It’s always been a dream of mine to visit Southeast Asia and Thailand in particular. Actually, it was more of pipe dream because before I got an Aeroplan card and was able to use it to pay for the newspaper’s expenses, the cost of such a trip was just too prohibitive.

Fortunately, thanks to Aeroplan, a ticket that would normally costs $2,000, costs only $197 for fees and taxes. And, of course, there are the the points. My return ticket to Bangkok cost me 130,000 Aeroplan points, which took six months to accumulate.

Fortunately, Thailand is one of cheapest countries in the world to visit when it comes to lodgings and food – that’s doubly so if you stay in hostels and eat street food instead of expensive restaurants.

One of the people who inspired me to go to Thailand was Anthony Bourdain, another aficionado of street food.

As I write this column, I’m on an island called Koh Tao which is famous for its snorkeling and inexpensive scuba diving schools.

But before I arrived here, I spent two days in Bangkok where I visited some temples and enjoyed some incredible street food include Pad Thai, Green Curry Chicken and Morning Glory which is a stir-fried vegetable dish with water spinach, red chilies, oyster sauce, soy sauce and garlic. It’s even better if you add crispy chicken.

One of the places I visited was the Chatuchak weekend market, which is one of the largest markets in the world covering 35 acres with over 1,000 stalls.

It was there that had the most incredible Tom Yum soup in the world.

From Bangkok, I went to Koh Phangan which is in the Gulf of Thailand. To get there I had to take a 90-minute flight from Bangkok to Surat Thani and then a one-hour bus ride to the Donsak Pier where I caught a ferry to the island.

Unfortunately, when it comes to ferries, you never know the seas you’re going to get and on this particular day the seas were rough as hell. Fortunately, I’m not prone to seasickness, but some of my fellow travelers weren’t as fortunate. The open air upper deck of the ferry was filled with people with very weak stomachs, resulting in a not so pleasant scene.

When I arrived at Koh Phangan, I stayed at the Tiki Beach Resort hostel which was right on the beach with a clear view of some of the most stunning sunsets I have ever seen.

I had a bed in a six-bed dorm room for $25 a night. Now before you get all judge-mental, one of the advantages to staying in a dorm room, besides the price, is the chance to meet fellow travelers from around the world. In Koh Phangan, I shared a room with a guy from the Netherlands and three guys from Germany. It was marvelous. Of course, if you want to get all bougie, you can get a deluxe private oceanview bungalow for $100 a night.

Besides being famous for it’s monthly full moon parties, Koh Phangan also has some amazing beaches, like Secret Beach, Koh Ma Beach, and Malibu Beach on the north side of the island, and Haad Sadet Beach and Bottle Beach on the east side. The later has a stunning viewpoint, which can be reached by one of two routes – a goat path up the side of the mountain from the beach that took me 40 minutes to complete and nearly killed me, and a much shorter and much less challenging route from the road that took only 12 minutes.

You can literally stay on Koh Phangan and go to a different beach on every day of the week. But my favourite spot on Koh Phangan was the Pantip Night Market where you could get an order of Chicken Pad Thai for $3.90, or the freshest Vietnamese shrimp spring roll you’ve ever had for $2. They also had sushi, samosas, beef noodle soup, Satay skewers, fried chicken, chicken fingers, dumplings and every type of curry dish imaginable. I ate there every night and never spent more than $10.

I also met Keagan and Jess there – two wonderful people from the U.K. – as well as Michael from Germany.

From Koh Phangan, I took another ferry to Koh Tao where I stayed at the Nomads hostel in the centre of it all in a six-bed dorm room for just $40 a night.

It was there that I met a wonderful group of young people including Tom from Las Vegas, Tom from New Zealand, Chloe, Bella, Minnie, Wilder, Jamie, Hollie, Georgia and Sam from the U.K, Jane from San Diego and Abvhi from India who saved my life after I lost my ATM card.

Outside of the hostel, I met even more incredible people at the various events on the island like Sam and Hollie from the U.K., and Isla and her brother Otis from New South Wales.

These and a ton of other young people I met on Koh Tao accepted me with open arms and made my visit extra special.

Koh Tao also gave me the opportunity to scuba dive for the first time, but more about that in my next column.

(If you wish to comment on this or any other View Point column please write to Fred Sherwin at fsherwin@orleansstar.ca)