https://heyatli.com/blog/tags/thailand/Recent content in Thailand on Atli eSIM BlogHugoen-USFri, 18 Sep 2026 15:30:00 -0700https://heyatli.com/blog/bangkok-to-chiang-mai-train/Fri, 18 Sep 2026 15:30:00 -0700https://heyatli.com/blog/bangkok-to-chiang-mai-train/<p>The flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai takes about 70 minutes. The fastest sleeper, train no. 9, takes 12 hours 35 minutes, and in high season the train sells out first. People book it for the trip itself, and because a night in a berth replaces a night in a hotel.</p> <aside class="verdict"> <p class="verdict__head">The short answer</p> Take the sleeper at least one way if your itinerary has room for it: train no. 9, a second-class lower berth, booked as soon as the 90-day window opens. Fly if you have less than five days in the north or the berths are gone. Low-cost fares from Don Mueang often run 1,000 to 1,500 baht, the same as a second-class berth or more, and sometimes drop under 900. The bus is the fallback for sold-out high-season dates. </aside> <h2 id="the-trains">The trains</h2> <p>Long-distance trains no longer leave from Hua Lamphong. They depart from Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal, the large new station at Bang Sue, which has its own stop on the MRT Blue Line.</p>https://heyatli.com/blog/koh-samui-vs-koh-phangan/Mon, 14 Sep 2026 01:05:00 -0700https://heyatli.com/blog/koh-samui-vs-koh-phangan/<p>Koh Samui and Koh Phangan sit twenty minutes apart by fast boat, and they suit different trips. Samui has an airport, a ring road with traffic and beach clubs with reservation lists. Phangan has yoga schools, dirt tracks to empty bays and one town where the party happens. The crossing is short and cheap, so the main decision is where to sleep.</p> <aside class="verdict"> <p class="verdict__head">The short answer</p> Pick Samui for comfort: direct flights, resorts, restaurants, families and short trips. Pick Phangan for lower prices and quieter beaches: beach bungalows, the yoga scene around Srithanu, quiet bays in the northeast, and the Full Moon Party if you are going for it. With five days or more, do both; the fast boats cross in 20 to 45 minutes. </aside> <h2 id="the-short-version-of-each-island">The short version of each island</h2> <p>Samui is Thailand&rsquo;s second-largest island after Phuket and works like a resort town wrapped around a mountain. Chaweng is the long, busy beach with the nightlife, and Lamai is the calmer one to its south. Bophut&rsquo;s Fisherman&rsquo;s Village has turned an old fishing settlement into restaurants looking across to Phangan, and Maenam is the quiet, cheaper stretch.</p>https://heyatli.com/blog/best-time-to-visit-thailand/Tue, 01 Sep 2026 11:20:00 -0700https://heyatli.com/blog/best-time-to-visit-thailand/<p>Thailand has three climates running on different schedules: the Andaman coast, the Gulf coast, and everything inland. November is usually dry in Phuket and the wettest month of the year on Koh Samui, so the best month depends on which region you are visiting.</p> <aside class="verdict"> <p class="verdict__head">The short answer</p> November to February is the safest all-round window: dry and relatively cool in Bangkok and the north, peak season on the Andaman coast. The Gulf islands (Samui, Phangan, Tao) run on the opposite cycle, at their best from February to April and decent through August. Avoid the north from late February to April, when crop burning fills the valleys with smoke, and avoid the Gulf islands in October and November, which bring more than a third of their annual rain. </aside> <h2 id="how-the-seasons-work">How the seasons work</h2> <p>The Thai Meteorological Department counts three seasons. The hot season runs from mid-February to mid-May, and April is the hottest month. The southwest monsoon runs from mid-May to mid-October and is wettest in August and September for most of the country. The cool season runs from mid-October to mid-February, when Bangkok evenings drop into the low twenties.</p>https://heyatli.com/blog/esim-for-thailand/Tue, 28 Jul 2026 09:45:00 -0700https://heyatli.com/blog/esim-for-thailand/<p>In Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Grab shows the route and fare inside the app, which can reduce the need for curbside taxi negotiation. BTS navigation, ride-hailing, maps and night-market searches are all common mobile-data uses during a Thailand trip.</p> <p>Atli is data-only. It does not provide a Thai phone number, SMS or cellular voice calls. WhatsApp, LINE, Grab, maps and translation apps work through the data connection.</p> <aside class="verdict"> <p class="verdict__head">The short answer</p> Thailand is one of the cheapest places to buy an Atli plan, and the comparison here is unusually one-sided. The Thailand plan costs less than the Southeast Asia regional plan on every row, fixed data and unlimited alike, by $2 at the bottom of the range and $26 at the top. Buy the regional plan only if your route actually crosses a border. Atli connects through AIS, listed with 2G, 3G, LTE and 5G, so this is not a destination where a visiting eSIM stops at LTE. </aside> <h2 id="atli-esim-plans-for-thailand">Atli eSIM plans for Thailand</h2> <p>Fixed-data plans:</p>https://heyatli.com/blog/things-to-do-in-chiang-mai/Fri, 24 Jul 2026 10:51:00 -0700https://heyatli.com/blog/things-to-do-in-chiang-mai/<p>Chiang Mai rewards a slower pace than Bangkok. The old city is a walled square you can cross on foot in twenty minutes, the mountains start at the edge of town, and a very good bowl of noodles costs less than a Bangkok coffee. Three or four days covers the best things to do in Chiang Mai without rushing, and this guide sticks to the ones that earn their place.</p>https://heyatli.com/blog/is-bangkok-safe/Mon, 29 Jun 2026 16:53:00 -0700https://heyatli.com/blog/is-bangkok-safe/<p>Bangkok is one of the most visited capitals in the world and one of the least physically dangerous for the people visiting it. Violent street crime against foreigners is uncommon enough to be news when it happens, and you can eat at a night market at one in the morning surrounded by people doing exactly the same thing.</p> <p>What Bangkok has instead is a dense, well-practised economy of small extraction: the friendly stranger outside a temple, the driver who will not use the meter, the boat tout at the pier. None of it will hurt you. Most of it will cost you an afternoon and a few thousand baht if you have not heard the script before.</p>