was pretty cool actually. The rain lasted about 30 minutes and we took off for Phuket. The ride home was a lot smoother and lasted an hour. We met friends from Chicago on this trip and if they happen to find this post, HII Dean and Sophia! The tour offers a video/pictures of your excursion for an additional cost (1200 baht + 3% if you use card). We obvi bought it for our memories. I’d rate this experience 5/5 easily.
We later loaded the van and headed back to our hotel (about an hour drive). We ate at the hotel again. To cut the cost we split a pizza (again) and it was around 500 baht.
Phuket/Bangkok, June 16th, 2019
Sad day. It’s our last day in Phuket, we ate breakfast at the hotel (Latitude 98) and booked our transport to the airport (getransfer.com). This was around $20 US dollars (615 baht). This transport was good for last minute arrangements. Expedia was not working for some odd reason so this transport really came through. Either way, this was WAY better than the hotel transport (1800 baht one way). Super expensive. We also booked our transport from BKK airport to our BKK hotel (Iebua State Towers) and our transport from Iebeau State Towers to BKK airport for tomorrow morning via gettransfer.com. ($50 dollars, 1535 baht round trip from/to airport). Not bad. We flew out of Phuket to Bangkok at 5:35pm and landed in Bangkok at 7:00pm. Flight was Thair Vietjet Air.
Our transport from BKK to Iebua State Towers was about an hour (standard with Bangkok traffic). Traffic is killer here so make sure you allow/plan for enough time in the car while traveling within Bangkok. Once we checked-in, we were upgraded to a suite. Suite. It. Was. We had our own kitchen, study/extra bedroom, kitchen table area, two full bathrooms, living room with floor to ceiling panoramic views of Bangkok (we were on floor 24 too), a large bedroom and two balconies (one large one the kitchen area and a medium sized balcony off the bedroom). WOOOOOW to say the least. The hotel itself is very boujie/nice/upscale. The hotel room suite was very large, bed was amazingly comfortable but was a little dated (Panasonic cordless phones in the room, coffee maker was for a whole pot of coffee not instant and the air conditioners looked like they were from the 1980s). One of the showers was faulty, but we were lucky enough to have a second full bathroom to shower in with ease.
After we settled in, we toured the famous hotel. We started off at The Dome and went to the Sky Bar (a bar over the edge of the hotel—adrenaline rush for sure—and where the Hangover was filmed). I, of course, had to have the “hangovertini” and M had a Mojito. Both drinks were pretty tasty but also pretty expensive. $80.00 US dollars total/2457 baht for two drinks at the Sky Bar—EEEK! While we were there it started raining so we went inside The Dome and checked out the other restaurants/bars. The menu with all the different bars/restaurants are below. A lot of them depend on the outside atmosphere so we didnt get to see the cool outside of the bars/restaurants but the inside was just as exquisite. We had drinks at Lebanon No. 3 and I got the #3 drink…tasted just like a pina colada but a little stronger/different M had a “Daniel Craig” drink and said it was pretty strong. (Another $80 US dollars/2457 baht down the drain). It was all about the experience, so we embraced it. We also went to the Pink Bar (because helloooo instagram pics) and the cheapest glass of champagne we could get was $45 US dollars/1382 baht….so we passed. Their bars were very lavish and the food was outrageously priced in our opinion. They also had a rule that inside the bar/restaurant each person had to buy something (M ordered a whiskey on the rocks at Alfresco 64 and I was still feeling my first drink so I didn’t order a drink at Alfresco 64 so I was going to pass and have M enjoy his drink while we chatted/enjoyed the ambience. They said we had to order something in order to stay, so we left). Anyway, after that we went back to the hotel room, suite, and ordered room service. Ordered a pizza to split (haha we caught on to this!) and it was 950 baht ($30 US dollars). We then called it a night.
Bangkok, June 16th, 2019
We ate breakfast at the hotel (included in our price). Decent breakfast, a lot more foreign dishes than the other hotels we were at. Overall, food was enjoyable. Went back to the room and checked out. We overall spent more in “extra hotel charges” at this hotel with drinks and dinner in one night than we spent at the other hotels. For example, our Chiang Mai hotel checkout bill was $45 US dollars/1382 baht for 3 days (beers, massages etc). Crazy. I think t was a wonderful experience staying at the Iebau State Towers, but no more than 1-2 days are necessary. Please note, this hotel is farther away from the famous temples.
We went to BKK airport with transportation arranged via gettransfer.com. We arrived at BKK at 10:00am (about an hour drive from our hotel, per usual). We self-checked at the kiosk (thank god we didn’t have to check bags because that line was L-O-N-G and we would’ve missed our flight if we had to stand in that line). After two long lines of security and passport check, we finally were able to purchase more souvenirs and snacks for the flight. We boarded our EvaAir flight at 12:35pm and had four hour flight to Taiwan. One meal was served.
Landed at Taiwan at 5:15pm. We had about a 3 hour layover in Taiwan and boarded our Eva Air flight 7:30pm. Flight was 13 hours home and we again had the Hello Kitty flight (the plane on the outside was not decorated though like it was on the way to Thailand). The flight offered 2 meals again and multiple beverages and snacks. Landed in Chicago about 10:00pm (crazy those time changes) and returned home.
Our Thailand itinerary might be extremely different from the others. There is SO much to do in Thailand and all kinds of different adventures you can choose from. M and I like to have adventurous but relaxing vacations. Above, you can see we really did just that. We relaxed, but enjoyed the culture and had some excursions. Thailand is 30 baht per 1 US dollar. We exchanged our US dollars at the Bangkok airport when we landed and exchanged our Thailand baht at our US banks when we returned home (we didn’t have enough time at the Thailand airport unless we would’ve done it there….please note, US currency exchanges and banks do NOT exchange foreign coins).
Now tell me, have you been to Thailand? If so, what were some things you enjoyed doing? Planning a trip to Thailand? Or simply interested in the culture and activities one might have in Thailand? Let me know below!!
Also, if you liked my photos above, make sure to follow me on instagram at the link below or follow me @thedailyallis. Also, please do not re-use my photos without proper credit.
XO
Very interesting story – I’ve never been to Thailand and you make it sound awesome. Thanks.
Thanks for the comment, John! I hope my itinerary serves you well in your future booking to Thailand 🙂