The land of thousand smiles - Thailand

Before going there I was wondering why Thailand is called the land of thousand smiles. Reaching there I understood why it is so. Everywhere they welcome us with a breach of smile. The hospitality towards tourists should be appreciated. The way they treat us there definitely bring a smile in our face too.

If you have not read the first part of this blog, please read  from the below link before continuing with this.

http://rajeevdaniel.blogspot.com/2011/10/way-to-thai.html

Day 2 :-

At Phuket we had planned for beaches, islands and other sea based adventures. But heavy rain actually tumbled our plan. The sea was dangerous so we dropped our Day 2 plan to James Bond Island and made it to Phang Nga province. Phang Nga province was a 3hour ride from our hotel and was a forest covered area(We were going to some wild life sanctuary). The plans were monkey caves which is on the way, a waterfall in the sanctuary and adventures like rafting, Elephant Safari etc in the sanctuary. Rain again was not in favour. Heavy rain increased the flow in the river in which we were supposed to raft and made it dangerous. So rafting was cancelled and we could manage only a photo in the rafting boat. In the place of rafting, ATV(All Terrain Vehicle) ride was introduced in the package. 

The waterfall was a small one but enjoyable. It was the elephant safari which was worth it. A normal elephant safari in Kerala would cost us a lot and only does a round of some tree or go for 5 minutes on a level road. But in this one the elephant was rid through the forest and the river. Steep ups and downs made the ride adventurous. I was surprised to see the elephant using its trunk effectively to climb up and down. He was also plucking up small plantations and eating throughout the way. As said earlier the rain had made the flow in the river pretty dangerous and still the elephant managed to traverse through the branch of river quite easily. See the video of our elephant ride embedded below.

Monkey temple which is also known as Wat Suvannakuha is home to hundreds of long tailed macaques and hence the name. The cave is formed in a limestone mountain and it has a main hallway and slippery walkways which lead to the chambers high up. Inside the cave there is a giant reclining Buddha and countless other buddhist art works. The farthest walkway lead to a deadend which has nice limestone formations due to fall of water. 

I will end the description about Day2 by writing about the ATV. The change of package from rafting to ATV was a disaster to me. Much strength is required to control the ATV. Its not like riding a bike. Turning the handle took lots from my energy. Twice i met with accident including once falling from a height :-P. But if you have enough strength and get an initial touch with the vehicle, it is really fun to ride it in the forest terrains.

Day 3 :-

We had booked for cruise trip to Phi Phi Islands. The cruise was full. It was good that we booked VIP tickets as the ordinary tickets were seated in the open deck which was so congested and it was raining during the trip. The VIP tickets was seated inside and had cushioned seats compared to plastic seats for the ordinary tickets. Also coffee and snacks were available for VIP tickets.

It took more than one hour in the cruise to the Phi Phi Island. On the way we could find marvelous land formations. The Viking Cave, Maya Bay and may other attractions are on the way. From the starting of the trip, people started vomiting. Sea sickness caught majority of the boarders including my friend. Ladies are more easily caught by the vomiting sensation it seems.

We could see and feed fishes in the underwater aquarium setup. Also snorkeling was a different kind of experience. The water resources and coral reefs here are attractive. The lunch was setup as a part of the cruise trip package in a hotel in Phi Phi Island. Thai food added to the fun. 

Day 4 :-

We had flight to Bangkok in the afternoon. So day four was spent on local sight seeing which includes Chalong Temple(Wat Chalong), Big Buddha and the local aquarium. We also went to Nai Yang beach which is just a 15minutes walk from Phuket airport. We can see this beach from the air during takeoff.

Day 5 :-

Our last day in Thailand. The Grand Palace and other relevant places were planned in the morning and the afternoon was kept aside for purchases. We had heard that we get real cheap electronic goods in Thailand. Other items like pearls and Thai Silk were also in our list to check out.

Grand palace was really grand. There are lots of sculptures, ancient paintings and the temples of Emerald Buddha(Wat Phra Kaew), Reclining Buddha(Wat Pho) and the temple of Golden Buddha(Wat Traimit). Wat Arun across the canal is also a good view.

There are lots of shopping malls in Bangkok. We selected MBK as it was near to our hotel. Electronic goods are cheaper than India, but still not cheap enough that we should bring it from there. Only thing we saw so cheap was LCD and LED TVs.

Overall we had a nice time in Thailand. And we wish a very nice and happy trip to everybody who wish to visit Thailand.

The way to Thai

Plans earlier this year had been utter failure... Leh-Ladakh dream was shattered by unavailability of dates of my friends. They didn't get leave from the respective companies they work. And I was unable to attend the Ajanta-Ellora trip because of my own work assignments. So I wanted something big this time. Finally I decided that if I go, it will be a huge one. 

It was really a huge one. Initially planned was Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand for 10days. But considering the possibility of less enjoyment due to more travel and looking into the cost-visa issues, we cut short it to Thailand alone. There were lots of reasons to choose Thai as our destination. Visa on arrival was possible, cheaper flights were available and the stay for 5 days would be far cheaper than Malaysia or Singapore. 

All the booking were made well in advance. The flights were booked in Air Asia. Air Asia is an ideal low cost airlines. Everything you take in flight you have to pay extra. Check in luggage, food... Even for water they charge 30Baht. Hotels were booked in Phuket and Bangkok. The rates were cheap. A hotel was available in Bangkok at the rate of Rs.1800 while a good hotel in Delhi will cost more than that. I took with me around 6200Baht which was exchanged for Rs.10000 at UAE Exchange. It was my first international trip. So decided to accompany my friend from Delhi. I heard a lots about problems during international travel. But got past everything very easily. Immigration check in Delhi was quite comfortable. Flight was at 11.45PM from Delhi International Airport.

Day 1 :-

We reached early morning 5AM at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport. Our friends were supposed to arrive by 8AM. We had planned to take Visa on Arrival immediately after we reach Suvarnabhumi. Was easy to find out the counter. There were two options. Ordinary which charges 1000Baht and express which charges 1200Baht. We thought of going with ordinary as we had lots of time till our friends came. Ordinary was having very long queues, only one person who processes the applications and they will bug you for each and everything including latest photo and 10000Baht hard money to enter Thailand. We hadn't 10000Baht per head and our debit and credit cards were not working in the forex counters in the terminal. We had a flight to catch to Phuket at 10.30AM and we were getting late. Finally we decided to go for express where they don't check anything. Pay 1200Baht and it gets processed immediately. No questions. We were able to board the flight to Phuket on time.

It was raining when we reached Phuket. We took a taxi to the hotel which was at Patong. We can get scooters for hire at Patong for 200Baht per day rate in which we roamed the area the next three days. The evening we reached there we planned for roaming the town in scooter. We went to Patong beach which was nearby. Did bungy jumping from a height of 60m. I was shivering when the crane climbed to that much height. But held my nerves and did my jump. It was a lifetime experience. Video is embedded below. Also we tasted some Thai food from the road side as well as from a hotel. Some of the food look like live stuffs. Roaming the town itself consumed the day...

Please read the below blog about the further description of our Thailand Trip

http://rajeevdaniel.blogspot.com/2011/10/land-of-thousand-smiles-thailand.html