What comes to your mind when you think of a couple’s first-anniversary trip!? I am sure the things such as romantic getaways, candlelight dinners, date nights, parties, and stargazing must have come to your mind. But here the story is a bit different, romantic getaways were day-long island hopping tours, candlelight dinners were aloo parathas in front of the sea, and parties were daily sport/ water activities. All in all our first-anniversary trip to Thailand was adventurous and romantic in its own way. The trip gave us all sorts of adrenaline rush at times. Each and every moment of the trip is very close to our hearts.

So here’s our Thailand trip put up in words along with some itinerary ideas and details you can have a look at for your visit to this beautiful Country.

Day 1 – 1.07.2022

We started off the day with things to do in hand before leaving. Ishan took work from home so that he could concentrate on end-minute packing and tasks that were remaining. The flight was at around 11.20 at the night. The man of the house is quite punctual when it comes to catching flights and reaching airports on time. We left home at 5 PM and it started raining heavily in Bangalore. The weather was too good to give a kickstart to our trip. We reached the airport at around 6.30. The check-in for Airasia was not started back then. Completed check-in, security, and immigration and went to enjoy the lounge. Must say, Bangalore has the most premium lounge facility available. We had a great time and the hospitality was also commendable. Sat in flight and as the clock hit 12, we wished each other a happy anniversary and woke up in Bangkok.

Day 2- 2.07.2022

It was 4.30 AM as per the Thailand clock, the next flight was at 9.50 AM and we had enough time to get things done at the airport. Firstly, we went for the Visa on Arrival (VOA) process. There was a huge crowd over there of tourists. Trust me, opting for an E-visa or for a normal visa in India is less painful. You tend to save some money when you opt for VOA but it’s not worth the pain you get at 4.30 in the morning, standing in a queue, waiting for your time to come to get things processed. We got the visa thing done by 6.30 AM. We went for immigration, bought a sim card, and then as we were starving we were looking for something vegetarian to eat (At least me :p). Ended up eating french fries as literally there was nothing vegetarian to eat at the airport.

Now the time was to catch the flight for Krabi. We were thrilled with the excitement that was there in our eyes. The challenge with Lion Airlines and Airasia is quite the same, that is, the less leg space. I suggest booking flights in advance and going for Thai Airways or Indigo just to make your journey more comfortable.

We landed in Krabi at around 11.30 AM. At the airport, while exiting, the plan was to book a Grab taxi but we saw one mouth-watering offer of a taxi dropping us at Phi Phi pier in just 90 Bhat. We thought the pier meant the center of Phi Phi island. We paid for it and sat in a huge Toyota pickup van. The van dropped us on a deck sort of an area. I searched for Phi Phi island and it was showing 38 more km ahead. We asked the van person if Phi Phi is still so distant from this place then why did he drop us on an unknown street!? He said no car or van or no other transport can take you to Phi Phi, only speed boats and ferries can. And pier means a deck from where you can board a ferry to the destination. We were perplexed in a new city where language is also a barrier about what to do next. Finally paid 450 Baht and booked ourselves a ferry ride to Phi Phi island.

Ferry and speedboats from Krabi are only there at two timings, that is at 10 AM and at 3 PM. It was around 1 PM, we were hungry like dead and it was another 2 hours for the ferry to start and another two hours for the ferry to reach Phi Phi island. The deck was an isolated place, with no hotels, nothing. I opened my bag full of munchies and that proved to be a life savior.

The ferry ride was amazing. Simply put we never sat inside a boat for 2 long hours and that too in the furious sea. It was every sort of worth it to have waited for that long just to see the amazing view. We were refreshed and excited again. By the time Phi Phi came we were quite acquainted with the blue waters.

Phi Phi is a secluded small little beautiful island where most of the people who came as a tourist were foreigners. In Phi Phi you can spot less vehicles, where the deck was ending, we saw a person standing there with our hotel name card in his hand. He took us to the hotel after keeping our luggage in a haath-gaadi. The route to the hotel he took was the Phi Phi market route. I was super amazed and excited to explore the market since it was looking all sorts of amazing.

We checked into the hotel and the view from the balcony was surreal. We only imagined peeking out of the balcony and having the Indian Ocean as the view but it actually happened in Phi Phi. Everywhere there was the sea. Sleeping, standing, laying in bed, from every corner of the room you can spot the beautiful sea.

We got ready in the evening and thought of exploring the night market there. There were two typical Indian restaurants in Phi phi- Himalayan and Papaya restaurants. Himalayan was pretty close to our place of stay and hence it became our daily go-to place for dinner, lunch, and breakfast. Since I and Ishan are not very variety conscious, we stick to one dish and order it daily. No confusion, PERIOD! Our go-to dish became- Malai Kofta, Chapati, and Aloo paratha. Literally, we ate only these menu items during our course of the journey in Thailand.

Explored the night market. It’s good to see the market only if you are not an impulsive buyer or a shopaholic. We went to an Australian Scuba Diving agency shop. It was very costly and we thought scuba could also be done in the coming days. Then we explored other tourist and activity agents and the snorkeling tour caught our attention. We paid 800 Baht per person for the snorkeling tour. It was a day-long tour till sunset including breakfast and lunch and fruits. Snorkeling tour is good to explore areas around Phi Phi from two points of view, one is you get to do a new activity completely and the other is those who don’t want to indulge in the activity or are non swimmers can cover at max places in a single day and have fun just by being inside the boat and getting inside the water with the help of a life jacket.

Day 3- 3.07.2022

The next day was dreamy. Ishan asked me to have aloo paratha for breakfast as he was skeptical if we will be getting any vegetarian food during the day and guess what he was right. The tour was full of foreign tourists, but trust me it was the company of those co-travelers that made the day tour as interesting as it can be and the most memorable one. We started from Phi Phi at around 10.30 AM and covered the following areas:

Bamboo Island: A beautiful Island, with white sand, huge trees, and crystal blue waters as long as eyes could stretch. Stayed there for about half an hour. I tried snorkeling and gave up instantly. Ishan was still hopeful like always that he would do it.

Nui Bay: The color of the water was a bit green over here. It was not, in particular, an island, instead a nearby middle place to the shore where the water level was 4-5 feet and was the best place to do snorkeling and view the fishes inside the water.

Monkey Island: So this place is where huge cliffs are there, the water is still a bit greenish and monkeys reside here on the cliffs. There is a small shore area that you can observe if you get down from the boat and pass between two huge cliffs. The view is just fabulous here. Monkeys like always are the limelight stealers. People give them fruits and things to eat which they collect by hanging from the cliffs.

Loh Samah Bay: Loh Samah Bay is one hell of a beautiful place. Huge cliffs are covered with green plants on them, green water. I am sure I can’t convince anyone about the beauty of this place just through words but maybe the video and the picture below of the place can!

Maya Bay: Maya Bay is a much talked about island because of the beauty of the place and also because it has been the location of shooting for Hollywood movies. The entry is restricted here, you only get to see the place from the boat.

Viking Caves: These are named as caves because the cliffs look like cave-like structures. Entry is restricted in these caves. You can only do snorkeling.

Sunset Beach: This was a point where at any point of time if you are inside the water easily you can be surrounded by 100-200 small cute fishes. Seems like they enjoy being around you. The day we went for the tour was hazy, no sunlight was there and hence no sun. We couldn’t spot the sunset but the tour still holds the first position in my times to remember list from the Thailand trip.

We went to the hotel. The whole day we were in the water and were tired. Rested a bit and again went for the night market and party place exploration. Ended up enjoying ourselves at Slinky Beach Bar, the fire show is quite famous there.

Day 4- 04.07.2022

This day was beautiful and adventurous in its own way. Woke up and phewww there was rain everywhere. It was raining to the extent the mountains outside were not visible, and the water was not visible. Sea had taken on another face and was fierce, not at all like the day before when we enjoyed and jumped inside it with no fear. It was something else. We thought of not wasting time because this was our last day in Phi Phi. Went to see Phi- Phi Viewpoint. It was a steep mountain that we climbed just to have a look at the island from the top. The cats there up at the mountain are sort of arrogant and get mad easily. So beware of cats there. The view was amazing from the top. The visibility was a bit low as it was all cloudy.

Got back and it started raining to the next level. We were praying to God that the trip to Ao Nang doesn’t get canceled because of the weather as we had to travel by ferry. The rain stopped by the time of checkout from the hotel and we boarded a huge ferry more like a ship.

The boat ride was amazing as always. The weather was amazing. It was raining. Slowly as we were coming close to Ao Nang, there was a clear transition in the color of the water from blue to green which I obviously was not liking because I am obsessed with blue waters.

The cliffs started looking different as we were approaching Ao Nang. The boat stopped at Railay beach for the passengers who booked a hotel there as it is very close to Ao Nang. We reached Ao Nang in another 5-10 minutes.

Ao Nang seemed civilized. Bus and car transportation was there, and roads were there. It was hard to bid goodbye to Phi Phi because of the experience we had there but Ao Anang was also welcoming that way. The hotel had a proper sea view, not like Phi Phi where you wake up and stand and there is the sea but it was a proper sea view from a little bit far away.

The market street/ walking street was very close to our hotel. We got ready and got ourselves moving on the streets of Ao Nang. The shopping street is mostly the same in both Ao nang and Phi Phi. Ao Nang is more commercialized that way. Here also we found an Indian restaurant called Noori. It’s a highly rated Indian restaurant and any Indian who is a vegetarian will surely know the name of this place. It was hardly 500 meters away from our hotel. We booked a rock climbing tour at Railay Beach for the very next day. Got a sense of Ao Nang as a place and slept.

Day 5- 05.07.2022

The next day, had breakfast at the hotel and waited for the pickup truck to pick us up and take us to the deck. The Pickup truck took us to a rock climbing accessory shop. They gave us the necessary accessories like shoes, a helmet, and a magnesium bag. We moved to the deck and from there along with our activity instructors reached Railay Beach. Railay Beach is famous for rock climbing because of the famous cliffs that it has. Instructors tied us to the harness thing and it was quite an anxiety-giving activity. We were accompanied by people from Hong Kong. The good thing with people from there is they are flexible and fun-loving and adventurous. There were mostly 3 levels of rock climbing, once when you are done with an easy level you get to do the other. Rock climbing is not as easy as it looks. It requires arm strength and full body strength to pull the body up. For that matter, getting down with the help of a harness is also not easy. It is one hell of a physically endurance-engaging activity.

I was scared to climb up as usual and hence chose the easiest of the rocks to climb and was successful the second time. Ishan obviously did well here as well and climbed 2.5 rocks and those too difficult ones. I tell you I call him BUSHMAN for a reason :p.

After that, we went to Phra Nang caves and Railay beachfront. The color of the water at this beach is dark green and the rocks here are pretty artistic as if someone has made them the way they are.

After coming back from Railay Beach we went to Thai Spa. The Thai spa experience was a little bit weird because they engaged us in a lot of muscle stretching which was painful but yes at least foot and back massage was what we enjoyed.

We rested for 2 hours during the afternoon and in the evening like usual, we went out in the street to book the activity tour for the next day as well as to look out for some party scenes outside. Booked for The 4 island tour for the next day which cost us around 600-700 baht per person. One thing to keep in mind over here is the more you survey the activity vendors the better the price point you will get. After that, we went to a local street side very casual Bar/cafe named Yesterday. The simplicity of the Bar has nothing to do with the crowd it was attracting because of the vibe it was creating. The staff had a strange and special quality of engaging their customers. Only 3 ladies were running it. But their connection with the crowd was very personal. The singers were also very much engaging and the cherry on top was they were singing songs which were known. In all, we had a great time there.

Day 6- 06.07.2022

The next day started with breakfast at the hotel and then we started on the 4 island trip. This trip was simple in comparison to the other adventurous trips we did each day. For a change, all our co-passengers were Indian this time. The island that we covered in this tour were as follows:

Tup Island: Tup island had water of emerald color. The water was pristine clear here. As soon as we reached here everything was par max beautiful. The weather, the water, the scenery, everything. The good thing is we clicked all the pictures as soon as we got off the boat because in 5 minutes the island’s view was completely different. It started raining heavily and it was all windy. There was no shed there and as a result, we had to come and sit on the boat.

Chicken Island: The shape of this island looks like the upper face/ head portion of a chicken. It has no shore, you just have to get down in the water and the snorkeling scene is pretty good over here.

Poda island: This is like a long island spread across. Changing rooms, proper eating space, and washrooms are there. There is a tall rock in front of this island which is all covered with grass and that makes the view here very nice. The watercolor is beautiful over here. It’s neither blue nor green nor emerald but it’s beautiful cos it’s a mixture of three.

Railay Beach and Phra Nang caves: As a part of the tour we had to go to this island one more time but we chilled here this time as we were playing with water. Our co-passengers told us that we were enjoying the trip the most and to the fullest, which was true in every sense.

This day was tiring strangely. We were too tired to do anything so we just booked a scuba dive for the next day which cost us 2600 baht per person and got our food packed and chilled in our hotel room.

Day 7- 07.07.2022

The next day was the big day because it was the scuba dive day. Scuba I feel is the most thrilling and difficult activity for some people who are hydrophobic in some way. We did light breakfast and went to the activity vendor place, where we tried out outfits for the dive and other accessories like fins and masks. Waited for a while for other people to join us and finally started off. It was someplace not very near to the Ao nang beach. As we were approaching our destination where the dive was meant to happen, in the water there was visible balloons/ polythene like something and it was the jellyfish and it was present there in huge numbers. Seeing so many jellyfishes it became harder for me to jump inside the water. There were two teams on the boat. One team was of experts and one was of complete and sort of noobs. There were two instructors as well. The experts were so experts that they had already dived 40 times before. They geared themselves up, wore the costume, hung the oxygen cylinder and four of them jumped with their instructor and in a few minutes disappeared.

Now our instructor started giving us the instruction for the dive. In our group, there were 3 people, Ishan, me, and one Gujrati fellow. Ishan was doing it for the second time and was looking pretty confident. I and the other guy were scared like anything. The instructions were simple to listen the instructor asked us to take care of 3 things Equalize our ears if any pressure builds up or water gets inside, clear our eye mask if any water gets inside and if any water gets inside the mouth press a button and get that water out fast. He told us if you take care of these things I will take care of the rest. Ishan jumped first, I jumped second and conquered my fear of jumping inside the water. Practiced those three things and then he took us till shore and things were looking easy till then. When he took us a little bit deeper, small pressure started building in my ears and I gave up. I regret that I was doing good and I gave up. But I was happy Ishan did it well and enjoyed watching coral leaves, fishes, Nemo fish, etc.

Then we went to the second place where people who opted for a second dive did scuba diving. I and Ishan just wore a life jacket and jumped in the water and chilled. It felt like a date in the sea truly.
As It was our last evening in Ao Nang, and there was no activity scheduled for the other day, we relaxed in the evening. Went to the street, enjoyed our favorite place “Yesterday” and slept.

Day 8- 08.07.2022

The next day, nothing, in particular, was planned so we went for breakfast, when we came back to the room, we found out that electricity was gone in all of Ao Nang and would not come back till 5 in the evening. The weather was extremely hot that day. We thought of going to Koh Lanta or James bond Island but couldn’t bring the drive within ourselves to go anywhere. So we decided to just chill in our hotel room balcony, near Ao Nang beach and time passed by and we left for Krabi Airport.

It was a bit tough to leave Ao Nang because in 4 days we got attached to the place, we were enjoying our time like anything there but they say, all good things have to come to an end!

From Krabi, our flight was at 9 PM and we reached Bangkok by 11 PM. Bangkok has its own charm. From the flight itself, the city was looking beautiful and full of lights. It was shining. It felt weird also when we landed because we came back to land after 8 days of beach waves, small islands, and calm ocean. The city has huge skyscrapers which are really attractive.

We reached Ibis hotel which was located near Chao Phraya River. Our room had a river view there and we missed the sea vibes badly.

Day 9- 09.07.2022

The next day we had a nice breakfast at the hotel itself and started to plan the itinerary for the day. Our first resort was The Grand palace. The Grand Palace cannot be described in words as it is so huge and the architecture is mesmerizing over there. There are shapes of the temples which are so tall that while looking upwards your neck will hurt badly. The place is quite worth the price it asks for, that is 1200 Baht per person.

After that we went to Siam Square, It’s a huge marketplace with malls interconnected. The malls here are a total luxury. Luxury as in it has a Rolex watch of 10 lakhs and Prada Bags range starting from 1,50,000 rupees. The crowd here was a vision. There were people floating from one mall to another. All in all, it was an experience to be there.

Next in the evening, we went to a skyscraper building restaurant named Above Eleven which was on the 32nd floor. The world seemed so nice from that place. It was all illuminated with bright lights. We had our dinner there and came back to the hotel.

Day 10- 10.07.2022

The next day we just planned to be chilled as it was our last day of the trip and we had to catch a flight at night. We had breakfast, relaxed in the hotel room, checked out by 1 PM, and then went for lunch at a nearby Indian restaurant. Did window shopping for electronics in a nearby mall. I loved a mini video game-shaped speaker over there, the drone and other stuff at that showroom were quite funky and attractive. We thought of coming next time there with a properly planned budget for electronics.

Next, we went to the hotel, picked up our luggage, and started for Bangkok DMK Airport. At the airport did all the formalities of immigration, and security, and after that went to the lounge. The DMK lounge was far below the expectations as Bangalore’s International as well as the local lounge, both are really great. There was no veg food at the lounge, food was limited, and the lounge closed at 7.30. At around 8.30 our flight took off and we reached India by 11 as per IST.

If I were to explain this trip in short, It was an experience that can’t be put up in words. It was a compilation of luxury, adventure, nature, fun, sky, water, freshness, thrill, and relaxation. As I write this note I relived those moments. I got to know my life partner, my companion in a better way through this trip. I got to know my possibilities, me as a traveler, me as a non- homesick person. Today, when I close my eyes, I see blue waters, boats moving above the waves, the familiar breeze of the ocean, and everything good.

Lastly, I want to say- Thailand you were Beautiful!

Khyati Vyas

Here is a sneak peek of how we planned our Thailand trip.

9 Day Thailand Trip Itinerary

Date	Day	City	Comments
2022-07-01 + 2022-07-02	1	Travel	Bangalore to Phi Phi
2022-07-03	2	Phi Phi	Island Tour
2022-07-04	3	Travel	Phi Phi to Ao Nang by Ship
2022-07-05	4	Krabi – Ao Nang	Rock Climbing
2022-07-06	5	Krabi – Ao Nang	Island Tour
2022-07-07	6	Krabi – Ao Nang	Scuba
2022-07-08	7	Travel	Ao Nang to Krabi airport to Bangkok
2022-07-09	8	Bangkok	Bangkok Sightseeing
2022-07-10	9	Travel	Bangkok to Bangalore

Hotel Details

Sr. No.	City	Comments	Hotel URL
1	Phi Phi	Book Superior sea front room without breakfast	https://bit.ly/3KslO3c
2	Ao Nang	Book Superior sea view room with breakfast	https://bit.ly/3wBdsjW
3	Bangkok	Superior room with breakfast	https://bit.ly/3ARJaMj

Indian Restaurants in Thailand

Sr. No	Location	Name	Location
1	Phi Phi	Himalaya	https://bit.ly/3q9CfIx
2	Ao Nang	Noorie	https://bit.ly/3pOhfqo

Must have items for Thailand Trip

Sr. No.	Item	Quantity / Traveller	Price (₹)	URL
1	Water proof Phone Pouch	1	299	https://amzn.to/3QV7suI
2	Power Bank	1	1049	https://amzn.to/3Aq2dfv
3	Very small Quechua bags	1	199	https://bit.ly/3Kr6LXn
4	Travel Sling Bag	1	599	https://bit.ly/3AtmCQL
5	Rain Coat	1	599	https://bit.ly/3pORRAL

Must have Medicines for Thailand Trip

Sr. No.	Symptom / Prevention	Medicine	Quantity / Traveller
1	Fever	Dolo, Crocin, Any paracetamol tablet	1 strip
2	Headache	Fenak plus	1 strip
3	Hangover	Himalaya party smart capsules	1-2 Strips
4	Basic Allergy tablet	Allegra	1 strip
5	Mosquito Bites	Odomos	1 Tube/Gel

Itinerary Planning Checklist

Sr. No.	Task
1	Finalise Itinerary
2	Check Travel Guidelines
3	Book Flight Tickets
4	Book Hotels
5	Buy Visa
6	Switch On International Roaming
7	Buy Clothes for Trip
8	Download Travel Covid Certificate
9	Buy Currency
10	Buy Insurance
11	Take Printouts of everything
12	Checkin – for Flights

Few tips for Thailand Trip

Sr. No.	For	Category	Tip
1	Girls	Must	Visiting any places of worship and temples in Thailand you will have to cover your shoulders and knees so bring a long skirt or pants and a scarf to cover your shoulders.
2	Both		Download Grab Taxi App for local taxi service.
3	Both		Make sure you carry adequate amount of swim wears, half of your day will go in swim wear itself.
4	Both		Most airlines in India offers limited luggage and Thailand does not have super luxury of people picking up your luggage all time time, carry as less as possible.
5	Both		Carry 1-1 pair of sleepers and sport shoes at the minimum for sport activities.
6	Girls		Heels might not be the best option to carry in Krabi as most part of the day you will be walking and it wont be super convenient.
7	Both		Credit Card usage in Thailand will add 3% additional charges, but currency exchange in India is more expensive than 3% extra charges. Try putting most of your spends on Credit Card / Debit Card, will help you save some quick bucks as well as points will be earned.
8	Both	Must	Checkin 24 hours before your travel starts.
9	Both		Book your saloon for the services 1 day before the travel to make sure you look really good when you start.
10	Both		Finish off hotel booking 30 days before the travel to get the best deals on hotels.
11	Both	Must	Pay your hotel in full, for Visa purposes, you will need paid hotel tickets, otherwise the visa will not be granted.
12	Both		Finish packing at least 3 days before the travel.
13	Both		Finish shopping at least 10 days before the travel, there might be some items ordered online that would need return and exchange, last moment orders will not be useful in case it misfits.
14	Both		Don’t purchase things that looks attractive in Thailand but is of now use for you in India
15	Both	Must	Keep all the documents handy in a google drive.
16	Both	Must	Switch on international transactions on your debit card and credit card for everyone who is travelling, this is for any emergency purpose.

Documents required for Visa

Sr. No.	Documents	Specifications	Printout Needed
1	Passport	Keep Original & Xerox (front and back side) both	Yes
2	Photo	2 Photographs	Yes
3	Address Proof	Aadhar Card original and Xerox (front and back side) both	Yes
4	Flight Tickets	Departure & Arrival tickets are compulsory	Yes
5	Hotel Tickets	Tickets needs to be paid in advance and booked for all days	Yes
6	Bank Statement	6 Months with ₹ 50,000 balance.	Yes

Estimated Spend details for 2 People in Thailand

Sr. No.	Head	Spends	Comments
1	Flight Tickets	49580	Always plan the trip first and then book the tickets, we ended up paying more because of not planning till the last destination. But do book the tickets in advance.
2	Hotel	23471	Pre Book as much as possible, and unless you are booking a 5 star property, stay in budget hotels / airbnb
3	Activities	24372	Do as much as local activities as possible. Don’t prebook the activities, you can do research but book only after reaching there and make it a day ahead, some days you might feel not doing any activity.
4	Forex Charges	1047	I Used Credit card at most places just to save cash.
5	Food + Party	16321	Always try to eat local easily available food. Don’t over drink, it would result in wastage of a day.
6	Massage	1000	Did not had a very good experience.
7	Visa	10780	Always take visa before landing in the country, in Thailand we wasted 2 hours on VOA
8	Insurance	1128	Buy this in case of emergency, you will have something to lean upon and get back to the country.
9	Clothes Shopping (India)	11435	We bought clothes from India, most people suggest that shopping is cheap in Thailand, but there is only 10% difference on branded items and its not worth your time, each day would be costing you Rs. 20,000+, so you essentially save money when you shop for 2 lakhs or more.
10	Petty Expenses	1987	Spend where you enjoy, don’t buy random stuff.
11	Gadgets	3821	Carry only the ones which would be needed, don’t over load but also make sure you have bare minimum requirements fulfilled.
12	Salon	2421	Book this in advance a day before your travel.
13	Taxi + Local Travel	7376	Download Grab / local taxi of the country.
14	Roaming + SIM	4719	Have a good roaming pack which allows unlimited incoming calls.
15	Cash	32787	We took ₹ 40,000 cash equivalent in TBH, but not all was utilised to balance money was returned.
	Total	192245