You know what they say about the best laid schemes of mice and men, right? Thailand took my carefully laid out travel itinerary and reshuffled it like a lunatic black jack dealer reshuffling a deck. We had our ideas for what to do in Thailand and they did not all work as planned.
The trip was wonderful, and the reshuffling meant that we got to spend some extra time in Chiang Dao which was one of our favorite parts of our trip and go to Ayutthaya, the ruins of an ancient city located about 1 hour from Bangkok. We also explored Chiang Mai and took a couple Chiang Mai tours which were some of the highlights of our trip.
Actually, the dismantling of my trip plans started with the brutal jetlag that we experienced upon arrival in Bangkok, after spending close to 20 hours on an airplane. That was when my plans to go to Ko Samet got laid by the wayside because it would have just taken too much energy to get there.
Here are four places that I missed on my trip to Thailand this time that are top on my list to hit next time I go:
Thailand has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, and I had been hoping for a place to vegetate for a couple of days to enjoy this scenery and recover from my jetlag.
Ko Samet is an island that is about 3.5 hours from Bangkok, Thailand by bus and a ferry. It is on my list for next time and I look forward to going there to do absolutely NOTHING.
Don’t have the same Thailand travel regrets that I do. Go enjoy one of the most beautiful assets that this country has to offer and go to the beach!
The White Temple and Chiang Rai: This went on the Thailand travel wishlist after we returned and I saw this blog post on the Never Ending Voyage Blog about Chiang Rai and the White Temple. This place looks macabre and fascinating, and it is going on my list for our next trip to Thailand.
More Waterfalls: I know that this is very vague, but I had this idea in my head that I was going to go to Thailand and go swimming in the pool at the base of a waterfall. This never happened. There are many beautiful waterfalls in Thailand, and next time I go back, I am going swimming at the bottom of one of them.
The temples in Bangkok: We didn’t really see much of Bangkok. As I noted in a previous post, it was the smelliest, dirtiest city that I have ever seen and the smell was bad enough that it was making my husband ill to his stomach.
There were some thing that I had really wanted to see here, though. I had planned an evening dinner cruise to see the temples of Bangkok lit up at night. I had also really wanted to visit Wat Pho to see the massage school there and have a massage by one of the students (it is one of the oldest and most highly acclaimed Thai massage schools in the world).
A Floating Market: I saw many photos of floating markets around Bangkok, and they all fascinated me. Vendors pull up in long, skinny boats to the market to sell their wares, fruits, vegetables and other items right from the boat.
Due to time constraints and our last minute decision to spend 2 days in Toyko, all of these things had to get bumped from my Thailand itinerary. Looks like I have at least one more trip to Thailand already laid out for me 🙂
What are your suggestions for What to do in Thailand?
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Good to know! I’m going there in a couple of weeks. I want to see the floating markets. 🙂
There is so much to see in Thailand…we obviously could have spent weeks there. The highlight of our trip was really our time in Chiang Mai (LOVED CHiang Mai Nest…great accomodations, food and I had the BEST massage there!)
I didn’t make it to Ko Samet when I was just in Thailand either, but definitely on the list next time too!
Yup, add that to the list of places that I missed but would LOVE to go back to. Thailand was such a wonderful, relaxing place…I can’t wait to visit again someday!