The beginning of January marked not only the start of a new year but also the start of my winter holiday. Since I work at a college, I have two months between fall and spring semesters. This means January was pretty fun.
After the New Year, I headed on my first trip to Thailand!
I still can’t believe it took me this long to make it there, especially since flight from Shenzhen to Bangkok is only 3 hours. I spent a day in Bangkok before flying to Ranong, a small border city in southern Thailand, where I spent the morning relaxing in a hot tub and sauna at a nearby spa. Afterwards I took a motortaxi to the ferry pier, and just 40 minutes later the speed boat docked at the island of Kho Phayam.
I spent the next 5 days relaxing and exploring this amazing island. No cars are allowed on Kho Phayam, but everyone drives a motorbike so it’s not as quiet as you’d think. My biggest decision each day was at which beach to relax. Most days I walked around but one day I rented a motorbike a drove to farther away beaches. I was a little nervous about driving since it had been nearly three years since our epic motorbike adventure in Vietnam. Thankfully, it was painfully simple.
On January 8, I was walking along the beach at Kho Phayam at sunset when the sky suddenly turned into a blazing red. This immediately reminded me that 20 years ago I had been escaping my house fire with my pants, coat, shoes, and cat. I was struck by how quickly time passes and how much I’ve changed in 20 years. At the time of the fire I was only 19 years old. I was trying to grow up and consequently feeling the growing pains. Losing all of our belongings was tragic, but my family became closer as a result. We knew what we lost could be replaced, and I felt extremely thankful to still have them all in my life. Sitting on the beach in Thailand looking at the red sky I remembered all of these things. I wished that my brother could have come to Thailand too. I know he would have enjoyed it.
One week back in Shenzhen.
My week back in Shenzhen was spent mostly sneezing and resting as I tried to kick a bad cold I had picked up. The best part of the week was when my soy milk maker was returned to me completely fixed. I’m still baffled as to why it took four months for him to switch out a part…
Finally Martin’s school let out for the winter holiday, and we boarded a plane for Thailand again.
Yes, I probably could have planned this better but…life… This time we went to Chiang Mai, a city in northern Thailand. Chiang Mai, while still Thailand, had a very different feel than Kho Phayam. The city – especially the old City area – felt overrun with tourists. We had arrived in not just high season but in peek season. Everything seemed to exist solely for the pleasure of tourists. While some of that is ok I also like to see regular people doing regular things.
Despite the insane number of tourists, we still had fun. We met up with a friend of ours who lives in Shenzhen but was visiting Chiang Mai for the weekend. I loved walking around and randomly seeing a breathtakingly beautiful temple (“wat” in Thai).
One night we were wandering the streets half-heartedly looking for some dinner when we suddenly found ourselves in a vegan fast food joint. It was like we had a homing beacon for vegan food turned on and just happened to find this place. We also really liked eating breakfast at the Cat House and one morning we stumbled upon the Cat Brother’s Cafe and spent a couple of hours making friends with a roomful of adorable and spoiled cats.
One tour we did take was a day at a cooking farm about an hour north of the city. It was so nice to get away from the cars and motorbikes and into fresh air and trees. I loved learning about the unique ingredients for Thai cooking and that Martin came with and learned how to make curry paste from scratch.
Upon the recommendation of a friend we decided to spend 5 days in a small mountain village called Pai.
Getting to Pai required taking a van for three hours on a mountainous road. The quality of the road is great. The driver was great. However, Highway 1095 to Pai, while only 100 km long, is famous for having 762 turns. I’ve been on curvy, hilly roads before and this one was definitely the worst. We were constantly turning. Two Dramamine, ginger, peppermint, and the front seat were barely enough. Even Martin had to take a Dramamine.
Fortunately Pai was a beautiful and chill village. We rented a motorbike, which gave us more options for coffee, lunch, and dinner. These were pretty much the biggest decisions of the day. Our resort had five kittens that were always willing to sit on our laps or beg for some food.
After Pai, we returned to Chiang Mai for two nights.
We decided to try to stay at a different hotel, just for some variety. We had discovered a vegan cafe that also offered yoga and rooms for rent. On their website, they had cute bungalows in a wooded courtyard, a yoga and meditation space, and a shared kitchen to use. Sounded perfect. But when we arrived, it was a tiny room that felt like it was made out of cardboard located down a narrow, ugly cement hallway. The bathroom was dirty and ugly (and shared). The room was not ready when we arrived at 7 p.m. so we were told to come back in an hour. This was not what I wanted to hear after barely surviving the dizzying road from Pai. When we returned, the room had fresh linens but it was super dirty everywhere else. There was no courtyard, no yoga and meditation space, no shared kitchen to use, no cuteness to make up for the lack of amenities. Yes, it was cheap: only 400 baht (about $13), but it wasn’t worth it.
We walked around and asked for a room at a couple of nearby hotels and found an excellent room at the Rendezvous Hotel. Free breakfast, private bathroom, adorable balcony, great location, good service, and clean. At 850 baht (about $27), we were elated.
Traveling Evolution
One day Martin and I were eating dinner and at a table next to us were three travelers sharing their travel stories. One girl had just finished a trip in new Zealand and Australia before coming to Thailand. As she recounted her travels Martin and I were both struck with how far removed from the tourist trail we’ve become. Her stories seemed exhausting.
On our last day in Chiang Mai we thought about finding a red truck to take us to the nearby national park to see a famous temple and a good view of the city. But instead we just got massages and found a vegan pizza restaurant (again, just by walking around!). We could have put forth the effort to do something more, but what we ended up doing was just as pleasant without any of the extra work.
When we arrived in China at the end of May 2016, we had been on the road for nearly two years. The way we started traveling and the way we like traveling now has completely changed. I no longer like reading blogs that tell me where I MUST go and what I MUST eat. It’s my trip. I’ll eat whatever I want. It might be American style food. It might be local food. As long as I’m having fun, what does it matter?
We have arrived back in our home in Shenzhen after a red eye flight and promptly got food poisoning… (hence the reason you don’t see any food photos in this post – I just couldn’t.)
As far as what’s next, we don’t know. Martin has two more weeks off, and I have three. We might go to the Philippines for a week or not. This is the beauty of vacation time.
Jill’s January by the numbers
- 11 days in China
- 20 days in Thailand
- 3 books read (The Dark Tower 3: The Waste Land by Stephen King – great!, The Girl in the Spider’s Web: a Lisbeth Salander Novel by David Lagercrantz – terrible, and Origin by Dan Brown – good)
- 2 classes taught
- 2 Chinese lessons taken
Thanks for sharing your spectacular travel experiences. Se wish a good 2019
from Sweden
Birgitta and Håkan
Wonderful to read about your adventures, but too many curves!