It’s a long post! We managed to pack a ton into our month in Thailand!
After a grueling 40-hour travel journey, we made it to Koh Chang, Thailand!
Our wonderful friend Charlotte invited us to stay at her mum’s bungalows in Koh Chang (thank you so much Coco, Soi & Loic!) to kick off our trip. Koh Chang is so beautiful – its lush green forested mountains reminded Wei-Wei of Taiwan.
We enjoyed a peaceful few days in Koh Chang: swimming in the ocean, checking out the fishing village, eating tons of fresh fruit and muu ping (pork skewers), drinking French wine, making dumb bird noises, and learning Thai numbers from Soi and Coco over breakfast.
Look at these silly people!
Thanks to Coco, Loic, and Soi for hosting us in Koh Chang!!
We even made it out to a snorkeling trip! We chartered a boat for just the 4 of us to explore the small islands near Koh Chang. The water was so clear, warm and peaceful and we saw so much coral and cool fish! There are lots more videos/pictures in our photos post.
It was, as promised, a very relaxed Thai snorkelling trip (compared to our Mexico snorkelling trip which Charlotte thought was very exciting / not-relaxing)!
The tour guide told us to strike a pose and I guess this was it!
WW snorking it up
We drove to Bangkok and spent about a week there!
We bopped around the city with Charlotte & Yuta for a few days before they left to go back to Montreal. Obviously we ate a lot of good food, saw the royal palace, and checked out a bunch of markets (including the chaotic Chatuchak Weekend Market). A hot tip we learned from Charlotte is that mall food courts are one of the best spots for Thai food – the reasoning being that it’s in A/C so more locals are likely to go. And boy — there are a lot of malls in Bangkok!
It was so nice to be amongst friends. Travelling can be lonely and it really made the trip special to be able to share it with Charlotte and Yuta – thanks for joining us!!
The Royal Palace in Bangkok
Racing Charlotte and Yuta’s tuk-tuk to lunch
Between hanging out with Charlotte & Yuta and Wei-Wei’s parents’ arrival, we rented a traditional Thai style Airbnb for two nights to celebrate our 4-year (!!!) anniversary. It was a beautiful little garden oasis getaway in the middle of the chaotic city.
We celebrated by going for a self-directed street food tour on Ban Tud Thong road, and also going for a fancy dinner at a little spot called Funkytown (which plays only funk and disco and offers Thai-fusion cuisine with playful cocktails). It felt like a restaurant that I might have dreamed once.
Once WW’s parents arrived we continued to eat lots of good food (I sense a theme here)! We checked out Or Tor Kor market which was a real highlight –– there was tons of good food and we felt like we could spend sooo much time there.
We also went on a day trip in a group tour to check out a couple of markets outside of Bangkok. We saw Maeklong train market, which was a very impractical-seeming market that went right up to the edges of some train tracks, and all the vendors retracted their stands and awnings when a train arrives and resumes business as usual as soon as it’s gone. We also saw Amphawa “floating” market which was a big disappointment – we didn’t see any floating vendors even though it was a Friday. Still not sure if it was our expectations or the reality that was the issue.
Phase two of our Thailand trip was spent in Phuket, where we met up with Ivy, Seb, and Hadrien!
We rented a beautiful villa for the first week and it was the perfect family getaway. We all rented scooters and zipped around Phuket to eat more delicious food (duh!), swim at the beach, get massages, and participate in a cocktail making workshop.
We got cocktails at the extremely busy Phuket old town night market.
Zipping around on scooters!!!
The only Christmas trees we had were inflatable ones!
We spent Christmas in Phuket with Ivy, Seb, and Hadrien. We kept forgetting that it WAS Christmas because the weather and surroundings felt so un-Christmas-like.
Koh Phi Phi with the LVC!
J: A wonderful twist of fate meant that most of my neighbourhood friends from childhood, affectionately named the Lakeview Crew (LVC), were in the same area of Thailand at the same time as us for Zach’s wedding. I wasn’t going to let an opportunity like this pass me by so I went to Koh Phi Phi for a short ~28 hour trip. We snorkelled off the beach and saw quite a few black tipped reef sharks and a black and white spotted fish I still cannot identify, but mostly we simply hung out and had lengthy conversations.
Five of us shared a very crowded hotel room which was barely hospitable, haha! The next day we packed up and went to a beach for a last minute swim, only to find that the water didn’t look very clean. As a joke I suggested hiring a boat to take us out to the deep water where we could jump off and swim — and the boys said “heck yeah let’s do it!”. So that’s what we did! It was lovely! We then snuck into a resort swimming pool and used their showers before getting on our respective ferries. Good times! It was very nice to be amongst people who know me so well, and to feel like a part of a group. Being around familiar people while travelling is such a nice break from the constant novelty. I feel very lucky to have friends like these in my life!
We also decided to book a bike tour of Phuket to try to prepare for our long bike trip around Taiwan in a few weeks (!!). The tour guide took us through a very different side of Phuket that we hadn’t seen – cutting through back alleys and saying hi to every local that we passed. It was a beautiful ride – it even included some karaoke in the car on the way back with our guides!
For more photos, check out this post. We are off to Taiwan to eat more good food and have Jonny see Wei-Wei’s homeland!
Did you know that you can comment on this blog? We’d love to hear from you so that we don’t feel like we’re shouting into the void… 😀
I am enjoying this blog so much! Happy Trails
Thanks Mom! Hopefully soon you will feature on the blog again! 😉
We’re here! Reading and listening. Can’t believe it’s been four years. That’s so wonderful, you two. Thank you for taking the time to compile and share your stories. Much love.
Also, I have no idea why my profile pic is my old high school’s logo hahahaha. But it’s me – Caro, from the good ol EAI dayz hehe
Yay! Hey Carolyn! Thanks for reading and responding! Miss you!