Planning a trip through Thailand? This travelogue takes you to the highlights from Bangkok to Chiang Mai in the north, and to the dream beaches of Khao Lak and Krabi in the south. Thailand is perhaps the best destination for an introduction to the Asian world. The country is very easy to travel around and fully geared up for tourism.
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Location
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Travel info
Country
Thailand
Travel year
2016
Duration
20 days
Last update
03_2020
Table of contents
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Chapter 01 - Bangkok
Sightseeing in the capital: 5 highlights of Bangkok
To get acquainted with Asia, Thailand is a good place to start. We quickly discover that Thailand is indeed easy to travel around, plus it is cheap and safe. No wonder Thailand is so popular among backpackers and young people. Several million travellers from all over the world visit the kingdom in south-east Asia every year. Tourism is therefore one of the country's most important economic sectors.
We spend the first three days in Bangkok - you can find out what we experience there and what there is to discover in our Bangkok travel report. The city is a huge jungle of streets, adorned with numerous impressive temples and palaces, thousands of delicious food stalls, and really heavy traffic. Bangkok is really something!
Chapter 02 - Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai - the green oasis in the north of Thailand
After the stuffy city, we are now looking forward to nature and some fresh air - our next stop is Chiang Mai, a city in the north of Thailand. Once there, we first go on foot and later by bike to discover Chiang Mai. In the old town there are still remains of walls and moats from its time as a cultural and religious centre.
Chiang Mai is best known for its almost 200 temples - the landmarks of Thai religion and culture. The two most famous and also most interesting are Wat Chiang Mai, which is the oldest temple in Chiang Mai and houses two sacred Buddha statues. The other is Wat Doi Suthep, which towers high above the city as Chiang Mai's landmark. A visit to one of the many Thai boxing schools is also on our agenda.
In the evening we visit one of the regular markets, where the Thais offer all kinds of homemade goods: from food to bags to many typical national decorations.
Chapter 03 - Doi Inthanon
On Thailand's highest mountain: Doi Inthanon National Park
The next day we rent a car because we want to go to Doi Inthanon National Park. Doi Inthanon is Thailand's highest mountain, a road leads past waterfalls and hill tribe villages up to the summit. The mountain is surrounded by a large national park, in the middle of which many rivers have their source. So it's just the piece of nature we need!
The way there demands a lot from us, driving becomes a great adventure. Chaos reigns on the roads, at least from the point of view of us Germans who have grown up under rules. In Asia, forget everything you ever learned in driving school! Remove the exterior and rear-view mirrors. There is only one rule here: only pay attention to what the person in front is doing. Nothing else matters! Close together, no safe distance, horn on as a warning, scooter right, scooter left, speed signs are just scenery ... just keep on it and go with the flow. It's amazing that nothing happens here!
After two hours we reach the summit, from 2,500 metres above sea level we have a great view over the north of Thailand, which lies at our feet. On the way back down, we stop at the Royal Pagodas, which also give us another fantastic view of the valley below.
Chapter 04- Chiang Dao
Trip to the border with Myanmar
By now we have got the hang of driving in Thailand. We are not deterred and head north the very next day. Passing numerous rice fields, we reach Chiang Dao after 70 kilometres. The Kareen people, also known as Longnecks, are said to live nearby - but no one can or will tell us where to find them. After a few conversations with locals, we finally find them in Mua Teng.
To our regret, because we are presented with a sad picture - contrary to our expectations, Mua Teng is a purely tourist attraction where Indian elephants are condemned to lead tourists through the mountains. A little further into the jungle we finally come across a longneck village, and here, too, good humour is out of place. It is a tradition among the indigenous people from Burma, who were expelled to Thailand, to put one more ring around their necks with each additional age - so the neck becomes longer and longer. If you were to remove the rings now, a woman explains to us, they would immediately suffocate because their neck muscles are no longer there. The rings are said to signify prosperity and wisdom. But there is no sign of prosperity here. Instead, we are annoyed that we are here at all and have fallen for this "tourist trap".
Chapter 05 - Khao Lak
Dream beaches and lots of nature in the south of Thailand
Our next destination is the south of Thailand - From Phuket we let a taxi driver take us to Khao Lak, where we want to relax for a few days. It is a strange feeling to be in Khao Lak - after all, this is the place that was hit particularly hard by the tsunami in 2004 and whose terrible pictures went around the world. But we can no longer see any traces of the disaster, apart from a few palm trees that have snapped off.
Trip to Khao Sok National Park - Here in Khao Lak we manage to relax for a few days after the exhausting journey. But we are not real beach bums, so after two days of doing nothing we start on an excursion to Cheow Lan Lake and the Khao Sok National Park. The drive through the mountains is spectacular and gives us great insights into nature. Arriving at the reservoir, we climb into a typical longtail boat and rattle across the crystal clear water, past huge limestone rocks. It is a bizarre, typically Asian, enchanting landscape with all kinds of animals (our first rhino bird!). After a fishy lunch in a floating village, we are invigorated enough for a rafting tour downstream, through dense jungle. An amazing and for us completely new feeling!
After a few more days on the beach, we take another trip with our rental car to Krabi. It is much too touristy for us here, so we quickly drive on to Ao Nang Beach. From here we take a boat to one of the beautiful (and unfortunately also very crowded) picture book beaches: Railey Beach. It is the purest picture postcard motif, how the bay is framed by huge limestone mountains and the longtail boats rocking in the waves on the crystal-clear water.
Our conclusion of this trip: Thailand is beautiful, if only it weren't so crowded. Of course, we also contributed to this with our trip. Nevertheless, we would not travel to Thailand again.
