A big Thailand adventure

When The Bloggers' Lounge announced their competition in conjunction with gapyear.com to win a New Zealand adventure tour, I knew it was the perfect time for me to blog about my Thailand trip. All you have to do to enter is blog about your biggest adventure, and I plan on blogging more about my travels and time in Switzerland anyway, so this is the perfect ammunition...

So, without further ado, THIS is Thailand - through my eyes.

It all really began back in May 2012. I had upped sticks in the UK and relocated to Switzerland after bagging a job here; my boyfriend had made the huge decision to join me, giving up his (pretty secure and well-paying) job to see where life would take us. We had no idea what he'd do here (he's a human factors engineer, which - in Switzerland - seemed non-existent), but he knew he wanted to be with me and give it a go out here so that - for me - was where our adventure began. Sitting beside the River Rhine in Basel one summer's afternoon in August, we got carried away thinking about new destinations for our bucket list (greedy huh?!) - and the Thailand adventure was born!

We made another big decision to ditch the company of our families over Christmas and New year and go in December, mainly because the public hols meant I could take more time off without eating into my holiday allowance. We knew it might feel odd celebrating Christmas in a hot climate and on our own, but we were also uber excited by it. Life's too short not to embrace a bit of change every now and again eh?!

We took over 1000 photos of our trip, and I wish I could bore you with all of the pics but it would be nice to keep some readers! So, instead, here are some of the highlights of our big adventure...

• Arriving in Bangkok but being too excited to go to bed and rest...so we hit Khao San Road, and proceeded to drink far too much Tiger and Chang (beer). The night ended up with my boyfriend falling asleep on the bathroom floor...and I ended up being sick the following morning...twice. Classy. Also known as the 'Chang hang'. 



Notice the jet-lagged eyes and the Tiger beers, soon to be followed by the lovely Chang

• Arriving to our hotel in Bangkok, being reassured the room was a lovely one and away from the noisy main street, and entering to find a charming little window in the corner of our room. All fine and dandy, with some opportunity for fresh air and morning sunshine we thought, that is until we realised it overlooked a corridor of the hotel - and it didn't open. Oh how we laughed.

• Arriving in Chiang Mai to see our tuk tuk driver with a 'Hunter Danielle' sign (my name backwards) and having to giggle when he shook my boyfriend's hand and called him Hunter.

• Ordering an omelette with cheese and getting an omelette with a square of processed burger cheese on top...skills right there.

• Spending Christmas day on this beach...heaven.

Railay Beach, Krabi

Railay Beach, Krabi

Railay Beach, Krabi

• Being way too excited at having our own balcony hammock!

Viking Nature Resort, Ko Phi Phi

• Drinking out of buckets (at Reggae bar, where customers are invited into a boxing ring to kickbox). Class right there! It was these kind of fun experiences that made Thailand unforgettable.



Buckets in Reggae bar, Ko Phi Phi



• Sharing the same bit of The Beach beach that Leo DiCaprio graced back in the day...paradise.

• ...and thinking I was literally going to crash and die in the little wooden shack of a boat that got us there...over seriously choppy, open waters. All worth it though of course.



Maya Beach, Ko Phi Phi

• Hiring a scooter in Ko Pha Ngan and heading for the centre of the island to visit one of the sacred temples and getting caught up in a storm along verrrrry bumpy, muddy roads. We had to chuckle at us bobbing along and weaving all over the roads with me hanging on for dear life!



The ride started out so well...

• Celebrating New Year crammed in the back of a big tuk tuk with a bunch of lovely new friends...since we didn't quite make it to the Full Moon Party in time!

• Canoeing the long-ish way over to the island opposite our resort only to get caught up in the biggest thunderstorm I've ever seen and having to take shelter on the edge of the uninhabited island. Genuinely thought we'd perish there. Thankfully, after a whole 10 long minutes, we didn't...obvs.

• Witnessing sunsets like this...(that's THE aforementioned island there by the way).

• Adopting elephants at Patara Elephant Farm for the day...feeding, cleaning them, brushing them, bathing them and riding them...

• Meeting wonderful people who really understand the true adventure Thailand can offer, because they were right there beside us...

I apologise for the picture-heavy post but I hope you are getting the idea that this really was one of the biggest, most memorable, happiest adventures ever, and it has only fuelled my passion for seeing more of the world and experiencing incredible adventures just as good as this one.

Here's some more of my favourite pictures...

Chiang Mai temples

One of the Night Bazaar markets in Chiang Mai

Meeting Santa in Ao Nang, Christmas Eve

Ao Nang on Christmas Eve

The famous Full Moon Party in Ko Pha Ngan, New Year's Eve 2013

Chilling in Beck's Resort, Ko Pha Ngan

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