After we graduated, Soph and I had toyed with the idea of going to Thailand, tired of working in a restaurant full time we were desperate for adventure. We were both completely in need of a break. I know a LOT of people that have travelled Asia and Thailand especially so we were quite lucky in the sense that most of our research came from people's personal experiences. We spent a lot of days sat in tsps with our cupcakes & pots of tea researching transport, hostels, things to do etc and we bought journals to write everything down so we could bring it with us for advice along the way.
A lot of the advice I was given was telling me to pretty much wing it. For someone like Soph who writes lists, has a calendar in her living room with things to do on and a very organised diary this was terrifying and for someone like me who has a mom that likes to have plenty of factual information to follow my every move (i wish i was joking, my mom is the person that I could tell I was talking to a guy and she would already know and have done a full background check on him) this was pretty daunting. I didn't have many answers to her 97 questions. I had a lot of research but a very small plan which had stayed true to what people had told me to do. Now having been out here a week I realise that the best thing to do is to actually wing it, obviously do thorough research but your plans will change along the way and we have already met so many different people whilst travelling that have given us recommendations to last us a lifetime.
So in January we booked our return flights- our flight cost around £300 each. I did this through a website called Travel trolley but I literally googled 'cheap flights to Bangkok', call me crazy. We flew with Qatar airways and our flights went from Manchester to Doha with a connecting flight from Doha to Bangkok.
The next thing I booked was our travel insurance, I did this on compare the market and got us insurance with Virgin that cost just under £30 for the both of us, which to cover any and all possible injuries abroad is pretty damn cheap. Always, always check everything it covers you for. This is why it was so important we had researched the kinds of things we wanted to do e.g jungle treks, caring for elephants, snorkelling, etc then we could ensure we were covered for all of these things. I literally booked this less than 3 weeks before our trip. I am my mom's worst nightmare.
Decide which luggage you want to take. We decided on taking big backpacks as check-in luggage and smaller backpacks for hand luggage. Shout out to my friend Laura that kindly lent me a big backpack which I can fit more than enough inside!
However we met two guys from Canada that took backpacks onto their flights and we also met two other girls that travelled with suitcases.
The biggest advice I can give on packing - don't overpack!!! Every time someone told me this I laughed it off but seriously save all of your pennies, you can buy PLENTY of quirky, cool bits and pieces here for hella cheap. A couple of days ago in Pai I bought a cute top with a hamsa hand on the front for the equivalent of £2.22, on the markets you can haggle things down for way cheaper than that.
Girls- go bra-less, you will either wear bikini tops or wear no bras, i don't know why i bothered bringing some, it's way too hot and uncomfortable for that.
Bring half of everything you would usually take. Bring more bikinis than anything, bikinis are the only thing out here that are a bit hit & miss with sizes.
Our flight with Qatar was incredible. For £300 for return flights we experienced the best service! We were given refreshing towels upon boarding, comfortable seats, helpful staff and there were screens on the back of all seats with 100s of movies, tv shows, games and more on them. I watched Mo Farrah and Usain Bolt documentaries and 'Collateral Beauty'. The flights are long and tiring but they give you an insane amount of food!
Another tip I would give is constantly check your flights, our connecting flight from Doha was changed after we booked it. We were supposed to have 3 hours between flights and ended up with ONE HOUR inbetween which resulted in us sprinting around Doha airport like headless chickens. Thankfully, we made our flight.
For Thailand if you are staying for no longer than 30 days you don't need a Visa but you will be given immigration cards on the flight to fill in for them to check at security.
We got a taxi from the airport which cost us around 450 baht. All taxis in Bangkok have to go by metre but our hostel had told us to get an airport taxi. They told us it would be between 250 and 350 baht and the driver tried to tell me it would be 600 baht, i haggled us down to 450 but i reckon he would have settled for 400. This is because of the highway in Bangkok it costs to get through specific barriers. 450 is still amazing- just under £10 for the both of us for a 45 minute journey!
We booked our hostel on booking.com and our flight to Bangkok and our hostel were the only things we booked for our 3 week trip, we have done everything else as we have gone along. I would seriously recommend booking.com, also advise other travellers along the way to use it and send them your referral codes which gets you both £15 off your next booking.
We stayed at 'Here' hostel in Bangkok which was around a 10 minute walk from Khao San road as recommended by a friend. It cost us £11 for the night with breakfast included, we stayed in a dorm with lockers, really comfortable bunk beds and curtains to pull across for privacy. Our hostel had the most amazing, quirky interior as most places I have found in Thailand full of colourful fairy lights and we even had a slide for downstairs- don't even think we didn't get a Boomie on them!
The breakfast included!
If you have any questions or need any more tips/advice on travelling- feel free to message me ☺
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