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Writer's pictureLana Tillack

Thailand Travel Diaries

Updated: Aug 23, 2018

Sunrise snorkeling in a sparkling ocean filled with beautiful aqua marine life, relaxing on an Island while enjoying a fruit smoothie as the sunsets, Thailand was a beautiful adventure and more.

Thailand, Tiger Kingdom 2016

I was 8 weeks pregnant at the beginning of our Thailand trip, travel time was 8 hours to Dubai International Airport where we enjoyed an Arabian coffee, candy at our own expense and two Asian meals thanks to our airline who included meal vouchers with our stop over.

6 hours later we landed in Phuket International Airport. Customs was a breeze as the Thai have a very strict efficient system in place and our shuttle service was on time. Early hours of the morning we reached our resort in Phatong Beach, unpacked, exchanged a bit of our money into Thai Baht and off we went exploring the streets of Phatong Beach to the famous Bangla Road.


Bangla Road Traffic Selfie, November 2016

Bangla Road really comes to life once the sun sets, a friendly and lively place to walk around.

A colourful neon lit street with bars, live music, clubs, food, tattoo ink artists and clothing shops. This should be your first and last stop. Almost all of the bars are outdoors or open-fronted, so the music from each one blends into a mess of mixed beats. Being pregnant did not stop me from enjoying a non-alchoholic cocktail in my little shorts while Mr hubster had a beer. Taking a stroll we discovered hot pancakes topped with fresh fried fruit drizzled with chocolate sauce that tasted so good. It's the simple little things with extra effort that inspire me to try them out. A quick stroll through the clothing stalls a ride home on a tuk-tuk and finally a snooze before daylight. We belive a hotel room is for luggage, power naps, shower breaks and breakfast. Relaxing by the pool side is not our thing.



Breakfast Fresh Fruit

Breakfast was such a spread at our beautiful resort, we had an entire full buffet from beautiful fruits, array of cereals, scrumptious pancakes, freshley baked goods and then of course traditional golden english breakfast of eggs, bacon and sausages with a variety of fresh juice and hot beverages. I had no sickness back then not even a bit, so I indulged in everything yummy. Our holiday was off to a good start as we found a local grocery store and bought a few essentials and snacks to pack in our travel bag while exploring. We rented a scooter, rather more effienceint, fun and easier to motor around than a tuk-tuk.


Our Little Ride

To be one with the Thai people is an amazing experience. One needs to understand their daily routine, living situation, have an open mind to enjoy their food and listen very close as they tend to speak English as if they were singing a song. While exploring the streets we noticed couples with kids commonly use scooters as their daily commute. This is the most facinating expeirnece to witness a man as the rider traveling with the woman holding two kids, one in the front and the other on her back. Dangerous it may seem the adults seem very secure and the kids are well behaved holding on.


Night Food Market Stalls

Patong Beach, Phuket, November 2016

Local shopping and exploring the street markets I picked up a few Thai clothing items and found an awesome tailor for Mr hubster's suite, seeing we had a wedding coming up in December, 2016. I made friends with some of the locals and chatted to them about their Thai lifestyle and discovered the people are very friendly, kind hearted, cultured and hard working. Most market stalls I walked by or strolled into mothers were either breastfeeding their babies in cotton tied slings or feeding their kids noodles while selling clothes or fashion items. Some of the locals said they work a straight 12 hour shift 09:00AM - 21:00PM seven days a week.


Tailor Shop & Our New Local Friends

My heart instantly melted looking at those hard working local women feeding their babies, making a living, dressed so neatly, content and simply not begging or asking for a donation when sharing their lifestyle. Local market foods are simply amazing, I enjoyed a spicy pad thai with no seafood due to my pregnancy, strictly veggies and hot sauce fried in front of you and served with such a sweet smile. Mr hubster enjoyed a hot duck soup while I got to try out fresh coconut juice after my meal however that drink was not oh so yummy rather oh no nasty! I will not try that again. My ultimate favourit was fresh fruit blended smoothies, I had about three a day until I developed mouth alcers and needed to ease off them due to the high acid content in certain fruits.


Pad Thai & Duck Soup


Oh No Nasty!

Island exploring was a breathtaking experience to explore a sparkling clear ocean filled with beautiful marine life. We were blessed to have visited four amazing Islands during our holiday:

  • Coral Island

  • Koh Khai Island

  • Racha Island

  • Similan Islands


Island Explorers

The colourful fish, coral life and clear water was everything and more for me, relaxing on the Island beach was just an added benefit. Moving with our Island tour serive we get to meet other tourists from around the world and our home town :) Yay finally we bump into a couple we met at Phuket International Airport who were very happy about their stay so far in Patong Beach and had no compliants. We enjoyed lunch together on the Island, pad thai and fruit for me, I was really restricted as the main dishes in Phuket happen to be fresh sea life which I am not allowed to eat while pregnant so I got snap pictures of Mr hubsters exciting foods that he picked to try out.



My Thai Guy & Big Buddha

Big Buddha a humble temple located on a steep hill that took forever to reach on a scooter. Bless the rider we made it to the top, everything at Big Buddha is reasonably priced. A soda and crisps costed us 50 Baht (R25.00). I had to cover up my legs with a robe and pop a donation into the little box before entering the temple. Very humble building, monks are on site for prayer and a few pictures of celebs placed outside the temple who are Buddhists.

The Tiger Kingdom was our next stop, man did I cry my heart out to see my favourite wild cat drugged so toruists can get close and snap a few selfies. I managed to get a few in myself but kept crying each time I touched the Tiger to know this beautiful creature is locked in a cage daily for toruists to snap selfies and view. I personally did not want to do the Elephant rides so Mr hubster and I skipped that.


My Tigers xx

Towards the end of our trip I had tender, swollen breasts, nausea without vomitting and I was always looking for a spot to rest or sleep, so not like me. Thank goodness for my best friend Mr hubster, he did not mind hunting for food we have back in SA like Mc D's and Burger King as well as Pizza Hut. Although the taste was not exactly like home it was close enough to ease my nausea and make me feel better. Unfortuntely I had no more energy to explore our last 48 hours in Phuket, I managed to do a beach walk with Mr hubster in the morning and the rest of the day was a chill by the pool side, first time for everything. Lastly we decieded to pack our luggage and return the scooter so we can have a candle lit dinner at our hotel resturant as we did not ever eat in at night seeing we were always out and about.


Nothing like a snack & ice - smoothie

Hotel Pool Side

I enjoyed an American styled dinner while Mr hubster still stuck to something Thai.

After dinner we collected our luggage, one big bag for two always makes it easier to travel.

Time to say goodbye to the friendly resort staff that simply made our stay pleasant, our shuttle service was once again on time and ready to transport us to Phuket International Airport. No delays our flight was on time thank goodness, a short video call home to our friends who were still experiencing some day light while it was night time for us.

The nausea was starting again, no vomit just a sick feeling. Mr hubster had to rub my back while I leaned on back pack waiting to board our plane home.


Our last Island adventure in Phuket

18 hours later, exhausted from the stop over in Dubai where I had to sleep on a coach using my back pack as a pillow and throw over as a blanket I was on home land with Mr hubster.

Food yes please, the nausea was clear for a bit. All I wanted was sugar beans curry and a roti or two. One of our parents collected us from King Shaka International Airport, prepped us lunch as per my above wish list request :) and drove us home there after. We still kepped the pregnancy a secret but a few people at home asked why would I suddenly request a home cooked meal I previously did not enjoy. It was a hard question to try avoid but we somehow managed to keep our secret safe. Our pregnancy reveal was still in place to be revealed on Christmas day, December 2016.


Fried ice-cream! any excuse to get it :)

Much Love & Blessings

Lana T xxx

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