SEAfaring: Thailand

The final subchapter of SEAfaring is set in Thailand with Ellen rejoining me for an entire month traveling throughout the country. Thailand, along with Japan and Taiwan, were the three countries I specifically planned on visiting this trip upon my embarkation back in March, though I almost skipped Thailand as my whims threw me far of course to Australia back in Summer. After visiting, I can say enthusiastically that few places are as enticing and engaging to the adventuring public. Its main draws are the glorious temples and devoted spiritualists, bustling cities with markets, nightlife, and more, and lastly, the tropical jungles and islands which are awe inspiring and best described in my photos below. All of this is to be had at a bargain too! The allure was real for us and many others, and we got to see so much moving quickly, with about a week between each locale.

Before arriving in Thailand, and after figuring out the length of our visas together, we booked our onward flights together to Taipei for a month out from Chiang Mai. We had a good groove between the two of us, each had the time due to our respective pauses from work and knew this was going to be the last big chapter of our story this year, besides a brief postscript in Taiwan. So, we went big on the full thirty days, which is the basic option for Americans upon arrival. Taiwanese visitors have some more effort, with a proper visa application required in advance, but Ellen came through with that as well on short notice. Recall that the timing for this trip was built on the bones of a trip to India that I canceled days before due to their faulty visa website. I wound up eating half my flight costs to Kerala, India by using my layover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia upon leaving Cebu in the Philippines. Not a total loss at least, but I still get mad thinking about that whole debacle. Don’t leave visa stuff until the last minute, and don’t book your travel until you square your visa!

Bangkok made a lot of sense to start our trip out, as it’s Thailand’s capital, busiest locale and easiest flight in, thus we began there as newbies. One week was not close enough to understand the place, but I thrived in the organized chaos there. We chose a guesthouse along the Chao Phraya River, which although quiet and centrally located, lacked for transit connections except for ferrying about, which was cool for a touristy first day and sporadically after. Fortunately, taxis sufficed for getting to/from our destinations.  The dependence on taxis countrywide contributes to dysfunctional traffic in many places, but it hits a legendary level in Bangkok. At least the price is right, equivalent to taking public transit in other countries, but like the Philippines, one had to be ready to haggle prices or insist on them using the meter. Just be wary of the tuk-tuks! Though iconic, they are quite mercurial, once taking us to a different market then negotiated. Definitely more than a few hapless tourists have been scammed by them. I’d find out later that Grab, a regional ridehailing app circumvented all this haggling hassle and should have been employed from the get go.

Bangkok has a lot going on, but any trip there should start with seeing some of its temples. Pretty much daily we would set out for one, and typically we’d find several others to pop into on the way. Buddhist temples in Thailand (and elsewhere) can be a little weird towards women with modesty requirements (no exposed knees or shoulders), but one in Chiang Mai took the cake, forbidding women entry due to menstruation. In general, they are still worthy to visit, much like the religious landmarks of other lands. Living under said religious rule is another thing but at least Thailand feels fairly secular, as a tourist. We also saw a bit of the ‘nightlife’ in Nana Plaza to round out the visit. No photos allowed there though!

The fun part of each day on this trip was lining up vegan eats to match our activities. Most places in Thailand had sterling options for my people, with Thai food by itself often being a safe haven for my people. I particularly enjoyed trying Chinese and western Thai hybrids, as well as discovering new dishes popular in the north  like Burmese tea salad, mushroom larb or khao soi. It was fun taking Ellen on a journey of plant-based discovery as my dining partner for just about every meal.

I also tried my hand at medical tourism, stopping at a Bangkok hospital for a checkup on a stomach issue, and seeing marbled floors and even live musicians in the waiting room was surreal. Not to mention the bill without insurance to see a specialist with no notice. I better understand why people travel this far from the states for cosmetic or elective surgery, when the trip is essentially paid for via cost savings.

In general, I loved the chaotic pace of Bangkok. It seemed every corner had some adventure to it, with lots of interesting things happening both for locals and backpackers. Despite not utilizing the public transit well, I found getting around made sense. The cost of living, while having most metro amenities I’ve come to enjoy, feels low enough to experiment and play around with. It might not be everyone’s bag, I’d hesitate to recommend it for those who find confined, urban spaces hellish.

I didn’t bother trying to learn any Thai while here, something I feel conflicted about. In general though, the English proficiency of the populace is a step above the East Asian countries I visited to start my trip with. I still think that for spending an entire month in a country I should have gotten my hello’s and thank you’s at least in, so I apologize to all the Thai for my laziness. I think by month seven of travel, and knowing it was all soon to end, that I just wanted to cruise while in Thailand, especially after the previous two-plus months being in English speaking countries as well.

From Bangkok, we wanted to go to Koh Phangan, an island in the south. My idea to take the night train needed a few days lead in order to have sleeper cars for the journey, so we made our reservations (in person at the main station, as the website was poor) then ventured to Pattaya for a couple days on Ellen’s suggestion. We managed to figure out the regional bus system there for a truly cheap side-trip (though the air con dripped on me on the way back, ick).

Pattaya was weird, definitely the single strangest place I went on the whole trip. Our hotel, billed as a fairly large resort, was like Little Russia, and our evening walk on the beach revealed a literal kilometer of sex workers plying their trade, and that’s not even the red light district proper. The Sanctuary of Truth was a highlight though. It was also fun figuring out the songthaew (taxi pickup truck) system that did an oval loop around Pattaya’s busiest corridors and functions as an ad-hoc bus system. Thanks Wikivoyage for that tip.

We got back to Bangkok late in the afternoon, with a couple hours before our night train. At the station is where I registered the oddity of living in a pseudo-monarchy, where the 18:00 anthem played and every Thai stood still to pay respects while it played. Walking around with my AirPods wondering why everyone stopped made me deeply uncomfortable until I figured this out. There’s pictures of the king everywhere, and laws, backed by prison time, against any disrespect towards the royal family. Something like this is a bit wild to me, especially as an American where criticism of the government is normal. Additionally, though people vote for a parliament, the Thai military, which historically has no trouble intervening in coups to maintain a conservative leaning grip on power, appoints about half of the government and prevents the people’s democratic will from being true. In the 2023 elections, a leftist candidate ran and though his coalition won a popular majority, they were stymied entirely by this system.

I had all night to dwell on the troubled political system while our surprisingly comfortable train took us to Surat Thani in south Thailand, where street touters bombarded us at 7 AM to take a bus and ferry combo system to get to the island of Koh Phangan. It turned out to be the simple and affordable way to get there, and the ferry even offered foot massages for those who didn’t have reading material or grew tired of gazing at the sea. Heck, anywhere you’re at in Thailand, a massage is a good deal and often available. We got one probably every third day while in the country.

Koh Phangan was a magical place, though almost bereft of Thai culture, in the end it reminded me a lot of overly gentrified neighborhoods like Bushwick, Brooklyn. There and here, the native population is displaced, priced out and at odds with an occupying force with a new culture. On the island were an eclectic mix of yogis, ravers and digital nomads (like myself). While it made for the highest concentration of quality vegan food anywhere I’ve been, it also hardly felt like Thailand. That said, we had a good deal of fun there, as did many other short term adventurers lured by the beach scenery and all night dance parties (we didn’t attend one because I messed up the dates, sorry Ellen!).

On Koh Phangan, and for the rest of the trip, I rented a motorbike to get us around. Undoubtedly, it was the method of choice for transit on the island, with limited and pricier taxis, as well as a lower risk of traffic fatality, though by no means is it a license to bike recklessly. Most riders omit helmets (not us!), and throughout Thailand plenty of overly confident motorbikers wind up as roadkill. Using our bikes, we got to beaches, hiking and dining on each section of the island. As we were there in November, it turned out to be the off season, with monsoonal rains frequenting us every day while there. A bit of a bummer, especially for snorkeling and diving, but the rain wasn’t unrelenting, and the vibe was interesting to absorb for a week.

Next, we were bound for Phuket for a more developed island adventure. Ellen figured out an online booking here that took us on a long bus ride directly from the ferry, no haggling needed. Phuket wasn’t a must see originally, but it turned out to be a fine chapter. What it had most going for it was its bustling airport to get us cheaply to Chiang Mai, so it made good sense to drop in on a country spanning journey to get as near South as Thailand goes. It wound up being a surprisingly good vibe for the half week we were there, we stayed in Phuket Town on the east side of the island, rather than Patong, due to it Pattaya-esque environment. In the end, we wound up passing through there multiple times for yoga by the beach, an ice bath, and a night market (though our favorite was in the Phuket Town Chinatown).

The highlight of our visit here, after saying hi to the Big Buddha, was a snorkeling trip to the Phi Phi Islands. Chartering a speedboat to this isolated archipelago is a common tourist activity, and the only day of snorkeling we actually got to do in a month in Thailand. Plenty of other people were out with us there, but the high traffic didn’t quite despoil the beauty, although that beach from The Beach (Maya Beach) was off limits to most vessels for restoration. Never watched it personally, but I did favor the book as a very intense read, quite up my avenue of chaotic adventurism.

Last but not least on our country spanning journey was a week in Chiang Mai, the capital of Thailand’s northwest. It was my favorite destination to stop in. It had the energy of larger cities, but with plentiful access to nature and temples nearby. The temperature was a little cooler, near idyllic in winter, owing to the mountainous terrain and elevation. Access to vegan eats was good, owing to a large population of nomadic westerners, but their population didn’t strangle the city’s charms. I also really liked navigating the old city, where a square moat, a mile long on each edge, surrounds a densely populated interior city with winding, uneven streets. The moat is almost a fun run to do, but a little bit underdeveloped for pedestrians, with constant traffic crossings to the outer perimeter. At least the interior feels entirely walkable or cycleable, but we had a motorbike again for this chapter.

The motorbike got used heavily in CM, going for the longest rides I’ve yet done with one, cruising along highways at speeds around 90 kph. After exploring the local mountain of Doi Suthep, and its cool Hmong village, trails and temples, we ventured out for Doi Inthanon, Thailand’s highest peak. It’s developed to drive up, so we did, and through a frigid rain cloud to reach the summit, drenched but in sunshine; that was pretty cool. Up there in one of Thailand’s most prestigious parks, guides are required for the fairly simple hiking trails. With USD, it’s still a low cost exchange, but all still a bit alien a concept to me for just traipsing about a simple jungle trail.

On the way down Doi Inthanon, with ideas of gazing at waterfalls near dusk to conclude our park trip, we encountered some misfortune. Our bike skidded out, at low speed, thankfully, and gave us each some nasty road rash; Ellen’s hand and my arm and leg got a light scouring. Some other tourists materialized out of nowhere almost immediately with bandages, antiseptics and rags, which was amazing for a field dressing. I was still left me with the arduous task of motoring an hour back to CM with stinging limbs though. We made it, then to a nearby hospital on Ellen’s suggestion. I was adverse to the idea, but it only cost us about an hour and $10 each to get our wounds handled professionally, along with painkillers and a tetanus shot. Quite a departure in cost from emergency care in America. I took it easier on the bike after that, even if it was a choppy side road that did me in, the idea of wiping out again at speed is very unpleasant to conceive.

Our trip in Thailand was about at a close after Doi Inthanon, with just a bit more lounging and food tourism in Chiang Mai. All too soon this month of wandering was up and we were flying together off back to Taipei for the final leg of this whole epic journey. It was pretty cool winging it for a whole month and collaborating on how to plan each day as they came, with only a loose framework of locations to visit. We missed some things here with this impromptu approach, but planning is a lot of work. I just like taking it day by day otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to sustain myself for months, mentally. Hats off to the travelers that make complex and detailed itineraries work out!

I’ll return to Thailand, eagerly, I think. It’s truly an adventurer’s paradise there. The costs are low, it feels pretty safe and the infrastructure strong in terms of internet, healthcare, cleanliness (bidets, everywhere!). I’d like to come spend time as an actual digital nomad, instead of backpacking, or perhaps do a yoga retreat there. There’s still quite a few provinces yet to see, and pursuits like rock climbing or scuba diving could be chased as well. Another chapter in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, or one of the islands would do me well. See you again sometime, Thailand, and I promise I’ll practice the language a bit before I come back!