thailand

Rate This Recipe

Thailand!!!!!

I’m going to start by stating the obvious. I wish I was in Thailand right now. It truly is an amazing place, and I’m confident I’ll get there again in the near future. I’m just going to dive into things, let me know in the comments if you have any questions about our trip! (Would I recommend it? YES!)

Why Thailand?

I’ve wanted to visit Thailand for many years, and finally convinced Richie that we should go. 🙂 We never took a honeymoon and have been wanting to take a trip (just the two of us) ever since our wedding! For those of you who don’t know, we lived in Minneapolis, got married and moved to LA two weeks later (without jobs) so we didn’t think it was wise to take a trip at that time. In between visiting our families and friends and other trips it took us a while to finally get our act together. So it was kind of a honeymoon, but not really…

We decided to do a few days in Bangkok and spend most of our time at the beach (10 days total). Next time, we’ll definitely have to visit Chang Mai, which I’ve heard nothing but wonderful things about, but we just couldn’t squeeze in another location into this trip.

Bangkok:

We loved the street-style pad thai (recipe coming soon!) that was 30 Baht (less than $1!) for a huge plate in Bangkok, such great street food!

Right before we landed in Bangkok, we learned that we were visiting during Songkran, Thailand’s New Year. It just so happened that we were staying right in the middle of it which was both interesting and irritating at the same time. (Throwing water is part of the New Year tradition so imagine the biggest water fight you’ve ever seen!) For the first few nights in Bangkok, we stayed on Khaosan Road, which was recommended by my younger, backpacker of a brother. After the room had been paid for, I was informed by my mother that we “were much too old” for that area but it ended up being fine. It was nice that there were restaurants, bars, street food and even a few wats within walking distance.

The bad thing about it was that it seemed to be the epicenter of the Songkran festivities so it was nearly impossible to stay dry.

We spent the morning at the weekend market, visited a few Wats (temples), the infamous reclining buddha (Wat Pho) and then holed up in a bar to wait until the festivities died down.

Except they didn’t. Around 8pm, we were feeling exhausted and decided to just make a run through the streets, djs and crowds. The party in the streets lasted until early in the morning (5am!) and the next day after a quick breakfast of street pad thai, a rat sighting and an iced coffee, we headed back to the airport to fly to Krabi.

After a quick flight, and a van to the dock (see below) we took a quick boat ride to Ko Lanta, the island we stayed on for almost a week.

Ko Lanta

We arrived to Narima Bungalow Resort and it couldn’t have been more different from our time in Bangkok. It was quiet, secluded and absolutely beautiful. We had our own private bungalow – that overlooked the ocean – complete with a hammock on the balcony and plenty of wildlife.

Oh and the food! Such care was put into every single drink and meal. And it was all absolutely delicious. We feasted on prawn satay (below), a different curry every night, thai prawn salads, noodle dishes, it seemed that each meal was better than the last.

The beach at the resort was small and pretty rocky, but a great place to lay in the shade, read a book and get a massage. The beach bar was really fun, and we spent most sunsets down at the beach, cocktail in hand. The sunsets at Ko Lanta were all pretty ridiculous.

Even though we didn’t want to leave the resort, EVER, we made an exception for a cooking class one morning and although it was a little hot wearing more than a swim suit, we had so much fun. We made Thai Money Bags, Sweet & Sour Stir-fry and Green Curry with Chicken. I’ll be recreating some of them soon for you!

Ko Lanta is a perfect island to take a scooter around and Narima rented them for about $5/half-day. I will admit to being TOTALLY freaked out the first morning. I’ve never been on a scooter or motorcycle before and it felt like Richie was either going too fast or too slow. There was no in-between but eventually we both got used to it and became pros (?) by the end of our stay.

On one of our scooter trips, we visited a private beach and for most of the morning, it was all ours. I think this was one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen. It was incredible.

We also saw monkeys a few times on the scooter!

We also took a one day trip, and while I’m glad we did it was a little touristy for our taste. We visited Maya Bay (have you seen the movie The Beach?), Phi Phi Don and went snorkeling. Everything was stunning – and filled with SO many people.

We spent our last day soaking up every minute (and morsel) at Narmia. And we were pretty sad to leave…

Bangkok

We had another night in Bangkok before our flight back home and this time instead of taking the hippy route, we took the swanky route. Such a good decision. We chose the Banyan Tree mainly for the Vertigo Moon Bar, which sits atop the hotel, on the 61st floor. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen city views like it before.

We enjoyed expensive drinks and a fancy Thai dinner before sleeping for a few hours before our journey back to Los Angeles!

Take me back!