I had a chance to come to Thailand again. This time I went to two places: Bangkok and Koh Samet Island. This is the second time I have been to Bangkok, so it was not TOO strange, but I was still impressed. The traffic was terrible if you travelled by car. Long lines of cars moved slowly, slowly and slowly. The best way to travel around was by sky train (fast) and walk (good for health). :-)
There were so many high rise buildings and only being high in the air you could see the beauty and modernity of the capital. Here is the view from the 44th floor of my 'hotel' in BKK.
There were a lot of shopping malls, which satisfied everyone's shopping needs. So convenient. That was why Bangkok was considered as "shoppers' paradise". Honestly, when I was in a mall, I would not have been able to find my way out if I had been left there alone.
I went to a hospital for medical check-up. First time I have done that and abroad. The hospital was so clean and looked like a hotel. When I entered the hospital in BKK, I wondered when people in Hanoi would have such nice ones... When?...
I spent some days in Koh Samet, an island not far from Bangkok. The island was not very special (dirty, hilly and unpaved roads; mosquitoes) but so peaceful and the beaches were so nice. The water was clean and the sand was white and smooth. A lot different from beaches I know in Vietnam. We walked from beach to beach and stopped for a drink or a meal in a nice restaurant... Not surprised when Thailand can attract so many tourists... A strange thing for me was that we sat on the sand, on the beaches, near the water enjoying our dinner. New experience. Talking about the roads on the island, we went on a motorbike tour. The roads were up and down and had a lot of potholes. Sometimes, I had to get off the motorbike so that my 'taxi motorbike rider' could go over bad parts of the roads.
Two adventurous water recreation activities I did were kayak and catamaran (small). At first I was nervous, in the sea water and far away from the shore. But after a while I felt interested. Partly because my partner in the same boat was very good at water sports.
A week in Thailand was so wonderful. No working and completely relaxing. Unbelievable I could have such a nice holiday in the middle of a busy semester at university and I could make it.
