The week before we left for Thailand, Shanghai had record temperatures. It snowed Saturday morning, then on Sunday, it never went ABOVE 19 deg F. Our water pipes froze so we were without water from Sunday until Tuesday. And L went out of town from M – F. Tuesday couldn’t come fast enough!! The day we leave for Thailand.
Let me give you a run down of each day in Thailand.
Day 1 – Arrived around 9 PM Thailand time (it’s 1 hour behind Shanghai). First things first – get SIM cards for our iPhones and Thai Baht (money) at the airport. We were greeting by travelhub with a wonderful guide, Jane. She was very pleasant and patiently waited for us to do the above. We had a 30 min drive to the hotel (Conrad) and the kids and Lola were beyond exhausted by now.
Day 2 – Wanted to take it easy since we got in late. I seriously had all these things I wanted to do each day. My wonderful husband just looked at me and laughed. We could do 1-2 things MAX from my list each day. Fine. So off we went to the Jim Thompson house. The house is huge, but it’s actually comprised of 6 Thai houses put together. Jim Thompson is an American that fell in love with Thailand (I think it’s because he had a thing for Thailand women) and helped establish the silk industry. One day he left and never came back. That’s how his house became a tourist attraction and turned into the Jim Thompson foundation. After we took the tour of the house, we just walked around the streets and found an awesome taxi driver who spoke English!!
Day 3 – Used the taxi driver we met yesterday all day. We paid him by the hour (although he thought we paid him too much). I have his contact information if you need it – just message me. He speaks great English and doesn’t take you to places to get any type of kick back! We saw The Grand Palace and The Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The Grand Palace was built for the first king of Thailand. And let me tell you – it is absolutely majestic. We hired a tour guide at the entrance of The Grand Palace and that made a world of a difference. She gave us the history of the temple, took pictures for us and entertained the kids. Would highly recommended that too! They build these temples for each King of Thailand and they are currently on their 9th king. After a few hours, C started complaining of a stomach ache. Then again after we left and were in the taxi. Let me tell you, those plastic bags I carry around do come in handy because he threw up. In the taxi. In the bag. So we headed back to the hotel since he wasn’t feeling so well.
Day 4 – 2 AM. X said his tummy hurt. Ran him to the bathroom and he threw up. 2 PM. L said his stomach hurt… Day 3 and day 4 consisted of running the kids to the bathroom to throw up. Wonderful. We had to cancel our PAID tour guide trip to the floating markets. Such is life. Around 4 PM, C stopped throwing up and could eat crackers. He needed some fresh air so we did a quick trip to Central World, a high end shopping mall. I was confused because there was a wall all around the mall and only one entrance which had a security guard and an xray machine for bags. Then I found out that there was a bombing adjacent to the mall in August 2015. My only objective was to go to Toys R Us so that I could get the boys something small since they weren’t doing too well.
Day 5 – Went to MBK with my mom and C. Did some shopping. Well, my mom did most of the shopping! I did notice that a lot of the shop keepers were very rude. There was little room for bargaining on the first floor so that irritated the sellers. You have more bargaining power on the 7th floor. So beware. There was also a nice little market outside the hotel – this day only. We saw street food and clothing for such a steal. Bought some earrings for 1 USD! Score.
Day 6 – We all went to eat breakfast in the morning! Success!!! Everyone kept their food down. Such a relief. Only a 24 hour stomach bug. We all went to Chatuchak weekend market. I swear if I was alone I could be lost in there ALL DAY long. Unfortunately, we only went for 2 hours. Might have been a good thing because my mom went to town (again) with the shopping. Then my husband and I went out by ourselves. Ahhh. Advantages of having my mom with us. We perused Asiatique and Khao San Road. So Asiatique wasn’t even on my “saved” list on trip advisor. I had no clue what it was. But our taxi driver told us we needed to go. Let me tell you, you need to add it to your saved list! It’s awesome! Very new, reasonable prices, on the river and clean. Then we went to Khao San Road. Ummm, yeah, it’s a road known for night life. There were several men holding up signs that read “WE DON’T CHECK ID”. I truly felt like I was back in college. Not our sort of thing. Maybe back in the days, but not now. The only thing we loved stumbling across on Khao San Road was the insect food cart! Now this is stuff you see on Anthony Bourdain shows.
Day 7 – I think we are all healthy – knock on wood. Time to take a plane ride to Phuket. And now it’s my time to get sick. I’ve been congested since it started snowing in Shanghai. The ear pressure in my left ear was so excruciating on the plane ride. It never “popped” so everything was muffled… the whole time in Phuket.
Day 8 – Went on the Siam Safari. Oh my word – you need to do this. Riding on an elephant with the boys was one of the biggest highlights of our trip!
I copied this from their website… Siam Safari is the only Royal Thai Government Certified Elephant Camp in Phuket and Southern Thailand, and has recently extended the “Excellent Elephant Camp” award from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports for the period of 2014-2017 with the highest score of all the elephant camps evaluated for this award in Thailand. Siam Safari is devoted to continue to improve the welfare of the elephants, and to set an example for all the elephant camps in Thailand.
We did the 4 in 1 tour which consisted of riding on a cart the water buffalo pulled, drinking Thai tea and Thai coffee, eating coconut dessert, watching how they extract rubber from rubber trees, sampling Thai food, watching how to get coconut milk and coconut oil, watching how you get rice from rice pods, dinner and riding on an elephant. Well worth the trip.
Day 9 – 11 – Total relaxation. Eat breakfast, beach, eat and drink young coconut, eat fresh fruit brought by our favorite lady Anna, have lunch, shower, nap, swim in the pool, shower, eat dinner, sleep. In that order. We totally recommend staying at Angsana Laguna!!!
Day 12 – Took a tour of Phuket. Bird Paradise, Monkey Hill and the weekend night market. I totally could have done without this day. After 3 days of relaxing, this day seemed too long. Monkey Hill had no monkeys, only a gorgeous view. Bird Paradise was way too expensive. Same prices as the US and we are in Thailand people!! Saw the weekend night market. It would have been nice, but we were already exhausted from Bird Paradise and Monkey Hill. Then we went to a fresh seafood market for dinner. It was once again, too expensive. So this day we saw some and spent too much. We went out with a bang.
Day 13 – X wanted to swim in the pool where he learned how to dive for dive sticks and C wanted to build a castle in the sand. We divided and conquered. Enjoyed a nice lunch then went to the airport to head home.
I will say I did fall in love with Thailand (Bangkok more than Phuket) despite the stomach bug. I saw so many things I’ve never seen before and never thought I would see. Here are some things I have learned…
I never want to stay in Patong, Phuket. Too crowded. Too touristy.
Thailand is a backpackers paradise.
Traveling to Thailand during CNY felt like we never left China. All the tourists were either Russian or Chinese!
Bangkok has THE CHEAPEST shopping I have ever seen (and I have shopped in Shanghai and Manila).
Going with my mom wasn’t so bad – she was my shopping partner and our babysitter!