‘There is nowhere I’d rather go’

From the bustle of Bangkok to the white sands of Phuket, Bryony Gordon celebrates the return of Thailand to the travel map

The first time I went to Thailand, I was 18 and had just read The Beach by Alex Garland. Back then, everyone had just read The Beach by Alex Garland, about a backpacker who searches for an idyllic island paradise off the coast of Thailand, and so I was by no means the only teenage Brit making the journey to Bangkok in 1998.

I had never been further than Spain, and my mum packed me off with some traveller’s cheques, a packet of Dioralyte, and a warning not to smuggle drugs. This was the kind of small-minded thing you said back then. Anyway, arriving in Bangkok, I couldn’t believe it. The whole world opened up to me in the time it took to get a tuk-tuk to Patpong and open the first of many Singha beers.

I saw things I didn’t know were possible, and I don’t just mean in the infamous bars of the strip. I gawped at Wat Arun Temple, and got an overnight train to Chiang Mai. I trekked with hill tribes. I drank moonshine. I believe I met a family of water buffalo, though that could have been the moonshine. Not once did I encounter food poisoning or drugs to smuggle, just friendliness and that all-important joy that comes from experiencing a different culture for the first time. I absolutely loved it.

So much so that I have returned to Thailand every decade since – and each time it has shown me something different. In Koh Samui, at the age of 29, I got over a broken heart with a best friend, kick-boxing all my sadness out during the day and drinking it away (more Singha beer) in the evening. Then, in the winter of 2019, I went back with my husband and daughter. There, we had our best ever Christmas on the beach at the Anantara

Layan Phuket, paddleboarding and snorkelling and eating seafood instead of turkey. “Khob khun kha!” my daughter parroted at every person she passed. We saw in 2020 hanging out with monitor lizards. It was the last place we went as a family before the pandemic hit, and at the bleakest points we have cheered ourselves up reminiscing about Mai Khao Beach.

So it’s good to know that Thailand is opening up again to vaccinated travellers. There is nowhere I’d rather go to start exploring the wider world again after 18 months at home. Koh Phi Phi, anyone?