Several months ago, before we left for Thailand, we were informed by a monk Phrakhru Mahaphujatiyaphiban (Wat BuddhaRaleigh Temple, Knightdale) that we needed to go see the Chak Phra Festival in Surat Thani, Thailand. He said that it’s an amazing event and that we needed to go see it!
When I woke up this morning (Friday, 11th) it dawned on me that this festival was going to happen this coming weekend (Oct 10-18th). So, after realizing this around 8am this morning, I asked Kanchana the following question “So, how adventurous are you today?” and “Do you want to take a trip down south – today!?!”.
From Bangkok, Surat Thani is not close, its over 400 miles away and take 9.5 hours to drive. To do this, I would need to schedule a flight and reserve a hotel immediately!
Well, this is exactly what we did! I scheduled a flight on Nok Air to leave at 1:10pm (arriving to Surat Thani at 2:20pm) and reserved a room at the Blu Monkey Hub and Hotel Suratthani (8 days). We quickly packed 2 backpacks and then I ordered a taxi on Grab (Thailand’s version of Uber). By the time we got downstairs our taxi pulled up. It was around 10:30am and we were off and running!
After we arrived to Don Muang Airport (Bangkok’s older original International Airport) we grabbed a quick bite to eat, checked in and within a short time we were in the air travelling to Surat Thani. After a short one-hour flight we arrived to Surat Thani grabbed taxi and headed to Blu Monkey Hotel in Surat Thani. We were in our room by 3:30pm! Not bad for a day’s work.