Michael Peter Hartmann

In 2018 I visited Thailand to teach English and Science a Lertlah School Kanchanapisek. The job was pretty busy and our chances to get out of Bangkok were very limited so on this trip I resolved to explore other parts of the country. Arriving in Bangkok a 12 hour bus ride from Phnom Penh (why are all bus trips 12 hours?) felt like coming back to an old friend. I was staying in the China Town area, an area I thought I had not explored previously.

To my surprise as I took a walk to familiarise myself with the city again I came across a building I distinctly remember from the last trip. Throughout my time in Thailand I was met with the same friendly people and unending neighbourhoods to explore. I’ll detail my time in each city below, but my general idea was to go North, go South, and end with some time in Bangkok.

Bangkok Round 1

I spent a few days in here on first arrival to Thailand, in a hostel next to the Hua Lamphong train station. The hostel was not great and smelled like raw meat for some reason but I did get to meet another guy in my room who was living full time in Thailand.

To the East was China Town, and South of that an area called Song Wat. My goal for these days was to find coffee shops and get re-acquinted with the city. I visited to Siam Mall(s) for some air conditioning and in the area I found a camera film supply called Lert’s Camera where I picked up three rolls of film. I was able to check out the following coffee shops:

• Factory Coffee
• Roots Coffee
• La Cabra (amazing)
• Song Wat Coffee Roasters
• Jeen Coffee
• The Coffee Store
• Mother Coffee Roaster
• Summer Coffee

The Song Wat area was new to me on this trip and it ended up being one of my favourie places. It’s a mix of businesses selling used car parts like axles, drivshafts, engines, etc and artist’s spaces, restaurants and cafes.

In the entrance to Mother Coffee Roasters you walk through a ground floor full of rusting metal and engines up some rickety stairs and into a modern cafe with resident cats. It was a question in the back of my mind whether Bangkok would still hold up to the favourable image I had maintained of it in the interceding years, and it definitely did.

The city is alive and chaotic, but tucked away it’s easy to find serenity in temples, alleys, and riverside walks. You can walk 15 minutes in any direction and find yourself in a new neighbourhood with it’s own distinct vibe. I resolved after this to spend my last days in Thailand in Bangkok, a decision which would turn out to be very good.

Chang Mai

I rode an overnight train 12 hours North to Chang Mai from Bangkok. The train was comfortable (even a little bit chilly) and I had a sleeper bunk so was able to rest on the way up. I arrived a the hostel which was situated just outside the ancient city walls. That evening I walked around to enjoy the evening market and at some delicious Thai food.

In the following days I rented a Honda CRF250, my first time riding a dirt bike and the largest bike I would rent on this trip. With layers on for protection from the sun (I did learn at least that from my Vietnam cycle-trip) I explored the pristine nature around the city.

Chang Mai is famous for the number of waterfalls a short drive away from the city. I managed to visit a few, but the standout was Mae Sa, which is actually a series of abou 10 waterfalls, with the furthest upstream one being a short but steep hike up the mountain. I took some time to sit with my feet in the river and splash some water on my face to fight the heat. The next day I rode out about an hour and a half away from the city to an off-road area that contains a few different attractions.

Eager to take the bike off road I had Googles various options, and the red sand section caught my eye. It was really fun to explore the red dirt and ride the waves created by the wash. I spent some time exploring the rest of the off-road area including some dead end trails. Looking at my map the area seemed well-defined by two major roads, so instead of taking the easy trail out I decided to ride on a trail that led directly North.

What was not obvious from the map was the scale of the distance to the road and I ended up in the middle of nowhere on a washd-out single track. It was great riding, but after seeing signs of elephants I took a fork in the road to hopefully reach the road a little sooner. Eventually I found the main road and made my way back to the city.

Bangkok Round 2

After taking the same train that brought me to Chang Mai, but this time in reverse I ended up with on night in Bangkok until my train south. I visited the Museum of Contemporary Art, which had not actually changed much at all since I was last there as it’s based around a private collection.

Nonetheless it was still nice to walk around the beautiful modern building and enjoy the art. I also visited the Bang Sue Antique and Vintage market which is a 5 story building with old stuff ranging from souvenirs to clothes.

Phuket

I decided to take the train down to Surat Thani before taking a bus onto the island of Phuket. This turned out to be a pretty bad decision as the train was not like the ones I had ridden to Chang Mai. When I got on the train I discovered that there was no A/C and that the seating was 4 wide on benches. To add to the misery my bench was slanted forward and my seat mate refused to take up any less than 75% of the space. I ended up spending most of the trip tucked into the doorway between train cars.

It might have been loud and dusty but the wind was nice and I didn’t have to constantly push another guy over. After making it onto the bus it seemed like the ultimate luxury. I was not seated next to anyone and the A/C was cold. In total it was about 20 hours of travel from Bangkok to Phuket.

I found out after my stay here that there are a few different areas of Phuket. There are two areas that are closer to the beach and then the old town that is inland. I ended up staying a few days in the Old Town of Phuket at a hostel at the end of one of the main streets.

A lot of the buildings have a very colonial feel despite Thailand never actually being colonized by a Western nation. The town is quite busy with tourists as I expected, which had it’s perks. The first is that almost every other night there were markets to walk through complete with lots of delicious Thai food.

The second is that there was live music down almost every street. The third is that there is an abundance of specialty coffee shops scattered around with A/C and good wifi. The downside is that the streets are packed with people taking pictures of the historic buildings. In some parts of the town you can barely take a step without interupting someone else’s picture.

If I went back to Phuket I would definitely try a different area, possibly closer to the beach. Overall it was nice, but a little touristic for me.

Koh Lanta

I took a boat first from Phuket to Koh Phi Phi to transfer boats and end up in Koh Lanta. The boat ride was very scenic with much of it taking us past islands, including some featured in a James Bond movie. Coming into Koh Lanta we cruised past the piered fishing houses and restaurants and grabbed a song tao (a truck with a canopy and seats in the back).

The vibe here was much more relaxed than Phuket and the sandy beaches and warm water looked inviting. I arrrived at my hostel that was across the street and a quick 5 minute walk to the beach to find it was pretty quiet due to a combination of it being the low season, Ramadan (souhern Thailand tends to be more Muslim), and the upcoming SongKran celebrations. Even so I met a good group of people at the hostel who I spent a few mornings and nights with, enjoying coffee, breakfast, and a cold beer in the evening.

To be honest this is when I really felt like I started to hit my stride of finding other people I connected well with. Whether that was just because of the places I’d stayed before or whether something shifted I’m not sure but here I found many other travellers I could relate to.

Friendships between travellers are a bit of an odd thing, but I’ll save my thoughts on that for perhaps another post. During the first few days in Koh Lanta I would often spend time (in the shade) on the beach either reading or listening to podcasts or music.

I was swimming in the ocean but would come out feeling kind of itchy, and it was not until the second day that I realized I was being stung by jellyfish! The stings were more annoying than downright painful but it did curb my swimming for the rest of my time there.

In the later stages of my stay I rented a scooter to explore other parts of the island. I took it out to the Koh Lanta Old Town, which turned out to be pretty quiet and unexciting apart from an old shipwreck. I did really enjoy my time here, and I think if I was to go back to southern Thailand I wouldn’t mind spending more time here.

The view out to the ocean from the old town

Koh Jum

I write all my travel notes in a paper journal, and under the Koh Jum heading in large letters I had written “QUIET, DULL”. I visited this island on the recommendation of someone I met my last time in Bangkok. They said that I would find a quiet island off the beaten path where you can rent a bungalow next to the ocean and that the main street had some nice restaurants and social life.

Well I’m not sure where he stayed exactly but that was not quite my experience. Having a bungalow and porch with a hammock to myself was nice, I’ll admit but the bungalow was pretty basic. It had a mosquito nt, not because the mosquitos were particularily bad to protect you from the gecco poop raining from the ceiling. I needed to drape towels over my bag to prevent a laundry disaster.

The resort was pretty much right on the beach which was nice, although there were few other people staying there and none seemed to want to socialize. The beach was clean and had lots of shade, and when the tide was out you could walk through tide pools and rock formations.

The street was not lively, I even rented a scooter and traversed the entire island, wondering if I was just in the wrong place. In the end I didn’t even end up finding a place to eat dinner.

I basically lived at the resort for five long days, most of which I spent sleeping and working. There were nice aspects to it, such as taking a long nap in the shade during the heat of the day, or watching the sunset from the resort restaurant while working, but I probably booked a few days too many there. I was glad to leave when the time came and it turned out that I would need some sleep and relaxation saved up to get me through the next couple weeks.

Bangkok Round 3

I arrived in Bangkok early Saturday morning after an overnight bus from Krabi. This was the weekend of Song Kran, the multi-day water festival in Thailand. Traditions include spraying others with water, getting clay smeared all over you and generally accepting chaos across the whole city.

I spent my first morning visiting coffee shops and stores in China Town and Song Wat. Around 2PM I checked into the hostel and napped for a few hours sinc I knew that once I went out it would be a long night. I started my 45 minute walk towards Khao San road, the center of the festivities around five PM.

As I got closer there were more and more families on the road and sidewalk wielding water guns and soaking everyone that came by. In no time at all I was dripping wet from head to toe, as people dumped water out of the back of pickup trucks. Once at Khao San road it was shoulder to shoulder people for the entire section of the city, everyone with water guns looking for the next target.

I considered buying a watergun for myself but the one time use seemed very wasteful so I went without. Not only is everyone constantly being sprayed with water but there are people walking around with pails full of grey clay that they smear onto the clothes and faces of everyone that passed.

It’s quite the experience to be surrounded by thousands of people, all dirty, wet, and having a great time. After walking around a bit I sat down at a bar to take a break.

I turned around and to my surprise a couple I had met waiting on the boat from Koh Jum to Krabi where sitting there. I went over to say hello, chat, and watch the choas from a mostly dry location. While sitting there a Canadian came and sat down as well so we chatted for a bit. I could tell he was Canadian because he was wearing a Raptor’s hat.

After chatting for a bit I turn back around to face the street to see another familiar face. It turned out that two people I had met in Koh Lanta were staying at the hostel next door. I quickly ran over to say hello and was sucked into the waterfight. From then on for the next few hours we waged water war on everybody walking by and the other people camped out down the road from us.

After exhausting ourselves and the water we went for some street food and to hang out with some locals. Since it seemed like the night was just beginning we took off for the main street of Khao San road to go dancing. We spent the next few hours hopping clubs, dancing and chatting before I called it an early night at around midnight.

Instead of going back to the hostel though I walked past a metal/punk bar and went inside for a bit. I found out that although the music had ended for the evening the next night they were having mini metal fest and I should com back.

Sunday I slept in a bit before doing another circuit of my favourite coffee shops. The mornings of Song Kran are peaceful and dry so it’s nice to enjoy while you can. That evening I went back to the metal bar for music. The crowd ended up being mostly people that were in one of the five bands playing, but I did pull up a chair with a group that was talking to the bassist from the first band.

They ended up being a great group of solo travellers who had all met at their hostel so we started the usual traveller chat. The bands all night were awesome, and after hearing I was from Canada one of them even insisted of playing their cover of Rebecca Black’s Friday. She is NOT from Canada but I was unaware of this at the time and insisted that if they played the song I would record it and just maybe someone I know that knows Rebecca Black will see it. After the music finished the group chatted a bit more before heading to Khao San road again.

This time was more for just chatting and less for dancing, because there’s only so much of that I can do. We ended up all getting along great and even after walking back to their hostel chatted until the sun came up.

I took a rest day to work and sleep on Monday, and on Tuesday I checked out of my hostel to stay at a hotel that was just a single train away from the airport so I could make my morning flight out. On Monday evening I also met up with one of the friends from Sunday night and we toured markets, ate some street food and even found a metal bar.

They left early because they were about to start the work day but I stayed until late enjoying cover songs from the 80s and 90s. The following morning I flew out of Bangkok towards Istanbul, with a stop over in Shanghai.

I had so many fond memories of Thailand going into this trip and was able to only add to that this time. The people and the food make Thailand a wonderful place to be, and I know I’ll have to visit again in the future.