Thailand, a Millennial’s rite of passage?

Thailand is almost like a rite of passage for many of us.

Swinging during our Hong Island Excursion off of Railay Beach

It’s often the trip you do right after you’re done your undergrad. That was my plan as well.

My best friend Alisha and I had always talked about traveling to South East Asia once we were done school and how it was going to be so epic. We graduated but the trip didn’t happen. Life had got in the way. We were busy finishing up with school, working and I was in Paris for a semester but we were determined to make it happen.

Fast forward a couple of years and we made this little dream of ours a reality. By the time we came around to doing it, we figured we’d have to limit ourselves to only one destination in SE Asia as work was demanding and we could only get two weeks off.

We settled on Thailand. We figured we could do Indonesia and Malaysia later on in life and Thailand just seemed like THE place to visit. We imagined ourselves at Koh Phi Phi hanging out on a long tail boat and eating pad thai in the busy streets of Bangkok. So, we booked our flight and 10 months later we were finally off to Thailand!

Did I like Thailand? Yes.

My best friend Alisha and I at the Octave Rooftop in Bangkok after a very long and sweaty day

Would I go back? Probably not. However, if I were to return, I would stick to Northern Thailand.

I’m not sure I can completely explain why I wouldn’t return. A large part of it has to do with how far away it is and part of it has to do with the fact that there are just so many other countries I’d rather explore.

So now you have some (somewhat) unnecessary context surrounding our Thailand trip, let’s start off with the cities we visited.

We visited the following places: Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket , Koh Phi Phi for a few hours and Railay Beach.

We spent a total of two weeks in Thailand (three nights in Bangkok, 3 nights in Chiang Mai, 2 nights in Phuket and 4 in Railay Beach) with an 11 hour layover in Seoul, South Korea (which by the way I LOVED and would visit again). Was that enough time? No. Domestic flights add up and though we stuck to one country, we felt as though we were always on the move and this lead to exhaustion.

Now let’s get into the details you’ll likely find far more useful.

Accommodations:

In Bangkok…

We stayed at the following two hotels. Both had excellent customer service and great rooms. Golden Tulip is a little more affordable for nearly the same level of quality so I would suggest booking with them if you had to choose between the two. They also offer free breakfast which means one less meal to worry about.

Aloft Bangkok Sukhumvit 11 (link: http://www.aloftbangkoksukhumvit11.com/)

Golden Tulip Mandison Suites (link: http://www.goldentulipmandison.com/)

Our view from our pool at the Aloft in Bangkok.

In Chiang Mai…

We stayed at the Grand Napat. Location wise, it wasn’t amazing but Ubers were so cheap it didn’t really matter. The customer service was excellent, laundry service was very affordable and it was the best value for how much we paid which was an average of about $35 CDN a night per person. They also have an airport shuttle service that picks you up and the hotel rate includes free breakfast.

The Grant Napat Serviced Apartment (link: http://www.thegrandnapat.com/)

In Phuket …

We decided to stay in a hostel called Lub d Phuket Patong. We stayed in both the private room and a female only dorm. We actually preferred the female only dorm and found that the air circulation was far better and less humid. The hostel has a fun environment with a great pool, a Muay Thai ring and was located very close to Patong Beach and Bangla Road (great partying here). I’d suggest staying here if you’re looking for a good hostel to stay at in Phuket. They also have a few other locations across SE Asia.

Lub d Phuket Patong (link: https://www.lubd.com/patong/)

In Railay Beach…

We stayed at Railway Phutawan Resort. This was our most expensive accommodation and though the customer service is amazing (like truly amazing), the food is halal and the view is spectacular I had trouble dealing with the bathrooms. I was a little weirded out by the fact that there was no physical separation between the toilet and the shower. So essentially every time you take a shower the entire bathroom gets wet. My way of dealing with it was showering in flip flops the entire stay. Apparently, there are a set of rooms that are more modern/updated in the same location so I would suggest looking into that if you are like me when it comes to bathrooms.

Railay Phutawan Resort - Railay Krabi (link: http://www.railayphutawan.com/)

Getting Around:

We used a mix of Uber and Grab Car. Uber was our top choice but it did not exist in Phuket so we had to go with Grab Car. Taxis are an option as well but seeing we were two women traveling alone we opted to take Uber. You’re also less likely to get overcharged or scammed this way.

The only real form of transportation at Railay beach is walking and golf carts. Long tail boats are available for hire if you’re leaving the island but we only really used the ferry which only required a very short trip on the long tail boat. Side note: these long tail boats reek of gasoline and made is really difficult for me to breathe with my asthma. I found covering my face with a mask (that can be found at any pharmacy in Thailand) was super helpful!

Food:

The food in Thailand was INCREDIBLE, AMAZING. Though we avoided street food, fruits without peels and raw vegetables because I was being uber careful about not getting an upset stomach (which I did not, so I think it worked!) we thoroughly enjoyed Thai cuisine. There were very few meals that I felt were a miss which in the grand scheme of two weeks is a major win.

The one thing I wish we did do when we were in Thailand was attend a cooking class. The timings never seemed to work out for us but it was consistently recommended to us by other travelers so if you can, I suggest you do it.

Some restaurants that really stood out to me during our trip were:

In Bangkok:

Alex Brasserie. I really enjoyed the green curry here and had it for breakfast (yes breakfast) two days in a row and it was really good.

In Chiang Mai:

Chiang Mai, by far had the best food I had in Thailand. Everything was good. The two places that really stood out to me were:

Kafevino Wine and Bistro at Think Park. The vegetarian Pad Thai we had here was incredible. The best pad Thai I have ever had in my entire life. It’s in a great location as well. You’ll thoroughly enjoy your pad Thai and your surroundings.
Woo Cafe. If you are looking for an insta opportunity, look no further. This cafe is so so beautiful and is also an art gallery. Make sure you visit Woo when in Chiang Mai.
Rise Rooftop Bar Akeyra Minor Hotel. We only came here for the view during the sunset and it was UNREAL. The drinks were good as well!

Most places you’ll go to will be decent. I would advise that you read reviews online and be willing to take chances every once in a while.

I also created a custom google map full of restaurants I thought I would try in each city with the exception of Railay Beach. I’m not sure how I thought I would have the time to visit all those restaurants (because I clearly just ate wherever was in my plain sight) but if you are interested, feel free to connect with me and I can share that curated list with you!

Things to do:

And now, most importantly here are some ideas of things to do in each city that we visited. Given Thailand is very touristy, there is plenty of stuff to do and I was given numerous suggestions of things to do and places to visit. We still wanted to feel like we were on vacation so we didn’t try to do it all but I think we crossed a decent amount of things off our list.

Bangkok

Temples, rooftop bars and shopping.

That’s essentially all we did in Bangkok. Full disclosure we only visited one temple on our last day because we thought we would be “templed out”. It was beautiful but I believe we stayed there for an entirety of maybe twenty minutes.

Temples

Wat Arun. We chose Wat Arun entirely based on aesthetics and boy did it deliver. It was beautiful and peaceful but again we did not spend too much time here.

Here is a list of some other temples you could visit while in Bangkok:

Wat Pho
The Grand Palace

Rooftop Bars

There is no shortage of rooftop bars in Bangkok and they all have pretty spectacular views.

We went with Octave Rooftop Lounge & Bar. The views were amazing, it didn’t feel too crowded and the food was good (although pricey for Thai standards).

Here are some other options you can look into that I found during my research:

Attitude Rooftop Lounge & Bar
Above Eleven Bar
Banyan Tree Bangkok
Sky Train Jazz Bar
Wanderlust Rooftop Bar (more casual than the others)

Shopping

It rained two out of the three days we were in Bangkok so we went to a lot of shopping centres and caught up on our sleep.

We went to two malls in particular.

Terminal 21. Here I bought a couple of cute pieces and we ate at a restaurant here that was pretty good. Each floor is supposed to be a different country.

Union Mall. I did most of my shopping here and loved it. Warning, most Thai clothes are one size fits all. For reference I am 5’2 and a bit and a small build so it worked for me but if you are taller or of a bigger build you may leave this mall fairly disappointed. Remember to bring cash.

Unicorn Cafe in Thailand. A long wait, though was pleasantly surprised by the waffles.

Here is a list of some other malls you may want to visit while you’re in Bangkok:

Central World
Platinum Fashion Mall (Similar deal to Union Mall)
MBK Center
The EmQuartier (more high end)
Chatuchak Market (A weekend market)

What we should have done but unfortunately did not have the time to do was:

Visit the floating market (though many people said it was not that great, so I’m kind of glad we skipped it)
Partied on Khao San Road. We were just so tired every time we were in Bangkok that we just could not bring ourselves to party in Bangkok though I’m sure it would be a great time!
Watched a Muay Thai Match. This can also be done in Phuket and we missed it each time. Two weeks is just not enough time in Thailand and I firmly stand by that.
The Asiatique Ferris wheel

Chiang Mai.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Chiang Mai was my absolute favourite place that I visited in Thailand. It had a good vibe, friendly locals and expats as well as tons of adventures for you to embark on.

If I could change the way our trip was structured, I would definitely have scheduled more time in Chiang Mai. But who knows, considering Northern Thailand is the only part of Thailand I said I would return to, I may just be able to one day spend some additional time there.

My top experience hands down was our tour with Chiang May Jungle Trekking (http://www.chiangmaijungletrekking.com/). It was a full day of adventure and featured one of the most incredible experiences of my life - feeding and bathing elephants!

Me playing with Pancake. One of the best days of my life!

We started of the day trekking in the Thai jungle where we saw a beautiful waterfall, then we went white water rafting (which was SO much fun) and ended the day playing with a mother, brother and baby elephants named Mai, Jumbo and Pancake. They were so sweet and playful and so happy to have us there. It was a moment of pure joy spending time with these animals. Make sure you book in advance because this set of activities is very popular and you definitely do not want to miss out.

My other favourite thing about Chiang Mai was Think Park. This area is so beautiful and is filled with little food, clothing and souvenir vendors

Here are some other activities we did :

Ziplining and repelling. It was fun but this is an experience that one can have anywhere in the world so I would not classify this activity as a must.

Visited the Pagodas and two waterfalls. This tour consisted of a lot of driving to visit the pagodas and because it was a foggy day we did not get to see the view that was so famous on google images which was a little disappointing. If you have time, do this tour but I would not by any means say it was a must.

Some things we wish we had done which we had not had the time to do were:

Visit Chiang Rai’s famous temple (this is about 3 hours away from Chiang Mai)
Factored in time to visit Pai (again, I wish I had done more of northern Thailand)
Climbed the “Sticky Waterfalls”
Visited temples in Chiang Mai
Eaten more food

AND, if you like to party make sure you visit Zoe in Yellow Bar and Night Club. There are plenty of bars in the area which makes this area super fun at night. Definitely something worth experiencing if you’re in Chiang Mai!

Phuket.

I’ll admit we didn’t do very much in Phuket. From what I remember, we got ready, were overwhelmed by the huge crowd at Patong beach. Left, got rained on, got a massage, attended a party hosted by our hostel, slept and woke up 15 minutes before ringing in 2018!

Luckily we were close enough that we were able to run to Patong beach in time to catch the fireworks and the absolutely breathtaking lantern festival.

Floating lanterns at Patong Beach on to ring in the New Year!

New Years in Phuket was everything you would want it to be. Loud, crazy, intense.

We ended up at a bar on top of Seth Gueko which pretty much exclusively plays French rap and hip-hop that I love but Alisha hated so we headed upstairs where we met a group of siblings and friends from South Africa who were so much fun and really made our New Years!

As expected, we overslept the next day so all we really did was eat and visit Had Kata Not- Had Kata- Had Karon View Point. It was a really nice view. I thoroughly enjoyed it and we got some great shots for the gram.

We had a lot of plans for Phuket. Beach clubs, beaches and restaurants but didn’t get to any of it really. Would I return to Phuket, no. It was my least favourite of the places we visited but here are some suggestions of places to go and things to do based on research and advice I received along the way.

Watch the sunset from Promthep Cape
Paradise beach
Freedom beach
Kata Beach
Baba Nest, Sri Panwa Phuket
Big Buddha Phuket

Railay Beach:

So before I start on Railay Beach, I wanted to mention a little bit about Koh Phi Phi which was actually a stop for our Ferry from Phuket. I found it to be very very dense and underwhelming. Though I can’t speak to the nightlife on the island, I found the actual view to be rather disappointing. I kid you not, I had been dreaming of Koh Phi Phi for soo long but I guess all the perfect shots with the Instagram filters paired with a cloudy day had resulted in a mediocre experience on our end. However, I must say there’s a lot of great shopping on this island as well as good food to choose from.

View from our ferry of the long tail boats we had to take to get us to shore

Railay, on the other hand, was a good experience and took us a full day journey to get there due to our pit stop at Koh Phi Phi.

One of the most memorable experiences were the crazy currents on our way from Koh Phi Phi to Railay which meant a lot of Gravol for me. Then having to go through all kinds of craziness trying to find our backpacks and then having to jump from a ferry to a long tail boat with our backpacks on and then having to get off the long tail boat in knee deep water carrying all our belongings to shore to then find the staff from our resort who then helped us from that point on.

I really enjoyed Railay. Though most of the beach was not as nice as the little piece of the Lagoon that was what you would typically think of when Thailand crosses your mind, the island had a very relaxed vibe.

It felt like time had slowed down. We would go to the Lagoon area, hang out by the beach and buy green curry and pad Thai (which was all halal by the way) right off of the long tail boats. It’s an experience unlike any other that I’ve had.

We did an excursion to the Hong islands. We would have done more, but unfortunately, we had forgotten our passports at the Hostel Safe in Phuket (yes, I know). So we had to spend 1.5 days traveling to Phuket where we stayed an extra night. Luckily the management at Railay Phutawan Resort were so kind about it, they provided us with a refund for the night we had to stay in Phuket. All in all, I’m just glad we were able to retrieve our passports and not have to go through the hassle of dealing with the Canadian Embassy in Bangkok.

Climbing a cliff at Railay Beach. Such an incredible experience!

Now getting back to Railay, my two favourite memories of Railay Beach were Climbing a limestone cliff and watching the sunset at Tew Lay Bar.

Rock Climbing. Prior to this, I had never gone rock climbing before. I chose to do the activity right by our resorts where we had a guide who provided us with a helmet (which I forgot to wear on my first climb) and rock climbing shoes. The guide helps you find crevices in the limestone cliff to help you get higher and you choose where you want to stop. It was one of the most physically challenging things I have done while on vacation but it was so much fun and rewarding. I would highly recommend this.
Tew Lay Bar is a very chill bar on the other side of the island. It’s a bit of a walk from all the main restaurants but it is an incredible spot to watch the sunset and the tide go out. The music that day was on point and we felt so relaxed. The food and drinks weren’t amazing and they were more expensive than the average meal in Thailand but worth it for the experience. This is a must do when in Railay.

Our view from Tew Lay Bar before the tide went out

Other activities to do or places to visit are:

Kayaking around Railay Beach
Visiting Koh Poda

And that is the end of that.

I hope you were able to get some insight on my trip to Thailand and I hope this helps you plan for your trip as well. If you have any questions, feel free to comment or message me on Instagram!

Bisous,

Mahreen

Other pieces of advice:

Get a SIM card at the airport as soon as you land. Google Maps, Uber and Grab Car will be at your fingertips throughout your trip. It is worth every penny!
Mosquito repellant is your best friend. Your North American version will likely not be strong enough. Invest in Thai mosquito repellant.
Get as many massages as possible. They are relaxing and cheap. We got a massage every other day and I don’t regret it at all.
Take out cash. For most places you’ll need cash, so bring more cash to convert and avoid the $8 ATM fee.
Take a backback if you plan on going to Railay Beach. You will not regret it!
Be careful. Be aware of your surroundings and do not flash your money if possible. Be aware of both locals and tourists alike.