Thai Style
Hi everybody!!!
Welcome to today’s post about everything THAILAND! We spent 2 weeks between Bangkok, the countryside, and the beach in this beautiful country and barely scratched the surface.
Let’s dive in!
The people: The most welcoming, sweetest humans! They just wanted to share their culture, language, food with us everywhere we went! Everyone was so genuine and lovely.
The food: I mean, COME ON… Thai food. Wow. Just so good. Lots of pad thai, tom yum soups, curries, and mango sticky rice! And of course millions of coconuts everywhere you look - and specifically THAI coconuts…they actually taste like Thai food hahah.
The weather: HOT and HUMID! Rained some days we were there, but mostly was sunny and hot.
The places: We stayed for about 5-6 days in the countryside in a homestay/Airbnb where siblings of the same family all lived in the same neighborhood. They cooked for us for every meal, drove us around to see nearby places, took us on cultural excursions such as feeding the monks, and offered us a cooking class. Their place was on a rice paddy farm where they told us that they don’t use any chemicals or pesticides unlike all the neighboring rice farms unfortunately. They gave us a moto to explore the town and we became the “farangs” (foreigners) waving to everyone as we drove by. We became like celebrities when we went to the temple for “monk day” with everyone wanting a picture with us. We sang karaoke and by the end of our time there were sad to leave these sweet people.
We then took a 6 hour train south to the coast called Ban Krut. We found another homestay/Airbnb there that was a 5 minutes walk to the beach. Little did we know that we’d be the only ones to use the beach the entire time we were there. Another non-touristy place with little English spoken, requiring a lot of Google Translate and hand gestures. It was an amazing period of time to do nothing, rest, and get unlimited Thai massages (very authentic and painful…see photos below!) We explored a beautiful temple, ate more delicious Thai food including unique fruits, and spent lots of time staring out into the sea.
Another 6 hour, non-air conditioned, jam-packed train took us back to Bangkok where we spent 2 days. We explored more temples with unique design and architecture, ate more Thai food, and took another cooking class just to solidify our skills! We experienced China Town at night to watch the street food vendors come alive and check out some tea shops. The hustle and bustle of the big city didn’t feel too overwhelming after having restful time beforehand. However, it being our first time in Asia, there was still a big shift culturally for us with the higher religion/spirituality throughout the country, amount of sound/motorcycles everywhere, and unique smells in the city. But overall, we really loved it and know that there is SO much to explore in Asia… but that will have to wait for another trip.
Currently, we have made our way to India! A place that has been on our minds for some time now, particularly for a deeper understanding of the yogic and Ayurvedic world. More to come on this CRAZY and CHAOTIC place later. But despite still enjoying the acquisition of new perspectives, new skills, new ways of living, and new cultures, we know that our journey is slowly coming to an end. India will be our last place before making the long journey and returning home.
We love and miss you all so much! Thank you for coming along for the ride.
With love,
Abby and Connor
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