Backpacking Thailand: Getting to Thailand from Malaysia: Sixteen Hours of Everything
The journey from Malaysia into Southern Thailand was one of those travel days you later look back on with a sort of exhausted pride but also a “what on earth was I thinking?”
Boat, taxi, train, walk across the border, another train, bus. Sixteen hours in total.
By the time I reached the sandy beaches of Southern Thailand, I felt like I’d genuinely earned them.
Except it was the wet season. And it was very, very wet.
Krabi and Phi Phi: Paradise
After a brief stop around the beaches of Krabi which was beautiful even through the rain, I made my way to Phi Phi Don, and immediately understood the hype.
Phi Phi is technically two islands connected by a sliver of land just a few hundred metres wide, flanked on both sides by ridiculously beautiful beaches.
That narrow strip was packed with guesthouses, bars, souvenir shops selling fake gear and bootleg CDs, and everywhere the smell of spicy Thai food drifting through warm sea air.
House music blared from shop doorways. Backpackers lounged across café floors watching pirated movies. It was a super chilled vibe, and I loved every minute of wandering its narrow streets.
Koh Samui and Koh Phangan: Moon Parties and Buckets
Koh Samui and Koh Phangan in the Gulf of Thailand have built their reputations around their parties: full moon, half moon, black moon, and presumably any other lunar event they can justify hanging a party off.
Samui was the more developed of the two, with an airport and a package‑holiday vibe that didn’t suit a grubby backpacker with dwindling funds. I stayed a couple of days and moved on.
Koh Phangan, on the other hand, specifically Hat Rin beach, was more my scene. Famous for its full moon parties, the beach can draw up to 10,000 people in peak season.
Back in 2001 it still had its rustic charm: simple beach huts dotted around the bay, dusty streets lined with cafés showing bootleg films, and backpackers in various states of horizontal relaxation at all hours.
At night, the beach transformed. Bars lined the sand, music pumped across the water, and local Thai rum mixed with the Thai equivalent of Red Bull arrived in actual buckets, which tells you everything you need to know about the intended approach to the evening.
The air carried the mingled scents of cooking food, cheap spirits, and something herbal and distinctly illegal. Everyone seemed to be having an excellent time.
I stayed a week and partied solidly through it. I’m not going to pretend I remember all of it.
Northern Thailand
From the islands I headed north, stopping at Kanchanaburi which is home to the famous Bridge on the River Kwai and a deeply moving war museum.
I got to ride an elephant which, whilst an incredible experience, was about as comfortable as a massage chair stuck on punishment mode.
A side trip to Erawan Falls was a most welcome stop into the cooling waters of one of the most stunning waterfalls I’ve sever seen, as the ridiculously coloured water cascades into natural plunge pools.
And then onto Chiang Mai, which remains one of Southeast Asia’s most charming cities. But with drindling funds, it was a flying visit to stock up on cheap souvenirs and chill for a few days.
Back to Bangkok before the money ran out
Then onto Bangkok: sweaty, noisy, magnificent, relentless Bangkok.
Staying on Khao San Road, the backpacker street, in one of those tiny cheap rooms like in the movie, The Beach, for $1 a night, I bumped into several people I had met over the past several weeks across Southeast Asia, and the parties continued, despite my bank balance flashing a brighter red than a dodgy neon sign outside a Bangkok bar.
I did manage a few cultural trips, the highlights being to The Grand Royal Palace and go see some Thai Boxing.
And then the money finally ran out.
It wasn’t unexpected. Ten months on the road had been an exercise in creative budgeting but it was still a gut punch to cancel the final leg of my Asia itinerary and book a flight back to London. I sat in a Bangkok bar with my last beer and had a proper think about what came next.
No job. No money. Unfinished studies. A brand‑new and thoroughly inconvenient addiction to travel.
It’s fair to say I didn’t have a plan, but I just knew I would be on the road again soon.
Read more of our adventures across the globe over the year, here.
Read more of our blogs, articles and guides from many visits to Thailand, here.
