Our Year Long Honeymoon is officially two thirds over! I can hardly believe we’ve been traveling non-stop for eight months now and we only have four more to go! We’ll actually be back in the States in three and a half months 😩.
Enough about the trip coming to an end though; January was a wonderful month! We spent the first three weeks of the month in Thailand and the last week in Vietnam. In this update post you’ll find an overview of our travels this month, our top three meals of the month, a budget update, points and miles update, and a preview of what we’ll be doing next month. Thanks for reading!
Thailand
Chiang Mai, 3 Days
We were actually in Chiang Mai for five days but the first two days were in December! After flying back to Asia from the US, we celebrated NYE’s with the rest of the city at a big outdoor party.
On New Year’s Day we attended a Thai cooking class where we made a stir fry, soup, and a curry. The food was so good and I love learning about the different spices, produce, and sauces. The cooking school was outside of the city on a small farm and they made us wear these silly hats while we toured the garden!
The following day we did a tour through Airbnb Experiences. Our tour guide took us to the temple complex, Wat Ban Den, then we made a brief stop to explore a large Buddha in a cave before going to the sticky waterfalls. The waterfalls are officially called Namtok Bua Thong, but everyone called them “sticky waterfalls” because you can walk up them without slipping!
Pai, 5 Days
Pai is a smaller city in Northern Thailand about a three hour drive from Chiang Mai. The road can get pretty windy and depending on how crazy your driver is, you may get car sick. Someone I’m traveling with (not naming names) got a little car sick and had to throw up! I didn’t have any problems besides fearing for my life as our driver literally drifted around some of the curves.
Despite the method of travel to Pai, it is a very popular little city among travelers, and especially backpackers. The town is walkable, there are so many cafes, bars, and restaurants and overall it’s a very affordable place to visit.
We spent five nights in Pai, so we had four full days. One day we went “tipsy tubing” down a small river that runs through town and another day we went on an all day tour. The full day tour brought us to Lod Cave, a waterfall, a hot spring, and to Pai Canyon at sunset. The other two days we simply enjoyed life in this small town, eating at the amazing cheap restaurants and working on my blog. Pai is also the town we’ve been the most social in as it’s such a small place you keep running into the same people over and over. For more information on Pai, read my blog “First Timer’s Guide to Pai, Thailand.”
Chiang Mai, 1 Day
We took the three hour van ride back to Chiang Mai the day before our flight down to the islands. Luckily this driver was a little more cautious and it was a much more enjoyable drive. We mostly just relaxed on our final night in Northern Thailand and enjoyed one last bowl of khao soi. Ok… so maybe two bowls. Of course I think I found my favorite khao soi place on my last night in Chiang Mai.
Koh Samui, 3 Days
After our journey from Pai back to Chiang Mai, we caught a direct flight down to Koh Samui, Thailand’s second largest island. We took it pretty easy and just eased into island life. We visited the Big Buddha and spent a relaxing day at the beautiful Choengmon Beach.
Koh Tao, 7 Days
Our main reason for coming to the small island of Koh Tao was to learn how to scuba dive! Andrew and I stayed in a little hut a few yards from the beach and took a three day course to become open water scuba certified. We are certified up to 18 meters/60 feet. After our course we signed up for another fun dive later in the week. I think it’s safe to say we have a new hobby!
Aside from scuba diving, our time in Koh Tao was mainly spent relaxing on the beach and trying all the delicious restaurants. I even created a Best Restaurants in Koh Tao food guide, so go check out all our great eats!
Koh Samui, 3 Days
After a week spent on Koh Tao, we took the ferry back to Koh Samui and stayed in the same Airbnb as we did the week prior. We really didn’t do much in Samui again besides trying some of the local restaurants. We went back to Choengmon beach one day, Andrew got a few runs in and did laundry, and I worked on my blog.
In a strange coincidence, one of Andrew’s old coworkers and his wife also happened to be in Koh Samui on our last night there. We met up with them to grab dinner and a drink and explore Fisherman’s Village. The whole area turns into a pedestrian only zone every night so it was a fun area to explore.
Bangkok, 2 Days
We took a short flight from Koh Samui to Bangkok to end our two weeks on the Thai islands. We stayed at the Hyatt Place Bangkok Sukhumvit which I booked with points. You can read my review of the hotel here: Hyatt Place Bangkok Sukhumvit Review. I’m attempting to get status with Hyatt this year; more on that in the points and miles section below!
We used our time in Bangkok to rest, enjoy some Western food (looking at you McDonalds!), workout at the hotel gym and plan more of our Vietnam trip. We only left the hotel twice to get food and didn’t walk more than half a kilometer to do so either time! After the McDonalds I guess I was craving more fried food because our other meal in Bangkok was at a tonkatsu restaurant and it was also excellent! The tonkatsu was also our most expensive meal in Thailand by a long shot and we didn’t even get drinks. Sit down restaurants in Bangkok are pricey!
Vietnam
Unlike Thailand, Vietnam is a country neither one of us have been to before. We didn’t know quite what to expect, but so far we are enjoying our time here! We are making our way from Ho Chi Minh in the south to Hanoi in the north but we’ve only been here for one of four weeks so far!
Ho Chi Minh City, 4 Days
Ho Chi Minh City, also called Saigon, was a great introduction to Vietnam! We stayed in a nice hostel in District 1 with a ton of restaurants in walking distance. On our first full day we went on a tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels which was like a large interactive outdoor museum about the Vietnam War.
I felt like I had enough war information but Andrew went to the War Remnants Museum the following day. It is one of the most popular museums in Saigon.
My favorite part of our short time in Saigon was a food tour we did with Saigon Happy Tour. We had two guides and rode around the city on the back of their motorbikes trying different local dishes. See all the incredible dishes we tried below in our Top Three Meals of the Month Section!
For our last full day in HCMC Andrew and I went on a little self guided walking tour of District 1. We saw the People’s Committee Building, pictured below. We went to a cool old apartment building that was turned into a building of cafe’s and bars. We saw the Opera House, the Central Post Office and Notre Dame Cathedral. There definitely seems to be a lot left to explore in HCMC and the surrounding area but I’m sure we’ll be back one day to see the rest.
Dalat, 4 Days
To get from HCMC to Dalat, most backpackers take a bus which takes around 6-7 hours. I checked flights and they happened to be just $35 per person including a checked bag, so I went ahead and bought flights instead of bus tickets. I even got some Delta miles out of it because Veitnam Airlines is in the same airline alliance as Delta! Win win!
My cousin, Kevin from the Caffeinated Excursions blog, lived in Veitnam in 2019. I read his post on Dalat: Thing To Do In Dalat, Vietnam to help plan our time there.
On our first day we took the tourist train from Veitnam’s oldest operating railway station to Linh Phuoc Pagoda. It is not a “real” train service, just a tourist attraction. The train ride only lasts 20 minutes each way and you get 30 minutes to walk around the Pagoda and then you return to Dalat.
The next day we spent in Da Lat we went to a touristy outdoor park just a few km outside the city. There is an alpine rollercoaster that you ride down to a waterfall. It was a fun way to spend a few hours and my first time on an alpine coaster!
Later that night I took a cooking class at my hostel and the whole hostel had dinner together after. It was a lot of fun and I learned more about Vietnamese food beyond pho and banh mi. We cooked fried spring rolls, Vietnamese chicken curry and Vietnamese pancakes stuffed with shrimp, pork, tofu and mushrooms.
Top Three Meals of the Month
#3 995 Roasted Duck - Koh Tao Thailand
This was my favorite restaurant in Koh Tao! We ate at 995 Duck three times during our week on the island. We tried duck noodles with soybean sauce, duck noodle soup, duck rice with soybean sauce, and duck pad Thai. My favorite was the soup and Andrew liked the duck noodles! Each dish cost 90 baht or $2.66. What a bargain!
#2 Ho Chi Minh City Food Tour
Our food tour we took with Saigon Happy Tours claims spot number two this month! We tried so many different thing and they were all excellent (except the jellyfish in the fish soup that I refused to try.) My favorite part was making our own spring rolls stuffed with grilled meat or fried rice flour pancakes. A runner up would be the com tam, which is a marinated and grilled pork chop served with some vegetables over a plate broken rice and topped with a sweet and savory fish sauce.
#1 Khao Soi in Chiang Mai
Khao soi is a curry soup served with homemade egg noodles and meat (typically a whole chicken leg or slow roasted beef) and topped with crispy fried noodles, pickled veggies, red onion, and lime. It’s a Northern Thai specialty, so you can really only get it in Northern Thailand and not Bangkok or any of the Thai Islands. I had Khao Soi at several restaurants around Chiang Mai and Pai but my favorite two bowls were served at Khao Soi Lung Prakit Kaat Gorm and this place that only has a Thai name.
The former place is famous because it was on a Netflix show called “Someone Feed Phil” so expect a long wait. The latter is on a side street and can get full at dinner time with locals and tourists alike. No matter where you get it, you have to try khao soi a few times in Northern Thailand.
Budget
Thailand
Budget: $2,600 or $100 per day
Actual Spent: $3,160 or $121.50 per day
$560 over budget!!! I feel judgement even though I don’t know who is reading this, lol! Our scuba course cost around $290 per person and was so worth it. We also spent another $115 on a day of fun dives. Flights within Thailand were more expensive than I thought they would be. Our Chiang Mai to Koh Samui flight in particular was expensive at $275 per person. Other than those two expenses I think we did a pretty good job and only spent $10.40 on food and drinks per person per day.
Vietnam
Total Budget: $1,890 or $70 per day
Actual Spent in week 1: $598.50 or $85.50 per day
We’ve only been in Vietnam for one week and still have three more to go. I think we’ll be able hit our budget for Vietnam! Our lodging in Ho Chi Minh was the most expensive in the country and we do have four free hotel nights at the end of our visit to help the budget out. This amount also includes $50 for our visas which is a one time expense.
Catch up on all the latest Year Long Honeymoon posts below!
How I Got 55 Free Hotel Nights During My Year Long Honeymoon (and how you can too!)
Credit Card Points Update
Road to Hyatt Globalist Status (New Section!)
Welcome to my newest Year Long Honeymoon monthly update section! I have decided to try to earn Hyatt Globalist status this year which is Hyatt’s top status tier. The main perks of having Globalist status are room upgrades (including suites), free breakfast, and club access. There are other benefits as well, but those are the main ones.
In the screen shot below you can see I have 7 qualifying nights and I need to reach 60 nights by the end of the year to get Globalist Status!
The 7 nights are from:
- 5 nights from the World of Hyatt credit card
- 2 nights at Hyatt Place Bangkok Sukhumvit
If you’re interested in opening a World Of Hyatt credit card, you can apply through my link here and I’ll receive some Hyatt bonus points to help me on my journey! You can also transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to your Hyatt account and you can earn them by signing up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card here.
Andrew and I both have a Chase Sapphire card which is how we’re accumulating so many points to stay at Hyatts.
Updated Point Totals
After booking 23 flights and 50 free hotel nights we have the following points remaining.
Kailyn American Express: 113 points worth ~ $1 (I depleted these buying a flight for later this summer – not counted in Year Long Honeymoon stuff)
Kailyn Chase Ultimate Rewards: 1,287 points + Andrew Chase 1,716 points worth ~ $45
Kailyn IHG: 46,628 points worth ~ $233 + one free night certificate
Kailyn Hyatt: 13,363 points worth ~ $267
Kailyn Delta : 40,048 points + Andrew Delta: 21,538 points worth ~ $800
Kailyn United: 6,552 points + Andrew United: 21,137 points worth ~ $313
Kailyn American: 8,210 points + Andrew American: 50,554 points worth ~ $705
Kailyn Turkish Airlines: 40,000 points worth ~ $600
Kailyn Qatar Airways: 1,145 points worth ~ $17
Kailyn Citi Thank You: 8 points worth ~ $0 (I depleted these buying a flight for later this summer – not counted in Year Long Honeymoon stuff)
Kailyn Capital One: 32,692 points + Andrew Capital One: 35,242 points worth ~ $1,019
Total Rewards Points Remaining: 320,233 redeemable for about $4,000
What's Next For Us?
We still have three more weeks in Vietnam in February and we’ll continue to travel north to explore Hoi An, Hanoi, and Sapa. When our time in Vietnam is over we’ll be flying to the Philippines, my 29th country! I also get to celebrate my birthday in February. I actually just realized I’ll be turning 28 in my 28th country, how cool is that?!
Until next month,
Cheers!
Kailyn (& Andrew)
No Comments