Welcome to Thailand!
The gateway to South East Asia, the entrance point to another world, that is what I would call Thailand!
Easy to travel, kind people, clean and cheap accommodation, no problems to get from one point to another with public transport, many people speaking a little English and you don’t need to worry about everything you put into your mouth. Just to be clear, this still doesn’t mean you should drink tap water or eat fish that has been sunbathing all day!
Leaving Borneo I already was a little sick and after the journey to Thailand, this only got worse. After a few days of resting and staying close to the toilet in Bangkok, we made it back on the road, but every time that just resulted in me getting sick again. Luckily, things got better after two weeks of taking things a little slow. No riding bikes, no funny foods, a lot of sleeping, no long hikes and we were ready to roll again.
During this time we visited Ayutthaya with its magnificent temples and the bridge over the river Kwai in Kanchanaburi. Funny fact, originally the bridge was never built over the River Kwai, they simply got this wrong in the famous book/film “The Bridge on the River Kwai”. As a result, people came looking for a bridge that in fact didn’t exist. Luckily, a solution was soon found and the name of the river was changed giving everybody the long hoped for ‘Bridge over the River Kwai’.
On first sight, Thailand seems to be spoilt by tourism, which is somehow true, but it just takes a small walk to discover another world. The perfect example would be Railay beach. A beach being acclaimed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, so as a result, they decided to let resorts spring up like mushrooms. The funny thing is, less than 1.5 kilometers or a little rock climb away, there is another beach, Tonsai beach, which has long remained untouched by tourism. Sadly, it won’t be long before mass tourism also reaches this place. When we got there the first steps were already taken to start building the first huge resort. The only tip I can give you is, keep your eyes fixed on the emerald sea dotted with little islands, take a hike into the jungle or climb into a palm tree and you won’t be disappointed!
As was the case in Nepal, I am glad to be in Thailand in the low season. There are already so many tourists now that I can’t imagine how it would be during the high season. And what is there to complain about? Sometimes there is a little rain, there is some wind along the coast and temperatures I bearable. Sounds great to me! To make things even better everything is way cheaper. A lot of accommodation is half price, renting a motorbike gets cheaper and even prices for public transport go down. There are probably many reasons why monsoon season isn’t the touristy season, with the monsoon most likely being the main drawback, but I suppose it’s all about how you decide to see things. For me it is great! Especially now I can part from the bathroom without any concerns.
Oh, and my beloved sunsets are back! For hours I can watch over the sea waiting for the sun to go down, expectations rising for more spectacular colours, more dramatic clouds or a wilder sea. Dreaming away and worries disappearing as if they never existed.
