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Phone stolen in the middle of nowhere PNG; stuck in Europe during 2010 Volcano Ash cloud; day before travel, realised passport has expired; broken leg on ski fields of Aspen; unable to return home due to snow storm in Christchurch; stuck in Manhattan after Hurricane Sandy...  These are all experiences of our staff or our clients over the years, and in each one we have had a part, helping get them where they want to be as soon as possible, and helping with the insurance claims.

 

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Thailand Trails

February 15, 2012  /  Emily Scoble

Thailand – Emily is determined to figure out what this beach holiday thing is all about…

Let me preface this by saying I’m not a beach holiday kind of person. If I look back at all of the trips in my life there has only been one where I actually spent a significant portion of the holiday at the beach or by the pool. I’m an explorer, and get bored easily. So why would I choose to go to Thailand? Because I was made to! Well not completely but it was about time I went to Phuket, one of the big beach holiday destinations I send people to, and my mum needed to go to Bangkok for a conference and having not travelled much was in need of a travel companion. So at a month’s notice I planned a trip, a few days in Bangkok, 4 nights in Phuket and 2 in Chiang Mai – one of the few places in Thailand that I had really wanted to see.

We stayed at Siam @ Siam in the centre of Bangkok for two nights. I really liked the hotel, it was boutique but still had several restaurants, great breakfasts, and a pool overlooking the city. The spa, with the discount voucher I’d received on check in, was a great way to unwind at the start of my holiday. We organised a private tour with concierge to the floating markets and around the river-ways of Bangkok. So began the start of a long journey into the reality of a holiday in Thailand. They are all about making money from tourism. The boat took us to too-numerous-to-count stalls selling all kinds of kitsch souvenirs and from what I can now tell, not very cheaply. So we bought a few things and then kept going, repeatedly saying no at every other stall. Don’t get me wrong, going through the small canals and seeing how people lived was interesting, and the nature beautiful, we even came across a big market eating area, where people in boats cooked up hot food, on small stoves on their boats, to others in boats, or you could hop off and eat from a food stall, at a table. We kept going and after an hour or so hopped back in the car heading for Bangkok. We were then taken to my most hated tourist trap, the ‘factory’ for exports that is just a big shopping area where someone follows you the way through, and if you’re anything like me can’t find the exit quick enough. I can’t stress how much I disliked this being put on us to do and how much it tainted my experience of Bangkok. It also added a lot of time to our day. So then we headed back out of the city to the main river and hopped on another boat for a look at how the inner-city people dwell on the river. I have been told that about 30% of people in Bangkok live on the river or canals, this was really fascinating, there are some ramshackle properties right next door to some beautiful houses that could be from any city in the world. After another hour or so on the water we headed back to the car and to the hotel, so these few hours on the water at most took up most of our day.

The next day saw us back in the car, but for a more exciting adventure, heading north to Kanchanaburi, the home of the ‘Bridge over the River Kwai’ and the Hellfire pass from WWII. We visited the bridge on the way and then it was off to our raft for the night, the River Kwai Jungle Rafts are a fun experience, but you wouldn’t want to stay more than a night. We had a lovely dinner ‘onboard’, and saw a Thai dance show with people from the local village. No electricity meant nothing to do but hang around and make a dent in my book. The next morning we made a quick visit to the local village for which the rafts had been built – the workers and profits all, apparently, go back into the village. We then caught our boat and car up to the Hellfire pass. The ‘Death Railway’ was an important part of the Japanese take over during WWII as they built a railway from Burma to Southern Thailand and used POW’s from throughout Asia along with other Asian ‘employees’ to build it. It is definitely a sad part of our history, and you can see how Hellfire Pass, a portion of the railway, ended up with its name. Over 100,000 people died to build the railway, so there are a number of monuments, and a large cemetery to visit as well as a few museums explaining the story.

And so I abandoned mum and left for Phuket. Upon landing and exiting I was so glad I had organised a transfer for myself, with the number of people hanging around offering taxis and all competing for your attention, its very daunting especially when travelling by yourself. I then headed north of the airport, and to the Renaissance hotel, a large hotel, on a beautiful strip of beach secluded from the rest of Phuket. I spend 4 nights here, and enjoyed happy hour with $5 cocktails, massages by the beach, way too much choice at the breakfast buffet and a range of meals from around the world in the 4 different restaurants. I didn’t leave the resort much except for a few short bike rides to ‘stretch the legs’ and a half day trip in a taxi to show me around the rest of Phuket island. Nothing was as bad as I had pictured in my mind, but I was still glad I was staying ‘out of the way’. I did have one fun experience in Patong where I got my feet nibbled by small fish working as an exfoliant. It worked somewhat, and I’m glad I did it, but it is a strange feeling… 

From Phuket it was off to Chiang Mai. I had spent some time in Phuket preparing for Chiang Mai. I’d booked a Thai Cooking School, and a day at an Elephant sanctuary (feeding and bathing elephants). That left one night at the markets (where no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t spend ‘too much’, and half a day riding a bike around town (it is really hot, so the earlier you do this the better). And that’s exactly what I did and I can’t recommend a stay in Chiang Mai highly enough, nor anything I did there. It’s not exactly the beach holiday, but it’s definitely my type of holiday.

Back in Bangkok for the night before flying out mum and I headed out into the city for another day exploring. We first went to the Grand palace, but didn’t last long in the high heat, and hoards of people. Then off to Jim Thompson’s house, an ex-American who moved to Thailand after world war two and perfected the traditional ways of making silk. An avid art collector and architect in a previous life his house is definitely worth a look. Then off to MBK for some last minute shopping before heading home, I now understood why people say they go shopping in Thailand, it really is that cheap and you can get everything! One very yummy thing to mention here is the mango and sticky rice dessert. A popular dish throughout Thailand, I tried it twice, and would have to highly recommend it, just make sure you leave space…

So I definitely enjoyed my holiday but still not sure I’m the beach holiday type of girl, but I can easily accept a few days of relaxing by the beach!