Around the World: Thailand! — Round The World In Baby Days

Sawasdee! Remember that one time when we went to Thailand? Well this is our belated blog post about the adventures we had over there.

Thailand was our final stop as we ventured around the world. We planned this to be our vacation spot...after our vacation. It seemed like the right thing to do. The beaches, the Thai food, the cheap resorts, it was the obvious choice.

We had a number of crazy things happen with our flights from Ghana to Thailand which resulted in us leaving Ghana a couple of days early...giving us time in Bangkok that we hadn’t planned on. Here’s a basic layout of our time there and some of the photos to go along with it. Enjoy!

(Day 1) Every time we make it to a new place, it takes a little bit before we get a comfortable flow going. We flew into Bangkok early in the morning. We were sleep deprived and excited to get to our hotel. Before we knew it, we were all sleeping like babies in an air conditioned room. When we woke up we hit the ground running with Thai food and the Chi Chi market!

(Day 2) We love going to church in new places. After church we caught a tuk tuk to Khao San road where we had booked our next couple of nights. We had fun walking around the area while eating our body weight in mango sticky rice.

(Day 3) We started our day with a tour to the train market and the floating market (both are about 100 km outside of Bangkok). Although the floating market was the “featured attraction,” we thought that the train market was SO cool. It was our highlight, probably because we had zero expectations for it, but it was amazing. The market is literally on the tracks and when a train comes, everyone clears the tracks by maybe an INCH. And as soon as the train passes, everybody continues where they left off. The floating market was cool, but it didn’t feel very authentic because it was set up for tourists.

(Day 4) We spent the day temple hunting. There are over 40,000 temples in Bangkok so it wasn’t too hard to find some cool ones. SO MANY BEAUTIFUL TEMPLES. We couldn’t believe it. We also visited the Grand Palace. Amazing.

(Day 5) Flew to Krabi (southern Thailand). It was a quick one hour flight, which was no big deal for Addison at this point. When we got to Krabi we took a shared bus to the main port, where we caught a boat to our resort on Railay East. AND IT WAS STUNNING. We “splurged” and spent $35 a night to stay in a resort. It was INCREDIBLE. I could easily move to Thailand.

(Day 6) Beach, pool, eat, beach, pool, eat, nap, beach, pool, sleep. That was our day. We loved getting crepes and smoothies on the beach. We also rented a kayak and went cruising around a bunch of little islands. It was such a blast!

(Day 7) During low tide we hiked out to the island we kayaked around the day before. It was awesome wading through the water and to explore the island. We also got a Thai massage and HOLY SMOKES. A tiny Thai woman, literally 100 pounds, somehow had Austin’s entire body levitated above the massage table at one point. And during my massage, I felt an immense amount of pressure on my legs to turn around to see my masseuse STANDING on me. Literally standing on me. I had bruises the next day. Haha So, if you are ever in Thailand, say yes to a massage?

(Day 8) We caught a long tail boat to Ao Nang and stayed there for two nights. You know, it wasn't until I was writing this post that I realized maybe Addison didn't enjoy the boat as much as I thought (see the picture below haha). I thought we were having a good time. We spent a lot of time at the pool and checking out the shops and the beaches around Ao Nang. Having a pool in our hotel ended up being an unexpected highlight. Addison LOVED it and it was something we could do for her every day.

(Day 9) We boated back to Railay because we already missed it after being away from it for a day. We wanted to get to a beach called Ton Sai and found that there were only a couple of options to get there from where we were: by boat, hiking through the ocean during low tide or hiking/climbing through the jungle. We chose the last option. And we made about 50 monkey friends that hiked with us! We felt like Tarzan and Jane. The trail lead us to a stunning beach that we literally had all to ourselves. SO magical. I love the random adventures and the days that we don't have any plans. It almost always seems that our greatest highlights aren't in the guide book and they tend to be some of the most memorable!

(Day 10) We flew back to Bangkok and had a full day before flying out. We took a tour to Ayutthaya which was one of my favorite experience in Thailand. There is something so cool about walking through ancient cities and imagining the events that happened there; the history comes alive. Once one of the largest trading capitals in the world, ruins are all that remain. After 35 kings ruled this city, it was captured and burned by the Burmese. And it's as if time has just stood still since then. It truly was a neat experience to see Ayutthaya.

Our time in Thailand was over and we were headed back to the USA completing our circumnavigation of the globe. It was a pretty cool moment as we landed in the US.