Enter Thailand Full of Life..................

“These are the days that must happen to you:

You shall not heap up what is call’d riches,

You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve,

You but arrive at the city to which you were destin’d

You hardly settle yourself to satisfaction,

Before you are call’d by an irresistible call to depart…”

- Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road.

What does it takes to overcome the inertia of an anchored life, to jump into a never before experience of nature’s paradise with your life partner & BFF (Best Friend Forever)…

Well in my case not much except a disheartened, 20 - something “BFF” wandering through my home, a whole weekend; after getting stood up by his travel buddy for the much awaited trip to the Bachelor’s Paradise- Thailand.



"Om Mani Padme Hum"



We had seen him planning on & on for this trip since the day the idea took over his mind. So it was a well placed bet, of course after calculating a million times that it won’t cost us more than $2k, we jumped in the wagon to “ Discover Thailand”. The BFF had actually done his homework well, when he briefed us about all the attractions. I must admit the choice of destination couldn’t have been better looking at the assortment of landscape, people, food, activities & events – we experienced, later.

Like every budding travel enthusiast we took up a hassle-free travel package for popular Thailand hotspots. Hunting for the cheapest deals we landed up with a reasonable package for Bangkok & Pattaya – 5 days inclusive of return air fare, accommodation with breakfast, Day Tours with Lunch for just over $1k pax. For Phuket & Phi-Phi islands, we arranged a land deal of 2 days for around $250 pax, and booked cheap flight with Air Asia to reach Phuket, while deciding to make the return trip by the overnight Merc Buses, thus trying to swish past the rural Thailand as well.



Hell Bucket



Snorting the love in the air, with a flight full of honeymooners, we arrived at Bangkok early morning and were quickly shuttled away by our tour guides.  As few miles passed over, I realized except for the diversity of people around me & the broad roads on which we were zooming on to Pattaya, not much was different in the scenery , well after all we are still on the same continent. I was anxiously waiting for the beauty of the country to hit me, but that moment did not arrive till the next day.

Meanwhile, we were dropped off at our Hotel which looked deserted, until the next day when during the sudden breakout on breakfast buffet, it dawned on us that this hotel seemed to be the Hilton for all the Indian & Chinese budget family travelers & honeymooners. The very crowd - we wanted to escape.

Stay tuned for day 2 updates........

--ND