Emily & Jack Explore Thailand
Our honeymoon Specilist, Emily, recently visited Thailand with her partner, Jack . We caught up with them to discover everything that Thailand has to offer.
Bangkok
We decided to start our trip with 3 nights in Bangkok to get a real feel for Thailand and it’s capital city.
We were lucky enough to stay at the beautiful Banyan Tree Bangkok, in one of their Serenity Club Rooms. The club room is so worth it, not only are the views incredible but also this particular room category along with the suites come with access to the 19th floor club lounge. The lounge is essentially the entire 19th floor and offers complimentary breakfast on a morning, afternoon tea, free flowing soft drinks and beer all day and our personal favoruite, a happy hour with wine, cocktails and canapes on an evening for two hours! The staff went above and beyond for us, arranging a table at the world famous Moon Bar for Jack’s birthday!
Whilst in Bangkok, we wanted to see as much as we possibly could. We visited markets and temples, our favourites being Chatuchak Market and Wat Pho temple which is home to the golden reclining buddha. We also experienced much of the cities famous nightlife areas, including the incredibly lively Khaosan Road and even saw monitor lizards roaming around Lumphini Park. It is such an easy city to navigate by foot, taxi, tuk-tuk or even the metro which is super easy and air conned too!
Top Tips For Bangkok:
- Try and stay in Bangkok over the weekend so you can visit Chatuchak Market, this is one of the biggest markets in the world and offers everything you could ever imagine!
- Be sure to visit a sky bar during your stay, our favourite was Moon Bar at Banyan Tree Hotel. I would reccommend going for a sunset cocktail, to see the contrasting day and night of Bangkok from above.
- If your hotel is a high rise building, request the highest floor available depending on your room type for views over the city!
Krabi
Upon arrival we had the scenic drive to our hotel, we were really blown away by the scenery that Krabi offered, and this really contrasted the lively city of Bangkok. We arrived quite late and during a bit of a tropical storm, so we checked in, freshened up and headed out for some dinner. We decided to go to Ao Nang, which is absolutely the more lively area of Krabi full of bars and restaurants. Whilst walking down Ao Nang Muslim Street we found a real array of cuisine on offer, but of course as we were in Thailand we only had eyes for Thai food. We found some really great street food markets where we tried things like stir fried cashews and chicken and pinapple fried rice (served in a pinapple!). We had a few Chang beers and got a Thai roti pancake (must try), before heading back to our hotel.
The next day we had a very exciting day planned to go and meet some elephants.. We really did our research into the most ethical sanctuaries as there are so many out there, in the end we decided on Ao Nang Elephant Sanctuary. The thing that really stood out to us during our visit was the way the wonderful staff took the time to really educate every person on their elephants and their Mahouts. We fed the elephants, gave them a mud spa and even washed them. We had a lot of fun but also learnt so much about these mesmerising animals and how we can protect their species.
After our morning with the elephants we decided to go and walk the famous Monkey Trail, be prepared this is a bit of an intense ‘walk’ and please wear sensible shoes – I nearly lost a croc on a few occaisons! The trail was great and we saw a few monkeys along the way, but the real highlight was the beach that was waiting at the other end. White sand, and clear blue waters with the most amazing limestone cliff/island scenery. I do reccomend taking a beach bag with you that has towels and drinks as there isn’t really anywhere around apart from the Centara Grand hotel which is for guests only. But a dip in the sea was super refreshing and prepared us for the walk back!
Phi Phi Islands
From Krabi, we got the ferry over to Koh Phi Phi Don. I was really surprised at how easy this was, and at how much we enjoyed the journey. We settled on the open aired top deck of the ferry and enjoyed the fresh air, sunshine and views surrounding us. Upon arrival, a long tail boat took us to our hotel where we checked in for our stay. We dropped our bags and went straight to exploring! I found the entire concept of island life on Phi Phi to be endearing and the barefoot way of life is something we quickly warmed to.
Whilst walking around the island we found some really amazing spots for Thai food and local beers and were sure to stop and try a few along the way. There were lots of amazing market stalls dotted around too, which offered different souveniers, jewellery and more. We had our dinner at Garlic 1992 which is now one of our favoruite restaurants in the world! We shared a few different dishes such as Pad Thai and Satay and learnt a few Thai phrases such as Ar-Roy meaning delicious, Pob-Gan-Mai meaning see you again and Chan-Ruk-Kun meaning I love you! From here we walked over to Freedom Beach, many of the bars here offer free fire shows for customers every evening which are really fun. We particularly liked the fact that most of the beach bars offers comfy bean bag seating in the sand – the perfect spot for a bucket of local rum or whiskey!
We had an early start the next morning as we had hired a private long tail boat to go and explore some of the surrounding areas. This was one of our favourite days ever. We visited lots of places including the famous Maya Bay from Leonardo Dicaprio’s The Beach which was stunning, Monkey Beach, Pileh Lagoon and much more. We did some amazing snorkelling in some beautiful spots surrounded by caves and monkeys and saw lots of tropical marine life.
Top Tips For Phi Phi Islands:
- If hiring a long tail boat for the day, it is so worth booking an early bird option and starting at 6am to avoid the crowds!
- If you are looking for somewhere to experience Thai food at it’s best, a visit to Garlic 1992 is a must. This is a family run restaurant where everyone from the children to grandparents get involved. The Pad Thai was some of the best we had in Thailand and the personal touch of teaching guests Thai phrases was great! Cosmic does some of the best curries in Thailand too for just 100Bhat!
- Take plenty of very strong insect repellents – the mosquitos are everywhere on these islands!