The Little Things in Thailand

Visited Thailand last December! This is how I remember that awesome week.

Too many tourists

Opposite of Batanes, Thailand has a lot of tourists, specially in Bangkok.

We went to Grand Palace with an expensive entrance fee to have the place full of tourists like us. There's probably a hundred different travel agency groups right there flocking together and finding it hard to understand what the tour guide has to say. I still wouldn't have skipped it because Grand Palace is a place I'm glad I got to see in this lifetime.

The train also gets easily full in the afternoon until they close for the night. Waking up early has been an advantage!

When locals don't understand you, they just smile

The first time I experienced this was from the guy working in Family Mart. After listening to what I said, he just smiled back at me 😅.

So this is why it's called the city of smiles!  

Our tour guide in Ayutthaya said (on our second to the last day) that 90% of Thai people don't speak English. A little bit of a shock to me since the country is known for having a lot of tourist, but it's also really nice that they embrace their language first. 

Girl Power 👩🏼‍🦳💪🏻

I see women working for jobs that our society says should be for men! Grab drivers, Train drivers, Bus drivers, Bus Conductors! Yes, plural. 😍😍😍😍

A lot of assist for tourists in mrt/bts

Of course we got lost multiple times. Nothing's new! Specially when we need to take a bus. Good thing there are multiple assists available for tourists like us!

Some are inside a small office and when you ask them, they will give you a map and write there their instructions. Some are uniformed locals to guide us in buying tickets.

A lot of people say that Thailand is very similar to the Philippines. Based from their transport system, I think they are so far ahead up the ladder 📈. Also locals fall in line while waiting for the next train, something I don't think is possible in my country.

Expensive commute

It felt like most of our pocket money was spent on transport.

We opted for the airport taxi on our way to our hotel because it was late and my bestie and I were both coming straight from our full time job. I was in constant panic watching the taxi meter go higher and higher before we reach our destination. Not to mention the payment for highways. And then we have to add 50Baht more as a fee because it was from the airport 🤯. 

I also thought that tuktuks are going to be cheap. They weren't 💸! We bargained for a cheap price but even though we won, it was still far expensive than I was willing to pay for the short ride. Im not sure if this is expensive just because we were in a touristy location, I have no other reference.

By the end, we also found out that using Grab is just as cheap as taking the train (for 2 pax).

3 star hotels are very nice!!!

lowkey want you to check out my new tattoo

Also, very cheap! The interior and exterior does not look as cheap as the price. There's daily housekeeping. The rooms are very spacious. The rest room is not cringe-y (which is usually the case for cheap accommodation), usually has a bath tub too. There's more than 1 employee in charge in the front desk. There's no way this is just 3 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

We spent our 7 days of stay in 3 different hotels. All of them are just like this.

Public restrooms are nice as well

I've read a lot of blogs about what to expect when in Thailand. Most of them will tell you to prepare for the public restrooms. As it turns out it was so much better than those we have here in the Philippines! Bidets are available, tissues as well. Even in the elephant sanctuary in Chiang Mai we went to, the rest room despite being made from bamboo, does not look cheap and dirty.

It smells

I don't want to be racist or rude or anything (advance sorry 😭✌🏻) but I still want to note this. The smell is the same smell in our accommodation in Hong Kong and it is the smell of the Chinese. How it became evident or how it stayed in these places, I have no idea. My guess is that there's probably a lot of Chinese tourists here too.

We stayed in three different 3 star hotels. On the first one, it was only in our room. The second, on the elevator. The third, in the lobby and elevator.

At first the smell is strong but will go away after some time. I guess they are bearable.

Plastic on plastic on plastic

I was stressed at how many single use plastic we consumed from this trip! 

• When you buy street food they automatically add it in a plastic and put that inside a bigger plastic 🤯
• When you buy street food with rice, a plastic is included inside the container as well (IDK why)
• All the places we went to for shopping uses plastic, and there are so many stalls there, so imagine buying in 5 different stores === 5 plastic bags 😭

Sometimes I become too late to tell them not to use plastic. 

I'm not the most environment friendly person out there, but in here, with this amount of single use, I am alarmed. Good news 📣 is that they implemented a wider plastic ban this 2020! (a month after I experienced this nightmare) 

Update after revisiting this draft: This plastic problem is probably the same plastic problem we have here in the Philippines 💆🏻‍♀️

711, Family Mart and Starbucks everywhere

bestie: "Let's go to 711"

me: "The one on the left, right, or in front?"

Yep this is a real conversation. They are everywhere. I thought Chiang Mai has a more province feel but nope. We've spent most mornings in a Family Mart trying out their wide variety of food.

Also, some finds you'll see in the Chatuchak weekend market are cheaper in 711/family mart.

The best stuff I found are in the streets!

We've managed to spend a day in Chatuchak Weekend Market and yet our best buys were still from those stalls at the side of the street we happen to stumble into on our way somewhere. I wish we found more of these!

Outside our hotel (For You Residence), there's a morning street market. I bought a jacket and a coat there while my bestie bought 2 pants and 2 jackets. We almost gave in and bought bags too! And this was after we spent the night trying to fit in all our already heavy luggage with the shopping we already made.

+ the street food 👌🏼. Okay probably not a little thing. The best was the fried chicken and the pork barbecue. Every time we see the pork BBQ in the streets, we have no choice but to buy one or two each. So we were 2 tourists walking around Bangkok eating street food. Ahh, the simple joys 🍗

More observations in bullets

• Elephant and buddha designs everywhere
• Big sized (by that, I mean taller than me) framed picture of the King all over the streets
• Locals are in general very pretty 😍💛
• Automatic sliding door for convenience stores
• Receipts are compact and small, all the space in the tiny paper is used
• A lot of flowers 🌹🌻🌺🌷
• Everyone drives like crazy(!!!) 

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So this is the part where I say I will go back. And I definitely will! Mostly for the shopping and elephants 🛍🐘.