If you have been reading my blog for a while, you may remember that my first impression of Thailand was not exactly glowing.
Before arriving, I had heard so much about Thailand that I expected to fall in love with it immediately. It is one of those destinations that travellers talk about with huge enthusiasm, especially when they mention the islands, the beaches, the sunsets and the easygoing atmosphere. Because of that, I arrived with fairly high expectations. Unfortunately, the reality did not match the version of Thailand I had built up in my head.
Part of the problem was timing. We visited at the beginning of the rainy season, which changed the whole experience. The weather made it difficult to enjoy the beaches in the way we had imagined, and that was especially disappointing because spending time by the sea was one of the main reasons we had travelled to the islands. Instead of long, sunny days on the sand and warm evenings watching the sky change colour, we found ourselves trying to work around unpredictable weather and looking for things to do when the beach was not really an option.
I even struggled to find a memorable sunset, which felt like a small but frustrating disappointment. Thailand had been described to me as a place where beautiful sunsets were almost guaranteed, especially on the islands. I had imagined sitting somewhere peaceful, drink in hand, watching the sun drop slowly into the horizon. Instead, the skies often felt grey, the mood was a little flat, and I found myself wondering whether I had somehow missed the magic that everyone else seemed to find so easily.
That said, there was one very specific Thailand travel experience I knew I wanted to try before leaving: a bucket drink. If you have spent any time reading about backpacking in Thailand, you have probably come across these infamous drinks. They are served in small buckets and are known for being strong, sweet and dangerously easy to drink. The idea is simple enough: a heavy mix of spirits combined with soda, served in a way that feels playful at first but can catch up with you very quickly.
I was not under any illusion that a bucket drink would be sophisticated. It was not something I expected to sip slowly while appreciating delicate flavours. This was more about the experience than the taste. Bucket drinks have become part of the Thailand backpacker scene, and even though I was feeling underwhelmed by the trip overall, I still wanted to understand why people talked about them so much. Sometimes, when a destination is not giving you what you expected, you end up leaning into the small rituals and travel clichés just to see what all the fuss is about.
While we were on Koh Lanta, the opportunity finally felt right. We did not have a packed schedule, the weather was not encouraging us to spend all day on the beach, and we had time to fill. In that situation, trying a bucket drink seemed like the obvious thing to do. Koh Lanta was quiet for us at that point, and with not much else going on, sitting down with one of these notorious drinks felt like a way to make the evening feel a little more memorable.
The reputation of bucket drinks is well deserved: they can get you drunk quickly. Because they are mixed with soda, they can taste deceptively easy to drink, and because they are served in a bucket rather than a normal glass, it is very easy to forget just how much alcohol you are actually consuming. It is the kind of drink that seems fun and harmless at the start, but definitely demands a bit of caution. If you are going to try one in Thailand, it is worth remembering that the novelty is part of the appeal, but pacing yourself is still important.
In the end, the bucket drink did not magically transform my opinion of Thailand, but it did give me one of those small travel moments that sticks in your memory. My time in the country may not have lived up to the hype I had heard before arriving, and the rainy season certainly shaped the experience in ways I had not hoped for. Still, trying a bucket drink on Koh Lanta became part of the story: not a perfect travel moment, but a very real one.