Thailand Trip

Great vacations have such profound and enriching effects on our lives that they are a must in our hectic life!!!

Thailand, a beautiful and fascinating holidaying destination of south East Asia has been a dream destination for us and this Dec was the time to fulfill our dream!! Endowed with breathtaking natural beauty, inspiring temples, romantic beaches, Thailand provides a blend of recreation, entertainment and leisure and makes it an enjoyable & memorable place for travelers This beautiful destination is dotted with spectrum of tourist attractions and fabulous destinations which easily lures the vacationers from all over the globe.

Thailand has several beautiful islands that are worth a visit, with limited time and a restricted budget we had decided to chooses Bangkok and Pattaya as our holiday destination

Planning for this trip had started a month in advance. We looked through various websites to choose the hotels, flight and places to see. We wanted to stay in the best hotels and I think we surely managed to do that even with a limited budget.

Our first and most important step was booking the tickets and getting the Visa done in advance. Thailand has Visa on Arrival; however we wanted to avoid the rush and get the visa done in advance as it helps clearing the immigration faster...

Day1: We took a late night flight from Hyderabad and reached Bangkok early morning hours. As expected having a Visa in hand helped clear the immigration faster. .We collected our bags and waited for our Cab that would drive us to our 1st destination…the beautiful Pattaya!!! While at the airport, we picked up some maps and information pamphlets and also a Thai sim card called True which seemed much more affordable than the charges on our India Sim card.

It took us 2hrs to reach our hotel “A-One Royal Cruise” at Pattaya .The 1st site of the hotel made us feel proud of the right choice that we had taken. The hotel was beach facing and was in the shape of a cruise. With beautiful interiors, this hotel pleased us at the first site. The interiors and the staff uniform gave us the feeling of an actual cruise. The room was beautiful, neat with a huge balcony. Sadly we didn’t get a perfect view of the beach from the room but all we had to do was step out of the hotel to sit at the beach. After relaxing for a while, we quickly freshened up and were ready to explore Pattaya city. We walked around the beach and ended the evening with a bottle of coke and some Chicken from a road side vendor on the beautiful beach watching the Sun set….AMAZING.














Some people who had visited Thailand earlier had warned us about possible food challenges and we were very apprehensive about it as well, but surprisingly there could never be a problem with food there…just a walk on the road and we could see plenty of restaurants from Thai to Chinese to Mc Donald’s…and of course innumerable Indian restaurants… we wanted to try the Thai style and took the dinner buffet at the hotel…the experiment was fruitful. We had a lovely sumptuous meal.

Day 2: We had a nice American breakfast at the hotel and then we went to the beach at 9:00 AM for Coral Island. Our travel coordinator was also present and she took us to the speed boat. After about 10-15 min, we reached parasailing platform in the sea, interested tourists could pay and experience this sport. We decided to give this event a miss as we were keener on the next event. We again took the same speed boat to travel for 10-15min and reached the 2nd platform. This was something which I was waiting for a long time, UNDER SEA WALK. We both decided to so this sport. As you go down to the sea from the deck, they put a mask fed with oxygen over your head and once that is put in place, you are lifted down about 25 feet deep to the bottom of the sea bed. The instructor gave us tips for breathing exercises and hand signals to communicate underwater. Excited and scared, Ruchi went in first and I followed. The first few mins in the water were breath taking… literally!!! We touched the sea bed and were given a few mins to come to our senses and realize that we were actually on the sea bed walking under water... It was like a wonderful world where a variety of beautiful fishes and corals were surrounding us… it was a heavenly feeling. The instructor made us walk on seabed showing us corals & fishes and gave us a loaf of bread which attracted a number of fishes towards us. The 30mins sea walk ended and we were brought back up. We had opted for pics and Video of our experience and we were given the cd within 20 mins. We felt proud on attempting this sport. This was an experience that leaves an impression on my mind and a feeling that I don’t think I can express in words!!!

The ferries next stop was coral island where we were given 60 mins to relax and see around. Many people were seen enjoying the water sports such as water scooter, banana rides etc... and some were just enjoying the clear and beautiful water. In spite of this place being heavily tourist populated the beaches are extremely clean with crystal clear waters. The restaurants and shacks on islands offer variety of sea food and snacks which you could choose and ask for them to cook. After enjoying the water & the beautiful sight seeing, we were taken back to our hotel where we relaxed for sometime before heading out to explore the very famous street “walking street”. We took a tuk tuk to the walking street which was crowded as it is considered a major tourist attraction. On the walking street, we could see loads of bars, pubs & restaurants... A 2hrs walk on the street was surely not tiring and gave us a good laugh for obvious reasons. We finished the day with dinner at Mc Donald’s before retiring to our room.

Day3: Bidding adieu to the beautiful Pattaya, we headed towards our last leg, Bangkok. At 10am the streets were packed and traffic jams greeted us. The anxiety of reaching the hotel kept growing as soon as we saw the 1st glimpse of the tallest building in Bangkok from a long distance, this tallest building Baiyoke Sky, was the hotel that we were staying at!!! We reached the hotel reception which was on the 18th floor and completed the basic check-in formalities, we were then shown a room on the 60th floor which had 2 small windows and when we requested for a better room the person showed us a room on the 58th floor with one side of the wall having glass which gave an amazing view, paying a upgrade cost, we opted for this beautiful room. It took us some time to explore the hotel, the lobby on the 18th floor, had a mini golf course, coffee shops, etc. The restaurant was on the 82nd floor and a revolving deck on the 88th floor giving panoramic view of entire Bangkok city. Breakfast on the 82nd floor was amazing experience!!

Without wasting too much time, we had scheduled out self for some sightseeing. We covered 3 places 2 Buddha temples, the famous Reclining Buddha being 1 of them. The image of reclining Buddha is 50 ft high and 143 ft long with his right arm supporting the head. Last we visited the Gem factory, where we were first shown a video on how gem stones are mined & given the final look. The store had huge variety of gems on display for people to purchase…being ignorant on this we decided to give purchasing a miss.

Day 4: Going to Bangkok, we definitely can’t give shopping and a visit to the malls a miss. This day was dedicated to shopping!!! We hired a tuk tuk and visited malls like MBK, Siam, Pratunam Mall and of course Indra mall which was right outside Baiyoke. Each mall had its own uniqueness, like the Pratunam Mall was dedicated to all kind of computer and phone peripherals, the Indra mall we felt was apt as it had everything available under 1 roof -Purses, clothes, souvenirs, footwear, electronics, restaurants, just about everything. This mall closes at 8pm after which there are road side shops that open up just outside the mall. The night bazaar near the hotel was surely a good pick for us. Caution though…the ground rule is that you need to be good at bargaining!!! For a shpoholic, the Indra mall is a paradise. There are other places to explore in Bangkok if you have the time, places like Floating market, Sea world, Safari world, Dinner at cruise, etc...

Day5. Time for us to pack our bags and head back to Hyderabad…With an unforgettable Pattaya and a wonderful Bangkok, we reached the airport and after check in looked around the various duty free shops. The Airport is huge and beautiful. We boarded our flight with a thought that we would return again to the other unexplored areas of Thailand some day!!

Tips:
 Local Sim cards & top up cards are a better choice and are available at the airport & everywhere in the city.
 ATM’s and currency exchange counters are available everywhere as well
 While planning your trip, ensure that you check out the hotel details/reviews (Trip Advisor is where I usually check)