This October school was out for the whole month and all the teachers at my school were given two weeks of paid vacation! I was thrilled when
my mom finally decided to book a ticket to visit. She flew into Suvarnabhumi
Airport on the 13th and we began our adventure with 5 days
exploring, touring, shopping and eating our way through the crowded streets,
temples, and markets of Bangkok. We rented out a newly renovated loft apartment
in the Sathon district, only a 5 min walk from the Sapan Taksin BTS skytrain
station and the Chao Phaya River pier – the location was just far enough from
the city center to give us an authentic neighborhood feel, but also allowed us
to easily get anywhere in the city by skytrain, boat, tuktuk or taxi.
One of the first things we knew we wanted to do was to take a boat tour on the river. There are several different boats that run up and down the river and piers located at many of the touristy destinations like the reclining buddha of Wat Po and the Grand Palace. First, we hired a long-tail boat to take us on a two hour canal tour where we got to see a lot of homes and small temples along the canals and even a few monitor lizards! The boat driver didn't speak any English so it was less of a "tour" and more of a nice boat ride - but the next day we landed on the right taxi boat that had an English speaking tour guide as we went along the river.
One of the highlights of our time in Bangkok was definitely the Bangkok Arts and Culture Center or BACC. Located at the city center it is an amazing complex that feels like a museum mixed with a local craft fair. There is no entrance fee and there are 5 or 6 levels each full of galleries, artist studios, restaurants and shops selling all sorts of artsy things - from fine art, to live portraits, books, clothing, and jewelry. The ground level even had an installation done by a few graffiti artists, a pop-up shop by BKK Graff, and my very favorite coffee shop in all of Thailand where they made each cup to order - so pretty much I was in heaven!
Friday mid-day we took an AirAsia flight 1-hour South into Suratthani where I got to spend the weekend showing mom all around my city! We wasted no time after dinner at the pier we went straight to the massage parlor across the street from my house. Saturday we drove out to the lookout at the hill outside of town and wandered around the zoo and the stupa.
On Sunday we were just planning to go take a walk around Sports Island and we stumbled onto the largest annual festival in Suratthani! Koh Lampu (Sports Island) was jam packed with people, cars, motorbikes, street food vendors, bouncy castles, homemade carnival games, cheerleaders, and every Thai person from the entire region! We were the only farang in sight and it was amazing! From what we could gather it was the Buddha Festival and boat races, there was possibly something about the entire town pulling a huge buddha to the temple - and there were lots of really ornate boats with monks riding in them (some in the river, some actually being driven on the streets in town) and there were boat races with super long boats each with about 50 men rowing!!
The festival filled the whole island, plus the entire road along the pier was shut down and filled with elaborate displays of different Buddhist scenes and stories as well as tons of shops, food, and a huge temporary photography exhibition. The people in the exhibit were unbelievably friendly to us and even gave us each a copy of the entire catalog of the show, took our photograph, and kindly insisted that we write on the large visitor board. All of the images were taken in this region, and they were all stunning! It made me realize how amazing this place is and how many things I have still yet to see as well as realizing how crazy some of the things I have already seen really are.
Monday after SP Coffee, a quick tour of Joy School and my staple meal at Green House (spicy fruit salad & vegetable fried rice) we took a bus to Donsak Pier and then caught the ferry to Koh PhaNgan. We found a really nice place to stay in the Northwest corner of the island, High Life Bungalow is perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking Haad Yaao beach. It was definitely low season - there were almost no other people around, but the weather was perfect!!
After 8 days of sightseeing and adventuring we were both ready to relax at the beach! But we could only justify one lazy day so the last day we signed up for a Safari Boat Tour to take us around the island and get a little sampling of the area. The tour was really amazing - we went to a Muay Thai boxing gym, the Chinese Temple, snorkeling, long-tail boat to Bottle Beach, family-style thai lunch, I think we made the right choice and opted out of the elephant rides, then we hiked up to a waterfall, kayaked out to a tiny island and swam in a lagoon! But at the end of even that day, my favorite part still might have been riding in the back of a pickup truck to and from our bungalow!!
Finally, we had to take the ferry back to the mainland, then I flew with my mom back up to Bangkok and got her sent off in a 3am airport shuttle back home. I had an absolutely amazing time with my mom, I am so grateful that she made it all the way to Thailand!!! The more I travel the more thankful I am that my mom always put such a value on travel in our family... road trips, camping, motels, hostels, vagabonds, all bring back really awesome memories from my childhood and helped me develop my own passion for traveling!
~namaste~
may the journey continue
