Work To Live

We had an amazing time visiting Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Khao Lak in Thailand, and we picked up some hints and tips along the way that we wanted to share. How we Booked and Organised the Trip Normally, we book our holidays ourselves for more flexibility and to book directly. However, since we hadn’t really been to Asia (except for work trips), we decided to use a travel firm to help us navigate the best areas to stay and arrange transportation. After some research, we chose  eShores , which seemed well-known for multi-location holidays and had received very good feedback on several review sites. We had no clear idea of what we wanted and no specific budget, but after a call with Hannah to discuss the type of holidays we enjoy, she came up with an amazing itinerary. We didn’t change anything from the original quote. We checked all the hotels on TripAdvisor and saw they had good reviews, were centrally located, and had a boutique charm that meant we weren’t staying in standard large ...

 Lee with some tips on speaking Thai

Lee with some tips on Thai money:

We are both active people, and six days of non-stop relaxing was never going to suit us. So, we decided to visit one of the local tour kiosks on the beach to plan some activities.  Our original plan was to visit an elephant sanctuary, but as we looked into the online reviews, we realised many of these “sanctuaries” aren’t what they claim to be. Instead of true sanctuaries, they exploit the elephants and keep them in poor conditions. Instead we opted for a private tour with three stops: a waterfall, a turtle sanctuary, and bamboo rafting. The first stop was the waterfall. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite the majestic scene we’d envisioned—it was more like a puddle of stagnant, smelly water. So much for the “refreshing swim in the pool at the base of the falls” that had been advertised! We had asked the tour operator if the waterfall was flowing, and they assured us it was. Either they were ensuring our business, or something got lost in translation.  Next up was the turtle sanctu...

The flight from Chiang Mai was super simple, and even better, we managed this one without a hangover. A car picked us up from the hotel, and it was a 20-minute drive to the domestic terminal. We went straight through check-in and security and were soon waiting to board our flight. We landed at Phuket Airport, which was extremely busy with tourists. We found our driver, who had a very spacious and extravagant minibus for our 1.5-hour journey to Khao Lak. We had planned six nights in Khao Lak, intending to laze around the pool and the beach, with one activity a day to explore the sights. In hindsight, we spent too long here and probably should have included a couple of nights in Phuket as well. What didn’t help with the lazing was that we couldn’t relax on the beach or in the pool near the beach. We quickly learned upon arriving that Khao Lak was one of the worst-hit areas during the 2004 tsunami, with over 4,000 people killed. Many locals had lost family, friends, businesses, and more. ...

The previous day we booked a group day trip through the hotel to explore some of the sites outside of Chiang Mai. There were many tour options, and we aimed for a mix of hiking, culture, and nature, without spending too much time in the car. We were picked up outside the hotel in a minibus with other travellers and headed out of the city. Shortly after leaving, we stopped at a large, modern service station—the only stop before heading into the jungle. The journey wasn’t particularly comfortable. The vans were fairly old, the air conditioning minimal, and the seats more suited to the smaller Thai locals than the larger Europeans and Americans. It was best not to focus too much on the driving and instead count the many temples we passed. Our first stop was the Wachirathan Waterfall. We were dropped off a few steps from the waterfall and walked along a short path by the stream at the base of the falls, leading to a parking area with a small market selling food and clothes. Our driver wait...