When I was bored on the departing flight, I tried to write something on my phone to record the daily life during the journey, and this is what I ended up with as the title.
By the time I started writing this, I had already submitted my resignation, and as mentioned in the title, the long vacation was just about to begin.
On the day of departure, it wasn't too cold in Beijing. To avoid carrying heavy winter clothes, I only wore a short-sleeve shirt and a thin jacket. After landing in Bangkok, it was hotter than expected; this is said to be Thailand's winter.
Bangkok#
I stayed in Bangkok for seven days, changing hostels every day (the same was true in Chiang Mai later). Prices ranged from 60 to 200 baht. An interesting phenomenon was that some hostels had a noticeable majority of Chinese guests, while others had hardly any. The former were mostly popular on Xiaohongshu.
I met a few American guys at the hostel (they looked older than me), and we chatted for a while. I could mostly understand their English, but when they spoke among themselves, I could only catch parts of it.
Another interesting phenomenon was that after getting a few tattoos in Thailand, most people I met at the hostel would say:
"Is this a new tattoo?"
"Cool"
"It's funny"
The reactions from my colleagues after I returned to work:
"Why did you get such a simple one?"
"Did you do it yourself?"
"You even went abroad to get a tattoo?"
😑 Back to the topic
After a tour of the museum, I found that the Grand Palace was nearby, and there were dress code requirements to enter (many temples have this). Shorts were not allowed, but there was a simple counter at the entrance to purchase appropriate clothing. I bought a pair of long pants for 200 baht. I didn't buy from the street vendor who was selling them for 150 baht, and after finishing my visit, I walked a bit further and found them selling for 100 baht 😑.
The entrance ticket cost another 500 baht, and there were a lot of people. To be honest, the experience wasn't very good.
Additionally, I spent a lot of time wandering through different shopping malls. The malls in Bangkok are enormous, and prices aren't very cheap. After a round of shopping, I was exhausted and had no desire to buy anything. The vintage market DD Mall had even fewer options.
Traffic always seemed to be congested; I mostly took motorcycle taxis, which were cheaper, and the drivers were skilled at navigating through traffic, making it faster. During my few days in Bangkok, due to severe air pollution, public transportation was encouraged, with free subway and bus rides. I didn't take the bus, as it was often late and just as congested, and the subway lines weren't very extensive.
I checked out the red-light districts NANA and Soi Cowboy, and it seemed like just that—there were quite a few people, but perhaps I didn't delve deep enough to understand it.
There were many Chinese restaurants in Bangkok, or Thai dishes themselves, which I found to be quite heavy in flavor. The mango sticky rice was pretty good.
Aside from the unbearable hot weather, it’s a very interesting city that deserves more time to experience slowly, but the suitable weather is probably only from December to February of the following year.
Chiang Mai#
The transportation in Chiang Mai is somewhat better; there are essentially no buses, and there is indeed no subway. To get to some farther places, I rented a motorcycle, but I didn't have an international driver's license, nor did I have a motorcycle license. I was prepared to be stopped by the traffic police, and sure enough, the next day I got a ticket. However, unexpectedly, when I returned the bike, I got another ticket for parking in the wrong place.
I stayed for 8 days, and the expenses weren't too high. Most hostels were priced between 50 to 100 baht, many of which offered breakfast. Street food was surprisingly good, costing around 10 baht for a meal, though hygiene standards were not to be expected.
Overall, it felt like a small town but very vibrant, and life was quite convenient; you could almost buy anything you needed daily.
The North Gate Jazz has performances every day, and no tickets are required. The same goes for a jazz bar in Bangkok; the quality of the performances was quite high, and you could just buy a bottle of beer and sit there listening, but there were always a lot of people.
There were also many coffee shops, most of which had hardly any customers.
Temples were almost everywhere in the city, and the dress code at the entrance often prohibited shorts, but no one enforced it. I even asked, and wearing shorts was fine.
If you go a bit further, the outdoor scenery is definitely worth spending some time in. Riding a motorcycle for less than an hour, the climate in the mountains is much cooler.
I got two tattoos, one in Bangkok and one in Chiang Mai. The price in Chiang Mai was only half of that in Bangkok, but the former was quite painful 😖. It wasn't enough to make me scream, but thankfully it was done quickly. I gritted my teeth and persevered, but the final result wasn't as good as the one from the shop in Bangkok.