My friend Anel and I were on our way to a 16-day Thailand holiday. This meant 16 days of absolute leisure, including shopping and spas, not to mention a cultural experience.

But first...
We booked into our hotel. Everything in Bangkok seemed shiny, especially our hotel where yellow gold played an intricate part of the architecture. The room was spacious and every inch as beautiful as I expected, with striking views of the city.

After settling in at the hotel, we headed towards the Grand Palace. Luckily we read in a brochure about the Grand Palace that a certain dress code is expected when entering, including no shorts, no sleeveless tops and no flip flops. Being from a completely separate culture, we found this a little strange and hadn’t really predicted this happening whilst being on holiday, but one of the perks of a holiday is to experience new cultures and practices.

We took the Chao Praya River express to the palace. It was a great idea, because as we moved towards the Grand Palace and Wat Pra Kaew, also known as The Temple of the Emerald Buddha, we had an overview of an unforgettable sight. The colours of the Grand Palace are in a striking contrast to the white wall that surrounds it. The gilded stupas and rooftops are tiled with bright, shiny orange and green tiles. There were mosaic encrusted into the walls and the colours seemed overwhelming.

A good time to shop...
After our morning of cultural awareness, it was time for some shopping; after all, Thailand is well known for its markets. We took a shocking pink taxi (all colours in Bangkok are bright) to northern Bangkok where the Chatuchak Market is situated. Anel was the one to remind me to pack as little as possible since she knows of my addiction to shopping and I was so grateful to her for that! There were probably thousands of stalls. I was in shopping heaven! At some stage I was standing with about ten DVD’s in my hands when Anel said to me that she had done enough shopping for the day, and that I was being a little overzealous with my spending. This is why we are great friends; we can tell each other things like this without being offended. Amongst the clothes I bought was a beautiful native designed top. The patterns are quite unique using beautiful colours like no other top I had ever seen.

Our trip continues...
In the next few days we continued to Koh Pha Ngan, Satun, Penang, the Cameron Highlands, Kuala Lampur and Melaka.

Melaka, or Malacca, is the capital of the Sultanate of Malacca. The culture in Malacca is as diverse as South African, but with a difference of course. It’s a mixture between Chinese, Malaysian, Portuguese, Dutch and British. The Malaccans really know how to make good food. For lunch Anel and I went to a little restaurant in the town centre and had Nyonya-Baba cuisine. It’s a mixture of Chinese and Malay cooking, but with a bit of a spicy bite. Anel is used to eating spicy food, but as for me: not exactly. At first bite it was a bit of shock to my system. Anel laughed while I was almost in tears for the most part of my meal. Even if you don’t enjoy spicy food, you have to try it once at least.

For our last day we continued to Singapore. Singapore can be described as a big beautiful concrete jungle. Anel and I booked into the outdoor Spa Botonica for our last day: Pure bliss! We had a pebble foot bath, followed by a Vichy rain shower and aromatherapy body booster. My favourite was the hour and half aromatherapy massage. I dozed off during my massage and felt a bit sheepish when Anel woke me up to tell me that lunch was already served. Afterwards we had an aromatherapy facial followed by a pedicure before heading back to the hotel.

During dinner we were discussing our favourite parts of the holiday. The cultural differences were the one thing that stood out the most. Some say the world is getting smaller and smaller everyday, but it’s only when you travel that you really appreciate the fact that although this might be true, there are still indifferences that makes life just so much more exciting.