My 10 Day Solo Trip to Thailand!

TLDR; If you are here for just pictures scroll to the bottom.

A little disclosure about me before you start reading this blog, I am Arpan and I hail from India, currently working in Hyderabad. In this post, I am going to endorse a few websites and agencies which helped me to plan for my trip. I am not being paid for advertising any particular firm and these are just my personal choices. I will segregate the blog into timelines relative to the start date of the trip. This blog is not just a travel itinerary helper, I have penned down my experiences and mistakes as well that can be avoided.

April 2018 - 4 months before the trip

A couple of my friends and I were itching to do a trip abroad since we had completed the first year of our jobs and it was about time to splurge on a trip. Now as 3 friends sat in a room to decide which location would be the best fit for a week of traveling, Thailand is definitely one of the top choices if you want to travel with a strict budget.

• We booked our tickets from Hyderabad to Bangkok (BKK Airport) via Kolkata. Indigo Airlines was the preferred choice and the airline cost was 22000 INR. It included six flights, HYD -> CCU, CCU -> BKK, UTP -> HKT, HKT -> DMK, BKK->CCU, CCU->HYD. We were covering Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket over a span of 10 days.
• Undoubtedly, this is a really good price. Overall, this route is pretty convenient. I have met others who travel to Phuket first and then come back to Bangkok. But for a backpacking trip which involves lot of public transport traveling, walking, etc. it is better to be in Phuket in the later half and relax to the fullest.
• By April we only have the flight tickets and this was going to be our trip planning blue print. Remember that the trip is on, only after the tickets are booked. :)

July 2018 - 1 month before the trip

A month before the trip is when the planning should gain momentum. You should be looking at hotels, places to visit, modes of traveling, etc. However, my two friends had reasons to not go on this trip. And here I was trying to convince them to not back out. However, this is where the “solo” part of this blog’s caption was seeming to be true. Now I was looking at this trip with a new dimension. Excited yet afraid.

• There were some open questions around the arrangement of SIM cards, foreign exchange, VISA etc.
• I was relying on the on-arrival VISA. Refer to the Thai embassy’s visa on arrival page for the requirements. Quoting from the website,

The visit is strictly for tourism purposes.

The passport must be genuine and should be valid for at least 30 days.

You must have a valid address in Thailand whether a hotel or apartment that can be verified.

You must have a confirmed return ticket to show that they are flying out of Thailand within 15 days of entry, as appropriate. Open tickets do not qualify. Traveling overland out of Thailand by train, bus, etc to Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia (including en route to Singapore), Myanmar, etc is not accepted as proof of exiting Thailand.

You may be asked to show your flight ticket on entering Thailand. If you do not possess a flight ticket to show that you will be exiting Thailand within 15 days of entry you will be most likely refused entry.

It will also be necessary to prove that you have funds of at least 10,000 THB per person and 20,000 THB per family during your stay in Thailand.

A fee of 2,000 THB is payable upon entry and is subject to change without notice. It must be paid in cash and Thai currency only.

August 2018 - 1 week before the trip

• Foreign Exchange - I did some reading as to how to obtain foreign exchange. Remember that in all places of Thailand transactions in THB cash is preferred. That said, most travel agencies and restaurants accept card payment if you are transacting above 500 THB. I used the BookMyForex website to obtain all forms of foreign exchange. It was very convenient and they took about 2 days to provide me with the foreign exchange. I divided the foreign currency into three categories.
  • First category - 50% of my foreign exchange was in THB cash.
  • Second category - 25% of my foreign exchange was in THB Forex Card.
  • Third category - 25% of my foreign exchange was in US Dollar cash. This was primarily to reduce the volume of the cash I was carrying.
• Hotel Bookings - Since, it was a solo trip and I wanted to limit my budget for hotels I used Airbnb. They have various hotels, home-stays and condominiums to suit your budget. I stayed in about 5 different homes over a span of 10 days. The houses are extremely clean. The hosts are really welcoming and you can learn a lot from them about places to visit, cheaper modes of transport, etc.
• SIM Card & Travel Insurance - I was not really sure of whether to get the SIM card from India itself or get it in Thailand. Since, I was reaching Bangkok at about 2am, I got the SIM card from CCU Airport. The SIM card was valid for 10 days and costed about 1000 INR. Along with this, I got a travel insurance done for about 1200 INR.

So, now I pretty much had everything that would made me confident about the solo trip. Also, having these things ready meant I pretty much had all the pre-requisites required for my on-arrival VISA.

August 9th 2018 - Day of the trip

I was aware that there will be a lot of traveling by public transport. Hence, I was carrying just a rucksack. It greatly increased my mobility and hence I would advise everyone to travel as light as possible.

• Immigration process in India is pretty straight-forward. Hardly took me 10 minutes to get it done.
• I got a SIM card and travel insurance from the CCU airport itself.
• In BKK airport, they will not let you get the baggage unless your immigration is completed.
• For immigration process at BKK, there are a couple of queues. One of them moves really fast and charges you about 400 THB extra and you will be done in about 45 minutes. The other does not charge you anything extra and usually takes about 2 hours. For everyone who are having a connecting flight to say Phuket/Pattaya, it is advisable to pay the extra 400 THB and get done with this process at the earliest.

Bangkok - Day 0 to Day 3

I stayed for 3 days and 2 nights in Bangkok. In this short stay I figured that there are some very generic rules to follow.

• Always go by the meter while taking a Taxi. The driver would always quote double the amount. PS - While on road, don’t be amused to see some riders like below.

• Explore the routes by River Taxi. It costs about 15 THB to go even to the most extreme point. Refer to this guide to Bangkok boats and ferries for a good read about the river taxi system. The river cruise in the evening also gives really nice view of the city which is lit up.

• I stayed near the Khao San Road for the two nights in Bangkok. Its extremely close to many Buddhist Monasteries like The Great Grand Palace, Wat Arun, etc. Here, you will also get to explore great night life. It felt like a festival but it was hard to believe that every night at Khao San Road is like some celebration.

Pattaya - Day 3 to Day 5

• Pattaya is a 2-3 hour drive from Bangkok. The cheapest and the best mode to travel is AC bus. “Ekkamai Bus Station” is the place where you can get buses every 1 hour. I reached at about 5 and got an on-spot ticket for 6pm and it costed be about 150 Bahts. I got to know about this through some local friends. It is not listed on any of the blogs that I had read online. Hence, do make a lot of local friends and thrive for such guidance.
• I was staying at an AirBnb on the Jompien Beach. A walk to the infamous Walking Street was only about 5 minutes. The place served awesome breakfast by the beach side.

• Now, I do not want to bias travelers but at the same time I cannot resist the urge to write about how much I disliked Walking Street. There was a humongous Indian crowd and it was disgusting to see middle aged men bargaining the rate for solving their mid life crisis. Now, I thought it would be fun to go to a strip club. But, the dancers were not really dancers. Most of them looked drugged and it was sad to see the amount of emphasis on sex. “Boom Boom” as they call it.

• I went to “The Sanctuary of Truth” which is an hour drive from Jompien Beach. It would be preferable to visit here during lunch as it has a beautiful lake sort of thing and you can enjoy lunch there. I was lucky to see a 30 minute cultural show that they had organized for the visitors. Never had I thought that I would enjoy something so traditional.

• Amongst the other places that I visited in Pattaya were “The Alcazar Show” and “The Big Buddha”. There is also an aquarium and a painting museum which you can see if you free for an evening.

Phuket - Day 5 to Day 9

Phuket was the last leg of this trip. By now, I had been traveling relentlessly without a break and was starting to get a bit tired. Phuket was also the place for which I had no reservations or plans apart from my stay at a condominium.

• Unlike Bangkok and Pattaya, I was not staying at a jam-packed locality in Phuket. My stay was a good 30 minutes travel from Patong Beach which is kind of the most touristy place in Phuket. My host was kind enough to rent me a brand new scooter which made traveling super easy.
• In software engineering, we have something called as a SOP which is the sequence of procedures that we apply for doing something. Phuket has certain SOPs in terms of the places to travel. There are abundant travel agencies each providing similar sight seeing, island tours and trips.
• I headed to one of these travel agencies and booked 3 island tours which were going to keep me occupied for the next 3 days. The first day was the Coral Island and Raya Beach, second was James Bond Island and the third was Phi Phi Island.

• On day 1, I headed to Coral Islands and Raya Beach. As expected the water was clear and the sand was white. We stoped at a bay for snorkeling. Being a non-swimmer, I could still enjoy viewing the marine life underneath. We headed to an extremely beautiful wood house by the sea for lunch. The speed boat experience was full of adventure as well. In one of the pictures below you can see how transparent the water is. And yes, in the water the the green objects are fishes and not leaves.

• On day 2, we headed to James Bond Island. This day we traveled by a cruise which was slow and not as much fun as a speed boat. Nevertheless we did canoeing. You can even request your guide to let you canoe by yourself. Though it is not as easy as it looks.

• On day 3, we headed to Phi Phi Island. I was also about to see Maya Bay which for me was going to be the highlight of the trip. Again, we were on a speed boat. Because of the weather being overcast, the sea was extremely rough. This was by far the most adventurous thing that I have done. I felt the trip was life threatening was kept wondering how that small boat kept floating in the rough sea. A lot of travelers quit the trip mid way and were sent back to shore on a bigger, more stable boat. We again did canoeing at Maya Bay and say some other islands like the Monkey island. Overall, this day was my last and undoubtedly the best during the trip.

• There is a famous tourist attraction called as “The Big Buddha” in Phuket. I really wanted to go here but due to the island tours being tiring, I always used to head back home and rest. On the final day, my phone ran out of battery and I couldn’t navigate home. I spent almost 2 hours going around Phuket. Now, it was around 8PM and I could spot some well lit structure on a hill top. As I draw closer, I realized it was the statue of Buddha. I am not really a believer of fate but as fate would have it, I got to see “The Big Buddha”.
• Most of the evenings in Phuket, I used to go around Patong beach. There is the famous “Bangla Road” which is a must visit in Phuket. It is very similar to the Khao San Road in Bangkok. There are numerous restaurants around Patong Beach where I used to relax in the evenings.

Common Myths - Busted

• No insects as edibles. Yes, but I found baby scorpions at Khao San Road.
• Unlike in India, there are no dogs and cows on streets. Thailand could possibly be where Tom and Jerry live. There are just cats and mice all over the place.

In the last 10 days, I travelled 3 cities and 12 islands. I went on a flight, train, bus, bike, boat, ship and cruise. I went to places with ticket. I went to places ticket less. I did things that in hindsight seems risky. I was lucky to have not fallen ill. I was lucky that rains did not play a spoilsport. I was lucky to have met people who wanted me to enjoy this trip as much as I wanted to. Credits to Amit Pandey and Kartik Parmar for ditching me on this trip. Had it not been for them, the solo trip would never have been possible. Lastly, thank you the people of Thailand. I’d hope the people of India become half as much receptive to foreigners as you have been.

Originally published on Quora.