🇹🇭 Welcome to the Ultimate Thailand Travel Guide! We've collectively spent 3 months in Thailand and over that time we've picked up a few things!
*HUGE list of our Hotel and Tour recommendations below* 👇
If you have any more questions we didn't cover, please leave them in the comments below, either one of us or one of our viewers will have an answer for you!
━━━━━ *Chapters* 00:00 - This is Thailand (What's in this video) 00:45 - Rapid Fire Thailand trip basics 01:57 - Thailand Tip (Money) 03:17 - Thailand Tip (Safety) 03:42 - Thailand Tip (Sim Cards) 04:36 - Thailand Tip (Bus, train or fly) 06:04 - Thailand Tip (Drinking water) 07:05 - Thailand Tip (Insurance) 08:28 - Thailand Tip (Ubers vs Taxis) 09:40 - Thailand Tip (Visas and Vaccinations) 10:34 - Thailand trip (AirBnB vs Hotels) 12:02 - Phuket 14:26 - Koh Samui, Koh Tao, Koh Pha Ngan 16:28 - Bangkok 19:13 - Sukhothai (probably our biggest recommendation!) 22:45 - Chiang Mai 26:34 - Chiang Rai 28:09 - Pai 32:06 - Rapid fire foods you have to try in Thailand
FTC Disclaimer: some links in the descriptions of my videos may be affiliate links, meaning i receive a small commission. it is no cost to you to use the links, it is totally free.
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👋 Hi, we're Jordan and Emily an Australian couple who decided to risk it all, quit our jobs and travel the world for a year in 2022! We fell in love with travel, filming, and editing and decided "real life" could wait a little longer. Now, we're on a mission to visit 100 countries by the end of 2026!
We are incredibly thankful to do something we love every day thanks to your support ❤️
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Let's talk about Thailand travel. This video is not going to be in chronological order,
but we've just spent a month in Thailand and we feel like we have some pretty good insights to
share. So if you're here for information about how to travel Thailand, you have come to the
right place. This video will serve as your ultimate Thailand travel guide. We're going
to break down cities and locations to travel, as well as how to get there, how much it costs,
as well as go through 10 tips you need to know before traveling Thailand. But before we get
into any of that, let's go through some basic rapid fire info. The best time to visit. Cool
season is between November and February and obviously is the most popular time to get here.
Temperatures range from around 29 to 34 degrees, so it's perfect for exploring the entire country.
The hot season is from March to May and the rainy season is from June to October,
which is obviously the least popular time to visit. How long you should travel for.
This obviously is a very subjective thing, but we think a two week minimum is required for Thailand.
If you've got any less than that, you really need to stick to a region, either South in the islands
or North in the jungles. Some major festivals to be aware of is Songkran, which is basically
Thailand's New Year's Eve, meet a huge citywide water fight. We've actually never done it, but
it's really high on the list. That is around the 13th of April every year. The other iconic
festival is around about the 15th of November and it is the Thai Lantern Festival. It just looks
gorgeous and is celebrated everywhere. Picture the movie Rapunzel when she finally goes to see
all the floating lights. Cold, tangled. All right, let's get into 10 tips you need to know before
traveling Thailand. Money. I'll let the ex-bank manager handle this one. Thailand uses the Thai
Baht as its currency. It's relatively strong and consistent. Right now, a thousand Thai Baht
converts into about $43.38 Australian or $29.96 American. Our best tip for converting on the fly
is to add a little bit to your conversion. So whenever I looked at a thousand Baht, I just
thought that's 45 Australian dollars. That usually covers the pretty expensive ATM fees, depending on
how much you get out. Obviously, that is a fast and loose way of converting on the fly. If you
want to use a converter, you absolutely can. Speaking of withdrawing the money, the ATMs in
charge about 220 Baht just to use them. That's about 10 Australian dollars just to access your
cash. So if you're comfortable, it might be financially prudent of you to withdraw quite a lot
and keep it with you or stash it around in your bags for safekeeping. It is definitely a country
where cash is king. You can pay card at some establishments, but to pay for tuk-tuk, street food,
all of the good stuff, you're going to need cash. Also, just a personal experience thing. Don't
sleep on the coins. They have 10 Baht coins and I found a lot of them in my bag after we left
Thailand that I could have bought a lot of stuff with. Safety. Thailand is a world tourism capital
and we have never felt unsafe. That being said, be aware of how much a ride should cost so you're
not getting scammed. Make sure you've got your bag around your body so you're not going to get
pickpocketed. Keep an eye on your drink if you're out partying. Don't go down dark alleyways if you
feel unsafe. All of the standard things that I would do in a city anywhere around the world,
do them in Thailand. SIM cards. In the past, we have always told people to avoid getting a SIM
card at the airport and instead get them in the city. That is still true, but we've recently come
around to eSIMs and to be honest, if you're on a holiday or a vacation, something that's
one to three weeks, eSIMs make a lot of sense. The fact that you can land in the plane,
arrive at the airport and be connected before you walk to passport control is honestly a game
changer. If you were in Thailand for a little bit longer, say a month or more, you can get cheaper
plans at any 7-Eleven. Definitely make sure you download and have WhatsApp installed and ready
on your phone before you leave your home country because it does need to verify your number and
eSIMs don't always come with one because WhatsApp is how you are going to communicate with basically
everyone in Thailand, from your hotel to your tuk-tuk driver to booking tours. It's all done
through WhatsApp. Travel between cities. The cheapest way to get between cities in Thailand is
unfortunately long buses. We've done more buses than we can even remember, but it is always
consistently the cheapest option. You can upgrade to like the VIP section or the more luxury style
buses. Sometimes that still comes cheaper than buying a train ticket. Another good option is the
Thailand Rail Network. It does go everywhere and is available in three classes. You've got your
third class, which is a pretty hard seat, usually no air conditioning and it's really brutal. The
second class is a little bit more plushy and if it's overnight, turns into a lay flat bed. It is
all the beds in one carriage, kind of like a hostel, but gets the job done. Or first class
is the most expensive one. It's typically a private cabin with just two of you. So a lot
more expensive, but a lot more comfortable. Tip if you go for second class is to try and pay the
little bit extra to get a bottom bunk, because they don't turn the lights off during the night
and if you're on the top bunk, you basically have a fluorescent light in your face. Emily got the
top bunk. Yeah, I'm a bit salty about it still. Now obviously, if you know your plans ahead of time,
you might be able to get on a cheap flight. They are really, really cheap, provided you get them
a few weeks in advance. This doesn't normally work for us because we're quite last minute,
especially when we're traveling Southeast Asia. We also have bags that need to be checked in
and unfortunately, that tends to double the price of flights. Drinking water. The general rule in
Thailand is the bigger the city, the safer the water is likely to be. But even locals sort of
aren't 100% trusting on this. I would say buy bottled water. We're also not that concerned
with ice. It tends to be made from filtered water. But I don't know, maybe it's like a barley, an old
barley thing. Everyone's like, don't get ice in your drinks. You're going to get barley belly.
But I never worry about it and we've, knock on wood, never had a problem. Speaking the language.
Thailand is one of the most heavily toured countries in the entire world and as such,
the locals are incredibly skilled at languages. We rarely, if ever, had a problem conversing in
English. However, it is not difficult and it's looked upon very favorably if you do learn some
basic Thai. Hello is sawadee ka. Thank you. Another tip if you're worried about it is to
download Google Translate. You can choose Thai and download it for offline use so you'll be able
to converse easily. Insurance. Since we started traveling in early 2022, we've used Safety Wing
for all of our travel medical insurance. As a former bank manager and insurance guy, I can
personally vouch for Safety Wing. Not only is the level of cover perfect for us as nomads, but
every time I've had any sort of question about what's covered or what's excluded, they're
responding in minutes. I honestly think I might need to apologize to whoever manages the Safety
Wing chat function because I'm in there all the time. I got to be sure, you know. He's a nervous
guy. Arguably our favorite thing about the Safety Wing policies is their subscription payment
feature. If you're like us and you don't really know where you're going to be
next week, let alone next month, it's so good to have the flexibility to be able to tick a box
and change the policy to fit us perfectly. Which means I can take out a policy that's paid monthly
and adapts to our needs as we change country. And all of this for what is literally a few dollars
a day. Insurance has come a long way since I was in the bank. If you are looking for a travel
medical insurance for your next trip, I have left the Safety Wing link in the description below. I
highly suggest you check them out before you buy any sort of policy. Having them the first time we
were in Thailand when we were riding in an ambulance on Koh Samui just gave me so much
peace of mind that we were going to be okay. Ubers and taxis. Uber doesn't exist in Thailand
in its original form. You can kind of think of Grab as Uber. The thing we love so much about
an auto service like that is that you can just punch in where you're going, where you are. You
don't have to negotiate or try and describe the hotel that you don't know where it is. You're not
sure if the language barrier is going to be a difficulty. And you can watch on the map as you
go to where you need to go. If we do think a taxi could maybe come in cheaper than that, we like to
use Grab as a fact-finding mission. So we'll pop in the hotel address, see how far away it is, how
much Grab would charge, and then we'll basically try and get it for cheaper with a taxi driver.
Typically works if you can go down to a tuk-tuk. I do think there's another app that you can get
that's like Grab for tuk-tuks. I'll find out what that is and put it on the screen somewhere.
Another thing it comes in handy for is that they deliver food so cheaply in Thailand. So if you're
feeling extra lazy or you're having a work day behind your laptops, ordering a meal to your hotel
has never been cheaper. We got near on tons of chicken and rice delivered from the other side of
Bangkok for I think the cheapest we got it was like $3 per container. Crazy. Visas and vaccinations.
This one's an easy one and it actually just got easier. As an American or an Australian, we now
get 60 days visa free. And if you wanted to stay longer than the 60 days, you can do visa runs and
just cross a border into another Southeast Asian country and come back. Google that yourself though
because we've never actually done that. We've just seen it. We use a service called Sherpa Travel
to confirm all of our visa regulations. It's free to use. You punch in your passport where you're
going to from any connections and it spits out health requirements, whether you need to apply
for a visa, a link so you can apply for the visa. We found it after COVID and love it. Speaking of
vaccinations, that hot humid climate of Thailand and Southeast Asia can be pretty prominent with
insect-borne diseases. I think the basic recommendation is a malaria and a dengue
shot, but consult your doctor because it might be different by now. Who knows?
Airbnb versus hotels. We've used Airbnb all across the world. Generally, we've had good
experiences for a cheaper price than hotels, but that has slowly been changing. Airbnb prices are
increasing and what you're getting for the price is going down. And I think hotels and websites
like booking.com have got incentives and reward programs now that they're really trying to compete
and often you're getting like free room upgrades and free breakfast included. So we typically find
our hotels through a combination of booking.com, Agoda and Airbnb. Find out what's going to be
the best hotel for us and then look at how much it is to book direct. We found pretty frequently
that booking.com or Agoda have it cheaper than direct. So if you're willing to take the time
and look at everything, you will save a lot of money. Another key is if you're a booking.com
person, get the app on your phone because you often get mobile only discounts. So for just
switching to my phone and booking my hotel on there, I'm saving like 20% sometimes. Significantly
cheaper. Crazy. Don't know why. Those were our most asked questions through all our Thailand vlogs.
Obviously, if we didn't answer your specific question, feel free to leave it in the comments
below and we'll answer it as soon as we can. But now let's dive into some of the biggest tourist
spots in Thailand in a bit more detail. Thailand is a deceptively big place with over 1400 islands.
Obviously, we haven't seen all of it, but we're going to do our best to cover the big and tourist
hotspot places in the country. Phuket. If you Google image search Phuket, you'll see beautiful
clear water, limestone cliffs, boats floating around, a real secluded paradise. The reality is
Phuket is kind of a big island and all that beautiful picturesque stuff is actually dotted
in the small islands around it. The most famous of which is Phang Nga Bay. There are loads of
beautiful tropical islands in that bay. We just, we can't list them all. How to get there? Multiple
international or domestic flights will land at Phuket airport. And if you're planned in advance,
you can get flights for as cheap as $30. There are also buses that run down from Bangkok,
but I think that takes like 20 hours. Honestly, if you're mid to late twenties or older,
just fly. There's no point getting to Phuket and having to struggle with a sore back the whole time.
Where to stay? As for Phuket itself, people typically pick one of two places to stay.
They're both about an hour drive south from the airport. One of which is quite beach centric. The
other is very much an old city. Patong Beach can be called the party area of Phuket. It's got the
famous Bangla road with dancing and drinking and lights and sounds. And it's, it's all a bit too
much for us, but people love it. The next few notable beaches in that area are Kata and Koron.
They're much more relaxed, peaceful stop and drop resort style beaches. Across on the other side of
the island is Phuket Old Town. This place is super rich in history. It's got really interesting
architecture. There's a couple of night markets and weekend markets to visit and a really strong
historical significance. We've linked a couple of places we recommend staying below. Things to do.
There are loads of things to do in Phuket as one of the main hubs in Thailand. The most popular
thing is to get on a boat and go out to the different bays of those islands that we've
mentioned. There are countless tours that will take you to Maya Bay and Phi Phi Island, which
we've heard is just incredible. They usually leave before sunrise and include lunch. So it's a full,
incredibly tiring day, but a good way to see a lot in a short amount of time. Again, we'll leave
this all broken down below with links to all of the tours that we would recommend. There's also a
bunch of the standard Thai holiday things you can do, like hikes, ziplining and elephant experiences.
We just recommend only go to the no-touch elephant sanctuaries. Obviously, don't ride them. That's a
no-brainer these days, right? Like we shouldn't have to say that. Koh Tao, Koh Sumui, Koh Phangan. The Kohs.
The Kohs. These islands are arguably the most traveled to by tourists and the one you probably
have heard of is Koh Sumui. This line of islands sits on the eastern side of Thailand and they're
relatively easy to get to. How to get there? Firstly, Koh Sumui has its own pretty big airport. I don't
know if international flights go directly in there, but there are so many domestic flights
every single day. It's pretty easy. More often than not, a traveler will want to experience the more
local and true way to get there though, and there are ferries that take you across. Again, loads of
different companies that do that. You'll need to look online to try for the best one that suits you
for time and price. The ferry journey takes about three hours and depending on weather, it can be
pretty rough. You can also book it as a packaged deal. So when we were going from Koh Sumui back
to Bangkok, we had our ferry from Koh Sumui to the mainland and then the bus connected on from there.
We didn't have to worry about anything. It was off of the ferry onto the bus. Also, if you get seasick,
just be prepared for that. Where to stay? Most people elect to just stay on Koh Sumui and do day
trips out to Koh Phangan and Koh Tao. That is a great option. It's going to be a little bit cheaper
to have a longer term stay somewhere. The only exception to that is if you really want to go
and do something specific. Koh Tao has a snorkeling scuba hub and they teach you how to scuba there.
If you want to do that, it's going to make a lot more sense to go and stay on the island and do a
five-day course than going back and forth every day. We've heard that Koh Tao is some of the best
diving people have ever done. And affordable. Things to do. You're on an island so do all of the
island things. Lay on the beach, go snorkeling, go for a swim. Maybe you want to try scuba diving.
Some people, especially on Koh Sumui, will hire a motorcycle, drive around to see all of the beaches
and the waterfalls. Be careful. Look, if you know how to ride one, go for it. If you don't,
maybe don't do it. Learn from our mistakes. Bangkok. Bangkok is a mega city and pretty much the
opposite to everywhere we've mentioned so far. It is really tall buildings, really loud streets,
horns blaring. Your typical metropolis. That being said, this home of 11 million people
is still very much worth a visit. How to get there? Bangkok is right in the middle of Thailand
and odds are if you're not flying into Phuket, you're probably flying in there. You can also
get buses, trains, everything. It's the capital so basically every route leads to Bangkok. It's
literally like the middle of a spider web and all the rail and all the bus routes echo everywhere.
Where to stay? Did we mention Bangkok is really, really, really big? That being said, if you are
staying near one of the metros or the MRT or the SkyRail or any sort of public transport, you're
pretty fine. The networks around Bangkok are really well connected and you can pretty much
get anywhere you need to go in a reasonable amount of time for not too much money. Worst
case scenario, Grab will come to the rescue. What to do? Bangkok has three main temples. The Wat Arun
which we did. It costs 200 Thai Baht per person entry but you get a little water on that which I
think is so nice. It is early. I think it's been open for about an hour or two now but it's not
that busy. Wat Pra and the Grand Palace. Those two we didn't do. If you've got the budget and the time,
we'd recommend doing them all. If you had to pick one, I think Wat Arun is probably going to be the
winner anyway. It's the cheapest so that goes a long way in our books. Apart from the temples,
you'll notice in Bangkok a river runs right through the city and you can get different
cruises on here ranging from the cheapest which is basically public transport on the river. You
can pay for a private boat tour to all of the sites or what we would recommend a sunset cruise
along the river. Buffet dinner. It's a little bit hectic, a little bit crazy, a bit dangerous.
But after that first half hour, it settles down and you just get to go past all of these sites
and they're all lit up. The city looks beautiful. Bangkok at night looks very different and it's
just as beautiful. If you want to get out of the city a little bit more, there are heaps of day
trips to choose from. One is a super popular pick you up in the morning, take you to the floating
market and a train market, give you some lunch and drive you back. Getting out of the city and
getting into the culture is something that's highly recommended to do and this is a good
way to do it if you don't have heaps of time. Again, we'll link it down below. There are
countless markets throughout Bangkok that you should go visit. Notable ones are Chatuchak
weekend market. Asiatic, that was super fun. Taling Chan floating market. Jod Fair is apparently
really cool. Sukhothai. Sukhothai is our favorite little gem we found this year while traveling
Thailand. It is between Bangkok and Chiang Mai and we think it is worth your time. It kind of
feels like a Chiang Mai before tourists really got there. It's definitely less known. How to get
there? We recommend keeping it simple and just taking a bus from Bangkok. It is six hours and
that sounds really, really tough, especially if you're only there for a couple of weeks, but
we think it's definitely worth it and the bus ride wasn't too bad. Went super quick. We just
got to watch the Thailand countryside go by. Really not bad. Just make sure you buy your
tickets to the old city, not to the new city because they are different things and it's kind
of confusing. Where to stay? Emily kind of touched on this already with the bus tickets, but Sukhothai
is spread into the old city and the new city. There is accommodation almost in the old city.
It's right near the gate and we stayed in a specific place that was super cheap and we
really enjoyed. It's perfect for a couple of nights. We'll link that in the description below.
My biggest advice is just make sure you look at the map when you're booking it and don't stay
in the new city. It would be such a mistake because it means you have to wake up, catch a
bus with other people, then hire your bike, then finally get to the ticket office to buy tickets
to the historic site before finally getting in. By the time you've done all of those things,
we're on to the second temple. Yeah and we're completely alone and you probably have people
with you. So stay in the old city. Things to do. The big calling card and the main reason anyone
goes to Sukhothai is the Sukhothai Historical Park. It is epic. We loved our time there. You
can hire a bike for less than a dollar a day and ride around this historic park. It is perfectly
flat. If riding a bike isn't available to you, you can also hire golf carts or get the electric tram
thing that they have going around. It is so much fun. They also have tandem bikes which we didn't
know until halfway through but that would have been fun. It's a great cure for if you're feeling
templed out because it is very different to the stand in line with a bunch of people, it's really
hot in the midday sun, see a temple, it's cool, go somewhere else. This is like you're in the
experiencing it typically solo because you can just ride to a different area and there's no
people there. You can do a tour where you would learn a lot more history and facts than we did
but we would recommend doing it independently and trying to research that on your own so you can
really appreciate it while you're there because we had every single monument to ourselves for at
least five minutes I would say each. At least. Minimum. And that was the busiest time. So much
fun. A quick note on the tickets for Sukhothai Historic Park is that they're broken up into
regions so if you want to try and save some money you could pick one region. I think I'd
pick the main one if that was the case. I think it's 100 Thai Baht per person plus 30 Thai Baht
maybe for the bike to be allowed to go in. We ended up paying for two regions because we wanted
to see a particular temple and I think it was worth it. Totally worth it. I think if you've
got the time and you've got the stamina to keep running around, do as much as possible. Yeah.
We would also recommend trying to be there on a Friday or Saturday because on those days there
is a night market within the ancient city walls so you literally walk down, buy some food,
sit down, watch the sunset going past this ancient pagoda. It was such a pinch me moment.
It's beautiful and let us know if you find Sukhothai noodles because we couldn't.
They're very spicy. Chiang Mai. As you journey further north the population of elephants and
zip lining and waterfalls and jungle treks all increases. The weather gets a little bit cooler,
it gets a little bit more comfortable and without a doubt the crowning jewel of that region is
Chiang Mai. We don't know what it is about this city and we've spoken with other digital nomads,
it's like a siren's call. Like no matter what you do in Thailand you need to go to Chiang Mai.
It literally acts as the central hub. We were in northern Thailand and we went to Chiang Mai
three separate times. How do you get there? Of course being in northern hub means there's a lot
of different options to get there. There is a very popular airport with flights to and from all
over southeast Asia, both domestic and international. Lots of the buses lead up there, most of the train
lines finish, that's the furthest north the train lines go. It's a breeze to get to. Basically you
can pick your poison, whichever your favorite mode of transport is to get somewhere, you can get that
to Chiang Mai. I think if you're wanting to experience what travel in Thailand is really like
it's a great opportunity to do an overnight sleeper from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. That's the
train that takes like 15 hours overnight sleeping. It's an experience and everyone has to do it. You
almost have to do the second class sleeper to do that route, otherwise you're not doing it the
right way. Experience the second class. Where to stay? Chiang Mai is not short of options of where
to stay. You can find a place inside the city walls for relatively cheap. We stayed at the
which was one street away from the market, but we also stayed in a cheaper place that was a little
bit outside of the walls which is only a 10 minute walk and you're in anyway. If you're looking for
something to splurge on, about an hour out of Chiang Mai there is super unique accommodations
or if you just want a different side but to still be quite close to everything,
Buri Sri Pring Hotel. Immaculate. Another accommodation is the Chai Lai Orchard Elephant
Sanctuary. This is on our Chiang Mai bucket list to this day because we're never booked far enough
in advance to have hotel rooms available, but it looks sensational. It is an elephant sanctuary,
it is ethical and you wake up with the elephants right next to your room. We've tried to book it
three times and every time they're sold out, so get in early. Fair enough. Make it the first thing
you book when you're planning to go to Novanta Island. What to do? Think all things jungle
adventure. There are so many different elephant sanctuaries, ziplines, jungle treks, anything you
can think of you can probably do in Chiang Mai or just around it. Chiang Mai is also home to heaps
of unique cafes, restaurants, amazing accommodations. If you want to splurge for something truly unique
you can probably do it from Chiang Mai. We even rented a car in the area and felt completely
Of course the Sunday night walking market needs to be experienced in Chiang Mai. It is one of the
most famous markets in all of Thailand. It's super crowded, but there's some pretty good food that we
have recommended over and over again and we'll recommend again. Chicken skewers. Go to Watson Pao
and get them. Thank us later. If you take one thing away from this video, chicken skewers. And go there
and take a video, post it to Instagram and tag us in it so we can be jealous. Don't do that. I need to think
about them that often. While you're at the market as well you should also treat yourself to a massage
because they are really cheap and really good. If you want to get out of the city there's lots of
different pagodas and temples that you can go to. We didn't feel a strong urge to go and see them all
but if you're in Thailand on a holiday or a vacation it's probably worth seeing. Oh another
thing that's super popular to do in Chiang Mai is a Thai cooking class. They look like so much fun.
You get to go to the market, pick up some food, learn how to make all of your favorite dishes and
then eat it all. Chiang Rai. Chiang Rai is the most northern town in Thailand. It's about a three-hour
drive by bus from Chiang Mai and offers arguably more stunning, at least more interesting temples.
Some people will do this as a day trip from Chiang Mai but we would recommend staying out there
three hours. That's six hours return for a day trip. No. How to get there? We've sort of touched on that
already. There is a local bus that will take you from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai. It's only three
hours and it's relatively cheap. Where to stay? Chiang Rai is a pretty small town. You're not
going to have too much trouble finding somewhere to stay that's central and also affordable. My
only advice would be try and stay somewhere near the middle because it's not too noisy here and
having easy access is just going to make life so much easier. What to do there? Chiang Rai is home
to arguably one of the most famous Thai temples, the White Temple. You will see countless aesthetic
Instagram-worthy photos that are taken here but we would recommend the Blue Temple. I think because
we had all the expectations on the White Temple and none for the Blue Temple, it meant that the
blue one just blew us out of the water. Blue, blue, blue, blue. Nice. Apparently made by the same guy or like
the guy and his apprentice. Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. There's also something to be said for
just walking through the town of Chiang Rai. They have like the historical clock in the center of
these roads and like markets like everywhere and it's a much calmer vibe than Chiang Rai. They also
have, to this day, even though we have been to Italy, one of Jordan's favorite pizza places. Yeah, it's
top three. Yeah. Pai. Pai is the hippie town of Thailand. It's up north, quite high in the mountains
and is famous for a very relaxed yoga shaggy from Scooby-Doo sort of vibe.
Super popular for people on gap years and people that are just traveling around on a really
shoestring budget. Hostel vibes. How to get there? There are only two ways to get to Pai. The first
way is to rent a scooter and drive yourself up there. The second way, the way we did, is no doubt
going to be the bus journey that everyone warns you about in Thailand because there are 762 turns,
meaning if you get motion sickness, take some tablets, take a plastic baggie just in case,
maybe don't eat that morning. It's high risk. It is not rare for people to feel that sick that they
throw up on the bus, which makes everyone else on the bus feel sick and it's just, we got really
lucky. The drivers know it's a very hectic road up there, but they don't slow down at all. They
used to it. They have a schedule to keep. So yeah, just be prepared and you should be okay.
It is only about three to four hours. There's a break halfway, but yes, it is.
Booking those tickets on the bus, you can book them at the station directly. It's a little bit
cheaper than booking online through sites like Want to Go Asia. However, if you do that, be
prepared to wait. Even though they go every half an hour, we had to wait two and a half or three
hours to get on a bus. So we highly recommend just book through Want to Go Asia, wear the extra
dollar or two that it's going to cost and show up when you're ready to go. Where to stay? We stayed
in the Pie Village Boutique Resort and loved it. They had gorgeous rooms, amazing property,
really well located. It's just adjacent to the main walking street with all the markets,
but far enough away that you don't get any of that noise. And it's across the road from one
of the best Italian restaurants we've ever eaten at. I'm pretty sure the hotel's restaurant is one
of the top rated, if not the top rated restaurant in all of Pie as well. Yeah. It doesn't get better
than that. There are loads of options to choose from. I think just staying central is quite
important because it's very much a walking sort of town. What to do? Pie is the town for relaxing.
There are lots of those yoga retreats, even a few like no technology yoga retreats up there.
Places designed to help you reconnect with nature, which I really want to do one day. It just wasn't
the time when we were there. The other side of that spectrum, it is also the home of tipsy tubing,
which is hectic. It is where the entire river turns into only donuts and people floating down,
drinking and drinking and drinking, music playing, a bar floating past, maybe you pull over.
It looks so much fun. It is only run during a particular time of the year because of the weather.
We actually also saw that you can whitewater raft slash tube back to Chiang Mai. I think it's like
YouTube half of the way and then you get a bus the rest of the way, but that's pretty fun. That's
pretty cool. There is of course the iconic bamboo bridge, which we had completely to ourselves.
There's Pie Canyon, which looks amazing. And every single night there is a market on. Plus
one of the biggest recommendations that we got from our hotel is go to a place called Two Huts
at sunset. We had a little bit of cloud cover, but I can see that that would be very beautiful
to have a beer, kick back, watch the sunset. It's just a really good way to end a day.
My mouth is sore from talking so much. And that wraps up our time in Thailand. We really hope you
got something out of this Thailand guide and maybe we changed or gave you ideas you didn't
have before. If there are things that we missed, please let us know in the comments below. We'll
pin the good ones that other people need to see to make sure everyone gets the most information
possible out of this video. If you found this video helpful in any way, please give it a like
and maybe subscribe. It really helps a small channel like ours grow. Foods you have to try.
Rapid fire. Dumplings. Dim sims. Khao moo dang. Khao moo dang. Pad Thai. Mango sticky rice.
Chicken skewers. Mango sticky rice. Chicken skewers. Mango sticky rice. Also sausage on
a stick. No. They're everywhere, but they're pretty good. Just 7-Eleven food. Get a burger
from there. Toasties. A toasty toasty, yeah. Any food in Thailand. Any food. Mango sticky rice. Chicken and rice from Grab.
And mango sticky rice.
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