Thailand: Chiang Mai

So, I am here to tell you about our fantastic week in Chiang Mai. BUT FIRST, I just wanted to tell you that we have now been at our volunteer placement - in Chiang Rai - for 3 days and we are having a GREAT time! I cant wait to tell you allll about it! ...But that will have to wait til our next blog! :)
Chiang Mai was great. If Simon and I hadn't already been accepted to grad school in England, I would totally love to move there. It is a perfect mix - a city full of Thai history with a modern and trendy feel that easily rivals its southern counterpart, Bangkok. With all the wonderful things we heard about the city, Si and I set aside over a week to spend time and explore.

My friend Hilary (from Ithaca, NY) is teaching English in Chiang Mai. It was great seeing a familiar face and we had a blast sharing tons of good food, exploring markets, great conversation, and partying at a local club with her.

We had a pretty packed schedule - many great activities are offered in and around the city. First, we took our second cooking class of the trip. We signed up with the Thai Garden Cooking School because it gave us the opportunity to go outside the city, explore their gardens, be introduced to the fresh herbs and vegetables grown there, and cook SIX thai dishes. We had 3 options in each sub-section (eg. curry paste, noodle dish, dessert) so Si and I were smart enough to choose different dishes for each which allowed us to learn a combined TWELVE dishes in all! Everything was fun, especially mincing our spices with a mortar and pestle (except for when a piece of chili flew into my eye!), and learning to roll and fry tasty spring rolls! There was no way we could finish all the dishes, but they packed our leftovers in doggie bags and we had them for dinner! Mmmm, tasty!

Next we went ziplining with a company called Flight of the Gibbon.

We opted for the early run so we were flying above the rainforest by 8am! It was quite invigorating and a great way to start our day! Our guides kept it fun by scaring us half to death by threatening to push us off the platforms or let go of the ropes. Si and I did get a few chances to fly together, which was really fun! After flying, we took a relaxing walk to a nearby waterfall.







Wat Suan Dok offers a 2 day meditation retreat. We decided to take the plunge and try it out. We arrived at the Wat on Tuesday at 2pm where we bought white clothing - pants and shirt - and had an orientation about Buddhism and meditation. We were then taken to the meditation facility 30 mins outside of the city, changed into our white clothes and went to dinner where we were asked to take a vow of silence until after breakfast the following day - you can imagine how hard that was for us! We spent 4-5 hours that evening with 2 monks teaching us sitting, walking, and lying meditation. We stayed in same-sex bedrooms and were awakened at 5am for 2 1/2 hours of meditation before breakfast. After breakfast, being allowed to speak once again, we spent almost 2 hours with the monks and were invited to talk about our impressions of meditation and ask as many questions as we liked. Overall, Simon and I were both very affected by the retreat and are very keen on learning more about Buddhism and meditation. I am so glad that we went.


Theeennnn comes MORE fun - a 3 day/2 night trek through the Don Inthanon National Forest. We signed up with the guesthouse, Eagle House 2. They are known for having good treks, which offer a 'non-tourist' route, where we travel more off-trail and visit areas where no other tourists will be. We were able to meet the Karen Hilltribe and spent both evenings on their compound. The trekking itself was pretty intense. I assumed it would be easy walking, but we spent much of the time off-trail, walking through rivers and climbing steep and long hills. Our first day began with elephant riding. It was, OK. Definitely not my favorite and don't think I would do it again. Those poor elephants went round and round a short trail with a metal seat and 2 tourists on their backs ALL day. In addition, they had a guide who sat directly on their head and stuck their skin with what looked like an enormous fish hook whenever they 'misbehaved.' We were able to purchase a bag full of bananas and sugarcane that we fed to the elephant throughout our short journey, which was cool. Elephants eat up to 300kg/day!

We trekked for 2 hours that evening, through the incredible rainforest. Within 20 mins, we spotted a huge Cobra slithering within a patch of bamboo alongside the path! Scary! Right before we got to the village we were to settle into for the night, we came to a man-made bamboo dam where we were told to shower. Per our guide, no shower? no food! It was so cool bathing in the river! Once we made it to the Karen village, we set our stuff in the huge hut we were to sleep in. It was made out of bamboo and we were provided about 4 blankets each to sleep with. Not only was the bamboo floor quite uncomfortable to sleep on, we were SHOCKED by how much cooler it was in the hills - we froze and could barely get out of bed in the morning! Day 2 was AWESOME! We hiked for over 6 hours. In the morning, we spent almost 2 hours walking through the river (quite low, dry season) which was sooooo fun! It made us feel like hardcore travelers! The 'paths' were steep uphill and downhill at times. Needless to say, we were sore the next day! That evening we stayed beside the river because we were going bamboo rafting the next morning.







Again, we bathed in the river, which we absolutely loved. We woke up early morning to the sounds of the local villagers building our bamboo rafts. The rafts were much longer than expected and we were split into two groups with four people on each raft plus a local guide who steered the raft from the front. Each raft required an additional steerer in the back, and of course it was my Simon who was entrusted with this responsibility! The bamboo rafting was, of course, followed by a bit more trekking, during which we came across a viper lain on the path that missed my feet by a couple of terrifying inches! On the way back to Chiang Mai we stopped at Mae Pan Fall, Chiang Mai's highest waterfall. We got a chance to dive, jump, and swim which was so fun and refreshing!




When we weren't on one of our adventures, we spent our time exploring the city, visiting wats, and enjoying the great local markets. It was a fantastic week in Chiang Mai!

We spent our last evening with Hilary, and then got up the next morning to head to Chiang Rai for volunteering. More about that to come!!!

Places stayed in Chiang Mai:
Eagle House 2 - great trek, not great rooms - tired and old.
Pao Come Guest House - great find, just across the east moat, big wooden house, cool rooms, laid-back feel. 

Thailand: Ayutthaya & Sukhothai

After the beauty of the beaches, we travelled overnight to Bangkok to begin our journey north to Chiang Mai. To break up the trip and see some more of Thailand we made two stops on the way, first at Ayutthaya, the former capital of Thailand, about two hours north of Bangkok, and second at Sukhothai, about halfway to Chiang Mai, which was the first independant kingdom of Thailand.

To get to Ayutthaya we took a break from the buses and headed to the train station. As it was such a short trip though we ended up on a local train, that only cost about $1 for both of us, but was also not air conditioned, had very hard wooden seats, stopped EVERYWHERE, and got so crowded that even the vendors selling bottled water, snacks, hammocks (!?!?) struggled to move around. Needless to say, i didnt manage to convince Em that rail was the best option for future travel...

Ayutthaya is unique - it is where three rivers converge to form this island city. Since the rivers form a natural barrier to invasion. The city was the capital of Thailand from 1350-1757, when the Burmese attacked. Ayutthaya was an interesting place to stop for a day. We took a small boat around the island the afternoon we arrived, viewing some wats and some impressive large golden buddhas. Our full day there, we rented bicycles and spent about 3 hours cycling around exploring the island and visiting the historical park, with many more ancient wats.

The new city of Sukhothai is unimpressive, however, the old city, about 12km away, is the home of all the ancient ruins. We arrived at our guest house in the new city to find it was a small bamboo bungalow in the 'jungle', with a bathroom made of wooden slats, offering very little privacy. As we have had many recent problems with our toilets, I promptly took the lid off the toilet cistern to see if it would flush, only to be suprised by two frogs splashing around! All very rustic. :) We spent our night cowering under the heavy mosquito net, surrounded by man eating mosquitos.

Again on our full day in town we visited the ruins on bicycles (who needs gyms!?!) , with Em's rounded handlebars, she looked like a 1950s model, all she needed was a basket filled with daisys and a pair of bloomers! The ruins were impressive, at their center were two huge standing buddhas, and the whole site was much more rural than in Ayutthaya helping to give a sense of how the old city used to look.

After our night in the "jungle", we found a great guesthouse around the corner, with four brick walls, a frog-less toilet, and a swimming pool! all for the same price... needless to say,we moved for our second night and enjoyed a great afternoon splashing around in the pool to cool off!

We are now in Chiang Mai for a week of trekking, canopying and general adventure before our three week volunteer stint.


Places we stayed:
Ayutthaya - PU Guesthouse (simple, cheap, clean)
Sukothai - No 4 Guest house (rustic and rural, and lots of bugs); 4T Guest house (swimming pool!)

Thailand: Slice of Paradise

In Bangkok, Simon and I had the chance to see Clare and Chris, friend's of Simon's from London. It was a nice little treat seeing some familiar faces. We spent much of our lunch together hearing about their amazing travels amongst the islands in the south of Thailand. Although Si and I had already decided against spending the money and time to travel down, we were swept away with tales of white sandy beaches, clear waters, and unimaginable sunsets. Needless to say, there was little delay in booking our 12-hour bus ride down to the Andaman Coast, where we were dropped in the town of Krabi, a great jumping off point for the beautiful islands nearby.

Immediately upon our arrival, we took a 2-hour boat ride (as if we hadn't spent enough time travelling!) to the island of Koh Lanta. The water was beautiful, the sand lovely, although slightly more shell-covered than we had expected. We spent our first full day lazily on the beach, swimming, tanning, reading, sleeping...tough life, huh!?

The following day we woke early for a 7-hr boat trip that took us to 4 much smaller and primarily uninhabited islands nearby. Most of the islands were large masses of rock and vegetation. Our first stop (my favorite), began at the base of this enormous 'rock island.' We swam 80 meters through a cave to the center of the island where there was a small hidden beach. It was called Emerald cove, because when you spot your first bit of light as you are swimming through the cave, it shines off the water and creates a dazzling emerald color. From there, we had lunch and swam on our second island, where we finally did find the bright green/blue waters and white sand we had been waiting for. We completed our day trip by snorkeling off of 2 more islands. For those of you that know about my intense fear of fish, you'll be impressed to know I not only got in the water but stayed in - with thousands of fish around me - for a full 30 seconds!

Our next and final stop was on the island of Koh Phi Phi. We almost skipped this island as it is rumored to be so touristy that it has lost its 'wow' factor, but im sure glad we didn't. This little piece of heavan was so beautiful. It was exactly what we'd been looking for. The water was crystal clear (i.e. I could spot any fish coming near me from a mile away!), the beaches were covered with beautiful white sand, and the island had no roads, only pedestrian walks, so exploration was simple and enjoyable. We were able to climb 186-metres above sea level to a viewpoint and enjoy an incredible view of the island and the waters that surround it, just as the sun goes down.

We did a lot of lounging and exploring on this island as well, and also enjoyed another boat trip (just the 2 of us), in a wooden long-tail boat. Although I havn't seen it myself, apparently there was a big motion picture called 'The Beach' staring Leonardo DiCaprio that was filmed on Koh Phi Phi Leh, a satellite island which remains uninhabited. Although falling into a slight tourist trap by deciding to go see it, we certainly did not regret it. The little island was home to the MOST beautiful beach, with even clearer water than we had found on Phi Phi Don. It was beyond words. Truly.

We could not be happier we diverted from our original plans and went south. I tell you, these islands were just so beautiful. Swimming together all day, sharing meals with our feet dug deep in sand, and seeing nothing but beauty around us brought Si and I even closer together. As a sorta kinda somewhat not really at all, joke, we kept turning to one another and wishing each other a happy honeymoon. I got to spend a week in paradise with my sweetheart - of course we're going to be corny!!! :)

Although hard to say goodbye, after 6 days and 5 nights of true paradise, Simon and I took another 12-hour bus ride back to Bangkok to begin our hike to the northern most point in Thailand, Chiang Rai, where we will begin our volunteering on the 15th. But of course, we'll be making some fun stops along the way!