Here are 17 things i wish i knew before i visited thailand i love thailand and is one of my favorite
countries but there are definitely things i wish i knew before i visited the country and that's why
i've made this video so you don't make the same mistakes that we did amelia and i spent two months
traveling thailand and we went from the south to the very far north and we agreed it was one
of our favorite countries that we've ever been to it's very easy if you're a first time backpacker
or a solo traveller there are so many people to meet and it's just an easy great country to visit
let's get on with these 17 things and let's start with number one and that is the visa so now from
october the first you can actually get a 45 day free visa if you're from a selected 65 countries
which do include the uk and the usa but this is only running until the end of march the 31st 2023
so if you're not in that period you'll just get the regular 30-day free visa you go to
the immigration office to extend your visa and you must bring obviously your passport but a photocopy
of your passport a photocopy of your visa stamp and a little passport photo um and a printout of
your flight out of thailand so number two is eat the thai food honestly it is probably my favorite
cuisine in the world it is so good and the thai food there is honestly so cheap especially
compared to western cuisines try the street food and go to the night markets because that's where
you get really cheap great food and there's ones all over the country and honestly thai people
know how to put on a good night market so number three is renting a scooter and you can do this
with a driving licence in other countries they didn't ask your driving license but in thailand it
was quite important because they usually asked to drive illegally a scooter in thailand you actually
need an international driving license people just don't seem to have them just rented this bike it's
costing us 200 baht a day and we're just gonna be exploring the island we've just come to fill
up with some petrol it's honestly the best way to travel around different islands and different
parts of thailand and highly recommend it just be very careful in the rain and on gravel then
you can come off so number four is where to stay and we pretty much use booking.com and
agoda.com for all our bookings we usually search by lowest price and as long as the rating was okay
we usually went for the cheapest now number five is something you might not do when you're
in thailand but if you are and it lines up then you have to do the full moon party it's pretty
much the biggest beach party in the world and for good reason it is so much fun and a lot of people
on just one beach now if you're backpacking thailand you probably don't want to book in
advance but for the full moon party you must do it because if you don't price is going to be really
expensive because there already are even months in advance and you don't want to be miles and
miles away the taxis and stuff really expensive in koh panyang if you live quite far away from the
actual beach the other thing is drink the buckets they're really good and get you drunk pretty quick
we've just got two buckets 300 baht each they're like little slush puppies so when to go to
thailand so thailand have two seasons dry seasons and wet season obviously the dry season from like
november to march is pretty much the busiest time of the year there are so many people
there because it is dry and it doesn't rain that much saying that it rained quite a lot for us
if you go in wet season no prices are much cheaper there's not as many tourists the hotel we stayed
at was marina phuket and that only costs 24 pounds in wet season but in the height of dry season it
costs up to 60 pounds a night which is a crazy difference and so you'll get so much more value if
you go in wet season and also honestly sometimes it just rains in the afternoon it's not like it's
all day misery like it is here in the uk in winter now i'm gonna be moving on to scams and things
which you must watch out for so one of the common scams in phuket that we found we didn't get caught
but our friends did is the scooter scam basically the police stop you if you're not wearing a helmet
or you're not got an international driving license or whatever they'll just find a way of
just charging you taking you to the police station to just get some money off you another scam which
is common in bangkok is the tuk-tuk scam and they tell you take a tour but then they only take you
like halfway and then to get back right to the middle they try and charge you loads of money
so just be careful when dealing with tuk-tuks in bangkok moving on to number eight and if you're
like me i always love to be connected but sim cards are really cheap in thailand and i got
an unlimited data plan for just 14 pounds or like i don't know 16 us dollars which is amazing value
and i recommend doing that and we can always be on instagram just scrolling and stuff so now number
nine i'm going to be talking about itinerary for thailand now a lot of people fly into bangkok but
i've got a suggestion and why maybe you shouldn't i recommend flying into the south into somewhere
like phuket and then just making your way all the way up into bangkok and then further up north and
then you don't have to take any flights it's probably the cheapest way of doing it if you
fly to bangkok you then have to go south and then you have to go back up and then north again or
north you know you get what i mean so you're lit pretty much saving time and cost by flying into
the south straight away now some of the places i'm going to list the places you should visit and one
of them is kobe p honestly it is a beautiful island and obviously the beautiful maya bay
is highly recommend checking out it's 400 baht to go on the beach but it is worth it it's one
of a stunning beach even though it can get quite touristy another one is pongna which is a lot less
touristy and it's basically like massive limestone cliffs in the water and then you've got kopanyu
this little floating village highly recommend checking it out it is awesome another place is
calsoc national park we didn't actually go there but it is high on our list to go there next time
we are in thailand and then further up north check out chiang mai it's got amazing night markets
there's lots of different day trips you can do just out of chiang mai to see the elephants and
other stuff like that now number 10 is about the thai people they are honestly genuinely
so lovely and actually lovely you know not like fake lovely like they're just after your money
they are literally so kind and very hospitable you think about how many thousands and millions
of tourists who have been to thailand and they're still so welcoming and just welcome you with open
arms to their country thailand is mostly buddhist so if you're going into a temple make sure you
cover your knees and your shoulders and just you know show some respect when going into their
places of worship now number 11 is your budget for thailand as a cheap backpacker not looking
to drink much stay in the cheapest accommodation eat the cheap food can easily travel on under 20
pounds a day but if you want a little more comfort than 30 pounds a day will give you a lot more
comfortable stuff obviously you can spend way more easily but it all depends on the individual don't
feel like you need to spend loads one thing to keep in mind is the north of thailand is so much
cheaper than the south of thailand if you've got less money maybe you spend much more time up north
number 12 is about the atm fees in thailand you usually charge 220 bar which is quite a bit of
money especially compared to other countries where sometimes it's free or just a smaller
charge way of avoiding this is to go into the bank bring your passport and obviously your card
and and you can withdraw it straight from the bank from the people and you usually not charge
for that but yeah give it a go another thing to keep in mind when at an atm the card comes out
after you've taken the cash i'm hopeless then i had so many times thai people have come up to me
going oh you left your card in this machine and i'm like i'm just so dumb emilia will tell you i
do all the time just take the cash remember the card now number 13 is how to get around
i think thailand is probably one of the easiest countries to travel because there's tour agencies
everywhere and this is where you can book your transport to your next city whether that's taking
a minibus or a ferry or whatever then this is the best way booked with travel agency and they'll
help you or your hotel or hostel they'll also do it too if you want to go short distances then i
recommend using the grab and the bolt app honestly it is pretty cheap there and it doesn't mean you
have to like bargain with taxi drivers and maybe you don't know the price and even if they don't
speak much english so do that and it saves a lot of hassle now number 14 is thailand's little gem
no it's not place it is 7-eleven 7-elevens are literally everywhere especially in the cities
around bangkok every corner every street every like 50 meters has a 7-eleven there's a 7-eleven
here and there's a 7-eleven just there that's how many 7-elevens are in this city they have
so much range of selection of food and drinks and iced coffees they're really good iced coke
there's so many different drinks you can get and i love it in other countries like
the philippines 7-eleven is just not as good it doesn't have that range of variety of food and
obviously the ham and cheese toasty that thing is famous this cheese toasty which i got which was
27 baht is the big thing to try apparently everyone says they're really really good
that is actually really good it was really good but i thought it'd be a little bit bigger because
i could probably eat it in about six bites if you want to have a cheap lunch then you can
have a 7-eleven microwave meal they're like 45 baht and yeah quick easy way of having a lunch
not spending too much money so number 15 i'm just going to spit off some quick facts which
you will need when traveling thailand and one of these is makes they use the us plug socket
so you'll need an adapter from from the uk or the eu or whatever they also drive on the
left-hand side so like the british not like they do in america as thailand's so touristy loads of
people speak english an important thing to do is don't mention the king if you want a fast-track
way of getting into jail in thailand then say something bad about the king and you'll be
not literally you'll just be put in jail but just don't mention it
so moving on to number 16 and that is be careful with the animal tourism seeing elephants is a very
popular thing to do in thailand but some places aren't that ethical we actually went to a really
good one up in chiang mai and it was amazing it was an elephant sanctuary and i highly recommend
it i will leave a link in the description to it down below and definitely recommend
checking it out but some places you can still do elephant riding which it's not good for the
elephant so if you want to actually look after them then please avoid these companies don't go
with them it's not fair on the elephants now number 17 the very last one and that is about
bangkok belly you've probably heard of it or if you haven't other people call it like barley belly
or deli belly just be careful with like radishes cucumbers tomatoes when they're washing it in the
local water because that's what can make you quite ill is that water and then wash the vegetables and
stuff so be careful i wouldn't recommend eating them i was like keep your hands off better to
be safe because the last thing you want to do especially if you're on a short trip is getting
bangkok belly and basically having food poisoning it's not much fun other people ask about the ice
we were fine having ice we had a lot of iced drinks and it was fine but honestly if it's
not a good restaurant then maybe stay away from iced drinks so that is hopefully everything you
need to know but if you've got any other questions please leave them down below in the comments and
i will get back to you because i wanna i just want you to get to thailand it's a beautiful
country and you will absolutely love your time there thank you so much for watching i hope
this was useful enjoy your time in thailand and i'll see you in the next video see you then bye