THAILAND: My First Solo Travel

To the FIRST of many backpacking adventures! I’m really grateful to have experienced travelling alone & this is the first trip that I was blessed enough to pay for ALL expenses with money I worked very hard for!

TRAVEL DATE: FEB 2014

BANGKOK TRAVEL GUIDE

WHERE TO STAY IN BANGKOK: BUDDY BOUTIQUE INN

At Buddy Boutique Inn

I had a great stay at this hotel! I am so grateful for the free room upgrade & gifts that they gave me. I am truly blessed. This hotel is near the backpacker haven – KHAO SAN ROAD. Hotel has clean rooms and facilities. The staff are just amazing, so accommodating and sweet! 

EXPLORING BANGKOK (THINGS TO DO IN BANGKOK)

GRAND PALACE

At the Grand Palace

Amazing place! I felt like I was in another era! Or like in a Mulan movie! There were so many tourists. The Buddha Shrine inside one of the palaces felt so magical that I stayed for 10 minutes just appreciating & being grateful for the wonderful view in front of me!

BEWARE of scams outside the palace telling you that it’s closed! Don’t believe them. It is definitely open! I experienced being approached 2 times telling me that the Grand Palace was closed and that I should go to <specific temple> instead!

WAT PHO

Check out this Big Buddha behind me 😉

Just as amazing as the Grand Palace because of the biggest Buddha I have ever seen in my life. It occupied almost an entire building or temple.

The walk from Grand Palace to Wat Pho is around 15-20 minutes.

WAT ARUN

Super Steep Steps at Wat Arun! What a climb!

After Wat Pho, I took a ferry to cross the Chao Paraya River just to get to this temple. This is the temple I liked the most because it challenged me! Through its VERY steep steps, I got to feel adventurous! I even felt like it was a sort of a “legends of the hidden temple” challenge. It was also fun to see tourists from all over the world challenging themselves to conquer the steps just to get to the top.

MALIWAN THAI COOKING CLASS

Cooking Thai Food in Thailand! Yum!

Incredible class! Couldn’t be more grateful for all the things I learned in this class!

Great people too, very nice & friendly! I got to learn basics of thai cooking and made 3 wonderful recipes:

• YUM MOO YANG (Grilled Pork with Sour & Spicy Salad)
• KAI PHAD BAI KAPRAO (Stir Fried Chicken with Holy Basil)
• POR PIA TOD (Fried Spring Rolls).

I loved YUM MOO YANG, I’ll make sure to make this for my family SOON! ♥

KHAO SAN ROAD

After that walk-a-thon of temples & a tiring cooking class, I explored Khao San Road – the famous backpacker’s haven where one can see almost different nationals from a lot of countries. Khao San Road is a lively place with street shops (clothes, keychains, shirts, etc), food (pad thai, coconut ice cream, insects). You can also hear good music from different bars & just see people dancing to the music on the streets!

EXPLORING KANCHANABURI

I availed the KANCHANABURI DAY TOUR c/o Day Tours Bangkok. 

Pretty short River Raft Tour!

I ended my Thailand trip with a BANG! This tour was one of the best I’ve had so far in my life. I visited a World War II & Jeath Museum, walked across an old train bridge over River Kwai, Bamboo Rafted & saw Elephants at a camp and visited Sai Yok Waterfalls.

Aside from all these adventures, I got to meet & interact with very cool people from Poland, Germany, London, and Korea! They were all so nice and gave me some lessons on travelling! It was amazing just observing their cultures and how they interact with me.

Some even exchanged contact information with me. This tour was such a great experience that I will always be grateful for!

New friends from the UK! 🙂

Just a few grateful realizations:

• It’s good to travel once in a while & just reward yourself with experience.
• I am proud to say that at 23, I got to backpack travel on my own in another country!
• I want to marry a guy who loves to travel just as much as me.
• When you travel alone, you don’t only know more about that country, you also learn more about yourself!

Just a few advices FOR YOU: 

• Choose to travel NOW. There are lots of opportunities to travel, you just have to open your eyes to them!
• Budget travel and tours planning is very accessible through internet blogs and search pages.
• Instead of buying a new smartphone or tablet, choose to travel! Nothing beats travel experience.
• TRAVEL ALONE and learn more about yourself!

I just want to say THANK YOU to all those who helped me during the planning stage of this Thailand trip! I am so grateful for all the answers I got for all my questions. They all helped! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Until my next adventure! ♥

THAILAND BUDGET GUIDE

I am very grateful for the money that I paid for these amazing travel blessings:
Cebu Pacific Flight	₱3,889.30
Airport Fees: Travel Tax Terminal Fee	₱1,620 ₱550
Accommodation – Buddy Boutique Inn (3 nights)	₱4,564.20
Grand Palace	₱670
Wat Pho	₱140
Wat Arun	₱70
Round trip boat to Wat Arun	₱8
Maliwan Cooking Class	₱1,314.39
Kanchanaburi Tours (Shared Tours)	₱2,056
Food Transportation Souvenir Gifts	₱5,000
Estimated Total	₱20,000