Thailand The Best Vacation Ever!

My vacation in Thailand was every bit of amazing! Thailand had been on my list of places to go for quite some time. After a 23hr flight, I arrived in Bangkok on a Friday night just a little after 9pm. I spent 3 days in Bangkok and 3 days in Phuket. I had prebooked hotel transfer but because of the delayed flight it was canceled. I ended up taking a shuttle to the hotel. The hotel in which I stayed was the Amari Watergate Hotel. It was centrally located across from the Platinum Shopping mall along with the Neon Night Market. I’d personally give the hotel a 5 star rating.

Floating Market

How can you go to Bangkok and not do the floating market? As my friend and I set out to make plans for the day a taxi driver approached us and offered to take us to the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market he agreed to wait until we were done before heading back to the hotel. The total cost of the transportation was 1000 Baht. Less than $15 usd each. Upon arrival there still was an admission fee of less than $30 usd to do the floating market and elephant trekking. The floating market was absolute love. There were so many vendors! The people were selling some of everything! There was plenty of food for sale as well. I tried some shrimp, and pork on a stick. I also had some coconut ice cream. You can definitely bargain with the vendors to get a lower price than what they originally ask for the goods. We also visited the Tambon Ta Luang Temple. To end our 2nd night in Bangkok we shop at the Night Neon Market. It was such a nice place. Similar to the Floating Market, only this time you got to walk around to shop.

Tambon Ta Luang Temple

Enjoying Coconut Ice Cream

Elephant Trekking in Bangkok

Day 3 Bangkok

Day 3 of being in Thailand happened to be on a Sunday for us. Let me just tell you, Sunday is not a good day to get out and visit the temples. Sunday is a day of worship. There were a lot of local natives worshipping within the temples. We attempted to visit the Great Palace but due to the fact it was a day of worship tourist wasn’t allowed to enter until after 11am. That required us to have to wait more than 2 hours. So we decided to visit some of the smaller temples. We also found time to visit Siam Discovery Center. It is a giant Mall! They have so many stores and restaurants. There are a lot of American Stores and restaurants within the mall. The Paragon Cineplex is the biggest theater I’ve seen with over 20 different theaters. To end our stay in Bangkok we decided to have dinner at Octave Rooftop Bar and Lounge. The restaurant is located within the Marriott Hotel. It is was definitely a breathtaking scenery!

Octave Rooftop Lounge

Big Buddha

Phuket

I definitely couldn’t come to Bangkok without venturing over to Phuket, besides who could have missed that opportunity with only having to pay $32 for a flight to get there! Phuket is smaller than Bangkok but it is still has so much to offer. Patong Beach is where it all goes down. We stayed at the Pating Bay Hill Resort, again I’ll give this resort a 5 star rating. To get from the airport to Patong area it was an 1hr 20 minutes drive. We paid 1200 bahts for two people for the airport transportation. This was the best deal available.

My initial arrival wasn’t going so well as I mistakenly left my back pack in the mini bus we took to get from the airport. Surprisingly I was able to get it back after paying 800 baht. Although I hated to pay the fee, I was very grateful to have my bag back.

Phi Phi Island

The first thing I actually really wanted to do was get to Phi Phi Island. We used Jenny Tours to book our tour there. After researching I found her prices to be the best. We paid only 900 Bahts. We visited several islands on the tour. Khai Nok Island, Yao Yai, Phi Phi Don, and Phi Phi Lay. We also visited Maya Bay, Pileh Lagoon, Loh Samha Bay and Viking Cave. We also got to sight see at Monkey Beach.

Khai Nok Island

Phi Phi Island

Phuket City Tour

Our hotel offered us a great city tour package where we would have a driver for up to 10 hours. The driver took us anywhere we wanted to go within the city. The first place we choose was to see the Big Buddha. This attraction was absolutely free. We also got the opportunity to feed a baby elephant, take pictures with tigers and visit the upside down house. Taking the photos with the tigers was the most expensive as I wanted my photos to be professionally done. And of course we had to actually spend time on Patong Beach.

Upside Down House Phuket

Summary

Thailand was the best vacation I’ve ever been on, the food, the people, and just the culture itself was all amazing. This trip is very much affordable to anyone!