Thailand - Final Thoughts

Thailand is a great country to visit. Even though people don’t speak English, they are still willing to help a foreigner. Bangkok is definitely a must visit. I can easily spend five days there without getting bored. There is always one more temple to visit or shopping to do. Out of town excursions are great too. We did our excursions on our own because Prachi was in Thailand and she could find out what to do. Otherwise, it may have been a little bit of a challenge for me. I would have looked all over the internet and still not be happy with my decision.

I would have stayed one more day in Phuket to enjoy it more. Or I could have skipped Similan island in lieu of seeing Phuket. Phi Phi island was much more enjoyable and also closer to Phuket so it gave us more time to rest in the evening.

Hotels are plenty and affordable. One has to ask about breakfast and transportation. In Phuket, the airport is about one hour from the town, so one has to take taxi, van or hotel transportation to get there. Same goes for Bangkok, the downtown, more touristy area is about 40 mins from the airport. That is why I wanted to get the hotel on a metro line. I could have selected a hotel more on the local line instead of the airport metro line, because we had to keep changing stations every single time we went out touring. And then we could have just taken the airport line once to visit the Baiyoke tower. Although I did like staying at the Baiyoke hotel :-)

The food everywhere was amazing! I love Thai food and in it's original place Thailand, it was just too good. The flavors, the aromas were just too good. And we were able to get vegetarian food. If I was going on my own, I would learn to say “vegetarian” or “no meat” in Thai! 

Shopping was the best all over. Prices are low and quality is good. If anyone loves T-shirts then they would be in heaven. I had a little hard time buying clothes because most of the clothes for females are for skinny women. I was happy with other stuff. There are a LOT of places to shop and one can shop only one shopping area in one day - hehe. One does have to bargain a little bit to get good prices.

I always felt safe in the places we went to. I did not feel anyone was cheating me. Even at 11:30 pm we could walk from the metro to our hotel. Although it's possible that we were in good locations also. And the places were all touristy, which in general are crowded and safe.

I feel there is still more to see for me in Thailand, the northern part is quite different than the southern. I would probably advice anyone visiting to make a 10-12 day plan to completely enjoy the country.