Back from Thailand

I am just returning from the most amazing trip to Thailand, after spending about 20 days there, I may have fallen in love for lots of different reasons.  Thailand wasn’t a country that was necessarily my first choice to visit, but my friend Yasiel doesn’t have to twist my arm too hard when it comes to an adventure for me to say yes!  Have you heard about the time he wanted to go to Jeju Island but all I understand was ICELAND and I was still on board?

Yasiel, another dear friend of ours Benito and I made the long trek to Thailand and started our journeys and began our Thailand adventure in Bangkok for a couple of days.  It is like most countries that depending on what part you are visiting, the difference in styles, feel of area, and things to do vary.  And one of the best parts is Yasiel was so excited he did all the research and knew where we needed to go, I just needed to follow along, which made for an awesome adventure.

Thailand genuinely has so many options of things for people to do regardless of your speed or interests. From water sports, boating (not that time of year we learned), hiking, camping, high end shopping, knock off crazy fake shopping, amazing massage and crazy adult areas, food for everyone including this extremely picky eater, shows galore from ping pong, lady boy, elephant and animal, you had your pick. And if you know me, I chose the shady fun ones.

We spent time in Bangkok, Chianmai, and then a significant amount of time in Phuket which I believe we all concurred was most certainly our favorite place.  We loved it.  We loved where we stayed, we loved water and beaches everywhere (granted we never really found a calm beach to frolic on), the food, the massages.  The list could go on and on.  Phuket was genuinely a beautiful place and if I was only going to visit one place in Thailand, that would be where.

I did end up staying longer than the boys because I had the opportunity to go with my friend Aaron Jackson of Planting Peace to literally rescue an abused elephant.  I will save that story for another day, and I promise to come back to it because it genuinely was one of the most special weekends of my life.  So I extended my trip to go Krabi for another 4 days and got to see another area that Yasiel genuinely wanted to see also.  I haven’t had the chance to talk to Yasiel about Krabi (kinda avoided it because he wanted to see and we weren’t enthused so we didn’t, but it was beautiful and not ready to tell him that quite yet.).

There are so many amazing things to talk about when it comes to Thailand.  And first things first, when it comes to cost, your biggest expense will be your flight there.  Hands down.  It is extremely affordable and I would say cheap when it comes to being in Thailand.  A few points of reference for you, an hour massage cost $8, a uber an across town ride $1.87, a meal with five items and a couple of drinks including a smoothie for less than $30.  One of my favorite meals was a grilled cheese sandwich and a mango smoothie and this was probably a higher end restaurant and it was $8.97.

Yes there are things that are tourism traps that you most certainly will pay average pricing for if just take the first option, but often there are thirty options for everything for you to choose from, just wait until you find one to fit your budget.  Our stays were extremely affordable. We choose to do airbnb because it is more enjoyable for evening times to hang out and not be forced into one persons bedroom to sit on a bed and you never really have to go home alone.  In the past when traveling in a big group and I was a solo traveler in the group, that was hard to have everyone go back to their hotel rooms at 7 pm until the next morning and I am just left alone, which when you don’t have TV in your language in some countries, it doesn’t always make for fun evenings.  An Airbnb you always have energy in the house with you.

I’ve always tried to remember that especially if traveling with my sister.  I  now know how it feels and it feels weird to have two hotel rooms where Shannon and I would go to one and she goes alone to hang out alone.  An Airbnb just feels more together for me.  I may not be talking to her or entertaining each other, but I can say hi to her reading her book in the kitchen as I grab my coke from the frig. Just feels different and together.

I still have more to share on Thailand but wanted to get this out because I have most certainly been slacking on my blogging.  I promise to get better because I’ve committed to something else coming up and this will go hand and hand.  So stay tuned for more all around,

Xoxo

Jenny