Reflecting on Thailand – Gimpy

Similar to other trips, I ask my travel companions if they’re willing to share their thoughts about their trip. Happily Gimpy is willing to share her thoughts about her trip to South East Asia. What makes this reflection unique is I only joined her and Cactoose on the tail end of it. By the time I arrived, they already had a month of travel under their belt. So there will be some reflections that even I am reading for the first time!

If you’re interested in reading through “my” whole trip from beginning to end, please click here.

Cactoose and I were travelling for a few weeks in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. I will try to contain my reflection post to focus on the time I got to spend with the Minion in Thailand. However, I will most likely bring in other parts of Thailand as well!

Top 3 Highlights

Highlight #1: Thai Cooking

Cactoose and I took a Thai cooking class in Chiang Mai that Photos (from Minion’s Australia Trip) had recommended through AirBNB. The lovely part about this class is that it is run by a local couple. The husband picked us and the other participants up at our individual accommodations in their pick-up truck in the morning.  We start at the local market where he explains the local produce and spices Thai’s use in their cooking. Then we pick up the ingredients we need for our cooking class, how fresh is that?! We arrive at the couples home where the wife is preparing our cooking stations. The husband explains the ingredients to us and showsd us how to chop the vegetables and make curries with freshly mortared spices. I really enjoyed cooking and we were all sent home with a booklet of recipes! If you get a chance to go to Chiang Mai and have time for a cooking class, I would highly recommend it! https://aromdiithaicooking.com/

Highlight #2: Elephants

One of the things I wanted to do in Thailand is to spend a day with elephants. Through the Elephant Nature Park, Cactoose and I signed up for one of their ‘Saddle off’ initiatives where we visit a camp or village that once used elephants for logging, trick-shows, and tourist rides. The park goes to the different villages to educate the owners of the elephants and provides income to these families so that they no longer need to use the elephants as a source of income. We were able to get so close to the elephants to go on a walk with them, to feed them, and to bathe them. We also ended the day with river rafting! I highly recommend this experience! We visited the Majestic Elephant Project

Highlight #3: Seeing Rich!

One of the joys of travelling is to see familiar faces in different parts of the world. Our friend Richard was in Phuket for a friend’s wedding at the same time that Minion, Cactoose and I were in Krabi. We decide to meet in the middle on Phi Phi island for lunch! It’s a treat because Minion just arrived the day before and then we get to see Richard the next day!

What was your favourite meal or thing you ate?

This really is a hard question because the food is just so flavourful and cheap in Thailand! I have to say that my favourite dishes in Thailand are drunken noodles (I realize I had this several times!) and morning glory (with garlic and black bean sauce and chili!)

If you could change the itinerary, what would you change?

While I’m not a huge fan of beaches, I think I would have liked an extra day in Krabi or another beach town. I didn’t love the beach towns because they felt very touristy. However because we spent a good chunk of the day travelling to and from Phi Phi Island, I feel I could have a day to spend relaxing. By this point of my trip I already visited 2 other countries and the Northern part of Thailand. It would have been nice to be less on the go.

What caught you by surprise on this trip?

After visiting Vietnam and Cambodia, I’m surprised at how modern Bangkok and Chiang Mai are. Once Cactoose and I settled in Chiang Mai, we saw bubble tea for the first time on our trip! I am surprised to see modern buildings, big malls and hipster coffee shops. I was expecting more run down buildings, dirt and poverty. Bangkok is very developed. I’m also surprised to see a metro rail system in Bangkok because throughout our trip we travelled by Grab (similar to Uber) or a local “taxi” (these were pick-up trucks that are converted into hop on hop off mode of transportation). Finally, in Bangkok we were exposed to food from all around the world rather than just food from the country.

Share one memorable story from this trip.

While we were on Phi Phi Island, Cactoose, Minion and I hired a boat to take us to Monkey Beach. These were little long boats and when we arrived at Monkey Beach, we are dropped off in the middle of the water, but shallow enough that the water only comes up to our knees. When we were picked up, I guess the tide had gone out so the boat is much further from the shore. We tried to walk as close to the boat as we could but had difficulties because we weren’t sure how slippery or sharp the rocks were. I got onto the boat with some difficulty only because there were some waves and i didn’t want to get my butt wet! After the Minion and I got onto the boat, we were trying to get Cactoose. At one point there was a huge wave that came crashing and the boat looked like it had crushed her! Luckily she found a way to duck away and we saw her head pop back up! We were relieved!

Did you pack properly for this trip? What would you have done differently?

One of the hard things about travelling with a backpack is the lack of space for my travel mugs! I came home with 4 mugs! Do you know how hard it is to keep your mug safe in a backpack?! I wouldn’t have changed my luggage choice however as travelling with a carry-on backpack saved us money on the local flights. The one thing I would have done differently is not to purchase any souvenirs as I found that a lot of products were available in Vancouver (albeit a bit more expensive) but it would’ve been a lot easier to not carry bags of tea leaves back!

Any regrets?

I think I would have wanted to travel a bit longer to visit a couple more countries since I was already in that part of the world. Myanmar, Indonesia, Laos would’ve been amazing to visit however we had time constraints. Next time!

Any advice for people considering similar trips/destinations?

If you’re looking to go shopping, stick to a city like Bangkok. But if you’re looking for some cultural experiences I say do day trips out of the city. I found that Chiang Mai give you those options without having to travel too far out. Overall I found Chiang Mai has everything Bangkok has to offer but everything is conveniently located and is less congested.

I would also suggest on visiting only 1-2 temples because after a while all the temples all look the same. The one thing that is a bit off-putting is the amount of people The Grand Palace and Wat Pho. It was scorching hot and humid and you were pretty much just trying to avoid rubbing against people. I would suggest visiting these places after the sun sets.

Final thoughts?

I love Asia! I love how cheap and delicious the food was in all the countries I visited on this trip! The thing I do wonder is when would it be the ‘coolest’ time to go to Thailand. It is very humid and hot and this is in November. It’s almost more pleasant to explore at night! I also enjoyed being able to see friends during different parts of this trip like having dinner with Salmonella in Ho Chi Minh, seeing Richard in Phi Phil Island, and having Minion join Cactoose and I for the last 4 days of our trip!

Thanks for letting me tag along on your trip Gimpy! Can’t wait for the next time we’re all able to travel again!