Explore beyond Bangkok…

Here’s a list of my favourite day trips and weekend get aways using Bangkok as a base!

Khao Yai National Park

Head into this jungle wilderness in one of Thailand’s oldest national parks. See wild elephants, monkeys, gibbons, snakes, porcupines, deer and many more while on a Greenleaf tour or rent motorbikes and head into the park yourself! 400 baht national park fee entrance. Camping overnight in the park is an option or stay in nearby Pak Chong. Minivans from Bangkok take about 2 hours.

Koh Samet

Take a minivan ride to Rayong and jump on a boat to Koh Samet! Gorgeous beaches and lovely sunsets at Ao Prao beach. Go week days to avoid the crowds and be prepared to pay slightly more for accommodation!

Whale Watching (seasonal Aug-Nov)

Yes just two hours from Bangkok, the enormous Bryde whales can be seen! Entering the Gulf of Thailand to feed on anchovies these gentle giants are incredible! Wildlife Encounters Thailand offer weekly trips for 2500 baht including transfer from Bangkok and lunch on the boat. An amazing day out!

 

Koh Lan

Take a boat from Pattaya and head to one of my favourite Bangkok getaways. Cheap accommodation and a host of beautiful white sand beaches. Jump in a songtaew (truck) or motorsi taxi for 20-30 baht and spend the day exploring lesser known beaches and taking in great views of the island!

Ayutthaya

Head to this ancient temple town, one hour by train or minivan from Bangkok. Rent bicycles cheaply and enjoy cycling around and soaking in the culture. Don’t forget to try my favourite dessert roti sai mai – kinda like a rolled up candyfloss!

Kanchanaburi

Quite far for a day trip but doable. Two hours by car/minivan or a little longer on the train. Tourists come here to see the bridge over the River Kwai and understand more about the dark history of this area where prisoners of war were held by the Japanese during World War II.

Erawan Waterfall – a stunning, blue coloured waterfall with 9 steps inside Erawan National Park. Around 45 minutes by car from Kanchanaburi, bring a picnic and spend the afternoon swimming in stunning pools, cliff jumping and getting back to nature.

Hua Hin

One of Bangkok’s nearest beaches and very big for kite surfing. A large stretch of yellow sand beach for hanging out on and a wide range of hotels, accommodation is on offer here. Swimming is not always recommended as there are jellyfish lurking! Cha-am is another beach stop just before Hua Hin. You can take minivans or the train to either place from Bangkok.

Water Park

On the way to Pattaya there is Splashdown. More of an inflatable obstacle course, it is guaranteed big kid fun for the day!

 

Where are your favourite places to go near Bangkok?

Hot Water for Elephants

Riding an elephant on your bucketlist? Re-think your list.

I like to think that any tourist planning to visit South East Asia and interact with animals would do some research into the type of establishment they are participating in and giving money too. Unfortunately the high number of tourists who ride elephants and visit tiger temples in Thailand every year suggests otherwise.

I would love to see tourists taking responsibility for their actions. In the Western world, we are so lucky that we have the money and often the time to travel to places like South East Asia. When I first visited Thailand, I could find only TWO elephant sanctuaries that did not offer rides. Four years later there has been a burst in ‘no riding’ sanctuaries in Chiang Mai and it is thanks to the tourists who drive the demand for this. If there is no demand for elephant riding, then local Thai people will be encouraged to use their elephants in alternative tourist settings such as feeding and bathing with them.

Elephants are not made to carry items on their backs. The metal racks placed upon them during tourist rides does lasting damage and deforms the elephant’s back. Working elephants are subject to cruel and abusive ways of taming them known as ‘the crush’ in which elephants are tied up for days or weeks and violently abused until they will comply with the abusers’ commands. Many elephants are trained from an extremely young age which includes being separated from their mothers. Elephants are often blinded on purpose, as a blind elephant is that much easier to control. Large metal hooks are driven into wounds to force the elephant to turn left and right. The skin around the tusks is often hacked at in order to sell as much of the tusk as possible on the ivory black market.

Ideally these elephants would be rehabilitated and released into the wild. Unfortunately in Thailand this is often not possible, either the elephants rampage local farms or are too dependent on humans. Luckily Thai locals have set up sanctuaries such as Elephant Nature Park and Hug Elephant Sanctuary (two that I’ve personally visited!) to protect them, work with them and boost local tourism using them.

So here’s to the Thais and the tourists, changing the fate of elephants little by little…

 

What are your elephant experiences? Any other ethical places to recommend?

Never Smile at Indian Men…and Other Bullshit

Having researched and read so many travel blogs over my travelling lifetime I feel I really want to blog about dispelling some horrendous and detrimental myths there are, particularly about travel in places such as Sri Lanka and  India.

Below are some of the following ‘tips’ that I read before both my solo trips:

• Wear a wedding ring
• Never tell anyone you are travelling alone
• Say you are meeting your ‘husband’ later on
• Don’t stay in cheap accommodation – it’s for prostitutes
• Never tell anyone where you are staying
• Don’t take night trains (as read in Lonely Planet!)
• Don’t talk to locals
• Don’t smile at Indian men

 

Having now travelled solo as a woman in both these countries I can fairly safely say that this is complete bullshit. Don’t smile at people? I met some fantastic Indian guys who are now my good friends. I strongly feel that by never telling anyone we are travelling alone, we are not helping the world – we are playing along with society’s idea that women cannot travel solo. That we should feel scared and we are better off staying at home.

 

I am not naïve. I have had scary moments all over the world including my home – the UK. But that does not mean for one minute that I feel I cannot travel alone. The same things that happen in India, happen in Thailand and happen in London. While I admit that in every society there are certain uneducated and bigoted members who do not respect women, and there may be more in some countries than others, I do not think we should cower in our apartments and never see the world.

I have wanted to go to India since I was teenager. It took me until 27 to pluck up the courage to stop waiting for someone to come with me and just go! After everything I read I decided to join a group tour for the first part of my trip. As soon as I was there I felt comfortable enough to travel alone. And I did so for the last 10 days of my trip which resulted in some of the most incredible experiences of the trip: whizzing around the Himalayas on motorbikes, waking up at 4am to see sunrise from a temple, building bonfires on beaches by the side of the Ganga river, attending puja religious ceremonies with locals, rafting, bungee jumping, sharing delicious Indian food…the list goes on.

My advice to any female solo travellers wanting to go to India but feeling unable to is…GO! Book on a tour for the first part to help you feel more confident but I would without a doubt feel MORE than comfortable returning alone to travel India, Sri Lanka and many more besides…

Advice I DID appreciate and listened to: Take precautions, cover up, have a plan if you arrive late at night, always lock your doors, don’t wander around alone late at night, stay in busy areas, avoid parks/alleys at night, walk on main roads, take a card from the hotel (mainly advice because I get lost and have a terrible sense of direction!)

What are your thoughts on solo female travel? Are you tired of the world telling you it’s ‘too dangerous’? Not safe? Or do you think it’s justified?

Thailand: 10 things not to miss!

1. Visit an Elephant Sanctuary. One that rescues and elephants and offers no riding! (Hug Elephant Sanctuary I strongly recommend!)
2. Go to the jungle – Khao Yao National Park is one of my favourite places!
3. Party on a beautiful island – Koh Phangnan for full moon or Phi Phi every day of the week!
4. Go to a Bangkok skybar – Vertigo or Octave are my personal favs!
5. Go shopping at Chatachak weekend market in Bangkok – get lost and shop cheap!
6. Temples – once you’ve seen a couple you’ve seen them all but my favourite is Wat Pho in Bangkok
7. Street Food – need I say more?!
8. Snorkelling trip – the coral and the fish are equally beautiful and trips are great value for money!
9. Try diving for the first time! Koh Tao is still one of the cheapest places in the world to learn! Warning: once you start, you can’t stop!
10.  Go island hopping! With 100s of islands to choose from, enjoy exploring!