Thailand has my whole heart. I can fully say that it has been my favorite country so far on my trip, and it is not even all that close. Maybe I am a warm weather girlie after all. Although I was bummed one of my besties from back home didn’t end up able to make it with me to Thailand, I made the most of it continuing solo. We will do another trip together here soon to make up for it (perhaps back to Thailand…).

First, I arrived in Phuket after a mildly hellish journey from Budapest to Beijing then to Phuket. Long, long flights – and I was recovering from being sick. It was brutal. The Beijing airport was also the coldest I have ever been, and I have been snowboarding in negative twenty degrees in Montana. At least then I had layers.

Moving on! Let’s break it down by the spots:

Phuket: Originally I was just going to spend one night here, but since my flight was delayed and I also had to move it back, I ended up spending two nights at a nice resort. The resort itself was lovely, and it was a pleasant change to bake in the sun after spending two months in the cold, drizzly European late fall/early winter. My translucent skin desperately needed some vitamin D. Phuket itself was not my favorite. The old town was pleasant and fun to walk around for a day, but I’d say it is skippable or just go for one day to explore old town. I spent my Christmas eating cheap pad thai, wandering around, visiting their green cafes (iykyk), and then I got a two-hour facial and a hair spa treatment. That part was glorious.

Here’s a few photos from Phuket:

The islands: The islands were my favorite part, and my only regret is not staying for longer and not visiting more of the islands. In Thailand, I have learned that I should probably slow it the hell down and stop being so chaotic and jumping around countries like I’m on the run from the law. Anyways. I started off in Ko Phi Phi after taking a two hour ferry from Phuket. The ferry was quite pleasant and had nice views. Phi Phi is quite the party island, and I only had one day and one night there. I was still a bit tired, so I joined up with a group of people from Hostelworld for what I thought would be a chill night where we just went for a nice dinner. I met up with another American (one of just a few that I met during my whole time in Thailand), a German couple, an Italian, and a Spaniard. 

We had a nice time and some good pad thai and cocktails, and then I was convinced to go to Reggae bar, a local bar where amateur fighters (aka mostly drunk, sunburnt, overconfident British men on holiday) beat each other up in a Muay Thai ring. The damn Europeans always get me. It was wickedly entertaining though. I’d joked about sports betting, so we each started betting drinks on who we thought would win the fight. We looped in some strangers. We were the draft kings (and queen) of the bar. I kept choosing the underdog and losing. Shame. There were also some locals who would come in and fight on occasion and show people how it was really done.

Next, we ended up at a couple more bars and I drank more than I intended. When in Phi Phi, I suppose. All of a sudden, it was past three in the morning and I’m vibing with the Italian on the beach during low tide before I headed back to my hostel in the pouring rain. The rain was nice because then I didn’t have to take a real shower. Overall, it was a really fun night. Would recommend throwing out original “chill” plans for a more wild night every once in a while. 

Here’s a few photos from Phi Phi:

Koh Lanta: After Phi Phi, I took a speedboat to Koh Lanta, a bigger and more chilled out island. I stayed in De Bra hostel, which is run by a bunch of Swedish friends who were all so nice. They picked me up from the pier, and they had a tab system where you just buy drinks and snacks from them and they put it on your tab. At the end of my four day stay, my tab was still alarmingly cheap. 

Koh Lanta was an amazing time. The island is very big, and the hostel was not centrally located – so pretty much everyone would rent the scooters they had at the hostel. I hadn’t ridden one in ages, but it was awesome. I need to go back immediately. I also met the three most amazing women who I ended up spending 95% of my time with on the island. The hostel was social, but in a chill way. It was the perfect vibe. The first night, we all hopped on scooters and rode down to a beach that all of us hostel folk just had to ourselves. They set up beach volleyball, we played frisbee, drank beers under a little hut, got to know each other, and swam in the ocean. Then we watched a gorgeous sunset before heading back to the hostel. 20/10 night. The girlies and I then planned to rent scooters the next day. We assembled a girl gang. It was top tier.

I also went for a lovely run on one of the beaches one day, then we all went to another beach (there are so many on the island), which was stunning. We spent the day eating snacks and drinking beers and getting to know each other more. The second night we went down to a different part of town, walked around the night markets, and had the most delicious pad thai of my trip for approximately two dollars. It was called Mr. Pad Thai, and funny enough it was recommended by a guy we dubbed ‘the illiterate Brit’ because he was quite dumb and had a lot of terrible racist takes. He was also just rude. But he is somewhat forgiven because Mr. Pad Thai was the best pad thai I had during my entire stay in Thailand. We also had mango sticky rice and the roti pancakes for dessert. It was all….so, so good. I can’t even describe it. Just go to Thailand. I am commanding you all: go to Thailand. 

There is something about instantly bonding with a group of three women that is just so unmatched and so special. My days in Koh Lanta will always hold a really special place in my heart. We ate our meals together, we talked about really deep shit, we made fun of average men, we lounged on the beach and beamed about how all of a sudden it felt like we were all just on holiday together. Life can really be beautiful sometimes.

Here’s some photos from Koh Lanta:

Vibe of the moment: Thailand 7-Elevens. Heavenly. Truly. The title of this blog refers to the automatic 7-Eleven door telling you “hello, welcome” whenever you walk in. It gets stuck in my head now. I went to so many of them and was transfixed each time. I tried so many snacks. Some evenings I would go have a joint (it is legal in Thailand, okay?) and then I would spend way too long just admiring the snacks in 7-Eleven before ultimately deciding what to try. Everything was dirt cheap. They have these ‘toasties’ which are either cheese or ham and cheese sandwiches in their refrigerated aisle that cost less than a dollar. They heat them up for you. They are delicious. I had…a lot of them. They also have delicious iced coffee, which is also less than a dollar. I would get one almost every day. Then I tried the lava cake, the cake rolls, and these sesame peanuts. I brought several of these snacks with me to Bali.  

Bangkok: What a wild city. It is massive, and four days was not enough time to see everything. Especially because I kept just meeting cool people and wandering around with them instead of doing the more touristy things. Honestly though, I am very fine with how I spent my time. I don’t think I had a single moment of unhappiness in Thailand – except when I had to say goodbye to some of my new favorite people. 

NYE was a blast too. I explored the flower markets and Chinatown with a lovely British woman who I met on the Hostelworld chats, then we regrouped for some wine before the Muay Thai fights with another lovely British woman (what I am learning is that I just adore British women). Then I just kept meeting people and bopping around before linking back up with my Italian friend (miss u, Fabio) and some really great lads from Portugal. We hit up a local backpacker bar, then headed to watch the fireworks by the river with minutes to spare before midnight, then we took a long walk and spent hours after just chatting on a rooftop until all of a sudden it was nearly five in the morning. Highly recommend spending NYE with a bunch of rad strangers in Thailand. Would repeat.

Other things that you must do in Bangkok: SHOP – my favorite was Platinum Mall – they had stalls with surprisingly good quality things for very cheap prices. I bought a couple matching linen sets that I am now obsessed with. And of course – the elephant pants. And finally – massages. I had two amazing Thai massages for about ten dollars each. Next level shit. DO IT.

I’m not doing a ‘snack of the moment’ because literally everything is delicious. I’d say the mango sticky rice was the most interesting and surprising with just how much I loved it. 

Here are some random photos from Bangkok:

And, of course, here is a little list of some of the people I met in Thailand:

-Californian who had travelled to every county except for NK, said he only one he felt unsafe in was Somalia (do I believe him? I don’t know);

-The absolute nicest hostel workers in the world…at every hostel I stayed at in Thailand, including one in Phi Phi who just came over and made me pancakes in the morning;

-German couple who I went to the bar where you beat people up and then we started betting money on the matches with the people in our vicinity;

-Charming Italian finance guy who I first met in the islands and then spent a lot of time in Bangkok including NYE with him; 

-British woman from Brighton (sometimes you pronounce the ‘t’, I learned) who spent several months traveling India prior to Thailand and was just so fascinating and kind;

-British woman who, along with my other British friend on the island, helped teach me the different English accents – and she also has a brilliant app idea but no spoilers because you cannot steal it;

-A South African/German gal with the most interesting and lovely accent, who was so kind and interesting and had spent a semester studying abroad in Bangkok – she was also wise beyond her years;

-American who is likely a pathological liar, an avid and aggressive Trump smoker, claims to be a DJ, a farmer, and a multimillionaire and was just downright nutty despite his initial impression as a stoner surfer dude (I am still confused about this man);

-German kiddo who wants to be a lawyer and I tried to talk him out of it (I hope he listens but he won’t);

-Likely illiterate British lad with bad teeth and extremely hot takes on politics and women (but he also gave us a recommendation for the best pad thai we had all trip, so at least we got that in between his constant unwanted yapping);

-Several loud Polish men who were either at the club, playing pool, or yelling; 

-Indian/Canadian/British guy who I met in Bangkok and had one of the most interesting accents I’ve heard and he had traveled many of the same countries as me this year;

-Two lovely Argentinian gals who were patient with me as I practiced my Spanish with them (bless u both);

-A Kiwi guy who lives in the same neighborhood as my grandmother in Auckland;

-Two solo traveling Brits from London who had just started their journeys and were absolute delights to have some wine and Chang beers with as we plotted our next steps throughout southeast Asia.

Next stops: Surf camp in Bali, vibing in Australia, then spending time with family in New Zealand. Then back to Southeast Asia because I just LOVE IT SO MUCH. I will probably return to Thailand because I already miss it dearly.

Song of the moment: I Did Something Bad – Taylor Swift

Why? It feels fitting for some reason and I won’t explain further.

Featured lyrics:

They say I did something bad

Then why’s it feel so good?

Most fun I’ve ever had

And I’d do it over, and over, and over again if I could

I’m also trying to conjure up Taylor releasing her version of Reputation. I successfully conjured her singing I Did Something Bad for the first time on the Eras Tour in London, so maybe this will work too.

Listen to it, haters: