Travel Diaries #3: Pattaya

Hello babes,

I finally managed to prepare this post and to tell you a few words about the last part of our trip in Thailand. As I like the seaside very much and I love laying in the sun and swimming we had to enjoy some days on Thailand's shore as well, and for this we chose Pattaya, a city and beach resort which is about 100 km south-east from Bangkok.

We got here by booking a taxi in advance, which took us from the airport in Bangkok up to our hotel in Pattaya. We booked our hotel through www.trivago.de and checked it of course on holidaycheck.de, and we were very pleased. It was situated in South-Pattaya, a bit far away from the beach (about 2 km), but in the end we were very happy about it, for 2 reasons:
1. As everything happens there at night, we were lucky to be in a more quiet area and have some peaceful nights :D
2. We never actually went to the beach in the city, so we didn't even had to be closer to it.

We preferred to search for more quiet and clean beaches, with fewer tourists and the ones we found were on the closest island to the city - Koh Larn (Coral Island). In order to get there, we took a boat everyday from Bali Hai Pier up to the Pier on Koh Larn (there are about 7 km and it takes cca 45 minutes to get there, for a very good price - 30 baht/pers) and from there you can either rent a motorcycle or get on one with a driver and you can choose on which of the seven beaches you want to go. That was quite a funny experience since it was the first time I rode a motorcycle, especially with two more persons on it. :)) But get used to it, safety is not the most important thing here, haha.

So during our 7 days stay we saw all the beaches on the island, but took sunbaths on two of them and just one got to be our favorite. Of course, besides laying on the beach the whole day, we also had to visit some of the tourist attractions in Pattaya which were:
- the Sanctuary of Truth, a building made 100% of wood, situated on the seashore. Its construction began in 1986 and they are still working on it. I think it is amazing and definitely something worth visiting while being in Pattaya. See more here: The Sanctuary of Truth .
- the Floating Market, a very nice market where you can find everything you want, but especially yummy food and great souvenirs. The great part is that some of the sellers sell everything from their boats and that is not something you see everyday ;)
- the Big Buddha, a giant statue of Buddha, situated on a hill in Pattaya from where you can see the whole city, and it is of course a place of worship.

I let you now enjoy the photos, but before that you should know that you can find my jumpsuit HERE.

Have a great, sunny rest of the week!
Hugs, Andy.

Jumpsuit // HERE

Dress // H&M

Kimono // HERE

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Travel Diaries #2 : Chiang Mai

Hey dear ones,

I was supposed to continue the story some days ago but I had a very full past week and I didn't find the time. As I told you in the previous post, from Bangkok we flew to the northern part of Thailand, in Chiang Mai. We booked the tickets with Thai Airlines about a month and a half in advance, also online, and the prices were really good (I would say quite cheap for a flight). Unless you have a lot of time to spend on the road, I definitely recommend you doing this. By train or by car takes a lot longer. 

Anyway, one hour later we landed in Chiang Mai, where the temperatures were even higher than in Bangkok. We had about 38 degrees every day, but the humidity was lower than in Bangkok, so it was more bearable. The hotel was very nice and the staff was amazingly friendly and nice during our 5 days stay. We wanted to see the northern part of Thailand because it is a mountainous area, with many many temples, national parks, elephant camps, tiger camps, etc., therefore a lot to see and to do.

During our first day there, we visited most of the city's temples and I say most because there are around 30-40 temples, so you can imagine we couldn't see them all during one day and in such heat. However, I liked them all and I find them so peaceful and reassuring, definitely sending you good vibes all the time. In the afternoon we found a great restaurant where we had the best thai chicken soup with coconut milk and chilli and during the night we visited the Night Bazaar, a very colorful & full of life place, where you can buy pretty much everything at good prices, but remember: always bargain. 

The next day we visited the ruins of the ancient city which were discovered about 10 years ago and on our third day we made a trip to see one elephant camp and a snake farm. I really wanted to see such an elephant camp and I left with mixed feelings from there, but this is such a controversial subject that I'm not gonna discuss it here. However, the elephants are uber cute and your heart melts down when you see how smart they are and what are able to learn. I wanted to see the Tiger Kingdom as well, but unfortunaly we didn't have time anymore. 

Another trip we made was the one up to the highest peak in Thailand, Doi Inthanon mountain, where we walked a bit in the forest, saw other amazing temples and a big waterfall. Nevertheless, there are many many more things to see and trips you can choose to make in Chiang Mai area, you just need a lot of time for it.

Chiang Mai was my favorite part of our vacation because we saw so many beautiful, new things and we really felt welcomed. I'm usually more of a seaside person, but this place is definitely worth seeing!

Have a great weekend and a Happy Easter to the ones celebrating it tomorrow!

Love, A.

                                                           ...to be continued

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Travel Diaries #1 : Bangkok

Hello my dears,

Today we start with the first holiday post, together with some words, photos & impressions from Thailand's capital city, Bangkok. 

First of all, you already know how much we love to travel, and my advice to you is to travel as much as you can cause the world is so big and beautiful and each experience is enriching. You get to meet all kinds of people, with their different habits, you get to see all kinds of places & cultures, beliefs and ways of living. 

Thailand was by far the most enriching experience for me up to now, and I find it to be a country of big contrasts. However, I must tell you that we planned all our journey by ourselves, on the internet. The first step was booking the flights, which happend in October, while in January we booked the rest (hotels & co.). Regarding the hotels, we usually book them on trivago.de, but before that we always check them on holidaycheck.com and tripadvisor. Another advice while traveling to Thailand is to book good hotels, 4*/5* ones because the stars there are not the same as the ones in Europe.

 Since we wanted to see a little bit of everything, we had to book some additional national flights because Thailand is quite a long country so you need some days to travel from the northern part to south and we didn't have that kind of time to waste on the road.

Anyway, we finally decided upon three locations which we wanted to see during our two-weeks holiday:  Bangkok, Chiang Mai (in the northern part of Thailand) and Pattaya (in the south).

We landed in Bangkok on Sunday evening and we had two nights booked for this huge capital city. We took a taxi from the airport (a little tip here: it is cheaper to search on the internet for the best taxi company in Bangkok and book a cab in advance; we didn't know by then), which took us to the hotel, about 30-40 km away. It was already dark outside, but all the skyscrapers with the commercials on them, the towers of different temples which you could see from the highway and of course, the intense traffic, everything made the city look very colorful and agitated. One hour later we got to the hotel, which was truly a dream (if you want more details about it, send me an email), changed our clothes and went to have dinner. We heard that there was a 360-panorama-view lounge at the 31st floor, so after dinner we had to go there, even if we were dead tired. The view over Bangkok was absolutely amazing, it was warm, but windy and very relaxing..

The second day, which was in fact the only one we had for visiting the city, we woke up quite early and after breakfast, we took the boat from our hotel along the river up to another pier and from there we took another boat which was going to take us to the Grand Palace, Wat Arun, Wat Phra Kaew, etc., the most popular tourist attractions there. Right after getting off the boat, a guy came to us and showed us on the map a few more must-see places in Bangkok so we took a tuk-tuk and started to explore the city. Seeing Bangkok from the tuk-tuk is quite a funny & great experience and I totally loved it, even if the pollution levels are quite high in this city and you can't always breathe normally, especially when you stay behind a bus while waiting for the green light. After a day with the tuk-tuk you feel like you have diesel all over your face, haha. As someone who studied this not very long ago, I can tell you that the pollution is really high in Bangkok, the smog is everywhere and inhaling all the gases from burned fuel is quite harmful for our health, but it was once-in-a-lifetime experience, totally worth it. So what we saw during that day in Bangkok was the Golden Mountain, from where you can see the whole city, we saw some street markets and different praying places, we saw the Grand Palace, which is beautiful and so very golden but so full of tourists, and we saw another temple on the other side of the river, Wat Arun. Before knowing it, we were completely exhausted and wanted to return to the hotel, which was possible by taking a boat, again. 

At the end of the day we could only say that Bangkok is indeed a beautiful, but incredibly huge city, full of tourists, one of the most polluted ones I've seen and the time we stayed there was just enough for us to see the main attractions. The next day we packed our bags again and headed to the airport, we had a plane to Chiang Mai to catch. 

..to be continued

T-Shirt, Hat // H&M

Pants // Zara

Sandals // Primark

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