Thailand in an expert group
I met the rest of the group at the airport and we travelled directly to Bangkok and then onwards to Chiang Mai. This was my third trip to Thailand but my first visit to Chiang Mai and as always with these sort of things time was short, so after a smooth check-in at the Horizon club at the Shangri-La I dashed off to see Chiang-Mai. It’s the second largest of Thailand’s cities after Bangkok (more of which later) but can sometimes still feel a bit village like. It has an older section which is within the old partially existing city walls. It was hot but it still felt great to walk through the streets of one of South East Asia’s most admired cities. In the central area you will find many shrines and temples and it’s generally calmer than the rest of the city. Outside the old city walls some of the main attractions are Chiang Mai’s world-famous night markets they have hustle and bustle and you can haggle for price, you can eat & drink and even get a relaxing massage, the markets have a great atmosphere. Our second night in Chiang Mai would even incorporate a shopping challenge at the night markets!
Back to our first day/night and after exhausting myself touring the town we rounded everything off with dinner and drinks in a lovely outdoor restaurant overlooking the river.
As part of this trip we were to be given three competitive tasks, the first was the aforementioned shopping challenge and it was great fun haggling in the night markets for the best bargains and the most unusual trinkets.
We also had time in Chiang Mai for a more cultural exploration of the Wat Phra That Doi Suthep temple with golden stupa’s and amazing far reaching views over Chiang Mai and the fascinating Hmong village where life is a bit more traditional.
We departed Chiang Mai together already knowing each other a bit better and travelled to our next destination which was Koh Samet. I had been here before, but I was still interested to see how much it had changed in the intervening years. Koh Samet is just a short boat hop from the mainland after a 2-3-hour drive from Bangkok and although it’s not as well-known as some of the other Thai islands it is still worth visiting. It has a marine national park and some lovely beaches and occasionally a fantastic sunset. Our second challenge was to take place in Koh Samet and it was a photographic competition (see above for some of my efforts). We visited some nice hotels including one that I had stayed at previously, all those years ago there was no paved road to get to that part of the island, so it had been a bit of bumpy experience to get to, now however it was a comfortable journey and we enjoyed dinner and drinks in the luxurious surroundings.
We travelled to Bangkok for our third and final leg and our third challenge. Having been to Bangkok several times before it was great to be able to help the group with directions and information, but we also managed to fit in some things that were new to me, some roof top bars, five-and-a-half-ton solid gold buddha at Wat Traimit to name but two. We also took in some old favourites of mine like Wat Pho and Wat Arun which are stunning and unique examples of Thai temples. Although I have visited Bangkok on many occasions it’s still exciting and vibrant and always changing.
The third challenge was a cooking challenge – which was certainly new to me, my cooking skills could still do with a bit of sharpening, but it was well worth doing and perhaps more people should do a cooking class as part of their trips especially to this part of the world – I would highly recommend it.
It was a great trip and I would like to thank the group leaders and all the group for a wonderful experience – I hope we can travel together again one day!