When I first got to the hostel/hotel to meet up with the group, I am not gonna lie — I was a little worried. The hotel was a bit of a step down from what I had just come from (i.e. mattresses on the floor, door was ajar upon walking in), but I had to quickly remind myself – the whole point of this journey was to get outside of my comfort zone as much as possible. I was backpacking and I had to embrace the backpacker life… so onward I went! Within an hour of arriving, I was greeted by Luke, our tour charming British tour guide. Long story short – 18 days is a long time to spend with people, but when you do it right… it all just works out. We met up with the entire group that night at an Indian restaurant nearby (uhhhhhhhhhhmazing) and had a fun night out on Koh San Rd (Vegas for backpackers). I didn’t last terribly long, the week of traveling in the north caught up with me pretty quickly.
We had a few days in Bangkok to get to know one another and explore parts of the city I hadn’t seen yet – the JJ Market – whichis like the biggest farmers market in the entire world. Massive, crowded and pretty cool to experience. I had seen fish spa’s before, but I kinda wanted to try out… so I somehow got my two new friends (Lili from the UK and Sarah from New Zealand) to experience it with me. Let’s just say it was the the weirdest 15 minutes of my life… but I can check that off the bucket list! Ha.
As you can see, I quickly jumped into thai aparrel. Elephant pants? Elephant tops? LOVED THEM ALLLLLL. Plus, it was too hot to really wear the random stuff I had packed. For real, if you’re going to Thailand – pack the essentials and just buy things there ($3 tees, $5 pants). Everything is lightweight and you can toss/donate when you’re ready to leave. Plus, things disappear in the laundry all the time. Tip: Cheapest clothes are in Bangkok. Pack more dresses!