First trip to Thailand
There's so many different things to do and see there! We've never been anywhere Asian until now so we decided to get our feet wet by starting with Thailand. Weather in Jan-Feb was hot but not uncomfortably so compared to how hot their summers are supposed to be.
We started our trip touring the temples in the northern Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai regions which we both found really fascinating. We visited the "Long Neck Tribe" for some cool cultural immersion and also visited the Golden Triangle (Myanmar, Laos, Thailand intersection) which has an amazing history and museum from the opium wars around the 60's. After that we headed south to Phuket to end our trip with a more relaxed pace. Took some boat tours to Phi Phi and James Bond islands and surrounding stops for a couple of days. Those were a big part of wanting to go, they're stunning to look at and have all kinds of surreal grottos, caves, and swim spots. And then spent the last few days being either beach bums or chilling at the pool. We normally don't have much interest in major cities but we still sent a couple of days in Bangkok because I felt like you have to at least experience it once after a grueling 22 hour flight
Phuket is very crowded and busy in peak season but not insanely so. Let's just say I'm glad we didn't drive ourselves anywhere. I don't know how they do it but traffic is some sorcery of organized chaos lol. I highly recommend using one of the tuk-tuks for a ride somewhere at least once, it's a lot of fun. What you hear about the food there is true, and the cost of just about everything is much lower than at home (not including luxury brand boutique chains of course). The Thai people are incredibly warm, courteous, and friendly, which always makes any trip better.