Backpackers. Street Food. Ladyboys. Tuk Tuks. Temples. Buckets...Welcome to Koh San Road in Bangkok.
A loud, hectic, exciting place blanketed with the thick heat and smog of the city. A place where backpackers come to enjoy cheap food and drinks, buy knock off ipads and gucci, be culturally immersed by visiting the Buddhist temples, and where creepy businessmen go to watch Thai ping pong shows (you don't want to know).
I just arrived at NapPark Hostel after over 40 hours of traveling when some other backpackers invited me to join them to see the temples. So I grabbed a fresh pineapple on a stick, which cost about five cents off the street, and shoved into a tuk tuk with a few other people and we were off.After spending the day visiting Wat Arun, The Grand Palace, and Wat Pho (temple with the giant reclining Buddha) we went out for some Pad Thai noodles and the famous buckets that night. A couple days in Bangkok was plenty of time. My stay included a night at the Sky Bar--shown in Hangover 2, and a day at the MBK Center complete with going to see a movie in the nicest theater I have been to and browsing through levels and levels of knock off designers and electronics.
I was soon ready for a break from the hectic city and crowded streets of Bangkok so some fellow backpackers and I took the twelve hour train North to Chiang Mai. Hoping to stay at Julie's Guesthouse we were disappointed when it ended up being full, so we settled for down the road at Mamma's. For only $2 a night it seemed alright..that is until we found there was a single fan in a sweltering room of 10 people and when I lifted the sheets--bed bugs. We switched to a bug free room which was fine except for the shared shower: a freezing trickle of water with a mysterious furball clogging the moldy drain and a pretty nasty smell that had begun to develop. However, the city of Chiang Mai was amazing.
One day I spent on a full day jungle trek. We hiked to a waterfall where we ate lunch off banana leaves and cooled off in the waterfalls. The trek also included making our way up a hillside through a farm picking oranges (which happen to be green) and crawling down into a bat cave. By the time we returned to the hostel we were sunburnt, covered in filth, and utterly exhausted. I'm just glad I walked away free of any mosquito bites while others were covered head to toe with red itchy bites.
Another day in Chang Mai I spent at Woody's Elephant Camp. It was really incredible to be able to learn the commands, ride the elephants, bathe them, and even swim with them! Apparently Woody's opium grow operation provides a nurturing home for the elephants.
After a wonderful time in Chiang Mai I took the bus up to Pai.
Pai is a small hippie backpacker town. Friends and I would spend our days meeting up for breakfast sitting in swings as we enjoyed fresh fruit shakes. Then we would ride our motorbikes to one of the nearby waterfalls or swimming pools. At night we would walk around the market looking at trinkets and eating everything on the street. My personal favorites were the banana pancakes, pad thai, green curry, papaya salad, catfish over a spit, and milk tea in a sugar cane cup. I tried many different dishes that were not so delicious including pig's brain and chicken stomachs. Gross. At night in Pai we would go hang out at the Ting Tong bar with a mix of backpackers and locals watching the occasional poi fire spinner.
My friend Emma (South African), and I stayed at Mam's Yoga Retreat our last few days there. We stayed in bungalows overlooking the valley and did two and a half hours of yoga each morning and enjoyed the vegetarian meals prepared for us.
I was originally planning on staying in Pai for a couple days. I ended up staying for almost two weeks. Northern Thailand was really beautiful, friendly, and cheap although I had a bad incident with losing a bunch of my photos when I tried to upload them onto a 90s dial up computer. Will not be doing that again.
After I had a taste of Thailand I knew I would be back to travel the South!
After a wonderful time in Chiang Mai I took the bus up to Pai.
Pai is a small hippie backpacker town. Friends and I would spend our days meeting up for breakfast sitting in swings as we enjoyed fresh fruit shakes. Then we would ride our motorbikes to one of the nearby waterfalls or swimming pools. At night we would walk around the market looking at trinkets and eating everything on the street. My personal favorites were the banana pancakes, pad thai, green curry, papaya salad, catfish over a spit, and milk tea in a sugar cane cup. I tried many different dishes that were not so delicious including pig's brain and chicken stomachs. Gross. At night in Pai we would go hang out at the Ting Tong bar with a mix of backpackers and locals watching the occasional poi fire spinner.
I was originally planning on staying in Pai for a couple days. I ended up staying for almost two weeks. Northern Thailand was really beautiful, friendly, and cheap although I had a bad incident with losing a bunch of my photos when I tried to upload them onto a 90s dial up computer. Will not be doing that again.
After I had a taste of Thailand I knew I would be back to travel the South!
