Tom’s Adventure Through Southeast Asia Part 12 — Songkran in Bangkok, Thailand
After taking a ferry from Ko Pha Ngan to Surat Thani and then a flight to Bangkok, I was back in the city where it all began. I had planned in advance for my trip to end during the weekend of Songkran, the Thai New Year which is celebrated all over the country. It’s a water festival where people shoot each other with water guns and throw buckets of water at each other.
When I arrived in Bangkok in the evening, the Songkran festivities were already in full swing on Khao San Road. As I got out of my Uber and walked to my hostel I hoped I wouldn’t get too wet. Unfortunately the street was already packed with people, and not only did I get soaked but kids rubbed clay all over my face, another new year tradition. Fortunately I had my rain cover on my backpack so nothing got damaged, you have to be prepared during Songkran!
After wading through the crowd of people I eventually arrived at Somerest Hostel, the same hostel I stayed at on Khao San at the beginning of my trip. The next day I explored the malls Siam Discovery and Siam Paragon with two American guys I met at the hostel. While I had already visited MBK, the mall known for cheap knockoff tech, the two Siam malls are much more upscale and are definitely the nicest malls I’ve ever been in. There is also an outdoor terrace in this area with splash pads, and it was here that we got our water guns so we were prepared for the festivities. We also got plastic cases for our phones to prevent them from getting wet, although I still didn’t risk taking photos.
That night we walked down Khao San Road to enjoy the Songkran festivities. It was great being back there and made me remember how much I loved this place. We grabbed some pad thai from a street vendor for dinner and then hit up a bar where we indulged in a massive beer tower!
The next day we went back to Siam Paragon to catch a movie at the movie theatre on the top floor. It was a super luxurious theatre, they must’ve had a dozen different flavours of popcorn that you could mix and match. I wish they had that in Canada!
That night I was pretty exhausted from all of the partying I had done over the past week, so I just picked up some souvenirs for my family on Khao San and then called it an early night. I enjoyed my last Chang beer of the trip in the lobby of the hostel. It was a great way to end the trip, and after two months it was finally time to go back home. So the next morning I took a taxi to BKK airport and started the long flight back to Toronto.
While I was sad that I had to go home, I was excited to see my family and friends again after being away for so long. During the flight I thought a lot about how easy this trip ended up being, and how everything surprisingly went as planned without a hitch. It made me realize that trips like this aren’t as difficult as they seemed, and I definitely knew that it wouldn’t be my last backpacking trip. So rather than saying goodbye to southeast Asia, instead I said “see you next time!”
Conclusion
It has taken me over a year, but I have finally blogged my entire first trip through southeast Asia from last year. Since then, I returned there this year to visit areas of Thailand I hadn’t been to, as well as Bali and Australia. I may blog about that trip in the future, but I’ll be retiring the “Tom’s Adventure Through Southeast Asia” series as at twelve parts now it’s starting to get a little ridiculous.
When I was waiting for the reception at Mad Monkey hostel in Siem Reap to open, I noticed a chalk picture hanging on the wall. It depicted a beach, with a palm tree growing from the sand and the sun peeking out over the horizon. In capital letters it read “LIFE BEGINS AT THE END OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE!” Since I didn’t have anything better to do, I just stared at the picture for a while and the words really struck a chord with me.
In my near-constant state of travelling from place to place up to that point, it hadn’t really hit me how much I had done so far. How many new places I had visited and new people I had met from all over the world. None of this would have been possible if I didn’t take that leap of faith into the unknown by deciding to book my plane ticket to Bangkok and travel solo through southeast Asia.
I get asked a lot of questions about my trip when it comes up in conversation. Did you get lonely travelling alone? Was it really expensive? Did you ever feel unsafe? Is it safe for women to solo travel through that area?
To answer these questions: no, I did not feel lonely travelling alone. As a matter of fact, by staying in dorm hostels and meeting friendly people from all over the world, it’s actually hard to feel lonely. I often had to deliberately make alone time for myself or else it wouldn’t have happened!
No, it is not expensive. Southeast Asia is actually incredibly cheap, with dorm hostel accommodation ranging from around ten dollars a night in countries like Thailand and Vietnam to as little as three dollars a night in Laos. Not to mention these are actually nice places to stay in. No, hostels are not like the movie Hostel. With so many people backpacking through the area, the demand for these cheap places to stay is very high. So competition means these places are often modern, well-maintained places to stay.
For anyone interested in cheap travel, I highly recommend the book How to Travel the World on $50 a Day by Matt Kepnes. The book is broken down into different areas of the world, and Matt explains how you can travel the world on $50 a day in any of these places! Obviously, in more expensive areas like Europe, you need to make some serious sacrifices in order to do this, such as couch surfing and cooking all your meals at home. But in Southeast Asia, where accommodation and street food are super cheap, it was quite easy to live off $50 a day or even less.
I rarely felt unsafe. The only time that comes to mind was when I walked back to my hostel in Vang Vieng by myself at two in the morning after the jungle party. I had to take some dark, sketchy roads and heard dogs barking everywhere which freaked me out a little, but that’s about it. Granted, I was only staying in very touristy areas of southeast Asia so things might get dicey if you go off the beaten path. But I wouldn’t let this deter you from going, you can always get tips from other travelers on what activities to do and how to stay safe. I also heard stories of people getting their backpacks stolen when stowed under buses, so just make sure you lock everything up if you do that. All hostels have lockers as well where you can store your valuables.
I met many women who were solo travelling, in fact I would say it was almost half and half! Of course, there are more risks for women when travelling alone, and I don’t really have any tips for aspiring female solo travelers. Whenever I asked women how they stayed safe, their answers ranged from “you just have to go for it” to “don’t be a _____,” so that’s really the only advice I can give you. I know there are a lot of great blogs and resources targeted to solo female travelers which are definitely worth looking at.
While I knew before I left that a lot of people all over the world travel through southeast Asia, not many people I know back in Canada have done it. Actually being there made me fully realize just how many young people do this and that it isn’t a weird thing at all. It is truly awesome meeting and hanging out with people from all over the world, all connected by the mindset that they want different experiences out of life instead of focusing on material possessions or climbing the career ladder. It made me feel a little less weird and made me realize that I’m not alone in feeling this way.
So if you have read this entire blog series up until this point, thank you so much! I have had fun documenting my travels and I hope you have enjoyed reading about them. I hope I’ve inspired some people to embark on their first backpacking trip, the hardest part is making that decision to leap out of your comfort zone and book that plane ticket. Once you’re there, you’ll be left wondering why you didn’t do this sooner. That’s when life truly begins.
