Pre Covid Trip to Thailand 2019-20

There I'm again with my 2nd Blog. This time my wanderlust takes me to Thailand. I guess we did it right in the nick of time as we all know how did 2020 start and end.

Ok,so I've read many blogs where the blogger shares their experiences on how they managed a trip to a nation within this much money. But this fails specially when you're flying around the New ayear and there's no trace of Covid whatsoever. So you actually end up paying more than others. But when you compare your prices to other travel agencies, you'll find every penny saved.

We were offered a tad less then 2 Lacs for our Thailand trip which would include flights, hotel stay and a few activities. Mind you it was the New Year time so the amount isn't that whooping. But since I wanted to customise my package and also I wasn't happy with the dates, since they didn't give me during the New Year. So I decided to customise my own thing, booked flights, hotels, and other activities and it costed me a lil less than 1.80 lacs with food, beverages and shopping included :)

So, let's start my journey to the Land of White Elephant.

So we started our trip from Bengaluru this time as we had come to meet my cousin who's a fashion designer in the city and from here  our first destination was Phuket. Since it's Visa on arrival so once you reached the airport, it'll take you sometime to fill the forms and move ahead further. The Thailand government had waived off the Visa fees so all we had to do was show them some Thai Baht in order to give them the assurance that we're here to burn some money.

Our cab was pre-booked, so we just hopped in and checked in our hotel and called it a night. Just to let you know, it was around midnight when we had checked in.

We started our day with the Trickeye Museum since I had booked my hotel just one lane ahead of this. This place needs no introduction. The pictures will be enough.

We took our cab and drove to fill in our appetite with some good Indian Food. What good place it could be than Bollywood Phuket Restaurant & Bar. They serve Indian food with the same taste and spices like we love it here. Hindi music playing in your ears and Bollywood movie posters on the wall make you feel that you're not far from your land.

We then headed to see the Asia's largest dolphin show. It was wonderful to see the dolphins and other animals perform there with their masters. Some might argue that they're not treated well citing animal cruelty. But the way I saw that show and the bond between the dolphins and their masters, it looks quite natural to me. But nevertheless, it was certainly a moment of a lifetime.

After enjoying the dolphin show, we headed towards the Big Buddha Phuket. In Thailand visiting a Buddhist Temple or visiting Big Buddha is as holy as visiting a Shiv Mandir or Lord Shiva Statue back in India. It's a good tourist spot with tourists pouring in from not only locals but all around Thailand and across the World.

Promthep Cape is the southern most point of Phuket. A lot of people go there for picnics and other stuffs like shopping in the local markets for food and clothing. They also organise small fests at this time of the year. We could have also chosen to visit the Karon View Point but we settled for Promthep Cape at last.

30th morning we had our ferry pre-booked from the Rassada Pier to Koh Phi Phi or better know to the world as Phi Phi Islands. For all those who don't know, Phi Phi Islands are a part of the Krabi District only as some might feel its separate. So we reached Phi Phi which took us around 150-170 odd minutes.

When you arrive in Phi Phi, local people are holding placards of the resorts in the Island. So you've to check your resort and either you can carry your own luggage which we chose to do, or the guy may bring it with him in his luggage trolley.

Post check in we had our lunch in an Indian restaurant. Since both of us are vegetarians, we always look for Indian cuisine abroad specially my wife as she's a rice fan. Given a choice to get married or to have rice for the entire life, she'd choose the latter always. I on the other hand do try the local delicacies but since Thai food is all about sea animals and other stuff, we just stuck to our Indian.

And from there our day began. We had booked a speedboat which would take us to the huge sea and make us feel special with mammoth ocean all around. We even went to Maya Bay but it's been closed to the tourists since quite sometime now. I guess Leonardo Di Caprio should visit The Andaman as well sometime :)

We did snorkeling which is again once in a lifetime experience. Walking on the ocean bed or deep sea dive options are also available for those who'd like to opt for that.

However soon we called it a day and returned back to our resort only to be welcomed by a fire show which was in PP Slinky Bar. We enjoyed that a lot and one surely must be an attendee if you're in Phi Phi.

Before booking the trip I had given it a thought at least 10 times if Krabi is the desired destination for New Year's Eve. I certainly had Bangkok as the first option and also Phi Phi, but my heart settled down with Krabi since I didn't want any crowded place to celebrate the New Year. Only a place with a few people would have done the trick and Krabi gave me the same. We started our day with Ferry from Ton Sai Pier  and upon arrival, we were lucky since a local driver was with us and had his car parked in Krabi's Klong Jilad Pier. He dropped us to our hotel and charged us around 100 Thai Baht. I had booked my hotel very close to the airport since we had an early morning flight to catch.

Our room was still under cleaning so we decided to keep our luggage in the Concierge and meanwhile our much awaited ride came along.

If you're an animal lover, this place has to be in you list. All across Thailand you'll find various sanctuaries that keep elephants in shelter who are either left from their hound or injured in the jungles or either rescued from circus shows.

These elephants are given proper medication, health facilities here and they welcome people frok the world to befriend these sweet giant mammals. Every elephant is accompanied by a trainer and follows only his command. You can go and feed them, give them a mud spa followed by a bath in the river, it all feels wonderfully good.

They've a list of packages where you can choose the activities you wanna do. Some might argue that it's a waste of money but then the experience is once in a lifetime and also the money they get is then used for the betterment of these poor animals.

Well we returned to our hotel with some good fun with the Elephants and requested our hotel to arrange for a scooty in order to go and celebrate the New Year. And once it came off we went for a Thai Spa followed by a healthy Indian dinner and some drinks to celebrate the New Year in a local bar.

Since we had an early morning flight to catch from Krabi Airport. We decided to return back. And there was point we reached near the Crab Statue and saw locals dancing and singing. My wife just couldn't resist the temptation and joined the gang. And soon she was the main ballerina and everyone followed her lead. Thai music, she had no idea but that just didn't stop her from shaking her legs. After all music is for all.

Thanks to our hotel, they gave us a drop to the Krabi Airport for our next destination which was the capital city of Bangkok.

We reached the Don Mueang Airport right on the desired time and booked a local cab through Grab to Sukhumvit.
Upon our arrival since our room wasn't ready, so we decided to have an early lunch in one of the famous Indian Restaurants in the place, Saras Veg.

We loved the food in this place. It just didn't look like we're in Thailand. Indian guests as well as staff. All speaking in hindi. For almost an hour or so we totally forgot we're in Bangkok. Some might argue prices in Bangkok are sky high just like the buildings, but luxury comes at a cost.

We returned back to our hotel and freshened up and started our journey to Siam. I always wanted to travel in Tuk Tuk. So we took a tuk tuk and went to Siam to our next destination.

Sea Life Bangkok is a spacious underwater aquarium that offers hundreds of marine species. It's situated in floors below the ground level in Siam Paragon. Not only the marine species but you also get to watch a 4D movie based on the similar lines. A good fun for kids as well as adults.

Madame Tussauds Bangkok

I'm sure this place needs no explanation whatsoever. It's situated in prime location of Siam in Siam Discovery. It offers around 3 huge floors of wax statues of celebrities around the world. Plus they also feature the 4D movie which is a plus for everyone.

When in Bangkok, one always wonders where to party and dance. Well if you're staying in Sukhumvit the answer is Sing Sing Theatre.

Being the only Indian Couple in the house, I'm glad the DJ noticed that and played a Punjabi song and everyone just got aside and let us take the floor. Infact not just this one, with every song that came, we were burning the floor all along.

Well we decided to return back to our hotel by around 1 am. Awaiting the next day which was supposed to be our last day of the trip.

The last day of our trip awaited us with some sweet memories. And in order to remember all events the things that help you the most are souvenirs.

But before that we headed to freshen up our taste buds and we checked in to DOSA KING.

And we had reserved this day entirely to shop. I had specially exchanged a lil less than 40 Thousand for Fifteen Thousand Thai Baht almost half of which was spent on food n beverage. So the last of the Thai Baht butterpaper notes had to spent on shopping.

In Thailand you definitely gotta go to Chatuchaak Weekend Market. But we weren't that lucky since it wasn't the weekend. Though some segments of the market is open throughout the week, but I had asked a few locals and they also asked me to visit it during weekends.

So that made me look for another market and what good it could be than Pratunam Market.

So we decided to chuck the Tuk Tuk and take the BTS aka Skytrain. It's cheap, spacious and efficient.

If you're in Bangkok for long, then Skytrain is something you can surely add up as your transport.

Back to Pratunam Market, for all Delhiites, this place is no less than Lajpat or Sarojini Market. You'll find all types of clothes, from jeans to tees, skirts to shorts. Eyeglasses, sweaters, stoles and souvenir like fridge magnets, the floating market show piece and what not.

Well whatever we had we had spent it all except for the last One Thousand Thai Baht.

We returned back to our hotel, kept our shopped stuff and to cherish our last night of our wonderful trip, we went high to get high.

Sky on 20 is situated on the 26th floor of Novotel Bangkok. Some might be skeptical about the name of this Rooftop bar, since the floor isn't 20th. It's actually named after the street it's on. It's in Sukhumvit 20 and thus the name.

You could see the beautiful eagle eye view of Bangkok. They've a special menu for happy hours which is from 6-8pm. And that's the time we chose to be and weren't disappointed. Love the Aura of this place. The snacks and drinks were nice too.