14 April 2009. 

Recap of Thailand Trip

Of all countries for me to get sick in, I get taken out by Taiwan.  Not Vietnam, where we ate daily in the countryside restaurants where flies and bugs were regular guests at our meals.  Not in Thailand, where we stayed in bungalows that were could barely be called 1 star by 1st world countries.  No, I get sick in Taiwan, a developed country where I’ve been taken to carefully selected restaurants by my over-worrying relatives.

Taiwan was an untended stop in my Around the World trip.  It came out of our disappointment of Thailand, and at no better time – we escaped out of the Bangkok airport the day that the protests got violent.

Upon arrival in Thailand, I thought it was the best place in the world – while waiting for my brother’s plane to arrive 3 hours after mine, I had the best Pad Thai ever and enjoyed a 45 minute foot massage.  I was ready to enjoy good food and massages for the rest of the trip.

We stayed in the airport that night – the flight out the next morning was at 6 AM, so we figured it’d be easiest to just sleep in the airport.  It was hardly the most comfortable solution, but it was safe enough, with plenty others doing the same.  The flight out the next day was to Hat Yai, where we took a bus to the Pak Bara pier.  Our destination?  Koh Lipe, an island part of the Tarutao National Park.

Koh Lipe was a gorgeous island with white sand beaches that were so fine, the sand could only be described as chalky.  The water was a glorious light blue and the snorkeling was surprisingly abundant.  We had booked a Thai-style bungalow but soon found that a 1 star accommodation in a 3rd world country was far from ideal.  We quickly switched to an upgrade that didn’t require us to use a bucket to ‘flush’ the toilet and had AC to save us from the heat.

We spent two nights at Koh Lipe, enjoying the serenity of the island, doing a bit of kayaking, and just relaxing.  It was a beautiful place but we soon found ourselves a bit bored.

We high-tailed the next day to Phuket, taking ferries and highspeed boats for an entire day.  Phuket was a relief – as much as I generally don’t like the tourist areas, there are benefits in going to these places.  We were able to find very decent lodging at a very decent price – all including hot water and air conditioning.  Whatever items we’d forgotten to bring, they had it there.  It was a hugely different place from the tiny, isolated island of Ko LIpe.

Phuket was a relaxing stay, but we soon found that the beaches were nowhere as amazing as Ko Lipe’s, the sun was still much too strong to lay out in the sun, and we were constantly bombarded to purchase things – a tuk tuk ride, a suit, or a massage.  There were highlights – daily feeding of  delicious mangos cut by street vendors, great Coconut Shakes to cool our bodies, and best of all – spa treatments for a fraction of the price we would pay back home.  After a lesson learned in Vietnam when I paid for a budget massage and got exactly that, I opted for a nicer spa next to the hotel that had reasonable prices.  At the end of the Phuket stay, I had gotten 4.5 hours of top-notch spa treatments – massages, scrubs, and mud wraps – and I have to admit, I indulgently enjoyed every second of it.