The Last 3 Weeks in Thailand and My Personal Thoughts

Dear Wilson,

Sorry for the lengthy silence for the past few weeks. To be completely 100% honest, I have been struggling with some boredom. The past few weeks have not been as amazing of a time as we had in Chiang Mai. 

After leaving Chiang Mai, we flew to Phuket. The house we stayed in was the nicest Airbnb we have ever stayed in. It felt like royalty to be honest. It was truly a pleasure to stay there but the surrounding city was just too touristy for my preference. Lots of tourists and traffic even though it was the off season. Also, Phuket is definitely not walkable like Chiang Mai. Phuket is HUGE and very busy. Huge as in you can drive for over an hour and you are still in Phuket. Hundreds of thousands of scooters on the roads. We had a rental car but now I know why scooters are the optimal choice. Parking was almost impossible with a car. I can't say that renting a car was a mistake because I didn't see any 5 seater scooters lol. So it is what it is. We had to have a car. I will also say that the locals in Phuket are more neutral in friendliness. They were still kind but in a more neutral and distant emotional stance if that makes sense. To the locals, we were just another tourist. We had just come from Chiang Mai where the people were the kindest and most genuine we have ever encountered in our lives. Phuket just didn't compare. I felt and was treated more like a tourist and I just don't like that feeling. However, I will say there were some significant positives about Phuket. The beach was truly amazing!  Beaches in Phuket look photoshopped but it was truly real life. The huge waves were so fun and we saw the most blue and clear water I've ever seen in my life. I generally don't like beaches but with huge waves, clear blue water, and coconut palm trees in the backdrop were quite spectacular. I really did enjoy the beaches and swimming with the family. Definitely the most fun I've ever had at a beach. If you love the beach then I don't think it gets better than Phuket. The traffic and culture just sucks though. I guess it's all about tradeoffs and what is important to you. For me, I travel to see people/culture or nature. Yes, I saw the beach of a lifetime but that's not why I travel, so for me, it was a let down. One more positive thing about Phuket was that Erica and I had a date night at the best restaurant I have ever been to. It was a yakiniku restaurant. Yakiniku basically means Japanese BBQ buffet. Not like BBQ where we are from. There is a charcoal grill built into the table and no… there isn't BBQ sauce lol. You decide the menu you want based on quality. Basically the more you pay, the higher grade of beef you get with additional options. We went for the highest priced buffet. This included A4 wagyu beef! Truly amazing food. Everything is served raw and you cook it over a charcoal grill that is literally built into the table. So it was delicious and interactive. Thank you Wah for showing us Japanese BBQ! We would have never known about restaurants like this if she wouldn't have shown us this style of restaurant. I wish we had restaurants like this in the United States but from my knowledge, they don't exist. Well, that pretty much sums up Phuket. Absolutely beautiful but no cultural feel.

From Phuket, we went on about a 9 hour road trip to Hua Hin. In my mind this was going to be "the middle of nowhere" kind of road trip and super fun. Not exactly what I expected and it was quite developed to my surprise. It was pretty much busy highways the whole way. A little disappointing because I like to put us in scenarios where we are uncomfortable and feel adventurous. It was pretty "civilized" the entire way. However, I saw basically no tourists. I don't think many tourists take long road trips through Thailand. Anyway, I'm not sugar coating any of these blogs. So….. we arrived in Hua Hin. Hua Hin sucks to be 100% honest. Lots of people and traffic but I have no idea why. The beaches are basically Pensacola, Florida but worse. On a positive note, we did go to a temple that has literally about a thousand monkeys that roamed wild. Pretty awesome to get extremely close to the monkeys and I can't say it was super safe but that was part of the adventure. 

The monkeys are pretty much the only cool thing in Hua Hin so I can't recommend this as a stop. Unfortunately, we were here for a week but it's all good. 

Once we left Hua Hin, we headed back to Bangkok. This is back where we originally started in Thailand. We fly out here to go to Indonesia so we spend our last week in Bangkok. The area we are staying in is pretty boring since we have basically experienced all we needed to experience in Bangkok. Again, Chiang Mai is the clear winner in Thailand. So we have been pretty bored for our last 6 days here in Bangkok. Tomorrow morning we fly to Bali, Indonesia. Super excited to see a new country and culture. I love Thailand but mostly just Chiang Mai. I think the super kind people, walkable city, and definitely Wah, had a lot to do with our love for Chiang Mai. Thailand will always be a cherished memory for me and hopefully for the rest of our family.