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Thailand

Digital Nomad Stop #5: Northern Thailand

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After spending a couple of weeks in Austria over Christmas, I decided to fly into the new year and spend my next few months in one of my favourite countries of all time: Thailand. It’s one of the countries I have been wanting to go back to for a while, but didn’t, as I always wanted to visit new countries during my precious vacation days. Now that I’m travelling and working remotely full-time, it seemed like the best point in time to return to Thailand!

Due to corona, I had to go through quite some administrative steps to be able to fly to Thailand and luckily got my „Thai Pass“ just in time before they put the program on hold. I juuuust made it into Thailand! After spending the compulsory night at a test & go hotel in Bangkok, I decided to immediately fly North to Chiang Rai.

Chiang Rai had been on my list of places to see since 2012, when I skipped it as a stop on my way to Laos because I was too hungover travelling on Jan 1st 2013. Funnily enough, almost exactly 9 years later (Jan 2nd 2022), I finally made it there! 🙂 My main reason to visit Chiang Rai was the White Temple which of course ended up being one of the first places I visited on my sightseeing tour – and it did not disappoint:

In addition to the White Temple, there is also a Blue Temple which is equally as pretty. On my second sightseeing day in Chiang Rai, I rented a scooter and checked out the Blue Temple, the Black House (not sure why every major sight in CR needs to have a colour in its name!?) and Wat Huay Pla Kang (a massive white buddha statue built on a hill, NOT called white buddha luckily). It was fun to have my own scooter again for a day, to drive around and explore the area.

Of course I also walked around the town of Chiang Rai for a bit, visited some more temples, a kitschy flower exhibition and ate lots of amazing food. And I worked from my hostel. It took me a bit to adjust to the high temperatures and the time difference, so I was a bit slow during these first days, compared to my usual standards.

After 2 days, I took a bus to Chiang Mai and settled into my cute little AirBnB apartment for the next 12 days. It was a busy time at work, so I did spend a lot of time inside and only really had evenings and weekends to explore the city. I still managed to do and see quite a bit! The most exciting adventure was my scooter ride through the mountains up Doi Suthep which started rather harmless with a little hike to a waterfall but ended with an off-road adventure where everyone around me was on dirt bikes and looking at me as if I was crazy. In all honesty, I probably would not have driven this road on a normal scooter had I known how bad it would be. The photo is from the best part of the road, I was too busy not crashing on the bad parts…

On other days off, I hiked the monk’s trail up to an old temple, which was very beautiful and I explored some more temples – newer ones and old ruins – South of the city.

I also went rock climbing once outdoors at Crazy Horse, a crag about 1h drive from Chiang Mai. Amazing rock and beautiful routes… unfortunately I was only able to find climbing partners for one day, otherwise I definitely would have gone back.

On my very last day in Chiang Mai, I took a cooking course. This is something I had done before in 2012 already, but loved so much that I decided to do it again. Good decision! As I’m writing this blog, my time in Thailand is coming to an end, but I have yet to eat better than during that course. Of course, that is more due to the teacher’s skills than your own… but still. We went to the market first and then cooked a menu of 7 different dishes which all tasted delicious!

After that, it was time to catch my flight to Krabi to spend some time in the South of Thailand. I loved Chiang Mai and wouldn’t have minded spending some more time there, but I really wanted to do some more climbing and the bouldering gym in Chiang Mai just wasn’t cutting it for me when I could be outdoors on real rock instead.

Here you can find more photos from the North of Thailand.

Thailand

Southern Thailand – Summary & Pictures

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People: Unfortunately, tourism ruins a lot. Also the friendliness of people. Thais in the South were often very distant/arrogant and seemed to be looking at us as if we were walking wallets. On Phi Phi I got shouted at (!!) by our tour guide, when just asking for vegetarian food in a normal way – no thanks, for me it’s only Northern Thailand anymore… In Southern Thailand you also meet a lot of party tourists and package tourists – less long-time travellers. But that’s kind of what you expect!

Food: Also the food in the South could not keep up with the North. Everything rather mediocre… The best part were still the night markets which we were sometimes able to find.

Weather: Summer, sun, sunshine – sometimes almost a bit too much heat! 😉 In any case, we always had picture-perfect weather… On Koh Lanta there were a couple of thunderstorms in the end, but during the day it was all nice and sunny again.

Costs: Southern Thailand is much more expensive, than the North. Food, as well as accommodation and transportation (boats) are increasing the spending. And of course also one or the other party night. So I ended up spending 40 Euros/day on average (!!)

Accommodation: As mentioned, there was not a lot of cheap accomodation to be found. Admittedly, accommodation was mostly really nice in return. On average we paid around 600 Baht for a double room, almost always with our own bathroom…

Infrastructure: Busses, mini busses and boats. And sometimes a taxi… Everything was modern, well organized. The only annoying connection was from Koh Lanta across the boarder to Malaysia to Penang. Not too far on a map, but there is (still) no good bus service on this route.

Illnesses: Sometimes food wasn’t too good on my stomach and on Koh Phangan I got quite a throat infection…

Safety: Everything fine…

Highlight: The Full Moon Party and my return to Koh Lanta.

Lowlight: Koh Phi Phi, especially the famous Maya-Bay-day tour.

Click here for all my pictures of Southern Thailand: Südthailand

Thailand

Thailand’s Islands and Beaches

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18.03.-19.03.2013 Bangkok

Back in my beloved Bangkok! It was hard to have to leave the Philippines, but I was also looking forward to going back to Thailand and Bangkok, and seeing Mathijs again there.
P1060938 [50%]We only had one day in BKK, running a few errands and going around by express boat; then we boarded a night bus to Chumpon…

20.03.-23.03.2013 Koh Tao

…in Chumpon the next morning we went straight on a catamaran to go to Koh Tao. In 2010, I did my OW diver course here, but it was rainy all the time then, so I didn’t explore the island at all. This time, the sun was beaming and I could thoroughly enjoy my time on Sairee Beach. While Mathijs did his AOW, I mostly relaxed on the beach.
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One day, I booked a snorkelling tour. I wanted to save money by not going on a dive, for Koh Tao is not exactly renowned for its diving spots and I’ve also heard that they are very crowded. So it was snorkelling for me this time! It was a good and inexpensive possibility to explore the whole island and see the various places and beaches.

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A nice day, but generally I wasn’t overwhelmed by Koh Tao…

24.03.-27.03.2013 Koh Phangan

Our next stop was Koh Phangan, where we mostly aimed for the famous Full Moon Party. The day before (the night before, that is J ) we got ourselves into the right mood by attending the Jungle Experience Party – it’s set right in the jungle, and is much smaller than the Full Moon Party, but really cool as well. The Full Moon Party then was really worth going to; it was an absolutely fun party night, which we spent together with two Swedes. Neon colours everywhere, drinking from plastic buckets, fire shows, clubs upon clubs with different music each…
P1070071 [50%]We wandered up and down the beach, stopping here and there – until the sun rose! An awesome night! J I know there are a lot of negative reviews of this party… But none of us was excessively drunk, nobody offered me any drugs and I barely saw any completely wasted people. MY Full Moon Party experience was a good one. Apart from partying and curing our hangovers, we visited the island a bit, saw a few beaches in the northeast which were quite nice and calm…
P1070026 [50%]Every night we ate excellent food at the Thongsala Night Market, where they sell anything from Thai Food to Sushi and pizza, cheap and good quality…

28.03.-29.03.2013 Krabi/Railey

Ever since 2007, I’ve been wanting to go back to Krabi. Nice detail: we found a room in the same hostel where my sister and I had stayed before – and it is still just as good 🙂 I’ve grown to love Thai food by now, so I enjoyed the night market more than I did last time.
DSC00238 [50%]But that’s where the positive changes end… Going to Railey the next day, I was under shock. Even in 2007 it had been fairly touristy, but the small beach in the middle had still been a bit of an insider tip. Not anymore! Tour groups, climbers, kayak tours… you can barely see the beach for people. How sad 😦DSC00236 [50%]

30.03.-31.03.2013 Koh Phi Phi

Another comeback… I had also been to Koh Phi Phi before, in 2007, but only on a day trip. This time, I wanted to see more of the island and go on land in Maya Bay. Well… what can I say! Phi Phi solely exists for tourists now. The village is crammed with shops, restaurants, tour agencies, hostels and bars. The beach is riddled with sun loungers and parasols (which hadn’t been the case in 2007!). Surprisingly, we did find good and cheap accommodation, and a bit of calmer beach. BUT. The boat trip to Maya Bay. Was. The. Most. Crazily. Touristy. Thing. I. Have. Ever. Seen. I was speechless for shock and astonishment. I cannot believe how a region could be so completely ruined by tourism!!!! It made me feel sick… All you could ever see in Maya Bay was tourists; you had to get out your magnifying glass to search for the beach among the many legs. And it wasn’t even high season… At any rate, I was keen to turn my back on Phi Phi after a crammed day. Bye-bye, see you never again!!
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01.04.-03.04.2013 Koh Lanta

I had been looking forward most to this last stop in Thailand. However, after the recent bad experiences I was worried how my beloved Koh Lanta would have developed… But all’s fine! Interestingly enough (hurray!), Koh Lanta has remained a peaceful place and in the south of the island there are completely deserted beaches.
DSC00484 [50%]We did two day trips by motorcycle: Once going to the east coast, visiting the old town and driving across the land, once stopping by just about any beach or bay in the south – and I decided that Koh Lanta is definitively my favourite island in Thailand! 🙂DSC00480 [50%]A beautiful island, and a nice ending to my time here – bye-bye Thailand…