Christmas in Thailand

Christmas Vacation in Thailand

We spent a total of 11 days touring Thailand.  Starting in Bangkok, traveling North to Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Laos, south to Sukhothai Historical Park, and then all the way down to Phuket Island.  Here are some impression, pictures, and adventures we want to share.

We are off to Thailand!

Korean Air was pretty nice... However no Kimchi allowed on our flight!

Bangkok Train Station: We wanted to store our bags here while we explored Bangkok for a bit.  "No food in bags, we have rats" was the response. So we hauled our snacks around town all day to keep our bags rat free.

Lumpini Park: Thankful for some shade on a hot first day in Thailand.

Terrible espresso bubble tea and yummy basil chips

Bangkok "Subway" system, partially above ground and SO WARM.  Our impression was that it was so much smaller and easier to navigate than our Seoul system.

Train to Chiang Mai

Private train berth for our overnight train to Chiang Mai. Bunk Beds!

Some of Thailand's countryside

This is the public transit bus. Costs about 30  baht (Less than $1).  When we ended up stuck in the inside, blocked by all the school kids, at our stop and we got to crawl out the windows!

Papaya Salad with Crab. Could not get enough of this!

Moon, our tour guide on our Chiang Rai/white temple/Laos day trip

No shoes in the temple

Boat trip around the "golden triangle" between Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), and Laos.

Laos: a tourist trap... alcohol and knockoff handbags

Hill tribes villages

Hill tribe toddlers playing on their cell phone

Our favorite restaurant on the trip!  Lert Ros in Chiang Mai.  A recommendation from friends.  BBQ fish, beer, and soup for about 240 baht (approx. $7).  

Fish foot spa.  Tickles...especially when they nibble in between your toes!

Back on the train and headed to Phitsanulok to catch our bus to Sukothai  

Train food, not our favorite... boiled sweet mackerels and rice.

The best pad thai ever.  SO glad we got two things of take out from this restaurant before our train ride.

No fun to board your midnight train to find your bunk is already taken.  :(

Our car attendant was apparently sleeping on the job and got chewed out by the main train guy.  

Our cute little hut in Sukhothai. Orchid Hibiscus guest house...good food and a pretty setting. 

Christmas Morning breakfast while listening to Handel's Messiah. 

Raw honeycomb

steamed coconut pudding with banana and honey

Seriously the best breakfast of the whole trip. Four kinds of jam and toast, eggs, coffee, mini bananas and coconut pudding.

Sukhothai Historical Park...toured on bikes on Christmas Day

A school field trip.  The kids were so cute and kept telling us, "Merry Christmas!"

Mr. Rude expressed an interest in watching our lunch get cooked...instead she made him cook it!

Lunch cooked by Mr. Rude

Our last meal up north! It was street cart food night market meal. Ramen, pineapple, watermelon, mango sticky rice and doughnuts.
Caught the midnight train back to Bangkok to catch our flight to Phuket! Once we landed we were off  to our hotel at near Rawai beach.

Welcome to Phuket! We arrived around 10 in the morning the weather was amazing and we got ourselves down to the beach as soon as we could! We sat down to order our food for lunch. As we waited, the darkest clouds we have ever seen came rolling over the hills and monsoon rained on the beach for about 30 min. After that we had pretty good weather and went into island mode, it was pretty relaxing. We explored several beaches, went on a snorkel tour, burned our skin, ate some great food, drank amazing thai iced tea and realized we forgot to book a place for our last night.... 

Beach at coral island where we were able to do some snorkeling 

Banana Beach

Nai Harn beach 

Lunch at the beach: pad thai, pineapple fritters, chicken satay and papaya salad

Rawai pier

Naithon Beach

Our beach taxi from to and from the hotel

Rawai Beach

Sparkle water! We drank so much of this :)

Our scooter. They are so cheap to rent and make getting around much easier. We were able to check out several beaches,   catch a sunset at the cape, get our laundry done and managed to survive and stay married... :D

Huge lobster trap? 

Mrs. Rude loves her scooter!!!

Waiting for the sun to set

Snorkel tour! The guide was entertaining, the snorkeling not so great but the trip was worth the speedboat rides to the two Islands we were able to check out along the way.

Coral Island Beach - White sand and super clear water

Had about three hours to relax before heading back to the main island.  Caught up on some reading!

Back to Naithon beach to catch a sunset and watch local fisherman fish off the shored

Sun set dinner at the beach

Found a friend at the bungalows we rented for the last night at the beach

Banana Beach 

Gas stations for scooters 

Snacks on the go!

Elephant towels!!! 

Headed back to Korea....

All in all, a wonderful tour of Thailand.  So thankful for this opportunity to explore another country.  

Hope you enjoyed! 

The Rudes