Thailand - The Land of Tigers

Thailand

Everything was set for my first-ever vacation outside my country. I have traveled to a lot of places in India, but I always wanted to explore the world. The idea of Thailand came to me after a lot of research and finally it turned out to be a great choice for a budget holiday on blue beaches of Pattaya, Koh Lan and a great shopping in Bangkok.

A day before going to Thailand, I returned home from office as a joyful kid who is waiting for his birthday gift, but it was better than a birthday gift as I was going there with my better half to  celebrate my wedding anniversary. I could not sleep that night as I was too excited to catch my early morning flight to Bangkok. We reached Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI), New Delhi and were through with all security formalities in no time. The funny thing was that I had to spend rest of my time in washroom not because my stomach was upset, but a container which I was carrying in my bag containing breakfast for me and my wife that my mom packed, broke inside my bag. After all the cleaning, we grabbed some snacks at Mc Donalds and scrolled through the airport stores with our tongues hanging out figuratively. I had a hard time to control my wife from shopping.

Pattaya city

At last, we boarded our flight. While my wife was trying to take a nap and continuously trying to ignore three motormouths sitting behind us, I was busy playing on my phone and admiring all the beautiful air hostesses.

After 4 hours, the airplane landed at Bangkok's Swarnabhoomi International Airport at around 11am. After going through all the security checks, we struggled to locate our luggage as I was too busy playing games on my phone when announcements were being made. Thanks to my lovely wife who found the luggage pretty fast and gave me one of her angry looks for not being responsible enough which I ignored as always.

We came out of the airport and boarded a mini bus to Pattaya which is a 2 hours away from Bangkok. We reached our hotel, Town in Town, around the lunch time and enjoyed the beautiful view from our 5th floor room. After having our lunch, instead of going out and exploring, we crashed on our bed pretty tired. We woke up in the evening and cursed ourselves for sleeping for a long time but in no time we were on the streets of Pattaya blending with the locals and trying local food.

We had a hard time interacting with non-English speaking people. We managed somehow and did some useless shopping and bought a few souvenirs from a mall nearby till late evening. After dinner, we admired the breathtaking view of Pattaya from our room and made plans for the next day with glitter in our eyes.

We woke up early next day as we were too excited to go to Koh Lan Island. I was enthusiastic to try the Thai food for my breakfast and filled my plate with various Thai food items while my wife chose fruits and milk to start her day with. Soon I regretted my decision of choosing Thai food and went for eggs and a cup of coffee.

"Here we are" said our tour guide as we reached the Pattaya beach. My wife, with Goa memories in her mind, could not control her excitement and ran towards the beach. Yea, I was excited too. We splashed water at each other and acted like kids. Soon we were all drenched  and people were staring at us and we felt like two adults who are mentally unstable. But who cares, we were on vacation.

Pattaya beach (swimming zone)

Although we were waiting to further explore Koh Lan Island, also known as Coral island, we continued to enjoy the sky blue water of the Pattaya beach.

After a few minutes our boat arrived and we were on our way to Koh Lan (Coral island). We stopped to do para-sailing and underwater diving en route. The island is exceptionally beautiful with clear, blue water and green hills. One can try out many water sports here but we rather decided to enjoy in the beach. There are many wine-and-dine options available at the beach.

Coral Island (Koh Lan)

Island Koh Lan

Exhausted, we headed back to Pattaya. Playing in the water really makes you hungry and we were no different, but thought of Thai food really killed my appetite. Luckily, we found an Indian restaurant and thanked God for his grace on us. We enjoyed our lunch and enjoyed every bite as we knew we may not be able to find another Indian restaurant in our vacation further.

In the evening and were too excited to go to The Walking Street. We had heard a lot about it and were excited as we were finally  going there. We stepped out of our hotel and hired a local auto which charged a nominal amount and reached The Walking Street after a few minutes.

Entrance of The walking street

The famous Walking Street was so vibrant with music playing all over around. There are lot of pubs, cafes, cabarets, rock bands, street artists, karaoke bars, local boxing arenas and what not. It was like stepping into a different world. The walking street is just along the Pattaya beach and attracts tourists from all around the world.

Local pub on The Walking Street

Local Thai Boxing

At the walking street. my wife did some shopping and purchased a beautiful dress which she flaunted in all her pics. If you are looking for partying all night, the walking street is the place. It was dinner time and we both were hungry after a long day we had. I chose to stick with Subway and had my favourite Tuna Sub and my wife grabbed a yummy burger from Mc Donalds. After dinner, we, holding hands, walked on the street sharing a single cone of ice cream. It was pretty late now and we decided to head back to our hotel room.

Next morning Bangkok was on our list. My wife was pretty excited as Bangkok is a famous shopping destination and I, ofcourse was a bit worried. Before leaving for Bangkok, I tried to capture all the beautiful moments I had in this lovely town of Pattaya. We said goodbye to our lovely hotel room and left for Bangkok.

We checked-in to our hotel, Huamark All seasons at Bangkok which was an average hotel and decided to visit few famous places. To my surprise, my wife did not talk about shopping that day. We first visited one of the oldest Lord Buddha's temple located in the city's heart and then left for Wat Po, where there is a huge magnificent idol of sleeping Lord Buddha.

Oldest Lord Buddha's temple

Sleeping Buddha at Wat Po

Wat Po has some beautiful architecture. At the temple, there were numerous pilgrims visiting to pay respect to Lord Buddha as it was the New Year in Thailand, 13 April.

After the sight-seeing we returned to our hotel and decided to have a pizza for lunch. As it is pretty hot in Thailand in April, my wife was too tired and exhausted because of the heat .I volunteered to go outside get pizza. I felt like a hero, stepping out in the scorching heat to get bread and butter for my family, my wife.

Mall was just a 5 minutes walk away from our hotel. I grabbed a pizza from pizza hut and  returned to our hotel room where my wife, enjoying the air conditioner, was eagerly waiting for me or Pizza instead . What a relief it was when I entered the chilled room. I figuratively kissed the person who invented air conditioner, thanking him. We enjoyed our pizza to the last bite and spent the noon watching TV and evening exploring the places nearby.

Next morning, my wife was pretty excited as she had been dreaming of this day for months; yes, we were going for shopping. The more excited she was, the more I was keeping a tab on my wallet. She woke up early that morning and got ready  in a blink of an eye. I never saw her getting ready so fast until then. At one point, I literally imagined her as some superwoman. I on the other hand, moved my lazy butt and got ready. We hired a local taxi and let me tell you taxi drivers there do not speak English and we had to carry a map with us and showed the taxi driver our destination on the map. We were going to Pratunam market and Indira market which are famous for clothes and accessories. I still remember the shining in my wife's eyes, shopping there for hours and my wallet was getting lighter.

After almost 3 hours, we were hungry and grabbed ourselves a nice burger. That hard bench of Mc Donalds was no less than heaven when I sat on it. Those were beautiful moments of relaxation which did not last long as my wife wanted to shop more. Finally, after spending so many hours on shopping, it was my time to do some shopping as we headed to Pantip – Multi-storey electronics mall. I felt like I am was in heaven while my wife was dragging herself. I browsed few shops and did some shopping.

We were pretty tired and decided to  head back to our hotel but none of the taxi drivers knew where our hotel was and it was hard to explain it to them as they did not speak English. Even showing them the hotel on the map was of no use. Luckily, we found one who spoke a bit of English but he took us to the wrong hotel. After that he kept asking everyone about our hotel but no success. Finally we completed 45 minutes journey to our hotel in 2 hours and 27 minutes. Thanks to my memory as I was able to remember a few landmarks near our hotel.

While my wife admired all the shopping she did, I was calculating what was left in my wallet. Later that night we had a peaceful dinner as we were feeling bit low and were tired too as it was the last day of our wonderful vacation in Thailand. But then, we thought that every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end. We started planning our next holiday and the glitter was back in our eyes.

The next morning, we packed our bags and headed to the airport. I so wanted to rest my head on my lovely pillow which was waiting for me in our city, our own New Delhi.