Welcoming the new year in Thailand

Upon arriving in Bangkok we were quite hungry, our only nutrition for the day had been only a few 7-eleven sandwiches we picked up on the way. Our ride ended somewhere towards the center of Bangkok, due to some communication issues with the driver we weren't quite sure where we would get dropped off. We didn't let that discourage us, though. The area we were in was full of life and hustling and bustling, streets filled with food and clothing stalls, tourists and locals in great numbers. We made our way to the MRT (public transportation) that would take us to our hotel and on the way we found a cozy little restaurant where we had our first Thai meal, some noodles and meat. From the looks it could have been another Vietnamese dish but the taste was very very different.

After filling our bellies we took the blue line MRT to our hotel. It was some distance from the city center so our journey lasted for the better part of an hour. This also gives some idea about the sheer size of this Asian capital. The population count of the city is an estimated 9 million people, but with the suburbs included it increases to around 17 million.

The next morning we made our way to the main train station of the city to try to get ourselves tickets to the north of the country. Our attempts online the day before were unsuccessful so we decided to give it a try in person. No luck though, the train connection we wanted is the most popular one in the whole country, and the tickets in high season are sold out months in advance. Not the best situation for our more spontaneous way of travelling. This left us no choice but to book flights instead, which were not an outrageous expense in the end, even so close to the travel dates.

From there we walked to an enormous weekend market close by. The market was like a maze of streets and stalls and people, it could have been a city of its own. Since this was our first proper experience with thai goods and street food, we spent a good hour or two just exploring, making some minor purchases and making ourselves familiar with the classic mango sticky rice.

Afterwards it was time to take the blue line towards the city center. We ended up on a street filled with street art called Talat Noi. It consisted mostly of graffiti paintings on the walls, but also some old cars and cafes. The area was well protected with plenty of surveillance cameras making sure no one ruins the pretty creations. On the way we saw an almost life-sized Optimus Prime in the middle of a roundabout, a funny sight to see.

Talat Noi is close to the Chinatown of Bangkok, which is definitely a must-see location. It's the biggest Chinatown in the world with all kinds of delicacies ranging from the sky to the sea. The two that stood out the most to us were bird's nest soup, and shark fin steaks. We settled for some Pad Thai. We finally wanted to have a taste of the real deal to have a comparison to the western replicas. When the portions finally arrived we were greatly disappointed. They were possibly two of the smallest portions of food we'd ever received, as if they were for toddlers, and the taste was bland to say the least. Our hunt for good Pad Thai was not finished.

The rest of Chinatown was definitely impressive though. We ended up trying a local treat which was a half-crispy half-soft toasted bun with a sweet filling of different flavors. We chose thai tea and chocolate. By that time it was already dark. The transition from daylight to streetlight was very smooth but also somewhat sudden. From there our journey took us to the blue line and back to the hotel for a good night's rest.

The following day was a day of temples. First things first, however. Our Pad Thai craving had not been satisfied. For breakfast we headed to a highly rated restaurant that only serves Pad Thai. Generally speaking, when a restaurant only serves one dish with slight variations, it's safe to assume it will not disappoint. This was no exception. The portions were still not the biggest, but the taste and appearance were night and day compared to the previous one. We finally knew what an authentic delicious Pad Thai tastes like. Fueled with energy we were ready for the adventures of the day.

Our first stop was the "golden temple on the hill" called Wat Saket Ratchawora Mahawihan. The names of places and temples in Thailand were quite difficult to remember, no exception here. The temple was located on top of a hill with a bunch of little street food stalls at the base. The walk up the hill was interesting, filled with brass bells that people could ring. Not the most pleasant experience for our ears. At the top it was a buddhist temple with a statue of Buddha for each day of the week, sometimes both morning and evening. We spent the bulk of our time queueing for the way down. It took at least half an hour from entering the queue until we managed to get to the exit.

A short walk later we found ourselves on the Khao San Road, known as the backpackers' road. It's famous for its large selection of weed stores and parties. Here we tried eating scorpion for the first time in our lives. It was a fun experience but not very nutritious. The shell, especially the claws were very hard to bite through, and there was not too much meat. The taste could be best described as "seafoody".

The last hour and a half of daylight we spent at the Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimon Mangkhalaram Rajwaramahawihan temple complex, home to the world's largest reclining Buddha. Overall the area was incredibly impressive. Filled with decorated buildings, temples, statues and even some minor exhibitions. We also caught the last rays of sunlight here, which reflected beautifully off of the decorations.

The actual sunset we spent looking across the river at another temple called Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan. We nicknamed this one the Machine gun temple (because the name resembles the "ratatata" sound a machine gun makes). The sunset was beautiful, especially coupled with the lightbeams installed by the temple.

We entered the last day of the year with a lazy morning. We knew we would be staying up late, so we decided to take the morning slowly. Our plan was to discover the location for the big New Year's party at the Times Square of Asia in the heart of Bangkok. It's surrounded by half a dozen shopping malls, where we spent half the day. The malls were nice and big, but not quite as impressive as in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of shopping malls. We found the place where the celebration would take place, and at 4pm there were already thousands of people queueing for the best spots by the main stage. It was madness.

There was still a lot of time until midnight, so we made our way to a park close by to relax for a bit. We were greeted by multiple asian water monitors. They are large reptiles, completely harmless but apparently comfortable around humans as long as they aren't disturbed. It felt nice to cool down for a while in the park.

Afterwards we needed some dinner. We ended up on a street filled with two things. Restaurants and prostitutes. The whole street was filled with them, sitting in front of their agencies, waiting for customers. Quite a unique sight. Our last meal of the year was some ramen.

Then at around 9pm we headed back to the party square. By then it was completely filled with people. After some queueing to get into the event area we were lucky enough to find space on the ground to sit with a good view of the screens where the stage was projected. The time until midnight passed with lots of music performances and some other program. We didn't understand much since it was all in Thai, but the vibe was nice nonetheless.

By midnight there were around 250 000 people in the area, maximum capacity for the square. For the last ten seconds there was a huge countdown on the screen and everyone was participating. Once the clock hit midnight it was time for an amazing show of fireworks. It was definitely the most impressive one we had ever seen. The sky was full of non-stop explosions and colors for the next 8 minutes. Sometimes there was so much smoke the fireworks were barely visible.

After the spectacle the party died down very quickly. The people made their way home and we followed suit. Luckily the MRT was running for an extra two hours so we had an easy journey home.

The next day, which was our last day in Bangkok, we spent by exploring the streets once again. They were much quieter than on the days before, people were taking their time to celebrate instead of working their stalls and restaurants. We checked out a flower market which was much less lively than it would normally, and also paid another visit to Chinatown. This time enjoying some famous boat noodles after a 10-minute queue.

For the evening we took a boat ride to Asiatique, the ferris wheel and riverfront market of Bangkok. It was a very vibey but quite an overpriced area for eating. We had a scoop of gelato at a stall that was opened by a Michelin starred Japanese chef. One scoop was around 2€, not pricey at all, but very delicious and creamy. To finish off our time in Bangkok we had some mango sticky rice and headed to our hotel for packing up before flying to to Chiang Mai in the north the following day.

After a freezing airport experience followed by a short and pleasant flight we landed in the city of Chiang Mai, located in the north of Thailand. When we got of the plane we could instantly feel the difference in the air, it felt cooler and fresh up in the mountainous northern region. We grabbed a grab and headed to our hostel. Things didn’t go as smoothly as planned though- as soon as we entered our room we heard a constant „tipping” noise, the loud one that makes you go nuts. Turns out the pipes in our hostel were leaking and the water would drop on a little roof right next to our window. Since it couldn’t be fixed that day, we arrived at around 8pm, we just got keys to a shared room for the night as a temporary solution. Happy about our mental health being not threatened, we headed out to have some dinner, absolutely starving. We ordered our food and the waiter told us it would only take about 15 minutes for the food to arrive. Long story short, it took almost 1.5 hours instead… Dissatisfied with the experience we went to our hostel, got ready for bed only to realize later that our only roommate had some sort of asthma exacerbation and was coughing like crazy all night. But hey, traveling is not only roses and butterflies and you do get annoyed sometimes. Fortunately, it only got better later on.

Chiang Mai is a great place to visit and we really enjoyed almost every minute of our stay. Its relaxed atmosphere really contrasts with chaotic and bustling Bangkok. The pace of living in Chiang Mai seemed so much slower, and people more laid-back, unbothered by the pressure to do and make more. It’s a foodie destination (there are lots of markets, the town is especially knows for its excellent night markets), coffee lovers paradise and home to over 300 sacred Buddhist temples.

We spent our first day strolling around the old town, which is the heart of Chiang Mai surrounded by the river. The streets are charming and filled with street art, cafèsan, handicraft pop-ups as well as cannabis shops on every other corner. We also visited the local temples and, as always, admired the Buddhist words of wisdom (quite often laughingly). We also both managed to get foot massages at a prison, which I will elaborate more on later. We finished our day with a visit to a local night market, which is exactly what we did, diving into some delicious street food.

The next day was a hiking adventure day- we set out to hike up a mountain and reach Wat Pha Lat temple. We first fueled up with some Khao soi at a nearby place that ended up being our beloved one. The weather conditions were great and our hike really nice and picturesque. Hiking through a jungle really does make you feel like a little world explorer. After we reached the temple and enjoyed the views over the town of Chiang Mai, since we were feeling pretty good and strong, we decided to go hike further up to another mountaintop Buddhist temple- Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. At that time it got really hot- we stocked up on water and continued our adventure. This time it was way more demanding to be climbing the way up in that heat but we enjoyed the exercise, our surroundings and lack of people around. Completing the hike felt super good and rewarding. We later passed some monks scrolling on TikTok to get to the temple- it was stunningly beautiful. The ambience of Buddhist temples never fails to amaze us with their architecture, peaceful nature and the vibrant colors. As we were walking around we reached a viewpoint which was facing the Chiang Mai airport. Never before had we seen any airport from above! It was fun to look out for landing planes. To get back to Chiang Mai we needed to board a local red pickup truck, called Songtaew. It’s a main mode of hybrid-public transportation pretty specific to Chiang Mai- it’s like a bus and a taxi in one service. It fits up to about 10 passengers and it won’t leave to its destination until it’s full. It was hell of a ride to get back- motion sick people beware! Since it was a Saturday, after a well-deserved rest at our hostel (where the pipe seemed to be fixed), we headed over to a Sunday night market for some more street food, including a delicious roti.

The next morning, Peter got to sleep in a little bit whereas I got to receive a Thai body massage in a prison. Chiang Mai Women’s correctional center runs a training program that prepares female prisoners for life upon release. The inmates undertake 300 hours of training in the art of traditional Thai massage. The training program is certified by the Thai Ministry of Public Health, so the women gain skills and qualifications that are officially recognized. The program took off in 2008 and has been becoming increasingly popular ever since both between the empowered prisoners and tourists wanting to support the project. I needed to arrive early at the facility hence the popularity of the place and limited slots. I managed to get the massage right awa. It felt really good, professional and as if I paid 7 euros to get a new spine- sounds like a good deal, right? After having finished the experience off with a cup of Thai tea, we reunited and went to a so-called Coconut Market, a nice and relaxing local farmers’ market with lots of coconut trees around. It’s a really beautiful place, but not hazard-free- the water on the spot is green; looks like a nicely preserved lawn. We saw a kid running into it once, probably thinking it’s just grass- apparently it happens there a lot. We found a lot of food stalls and handmade products, all looking very interesting. Peter, with Hungarian blood in his veins and love for spicy food, was brave enough to order the „hot” holy basil chicken stir fry. The vendor lady got way too excited about that. We later learned why that was- his eyes got really sweaty… Thai food is no joke when it comes to the spice level! I settled for a pad thai, which, to be fair, I later learned that often is the least interesting dish on the menu.

In the afternoon we ended up having late lunch at a hidden local’s spot and next to the restaurant we randomly spotted a sign “CNX PINGPONG CLUB”. One of us couldn’t miss the opportunity to play some ping pong in Thailand. It was an unexpected experience but nice to keep the routine going. In the meantime I www sipping on my ice thai tea and enjoying a walk around the town. I randomly spotted a gathering of people, many of them dressed formally sitting on chairs on both sides of the road, clearly waiting for something. I decided to take an empty seat and quickly found out that we were actually expecting to greet the King of Thailand who happened to be visiting Chiang Mai. I was handed a purple flag (color representing the queen), others received Thai and yellow flags (king’s color) and we were patiently anticipating his arrival. After almost an hour of waiting time, I saw the King himself! We finished off the day with a visit to the Sunday Night Market.

On our last full day in Chiang Mai we did something that felt very special and unique. We took part in a half-day meditation session guided by a Buddhist monk. He first introduced everyone to the history of Buddha, the origins of the religion, explained the Four Noble Truths. After this information section of the session we moved onto meditation practice, which is a crucial part of the monks’ everyday life- they do it at least twice a day for one hour. Over the next 3 hours we tried sitting, walking and dynamic meditation. It was a new and interesting experience for us. It’s challenging but amazingly relaxing to free your mind from constant thinking and feel so peaceful. We obviously managed to do it for short bits of time, the art of meditation is something you can learn and master throughout your whole life. We later explored a nearby neighborhood, Nimman, known for its vibrant street life, antique shops and art galleries. This area felt more modern with lots of young Thais around.

It was time to say goodbye to the wonderful town of Chiang Mai, we packed our backpacks and went to sleep- ready for the last part of our journey.