Thailand January-February 2026

January in Michigan is quite cold and dark, so I headed somewhere warm and (ideally) sunny. It wasn’t perfect, but it was still fun, and I was able to visit both Laos and Vietnam.

Bangkok

I spent most of the trip in Bangkok, though I don’t have pictures here of most of the main attractions - I mostly visited those on my previous trip in November 2022.

New visits included the Erawan Museum, which has quite a large three-headed elephant.

MOCA Bangkok was a nicer museum than I was expecting, and I’m glad I visited.

The malls in Bangkok continue to be of a completely different scale.

And I did have some nice views from my apartment complex.

Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya was an easy weekend trip from Bangkok. The ruins are spread out enough to be difficult, and unfortunately are not nearly as old as they might appear. Things in the jungle decay quickly.

This church in Ayutthaya is older than some of the ruins. Slightly awkward.

Vientiane

Vientiane, and Laos as a whole, was much calmer and quieter than Bangkok.

Pha That Luang and Patuxai are the obvious headline sights, but I also ended up liking the mixture of formal state architecture and smaller museum spaces. It gave the city a more varied feel than I had expected going in.

The National Museum had the largest contrast between exterior and interior I’ve ever seen. Monumental on the outside, half-empty and missing exhibits on the inside. Still interesting - and of course very anti-american.

I took the new Chinese-built high speed train to Luang Prabang for a day trip. Unfortunately the ticket purchasing process is really awkward, but the structures were very monumental. They were also farther from the city centers than the airports - a very odd situation!

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang was the prettiest stop on the Laos side of the trip. The Mekong, the temple complexes, and the old royal architecture all fit together in a way that makes the city feel smaller, calmer, and much more coherent than most capitals do.

Hanoi

I visited Hanoi in the days leading up to Tet, which is the Vietnamese new year. I expected to still be able to visit all the museums I wanted to. I was unfortunately wrong - many, such as the newly-enlarged Military History Museum and the Hanoi Museum, were closed. Still, there was plenty to see, and I’m glad I visited!

The old city has a good density of interesting sights, and I was able to walk between things with relative ease. The weather was definitely warm enough to notice though - even in February.

And yes, I did also go to Train Street. It is absurd, over-photographed, and still entertaining in person.

The Cathedral was a very pretty sight, and close to my hotel.

The Air Defense Museum was one of the few museums that was actually open, though even here the interior was closed. This was part of my difficulty - of the museums that did have websites, most said business as usual - and then were closed anyways.

Food

Plenty of interesting pancakes and other meals. True breakfast pancakes, raspberry pancakes, a berry crepe, and the default meal of beef+basil+rice.