If you would like to look at larger versions of the pictures, or see that at your own pace follow the links below:
Bangkok Pictures (Day 1)
http://picasaweb.google.com/aran.glancy/Bangkok?feat=directlink
Ayutthaya and Bang Pa-In Pictures (Day 2)
http://picasaweb.google.com/aran.glancy/AyutthayaAndBangPaInPalace?feat=directlink
Chiang Rai, Hill Tribes, Golden Triangle, Khantoke Dinner (Days 3-5)
http://picasaweb.google.com/aran.glancy/ChiangRai?feat=directlink
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Thailand Adventure
Well, after a grueling 22 hours from NYC we finally arrived in Bangkok Thailand. We successfully managed to get minimal sleep on the airplane, so we could get right into our new time zone. We arranged for our tour guide, Ham, to pick us up.....it took us more than 30 minutes to find him, as he was at a different gate then we planned, causing a brief panic attack of a "what did we get ourselves into"...but luckily was quickly erased as we headed to our hotel.
We are staying at the Park Plaza in Bangkok for our 3 nights, and so far the hotel is great. They treat us like we are a king and queen....must be minimal presence of blond hair and blue eyes in this country! Rooms are small, but comparable to our apt in NYC - so works great for us especially with the overall time we will spend in our room.
Day 1: 3/17/09 - Ham picked us up at 8:30 in the morning to set out for a day of adventure in the city. While we drove around the city, Ham was great giving us a history lesson of his country, and pointing out the "hot spots" as we drove by. We started our day with a walk in the flower market, an area that opens at 5:00am everyday for the locals and tourists alike to select flowers as gifts for the buddha's and their spirit houses (an ornate looking bird house in locals' backyards). Ham graciously bought me a ring of roses and jasmine - for our pretend spirit house back at the hotel. We then ventured out to the various "Wat's" around town (temples housing various Buddha's). Each temple is extremely ornate and full of colorful decorations. While the typical Westerner might find the decorations a bit gaudy, this is traditional Thai culture. We visited Wat Arun, Pho and the famous Emerald Buddha which is housed in the temple adjoining the Grand Palace. After leaving each site, a number of Thai locals attempted to sell their goods to us from post cards to umbrellas and hand bags - each time we simply said no thanks, and they moved on to the next tourist. It was great having Ham with us - as we do not know any Thai language except for our weak attempts at "hello" and "thank you", so he was able to help us maneuver around the city with no issues. We then had lunch overlooking the Chao Phraya River where we picked up a private long-tailed boat tour around the canals. Ham pointed out the way of life on the river, where the locals houses were barely standing on what we would consider to be 2X4 stilts versus any wooden support beams. We were then dropped of for our final stop of the day, a local tailor, which if you have done any research on Thailand or know anyone who has gone, tailored clothing is a must have based on the price. It didn't take long for us to become the next two American tourists to succumb to the likes of the salesman before we too were purchasing a suit!!
We took Ham's recommendation for dinner, Spice Market which is in the 4 Seasons hotel. However, we had our first encounter with a Taxi who dropped us off at All Season's Hotel not realizing where we really wanted to go. Another cab ride later we finally made it to dinner - only to be hit with a serious case of jet lag at the table. Exhausted we successfully caught an uneventful cab ride back to our hotel and called it a night.
Day 2: 3/18/09 - We started out our second day bright and early at 5:30 in order to get ready for our 2nd tour of the trip. Luckily since we are still on US time, we were up prior to our wake up call. We loaded the van with two other families and met up with our larger tour in a random parking lot to load a bus. We took off to our first stop, Bang Pa-In Palace, the King's summer palace. Bang Pa-In stands for "the place where the king met his wife" - so we've decided to keep up with the Thai's we need to come up with a new name for Manasquan!! On the way out our guide tried to give us a description of the sites we were passing by, but unfortunately we could only understand about every fifth word he said. We did learn however that "Thai" actually means "free" - so Thailand is the "Free land" and they refer to themselves as the "Thai people" very proud of the fact that of the Asian countries - they remain free of communism. When we reached the palace we unloaded the bus and walked by several stray, and very mangy dogs - a common site in Thailand. The Palace was beautiful and we have some great pictures (see sidebar). Unfortunately our visit was marred a little by rain.
Our next stop was Ayutthaya, the original capital of Thailand. During a war with the Burmese, the entire city and its temples were burned down. Today, all that is left is the framework of a once great city - and hundreds of headless Buddha. The Burmese, it seems, thought they could sell the Buddha heads on e-bay or something. At least that's what I think the guide said. We got to see yet another reclining Buddha. Not sure why the reclining ones are so special. During our visit of the ruins, we happened to see a Korean movie star doing a photo shoot on a couple of elephants. We took a picture and googled her, but the picture wasn't very good so she could have been any of a hundred Korean movie stars. Overall Ayutthaya is a great place to visit - we captured a ton of photos of the ruins, headless buddha and Aran "reclining" in front of the reclining Buddha!
As part of our tour, the afternoon was spent sailing down the Chao Phraya river back to Bangkok while including a Thai Buffet and some Singha beer. We chatted with a couple from Sweden who spent their savings on tailored clothing...the wife was a big shopper....Aran realized how lucky he was that we didn't spend our life savings on clothing!! The boat ride was a great way to see more of Thailand, temples from the water and the way of life for many folks in Thailand. Makes you feel very grateful for all that we have back home.
Before dinner, a driver from the tailor picked us up for our first fitting. Eager to see what we had gotten ourselves into - and if we received a good deal, or were another victim of Thai tourism. We had a 45 minute drive back to the tailor due to the traffic, that I would quote is worse then NYC - less any honking. That was a lot of time to second guess our purchases. Once we got there, however, they greeted us with coffee and beer (you can guess who had which) and brought out our clothes to try on. Thankfully, we were both extremely pleased, and we even considered buying some more, but we were able to resist. When we were finished, they were kind enough to drop us off at dinner.
For dinner, we went to Rosabieng (The Train Car), a well-known Thai restaurant on Suhkumvit, Soi 11. Overall food was great, beer was good, and they played live jazz music during dinner. We considered staying for another drink until the jazz turned into Billy Joel cover songs sung with a Thai accent, and we decided to try to catch a taxi home. What we didn't know was that even metered taxi's turn off the meter at night. We attempted to barter with 4 different taxi's for a good price...probably the only time in our lives where we will barter with someone over $1.50 - but it came down to principal as we knew what the price of the cab should be. The only reason we even wanted a cab was because of the rain. We decided not to give in to the cab drivers, and and we walked home. Of course, of all the nights, this was the night we were hit with a little of the "Bangkok Fox Trot" - their version of Montezuma's revenge. Needless to say we high tailed it back to our hotel. As we walked we passed wall-to-wall street vendors, which overall made 14th street market seem like nothing special at all. It turned out to be a short walk, so we felt a little vindicated for standing up to the cabbies.
That night, as usual, we fell asleep almost the second our heads hit the pillow, but at around 11:30 we got a call from the front desk. Our tailor was here for one last fitting. He came up to our room and made awkward small talk as we tried on the clothes. Luckily, they fit great, and he went on his way leaving us with our new, perfectly tailored suits. Then it was back to bed; another day done.
Day 3: 3/19/09 - Today we were leaving for Chiang Rai, so we didn't have much time left in Bangkok. After a breakfast at the hotel and packing we walked around the neighborhood. Thanks to Kristine's superb planning we were just a couple of blocks from a great shopping district. We walked up and down the streets checking out the goods. For the most part it was the same old crap, but we were surprised to see many t-shirts with Obama's face on it. They were all positive, and in fact most of the people we have met speak of how well liked he is. There were also a few leftovers from Bush too-mostly calling him a terrorist. Nice.
We stopped at a Starbucks and bought a Bangkok mug and Kristine took a picture to take back to work. We also bought a few small things and postcards. When we had had our fill we headed back to the hotel to catch a cab to the airport. The traffic made us a little nervous, but our driver got us there in plenty of time (by driving a 145 kmh on the shoulder...but that's a different story). Their ability to predict driving time, despite traffic is amazing. When we got in the cab driver said 40 minutes, then we proceeded 15 feet to the end of the driveway and sat, stopped for 10 minutes before we could merge onto the street. Sure enough, 40 minutes after we'd gotten in the car we arrived at our destination. The airport is like any other, except their flights run on time, so we had an uneventful trip to Chiang Rai.
At the airport we were greeted by two porters from our Hotel. We loaded up and headed to The Legend Chiang Rai, where we checked in and got settled. The hotel ("resort and spa" Kristine wants you to know) is beautiful (see pictures). We walked around a bit to explore the grounds and then took some time to sit by the pool and enjoy the beautiful sites and the great weather. After a relaxing respite we went back to the room to get ready for dinner. We got our first taste of the "shower room." Although the room is only slightly larger than a normal hotel room, the shower is about the size of our bedroom back in New York - complete with a decorative bowl about 3 feet high filled with water and rose petals, a rock garden with living plants, and a waterfall (seriously).
At 7:00 on the dot (everyone is incredibly punctual here), we met Jermsak. (Pronounced exactly as it's spelled - go ahead and giggle. We did.) Jermsak drove us to a Khantoke dinner in down-town Chiang Rai. Chiang Rai, it turns out, is a pretty small town, and this is the light season for tourists, so every head turned when we walked in. We sat down and Jermsak helped us order, and we settled in to watch the show. "Khantoke" refers to the small round bamboo table that the food in served on. The table are small and easy to clean, so the dinners tend to be celebration style with dancing and shouting and eating with your hands. The "eating with your hands" part was news to us - in fact, we completely misunderstood the purpose and were dressed in pretty nice clothing. The food was unique, and alright, but the highlight of the night was the dancing. Five girls dressed in various costumes danced in traditional Thai style to a live band of a drum, 4 instruments we'd never seen before, and a singer. In between songs, the singer would talk in Thai for several minutes at a time. Quite often the crowd would burst into laughter. We were pretty sure they were talking and laughing at us, because they would constantly look over to see our reaction. One gentleman, who was clearly Whitnefied, kept offering us toasts, which we graciously accepted so as not to offend. Just when we thought it was almost over, the dancers came into the crowd and ask for participants. We refused, but our friend - let's call him Kirk - would not have any of it. He pulled me (Aran) from my seat, and Kristine, despite her best attempts, was soon to follow. We joined a strange sort of congo line around the restaurant, which went around at least one too many times. After ward, we posed for pictures with all the important parties. After that, we paid our bill and made the speediest exit we could without being rude. Who knows, our dancing most likely had already offended everything Khantoke. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.
Day 4: 3/20/09 - Today Jermsak took us around to the many hill tribes of Thailand. We took off for about an hour drive north into the mountains, experiencing the Thai version of trucking (trucks carrying elephants instead of horses) along the way. It happens to be the King Cup on March 23rd which is a polo game using elephants - now that would be a site to see. Supposedly once elephants get going they are actually really fast. Jermsak actually grew up in a hill tribe, his family is from the Hmong tribe, decedents from China. It was clear that when we visited the tribes, Jermsak held many memories of growing up. We made our first stop to the Akhu tribe, decedents from Tibet. Jermsak informed us that we could take pictures of the tribe people as long as we bought a few of their hand-goods. We quickly were noticed, and all of the women and children brought out their handicrafts. Most of them were beautiful. The government has tried to help the tribe people with alternative sources of income, as most if not all used to be in the Opium trade, which is now outlawed in Thailand. It was difficult to choose who to buy from, so we were suckered in our first time to buying goods from three of the women at this tribe. Similar to the town-ships in South Africa, the children run around bare-foot using sticks and rocks as their toys. Some of the villages had electricity given to them from the government. They built irrigation systems from the river with purification systems for their drinking water. All over the village were hens and pigs which served as their food. We noticed several people with cell phones and homes with satellites, Jermsak noted that because they do not pay rent, or much money for food, they pay for luxuries like this - versus ever leaving the tribe for a better way of life.
We stopped at several more villages - all mostly the same. The main differences between the tribes are in costumes and their spiritual beliefs. For example, the Akhu tribe believes if a women gives birth to twins, that one must be an evil spirit - so they will kill both babies. The government has tried to step in, to remove the born babies from the tribe - and place them in an orphanage. Another tribe, Lao, believes that any "relationships" between a man and women cannot take place in their home, so they all have built secondary huts outside of their home "to take care of any business". Most of the tribes are very spiritual - building things such as fences, swings, etc to make sacrificial offerings to the spirits - such as the sky, earth, or jungle. Most of the costumes represent wealth and hard work. For example the Karen long neck tribes, believe that women with the most rings around their neck, represent the families wealth and hard work - and men will select from these women when marrying. The costumes are typically always for women.
Our next stop was to a small chinese market where we sat down for a tea tasting. The tea was amazing, and we learned how to drink it using what looked like a shot glass and another small glass. All of the shops sold dried fruit for less than $1.00 - so we purchased a few things. We went to a tea plantation - very similar to a vineyard. We tasted some more tea, and of course were suckered into buying some tea and a tea steamer - the proper way of making tea - this of course was our most expensive purchase on the entire trip.
We drove for another 45 minutes to the border of Thailand and Myanmar. Daily the crossing is open for people to cross for work or to visit the markets. Sadly a lot of the poor try to sneak into Thailand. The guards often let kids back and forth, so parents with strap their babies onto the backs of 3-4 year olds to carry across, so they have a clearer attempt in crossing the border (see pictures). We had lunch at a local restaurant for $5.00 total (included a large beer for Aran). Kristine couldn't eat more than her rice, as the chicken was basically all bone.
Next up was the Golden Triangle, the borders of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, and was the center of Opium Trade back in the day. Opium is now banned from all three countries, Thailand being the most strict. We stopped at an Opium museum to learn more.
To finish of the day, we made a quick stop at Chiang Saen, the "Ancient City." This was another temple/city that had been destroyed by the Burmese. We saw some more Buddha as well as some of the houses that monks live in and we saw a very large banya tree, the tree under which Buddha achieved elightenment. After a long day, we drove back to have our first Thai massage. We had our massage along the river (under netting of course for the mosquitos) at night. Little did we know the massages are more intense then a deep tissue massage back home, and includes quite a bit of stretching. The massage lasted 90 minutes (not sure we could take any more) and was by far the most intense massage we've ever had...did we mention it only was $30 for the entire 90 minutes!! They aren't afraid to get close to areas that caused a little awkwardness - needless to say Aran didn't fall asleep.
We had dinner at the hotel, a nice buffet dinner outside overlooking the river. Kristine was missing wine the entire trip - so was very excited to see they served wine...and South African as well. There was a one-man show for live music, playing folk rock blasts from the 60's and 70's. For some reason he focused in on us - and got excited if we clapped....we don't think anyone else was paying attention to him....or could understand him. The hotel had a bar area with swings down by the river, so we settled in for another drink before calling it a night.
Day 5: 3/21/09 - We met Jermsak again at 8:30 for our day of trekking. We met our boat-driver at the hotel for a 45 minute long-tailed boat cruise on the Mae Kok River. Local Thai's were in the river searching for stones and gems - as new construction is going up - this is a way of earning a living for many. In terms of wild life along the river - we saw water buffalo, cows, birds and dogs. We docked at the next stop which was for our 2 hour elephant trek in the jungle. The Karen tribe (short-neck) realized they could make a living using their elephants to give tourists treks throughout the jungle. They now have over 40 elephants and have made a decent way of life. Before we even made it to the elephants, Aran noticed 100's of photos of tourists with a snake - so of course, he had to join them. It took three men to pull the snake out of the cage, where they then placed him around Aran. This would become our 2nd most expensive purchase of the trip - $10.00 for a souvenir picture. Kristine wanted nothing to do with the snake and opted out of a photo. We then purchased some bananas for $1.00 to feed the elephants. One crazy baby elephant wouldn't stop dancing he was so excited (similar to Aran when he wants chocolate chip cookies) so Kristine made sure she took care of him first. The elephants would simply reach their trunk out and reach for the bananas very gently.
It was then our turn to venture out on our trek. We boarded our elephant - noticing for the first time how high we actually were. We thought we were going out for a 1 hour leisurely tour - only to find out much later that it was actually 2 hours and was the trek most tourists don't do based on the steep hills. The ride was extremely bumpy - (ill advised for any with back problems). It took Kristine the entire tour to feel comfortable holding on for dear life the entire time. Our elephant (Mr. Tik) was extremely well-behaved and obedient - listening to our guides directions (which of course were in Thai - so we had no idea what he was telling the elephant to do). We were amazed at the hills the elephant went up and down - praying we wouldn't fall off (unlike the US there were no seat belts). The jungle was amazing (see pictures) and the entire time we had to pinch ourselves - amazed we were in the middle of Thailand on the back of an elephant.
We ended our trip in the village where three women quickly ran out with banana's. Of course we wanted to spoil Mr. Tik for a wonderful SAFE ride so we bought 4 bunches. We only hope he realized how much we enjoyed our time.
After our ride we walked a mile to the next tribe where Jermsak told us we would be having lunch. We looked at one another knowing our mothers would die if they knew where we were eating - having no idea what we were about to eat, or where or with what they washed the dishes - but decided we would be good sports. Because there weren't many tourists - they only had steamed vegetables and fried rice with pork - which sounded basic to us - so we felt okay. The food ended up being one of the best meals we had - so we tried not to think about where we were eating it. The price of the lunch was even better......$4.00 for both meals, a beer and a Coke - amazing!!
We set out foot to the next stop getting some more exercise to a beautiful waterfall where Aran took a dip. When he got out, we noticed all of the water spiders - needless to say Kristine had no regrets about not going into the water.
Jermsak arranged for a cab to take us back to our hotel. It was literally a pick up truck with benches in the back and a cover overhead. It was a dusty ride home - but we made it back safely. Sadly we had to depart from Jermsak - who was an amazing tour guide. He presented a gift from his wife and him, a beautiful hand-made table cloth. We paid him is wages - $21.00/day plus a huge tip - as we couldn't believe the work he did for such a small price.
We finally let our jet lag hit us - deciding to shower, relax and read for awhile before planning to go into the city for the night bazaar. It was 4:00pm....little did we know we wouldn't wake up until 6:00am the next day.
We are staying at the Park Plaza in Bangkok for our 3 nights, and so far the hotel is great. They treat us like we are a king and queen....must be minimal presence of blond hair and blue eyes in this country! Rooms are small, but comparable to our apt in NYC - so works great for us especially with the overall time we will spend in our room.
Day 1: 3/17/09 - Ham picked us up at 8:30 in the morning to set out for a day of adventure in the city. While we drove around the city, Ham was great giving us a history lesson of his country, and pointing out the "hot spots" as we drove by. We started our day with a walk in the flower market, an area that opens at 5:00am everyday for the locals and tourists alike to select flowers as gifts for the buddha's and their spirit houses (an ornate looking bird house in locals' backyards). Ham graciously bought me a ring of roses and jasmine - for our pretend spirit house back at the hotel. We then ventured out to the various "Wat's" around town (temples housing various Buddha's). Each temple is extremely ornate and full of colorful decorations. While the typical Westerner might find the decorations a bit gaudy, this is traditional Thai culture. We visited Wat Arun, Pho and the famous Emerald Buddha which is housed in the temple adjoining the Grand Palace. After leaving each site, a number of Thai locals attempted to sell their goods to us from post cards to umbrellas and hand bags - each time we simply said no thanks, and they moved on to the next tourist. It was great having Ham with us - as we do not know any Thai language except for our weak attempts at "hello" and "thank you", so he was able to help us maneuver around the city with no issues. We then had lunch overlooking the Chao Phraya River where we picked up a private long-tailed boat tour around the canals. Ham pointed out the way of life on the river, where the locals houses were barely standing on what we would consider to be 2X4 stilts versus any wooden support beams. We were then dropped of for our final stop of the day, a local tailor, which if you have done any research on Thailand or know anyone who has gone, tailored clothing is a must have based on the price. It didn't take long for us to become the next two American tourists to succumb to the likes of the salesman before we too were purchasing a suit!!
We took Ham's recommendation for dinner, Spice Market which is in the 4 Seasons hotel. However, we had our first encounter with a Taxi who dropped us off at All Season's Hotel not realizing where we really wanted to go. Another cab ride later we finally made it to dinner - only to be hit with a serious case of jet lag at the table. Exhausted we successfully caught an uneventful cab ride back to our hotel and called it a night.
Day 2: 3/18/09 - We started out our second day bright and early at 5:30 in order to get ready for our 2nd tour of the trip. Luckily since we are still on US time, we were up prior to our wake up call. We loaded the van with two other families and met up with our larger tour in a random parking lot to load a bus. We took off to our first stop, Bang Pa-In Palace, the King's summer palace. Bang Pa-In stands for "the place where the king met his wife" - so we've decided to keep up with the Thai's we need to come up with a new name for Manasquan!! On the way out our guide tried to give us a description of the sites we were passing by, but unfortunately we could only understand about every fifth word he said. We did learn however that "Thai" actually means "free" - so Thailand is the "Free land" and they refer to themselves as the "Thai people" very proud of the fact that of the Asian countries - they remain free of communism. When we reached the palace we unloaded the bus and walked by several stray, and very mangy dogs - a common site in Thailand. The Palace was beautiful and we have some great pictures (see sidebar). Unfortunately our visit was marred a little by rain.
Our next stop was Ayutthaya, the original capital of Thailand. During a war with the Burmese, the entire city and its temples were burned down. Today, all that is left is the framework of a once great city - and hundreds of headless Buddha. The Burmese, it seems, thought they could sell the Buddha heads on e-bay or something. At least that's what I think the guide said. We got to see yet another reclining Buddha. Not sure why the reclining ones are so special. During our visit of the ruins, we happened to see a Korean movie star doing a photo shoot on a couple of elephants. We took a picture and googled her, but the picture wasn't very good so she could have been any of a hundred Korean movie stars. Overall Ayutthaya is a great place to visit - we captured a ton of photos of the ruins, headless buddha and Aran "reclining" in front of the reclining Buddha!
As part of our tour, the afternoon was spent sailing down the Chao Phraya river back to Bangkok while including a Thai Buffet and some Singha beer. We chatted with a couple from Sweden who spent their savings on tailored clothing...the wife was a big shopper....Aran realized how lucky he was that we didn't spend our life savings on clothing!! The boat ride was a great way to see more of Thailand, temples from the water and the way of life for many folks in Thailand. Makes you feel very grateful for all that we have back home.
Before dinner, a driver from the tailor picked us up for our first fitting. Eager to see what we had gotten ourselves into - and if we received a good deal, or were another victim of Thai tourism. We had a 45 minute drive back to the tailor due to the traffic, that I would quote is worse then NYC - less any honking. That was a lot of time to second guess our purchases. Once we got there, however, they greeted us with coffee and beer (you can guess who had which) and brought out our clothes to try on. Thankfully, we were both extremely pleased, and we even considered buying some more, but we were able to resist. When we were finished, they were kind enough to drop us off at dinner.
For dinner, we went to Rosabieng (The Train Car), a well-known Thai restaurant on Suhkumvit, Soi 11. Overall food was great, beer was good, and they played live jazz music during dinner. We considered staying for another drink until the jazz turned into Billy Joel cover songs sung with a Thai accent, and we decided to try to catch a taxi home. What we didn't know was that even metered taxi's turn off the meter at night. We attempted to barter with 4 different taxi's for a good price...probably the only time in our lives where we will barter with someone over $1.50 - but it came down to principal as we knew what the price of the cab should be. The only reason we even wanted a cab was because of the rain. We decided not to give in to the cab drivers, and and we walked home. Of course, of all the nights, this was the night we were hit with a little of the "Bangkok Fox Trot" - their version of Montezuma's revenge. Needless to say we high tailed it back to our hotel. As we walked we passed wall-to-wall street vendors, which overall made 14th street market seem like nothing special at all. It turned out to be a short walk, so we felt a little vindicated for standing up to the cabbies.
That night, as usual, we fell asleep almost the second our heads hit the pillow, but at around 11:30 we got a call from the front desk. Our tailor was here for one last fitting. He came up to our room and made awkward small talk as we tried on the clothes. Luckily, they fit great, and he went on his way leaving us with our new, perfectly tailored suits. Then it was back to bed; another day done.
Day 3: 3/19/09 - Today we were leaving for Chiang Rai, so we didn't have much time left in Bangkok. After a breakfast at the hotel and packing we walked around the neighborhood. Thanks to Kristine's superb planning we were just a couple of blocks from a great shopping district. We walked up and down the streets checking out the goods. For the most part it was the same old crap, but we were surprised to see many t-shirts with Obama's face on it. They were all positive, and in fact most of the people we have met speak of how well liked he is. There were also a few leftovers from Bush too-mostly calling him a terrorist. Nice.
We stopped at a Starbucks and bought a Bangkok mug and Kristine took a picture to take back to work. We also bought a few small things and postcards. When we had had our fill we headed back to the hotel to catch a cab to the airport. The traffic made us a little nervous, but our driver got us there in plenty of time (by driving a 145 kmh on the shoulder...but that's a different story). Their ability to predict driving time, despite traffic is amazing. When we got in the cab driver said 40 minutes, then we proceeded 15 feet to the end of the driveway and sat, stopped for 10 minutes before we could merge onto the street. Sure enough, 40 minutes after we'd gotten in the car we arrived at our destination. The airport is like any other, except their flights run on time, so we had an uneventful trip to Chiang Rai.
At the airport we were greeted by two porters from our Hotel. We loaded up and headed to The Legend Chiang Rai, where we checked in and got settled. The hotel ("resort and spa" Kristine wants you to know) is beautiful (see pictures). We walked around a bit to explore the grounds and then took some time to sit by the pool and enjoy the beautiful sites and the great weather. After a relaxing respite we went back to the room to get ready for dinner. We got our first taste of the "shower room." Although the room is only slightly larger than a normal hotel room, the shower is about the size of our bedroom back in New York - complete with a decorative bowl about 3 feet high filled with water and rose petals, a rock garden with living plants, and a waterfall (seriously).
At 7:00 on the dot (everyone is incredibly punctual here), we met Jermsak. (Pronounced exactly as it's spelled - go ahead and giggle. We did.) Jermsak drove us to a Khantoke dinner in down-town Chiang Rai. Chiang Rai, it turns out, is a pretty small town, and this is the light season for tourists, so every head turned when we walked in. We sat down and Jermsak helped us order, and we settled in to watch the show. "Khantoke" refers to the small round bamboo table that the food in served on. The table are small and easy to clean, so the dinners tend to be celebration style with dancing and shouting and eating with your hands. The "eating with your hands" part was news to us - in fact, we completely misunderstood the purpose and were dressed in pretty nice clothing. The food was unique, and alright, but the highlight of the night was the dancing. Five girls dressed in various costumes danced in traditional Thai style to a live band of a drum, 4 instruments we'd never seen before, and a singer. In between songs, the singer would talk in Thai for several minutes at a time. Quite often the crowd would burst into laughter. We were pretty sure they were talking and laughing at us, because they would constantly look over to see our reaction. One gentleman, who was clearly Whitnefied, kept offering us toasts, which we graciously accepted so as not to offend. Just when we thought it was almost over, the dancers came into the crowd and ask for participants. We refused, but our friend - let's call him Kirk - would not have any of it. He pulled me (Aran) from my seat, and Kristine, despite her best attempts, was soon to follow. We joined a strange sort of congo line around the restaurant, which went around at least one too many times. After ward, we posed for pictures with all the important parties. After that, we paid our bill and made the speediest exit we could without being rude. Who knows, our dancing most likely had already offended everything Khantoke. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.
Day 4: 3/20/09 - Today Jermsak took us around to the many hill tribes of Thailand. We took off for about an hour drive north into the mountains, experiencing the Thai version of trucking (trucks carrying elephants instead of horses) along the way. It happens to be the King Cup on March 23rd which is a polo game using elephants - now that would be a site to see. Supposedly once elephants get going they are actually really fast. Jermsak actually grew up in a hill tribe, his family is from the Hmong tribe, decedents from China. It was clear that when we visited the tribes, Jermsak held many memories of growing up. We made our first stop to the Akhu tribe, decedents from Tibet. Jermsak informed us that we could take pictures of the tribe people as long as we bought a few of their hand-goods. We quickly were noticed, and all of the women and children brought out their handicrafts. Most of them were beautiful. The government has tried to help the tribe people with alternative sources of income, as most if not all used to be in the Opium trade, which is now outlawed in Thailand. It was difficult to choose who to buy from, so we were suckered in our first time to buying goods from three of the women at this tribe. Similar to the town-ships in South Africa, the children run around bare-foot using sticks and rocks as their toys. Some of the villages had electricity given to them from the government. They built irrigation systems from the river with purification systems for their drinking water. All over the village were hens and pigs which served as their food. We noticed several people with cell phones and homes with satellites, Jermsak noted that because they do not pay rent, or much money for food, they pay for luxuries like this - versus ever leaving the tribe for a better way of life.
We stopped at several more villages - all mostly the same. The main differences between the tribes are in costumes and their spiritual beliefs. For example, the Akhu tribe believes if a women gives birth to twins, that one must be an evil spirit - so they will kill both babies. The government has tried to step in, to remove the born babies from the tribe - and place them in an orphanage. Another tribe, Lao, believes that any "relationships" between a man and women cannot take place in their home, so they all have built secondary huts outside of their home "to take care of any business". Most of the tribes are very spiritual - building things such as fences, swings, etc to make sacrificial offerings to the spirits - such as the sky, earth, or jungle. Most of the costumes represent wealth and hard work. For example the Karen long neck tribes, believe that women with the most rings around their neck, represent the families wealth and hard work - and men will select from these women when marrying. The costumes are typically always for women.
Our next stop was to a small chinese market where we sat down for a tea tasting. The tea was amazing, and we learned how to drink it using what looked like a shot glass and another small glass. All of the shops sold dried fruit for less than $1.00 - so we purchased a few things. We went to a tea plantation - very similar to a vineyard. We tasted some more tea, and of course were suckered into buying some tea and a tea steamer - the proper way of making tea - this of course was our most expensive purchase on the entire trip.
We drove for another 45 minutes to the border of Thailand and Myanmar. Daily the crossing is open for people to cross for work or to visit the markets. Sadly a lot of the poor try to sneak into Thailand. The guards often let kids back and forth, so parents with strap their babies onto the backs of 3-4 year olds to carry across, so they have a clearer attempt in crossing the border (see pictures). We had lunch at a local restaurant for $5.00 total (included a large beer for Aran). Kristine couldn't eat more than her rice, as the chicken was basically all bone.
Next up was the Golden Triangle, the borders of Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, and was the center of Opium Trade back in the day. Opium is now banned from all three countries, Thailand being the most strict. We stopped at an Opium museum to learn more.
To finish of the day, we made a quick stop at Chiang Saen, the "Ancient City." This was another temple/city that had been destroyed by the Burmese. We saw some more Buddha as well as some of the houses that monks live in and we saw a very large banya tree, the tree under which Buddha achieved elightenment. After a long day, we drove back to have our first Thai massage. We had our massage along the river (under netting of course for the mosquitos) at night. Little did we know the massages are more intense then a deep tissue massage back home, and includes quite a bit of stretching. The massage lasted 90 minutes (not sure we could take any more) and was by far the most intense massage we've ever had...did we mention it only was $30 for the entire 90 minutes!! They aren't afraid to get close to areas that caused a little awkwardness - needless to say Aran didn't fall asleep.
We had dinner at the hotel, a nice buffet dinner outside overlooking the river. Kristine was missing wine the entire trip - so was very excited to see they served wine...and South African as well. There was a one-man show for live music, playing folk rock blasts from the 60's and 70's. For some reason he focused in on us - and got excited if we clapped....we don't think anyone else was paying attention to him....or could understand him. The hotel had a bar area with swings down by the river, so we settled in for another drink before calling it a night.
Day 5: 3/21/09 - We met Jermsak again at 8:30 for our day of trekking. We met our boat-driver at the hotel for a 45 minute long-tailed boat cruise on the Mae Kok River. Local Thai's were in the river searching for stones and gems - as new construction is going up - this is a way of earning a living for many. In terms of wild life along the river - we saw water buffalo, cows, birds and dogs. We docked at the next stop which was for our 2 hour elephant trek in the jungle. The Karen tribe (short-neck) realized they could make a living using their elephants to give tourists treks throughout the jungle. They now have over 40 elephants and have made a decent way of life. Before we even made it to the elephants, Aran noticed 100's of photos of tourists with a snake - so of course, he had to join them. It took three men to pull the snake out of the cage, where they then placed him around Aran. This would become our 2nd most expensive purchase of the trip - $10.00 for a souvenir picture. Kristine wanted nothing to do with the snake and opted out of a photo. We then purchased some bananas for $1.00 to feed the elephants. One crazy baby elephant wouldn't stop dancing he was so excited (similar to Aran when he wants chocolate chip cookies) so Kristine made sure she took care of him first. The elephants would simply reach their trunk out and reach for the bananas very gently.
It was then our turn to venture out on our trek. We boarded our elephant - noticing for the first time how high we actually were. We thought we were going out for a 1 hour leisurely tour - only to find out much later that it was actually 2 hours and was the trek most tourists don't do based on the steep hills. The ride was extremely bumpy - (ill advised for any with back problems). It took Kristine the entire tour to feel comfortable holding on for dear life the entire time. Our elephant (Mr. Tik) was extremely well-behaved and obedient - listening to our guides directions (which of course were in Thai - so we had no idea what he was telling the elephant to do). We were amazed at the hills the elephant went up and down - praying we wouldn't fall off (unlike the US there were no seat belts). The jungle was amazing (see pictures) and the entire time we had to pinch ourselves - amazed we were in the middle of Thailand on the back of an elephant.
We ended our trip in the village where three women quickly ran out with banana's. Of course we wanted to spoil Mr. Tik for a wonderful SAFE ride so we bought 4 bunches. We only hope he realized how much we enjoyed our time.
After our ride we walked a mile to the next tribe where Jermsak told us we would be having lunch. We looked at one another knowing our mothers would die if they knew where we were eating - having no idea what we were about to eat, or where or with what they washed the dishes - but decided we would be good sports. Because there weren't many tourists - they only had steamed vegetables and fried rice with pork - which sounded basic to us - so we felt okay. The food ended up being one of the best meals we had - so we tried not to think about where we were eating it. The price of the lunch was even better......$4.00 for both meals, a beer and a Coke - amazing!!
We set out foot to the next stop getting some more exercise to a beautiful waterfall where Aran took a dip. When he got out, we noticed all of the water spiders - needless to say Kristine had no regrets about not going into the water.
Jermsak arranged for a cab to take us back to our hotel. It was literally a pick up truck with benches in the back and a cover overhead. It was a dusty ride home - but we made it back safely. Sadly we had to depart from Jermsak - who was an amazing tour guide. He presented a gift from his wife and him, a beautiful hand-made table cloth. We paid him is wages - $21.00/day plus a huge tip - as we couldn't believe the work he did for such a small price.
We finally let our jet lag hit us - deciding to shower, relax and read for awhile before planning to go into the city for the night bazaar. It was 4:00pm....little did we know we wouldn't wake up until 6:00am the next day.
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