Thailand Video Diary: Chiang Mai, Railay Beach, Bangkok

Honeymooning around Thailand

Back in 2014 Trang and I celebrated our marriage with a honeymoon in Thailand.  As you can see from our Thailand video diary, the trip as a whole was a nonstop adventure.  In hindsight, we thought it was a little too much to be traveling for a little over a week and a half.  We had a flight every other day and it started to feel like we were spending most of our honeymoon at the airport.

Filmed with:

Nikon D810

Where we went

We had three stops planned for our time in Thailand; Chiang Mai, Bangkok, and Krabi.

Bangkok

We started in Bangkok for a quick overnight stay.  We flew in from Manila in the late afternoon and only had time to explore the streets around our hotel.  The sidewalks were filled with mobile food carts and tourist shops.  It seemed like our hotel walked the line between two very different parts of the city.  The right side was full of fast food and mini-malls,  while the other overflowed with bars and ladyboys.  The street food was great.  From insects to mango sticky rice, different types of food were on every corner, and pretty much all of it was delicious.

Chiang Mai

From Bangkok, it was off to Chiang Mai.  Our overall goals in Chiang Mai were to interact with elephants and pet some tigers.  We did.  We also stumbled across beautiful temples and a night market full of street food and handmade trinkets.  I can easily say the food served there was some of the best Thai food I’ve had.  Every plate was overflowing, and everything cost less than a dollar.  We binged until we couldn’t eat anymore.  It was a real highlight of the trip.

The following night we came across a local Muay Thai boxing match.  Fighters of all ages were beating the crap out of each other in scenes that felt like Jeane-Claude Van Damme’s 80’s movie, Kickboxer.  More drinks and good food ended our time in Chiang Mai.  In the morning we headed to Hanoi to explore the Northern parts of Vietnam.

Bangkok (Part 2)

After a short stay in Vietnam, we got back to Bangkok just before noon for another night in the city.  Sadly, our last day in Bangkok didn’t go as planned.  Our hotel’s taxi driver friend convinced us that it wasn’t possible to get to the center of the city during the day and insisted that we take a boat to get there.  It was easily one of the biggest scams we’ve had in all of our travels.  I still have a sour taste in my mouth thinking of that day.  What a fail.  We missed out on almost everything we had planned.

Krabi

After our Bangkok debacle, we were on our way to Railay Beach.  The beach doesn’t have direct access, so we took a long tail boat around the peninsula to get there.  If you’re planning to stay at Railay beach, make sure to get there from the southeast dock.  Trang and I came in from the northwest side and I got soaked carrying our luggages over my head in the ocean to get to the boat.

The cove was the most beautiful beach I’ve seen.  It got even better when I learned that our hotel was right smack in the middle of the bay and that it had direct access to the other side of town.

In addition to the rest and relaxation, we took a tour of the Phi Phi Islands.  The tour itself was a lot of fun.  It included; snorkeling, monkeys, James Bond island, and a fast speed boat.  Besides a horrible bout of food poisoning and a late night boat ride from hell, Railay beach was outstanding.  Great atmosphere and beautiful sunsets.  It was a perfect place to spend the last few days of our trip.

Thailand Highlights

• Tiger Kingdom
• Elephants
• Chiang Mai night market
• Railay Beach

Our Thoughts on Thailand

Thailand is an amazing country.  Our time there just scratched the surface of the many things you can experience.  You should definitely make a trip here.  Just be sure to keep an eye out for some shady taxi drivers and tourist scammers.

While we loved our time in the Chiang Mai and Krabi regions.  Our time in Bangkok wasn’t nearly as fun. I don’t know if we just had bad luck, but another group of our friends were also running into similar problems in Bangkok.

Want to see more of our Travel related stuff?

If you liked the video check out our personal YouTube channel KrisandTrang.  We post all our travel videos and family life randomness on there.  If you want to read more about our travels visit our Travel page.  There you’ll find our most recent travel related posts and videos.