Thailand | FindPenguins

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Trip start
November 11, 2017
Thailand Traveler
Bangkok
November 11, 2017 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
We arrived at Bangkok Airport at the time we were a supposed to arrive initially, which means three hours before anything of interest opened. And we needed to deposit our luggage, so we waited for two hours until the baggage storage opened!! Relieved from the weight we headed straight to our hostel through the heat that was already starting early in the morning, but the room wasn't ready yet, so we dropped our stuff and went to the city! It was an magnificent feeling to be there amongst the traffic, people and food stalls. Everything felt different and new, a whole new exciting world to explore...
First we just walked around the area to get an overview, then we took the taxi boat to the city to avoid the traffic. After arrival we walked up a temple that was a small oasis amongst the noise and pollution of the surrounding city. On the way to Khaosan Road were more temples to see :) They seem to be omnipresent. Khaosan Road is a famous spot for backpackers and binge drinking and apparently a must-see. It was a good stop for a night but personally I wouldn't stay there a lot longer... For the second day we had planned to visit the main sights of Bangkok, the Golden Palace, the reclining Buddha and Wat Arun. Quite a lot of sight seeing and walking but all the efforts were worth the views of these magnificent buildings and surroundings. Overall we made easily more than 20km that day!
Later we took the night bus to Sukhothai.Read more
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Thailand Traveler
Sukhothai
November 14, 2017 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
Sukhothai was a former capital of Thailand and has - along with Ayutthaya - a well preserved temple area. We decided to go here instead of Ayutthaya because its further away from Bangkok, making it a bit harder to get there for the tourism crowds. And we were positively surprised that we only needed to share the park with a few other people!
The temples itself were good restaurated and scenic within old trees and small lakes. The area is so huge that we rented us bikes for the day to get to see everything, also in the outskirts where we were often all to ourselves. Then the temples really showed their immense, old beauty leaving us stunned.Read more
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Thailand Traveler
Chiang Mai
November 16, 2017 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
Chiang Mai is the inofficial capital of Northern Thailand and also a former capital of the Lama Empire. It's also a gateway to several other locations like Pai and Chiang Rai. Once again we arrived late so we couldn't take a bus, therefore we started walking but at some point got ourselves a Tuktuk to the hostel.
We slept in the next day because we had planned some time for the stop in Chiang Mai. Then we informed ourselves about Elephant experiences that have a strict no-riding policy to book a tour for the next day. Then we explored the nearby area and the famous Doi Suthep, a golden temple overlooking the city. To get there was quite an odyssey as we didn't want to spend heaps of money for a private taxi. Two Songathew (like a shuttle bus) rides and more than 200 steps later we were on top of the hill resting in the coolness of the temple's interiors. On the way down we met a British guy who is running up and down the mountain as part of the training for Muay Thai fighter. For the late afternoon we explored the tourist markets and went to see a Muay Thai fight. Unfortunately we were a bit late, so there were just the kids fights going on.

At 6:30 in the morning we were picked up for the tour that led us about 100km North of Chiang Mai into a valley where there are several Elephant camps/sanctuaries. Our tour led to a so-called sanctuary but there were some things that made us think that it wasn't really "good". One of the guys there did ride an elephant at some point, they sometimes held the ear lobes etc... But it was quite an experience to feed, wash and watch these giants! And afterwards we went for a 5km walk through the jungle to a waterfall to go swimming. The last event of the day was a white water rafting down a nearby river where one of our fellows fell into the water :DRead more
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Thailand Traveler
Pai
November 18, 2017 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
From Chiang Mai it was just a 3 hour bus ride to Pai, a small village that is equally famous among the backpackers as the Thais. The feeling is really special, laid-back, relaxed and open. While Julia had a nap I went out for a snack and to explore the surroundings. Afterwards we relaxed a bit at our room until the multi plug adapter exploded. Then we went out again for the night market and tried all kinds of different foods there we also met some of the people that were on the tour with us. We teamed up and went to a pool bar a bit outside of the town until late.
For the next day we got up pretty early to rent a motorbike because the sights are all scattered within a 20km radius around Pai. There were a giant white Buddha statue, waterfalls, a deep crack in the earth with an organic farm, a bridge from the 2nd World War and a sunset viewpoint. Definitely enough to do for a day full of entertainment :) Oh, and in the evening we celebrated there my birthday 🎂Read more
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Thailand Traveler
Chiang Rai
November 20, 2017 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
The reason for putting Chiang Rai on our itinerary was because if two famous temples, the Black Temple and the White Temple. While the White Temple is just a temple with an unusual colour concept, the Black Temple is an art installation that covers mainly the aspect of death with hundreds of bone arrangements. The were equally interesting and especially the contrast of the both was fascinating!
Another highlight was a visit to the Cat Café 😻😻😻Read more
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Thailand Traveler
Koh Tao
November 24, 2017 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
The journey from Chiang Rai to Koh Tao took us more than 24 hours by buses and ferry. By the time we arrived at the island early in the morning we were quite an exhausted mess. We thought that we would start with the diving course the other day but we could barely drop off our luggage before we put on our wet suits and jumped into our Open Water Diving course. At first it was really weird to get used to breathing under water and also a bit fearsome but eventually we got used to it. On the second day we went for another two dives down to more than 12 metres and spent most of the evening reading and learning for the test on the last day. In the morning it was raining heavily and there were floods going down the streets... After two more dives we took the - incredibly easy - test and became certified divers :) We still had two days left so we decided to book a snorkeling tour around the island to see some more spots. In the evening we celebrated together with our dive instructor but later I was feeling unwell with fever so we went back to our hotel.
The feeling got worse during the tour even though Julia cared for me really good. We left later that day by night ferry back to the land in direction of Khao Sok!Read more
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Thailand Traveler
Khao Sok
November 28, 2017 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
My status got worse on the bus ride to the National Park of Khao Sok and by the time we arrived at our bungalows I felt weak. We consulted first with the owners about my condition and they said it could be Dengue but I should get a rest first. While sleeping I developed a pretty bad rash that first went unnoticed until Julia saw a bit on my neck. It was all over my body and looked bad so we decided it's time to go to the doctor. Our host drove us to the nearest hospital where they checked me and eventually told me to come back the next day because they couldn't do blood samples on weekends.
So we had time to pack everything and then head with all of our luggage to the hospital where they started treating me for Dengue fever. Generally the hospital was in a pretty bad shape with a flooded toilet and stray cats wandering around. After two days of treatment with Paracetamol and Electrolytes the doctor said that I could leave because the parameters looked good again. We were glad to get out of the hospital!! But we couldn't really enjoy the time in Khao Sok :( For the final leg of our Thailand journey we went to the area North of Phuket.Read more
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Thailand Traveler
Phuket
November 30, 2017 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
I was still pretty weak from the sickness so we took it slowly. Our hostel was right next to the highway while there were resorts all along the beachside and it was pretty difficult to get to the beach. So we just took a stroll along the markets (that had German Leberkäse, Kartoffelsalat etc...). There was also a museum for the destructive Tsunami some years ago which we visited. It showed the enormous damage that was caused back then.
For our last night we had booked a hotel next to the airport so we wouldn't have to get another taxi...Read more
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Trip end
November 30, 2017