We made it to Thailand! Our first introduction of this new country was a stroll through Chiang Mai’s Night Bazaar. It was super convenient as it sat across the street from our hotel. We enjoyed wandering up and down the streets and through the stalls, checking out the variety of items for sale.
We spent our second day in Thailand playing with elephants! We continue to have impeccable timing as this was another group tour that turned into a private tour, because we were the only booking. We also dodged the rain (again) and had a beautiful day foraging in the forest.
We found a program that’s ran by the Karen Hill Tribe and is deemed ethical, which was an important factor for us when choosing an elephant experience. The elephants we met were adorable and so friendly!
Not elephants, but a herd of water buffalo crossing the street. Can you find the one with upside down horns?
After transferring from the cushy van to a more rustic truck with four wheel drive, we bounced our way along the dirt road to the little village. Our guide shared the history of the land, his home, and the elephants. He told us how his grandparents originally used the elephants to aid with labor, but now the elephants are living freely and able to roam as they wish. Each elephant has their own keeper who feeds them, monitors their health, and stays with them throughout the day and night. We met 6 of the 7 elephants as the oldest male was in musth, which can cause aggressive behaviors, so he was out on his own. The elephants ranged from 4 to 26 years old and boy, was the 4 year old cute! Especially his spiny hair that was sticking straight up!
We started by feeding the elephants, which is something they clearly enjoyed. Our favorite was giving them sunflower seeds which we would either toss directly into their mouths or watch as they used their trunks to suck them out of our hands and shoot them into their mouth. Those trunks are amazing!
Next, we headed to the watering hole. It’s the start of the rainy season and we could definitely tell as the paths were quite muddy. Thankfully our guide gave us some rubber boots at the beginning of the day!
The elephants lead the way and immediately laid down in the water. We were handed two brushes and followed the trainers lead by splashing and scrubbing the dirt off of each elephant. Our favorite part was watching the elephant’s trunk pop out of the water and move around like a snorkel. We also loved watching the youngest elephant move about trying to get the most scratches. It was a little daunting at times when the elephants shifted or moved around us because of their size, but they truly are gentle giants.
Once their bath was over, we all climbed out of the river and dried off. The elephants reapplied their “sunscreen” (aka dirt and mud) and we watched with amusement.
Our experience ended with a home cooked meal that came wrapped in large leaves and was absolutely delicious! Everything was tasty, but the fresh dried bananas were my favorite!
We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Chiang Mai and cooling off in our hotel pool. We explored the night market again, this time sampling the chicken skewers and one of my new favorite desserts, mango sticky rice with a coconut cream drizzle. It was sooo good! It’s another thing I’ll have to try making at home.
We started Day 3 with a fancy breakfast at the hotel before setting off to explore Chiang Mai’s Old City. The Old City sits surrounded by a square canal and everywhere we looked there were temples and statues.
We stopped by Wat Chedi Luang Temple followed by Wat Phra Singh. Wat Phra Singh is our favorite temple so far due to its elaborate structures. It was fascinating seeing the monks sitting stone still in front of the gem covered statues. Additionally, the golden Chedi featuring four big elephants was impressive!
As the mid-day heat approached, we took a break to sample our first Thai coffee. We found a cute little open air shop which unfortunately provided little reprieve from the heat. We were planning to wander to a third temple, but opted instead to cool down in, you guessed it, an AC filled shopping mall. This worked in our favor as we were finally able to sample a piece of the infamous durian fruit. Some say it has a sweet, caramel or vanilla flavor, others say it tastes how it smells. We have to agree with the latter and only managed a couple bites… but the texture was intriguing as it was fairly creamy, not your typical fruit texture. We’re glad we tried it, but we don’t need to again! We’re also glad the lady gave us gloves so the smell didn’t stick with us!
We stopped at the hotel lounge for an appetizer and then set off to the night Bizarre for one last sampling of Chiang Mai’s street food. On the way, we took a quick detour and tuk tuk ride to the Old City’s main gate which we missed earlier in the day. Back at the market, we dined on pineapple fried rice and another bowl of mango sticky rice. It was just as good as the first bowl! I have a feeling we’ll make our way back to Chiang Mai in the future. We enjoyed our time here and have a few more sights to see, but for now it’s time to pack up and head to Koh Samui for some R&R on the beach!
Well you win some and you lose some. We thought for sure we had a win with our island retreat. We were given a free villa upgrade which included a private pool and lounge deck. We spent the evening relaxing by the pool, enjoying a delicious, albeit spicy, dinner with a view and finished the day mesmerized by the fire show.
However at 10:15pm, right after I had fallen asleep, everything changed… Jeff felt something hit is face, turned on the light and in our bed (and on us) were at least 15 ant-like bugs with wings (after some research we think they were termites)… we hopped out of bed and found that the room was infested with these bugs… they were everywhere! Hundreds on the floor, on the bug net around the bed, more on the couch, and some even in the bathroom sinks… as our room was clean and bug-less when we climbed into bed we figure we had the unlucky timing of a hatching spree… it was quite unsettling.
We immediately called the front desk and began packing our stuff. There was no way we were going to stay in this room. After a little run around, we finally got to our new room. It was a clear peace offering as they moved us to the penthouse. The suite was gorgeous and the views in the morning were even better, and the best part was, there were no bugs! Thankfully, there was a balcony so we shook out all of our clothes, killing the remaining intruders, and finally got to sleep (again) around 1am… and to think we were just talking about the bugs we might encounter on the safari in South Africa… surely nothing else can be as bad as this!
(This is just a sample, we’ll spare you the rest of the pictures and videos)
We took to the water today! Our snorkel cruise set off bright and early… too early after the night we had… but we were excited to spend the day on the water. If I could live near tropical waters with snorkeling and good ol rocky mountains for climbing I’d be in heaven. This snorkel experience was even better than most because the water was so warm and inviting. It felt like a giant bathtub. Our favorite fish of the day were the spotted ones that looked like a giraffe, the mini fluorescent blue ones, and the multicolored parrot fish. We even managed to see a sea turtle on the second stop! They’re so cute! We were impressed with the amount and variety of fish we saw and with the intensity of the colored coral.
We spent another evening relaxing by the pool before ordering dinner in from a local restaurant and enjoying our fancy room.
We explored the island on Saturday, popping in and out of the local shops. We experienced our first Thai massage and were grateful it wasn’t as painful as we heard it could be, although we did get stretched into a few pretzel positions that were intense. However, I actually think I prefer the Thai massage over a traditional one. Jeff thinks I’m crazy, but I’m a fan of a good stretch and deep tissue massage. Jeff on the other hand said he’ll stick with the traditional gentler approach.
When we arrived back at the hotel they were hosting a beachside mix your own cocktail experience. It was similar to Fiji, but this time we both got our own drinks, well two drinks thanks to the bar tenders insistence. We took one for the road and strolled along the beach as the sun began to set.
Our last day in paradise was a designated rest day and a glorious rest day at that. We started the day by taking in the views from our patio, followed by a delicious breakfast, and lounge by the pool until it was time to go. Our island R&R did what we wanted, and one month in and we’re still feeling excited about our travels!
As we’ve been traveling, it’s been fun exploring all of the different airports, and Koh Samui’s quaint open-air airport definitely wins the award for “most unique” so far. After leaving security, we walked out to a pedestrian street lined with numerous little shops. The street lead us to our gate which was essentially a wall-less hut with a thatched roof where we could watch the planes take off and land right in front of us. There weren’t many, but the few we saw made for an enjoyable show!
We made it back to the big city and the last stop on our Thailand tour, hello Bangkok! After settling into our new digs, we set off in search of a night market. We were unsuccessful in our attempt as the one we found was a little too promiscuous for our taste. We decided to head back to the hotel and try again tomorrow.
We started our second day in Bangkok with a stroll around Chinatown and Sampeng Lang Market. This market was similar to the ones we visited in Vietnam with small stalls and shops selling all kinds of fabrics, crafts supplies, clothing, home appliances, and trinkets.
Next up was our Thai cooking class! After sampling all of the cuisine we were excited to learn how to cook it. We’ve also discovered that the food here is crazy spicy and we were curious to learn about these spicy spices. Even when ordering “mild” or “a little spice” we’ve been left with tingly lips and tongues, and once Jeff (aka Mr. Spicy) was left speechless after a crazy spicy bite.
We picked this class because we were able to choose a variety of dishes to cook, which meant more samples! I opted for yellow curry, tom kha gai, pad thai, and spicy basil chicken. Jeff chose massaman curry, tom yum goong, pad see ew, and cashew chicken, plus mango sticky rice for dessert.
We started the class by touring a local food market where our guide showed us the different foods and spices we would be using in our meals. Back at the kitchen, we got to work prepping and cooking our delicious meals. The best part was sampling all of our creations, they were so flavorful! My two favorites were the Tom Kha Gai (a coconut soup) and yellow curry while Jeff’s favorite was his cashew chicken.
Following the cooking class, we headed back to the streets wandering through more markets and shopping malls (we even found a small IKEA to walk through). It’s fun to see the differences between these familiar shops.
Bad news, we picked up a slight cold and have been feeling a little under the weather and it showed today. We were definitely off our game as we set out to view the temples and Grand Palace. We didn’t have the right cash for the visits and we forgot to grab our leg coverings and socks to cover our feet… we realized all of this once we were at the Grand Palace… oops! We decided to scrap the temples for today and instead hopped on a longtail boat to see the city from the water and revise our plans for the day.
We found a couple of new markets to explore (they are all over), one being the nicest yet, but at 4pm it was just starting to open, so we hopped on a free shuttle boat and took one more tour of the river before wandering through the upscale market.
For dinner we found a restaurant with a sunset view and enjoyed one final delicious Thai dinner with an order of mango sticky rice of course!
Luckily we had a late flight to Delhi, so we spent our last morning in Thailand exploring Wat Pho and the Grand Palace (aka Temple of the Emerald Buddha) that we missed yesterday. The highlights were the massive 150 foot long reclining gold Buddha, and the tiny 31 inch emerald Buddha at the palace. Both sights were impressive with their grand estates and pristine art and decorations.
The saying’s true that time flies when you’re having fun! It’s hard to believe it’s already time to leave Thailand, that our time in Asia is coming to an end, and that we’ve been traveling for over a month! At the same time, when we think of everything we’ve seen and done we can believe it. We’re loving our taste of retirement and are excited to see what India has in store, besides absurdly hot temperatures.
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