Welcome to Thailand Travel Guide where all your vaction dreams come true.
I'm on an elephant.
This is Bangkok Thailand where we start a vacation of a lifetime that will change the
way you see the world.
An hour outside Bangkok is the Damnoen floating market.
The floating market was electrifying and kind of organized chaos.
They had tons of fresh food and spices and other things to keep you entertained.
One thing is for sure I will probably never get to shop like this again.
This was awesome and every day just gets better and better.
Since we planned to do a whole bunch of shopping later we got our tour guide to take us behind
the scenes.
Yeah there is a whole floating village behind the market.
At one point we got off the canoe and visited some of the locals and their pets, btut these
arent like any American pets.
Oh my gosh.
It got your finger.
Ah.
Tricky little gibbon.
There is no shortage of animal to play with here in Thailand and this snake was the biggest
one I vlog so I had to carry it.
We got to walk around their house and taste test the sweets they sold.
I recommend a private custom tour guide for the inexperienced traveller.
Ours is George.
He showed us to some amazing thai food and got us the detour to the rest of the floating
city.
Dang that is some good thai food.
Just outside the floating market is the Damnoen Tiger Zoo.
Hanging with Tigers is exhilerating and yet just feels nice to relax with them.
While for some this might be frightening to me I felt a little closer to my earthly counterpart.
Now there are plenty of Tiger exhibits in Thailand.
Most of them places are set up for touristy photoshoots.
I enjoyed the Damnoen Tiger Zoo because there is a little more focus on interacting and
feeding the Tigers yet it isn't as pictureque which was fine by me.
But yes, they still take plenty of pictures.
We fed them milk but you can also feed them meat one of my biggest regrets from the trip
was not paying more to feed them meat.
Any way you do it, it is awesome.
Now it was back to Bangkok for the Chatuchak Weekend Market.
There are 1000's of vendors here ready to bargain shop.
Shop anything your heart desires from food to knock off apparel, to anything..
its all here and on the cheap.
Those shoes were like 3 bucks.
If you are here on the weekend it is a must do.
The Chatuchak weekend market is awesome.
I will put everything I recommend in the description below with links.
My wife loved this specialty shop and why not its kinda cool your wife will probably
like it too.
In all Thailand there are plenty of night places to party it up but my wife and I aren't
partiers so we finished almost every night with a massage.
And why not?
This place was 15 bucks for a 2 hour massage.
The next morning we started off at Wat Pho.
Yes it really sparkles that much.
This is the beautiful temple of the reclining buddha.
It is massively impressive and pictures don't do it Justice.
Just behind the Buddha is a place where people make offerings by dropping money into pots.
Each pot comes with a different blessing but also helps feed monks.
And the grounds are beautiful at this temple, and kinda fun, and rich with history.
Lucky for us we got to witness the annointing of a monk that day which goes to show this
Temple still functions and is not just a tourist spectacle.
As a side note becoming a monk in the buddhist culture brings a blessing and honor on your
whole family.
A hop skip and a jump away is the Grand Royal Palace of Thailand.
Once closed off to public decades ago, now is open and packed with Tourists.
None-the-less it is stunning.
The palaces beauty and grandeur are enhanced by its intricate design.
With careful planning you can get some amazing pictures here using the rich variety of colors
on the building as a backdrop.
Women wear your best dress for this palace and you might get asked to be in pictures...
lots and lots of pictures.
Aferall, who wouldn't want a picture with a princess in her palace.
That afternoon we caught a plane to Chaing Mai in Northern Thailand.
And that night we booked a Thai cooking class that started with a tour through a local fresh
food market.
We got to try many of the flavors and got explanations of the food we would be using
that night in our cooking.
We also got to see many of the foods we would not be using...
thankfully.
I
will link to this cooking school as well as everything in this video below.
During this cooking class the instructor teaches how to make the food then you taste it.
Then you prepare it yourself.
You do this for 4 dishes then my favorite part you get to eat at the end of the night
or in the middle of the day if you took the morning class.
One of the things I love most about Thailand is its unique and flavorful food.
It seemed like everywhere we went we got such flavorful food.
And once again it is so inexpensive.
So I am definitely glad we are learning how to cook it.
I recommend this cooking class over others for a few reasons.
First The facility is beautiful and serene.
Second They offer night classes if you want to do stuff during the day.
And third They helped even me cook a masterpiece.
Look how proud I am.
Remember Thai food can be spicy but they are aware of that and will help you get through
it.
Look how proud I am.
That night we rested in my favorite travel hotel I have ever stayed at the Thannatee
Hotel.
But Luxury Hotels arent my thing.
I felt as though an artist captured the essense of Chaing Mai and made it into this quaint
little hotel.
I have linked to it below.
There is this zen waterfall peaceful waterfall in the middle of the hotel.
You can hear it from your room.
And now the elephants!
Spending a day with the elephants was the coolest thing we have ever done and alone
is worth the trip to Thailand.
Sitting atop the elephants you go for a days journey crossing rivers, passing through small
villages, and climbing forest mountains with some of the most majestic views you will ever
see.
And this video is nothing in comparison to the beauty you will experience in real life.
Once again I chose this company amongst other because of their focus on interacting with
the elephants.
It doesnt just stop with the Elephant ride.
You start by building trust and feeding your elephant.
And boy they love to eat.
If you want more time with the elephants they have two day, week or even month packages
to spend a ton of time with the elephants.
Around midday you give yourself and the elephant a mud bath.
And they love it.
Then hours later you give the elephants a water bath in the river.
And of course a water fight is bound to break out.
The magic is that you make this playful connection with an animal that just yesterday was a stranger.
The next morning we woke up early to catch the sunrise from Doi Suthep, A buddhist temple
in the forrest mountaintops.
This travel works out best if you wake up early for 3 reasons.
First, you avoid the huge tourist crowds later.
Second, this sunrise ranks with the best of them.
And third, You get to hear the monks chant their diary rituals early in the morning.
Today was a buddhist holiday so I didn't get to capture the monks chanting.
However, since it was a holiday we went and made an offering to a monk who gave us a bracelet
with some sort of words of a blessing.
It seemed very small since we arent of their faith.
Once again our customized tour guide was able to make this all work out.
And I loved our Tour Guide Arnan because he was a former monk and gave us insight to the
monk lifestyle.
In fact he also recommended that we stop by the hidden temple on our way back.
This tranquil temple makes it ideal for meditation and self reflection.
And for us it provided vista like we had never seen.
I will link to his Arnan's company below- ask for him.
Following the hidden temple we made our way to Long Neck Village.
This is one of a few very small villages of Kayan refugee's that fled Burma and are now
confined to their village.
Making the most of their situation they now gladly show off their style in exchange for
an entrance fee.
They are happy to take pictures too.
So win-win.
Also you can purchase any of their hand crafted goods.
And don't forget to bring treats if you want the kids to be happy thailand travel guide
pictures too
We had some time to kill so we hit up this little tourist area where they make Paper
out of Elephant Poo.
I included this because it was actually pretty fun and makes for some great gifts.
They take you through the process of sterilizing, filtering and forming the paper out of poo...
and let you Doo it yourself.
Lastly before catching our plane to Phuket we go see a little snake farm.
And of course there are all sorts of slithering and crawling things they want you to play
with.
But the main feature is their Snake show.
Pretty impressive.
I wonder how many times they've been bitten.
The show was so small and personal we were able to get a few pictures with the snakes.
Now what to do in Phuket you need to grab a Tuk Tuk or ride a scooter around Patong
the party city.
In Patong there are plenty of shops we found a knock off shoe vendor that took us back
to their storage of a plentiful selection.
We also found the Hello Kitty mecca and tons of other places to spend your money.
There is one thing that is time sensitive that I highly recommend in Patong.
It is a specific custom tailor suit shop.
They work with your timing to tailor make a suit for you over the course of a few days
and are done by the time you leave.
Here you pick your own material and they take your measurements in one day and then you
come back with a template jacket they refine over the next couple days and so on until
your suit is custom fit and you look devonaire.
My wife pointed out: this is awesome because normal shopping is geared toward women.
I specifically like this shop linked to below because they will keep your measurements and
if you ever want another they will ship it to you.
There are tons of custom tailor suit shops some less expensive some better this one is
my preference.
Just a quick tip: that lower back dip in the jacket is very important for sex appeal.
Pretty awesome for about 230 bucks eh?
Since you have time to spend in Patong you might as well Check Out their Muay Thai fighting.
Just a warning this video gets a little violent if you want to skip go to 14:10.
I wanted to put this in the video because there is something unique for everyone in
Thailand.
Even for sports lovers.
In Patong there are 2 Muay Thai stadiums each hosting fights on different nights.
This was intense.
I was loving it.
Unlike a lot of american boxing these fighters actually fight.
Which leads to some great action.
Aggresive punching and heavy knock outs.
Some fights seemed onesided.. which was awesome and others were even and strategic... which
was awesome.
Some fighters were technical and some very flashy.
Even the girls gotta dance for that.
Speaking of girls.
My favorite fight of the night was the women.
Check this girl just wail on the other.
She didn't stand a chance but she just kept fighting.
Almost like Rocky... except she loses bad.
Well okay actually nothing like Rocky.
But either way it's awesome.
If you have any curiosity you should go check out Muay Thai if for no other reason its just
an intense fun night.
There are 2 things in my opinion you have what to do in Thailand.
First is the day with the Elephants but just as important is the Two Sea Tour to James
Bond Island.
It is nature at its finest.
This was my favorite moment in the trip.
We were the first to get in our canoe and what we rowed into was a breathtaking lagoon
open up to the morning sky.
And as others with us caught up the guide had us do a minute of silence and you could
just hear the noises of wildlife communicating with each other.
Birds and monkeys chattering the water moving the stillness of the morning.
This felt like Nirvana.
If you do Phang Nga use the Two Sea Tour and wake up early but do NOT go by speed boat.
The charm of this tour is the kayaks and you cant use by speed boat and you could see the
jealousy of other tourists as we rowed through caves they couldnt access or we got close
to a monkey that they couldnt see.
A couple of recommendations.
Most people choose between the Phi Phi Islands and the Phang Nga Bay.
Phi Phi is amazing but it gets 3 times the amount of tourists.
If you go Phi Phi go by speed boat and pick an early tour.
I don't know how but each cave opening seemed to be a new window to paradise.
Next we took the boat to Hong.
Its eminence provided us view that...
well just take a look.
A vlog turn was an overload of nature to the senses.
Now just take a minute to enjoy the scenery for a moment.
The reason to wake up early isnt just to beat the tourists (which is important) but some
of these caves like the one to the lagoon can only be accessed at low tide in the morning.
To finish the tour of Phang Nga Bay we took pictures at James Bond Island then made our
way to Lawa to play on swings and just chill.
Dont let rainy season deter you from going to Thailand.
It normally rains only a couple 30 minute sessions a day.
I even enjoyed the ride home just looking out at the Islands.
Its like the hills of Ireland just sitting on the Bahama Shores.
Our last day in Phuket we spent at our Luxury hotel Point Yamu by COMO just relaxing.
My wife loved this resort.
Where else are you going to get such a luxury hotel overlooking the beach for so little
cost.
All my recomendations for hotels, things to do and for filming I have linked in the description
below.
And more things we didn't even get around to.
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