The First Few Weeks In Thailand

Phew, our first month is booked. I have to admit it has been crazy stressful trying to pull everything together but I am done and now thinking I would love to be a travel agent…

Hubby and I will be in Thailand for a few weeks alone and then will be joined by our very best friends for some time in Thailand and Sri Lanka. This forced us to be a little more structured in our travels since they are on a much shorter time frame than our 6 months. BUT, we can’t wait to add more countries to our adventures together.

So back to my plans with my man. We arrive in Bangkok at 6:30 am so we plan to spend the day and first night there to recover from our 24 hours of traveling. (I am still in denial about this so please don’t mention it too many times. I don’t like to fly so I am focusing on my comfy business class seats and homeopathic sleeping pills and not crazy flight times of 7+ hours and 14+ hours.) After our day of recuperation we hit the road flying to Hat Yai.

We picked Hat Yai (kind of an out of the way place) in order to see this building and this reclining Buddha. The building is the only one of its kind in the world, built by the hands of the locals. It is surrounded by bells which I think must sound lovely in the breeze.

After a day there we are venturing to Koh Lanta (by bus and ferry) to dive for a few days. Keep your fingers crossed for us for whale sharks and large manta rays. I am pretty excited to see the amazing limestone structures and relax on a quiet beach. Finding a hotel here wasn’t the easiest but we are booked now and can’t wait to strap on our gear and jump in the water!

From Koh Lanta we head to Trang to tour the factory of my absolute favorite toy company ever, Plan Toys! I said years ago that one day I would make it to this place and now I am. (This is a hold over from my days owning Franklin Goose, I fell in love with them when I worked there and can’t wait to see where it all started.)

Then it is off to Koh Yai National Park for a few days. We aren’t big hikers but how can you not visit the waterfalls, elephants and other amazing animals here. Plus our hotel looks incredible so the thought of lounging around reading a book, and going to a spa sounds so incredible we had to stop here.

For some reason during planning this trip I have accidentally set a goal of visiting every UNESCO World Heritage site we can. This led us to Ayutthya. I am so excited to discover this ancient town and all of its amazing temples.

Then we are off to an elephant sanctuary for 3 days. My big guy is like a little kid over this! They have a baby right now so all he can think about is swimming with, playing with, and holding that little baby elephant. We are also going to try to squeeze in a cooking class there!

Then it is off to Chiang Rai to see the amazing temples and structures there.

This is just in 19 days! Then we meet our best friends and the journey continues. I will post that itinerary in another blog post. Of course as we travel I will post our adventures, stories, experiences, photos, hotels (believe me some of them you are going to want to see!), etc. I am going to try my hand at video too, so if you have tips, advice or requests let me know!