A local food market outside of Chiang Mai.

So, I went into this trip thinking that this article would not be necessary, assuming that Thailand is a vegan heaven. This was not the case… Chiang Mai is awesome for vegans, but it seems that the rest of the country isn’t so sure what we are…

Let’s dive in! I visited three main parts of Thailand — Bangkok, Phuket, and Chiang Mai. All were lovely in their own ways, but as a vegan, Chiang Mai was also delicious!

Bangkok

To be fair, I was only in Bangkok for less than a day, so maybe this isn’t the most accurate account of the city. However, everything I did was food related! I went to three different floating markets, which are a must see in Bangkok! They all mostly focused on food, and here was my first real taste of Thai food. I hadn’t seen most of what was there in the US, that’s for sure!

The biggest issue I found was trying to communicate vegan to the merchants. Google Translate was my best friend, but still the concept wasn’t always clear. I think a lot of times they thought coconut milk counted as dairy, but I wasn’t confident enough that it was vegan so I didn’t risk it.

I did get to try a ton of fun street food, some that I enjoyed more than others. And some places were a bit better about being more vegan/vegetarian clear. I do think they didn’t always understand the difference. And I think I took a few risks. But overall the food was fun and exciting to try! Everyone was super nice and tried to help me the best they could!

Phuket

Phuket wasn’t what I expected. I stayed in the Surin Beach area, as I was running of a pole camp in that area for a week. Surin Beach area was a little ugly and the beach was dirtier than I would have liked. The water was beautiful and warm, but the area was just a bit trashy.

Amazingly, of my group of nine — two of us were vegan, two were vegetarian, and two mostly were vegetarian! One very important thing to note is that the remaining three (the meat eaters) were the only people who got sick… so, maybe there is something to not eating meat in Thailand (more on this later)!

As far as breakfast went, thank goodness there was this acai bowl place next to the hotel, as no where else had anything remotely vegan to offer for breakfast. But Bliss was perfect and soo good! I quickly became friendly with the owner and went every morning at 9am. If you are in this area, she is well worth the visit!

Phuket is super hot and I was training pretty heavily, so I didn’t do real meals for lunch. Instead I was able to find plant based protein shakes, nuts, and fruit at the local grocery store or 7-11. Side note, 7-11s are the go to store for most things in Thailand. They are everywhere!

For dinner there were a few different places that had an option or two for vegans. I mostly just google mapped vegan food to find options. Most of the time the options were only fried rice with some veggies or green curry. So, after a week I got a little bored of these, especially as I’m not a big fried food person. None of the places really stood out. Some were worst than others due to being extremely hot or very long waits.

A word of warning, Thais like to add fish sauce and oyster sauce to everything. Try checking with them that these are not added when you order. They may think it is vegan just because there isn’t obvious meat in the dish.

Overall the food was fine, but it isn’t what I would consider a place to go to for the food as a vegan.

However, if you want cheap good massages on the beach, it is the perfect spot! Also, make sure you check out the James Bond island tour! Stunning!

Chiang Mai

I loved Chiang Mai! From beautiful temples to fun street markets to lots of vegan options! It is because of Chiang Mai that I thought being vegan in Thailand would be easy.

Similar to Phuket, there were places with the basics, but now I was also able to find some actual vegan places as well! Yay!! I was so happy to not just have fried rice with veggies every meal! I found two great restaurants in particular Vegan Heaven and Chada Vegetarian Restaurant. Vegan Heaven has both Thai and western options. Their summer rolls were some of the best I have had! Chada Vegetarian Restaurant has more traditional Thai food, but had so many more options, which made me really happy.

I also got to explore the street food more and was able to find one vendor who was completely vegan and delicious — V Secret! There were a few others that were also great, but not completely vegan.

The best thing I found however was Coco Mango, which is a small chain that is sorta like street food as they are more booths that you can get desserts from rather than restaurants you can go into. But, they are 100% vegan and they make amazing mango sticky rice with vegan ice cream!! I got them every day I could.. sometimes even before my meal as they were more important!

My meal while out follow elephants around the jungle!

Chiang Mai - Bees Elephant Sanctuary

A few hours out of Chiang Mai I also spent a few days at a very ethical elephant sanctuary, who offered vegan food options! Their cook, Joy, made some of the best vegan Thai food I had! Look out for my full article on them later!

While I was there I was enlightened about how many Thai people enjoy fermented meat.. which can lead to them getting worms. Apparently, it is pretty common for Thai people to deworm every few years or so. That was enough to convince me to never eat meat there!

Conclusion

Thailand wasn’t as vegan friendly as I had imagined, but we won’t starve there. You just might get bored of fried rice in some areas. Overall, Thai food is more fried than I would like and I was a little worried about eating too much raw food. But it was overall very yummy and I managed to not get sick! I did take a charcoal pill supplement every night as a precaution. Honestly, I think my stomach was happier than normal, so I might keep taking charcoal after this trip!

Anyway, go to Thailand and enjoy the food, the people, and the amazing sights! Don’t be afraid of the street food, but also don’t just put anything in your mouth!

Last meal in Thailand! Vegan street food I took with me to the airport.

Photography by Kira Bucca.

Traveling Vegan - Thailand - Harder Than I Thought

Bangkok

Phuket

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai - Bees Elephant Sanctuary

Conclusion