Thailand and China: My First Journey to Asia

In November 2007, I took my first trip to Asia.

Up to that point, most of my international travel had been in Europe, plus one safari trip to Africa. Asia felt different before I even left home. Bigger somehow. More unfamiliar. Like I didn’t quite know what I was stepping into.

The trip ended up being split across two very different experiences. I spent the first couple of weeks in Thailand, including several days exploring Bangkok on my own and then joining an REI Adventures trip to hike through northern Thailand. After that, I flew to China for a shorter visit in Beijing.

Looking back now, Thailand is the part that stuck with me the most. It was my first real introduction to the region, and so much of it felt completely new.

China was fascinating too. But Thailand was where the trip really lived.

Landing in Bangkok

Arriving in Bangkok was sensory overload in the best possible way.

The heat hit me immediately. The city felt enormous. The streets were full of people, motorbikes, tuk tuks, food vendors, and energy moving in every direction at once. It was my first time anywhere in Asia, and even though I’d traveled a fair amount by then, the vibe was very different from Europe or Africa.

I was glad I had a few guided tours lined up. Bangkok is incredible, but it can also be a lot when you’re figuring it out for the first time.

One thing that made the experience easier was my hotel. I’d been traveling frequently for work around the United States at the time, which meant I had a lot of hotel points saved up. Using them in Bangkok turned out to be one of my better decisions. The hotel became a bit of an oasis in the middle of the city. I’d head out during the day to explore temples or markets, then come back in the afternoon to cool off by the pool, read for a while, and regroup before heading out again.

Another unexpected highlight was the river shuttle that ran near the hotel. It was charming, easy to use, and the staff were always incredibly kind. It quickly became my favorite way to move around the city.

Temples Everywhere

It didn’t take long to realize that temples were going to be a big part of that experience.

They seemed to appear everywhere. Ornate roofs, golden statues, elaborate carvings, and colors that almost glowed in the sunlight. Even after seeing several, each new temple still felt like discovering something completely different.

I visited several of the major sites around the city. The Grand Palace was particularly stunning. The level of detail in the buildings and statues is hard to describe until you’re standing there looking at it up close.

Wat Pho was another highlight, known for its enormous reclining Buddha. Walking through the temple complex, I remember feeling both impressed and slightly overwhelmed by how intricate everything was.

Then there was Wat Arun along the river, which rises dramatically above the water with its steep steps and detailed porcelain decorations.

Every temple and every Buddha statue had a story. At Wat Traimit, the Golden Buddha was covered in plaster until it was moved in 1995 when someone accidentally dropped it. The outer layer of the plaster cracked and revealed a solid gold Buddha within.

Even the smaller temples I wandered into had their own character and beauty.

A Day on the Canals

One of my favorite Bangkok experiences was a canal boat tour through the city’s khlongs.

These are the narrow waterways that weave through older neighborhoods, and they show a completely different side of Bangkok from the busy streets.

The boats themselves were long and narrow with loud, smoky motors mounted on the back. Sitting in one felt slightly unstable at times, especially when the driver opened up the throttle and the boat skimmed across the water.

But once we turned into the smaller canals, everything slowed down.

This was where you saw everyday life happening. Houses on stilts, people cooking, laundry hanging over balconies, kids playing along the water’s edge. It felt like drifting quietly through neighborhoods where life was just unfolding normally.

Markets, Flowers, and Everyday Life

Not every moment in Bangkok was about temples.

One morning I wandered through a flower market that was bursting with color and activity. Vendors were threading flowers into garlands, stacking piles of bright blooms, and moving with a rhythm that suggested they’d been doing this work for years.

The city felt alive in a way that was exciting and slightly chaotic at the same time.

Trip Back in Time: Ayutthaya

One day I took a trip outside the city to Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand.

The ruins there are spread across a wide area, with massive brick temples and giant Buddha statues sitting among the remains of what was once one of the most powerful cities in Southeast Asia.

Walking through the site, it felt like stepping into a different era entirely.

Northern Thailand with REI Adventures

After Bangkok, the trip shifted gears.

I joined an REI Adventures group heading into northern Thailand near Chiang Mai. There were about eight of us in the group plus our guide, and the plan was to hike through rural areas and spend time in hill tribe communities.

This part of the trip was very different from Bangkok. Instead of a huge city full of temples and traffic, we were suddenly walking through villages, farmland, and forest.

One of the funny little moments from this part of the trip involved food. I don’t eat spicy food, which is not exactly ideal in Thailand. After a couple of meals where I cautiously tried things and discovered my limits, the rest of the group quietly started helping me out. They’d taste dishes first and announce whether they thought I could handle them.

At some point I realized this had become an organized system.

It was both hilarious and incredibly kind.

The Monk’s Blessing

One stop along the way included a visit to a temple where a monk tied strings around people’s wrists as a blessing.

It appeared to be something related to luck or well-being, though I don’t remember the exact meaning now. What I do remember clearly was that the monk performed the blessing for the men in our group, while an assistant handled the women.

Watching the ritual unfold felt like a quiet moment of connection with a tradition that had been happening there for generations.

Hiking and Village Life

Most days in northern Thailand involved hiking through rural landscapes and small villages.

We passed rice fields, walked narrow trails through forested hills, and visited communities where life moved at a completely different pace than the city.

Kids would sometimes run alongside us, curious about the strange group of travelers walking through their village.

Elephant Sanctuary

We spent a day at an elephant sanctuary where the staff clearly knew and cared for the animals. We watched the mahouts work with them for bathing, feeding, and even painting.

I ended up buying one of the paintings, and it still hangs above my fireplace today.

Elephants and Unexpected Adventures

Our elephant adventures went a step further. At one point we rode elephants through the jungle to stay the night with at a small village in the hills.

Sitting on top of an elephant feels surprisingly unstable at first. They sway with every step, and the saddle platform moves in ways that make you very aware that you’re sitting on a living, breathing animal.

It was a strange but memorable experience.

Village Life Before Nightfall

Before settling in for the night at the hill tribe village, we had time to wander around and just observe daily life.

As the afternoon faded into evening, the village slowly came alive in a different way. Men who had been working during the day started returning home on motorcycles, riding up the dirt paths one after another. It felt like the rural version of a commute, except instead of office buildings and highways, the backdrop was forested hills and simple wooden homes.

Kids were everywhere.

One little boy spent a long time happily rolling a metal hoop with a stick, guiding it along the dirt path with impressive concentration. It was such a simple toy, but he was completely absorbed in the game.

Moments like that stick with me because they highlight how different daily life can look depending on where you are in the world.

A Night in a Hill Tribe Village

When it was time to turn in for the night, our group stayed in a simple village building.

The floor was covered with mats, and we unrolled our sleeping bags across the room. Mosquito nets were hung from the ceiling to create little sections for each person or couple, so the room ended up looking like a row of small netted sleeping areas.

It was basic but surprisingly comfortable.

Sometime in the middle of the night I discovered that the bathroom situation involved walking down a hill to a communal building outside. Navigating that path in the dark was… memorable.

Still, waking up the next morning in the quiet mountain village made the whole experience feel pretty special.

Visiting a Long-Neck Karen Village

During the trek we also visited a village where women from the long-neck Karen tribe live.

The women wear stacked brass rings around their necks, which gradually push the collarbone down and create the appearance of a dramatically elongated neck. Seeing it in person is striking in a way that photos can’t fully capture.

It felt complicated in a way I didn’t quite know how to process at the time. I remember one young girl in particular. The look on her face stuck with me. It didn’t feel like curiosity or excitement about visitors. It felt heavier than that, and I couldn’t quite shake it.

On one hand, it was an opportunity to learn about a culture and see a tradition that most people in the world will never encounter firsthand. On the other hand, there’s an undeniable feeling that these villages exist partly because tourists come to see them.

I remember having mixed feelings about it even at the time.

That said, the people we met were welcoming and friendly, and a few of the photos from that visit remain some of the most striking images I’ve ever taken.

Entering Myanmar

Near the Golden Triangle, we had the chance to briefly cross into Myanmar. It involved walking across a bridge, handing over our passports at a checkpoint, and receiving temporary copies to use on the other side. There was a market just across the border, but the experience didn’t feel like the rest of the trip. The military presence was hard to ignore, and without our passports in hand, it was difficult to relax. Instead of exploring, I found myself watching everything more cautiously and quietly counting the minutes until we walked back.

The Wildest Temple I’ve Ever Seen

One of the last stops in northern Thailand was a temple unlike anything I’d ever seen.

Everything about it was bright white and intricately carved. Sculptures surrounded the entrance, and a bridge crossed over a pit filled with dozens of sculpted hands reaching upward.

It was both beautiful and a little unsettling at the same time.

Inside the temple, photography wasn’t allowed. But what I remember most clearly was how unusual the artwork was. Instead of traditional temple imagery, the murals included unexpected modern references — including a version of Keanu Reeves in his Matrix look.

It was surreal in a way I wasn’t expecting from a temple.

Apparently the artist who designed the temple sometimes spends time there, and when we visited he was sitting on a bench outside letting visitors take photos with him.

Beijing: A Different Kind of Travel

After a couple of weeks in Thailand, I flew from Bangkok to Beijing to wrap up the trip.

Up until that point, I had been traveling with a group for much of the time. Beijing was different. I was on my own again, and the tone of the trip shifted almost immediately.

It didn’t start smoothly. I had arranged a pickup through a local tour company to take me from the airport to my hotel, but they never showed up. This was before I had any kind of international cell phone, so there wasn’t an easy way to call anyone. After waiting for a while, I ended up grabbing a taxi and figuring it out on my own.

Not the worst situation, but not exactly the welcoming arrival I was hoping for either.

That first impression kind of carried through my time in Beijing.

The city felt big. Really big. Loud, crowded, and overwhelming in a way that was different from Bangkok. Thailand had felt busy but approachable. Beijing felt harder to settle into.

At one point I tried to spend a day just wandering around on my own. That didn’t go particularly well. I ended up getting completely turned around in a network of underground pedestrian tunnels, eventually surfaced somewhere completely unfamiliar, found some lunch, and then called it a day and went back to my hotel.

It just wasn’t clicking the way Thailand had.

The Big Sites: Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, and Summer Palace

That said, Beijing is full of places you’ve heard about your entire life, and I did spend time seeing the major sites around the city.

The Forbidden City was massive. Walking through it felt like moving through a series of enormous courtyards and halls that just kept going. It’s one of those places where you understand the scale more by being there than by reading about it.

I also visited the Temple of Heaven, where emperors once performed ceremonies to pray for good harvests. The symmetry and design of the place stood out, especially the large circular platforms and the precision of the layout.

But the place that really stayed with me was the Summer Palace.

After the density and crowds of the city, the Summer Palace felt calmer and more open. There’s water, space to walk, and views across the lake that give you a chance to slow down for a minute. It was one of the few places in Beijing where I remember feeling like I could actually exhale and enjoy where I was.

The Tour Experience (and the Unexpected Detours)

I had booked a couple of guided tours while I was in Beijing, including one that was supposed to focus on the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall.

The plan sounded great. The reality was a little different.

Along the way, we made several additional stops that weren’t exactly what I had signed up for. We visited places tied to Chairman Mao, including what I remember as a convalescence home, and spent time at a jade factory and a tea ceremony.

At the time, it was frustrating. Later I learned that this kind of thing was fairly common with tour companies there, and in some cases they were expected or incentivized to include these stops. I just wish I had known that going in.

Still, it meant less time at the places I actually wanted to see.

The Ming Tombs and the Great Wall

We did eventually make it to the Ming Tombs, but not for long.

I remember feeling like we were just passing through. It was interesting to see, but the time there was short compared to what I had expected.

The Great Wall was different.

Even with everything else going on that day, the moment we reached the wall, it still felt significant.

Getting up to the top wasn’t nothing. There’s a decent climb involved, and once you’re on the wall, the stairs can be steep and uneven. But the views from the top made it worth it. The wall stretches across the ridgelines in a way that really drives home how massive it is.

There were also a few unexpected details that made the experience… memorable.

At the base area there was an enclosure with a couple of bears, which felt a little out of place. There was also a sled or toboggan-style track you could take down the mountain instead of walking, which I remember thinking was both random and kind of fun.

And then there were the restrooms. You had to pay to get in, there was no toilet paper, they were squat toilets, and there were no doors on the stalls. Not exactly a highlight of the day.

Even with all of that, standing on the Great Wall was still one of those moments that sticks with you.

Wrapping Up China

By the time I finished my time in Beijing, I was ready to go home.

Part of that was the experience itself. Part of it was just the reality of being on the road for three weeks. Travel fatigue is real, and I was feeling it by that point.

I do remember one last small detail on the way out. My flight from Beijing back to Seattle was flight 888. I didn’t know it at the time, but 8 is considered a lucky number in Chinese culture, so that flight number meant something to a lot of people around me.

It wasn't a perfect ending, but it was a real one. It felt like a fitting way to end the trip.