2022
Hi guys,
Following my post Travelling to Croatia, I feel it is time to share the trip my family (wife our 2 kids 7 & 11 years old and myself) have done last year to Thailand and Cambodia. I hope it will be a great opportunity for you either to discover Thailand and Cambodia, to remind you lovely souvenirs or to get tips for preparing your trip.
First, we book our flights with Emirates about 6 months before departure. For a return flight from Paris to Bangkok, the price was 550 euros per person and it was the cheapest ticket we had found but there was layover to be done in Dubai for a minimum of 2 to 3 hours. If you are looking for cheap flights, I would recommend you to use Google flights.
Instead of staying 2-3 hours in the airport, we decided to make it longer and to take the opportunity to visit Dubai. We booked a room in an hotel to have some rest and after we visited the town. We found this option great
and we did it on the way to go and on the return. I would recommand it if you don't want to feel too much the jetflag as you can have some good rest instead of spending tiring hours in the airport.
It was also a great experience as Dubai is a far away culture from Thailand. We took the opporunity to visit malls, the Marina and the Old Dubai. If you want to see how we spent our 24h layover in Dubai, please have a look at this post.
When we arrived in Bangkok, we started our day by visiting the Khlongs which is a network of water channels. These channels are used for transport, flotting market and also for draining. It is a great occassion to discover the local life at the edge of the water, to see typical houses with a strong contrast (small houses made with everything and nothing next door to big new houses). Some people call Bangkok the Venice of Asia!
Be aware, that some people try to rip you off with the visit of the Khlongs. They accost you in the street and pretend to help you. Then take you to a pier by tuk tuk. You will find yourself alone and a little blocked. It happened to us but we didn't let it go. We negociated hardly and we paid normal price but we met people who paid twice the price we paid.
The day after, we made the choice to visit the Suan Pakkad Palace. It is a set of 8 typical Thai houses and a museum. After we decided to go the centralworld which is a huge shopping center. And to finish the day, a small night swim. Unusual, we finally found where the word bag of knots comes from.
After spending 2 days in Bangkok came the time to take the train to Ayutthaya. Bangkok Hua Lamphong Railway Station is very typical especially as everybody sits on the ground. We took the 1st train to Ayutthaya and there were only seats in 3rd class. Change of scenery with many laughs with the kids as we were the only foreigners with all the locals. I recommend to be a bit in advance at the train station in order to book your ticket and I also recommend the 3rd class.
When we arrived in Ayutthaya the atmosphere was totally different as in it a small city and as our guest house was a typical thai house with rudimentary beds, mosquito nets and open shower. The place is call Ayutthaya Riverside House.
When we arrived the host drop us to a local market to buy some food for our evening meal. We saw for the first time insects to be eaten and local fruits.
Ayutthaya is the former capital of the kingdom which has a huge archaeological park. I would suggest to spend the day walking around the park and travel by local bus. We did it that way and it was a great occasion to meet very friendly locals.
Ayutthaya 2On the 4th day, we had to renew the train experience to go to Sukhothai....still in 3rd class. It was a folkloric moment as the train was crowed of locals. Fortunately, we had numbered seats (which is highly recommended) otherwise you would have a good part standing (the journey last around 6 to 7 hours). So here we were in searching of our seats, with 2 suitcases and plenty of people standing in the aisles. We couldn't move but lucky us a friendly Thai man opened the way and asked people sitting in our seats to get up ... a little embarrassing but we were very happy to sit down ;-). This journey gave us the opportunity to discover the Thai countryside and its rice plantations.
When you arrived in Phitsanuloke train station there is no train to Sukhothai, you have 2 options either take the bus or a taxi. If you are not alone, I would recommend to take a taxi as he will drive you straight to your hotel. If you take the bus, you will have to take a taxi or a tuk tuk from the bus station to your hotel. The journey is around 1 hour.
When we arrived we went to the night market next to the temples illuminated because it was Saturday night.
On the 2 following days, we rented bikes to visit this wonderful testimony of the Thai past. Sukhothai historical park extends over 70km2 and is Unesco classified. I think it is the best option to rent bicycles as it is nice and peaceful to move forward as there are no car and scooter. You can also ride the surrounding countryside and make unexpected encounters (cows with rabbits ears, team of archaeologists, rice fields, typical houses and an harley davidson tuk tuk ).
On the 7th day, we moved to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. The journey was about 4 hours by bus and we really enjoyed it as we met lot of foreigners. We spent the time telling our trips so the journey went quickly.
To start our first day in Chiang Mai, we choose to discover the highest point of the city with its temple Wat Doi Suthep. After lunch, we went to meet a monk to understand their lifestyle. He explained the course of their day, their commitment and the basics of the Buddhist religion. We were delighted by this meeting.
Finally, the familly had a Thai massage. It was such an amazing experience all together! I would recommend Lila Thai Massage. This establishment allows the reintegration of former women prisoners, they are very professional.
On the 2nd day in Chiang Mai, we choose to meet elephants with the menu: elephant ride, bamboo rafting, old-fashioned OX riding, visit an orchid farm and breeding butterflies. We book this day with a very good local travel agent, Wandering Start Tour.
For our last day in Chiang Mai, as we like go off the beaten paths, we went biking to discover the surroundings.
By chance, our journey brang us into the forest and more particularly into a natural park and its Wildlife Conservation. If you are in Chiang Mai and if you are looking for a quiet place, I recommend it as it is free and there are no tourists, even no one around.
Then you can go the university district (the fine arts), where you come across painters and local artists.
On the road, you will notice amazing gas stations and also lot of Thai boxing schools.
The last but not the least, you can keep discovering and enjoying local street foods.
From Chiang Mai, we took a plane to Siem Reap Cambodia as we didn't want to miss the Angkor Wat. We were so closed and we couldn't be disapointed ;-).
For the visit of the temples of Angkor, I recommand to book a guide who will pick you up at 7am and you will go for a ride of 7h. To avoid the tourists flow, I would suggest to make the small touristic circuit in the opposite direction. It gives the impression that you have these beautiful buildings almost for you. In addition, you start with small temples and you finish in apotheosis with the biggest and most beautiful temple of Angkor.
All the familly enjoyed this visit even if it was a long tiring day for the kids. They were lucky enough as there was the pool for the late afternoon (under a monsoon rain). They loved it so much!
As we are limited to 20 000 caracters, this is the end of part 1 of my journey. Here is the 2nd part of the journey.
Here is the shared album.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post, thanks for your attention.
See you around
Jul
@Julien44 great post! You visited very interesting places. Thank you for all the information and important tips you gave.
There were some great photos too, and you uploaded them in a smart way, I might try it in future posts 😉
Is there any chance that you could also post a link to a Google Photos album with the photos? They were very interesting and I would love to see them in a bigger size. No pressure though, I completely understand if you can't for any reason.
Thank you for sharing!
