It’s crazy that as I am sitting here, writing about my last trip, I just finished packing for my next trip. Tomorrow, we head off to Cambodia, even though I feel like I just got back from Thailand. This semester is awesome.

I loved Thailand so much the first time, that I just felt like I HAD to return, sort of. Actually, I had this second trip planned long before my earlier trip to Chiang Mai because I have some pretty amazing friends in the states who wanted to come visit me in Asia. For their visit, we chose to spend three days in Bangkok and and three days in Koh Samui, Thailand. Samantha, my roommate decided to tag along as well.

Sam and I flew into Bangkok last Friday, and as it would happen, we chose to arrive the day after the death of Thailand’s king. This seems so strange to people who have never lived under a monarchy, but the Thai people LOVE their king. King Bhumibol was 89 when he died, and at that point, he had ruled Thailand for 70 years. The night before we left for Bangkok, I had read online that the king had died, but I was completely unprepared for the effect that his death would have on the country. Our taxi ride from Don Muang Airport to our hostel near Khaosan road took about thirty minutes longer than we had thought it would due to the traffic. As we neared Khaosan road, we started noticing the throngs of people walking along the side of the street, all wearing black. At first we were very confused, and then we realized it was all for the king. There were even some people crying on the street. It was truly amazing. We later would learn that Thailand is now entering a year long period of mourning before the new king ascends the throne. The Thai people are a little bit uneasy about the new king, because apparently he isn’t the most trustworthy sort of person. This is what really blew my mind, because throughout history, the main reason that monarchies are overthrown, and new governments created, is because the masses are unhappy with their king. There is a chance that King Bhumibol could be the last king of Thailand. We had a local man approach us at a temple at one point during the weekend and explain to us that having the king die was equivalent to the feelings he would have when his father died. For the first month of the mourning period, Thai people are all encouraged to wear black, and no bars are allowed to play loud music. This altered the experience that we were expecting to have of both Bangkok and Koh Samui slightly, but overall, I think that being there for the king’s death was a once in a life time opportunity. Throngs of Thai people mourning the death of King Bhumibol in Bangkok upon our arrival.

After finally arriving at our hostel, Sam and I walked around Khaosan road, did some shopping, and got some street pad thai (which really didn’t make our tummies feel better later, so maybe it’s best to avoid the pad thai on Khaosan road if anyone is wondering). We then headed back to the hostel to shower before grabbing some sushi dinner. Bangkok is known for its sushi, and so we had been planning this dinner in our heads for days. Of course, because of the king’s death, it was impossible to find a taxi to take us to sushi, and the restaurant was not walking distance. We wandered around for an hour before finally deciding to postpone sushi, and grabbing some curry and beers on Khaosan road. Khaosan road is essentially the backpacker street of Bangkok. It is incredibly touristy, but it is a good place to meet other travelers. Friends who had previously traveled to Bangkok had talked endlessly about how crazy the road gets at night, though of course, (this was a common theme of the trip) none of the bars were allowed to play music, and everyone had toned down their antics in respect. We even were told we had to pour our beers into paper cups. Even so, it was a fun place to chill with some beers and people watch, especially with the amount of peddlers walking around selling edible scorpions and laughing gas out of balloons.

Sam and I were kind of in the mode of using Bangkok as a break from the craziness of Southeast Asia, and so the next morning we headed to downtown Bangkok on a mission to find a breakfast place with eggs benedicts. I am an eggs benedict addict, and the lack of them in Southeast Asia has been one of my biggest struggles (though I just recently found a good one in Saigon at a place called L’usine, thank goodness). We ended up at a place called Tazzina, a cute hole in the wall breakfast cafe, teeming with expats. We both got the vegetarian benedict and a pancake (yes, an order of pancakes = one pancake here), and we were very satisfied. We then set off to find Lumpini park, as it had been recommended to us as the “central park” of Bangkok. It ultimately was, as it had that feeling of being outside of a city while in a city. And we discovered that there are giant asian monitor lizards who reside in the park and roam freely. This was very very cool. Asian monitor lizard in Lumpini park.

After leaving the park, we headed to CENTRAL WORLD. I had to put it in caps because I just think it’s an aggressively funny name for a mall. Central World is known to be one of the biggest malls in the world, and though I am not usually one for malls, it was nice to get out of the humid air for a bit. It really is a huge mall, there is even an ice rink inside of it. We did a bit of shopping, and then decided to head back to Khaosan Road because my friends from home, Tess and Maureen, were supposed to arrive around 4pm. We headed back to our hostel to grab our stuff, and to go check into the Dang Derm Hotel, where we would all four of us be staying together. The Dang Derm turned out to be a much nicer hotel than I anticipated. It is literally righto on Khaosan Road, beautiful decorations, and a rooftop pool and bar. We checked into the hotel, and Tess and Maureen hadn’t arrived yet, so we ran out to grab a late lunch. We found a little Thai and Indian outdoor restaurant around the corner from Khaosan. I got the butter chicken curry and it was so delicious we ended up returning the next day for a second round. After eating, we headed back to the hotel, where Tess and Maureen were waiting for us, quickly jumped in the pool, and then showered before dinner. Tess and Mo were troopers, they had just been traveling for around 22 hours, and were ready to grab dinner and start drinking almost right away.

We started on Khaosan Road with some pad see ew, and some beers, and then headed over to another bar that had BOGO buckets. Buckets are one of the more famous ways to drink in Thailand. Basically, for about $3, you get any mix drink of your choice served to you with a straw in a plastic bucket that one would normally use to build a sand castle with. They kind of suck, but they’re kind of awesome at the same time. Once again, obviously, Khaosan Rd. was quieter than normal because of the king’s death, but we still had a great time.

Khaosan Road adventures, night 2 in Bangkok.

We woke up the next morning to a rainy day in Bangkok. This was a little disheartening as we were planning on touring the famous temples and such, but we spent the morning grabbing breakfast, doing some shopping on Khaosan, and laying in bed waiting for it to pass. Eventually, around 2pm, after our second round of Indian food, the rain let up a little bit, and we headed out to grab a ride to Wat Pho. Wat Pho is probably the biggest tourist attracting Wat in Bangkok, famous for the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, which I have always wanted to see. We stepped out of our hotel, and were greeted by multiple tuk tuk drivers offering us rides. Tuk tuk rides are kind of a rip off, but also a must when traveling to Bangkok as a tourist. We told one of the drivers that we wanted to go to Wat Pho, and he told us that it would be 10Baht a person. He told us that it was cheap because they were running a special right now, where he would take us to a couple of other Wats before Wat Pho, and as long as we stopped at the Thai silk factory for about ten minutes, he would get a free gas ticket, and so that is why the price was apparently so cheap. It all seemed a little bit too good to be true, but we decided to just go with it. Although we never intended to go to the smaller Wats, they ended up being pretty cool. All Wats are as the Southeast Asians would say, “same same, but different.” He took us to the Big Buddha Wat, the Lucky Buddha Wat, then we stopped at the silk factory so that he could get his ticket, and then he took us to another Wat which he said was Wat Pho. It wasn’t, though we didn’t realize this until we got inside. By the time we realized this, our tuk tuk driver was long gone. Luckily we hadn’t paid him our 10B each yet! Lesson learned, don’t trust tuk tuk drivers.

Pictured: Lucky Buddha, the infamous tuk tuk drive, the unknown Wat, and Big Buddha.

To this day, I am still salty about that tuk tuk driver, but that’s just life in Southeast Asia I guess. We ended up hiring a second tuk tuk driver for 50B each (a more normal price) to actually take us to Wat Pho. Finally after reaching our destination, were we able to see the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. Upon arrival at Wat Pho, I was blown away by how huge the Wat actually is. The Reclining Buddha is larger than you can image, and it is only a small part of the Wat. We spent a good 45 minutes wandering around, exploring in awe.

The Reclining Buddha, and Wat Pho.

That evening, we finally got our sushi dinner. After reading copious Tripadvisor reviews, we finally decided on Koken Sushi. We originally wanted to eat at one of Bangkok’s famous omakase sushi restaurants, but we also weren’t necessarily looking to drop over $100 on our dinner, so we settled for choosing our own sushi off of a menu like the peasants that we are. As it was, it turned out to be one of the best sushi dinners that I have ever had. I even ordered an uni shot (insert smiley face here). Our cab ride to the restaurant was also one of the funniest parts of our trip. Honestly, our driver may or may not have been slightly drunk (sorry mom), but he was hilarious. Because of the king’s death, there were many many people out on the streets handing out free water (always appreciated in Southeast Asia), and free food because “that’s what the King would have wanted.” As we were driving, our driver kept pulling over yelling “FREE FREE FREE” to get the free water and food. At one point, I was sitting in the front seat with eight water bottles in my lap, crying from the hilarity of the situation. We finally had to yell at him to continue driving because we did intend on eventually reaching our sushi. Once he finally got the idea, he started just rattling off every english word he could think of such as “mafia, Obama, Hilary Clinton, Trump bad, sky bar, etc.” Then he started blasting Thai music and just dancing. What a great guy. We did end up eventually reaching our sushi dinner, thank goodness, though I was a little bit sad to leave him behind. It was some of the best sushi that I have ever had in my entire life.

Pictured: Signature platter, Uni shot, and Tuna Tataki.

The next morning, we arose bright and early at 3:30am to head to the airport to catch our 6am flight to Koh Samui. With bleary eyes, we made it through security, and onto the 40 minute flight to the island. One thing that really blew me away, was that when I fly my 9 hour flight from Chicago to Hawai’i on United, they make me pay for food, yet when I flew this 40 minute flight from Bangkok to Koh Samui, they fed us. The world is a strange, strange place.

We arrived on Koh Samui to my favorite scent of the ocean, and headed directly to Penzy Guesthouse, where we would be staying for the next 3 days. Penzy greeted us warmly, and immediately, I decided that she is one of the cutest little ladies I have ever met in my entire life. Her guesthouse was clean, and though the internet wasn’t great up in our room, it was more than we could have asked for, for the $8/night we were paying. After dropping our stuff off in our room, we headed directly to the beach, just a three minute walk from Penzy’s. Koh Samui doesn’t really wake up until about 10 or 11am as we discovered, and so we were one of the very few people on the beach. The water was intensely glassy. It was one of the more beautiful places that I have ever been (this is saying something for me). We relaxed on the beach for about an hour, before taking a walk to try to find some breakfast. Annoyingly, most of the breakfast was just breakfast served at the resorts, buffet style, for more money than we wanted to pay, but we finally found some (still pretty expensive) breakfast at a weirdly modern looking hotel called “The Library.” We later discovered that breakfast away from the beach was much more reasonably priced, but we were just so excited to be on the beach, we didn’t want to leave. After breakfast, we spent the rest of the day on the beach, in the water, and sipping BOGO mojitos. I would say that it was ideal. That night, again, we decided to splurge a little bit on dinner, and we headed up to Hugo’s Seafood restaurant. The food and the ambiance were beautiful, and although we paid about $15 for our meals, in the states, that meal would have been at least $60 (see how I justify these things to myself). I had the crab pasta special. We were pretty exhausted from the sun, and from our early rise, and so once again, we decided to call it a night after dinner.

Pictured: BOGO mojitos, 8am on Chaweng Beach, and dinner by the sea.

The next morning, we had an 8am pickup for our snorkel tour out to Koh Tao. We arranged our tour with RS Snorkel and Dive tours, and were not disappointed. They picked us up at our hotel, and brought us to their office and dock where they fed us a meager breakfast of bread and bananas. We were a little bit put off by the breakfast, but were later happy that we hadn’t eaten much more. After breakfast, we took one of the fastest, bumpiest, hour and a half long speedboat rides (this is why the small breakfast was a good thing) that I have ever experienced out to Koh Tao to snorkel. Of course being the adventurers that we are, we decided to sit at the front of the boat, and yes it was an adventure, though I don’t know if my inner organs could ever handle that again.

Koh Tao is known worldwide for its snorkeling and diving. Though I am PADI certified, I opted to snorkel this trip because I wanted to remain with my friends. Our first snorkeling stop was at Koh Nang Yuan, a small island swimming distance to Koh Tao. Nang Yuan is privately owned by a resort, and I was amazed by the measures that are being taken to preserve it. No towels were allowed on the beach to keep sand from being taken from the island, and no plastic water bottles were allowed either. Koh Nang Yuan has a pretty famous lookout from the top of the island as well, and so before snorkeling, we headed up the short 5 minute hike to see the view. It did not disappoint. 

After taking in the view, we headed down to the beach and jumped in the water for about an hour of snorkeling. The water had 100% visibility, and the snorkeling was some of the best I have ever done, both at Koh Nang Yuan, and later at our spot at Koh Tao (we stopped for lunch at a restaurant on Koh Tao before heading to the second spot). I have done ample snorkeling in my life, and this was definitely some of the best that I have ever done. There were many many fish, which is similar to Hawai’i for me, but the fish here were just more abundant, and less afraid of people. At times, they were swimming all around us, and coming right up to my GoPro. Although the fish were amazing, what really got to me was the coral. Never before in my life have I seen so much live and healthy coral. It is obvious that (probably due to all the tourism) Thailand is doing a lot to preserve the reef around these islands. My favorite part of all the snorkeling, was seeing sea anemones. I have never seen them outside of an aquarium. They had little purple anemone fish swimming in and out of them, and the 4th grader inside of me, who did her animal project on anemone fish was just beaming with happiness. We had so much fun exploring, and taking not so graceful photos on the GoPro all day long. I would do it again in a heart beat, even with the bumpy boat ride.

That evening, after returning to Koh Samui, we headed out to the main bar area near Chaweng Beach to grab dinner and head out for the evening. We ate at Terminal D where I had some of the best crab and glass noodles I have ever had in my life. We then headed over to Ark Bar, probably the most famous tourist bar on Koh Samui for some drinks. Ark Bar is known as the spot where backpackers hang out, and so it is a good place to meet other travelers. Of course, none of the bars were playing music (because of the king, obviously) and so, it was slightly more low-key than the stories we had heard. Even so, we ended up still having a great time talking with some Germans, and then Austrailians, and then Irishmen. The Austrailians were pretty upset about the King dying, because they had come to the islands to attend one of the infamous full moon parties on Koh Phangan, which of course had been cancelled because of the king’s death. Partway through our time at Ark Bar, we left to attend a Ladyboy Cabaret show. I had been told that it was something that we had to experience when on the Thai islands, and so we did. Ladyboy cabarets are famous in Thailand because due to their more feminine physique as Thai men, after undergoing their transformation, it is often hard to tell that they were once men in the first place. Other than the vastly overpriced drink that we were required to buy (entry was free though), the cabaret was a fun experience. Basically it consisted of about 15 ladyboys, some more beautiful than most women I know, performing American classics such as ABBA for about 40 minutes. It was a hoot. After the show, we headed back to Ark Bar, and ended up staying out until 4am talking with the Irish guys before walking back to our hotel. On the way back to our hotel, a Winn Dixie lookalike dog decided to follow us the whole way. It was adorable.

The next morning, we slept in until when Tess and Maureen had to get up to catch their ferry to Koh Tao, where they would be staying for the next two nights. I was so sad to see them go, how blessed am I that I have the coolest friends in the world that come all the way to Asia to visit me? After Tess and Maureen left, Sam and I spent the rest of the day on Chaweng beach. In the late afternoon, we rented a Kayak and took it out to a tiny island that I had been interested in exploring. We were the only ones on the island while we were there, and we found a really fun rope swing to play on. We only had an hour with the kayak sadly though, so we couldn’t explore the whole island. After returning the Kayak, we ate crab at one of the hotels with a view of the beach, and then sadly walked back to Penzy’s to grab our stuff before heading to the airport. Koh Samui was one of my favorite places that I have been to so far on this entire trip, and I was so sad to leave.

The last 12 hours of our trip were exhausting, as we had to fly into Suvarabhumi Airport from Koh Samui, then catch a cab to our hotel near Don Muang Airport. We arrived at the hotel around midnight, and then had to be up at 5am the next morning for our flight back to Ho Chi Minh City. Neither of us showered until we returned to Vietnam. It was 150% worth it though. Best six days ever.