It is now known that this year’s world trip will be a real trip around the world. My girlfriend Suus and I still have plenty of time. After all we only live once and that is why we will travel through all continents during our great adventure. While we have so far focused on Asia and Oceania. In the second part of the trip we will travel through Africa and America. In America we’ll even travel all the way from North to South! But let’s not focus on the future yet! We are halfway through the year and are now in Thailand for the fifth time in one year. Before backpacking through North Thailand, we head back to the city that feels like a second home, Bangkok!
So this time no Grand Palace, Wat Po or floating market, because we know all that by now. No, we book a few wonderful hotels with swimming pools, eat a Pad Thai as much and as often as possible at the tastiest street food stalls and even more importantly: We are already arranging our visa for Myanmar here. That will be the next country on the laundry list of life experiences and culture shocks, but first: Thailand!
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The tastiest and cheapest street food in the world can be found in Bangkok!
From Bangkok we travel along a few unique places in Thailand that we had not yet seen. To start with, the seaside resort of Pattaya. We arrive by bus and immediately decide to visit the highlight of this city. There is one iconic wooden building that stands right on the beach: the Temple of Truth. But how do we get there? In Thailand that is always a question with many possible answers. You can take taxis in all shapes and sizes, but you just have to pay attention to the price. We choose the cheapest way that could easily be done in a large yellow and red tent with the letters CIRCUS on it. With three people, a lot of luggage and not even clown costumes, we climb onto a tiny scooter and immediately chug from the bus station to the temple.
Backpacking North Thailand: Pattaya
In a special place, where a wild jungle flows into a secluded stretch of beach, complete with waterfalls and tropical gardens, suddenly there is a gigantic wooden structure that has been carved by hand in every detail. The walls depict Buddhas, dancers, elephants, dragons and half a zoo. Once we have also inspected the inside, we come back to the road. There we discover that our cheap circus act was not necessarily the smartest, because what now?
We walk for a while through a few slums and then see the first taxi scooters passing by again. We repeat our trick and are dropped off on Buddha Hill. On a mountain with panoramic views over the city and beaches, there are temples and a huge golden Buddha. Besides the two of us, there are only a few monks dressed in orange sheets walking up the long stairs. It allows us to take beautiful pictures.
Russians in Thailand..
In addition to two special highlights of Thai culture, there is another culture in Pattaya that stands out somewhat negatively, especially in this setting. The Russian tourists have really taken over here! As we search for our hotel along the beach, we see one Russian neon sign after another. In principle there is nothing wrong with that, but the most cultural excursion for a Russian is a walk to the local liquor store. And the only Thai snack they try is dancing on a pole in disco lights!
Mainly Russian hotels, bars, fast food restaurants and sex tourism. While we are still enjoying a day at the beach, we finally see a bright spot: somewhere between Vladimir’s Salad House and Olga’s Vodka Bar is a small restaurant called Tulip House. We see a menu with bitterballen, poffertjes, meatball sandwiches and homemade croquettes. The stews are written in chalk on the wall, between the football scarves of Ajax and Feyenoord of course. We find some fellow Dutchmen, emigrated cheeseheads, sitting in front of a nice cup of coffee reading the Telegraaf. After five months of rice, noodles, maybe a pizza here and there, it’s party time in Pattaya. A ball sandwich for Suus, a croquette sandwich for Wout and we’re good to go for another six months!
Ayutthaya: the temple city with quite an Indiana Jones feel
Backpacking in Northern Thailand always starts in Bangkok, but where is your next stop? A little north of Bangkok lies one of the most important ancient capitals, where the kings of the Khmer people once ruled from fairytale palaces and now you could film a new Indiana Jones film on every street corner. The scorching sun turns the crumbling temples and ruins bright orange against a clear blue sky. Angkor Wat in Cambodia may be bigger; Ayutthaya is even more photogenic. We visit the old city and cycle for two days along all the highlights.
Wat Mahathat and Wat Phra Si Sanphet
In Wat Mahathat we find a Buddha statue that has been completely swallowed up by the roots of a tree, as if strangled and petrified, it still seems to stare ahead in fear. The statue is typical of the area and it is a mystery how it ended up here. It is therefore one of the most famous pictures of tourist Thailand. We visit all the temples in the old center, including Wat Phra Si Sanphet, the most sacred temple in the royal palace, which was razed to the ground during an invasion of neighboring Burma. The palace walls in particular, with about ten stupas still standing, provide a beautiful backdrop for our bike ride.
We also cycle through the old palace gardens, which now function as a city park, but mainly consist of kilometers of swamp area. From the bike we see tropical birds and many Asian storks. But those are not the only animals, because Suus almost falls off her bike when we see a reptile about three meters away somewhere in the bushes at the water’s edge. ‘A crocodile!’ she shouts. But it turned out to be ‘only’ a giant monitor lizard, although in Suus’s eyes that is even worse, because in her own encyclopedia of scary animals this animal is known as the crocodile-snake monster. While I keep running after the animal to take a photo, we suddenly see them everywhere. We are surrounded by mega monitor lizards, half dinosaurs, in a swamp area: turn on the camera and you have Jurassic Park 5, including a screaming female tourist!
Wat Chai Watthanaram
The most beautiful and best preserved temple in Ayutthaya is located just outside the old city and provides the most beautiful images. The name is Wat Chai Watthanaram. All the stupas and chedis, the towers of the temple, are still standing as they were in the old Khmer empire. We cycle there along the river and are really amazed. The most beautiful temple in Thailand, if you ask me.
We end our visit to this fairytale of 1001 nights at the famous night market of the old town. There it’s mainly about good food; Instead of eating out at a restaurant, today we eat ‘all you can eat tapas’! Chicken legs at one stall, steaks grilled elsewhere, a fruit drink, a plate of rice with curry: for a few euros per person we have a feast and as an American girl of thirteen, I’m really going to throw it out there: OMG, what this was tasty.
Khao Yai: a safari with more animals than we ever dreamed of
The next stop is a few hours by train from Ayutthaya. We get off at Pak Chong, but are picked up by our host and taken to the Khao Yai Garden Lodge: a tropical resort with a fantastic swimming pool, in the middle of the jungle. We enjoy this to the fullest, while we are completely relaxed by the jungle sounds around us. My favorite activity while traveling is planned for these two days: a safari through the Thai jungle! And I can say that this is really a highlight when you go backpacking in Northern Thailand.
Because of the low season, Suus and I are the only passengers when the jeep and guide are ready to leave. This way we can tailor this private safari entirely to our wishes, for a ridiculously low price. We drive to a famous Buddhist temple cave and walk with flashlights through dark, humid gorges. Not exactly the favorite part as far as Suus is concerned. She would rather spend a night in a Thai cell than a minute in this cave, so I appreciate her adaptability! Especially when hundreds of bats fly right past our heads and we can feel the wind of their wings. When we almost stand on a tarantula as big as my hand, Suus has enough mental images for the next 847 nightmares.
Every night: LIVE entertainment
In the meantime I take the photos and we see a few special altars and Buddha statues. I go with the guide to look for a python that he saw passing by, but ‘unfortunately’ I couldn’t find it anymore.
Outside the cave the most spectacular show takes place: when the sun sets, literally millions of bats emerge from the caves on their way to their lunch break. One bat determines the time and then a line of bats forms like a kind of smoke cloud in the air. Screeching, we see them making a kind of drawing against a background of the setting sun, phenomenal!
Backpacking North Thailand: who expected so much wildlife?
On day two of the safari, animals with a slightly higher cuddliness factor are planned. Immediately upon entering Khao Yai National Park we see a double horned hornbill, right above our jeep! Then it doesn’t take long before our guide is stopped by another guide. And we don’t hear much more than the words: gibbons, gibbons! While we haven’t even stopped yet, I jump out of the car and try to capture the black gibbons. They make a kind of singing noise as part of their morning ritual: this is how they mark their territory. Meanwhile, a whole group of macaques has gathered on the other side of the road. We’ve only just started and it looks like Planet of the Apes here!
We visit the Visitor Center and see deer walking around everywhere. They are different types, of which I found one very special. The body looked like a normal deer, but the head was more that of an antelope or a zebra. I, but also our guide, did not expect to see so many animals today. While we are taking a look at some large porcupines, our guide receives his next attention through the walkie-talkie; If we hurry we can get close to a wild elephant! And so we start a hike of a few hours, across a kind of savannah and through the heart of the jungle. First of all, we follow the tip our guide received and we see a young male elephant eating in a plain. Then we see a lot of insects and in fact two light blond gibbons, even closer than the previous ones.
The best chance to see wildlife in all of Southeast Asia
For example, although we still have South Africa planned, this is so far the most successful safari I have ever done. We read in advance that Khao Yai is the best chance to see wild animals in Southeast Asia, but this really exceeded all our expectations. If you go backpacking in Northern Thailand, you simply have to go here! As icing on the cake, we visit a few jungle waterfalls. One of them has been world famous since a certain Leonardo Di C. took a dip here for the Hollywood blockbuster ‘The Beach’.
The center for backpacking North Thailand: Chiang Mai
The host of our wonderful jungle lodge takes us back to Pok Chang station. From there we take the night train to Chiang Mai.In terms of planning it is not ideal, because my birthday is at midnight! A very special way to celebrate my birthday, but we will make up for that the next day.
In order to see and do as much as possible in the Chiang Mai area, we rent a ‘moto-bike’, an ordinary scooter with the only difference: you can drive it a hundred times. Moreover, that extra power also makes it easier for us to drive up the mountain and we need that right away on my birthday. We visit the highest mountain in Thailand: Doi Inthanon!
On the way up we pass through a nature reserve full of waterfalls and fairytale temples. The strange thing is that we hardly see any other tourists. This is probably due to the fact that Chiang Mai is about 110 km away. People just think it’s too far. And a tour easily costs thirty bucks. No, with our own racing monster we get there in 1,5 hours and it costs us five bucks a day! Superb.
Like a fairytale..
The highlight, literally and figuratively, is a temple on top of Doi Inthanon. It seems to have been moved over here straight from Disneyland. In a garden that looks like fairytale land, there are two cone-shaped towers where Sleeping Beauty can come and hang out the laundry at any moment. They are already beautiful from the garden, but I discover a path upwards; of course it says ‘DANGER NO ENTRY’. Loosely translated in my dictionary it means something like: this is where the adventure begins! At the top of the path I look out over the landscape above the towers. And so we take the most beautiful photos that almost look fake, so beautiful.
A trip by ‘moto-bike’ past fairytale palaces
We arrive back in Chiang Mai after a long drive, with an ass like a wooden cutting board on which Jamie Oliver could cut his tomatoes. We will celebrate my birthday there in detail. First a much too spicy Indian curry to kill the taste buds and then go for the cheapest cocktails! I only remember that Suus asked the bartender for: ‘extra strong! It’s his birthday’. Extra strong meant a bucket with a liter of rum, a lemon and a drop of 7-up, so the rest of the evening escaped me a bit. With a fresh hangover we also explore the neighborhood for a day. We visit the Chedi Luang, the largest temple in the old city.
Before we leave Chiang Mai, we explore the area in the north by motorcycle. First we admire the view from Doi Suthep, the most sacred mountain with a golden temple on top. Along the way I meet a Dutch man of about sixty, who has just lived in silence among the monks for a fortnight. He was just now allowed to talk again and we were the first people he spoke to! His story was very interesting and added something to our experience of the sacred mountain. We then cross to Huay Tung Tao; an idyllic lake with a kind of village of houses with thatched roofs around it. The locals, especially many children, use this lake for swimming due to the lack of sea in the area.
Bizarrely long necks!
In the area we also find a special mountain people, whom I know very well from the photos during geography lessons at school. They are the so-called Karen people, also known as ‘Longnecks’. The women wear gold rings around their necks from childhood and add one every year. This makes their necks bizarrely long, but that is a sign of beauty in this culture. We walk through the village and see women of all ages, but of course the oldest woman is the biggest attraction. I checked: she didn’t have spots and a tail, but wow this woman looked like a giraffe!
Thailand, our second home, see you soon!
We conclude our fourth visit to Thailand with a dip in the Mae Sa waterfalls, although I must honestly admit that these waterfalls with their brown color look more like the chocolate river in Willy Wonka’s factory. It doesn’t immediately look tempting to swim here, but with a temperature of about 35 degrees, I give it a try. I still don’t have a rash or hair loss, so it can’t do any harm.
From Chiang Mai we will take the bus to the border with Myanmar, the promised land full of new adventures that has been on my to-do list for a long time. After Myanmar, however, we will pick up the thread again in Thailand, because even after several trips through this fantastic country, there are still plenty of places to keep coming back. Kanchanaburi and the Erawan waterfalls are still on the program when we return. There is still plenty to do; what a journey!
Want to read more quickly? Here the adventure continues: Myanmar, the pure and undiscovered Asia!
