BANGKOK DAY TWO

Day two in Bangkok was A LOT better then our first day. That's for sure! On our second day we decided we wanted to leave the city and head down to the islands and relax on the beaches. Before heading to the bus station to grab tickets to Krabi we decided to see some temples and popular things in the city.
Our first stop was The Grand Palace since it was around the corner from the hotel we stayed at. However, we completely forgot about the clothing restriction To enter the Grand Palace you must be fully covered pretty much from head to toe. Cameron and I had decided to walk around the outside of the building & when we return to Bangkok we knew we would put this at the top of our list!
Here's a picture outside the Palace!

Once we passed the Grand Palace we decided to head over to the Reclining Buddha. To enter we had to pay 50 baht each which is about $4 each. Pretty cheap to see some amazing sites!
We LOVED the Reclining Buddha and would totally recommend this to anyone who is visiting Bangkok. Once in the grounds there was plenty to do! We saw the Buddha and then also toured the grounds and saw many other Buddha's and some breathtaking architecture! We spent about 2 hours touring through the beautiful scenery.
Here's a few pictures from inside!

After we checked the reclining Buddha off our list we knew we wanted to take a water taxi and head over to the Wat Arun. We decided to walk threw this neat little market where there was tons of shopping and street food! We stopped for some fruit & headed to the water taxi. The water taxi cost us 15 baht each and took us right in front of the Wat Arun. The Wat Arun was under construction so we didn't get to walk all the way up to the top to see it's amazing views. We still got to walk around the grounds and see the great architecture!
Here are a few pictures from the Wat Arun.

After seeing the few placed we wanted to see in Bangkok we knew we had to get over to the bus station to be able to buy tickets to take us into Krabi. We jumped in a cab that took us about 15 minutes to get to the bus station in Bangkok. Since we had done our research the night before we knew exactly which bus terminal to go to, to buy our tickets. Our tickets from Bangkok to Krabi cost 550 baht which is about $20. Not too bad considering it was a 12 hour bus ride!
The bus station was great!! Tons to do and see, there were many restaurants and choices for food. Even a KFC! & there were TONS of shopping options on each floor. We even saw there was a huge night market outside the bus terminal that started around 6pm and went almost all night! We loved sitting in the bus station and people watching! Mind you, the people in the bus station also loved watching us! Haha
Once on the bus Cameron and I slept most of the way. The bus ran over night and we arrived in Krabi around 9 am! It was perfect, we basically got a free nights stay and even some snacks and free water on the bus! We would highly recommend taking the bus over the train as we heard the train's are pretty non reliable.
Interested in what we get up to next? Keep checking back as Ill be updating you more on our travels!
Thanks for reading!
xoxo Alilcia  

BANGKOK THAILAND - OUR FIRST DAY

Bangkok... where to begin! The city was gorgeous and there was SO much to do! BUT it was also very stressful. Since it was our first time in a foreign country Bangkok really took a lot out of us. We had done a lot of research on scams to avoid but still managed to fall into some scam artist and some tricky tuk tuk drivers.
On our first day out exploring we knew we wanted to head straight to Koh San Road, a popular road for backpackers that had tons of great shopping and awesome street food.
On our way there we were approached by numerous people asking us where we were going and if we wanted to take a tuk tuk. All of these people kept telling us that for today only there were 3 temples you could visit and it was free because it was some type of holiday. They all mentioned that the tuk tuk could take you for 60 baht & then drop us at Koh San Road. We turned down each person and continued on our way.
All of a sudden we run into this very nice women who saw Cameron's Jay's hat and said hey! your from Canada! My brother is in Montreal. At the time we thought this lady was just being super nice and wanting to talk. She gave us great advice on things to see and places to go. She then also mentioned the same 3 temples to visit & said the same thing about it being a holiday and we MUST see it today, however she told us it should only be 40 baht. She then asked if we wanted her to call a tuk tuk for us and tell him where we wanted to go. We agreed.
After getting in the tuk tuk we thought this was a great deal we found! The tuk tuk driver took us to 2 different golden Buddha's & we were having so much fun riding around on the crazy streets of Bangkok. All of a sudden the tuk tuk driver drops us off in front of a tourist shop & tells us he will wait there. We thought that's because we had told the other women we needed to buy bus tickets to get to Krabi that she must have told our tuk tuk driver and that's why we were here. We were wrong! The tourist shop was filled with tourists like us who were about to be scammed into buying expensive trips to Chang Mai or to the islands. We sat down and listened to what the guy had to say and at first we almost bought into it!
We knew we could do the trip for way cheaper than he was offering so declined his offer and left. Once back in the tuk tuk we thought we would be going to our last temple and then off to Koh San road... Nope! We pulled up to another tourist place where the tuk tuk told us we have to go in because he gets free food for dropping us off there. We said No! Take us to Koh San, we are sick of this! He then argued with us & told him we look bad because we keep saying no to all these travel agents. After arguing with our tuk the drops us off down the road and points to koh san which was about 200 meters away, we got out gave our money. Of course didn't receive change back as he jetted off.
We ended up only seeing two Buddhas which we then realized were free everyday and the lady we thought was so nice was actually working with the tuk tuk drivers. Needless to say, that was our last tuk tuk in Bangkok.
We were so tired at this point since we had landed earlier that morning and jet leg was slowing kicking in. We headed to what we knew best which was McDonald's! We knew we wanted to try McDonald's in Thailand since we love it so much at home.
After enjoying our food we took a walk over to Koh San road and walked up and down the street a few times checking out all the neat clothing, bags, etc!
It was about 6pm and we were so tired!! We had been haggled all day and the sun and lack of water had now hit us! We returned to our hotel and decided to hit the sheets since we knew the next day would be full of excitement seeing the Grand Palace, Reclining Buddha and Wat Arun!

Here's a few pictures from our first day in Bangkok

 

GETTING TO THAILAND

Hello Everyone! It's been a long time since I updated my travel blog, my fiance and I have been in Thailand for about a week now & have been doing so many things, I have lost track of time! I figured I would share our journey on how we arrived in Thailand!

We departed North Bay, Ontario on Feb 22nd, instead of taking a vehicle from North Bay to Toronto we found a pretty amazing flight deal with Porter Airlines. This flight took us right into the heart of Toronto. We then took city transit to get from downtown to the airport. Our flight with Porter was AMAZING! The flight was roughly 40 minutes & we got to indulge in some complimentary drinks and snacks! We also received complimentary alcoholic beverages!! Making our first day of vacation that much better! The flight was smooth & the staff was fantastic! I highly recommend flying with Porter! Even if you are just taking a trip into the city it was definitely worth the money! Our flight only cost $60!

After getting to the airport we had to wait 7 hours until our flight to Thailand. There was plenty of things to do in the Pearson Airport so our time flew by. We flew with EVA Air and I can not commend them enough for their amazing service!! Cameron's carry on bag was over weight and the lady who checked us in let it slide! She also let me take my bag as a carry on even though it was also a little large. Such a great start to our experience!

After boarding the plane and finding our seats we were even more impressed! We had read online about how small the seats were and that the food wasn't good. We totally disagree!! Our seats were very spacious and we felt right at home with a pillow, blanket & slippers! Once we took off, roughly 2 hours into the flight we received our first meal of two. IT WAS AMAZING!! Yummy noodles with chicken & broccoli, a bun, fruit and a yummy cheesecake desert! We received snacks throughout the flight which were great and also had complimentary alcoholic beverages the entire flight. Our second meal was breakfast. For breakfast Cameron and I had the same thing - we had scrambled eggs, bacon, roasted tomato and potatoes, yogurt, fruit and a brownie for desert.
We also had a lay over in Taipei, the layover was short and it was our first experience with a new culture. We decided while we waited that we would tour the airport and grab some food. We had a blast checking out all the shops within the airport and met a guy who was also backpacking Thailand like us! Once on our flight we got ANOTHER meal!! This time it was chicken with rice and broccoli, again with fruit and a desert. All around we LOVED EVA and thought the service and food was great!

After 22 hours of flying we finally arrived in Thailand!! We thought going through security was going to be tough since we didn't have proof of leaving the country which we heard they were cracking down on. We were totally wrong. It was so easy!! The officer took our passports, told us to look at the camera, stamped our passports and sent us on our way! This process took a total of 2 minutes! It was great! After leaving the airport the weather really hit us! It was humid and hot! We had to find a cab to take us to our hotel which was no problem at all since there were tons lined up outside of the airport. Our cab cost 500 baht which is about $19.00 CAD. Not bad considering it was a 40 minute cab ride!

Overall our journey getting to Thailand was a success! If your looking to book a trip to Thailand I would highly recommend EVA Air! The flight was very affordable and the staff, food & seats were amazing! I would recommend taking the over night flight, we pretty much slept the entire flight making it seem super short!
Stay tuned for more updates on our journey through Thailand!

Alicia xoxo