Official Itinerary- Here We Go!!

Sawasdee Ka 😊

18 days to gooo! It’s coming up fast! I’ve already started packing and there is so much left to do! I wanted to provide a final itinerary for anyone following along with us so that you can be up to date with us during our travels. Go ahead and subscribe below to get email updates when there is a new post up! I’m going to try to post every 1-2 days [Wi-Fi permitting].

Thursday October 19th – I say a sad hard goodbye to Andy boy and fly to Winnipeg where we are staying at a hotel by the airport with my mom. My sister and her husband are going to come hang out and say goodbyes. Doubtful we will sleep much this night due to excitement!

Friday October 20th-21st – We leave Winnipeg at 7am and fly to Vancouver. After about a 6 hour layover we fly to Seoul, South Korea then off to Bangkok where we will arrive around midnight October 22nd. We basically skip a whole day with the time change. We are staying in the tallest hotel in Bangkok (88 floors!)

Sunday October 22nd – This is our exploring day in Bangkok! Breakfast on the 81st floor of the hotel – imagine the view! We will explore Lumpini Park, the famous Chatuchak Market, Khaosan Road and then the Rooftop Bar on top of our hotel!

Monday October 23rd – This is our temple hopping day. We hired a private tour guide to show us the Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew (the emerald Buddha), Wat Pho (the reclining Buddha), Wat Trai Mit (the golden Buddha) and then lunch in China Town. Then we will cross the Chao Phraya River to see Wat Arun (the Temple of Dawn). After all this walking, I am sure we will find somewhere to get massages along the way and then we will switch hotels to somewhere closer to the airport.

Tuesday October 24th – Early this morning we are flying AirAsia off to Hanoi, Vietnam! Things we will cram into today are the Old Quarter, Hoa Lo (American POW prison), the Temple of Literature, Huc bridge, the Tran Quoc Pagoda and All The Food!! Here’s a picture of our rooftop pool at our Vietnam hotel…

Wednesday October 25th – Thursday October 26th – On the 25th we are embarking on our 2 day, 1 night cruise along Halong Bay with Cristina Diamond Cruise Lines! We will see and go inside Thien Canh Son Cave, try squid fishing (?), and visit a pearl farm. I can’t wait to wake up early and hopefully snap some sunrise pictures over Halong Bay.

Friday October 27th – The day of my 25th birthday (Aren’t I the luckiest girl ever!?), we leave Vietnam and spend the day travelling to Siem Reap, Cambodia. I’m hoping we can catch the sunset over Angkor Wat which would be the perfect way to end my birthday! Most likely we will end up on “Pub Street” celebrating.

Saturday October 28th – We won’t be partying TOO hard, though, because early this morning we are travelling to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise and explore this magnificent temple. We’re talking 4:00am wake up time here people; I really hope the weather cooperates. We hired a private tour for this temple, as well, because who wouldn’t want an air conditioned guide for only $30 CAD a person. 🙂 Back to the resort we go where we will get massages, relax in the pool, and rest our sore feet.

Sunday October 29th – This morning we want to visit the Cambodia War Museum and experience the Khmer culture a bit more reflecting back on the genocide days. Then we are flying to Bangkok where we will be riding a first class overnight sleeper train to Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand).

Monday October 30th – Our first day in Chiang Mai! Another temple day to see Wat Phra Singh, Wat Chedi Luang, and the amazing Wat Phra That Doi Suthep (which we plan to ride up and walk down the 300 steps to save our lives 😛 ). We will try and go to the Night Bazaar and feast on street food galore!

Tuesday October 31st – Happy Halloween! For Halloween this year, we are going to be Elephant Nature Park volunteers!! YES! For 2 days, 1 night we are staying at the park and spending time with the elephants which will basically be the best two days of my life. I cannot effing wait.

Wednesday November 1st – After our second day with my new elephant friends, back to Chiang Mai for some relaxation and eating yummy food. We always have a pool to chill in too! Every hotel we booked has one!

Thursday November 2nd – Today we have another tour to the city of Chiang Rai. We will see the amazing white temple, go to some hot springs, and go to the Golden Triangle! The Golden Triangle is the point in the Mekong River where Myanmar, Thailand and Laos all connect. This used to be one of the largest opium producing areas of the world. We get to go across to Laos for probably an hour, but who cares! We can technically cross one more South East Asia country off the list.

Friday November 3rd – The day has arrived!! The Yi Peng lantern festival! It’s the day of the full moon and we are going to join thousands and thousands of tourists/locals to release flaming lanterns into the sky. It will basically be the scene from Tangled. The purpose of the lantern release is to let go of the bad and make a wish for the future for you and your loved ones. Another experience of a lifetime.

Saturday November 4th – Off to the beach we go! We fly off to the island of Phuket and I hired a driver to take us to the Karon Viewpoint, the Big Buddha, a rum distillery, old Phuket Town, Chalong Temple, and also to Promthem Cape, the southernmost point of the island.

Sunday November 5th – Beach day! We definitely need a day to do nothing and soak up the sun. I’m sure we will be exhausted by this time.

Monday November 6th – We are taking a ferry to the famous island of Koh Phi Phi (pronounce Ko Pee Pee). It’s a party island so time to let loose and enjoy the beach and crazy fire shows accompanied by buckets of alcohol! (maybe just one…).

Tuesday November 7th – The partying continues on our booze cruise trip which includes unlimited food and drinks, snorkelling, a visit to Monkey Island and Maya Bay which is famous from the movie The Beach (Hi Leo!). Hopefully we will make it back to our resort!

Wednesday November 8th – Another ferry ride today to Koh Lanta, a peaceful island where we can recuperate from the party island. No plans today, just relaxing and enjoying the beach life.

Thursday November 9th – Snorkelling day! We are visiting some islands with a guide and we will be snorkelling in some of the clearest waters. I hope we see a lot of colourful fish!

Friday November 10th – This will be a travel day riding boats back to Phuket. We will explore Patong Beach in the evening and avoid all of the ping pong shows (don’t ask! 😀 ).

Saturday November 11th – Back to crazy Bangkok to explore anything we missed the first time there. I think it will be great to have a couple days to unwind before the long flights home.

Sunday November 12th – Another Bangkok day with no plans… sounds lovely. Maybe we will go see the Jim Thompson house where Thai silk was created, or maybe go to MBK a HUGE mall full of cheap stuff.

Monday November 13th – Time to go home! We are travelling the same route (Bangkok to Seoul to Vancouver to Winnipeg). Hopefully the jet lag will be somewhat tolerable.

Tuesday November 14th – This is going to be a sleep/rest/visit day in Winkler with my family. I’m sure you can imagine how much camera/go pro footage we will have to go through.

Wednesday November 15th – Finally, home time to Thunder Bay to reunite with my long lost boyfriend who hopefully has done some laundry and hasn’t burned the apartment down! 😀

So there you have it! At least this can give everyone something to use to follow us along. I am FULLY expecting something bad to happen such as a cancelled flight or a taxi cab ripping us off so I am open to the idea of my firm itinerary changing. Obviously I hope nothing bad will happen but it is a huge possibility in South East Asia. I know I over planned a lot for the trip, but this helped us to save quite a bit of money by pre-booking hotels and day trips which I’m sure we will be thankful for in the end. It also helps us to cram as much as we possibly can in these “short” 26 days overseas!

Stay tuned for my last “pre-trip” blog post about packing, and after that it’s off to Asia we go!

Thanks for reading 🙂

xoxo Hales