Precious Moments: New Year in Thailand 2026

My housemate Ginny and I decided to go to Thailand during the new year holiday. Her sister also met us at the Thai airport. We left Xiamen late Wednesday night on Dec. 31st, 2025. During the overnight flight, the attendants announced at midnight, "happy new year!" and we saw lots of fireworks over the water.

We landed in Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport around 12:45 am on Jan. 1st, 2026.

Ginny called a taxi at the airport, and he took us to our hotel.

Thai money

Jan 1st, the breakfast was super. I miss Thai food. After eating we rode in a taxi to the city.

Maeklong Railway Market - what a fascinating and fun place. This is an operational railroad with shops and food stalls on either side.

For lunch we ate at a food stall that serves mango sticky rice, which is the absolute 💣.

I also got dumplings.

Everyone waiting for the train....

Here it comes.

The taxi driver so kindly waited for us for 2.5 hours while we explored the markets, then he drove us to Asiatique Sky Riverfront.

After perusing shops and walking around, we ate dinner of hotdogs at this food truck.

We stayed there around an hour-hour and half, then called another taxi to take us back to our hotel so we could grab our luggage and head to Don Mueang International Airport.

Look at this majestic sunset.

We boarded the plane at 8:10 pm and landed in Hat Yai International Airport close to 10 pm. We found an open booth that was selling combined tickets for a shared van and the boat ride to Koh Lipe, and situated everything before hopping in a taxi to go to the hotel.

Beautiful floor

This is how many bathrooms are, not only in Thailand but also in China, including in my house. Shower next to toilet, no separation.

Aren't these colors so unique?

We woke up on Jan. 2nd and waited outside the hotel for the shared van to pick us up. The drive took around 2-2.5 hours to the pier.

Lovely sights along the way.

The boat ride took another 1.5-2 hours to Hat Yai island.

Arrived in the afternoon on the island and went straight to our hostel. It was quite unique, and we stayed in a shared room. So, we all 3 slept in 1 bed with 1 bunk above us and another bunk beside with 2 beds on that. Each bunk had its own random people. We felt safe and didn't experience any problems. The room also had one cabinet with lockers where people could store their items.

We walked into a couple stores, and some places have bunch of shoes outside the door because everyone walks barefoot in the store.

The street leading down to the beach is lined with shops and restaurants.

We prepared for swimming and stopped to eat a late lunch at a restaurant.

My favorite place on Earth.

The water felt amazing and it was very low tide. We relished in the sunshine and heat. lol

And actually, as I was floating, a fish bit my leg super hard. 😂 I've been stung by jellyfish and bitten by a fish. For both instances I stayed in the water and the sting went away within 20-30 minutes. The salt water contains natural healing properties.

At night we walked along the beach.

Fresh seafood for sale

Then we walked down the street, ate fresh fruit, shopped at 7-11, and ate rolled ice cream.

The rolled ice cream stall was conveniently located next to our hostel.

Early Jan. 3rd we awoke super early to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately, it was quite cloudy so we didn't see the sun rising, but the scenery was still gorgeous and 100% relaxing.

This random dog hung out nearby for a little while.

Sights on the walk back to the hostel.

Shopped around before eating at the same restaurant from the previous day. This time I ordered Thai coffee and banana pancake.

After that quick brunch, we swam and snorkeled in the ocean for a couple hours. I saw a variety of fish, huge, colorful starfish, and tons of coral. God's underwater creation is majestic.

We originally planned to leave Koh Lipe on Jan. 4th, but upon checking the boat and van schedule, there wasn't one leaving early enough before we had our flight back to China. 😞 So we only really got to spend a whirlwind of about 24 hours on Koh Lipe, but it was 100% worth every minute. 😀

After the couple hours of swimming, we rushed back, cleaned up, packed, grabbed last minute food to take with us, and boarded the boat for the ride back.