This week I am working on reading my textbook for My Travel Writing Program from Great Escape Publishing. I somehow came across it last year on our return from Puerto Vallarta and decided to purchase it and give it a whirl this travel season. Now I have digressed slightly and started this blog. It works. I need to practice my writing skills anyway.
This post is going to help me use some tools I have been provided from that text book for the purpose of researching destinations. I’m going to keep it simple for now and simply go for Thailand research, not the cities we plan to visit or the country of Malaysia or the locale of Cancun, Mexico…all in due time. Bear with me and I will provide you with some interesting facts and attractive itineraries.
Thailand was originally known as Siam, 1939 is the year that marked it’s name change. It’s origination dates to 1238. It has been ruled by a constitutional monarchy since 1932. After a reign of 70 years King PHUMIPHON Adunyadet passed away very recently in the Fall of 2016. His only son, WACHIRALONGKON Bodinthrathepphayawarangkun assumed the throne in December 2016.is
The country is surrounded by the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand. It is about twice the size of the state of Wyoming. Climate in Thailand is hot and humid with some periods of monsoon rains from May to September. An interesting tidbit is that Thailand is the only land connection to Malaysia and Singapore which lie to it’s south. It is bordered in the north by Laos in the west and Mynamar in the east. It borders Camboida as well to the southeast. The country can be divided in to five regions. Central Thailand which contains the city of Bangkok is the location of our entry in to the country and this nation’s capital. Our second stay will take place in Pattaya which lies in Eastern Thailand. We will head to the Northern region next when we fly in to Chiang Mai. From there we pop out of the country for a bit. Returning from Malaysia we will fly into Phuket, specifically heading to Karon which are in Southern Thailand. We will still have not traveled to the northeastern region which is known as Isaan, the true back country. I must need to read more or there is just no need to go there…maybe another time.
The garuda, a mythical half man half bird figure and the elephant are the national symbols with country colors of red, white and blue.The currency is known as the Thai Bhat. The current exchange rate is 1 US dollar equals to 35.40 baht, this my friends creates the opportunity to have an incredible value vacation. The economy is typically strong in this country but a minimum wage law just came into effect in 2013, creating a daily minimum of 300 baht…based on the stats above that makes for a whopping daily income of about $9. The population is over 68 million with 95.9% of the people being native, 93.6% of them are Buddhist, Muslim is the runner up religion, followed by Christians. The time in Thailand is 13 hours ahead of our native Mountain time here in the U.S. Our travel time is about 18 hours…I plan to do more research in that time if in no other between now and then. I’ll share with you here and there but this will be a little more reading I will do.
Right now, I need to get on the packing; the pre and post funk USA is done…my Thai bag is nearly done. It contains, 16 undergarments, 10 socks, 12 tops, 1 capri, 3 shorts, 1 skirt, two dresses and 2 swimsuits with extra option on bottoms, water shoes, flip flops, sports sandals and dress sandals, a hat and a hoodie. My toiletries, meds and makeup go in that spot you see available in the picture below. Now to pack Dean’s Thai bag and a bag for both of us for Mexico and we are almost ready to go! May the adventures be grand.
