Thailand

Welcome to the second destination in our epic world travels of 2016! For our trip to Thailand, we treated it as more of a relaxing holiday; rather than a packed schedule such as our previous stop, Hong Kong. Since we were in Thailand for about a month, we were lucky to have the time to explore the country at a slower pace. So here’s a little heads up that this blog post will be heavy on the photos.

Throughout the trip (and the rest of our travels) we were filming and vlogging for Joe’s YouTube channel. You can see what we got up during the whole month in the video below, then continue on for even more photos and insights! Remember to subscribe to get notified of future videos from the rest of our travels around Japan, Australia and New Zealand!

We arrived in early February, which is actually a great time of year to visit, as it’s right before the oh-my-god-its-too-hot-to-go-outside season and not too long after the how-on-earth-is-it-raining-this-much? season.

Essentially, the recommended times to visit are between November and March.

We were based in Pattaya (about 2 hours south east of Bangkok) for the most part and we pretty much spent our time living like locals, going to great sea view restaurants, eating all the pad thai, pineapple rice and getting super-cheap-but-incredibly-good massages (the tomato wrap was a weird experience!)

It was great to finally have a bit of a time out and relax. Especially as we both hadn’t really had a long holiday or break in over a year from living in London, saving up for all our travelling over the next few months.

We were lucky enough to take a short trip to Koh Kood, also known as Koh Kut. Unlike Koh Chang (an extremely popular Thai island), the island isn’t known for it’s night life at all. It’s a resort for doing nothing, but relaxation since it’s so peaceful. Also you wouldn’t have the energy to be doing anything as simply getting there was quite exhausting. 8 hour crazy taxi ride, anyone?

Even though we were near a beach in Pattaya, going to an island with a private beach was incredible. We stayed in the Peter Pan Resort and we’d highly recommend it, if you’re looking to get away from any noise.

During our last night at the beach resort we were interrupted with some amazing fire dancers. We were literally sat having our dinner and some super loud music started blaring out every now and then. In between shouting over our meals, we soon discovered that these incredible fire breathers/dancers were putting on a show over on the beach!

The beach and the sunsets at Koh Kut were so dreamy, it was hard not to take about a thousand photos of it all. It was so peaceful and the first time we’d ever felt comfortable enough to dip into the sea, since the water was so clear and warm! We’re not normally into open water swimming…

My mum has actually lived in Pattaya for a few years now and we were lucky to be able to get good recommendations of places to see and eat. There are a great selection of restaurants with sea views, as Pattaya is on the eastern side of the Gulf of Thailand. Some of our favourites were Sky Gallery, Surf and Turf and Sense of the Sea.

Pattaya has an interesting reputation, to put it politely. There’s a huge nightlife scene, which should definitely be experienced in some way if you want to claim that you’ve “seen” the place. But there are also many options for great food to choose from! Sometimes you just have to trust the smell of the food coming from the kitchen and let that draw you in!

From Pattaya, we took a few short little trips to Thailand’s capital, Bangkok. We had an insane cinema experience (think first class service, massages and in-seat drinks and food service 😮), rode tuk-tuks like no tomorrow and absolutely melted in the blistering 36ºc heat! Thank god for all the huge and insanely modern shopping malls and their air conditioning!

Gotta get that inevitable tuk tuk shot

We also spent a few days getting to know the ancient history of Thailand in the former capital, Ayuttaya.

In all honesty, we didn’t plan and explore too much of Thailand, except for different ways to relax and soak up the sun. Looking back on the photos, it seems as though we mostly just captured how beautiful the islands and sunsets are around Thailand.

One of Thailand’s biggest attractions are the beaches and the islands in the south of the country and we’d highly recommend going there, if you’re looking for the perfect getaway. Coupled with the friendly and welcoming Thai culture, you’re bound to enjoy every moment!

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