An impulsive traveler’s plan-free trip to Thailand
A few weeks earlier, I was fantasizing about going somewhere — anywhere — far away. I craved the feeling of being lost in an unfamiliar city, soaking in its sounds, smells, energy. This led to casually browsing plane tickets to Southeast Asia, when a reasonably priced ticket to Bangkok popped up. Later that month, I boarded the plane with a friend who booked her trip a few days after mine.
While jetting across the world on a whim admittedly made me feel pretty cocky, it turns out I’m part of a larger trend.
According to data from the online travel company Skyscanner, demand focused on the Asia-Pacific region — and Thailand, in particular — has taken off since coronavirus restrictions began to ease in April. During May and June, for example, it was the third most popular long-haul destination from France, where I live.
Beyond the uptick in trips to the region, Matt Bradford, who analyzes trends and insights for Skyscanner, has identified short booking horizons — a window of 30 days or less between booking and takeoff — as a new behavior. He explained by phone that, in France during May and June, 39 percent of bookings made on the site were for departures within one month. (In the United States, that figure was 35 percent.)
When the doors slide open at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, it hits you: wet, sweltering heat. Within one minute, my skin was covered in a slick film of humidity and sweat, dripping down the back of my neck as we hopped into a cab. We drove past roadside dumpling joints, skyscrapers and a seemingly endless string of stalls selling sex toy souvenirs.
The next afternoon, after a delicious lunch at Rung Reung Pork Noodle — a bare-bones, plastic-stool, fan-blasting haven for pork meatballs, noodles and broth — we set off toward Wat Arun, a temple built during the Ayutthaya era on the bank of the Chao Phraya River. Its “prang” towers more than 200 feet overhead, intricately decorated with porcelain pieces and walkways that snake up and around it. As we were strolling through the grounds, a lady approached us offering a boat ride around a nearby floating market.
Our boat driver soon led us through Thonburi’s network of klongs, or canals, lined with worn wooden houses, many tilting on the stilts holding them above water. A woman wearing a straw hat with bows clipped onto the band slowly approached us on her long-tail boat, offering bracelets, key chains and flowery hair clips. After we politely declined, she reached into her…
Read More: An impulsive traveler’s plan-free trip to Thailand