I guess everyone who goes to Thailand has to visit Sukhothai. You don’t need that much time there, and I would recommend you go there as a pit stop and not as your main destination, as it’s not the most exciting place to go. We made a quick visit as I got a free night at the Sukhothai heritage– so we thought we better use it, and also get to see the pretty temples at the same time.
We were pretty excited to stay there, having seen the hotel at a travel fair earlier. The hotel was nice and had a genuine Thai touch. It’s really pretty at night time as the whole hotel is filled with golden lights. Though, I would recommend going there for Loi Krathong instead. That’s what stole our attention at the travel fair. Beautiful girls and boys in traditional Thai costumes dancing, fireworks and lanterns in the sky. Thai people are so great at festivals.
So as I said, we had minimal time there, we left Bangkok in the afternoon, stayed the night there- went to the temples in the morning, and went straight back after. We pretty much only enjoyed the temples and the other sights and didn’t spend too much time acquiring more knowledge. There’s a museum right next to the park so there’s actually no excuse, oh well… next time!
So serene…
My favourite travel partner <3
You can either drive into the park with a car, like we did. (The sun was blazing the day we went there, so it felt amazing having the air-con.) Or you can rent bikes to enter. I think foreigner price was around 150thb and only 30 baht for Thai’s.
We made a little road trip to the natural wonders of Thailand; Lalu. It’s a nice sight, and I can totally recommend going there to see the sun set. But don’t stay too late, it gets pretty dark in the area, and it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere.
I’ve always wanted to go see Lalu- as I frequently make the trip up to Surin as that’s where my family lives. We’ve never made it due to bad planning, and also… it’s a bit off route so you have to add a couple of hours to go there. But finally- this time it happened. Normally you should have some more time if you go there, as there are temples, waterfalls and plenty of other activities to do and see in the Sa Kaew area, but seeing we only had two days and one night, we just popped by Tha Phraya National Park with the only goal to see the rock formations “LALU”. LALU is actually called the Grand Canyon of Thailand and it is easy to see why.
It was juuust like this all around. Finally I got to see Lalu. I wish we brought a better camera so you could see the beautiful colors when the sun set. But this is pretty epic too.
Playing hide and seek in the formations. My one and only travel partner!
It’s easy to find the place- just follow Lalu on the map. We used google maps. In the beginning we weren’t quite sure if we were heading the right way as we hit a little village and the only road leading us to what seemed to be Lalu on the map was a little bridge made out of a couple of logs. We were both looking at each other weirdly and wasn’t sure if we wanted to take the risk- especially if it was going to lead us nowhere. While turning around we found a local playing around with his kids and asked him for directions- and he assured us that crossing the bridge was the only way to get there. Lucky for us- he was right.
Our mode of transportation, Tom’s baby. 😉
It took us around 5 hours to get there from Bangkok, and we spent around an hour there before we had to leave and plan for a place to stay for the night. We try to avoid driving in the dark so we found the closest hotel that seemed safe enough. It’s quite funny because we were both super hungry while searching for a hotel so when I found the hotel Nong Thong Steakhouse there were no doubt that that’s where we were headed.
When we arrived it wasn’t quite what we had expected, neither was there a steak house, BUT, they had air-con rooms with hot water for only 400 bath and they had an amazing Thai restaurant. I’m not kidding. It looks like a normal noodle shop and when they hand you the menu you’re like…. Hmm, not what I want when I’m super hungry, but then when the food comes, Oh my god. We got steak, spaghetti kee mao, som tum, grilled pork knuckles, and noodles and ALL of them were so tasteful. We finished absolutely everything we were served, and we even had a cornetto each for desert and the bill came on 450 bath. YES. I love to eat, hehe.
If I’m ever in the area again and need a place to stay, I will definitely come back here.
Ah, sitting in on the balcony in Pranburi now, listening to the washing waves and the birdies tweet, it’s so relaxing- sometimes I just wish I could live by the sea forever, hehe. I love Bangkok, but recently I’ve just gotten a bit tired of living in a big city. And at those times, it is feels so so good to come here and chill at Tom’s holiday house.
We haven’t taken some photos yet, as we’ve been busy with enjoying ourselves- yesterday we had some amazing sea food at XO seafood, playing games (as Tom has brought the xbox to leave here) and catching up on the blacklist. Today we are visiting the Khao Sam Roi Yot national park, having our fave Som Tum and grilled chicken, and catching up on some work outside work, hehe.
Since I haven’t got any photos to show you yet- I’ll post some from our most recent trip- our weekend getaway to Trang.
This time we only had two full days there so we didn’t get to do as much as last time but it was still pretty amazing. We stayed at beautiful Anantara Si Kao, and pretty much chilled by the pool or played around the hotel site. It’s a nice hotel with plenty to do, but I feel like their focus is mainly on families. Another must if you stay there is to bike down to the beach and have some sea food, we tried out two spots there and both of them were so delicious. Go for the pla neung manao, and make sure they give you a spicy one, it’s def my new favourite way to eat fish. Feels healty and has so many flavours in one.
All the bikinies are from Victoria Secret. When I lived in Norway I would always order these to my sister in the states to ship back home to me. Like how the pattern helps shaping the body. I also found this white lace kimono in JJ and I ruvvvv it. It’s perfect for the beach. The sunglasses though… look so weird here.
Love how everything was white- white sand, white pain, it makes it look so beachy and dreamy. And there were pretty much no people during day time. Ahh, we’re so lucky with these private beaches.
Dat view in the background…
Rented some bikes from the hotel and got a great leg work out to on the way back and forth from our seafood fix. Look at Tom’s smile, so excited! 😀
Pretty, pretty view from our hotel room. I wouldn’t mind waking up to this every day, he-he. Thank you so much Anantara for the two night stay. <3
Wherever we’ve been i Trang, either islands or mainland, the sunset never cease to amaze us. The sky is always purple with glowing lights, and when you think it can’t get any better it lights up even more. It was actually in Trang- one year ago, we started taking this leap photos and I think we’ve progressed quite a bit!
We went to the travel fair in Queen Sirikit with a goal to find a trip to Tachai island, as we’ve been wanting to go for ages.
Unless you want to spend days there trying to find good deals, it’s important to have a goal. We went a lot back and forth and asked pretty much everyone who offered trips to Tachai Island. The average price was around 6500 baht pr. person and this included the trip to Tachai from Khao Lak, and a two night stay in a hotel in Khao Lak (Khao Lak is the closest point to the piers to Tachai). The normal price if you book only the boat trip over to the islands starts at around 3000 baht. I’m mentioning this price because you will have to travel with a company to get there.
This left 3500 baht extra pr. person for two nights, which I thought was expensive, seeing the hotels didn’t look like more than 2000 baht.
We walked around for a couple of hours actually, and found one last place to ask. Here we were quoted 3400 baht pr. person this included the trip to Tachai AND two nights in a hotel at Karon beach and return transportation from the hotel to the pier in Khao Lak. We booked it on the spot!
The drive from Karon to Thap-Lamu pier took around one hour. We travelled to Tachai island with the company Fantastic similan, and I can’t recommend them enough! They are just amazing! What a fun crew. They organise photo ops and tell you absolutely everything you need to know about the island. You can read more about them here if you would want to make the same trip yourself.
The beach is perfect. White sand and clear blue waters. Not a single cloud on the sky…
//Bikini- Triangl swimwear//
Under the sea. There were almost no fish to spot, but it was fun anyways. Tom went on a long adventure trying to spot the nemo’s.
“It’s not about where you go, but who you travel with” – in this case both the location and travel partner were just perfect <3
We try to get a leap kiss wherever we travel- this one is the highest one yet!
The ladies from Fantastic similan made some great photo settings spread around the beach. They really know their thing. So much fun, and so many great photos taken.
P U R E H A P P I N E S S
“The real lover is the man who can thrill you by kissing your forehead or smiling into your eyes or just staring into space.” ― Marilyn Monroe
Have you ever been or you would like to go?
-A
NOTE: Tachai Island is now closed permanently and there is no set opening for the future due.
So it all started with us going to the travel fair in February this year. For those of you who don’t know about the the travel fair, it takes place in Queen Srikit center in Khlong Toey and have many great deals, not only travel ones, but food and clothing ++ aswell. It’s absolutely worth a visit, even if it’s just for travel inspiration. That’s mainly what we did, seeing the prices wasn’t that much cheaper than searching on agoda for the dates we wanted, but it does save you a lot of time. We actually went there for three days straight collecting ideas, and we only bought one trip. I’m so glad we ended up buying it, not only did we save 6000 bath, but we would have never have found this unseen paradise if we didn’t. Now I guess you guys are wondering where we went? The answer is Tohsang Khongjiam resort in Ubon Ratchatani.
Normally the price was 8000 bath (when we checked it) but we got it for 5000 a night. Though I have to say, paying 8000 bath for the stay is worth it. (You will agree when you’re done reading this post) We are already talking about going back even without a deal. As you guys might know Ubon is located in the north eastern part of Thailand, Isaan. (aslo known as Issan/Esarn/Isan) So you can imagine how pretty the drive up there is. Our goal for this trip was to visit Phanom Rung on the way there and use the rest of our time in Ubon. We started pretty late, but managed to arrive Buriram before night time and found a cute little 400bath hotel in Nangrong, which is where Phanom Rung is.
We started sightseeing pretty early in the morning so the sun was blazing. Good thing we had some umbrellas in the car otherwise it would’ve been unbearable.
The site is pretty nice, but you’re most likely not going to bother staying there for more than an hour.
Buriram is only half way to Ubon, so we had another 4 hours before we reached our destination. The drive up there is a total of 700km from Bangkok. We didn’t expect too much since it wasn’t a lot about the resort online. When we arrived we were amazed. The view was stunning, and we got the best villa out of them all, the beautiful river villa. When you see it, you’re not going to believe that all that is yours for 5000thb.
The resturant was super cute and very thai, both food and waiters. We loved it.
We made great use of our jacuzzi. The sunset is breathtaking from there.
Beautiful colours from our balcony during night time.
We ended up staying at the hotel most of the time, mostly because the villa was awesome and the view was beautiful all day around. Seriously… the sunset from the Jacuzzi on the balcony…….
Sunsets on Koh Libong. The tide withdrew nearly a mile during sunset, making it possible to walk out to the little island. Or digg for sea creatures, as the locals do…
The sunset on Koh Mook, taken on Had Farang beach.
Since I never wrote anything about two of the Trang islands we visited- Koh Mook, and Koh Libong, I thought I’d share my favourite thing about them both- the sunsets. They were dreamlike. Which one is your favourite?
