36 hours in Bangkok

Bangkok was first introduced to us by tuk-tuk with an AM tour around the major tourist sites. We visited the the Golden Mount, Indian and Thai food market, flower markets and the famous reclining Buddha at Wat pho. It was so very humid, but besides dealing with the incessant crowds, it was enjoyable.

                   The golden mount 

               Food market in Bangkok 

       The reclining Buddha at Wat pho 

That night, after a delicious dinner at the famed "chomp" around the corner from our hotel we joined a night bike tour of Bangkok. I had read about this tour on a travel blogger's site; alexinwanderland.com and saw the rave reviews on tripadvisor. Both sources were right! It was the best part of Bangkok for both Adam and I. We took a ride through the nearly empty streets, on ferry across the river, in back alleys and near waterside shacks on stilts. We were allowed entrance into the closed wats, giving us access to usually packed temples which were beautiful all lit up in the night. 

                        Wat arun 

24 hour flower market on night bike tour 

                      Wat pho at night 

             Adam's late night snack 

Yes, he ate a scorpion and a couple of crickets with soy sauce for a snack after our bike ride. I made him eat them outside of our hotel room. 

 

Burning through baht

Our final day in Chiang Mai was filled with a visit to Doi Suthep, a mountain with a very famous wat believed to contain a bone from buddha's body carried there by a white elephant. This is the place this white elephant chose to die. We climbed the 300+steps and took in the view. 

Saw a lot of Buddhas for sale and watched some Thai musicians perform.

We then wandered through the city until our evening flight to Bangkok. We arrived at the capital city by 8pm, walked to the other side of the enormous airport to board an express sky train which dropped us at an airtrain station in the middle of Bangkok. Our taxi driver refused to take us to our hotel because he couldn't figure out where it was (or he couldn't read Latin letters since the address was written in English). I encouraged (forced) him to confer with the taxi organizing policeman (maybe he was a regular man, but he was dressed in uniform). After much Thai discussion he agreed, although halfway there using Adam's GPS, we realized he had no idea where to take us. We directed him ourselves and got to our hotel just past 10:30pm. We were pretty exhausted, so the small confines of our room and lack of hot water in our shower didn't bother us, yet. The next morning, the hotel staff came into our room to "fix" the hot water and started laughing at us realizing that we had been turning the faucet to the red when obviously, you must turn it towards the blue to get hot water. Of course. Now, as we have been heading south it has been becoming warmer and more humid, so after sweating from every pore all day, who really needs a hot shower anyway? 

All of our luggage and our legs on the sky train to downtown Bangkok 

Elephant Nature Park in northern Thailand

One of the most memorable experiences of this trip was our day at the Elephant Nature park located one hour north of Chiang Mai. I had read rave reviews about this elephant experience and wanting the most humane way to see elephants we chose this highly touted center. The owner, Lek, a Thai woman, is now famous for her efforts to save elephants from exploitation and hardship by bringing them to her jungle sanctuary. Here, they don't have to carry people on their backs in howdahs or perform for audiences, they only have to walk around, eat melons and bananas from our hands, allow us to bathe them in the river and pose next with them for pictures. The option to ride on a elephant's back is very popular among tourists in Laos and Thailand and many people that we met had done just that, but it is actually dangerous and painful for an elephant to carry anything on that part of their back. There is a correct way to sit atop an elephant by placing yourself at their neck, this is how mahouts sit without harming the elephant. (A mahout is an elephant's protector, trainer, leader and trusty companion.) We learned a whole lot about elephant life, how they mate, their friendships with each other and how sweet baby elephants can be! 

Enjoy the pictures below and check out Lek's impressive work on her website www.elephantnaturepark.org. 

          Mahouts and their elephants 

Baby elephant (6 months old) eating fruit 

                    Beautiful animals 

Chiang Mai, northern Thailand delight

After leaving Laos, we came to the artistic, quirky 2nd largest city in Thailand, Chiang Mai. We arrived October 23rd and took to the streets after the daily rain shower. We had some pad thai, visited a couple of wats and walked to the famed night market bazaar. After walking amongst what felt like thousands of food stalls, kitschy touristy wares, Mac cosmetic booths and pedicure stations with people submerging their feet in tanks of water with dead skin-eating fish, we had had our fill and headed back to our "stylish" guesthouse. The name of our guesthouse was "yindee stylish house". There wasn't much styling going on there, but at least their hot water heater worked, so they can call themselves whatever they want. 

The next morning, we awoke to stormy skies (which definitely cut back on the heat) and headed to the edge of the walled city of Chiang Mai for a Thai yoga massage for two! This was an incredible experience, our masseuses were excellent and that $9 (250 baht) was the best money spent for an hour massage. In a Thai yoga loosened haze, we then stumbled upon a terra cotta garden with authentic pieces of exquisite art strewn about a walled, moss covered courtyard. We were the only ones there, except for a few restorers, and gorged ourselves on taking pictures with our cameras (this place was so impressive- we revisited it again 2 days later!) 

          Wat chedi luang, Chiang Mai 

       Making a wish on a prayer banner 

                 Thai yoga massage 

                  Delicious pad thai 

                   Terra cotta garden 

Kuang si waterfalls

Forgive my tardiness in writing. The guesthouse we are staying at in Chiang Mai, Thailand has a computer but it sits in a mosquito infested porch which despite copious bug repellant I remain eaten alive. Therefore, I am writing this from my phone in our bed. So, let me tell you about our last two days in Luang Prabang. The second to last day we decided to visit the famed waterfalls of kuang si. We met up with another traveller and took a tuk tuk through the untouched Laotian countryside to the waterfall site. After paying 20,000 kip (approx $3) we entered the jungle. First we came upon a bear sanctuary where a least 15 asiatic bears had been rescued and now live a life of hammocks and tire swings (not quite their habitat, but better than the alternative). 

From there, we journeyed on to the waterfall, enjoying the relative peace and quiet (we were there quite early, we had heard by 11am bus loads of tourists mob the place). We swam, photographed and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly! 

           I'm climbing towards the rope 

Later that day, we garnered ourselves some bicycles and made our way to a silk and paper craft village (ban xieng lec). After witnessing the women on their looms and purchasing some silk we headed back. Since it's still considered the rainy season, the temporary bamboo bridges had not been installed over the river, so we had to take the motorbike bridge back across. Now mind you, we are on bicycles and there is only 1 lane in each direction. It was thrilling, to say the least and as we were nearing the end of the bridge we saw a western man squatting holding a video camera filming the action on the bridge. A witness to the chaos of that bridge. 

This is a view from the other side of the khan river before we crossed back over the bridge. 

The final day, we woke and did a second round observing the monks receiving their early morning alms. 

With heavy hearts we left Luang Prabang and headed for northern Thailand, Chiang Mai. Stay tuned. 

Some final pictures of the beloved Luang Prabang: 

             A street market delicacy 

                          Tuk-tuk 

                            Crabs 

Wats, Buddhist temples in Laos

Our next day in Laung Prabang was filled with temple visits and street market shopping. We visited the National Museum, World Heritage area, the famous Wat Xieng Tong Buddhist temple and climbed Phu Si mountain to catch the sunset. We ended our day walking through the night markets with it's hundred of stalls lining the closed streets and eating at a wonderful Laotian restaurant called Tamarind.

Sitting in front of Wat Xieng Tong, my shoulders are covered per request for respect in the Wat

Climbing Mt. Phu Si we came across this sleeping (dead) buddha. He is dead because he feet are lined up parallel to each other.

Night market, in reality, this image goes on and on for blocks

Luang Prabang, northern Laos

We arrived in the former capital of Laos two nights ago and was happy for the change of scene from the bustling city of Hanoi. At the airport an improvised tuk tuk picked us up and drove us through what looked like a lantern festival. I had read that in October, there is a Buddhist holiday celebrating the end of the rains although I had no idea it would be the day we arrived! What we had luckily stumbled upon was the last day of Boun Ok Phansa; the festival of the boats of light.

After checking into our guesthouse, the quaint Manichan, we ventured to the Mekong to witness lit paper lanterns floating in the sky above the river and bamboo and banana leaf boats with candles drifting along the water. Adam and I purchased a lantern and set it alight, it was a magnificent experience.

Hungry, we sat at a riverside restaurant and ate fresh fish from the Mekong with the traditional sticky rice famous in this country.