KOH SAMUI
We chose the ferry to get from Krabi to Koh Samui which took us around 2 h. Of course there were also tourists on the island but its been clearly less crowded. We took a short taxi drive to the airport to pick up our rental car cause our hotel the Conrad Koh Samui was located in the south of the island.
Since we only had three days on Koh Samui and our accomodation was so amazing, we didn’t go to all the places we wanted to see !
We were simply so overwhelmed by the beauty of its incredible view, we spend the first two days only exploring the beautiful accomodation area.
But on our last day we decided to leave this piece of paradise and drove to the North of the Island. Here we visited the Big Buddha which is definitely a Must See. Unlike the simple & white built Buddha in Phuket this one is designed with a lot of gold, colorful stones and other magnificent elements. There are many small shops and restaurants around the area of the Buddha and one of the cutest cafes in Thailand – the Big Buddha Coffee Shop. Its a tiny & super nice with great coffee and other home made specialities! Its really worth a visit
Only some minutes away lies the Wat Plai Laem – ein temple located on a giant lotus blossom in a lake. There are many big fishes in the water which can be fed to bring good fortune! For a small donation you can buy food for the fishes, turtles and pigeons! Right next to the temple there are two giant statues: one of the fat laughing chinese buddha and one of Guanyin the goddess of mercy with her many arms.
CHIANG MAI
Chiang Mai is called the city of the 1000 temples and in fact you see countless temples when walking through the city. My favorite has bee the Wat Phra That Doi Suthep – the landmark of the city located on a mountain which offers the best vier over Chiang Mai. Our uber driver struggled her way up to the serpentines and after around 30 mins we finally arrived. From here you can whether choose a lift our the Naga-stairs to reach the temple. As long as your not disabled or to old I can highly recommend the stairs in the form of two giant snakes (Nagas). The temple area itself is also really wonderful with all the buddha statues, bells & of course the amazing view!
Back in the city we drove to the old city wall and walked around the streets to explore more magnificent temples – you can walk around for hours and hours and you’ll always find something new to see. But the heat was so heavy that we had to stop our tour after one hour to enjoy some nice Thai Food in one of the many restaurants!
BANGKOK
Before we’re heading to Hong Kong our last stop in Thailand is the capital Bangkok. We’ve already been here one year ago but there are so many impressive Must Sees that we did a second sightseeing tour this time.
One of my personal highlights for bangkok is a boats tour through the khlongs with a traditional long tail boat. The khlongs are canals which flow into the main river Chao Phraya. Especially in the past those water ways were used for trading at the swimming markets. Today there are still many people living in their modest huts at the water but there are also huge and colorful temples to find at the river banks – it’s quite a contrast! We also spotted countless mango trees and some lizards near the water.
Unfortunately the water is quite dirty due to the rubbish that people are throwing in the canals. Nevertheless a lot of fishes living here and around the temple areas its forbidden to catch them since they are considered sacred here – instead of fishing them you can buy some bread to feed them and receive some good fortune.
Most of all Thailand truly suprised me! Many things were very different from what I expected – in both ways negative & positive.
What I learned for my next stay (and what I really recommend) is to remain at a distance from the touristic agglomerations and rather discover the quiet areas and the islands – so you will be able to discover the nature and the true Thailand.