The trip has finally begun. Getting to Thailand was quite a journey. We flew out of Orlando to New York, then on to London where we had a short overnight stay at Heathrow. From there it was two more flights via Qatar to arrive very early in the morning in Bangkok where the temperature was already well over 30°c. By the time we made it to our hotel we were already exhausted and had no idea what time it felt like, let alone what time it actually was. 

We did manage to get out and go for lunch and a bit of an explore before returning back to our room for what was supposed to be a quick rest but ended up with us falling asleep at 3pm and not realising until very early the next morning. The jetlag proved to be really hard to get over. I don't think I was able to sleep normal hours for about a week. I think the one night stopover in London can't have helped, and the oppressive heat sapped a lot of energy which made us feel more tired. 

Despite this we did manage to do a fair bit in Bangkok. We are returning later in the month for several more days so we did take it slow this time around. Our first big outing was to catch a river ferry from a pier near our hotel to go and see a cool new mall called IconSIAM. The ferry ride was quite intense. The boat was long and quite narrow, and very full when we first got on. There's a lot of traffic on the river and the water is turbulent, and we were making stops on both banks and reguarly threading through tight spaces and navigating big wakes from larger ferries. The mall itself was quite an experience. The bottom level was a huge indoor market style set up with plenty of food and drink options, and two of the nicest supermarkets I've ever seen. It felt like a real maze and was a bit of a sensory overload. The upper floors were a bit more conventional but with a lot of luxury brands, quite a contrast to other parts of the city that we saw. 

IconSIAM is very fancy

The IconSIAM food market level. Notice the crocodile...

 

Bangkok is full of palaces and Buddhist temples. It's hard to describe just how many there are. The view from any high point will show dozens of gold spires and domes. We visited several (the most touristy ones too). The first was the Grand Palace (Phra Borom Maha Ratcha Wang) which was the official residence of the kings of Siam. It's still used for official events today and much of the enormous complex is off limits, but there is still a lot to see. There's a lot of different architectural styles with a common theme of incredible intracate and opulent decoration. There's a strict dress code there which requires shoulders and knees to be covered. I had no trousers that I was willing wear in the heat so I had to buy some elephant pants from one of the many hawkers outside. As soon as we stepped out of our taxi outside one woman ran over yelling "no!" and pointing to my legs trying to get my to buy from her. Needless to say I didn't and instead brought some from someone a bit kinder! A lot of people seemed to be in the same situation so it's quite funny when you're inside seeing all of the tourists wearing elephant pants that tend not to fit very well. 

Shrines, temples, and greenery at the Royal Palace

The Emerald Buddha in the Grand Palace. He has three different outfits. Pictured is the winter outfit.

Another impressive temple that we visited was Wat Arun, or the Temple of Dawn, which interestingly is named after the Hindu god Aruna. It's located beside the river and we'd seen its impressive spire when we sailed past on the ferry. Again there was just so much detail, this time much of it made from broken porcelain. This temple was just across the river from the next one we wanted to see and there was a ferry shuttle that traveled between the two. It was only a short distance to cover but it felt very unstable and seemed to take forever to turn around and move in the right direction. We were both releived to get back on solid ground at the other end. 

 

Detail everywhere!

 

A photo from the rough river crossing. There was traffic going in all directions.

The last of the big three temples that we saw was Wat Pho or the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. As you would expect this temple contains a huge gold plated lying Buddha statue. This temple was very crowded and stuffy but it was really impressive. Outside of the building housing the Buddha things were a lot less crowded and there were many other shrines and buildings. 

Obviously you can't talk about Bangkok without talking about food, and we had some good meals while we were there. Street food is everywhere, and is cheap, but restaurants weren't a whole lot more so we visited both. I've had to lower my vegan tolerance a bit while we're here as it's quite hard to avoid fish sauce in food that's otherwise fine, but with that out of the way there is plenty to eat. We've had some great Pad Thai of course, as well as other noodle dishes like Pad See-ew, soft spring rolls (a lot like summer rolls but hot), and Mango Sticky Rice for dessert. One of my favourite things has been the abundance of fruit smoothie type drinks that are available. These are usually fresh fruit blended with some syrup and ice and are extremely refreshing in the heat. We're here in mango season so mango smoothies have been great as well as coconut, watermelon, dragon fruit, and banana. Everything is perfectly ripe and so full of flavour, and insanely cheap!

The temples are filled with pots of waterlillies and other flowers

After four hot and tiring days in Bangkok it was time to head south to the Island of Koh Samui. It was just a short flight into one of the coolest airports I've been to. Passengers are ferried from the plane to the terminal in little carts like what you might see in a theme park. The terminal itself it all open air with thatched rooves which makes it feel more like the lobby of a nice tropical hotel. 

Koh Samui was an intersting place. We were staying in an area called Lamai beach which to be honest wasn't really that nice. The beach itself was covered in rubbish which was sad to see. It's definitely a problem generally here but most beaches we've been to are a lot cleaner. We also didn't get a great hotel here either as the bathroom had a leak of some sort which caused it to be flooded with water most of the time. It wasn't all bad though as there was more great food here, the highlight of which was a few cafes that served great smoothie bowls filled with fruit. 

Beach day at Lamai

We took a boat trip one day from Koh Samui to see some Pink Dolphins and to visit a place called Pig Island. We were told that the seeing the dolphins wasn't guaranteed and it would depend on the weather and water conditions. We were lucky enough to find them hanging out right beside a rusty old ferry in a port about 40 mins away on the mainland which was funny. They very strange looking creatures with fleshly pink skin and bony ribbed fins. They looked to be hunting and every minute or so one would suddenly surge forward rising up out of the water. I had never heard of the dolphins before. I'd always thought that the only pink dolphins were the ones that live in the Amazon. 

 

Some of the terrain near where the dolphins were found was really cool. Big limestone karst mountains rose sharply out of the water like something from Avatar.

Limestone mountains

 

Pig island was fun. As you'd expect it was an island with a bunch of tame pigs living on it. Worth a short visit but not a full day like some tours were offering. 

The Pig Island Story

The pigs weren't very active since it was so hot

It was only one week but it felt a bit like a month (in a good way). We're looking for to seeing a few more islands before heading back to the mainland. This first month we'll be mostly in the south, where beach and sea activities are the highlight.

Night Market in Koh Samui