BANGKOK AND NORTH THAILAND 9 DAYS/6 NIGHTS TOUR

"Best things in life are free" so they say...and this phrase best described my 9 days tour of Bangkok and other major cities in northern part of Thailand.

My Italian sponsor,who don't speak English, asked me to accompany her to Thailand  and she paid everything including my shopping...lucky me... :):)!!!

I served as her translator and tourist guide but only in Bangkok because we availed a guided tour for our north Thailand visit.

Why 9 days and only 6 nights? because we spent 2 nights in the plane.

1st day - we left Rome at  1:55pm (Central Europe Time)

2nd day - after an 11-hour flight , we  arrived at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International airport at around  5:35 AM the following day on Thailand's time, 12:35 AM on Italian time.It's  5 hours time difference.Talking about jet lag here.

After queuing for the passport stamps at the Immigration and claimed  our baggage, thank God we didn't wait long, we had to wait for our transportation c/o our tour operator.

At around 8:00AM we reached our hotel, Hilton Millennium Hotel, and they allowed us for early check-in.Jet lag must have caught us , we can't sleep ,so we decided to visit The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew (Emerald Buddha Temple) which was made more accessible by the Hotel's shuttle boat going to River City boat station.

 When we couldn't take the heat and humidity anymore we went back to our hotel to have some sleep and later in the afternoon we went out shopping and had our lunch-dinner at MBK.Before we called it a night, we dropped by  at Bangkok's famous red light district , Patpong St. , just for curiosity.

3rd day - we visited Bangkok's other famous landmarks..We started with the farthest from our Hotel, the Vimanmek Mansion and  Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall in Dusit Palace

From the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall we braved the heat and  walked all the way to Marble Temple.

Another tuktuk going to Wat Traimit/Golden Buddha Temple in Chinatown, we rode another tuktuk going to Wat Pho to see the reclining Buddha. From there we walked passed a small market going  to the boat station  to Wat Arun..We didn't climb the steep stairs of Wat Arun since its too hot already and its past 2pm and no lunch yet so decided to go back to our hotel . Since Wat Pho is on the same side of the river with our hotel, we decided to take a tuktuk instead of the boat. We almost got lost looking for tuktuk..he he!! after about 10-15 minutes of walking further away from the river and Wat Pho we were finally  at the main road. At first, i thought  we were the only tourists who ever set foot  at that place until we saw another tuktuk with tourists passengers.We all laughed after seeing each other maybe because, just like us, they were just exploring that not- touristy- part of the city.  

 It was already late afternoon when we went  to Siam Paragon and Siam Square for our lunch-dinner and some shopping before we went to the famous traveller's  street,Kao San road again, with tuktuk, after an hour or so of bargaining we called it a night, this time we took the taxi. Modesty aside, most of the time we took tuktuk because if we convert the fare to our currency is it's just around 2-3euro and besides we thought that we are helping them, the tuktuk drivers. We also gave them extra 10 or 20baht as a tip. Their smile is heartwarming and they thanked us endlessly.. 

eat all you can resto at the Siam

4th day/1st day of our north Thailand tour:our tour guide picked us up at our hotel at around 7:30am to avoid the traffic.there were other two Italian  tourists joining us for the tour, they are actually a couple on their honeymoon.

From  Bangkok we went straight to  Bang Pa-in Palace before going to  Ayutthaya ruins to see, Wat Mahathat, Viharn Phra Mongkhol Bophit,  Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Wat Phanan Choeng and stopping by at the Gong Kong  market.After  our buffet lunch at Kantary Hotel we immediately proceeded to Sukhothai passing by Phitsanulok.We spent the night at Sukhothai Heritage  Resort.

Kantary Hotel - buffet lunch

the signage at Asian Road

 

 5th day - Sukhothai - Sri Satchanalai - Chiang Mai leg
We first visited the Sukhothai Historical Park, a UN  World Heritage site. Then Si Satchanalai Historical Park before having our buffet lunch at a local restaurant  set on a garden.After our lunch, its a long drive to Chiang Mai stopping only  once to freshen up and coffee, BTW, Italians love their espresso even if its hot.There was this market , Tung Kiewn, we passed by that sells exotic foods, like rats, mushrooms of all kinds and shapes , etc..

 Welcome to Holiday Inn Chiang Mai our home  for 2 days. On our first night, we went to  the city's famous  night market.

6th day  - Chiang Mai Tour
We were joined by another Italian tourist who, later on we   learned, he is  on his   around-the- world tour coming from Miami, where he currently lives, went to Japan, Hongkong, Bangkok ..later on his trip  he decided to go to Angkor Wat before going to Rome then back to Miami.

 We started our tour very early saved for my blooper...I forgot my camera battery at our hotel!! Good thing I checked on it while we were still at Le Meridian hotel fetching our other companion. Anyway, our morning tour includes:
1.  Doi Suthep - Wat Phra That Doi Suthep
              -300 steps with dragon with serpent head named Naga
2. Wat Suan Dok
3. Wat Phra Singh

We had our lunch at the beautiful Bai Orchid restaurant
After lunch we went to Sankamphaeng village where you can find the  manufacturers of  silk, silver, umbrella made from paper. wood carvings, precious stones.
When we were done with our shopping, we went back to our respective hotels to freshen up for our dinner at Le Grand Lanna, Mandarin Oriental Dara Dhevi

7th day -  Chiang Mai - Chiang Dao- Tha Ton- Chiang Rai
   1st stop: Mae Taeng  Elephant Camp it was so much fun here. I adore the elephants.We were the first           group  to ride the elephants!
   3rd stop ; Baan Tha Ton
   2nd stop: lunch at Maekok River Village Resort in  Baan Tha Ton along the  Maekok river

 ...we then took the motorboat to cruise the  Maekok river from  Baan Tha Ton until Baan Pa Tai.Our ride was already waiting for us at Baan Pa Tai going to  Chang Rai. We had a stopover at Baan Ya Pa village where 3 ethnics live . the  Akha, the  Lahu Shi Balah, and the  Padong Long Neck Karen.

After we had checked-in in our accomodation ,Dusit Hotel, we went to the Center Point Night Market afterwards.

8th day - Mae Sai , Myanmar(Birmania) boundary
    Last day of our tour:
   1. We went to Golden Triangle , famous for opium cultivation,
   2. The Mekok river and Sop Ruak - boundary of   Thailand, Myanmar, Laos.
   3 .The opium museum.
   4. and the famous bridge separating Thailand and Myanmar.

At around 1 pm , we were already done  with our tour, the married couple had a flight at 2:30pm from Chang Rai to Phuket while the other one will be on 1:45pm flight to Bangkok. Our driver and tour guide will be going back to Bangkok with the car. As for us, we had our flight later that day at 7:55pm going to Bangkok then at 12:20am  was our flight back  to Rome

Since its still early for us to go to the airport, our tour guide made arrangement with our hotel for late check-out, late as in 6pm. We asked them to drop us at Central Shopping Mall, the city's biggest mall , he also gave me a list of  the  famous landmarks in Chang Rai city written in Thai language.
From the mall, where we also had our lunch , we hired a tuktuk for 500bhat going to;
    1. Wat Pra Keo
    2. Wat Pra Singh
    3. Royal Monument
then back to our hotel..had our late check out and off to Chang Rai International Airport through  the hotel's shuttle van, for free. Actually, at first they told us that we should wait for the time schedule but we wanted to go to the airport earlier. They then asked us to pay for the transportation as spec ial trip but later on they said that its for free.

Have also a peek at a monk's life.

9th day -depart Bangkok at 12:20AM and   arrived at  Rome 0650 am..