Today is the 1st of May which is known as “Labor Day” around the world.
But for me it is the first day of the month we (Stefan and I) leave Bangkok, the city we have called home for several years.
I have mixed feelings. I have lived in Bangkok long enough for the “in love” feelings to have long faded away, but with time, love matures, and I suppose that is how I feel about Bangkok. I love it and hate it at the same time….
Here are the top 5 things I love about Bangkok:
1. I love the fact that you can FIND FOOD ANYWHERE!
2. I love that Bangkok NEVER SLEEPS, there is always something to do or somewhere to go, no matter what time of night–even if it’s just a massage as some dodgy side of the road shop! 🙂
3. I love the malls. I love that I can actually shop in them. I have lived in many countries where the malls were for hanging out, perhaps having a bite to eat, but certainly not for groceries and amazing discounts for clothes, house stuffs, electronics etc…
4. I love the diversity, I have been an expat in several countries, but Bangkok takes the cake! There are so many of us that it’s impossible to be lonely, and for better or worse, this city has decided to make sure all our comforts from home can be found here.
5. I love the convenience of living in a city that has a 7-11, Max-Value or Family Mart at every corner. This might seem trivial, but it really does spoil you.
Bangkok is far from perfect; but it is the city that has given me so much so that even though I am not Thai, Bangkok feels like “home.”
Now here’s the top 5 things I hate about Bangkok. I am listing them here because they need to be said. And also just in case someone who is looking to move to Bangkok stumbles on this blog, I wouldn’t want them to see only one side of the coin…
1. I hate the TRAFFIC! Bangkok is a huge city, but to have to allot almost 2 hours of your time to get anywhere is ridiculous! The BTS and MRT are overcrowded so I hate using them most of the time, the Taxi’s are 9 out of 10 trying to scam you so I don’t like using them either. The only saving grace for a non-driver like me are the motorbike taxis. I will miss them!
2. I hate the underlying racism/status differentiation & gender discrimination that permeates Bangkok society. I am not going into detail here, but it is there. I also hate getting compliments when I am not tan. What is it about being WHITE? I understand where the obsession originally came from, but I would think it would have faded by now…
3. I hate the visa process! I understand that to get everything in order the first time it might be difficult and confusing. But I had expected things to get easier over time. Not so! Every year we somehow had to pay more, there were more papers required, more regulations implemented. It just seemed an uphill climb all the time we had our small company open. I am thankful that we had a successful business in Thailand, but the visa process was a nightmare and an exorbitant waste of time. I would have happily paid more to lessen the grief.
4. I hate the flooding. Bangkok is a well-populated and fairly new city. Why has the drainage system never been properly addressed? It was frustrating and bizarre to be leaving Emporium, one of the most posh malls in downtown Sukhumvit, to 2 feet of rain water flooding the road directly in front.
5. I hate the double standard. Farang’s price: 400thb Thai price: 40thb. Why? Maybe 20 years ago double price (NOT 10x) for foreigners made sense…but now Thais, especially those living in Bangkok are much more affluent than the average foreigner…so why does this discrimination still exist? I thought it was going to slowly even out…but no, it’s only getting worse!
So that’s my Love and Hate list. But in reality my love for Thailand in general outweighs the bad feelings…
In the last 7 years of living in Bangkok:
I met Stefan, who became my life and business partner.
I had a part in starting a fitness business, from scratch, and got to meet, train and learn from, so many wonderful folks along the way.
I reconnected with a childhood friend, Natasha, who is now my best friend.
I was able to spend precious time with my parents who have also become my best friends after spending 10 years pretending to independent and “all grown” up.
I was able to get to know my niece, Kelsie, who is such an amazing and smart character.
And the list goes on…
So as you can see, with all the memories that have been created here, in Bangkok, it is almost surreal to be saying goodbye in less than 30 days!!! :0
With this realization I am going to:
>>> Eat as much Thai food as possible
>>> Wander my favorite malls and walking streets
>>> Get as many foot and Thai massages for 250thb (or less)
>>> See as many of you that became a part of my life before we go
>>> And “enjoy” the heat while I can. Humidity is impossible to enjoy, but I can at least savor the feeling of NOT feeling cold…LOL 😛
Two Bluetooth mouse ⇒⇒⇒it’s really hard to just use the track pads on our laptops to blog, video and photo edit etc. We have a Logitech Ultrathin Touch and the Microsoft Designer.
Two phones ⇒⇒⇒Iphone6+ for Stefan, Huawei P9 for me, which has an amazing Leica camera.
Mavic Pro ⇒⇒⇒yup, we absolutely need all those cool drone shots for all the beautiful places we’re going to visit. We’re really excited to get this baby on Auto tracking..it’s supposed to be able to follow us around. I am seriously obsessed with this baby! Maybe even more than Stefan…LOL 😛 It’s a bit more complicated than expected and we are in the process of getting some much needed accessories. We’ll make a dedicated post for this gadget as soon as we complete our set.
Volcano Power Bank ⇒⇒⇒This bad boy can jump-start a car! We have used it to jump-start our motorbike several times and we can charge our laptops, phones, GoPro camping lamps, flashlights etc. The only thing we haven’t found a cable for is our Mavic, but it has enough juice to charge that too!
GoPro Hero 5 ⇒⇒⇒We absolutely needed a waterproof camera as we love snorkeling and when on a motorbike almost everything has to be waterproof. So far the GoPro has proven it’s worth on our many adventures. We considered getting another action cam, due to the GoPro’s higher price, but we felt that we needed something we were sure would take good footage and is hardy enough to withstand whatever may cross our paths. This baby is only a week old!
Slime Power Sport Inflator ⇒⇒⇒flat tires are just part of life when on a motorbike, and because we are expecting to bring all this stuff–we also will be bringing camping and cooking gear–we need a good, yet compact, compressor to boost our tires up regularly.
Garmin Zumo 340LM ⇒⇒⇒came with the map for Europe which is good as our trip will start in Den Haag, Netherlands
Misc. USB powered gadgets ⇒⇒⇒camping lamps, head-strapped lights, mini fans, diving flashlights the list goes on…
So that’s our list for now…
It’s exciting, but also rather surreal that we “think” we need all these gadgets.
Here’s to hoping that we can become affiliates for these gadgets so we can make our precious $$$ back 😛
If you are like me and love nature and trekking/hiking through the jungle to find some amazing waterfalls and caves, then I have some great adventure spots to share.
I fell in love with Thailand 12 years ago. When I visited Thailand the first time, I stayed for only 1 month. The second holiday I managed to stay 2 months (my boss in Holland wasn’t so happy) and the third time I called my boss and told him that I wasn’t coming back for work and I promptly made Thailand my second home. 🙂
I worked in the big city, Bangkok, due to my personal training business. But I always looked forward to when I could escape the pollution and traffic of Bangkok and visit the natural parks and country side. Marie and I have been fairly lucky in that we have managed to take a trip out almost every month since we married 5 years ago.
I think we’ve crisscrossed almost the whole of Thailand during our stay here, and most of it was done on my BMW GS1200 motorbike.
Because I’ve been to probably more places in Thailand than the average foreigner or even Thais…
I believe sharing with you my top 6 Thai National Parks, makes sense. Most of the ones I’m going to list are not frequented by foreigners. So if you’re “white,” like me, you might be the only farang (white person) there.
Note: This list reflects my personal opinion and is not listed in any specific order of preference.
This amazing place makes you feel like you are in the Avatar movie set. Some of the landscape really looks different and until you’ve visited you won’t know what I mean. The park can be explored by elephant-back safari, hiking trail, and raft, canoe or kayak via the Sok river.
On our way to our floating bungalow on Khao Sok lake
Khao Sok National Park is a nature reserve in southern Thailand containing dense virgin jungle, tower like limestone quartz formations and the man-made Cheow Lan Lake. It’s home to rare species such as the giant parasitic Rafflesia flower, hornbill birds, gibbons and tigers.
We traveled there on our motorbike and stayed in a cute floating bungalow called: Khao Sok Smiley Lake House http://khaosok-smiley.com/
This is how our bungalow looked. You can dive straight into the lake from the front door 😉
It’s absolutely worth your money, you’ll pay around 5000THB per night during low season (probably more during high season) and compared to other guest houses in town this might seem a bit expensive, but this was for 2 people, 2 days and 1 night, and everything was included, food, board, and 1 day trip. Food was simple, they gave us a basic Thai breakfast, lunch and dinner.
The day trip included in our package was a trip to this amazing waterfall that ended up in a cave. We went with a group of about 20 folks but some were a bit scared to swim in the cave. We were provided with little head lights but the dark cave and the deep water with a fairly strong current frightened quite a few folks so the group split up and only a few of us continued till the water got too high and the end opening was too small to continue through.
Apparently, during high season the water isn’t quite so deep and you can swim directly through cave and come up on the other side. But we went during rainy season, so we weren’t able to get through due to our guides deciding the water was too high and rough to complete the trip. Despite not being able to go completely through we had a grand time, and upon returning, we tried to convince the other group that stayed back to give it a shot but by then our guides said it was too late and that the water was only going to get higher and stronger.
Hiking through the Khao Sok “jungle”
When we weren’t on a guided tour, we could dive into the clear cool lake directly from the door of our floating bungalow. They also provided us with free of charge kayaks and we got to explore the lake on our own.
We felt that we weren’t in Thailand during our stay in Khao Sok lake and we hope that we get to see it again before we leave Thailand.
Evening safari on a river boat
See a short video of our adventure here:
2. Pai
The next on my list is Pai. Located in the north of Thailand around 146km north-west from Changmai, is a sleepy, super chill town in the middle of the mountains.
Some people compare this town with Bangkok’s Khao San road as there’s a lot of backpackers and an active night life, but believe me its nothing like that.
Marie, myself and Marie’s cool parents (Paul & Sunny) drove to Pai on motorbikes all the way from Bangkok. Our favorite guest house was along the Pai river, called Pai Country Hut http://www.paicountryhut.com/ it was an adorable bamboo hut that cost only 500thb/night
Check out the video below:
The best time to go to Pai is around December when the weather is nice and cool, actually it was a bit cold esp when riding on a motorbike.
Highlights in Pai:
The Pai Canyon (Pha Chau)
Yup, it is a small canyon and it looks similar to the Grand Canyon except you are in the mountains of Thailand. The reddish cliffs and sandstone hills are breath-taking and perfect for hiking and taking beautiful pictures. Again, I felt like I had climbed into a worm-hole and ended up outside of Thailand.
Seriously, I lived in Thailand for 11 years before I heard anything about Pai, or the Pai canyon. I’m still curious why it isn’t as well know as it deserves to be, but I guess I’m happy that I discovered it now, before the tourist hordes take it over.
Pai Hot springs.
Now there 2 different hot springs in Pai. One is called Sai Ngam hot spring and the other Tha Pai Hot spring.
Check out that awesome clear water!! The temperature was also perfect..the outside temp was around 12-14 degrees while the water was around 40-45 degrees
The Sai Ngam is by far my favorite as this will cost you only 20 baht per person for entry, plus 20 baht for your scooter and is way more natural and more beautiful with less tourists than the Tha Pai Hot spring where you pay 300thb entry and have to share the water with a lot more people and screaming kids.
Also it’s a great road to drive on your motorbike. It’s 11km from Pai, going through the mountains, towards Mae Hong Son.
Tham Lod Cave
I’ve seen my fair share of caves in Thailand, but this one took me by surprise by it’s sheer size and complexity. In my opinion it is Thailand’s most amazing cave.
The Tham Lod Cave system is around 1,666 meters long and it features some of the most amazing stalactites and stalagmites that I have ever seen.
This cave was apparently occupied in the pre-historic era from 9000BC to 5500BC by the Hoabinhian hunting tribe. A community of hunters who made axes and hammers out of stone and bones. You can still see some proof of their existence in this cave.
What makes this place so special is you’ll have to enter this cave with a bamboo raft and a guide holding an old fashioned kerosene lantern to light up the place, there’s a lot of fresh water going through the cave with some huge black fish swimming underneath the raft.
On the Bamboo raft…sorry that you can’t see it so well
A closer view of the massive big fish swimming through the cave
The guide with the lantern will then stop at several places in the cave were you have to climb up and hike to different chambers and view amazing sights of lime stone and grand columns of stalagmites. Some are over 20 meters high!
Entrance fee & opening hours: Guides with lanterns only 150 Bath per group (always handy to bring your own flash lights too) Bamboo raft inside the cave (recommended) 400 THB. Opening hours: 9:00am till 6:00pm.
43km from Pai, take the 1095 road direction Mae Hong Son.
3. Chaloem Rattanakosin National Park
We visited this park just a couple of weeks ago and what I like about this park is there aren’t very many tourists. It’s a small place and beautiful place (it’s only 59 km² and is the smallest park in Kanchanaburi Province) but what makes it special is that it is so close to Bangkok you can drive there and back on the same day and still get to enjoy the nature. Its main features are fertile forests, steep limestone mountains, waterfalls and mysterious caves.
Amazing rock or once upon a time coral inside the cave…
Checking out the featured spots is also relaxing due to the park’s small size. You only have to walk 500m before you enter the first cave. After trekking to the other side of the cave, you get to trek through 1.5km of light jungle to reach a small but refreshing waterfall. If you go another 1.5km further there’s an even bigger cave and waterfall.
Check out some of the massive trees we saw…
…and how I almost broke my back trying to climb like Tarzan…
4. Erawan National Park
Not far from this park is the more popular Erawan waterfall. https://www.thainationalparks.com/erawan-national-park I would recommend that you visit this park as early as you can in the morning to avoid the busloads of tourists. There’s lots of “spa” fish in the waterfall so if you stand still they will start nibbling all the dead skin from off your body. If you are ticklish it’ll be a bit uncomfortable, but you can also just sit on the side and let the “spa” fish give you a natural pedicure 😉
Don’t worry this pic manages to make the fish look huge..they are actually very friendly
Within the same natural park, around 80km away there’s the Hin Dat Hot Spring. This hot spring was accidentally found by Japanese soldiers during the Death Railway construction, in 1943, World War II period. This natural hot springs flows hot throughout the entire year.
What I like about this hot spring is that there are 3 different pools with 3 distinct temperatures: 1. Warm 2. Very hot 3. Very cold. So you can jump in the hot bath first and then cool down in the cold waterfall right next to the hot spring. Another amazing option you have at this hot spring is that they offer rejuvenating Thai massage for very reasonable prices. I’d go back there just for the massages.
5. Emerald Cave (Morakot Cave)
To enter this secret white sand beach you’ll have to swim about 70m through an underwater cave. It’s only accessible at low tide as the cave will be underwater most of the time…. It’s a real beautiful place and it is quite exciting swimming in the underwater cave, but unfortunately when we went there we weren’t able to enjoy the ambiance as there was a huge company bonding event being hosted on that “secret” beach. They were playing some weird relay games, blaring awful music and just ruining the place for the rest of us. I guess you can never be sure if there will be a respectful group there, but if you go as early in the morning as possible you might beat the large groups.
Location: Morakot Cave is located near Koh Mook island, Toward the northwest of Haad Chao Mai National Park, in Trang province.
Last but not least a “must visit” place nearby Bangkok is the…
6. Phraya Nakhon Cave in Khao Roy Yot National park, Hua Hin province.
***pic not taken by us…
This amazing cave has a beautiful small golden temple hidden inside the cave. It’s one of the most mystical places I’ve visit in Thailand. The sun comes through a hole in the mountain to shine directly on the small temple and makes it glow and sparkle.
Only the reasonably fit can visit this temple as it’s a fairly hard trek to get there.
First step to reach the cave is to drive to the small village of Bang Pu located at the beach. From there you can decide to take the boat or hike 30-60min through the mountains to reach Leam Sala beach.
We’re fitness trainers so (of course) we went for the hike…but the boat ride only cost 150 baht so it’s a good option if you want to relax while enjoying the sights. Once you arrive at Leam Sala beach you will have to climb another 430 meters of uneven steep steps to enter the cave. Make sure you bring enough water as the mountain is very humid and you will sweat like crazy. But we thought the hike was absolutely worth it
So there you go, a few of my favorite caves and waterfalls in Thailand…There are many more but I must stop here or this post will be longer than it is and I think it is too long already 🙂
Thanks for reading…and of course please share away! 😀
So, we’re back! For those who didn’t know, we went away for a mini-holiday, and I guess you are new to our blog…so WELCOME… we’re happy to have you visit our space…
Last week we took a break from training in the gym to attend Marie’s childhood friend’s wedding. It was beautiful! And folks from pretty much the four corners of the globe flew to Thailand to celebrate the start of their new life together. It was a privilege to attend!
For us it was a special trip as it was the first time we had a long ride (over 1000km) without our own trusty 8yr old GS1200…that baby is now with a new “daddy.” And it was a bit of a milestone in our transition to the nomad lifestyle, this was our first time to be away for more than a weekend and were excited to see how we would stay fit, keep up with our blog, and manage our online fitness business.
But before we could even start on our exciting first foray/trial run into our
new lifestyle we ran into a bit of an obstacle when we realized…WE NO LONGER HAD A MOTORBIKE!!!
We had no idea that our baby would have already moved on when Ana’s wedding would come around. You know how things are, you get so excited about the big event, and you totally forget about the small important detail of having no transport…
Everyone else was all organized to fly in or bus down from Bangkok. We were like, don’t worry about us, we’ll ride down and we’ll swing by the Cambodian border too, since it’s so close 😉
Fortunately, we know this really cool guy named Jamil. He came to our rescue and when we asked him if we borrow his baby for the wedding expedition he was like “Sure!” even though we knew he was a little jealous that he wasn’t able to ride around and take a week off…
Our borrowed baby came with some awesome spacious panniers. When I looked at all the stuff my wife “needed” to bring with her, I almost had a heart-attack.
4 pairs of shoes???
2 cases of make up???
Hair extensions???
Massive bottles of hair spray and I’m not sure what else…
She was like, “Honey, I’m the makeup artiste for the bride and maid of honor and I’m not sure what dress I’m actually going to wear so I have to bring 2 pairs of heels to match my 2 dresses and ALL of my makeup!”
I was like ok, you can bring whatever you manage to fit in your pannier and maybe 1 small bag can go in the top box…I want to keep that empty for our jackets, gloves, etc.
She said “Of course babe, I’ll fit it all in…”
And you know what, she did! I have no idea if this bodes well for our trip around the world, but I was damned impressed with how she packed everything in. The only thing she forgot was all her bras…
Fortunately, a couple of her sports bras managed to sneak in, and we were going for a beach wedding after all, so we were running around in swim wear most of the time but yeah, she brought EVERYTHING IN HER CLOSET besides bras!!
Wow, I’ve gotten complete side-tracked. I think this post is supposed to be about staying fit and work-efficient while on the road, but I’ve gone on a tangent and ended up talking about my wife’s magical packing talent…
So back to the point…
We did it! While there are many things we want to do while we are on the road (for real starting in June 2017) this week away we wanted to accomplish 3 main things…besides enjoying time with our friends and the participating in the wedding celebrations of course…
These are the 3 things we really wanted to make sure we did…
We wanted to maintain our fitness and make sure to squeeze in at least 3 workouts that week
We wanted to keep up with our blog and post our 3 posts per week (Monday Motivation, Wednesday Workout & Fit Food Friday)
We wanted to make sure our online clients still were getting their workouts while we were away
And I’m proud to say, we did all the above and we on even managed to get the ball rolling with sending out some sponsorship requests for the gear/gadgets we will need for the trip.
WE ALSO LOST A KILO EACH!! I lost a kilo by making sure I fit in a HIIT workout or a swim before breakfast and Marie lost hers by climbing a mountain with 3km of stairs while having heeled leather riding boots on (see video below :D) and I guess all the stress of needing to do the bride’s and maid of honor’s makeup…LOL!
Well, to wrap this all up…
Make small and specific goals for a short period of time and you’ll find it easier to accomplish them…
We set those three goals and gave ourselves only 1 week!
When the week was over, it was easy to see if we accomplished our goals or not.
The same goes for weight loss, progress in a sport or completing a work assignment.
The goal to lose 1 kilo a month is so much easier to manage that losing 12 kilos in a year, don’t you think?
Shorts lists.
Short time frames.
Specific goals.
This is what works for us. Try it and let us know if it helps you too.
Here are the top 5 things I love about Bangkok:
2. I love that Bangkok NEVER SLEEPS, there is always something to do or somewhere to go, no matter what time of night–even if it’s just a massage as some dodgy side of the road shop! 🙂
4. I love the diversity, I have been an expat in several countries, but Bangkok takes the cake! There are so many of us that it’s impossible to be lonely, and for better or worse, this city has decided to make sure all our comforts from home can be found here.
2. I hate the underlying racism/status differentiation & gender discrimination that permeates Bangkok society. I am not going into detail here, but it is there. I also hate getting compliments when I am not tan. What is it about being WHITE? I understand where the obsession originally came from, but I would think it would have faded by now…
5. I hate the double standard. Farang’s price: 400thb Thai price: 40thb. Why? Maybe 20 years ago double price (NOT 10x) for foreigners made sense…but now Thais, especially those living in Bangkok are much more affluent than the average foreigner…so why does this discrimination still exist? I thought it was going to slowly even out…but no, it’s only getting worse!
But before we could even start on our exciting first foray/trial run into our
Fortunately, a couple of her sports bras managed to sneak in, and we were going for a beach wedding after all, so we were running around in swim wear most of the time but yeah, she brought EVERYTHING IN HER CLOSET besides bras!!
Well, to wrap this all up…