Thailand in 20 days: Bangkok to the Andaman coast

Twenty days sounds generous for Thailand until you look at a map and realise the country is 1,650 kilometres from the Malaysian border to the Golden Triangle. I split mine into three blocks - city, north, islands - with one overnight train and two internal flights, and I still cut a week's worth of things I wanted to see.

This is exactly what I did, day by day, including the bits that did not work.

The shape of the trip

• Days 1–4: Bangkok
• Days 5–6: Ayutthaya, then the night train north
• Days 7–11: Chiang Mai and Pai
• Days 12–13: fly south to Krabi
• Days 14–18: Railay, Koh Lanta
• Days 19–20: back to Bangkok

I travelled in late February - dry season on both coasts, hot but not yet April-hot, and Songkran safely out of range.

Days 1–4: Bangkok

Day 1. Landed at Suvarnabhumi at seven in the morning after a night flight, took the Airport Rail Link into town rather than a taxi, and did nothing useful. I walked to a market, ate, and was asleep by eight in the evening. This was the right call: the first day of a nine-hour time difference is not the day to see temples.

Day 2. The temple day, done early. Wat Pho at eight when it opens, then the ferry across to Wat Arun, then back for the Grand Palace. By noon I was finished and hiding. Two things worth knowing: the dress code is enforced properly - covered shoulders and knees, no exceptions - and anyone outside the gate telling you the palace is closed today for a Buddhist holiday is running a tuk-tuk scam. It is not closed.

Day 3. Chatuchak weekend market in the morning, which is the size of a small town and where I got genuinely lost for forty minutes. Afternoon in Chinatown, evening eating on Yaowarat Road standing up. The best meal of the whole trip cost less than a coffee at the airport.

Day 4. Boat day. I took the Chao Phraya express boat - the orange-flag local one, not the blue tourist boat - from end to end and back for the price of a bottle of water. Then the canals of Thonburi, where the city stops looking like a capital and starts looking like a village on stilts.

Days 5–6: Ayutthaya and the night train

Day 5. Train from Hua Lamphong to Ayutthaya, about ninety minutes. I hired a bicycle at the station for the day and rode between the ruins, which is by far the best way to do it - the site is spread over several kilometres and a tuk-tuk tour hurries you. Wat Mahathat with the Buddha head grown into the tree roots is the famous one; Wat Chaiwatthanaram at the end of the afternoon, empty, was the better one.

Day 6. Back to Bangkok, then the overnight sleeper to Chiang Mai. I booked a lower berth in second-class air-conditioned about three weeks ahead, which was just in time - the sleepers go long before the seats. Tea arrives in the morning whether you want it or not, and you wake up somewhere green.

Days 7–11: Chiang Mai and Pai

Day 7. Arrived at seven in the morning, checked in, slept for two hours, then walked the old city inside the moat. Wat Chedi Luang in the late afternoon. In the evening, the Sunday walking street if your timing is right - mine was not, so I went to the night bazaar instead, which is more commercial and less interesting.

Day 8. Cooking class. I had booked one and expected it to be a tourist exercise; it started at a market at seven in the morning with the teacher explaining how to tell good galangal from tired galangal, and I have made the green curry four times since. Worth the day.

Day 9. Doi Suthep at dawn to beat both the heat and the coaches. 306 steps up the naga staircase. Afternoon at an elephant sanctuary - and here is the thing I want to say plainly: if you can ride it, bathe it on demand or pose with it, it is not a sanctuary. The one I went to keeps the animals at a distance, caps the group size, and you watch rather than touch. It was less "fun" and it was the right choice.

Day 10. The minibus to Pai. Three hours, 762 curves, and everyone on board knows the number because the drivers are proud of it. Take the travel sickness tablet before, not during.

Day 11. Pai on a scooter - waterfalls, the canyon at sunset, hot springs. A word of caution I wish somebody had given me: half the travellers in Pai have a bandage on one leg. Gravel on tarmac, no helmet, no licence category, and most travel insurance excludes scooters entirely. I rode slowly and wore the helmet and still nearly came off once.

Days 12–13: south to Krabi

Day 12. Minibus back to Chiang Mai, flight to Krabi in the evening. Internal flights in Thailand are cheap enough that the twenty-hour train south makes no sense unless you want the train for its own sake.

Day 13. Ao Nang as a base, mostly logistics and laundry. Not a beautiful town, but everything leaves from there.

Days 14–18: Railay and Koh Lanta

Day 14. Longtail boat to Railay, which has no road access at all - the peninsula is cut off by limestone cliffs, so everything arrives by boat. Watching climbers on the overhangs above the beach with my feet in the water is the single image I kept from the trip.

Day 15. The four islands tour. Honest verdict: it is crowded, it is on a schedule, and it is still worth doing once for Chicken Island and the sandbar. Go with the first boat of the day.

Day 16. Ferry to Koh Lanta. Two hours, and the island is long and quiet with a road down the spine and progressively emptier beaches as you go south.

Days 17–18. I did almost nothing, deliberately. Rented a scooter, found a beach, read a book, ate at a place with four plastic tables where the owner cooked whatever she had bought that morning. After two weeks of moving, the two days of nothing were the best part of the trip.

Days 19–20: back to Bangkok

Day 19. Ferry to Krabi, flight to Bangkok, one last night. I stayed near the airport rail line rather than in the centre, which saved an hour in the morning.

Day 20. A final bowl of noodles at seven in the morning near the hotel, then the train to the airport.

What it cost me in time

Leg	Method	Time
Airport → central Bangkok	Airport Rail Link	30 min
Bangkok → Ayutthaya	Train	1 h 30
Bangkok → Chiang Mai	Night train	13 h
Chiang Mai → Pai	Minibus	3 h
Chiang Mai → Krabi	Flight	2 h
Krabi → Koh Lanta	Ferry	2 h

Three things I would change

1. Fewer islands, more days. I saw three and remember one. Two islands with four nights each would have been better than three with two.
2. Skip Ao Nang, sleep on Railay. I used Ao Nang as a base to save money and spent the difference on boats.
3. Book the night train earlier. I got the last lower berth. Lower berths have a window and more room; upper berths do not.

Practical notes

• Getting around cities: the metered taxi exists but drivers will offer a flat price. Ask for the meter, and if they refuse, walk to the next one.
• Cash: card acceptance is fine in cities and patchy on islands. There is one ATM on some beaches and it charges heavily.
• The one phrase: mai pen rai - never mind, it's fine. It defuses almost everything.
• Temples: shoulders and knees covered, shoes off, never point your feet at a Buddha image.
• Best food rule: the stall with the longest queue of people who are not holding cameras.