Road to Chiangmai...

As we headed off to Chiangmai for the final leg of the tour, we made a couple stops along the way, the first of which was the White Temple. The temple was built by a local artist in the village and was the most spectacular, ornate wat (temple) that we have seen yet... Every inch of the place was white and had some intricate detailing throughout. 

the toilets...

Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but what decorated the walls inside was amazing. They were covered in hand painted murals of the history of the temple and the Buddhist images, as well as the artist's depiction of good and evil. After spending some time walking throughout the grounds, we got to visit his exhibit onsite and pick up some artwork. Also amazing onsite was the building housing the restrooms that was covered entirely in gold (just paint though).

Next on the road to Chiangmai included a second round with some native animals except the friendly elephants were now replaced with tigers!

The tigers were housed at the Tiger Kingdom in Chiangmai that had been developed to help protect and preserve the species. As part of the fundraising efforts, visitors are given the opportunity to sit with, lay on, pet and take photos with all the animals onsite. While they wouldn't tell me the last time that a tiger attacked anyone... all of the animals had been born at the sanctuary and had been raised at the hand of the trainers so they were 'safe.'

While we chose to get pictures with all four sizes (smallest, small, medium and big cat) the experience was pretty amazing and not as terrifying as you would initially expect...

The Mexico of Asia...

First stop on our travels today included a visit to an area along the Thailand border referred to as Monkey Mountain. Hundreds of monkeys come down to this area from the nearby cliffs to walk the land but more importantly get fed by the tourists. Upon entry you only see a few, but as soon as you are holding a banana there are hundreds… additionally, you have Thai boys surrounding you with their slingshots to protect you from them… it was a little funky. Although neat to see, it was a little sad to see them relying so heavily on the humans for food, and a little discerning to have adult monkeys chasing after you for a banana.

After this we were off to explore the Golden Triangle area of Northern Thailand, and began with a trip to Burma. While also a Buddhist country, Burma houses a different type of Buddhist and the respectful, calm natured men of Thailand are replaced by loud and obnoxious Burmese… Additionally, the markets and villages are engulfed in poverty and unpleasant. Upon entry, we were ready to leave but instead went on to visit a local temple and tour the village along the border. Following this we were then given time to shop the market where you could find just about any item you wanted as a knock-off. Here you could buy anything from a Prada purse to the iPhone 5 (apparently Burma is the first to get it seeing as the US is still holding strong to the iPhone 4…). The market was chaotic and dirty, and given this in combination with the rest of our time in the country I have now dubbed Burma the Mexico of Asia.

 

After this we were off to a viewpoint of the Golden Triangle over the river that allowed you to see Thailand, Laos, and Burma together…

Then we were off by means of ‘Raceboat’ for a river tour and trip to our third country of the day—Laos. Here we visited another market and saw another fake good  market galore.

 

While neither of these countries were exactly thrilling to explore or see, we at least got to have the experience, and pick up a few more passport stamps while we were at it… Also, we realized even more what a great country Thailand is and how developed it is compared to its neighbors... but more than anything we were just happy to be 'home'.

Elephantes!

Today was elephant day with a visit to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center. This place was absolutely, and this has made for the best day yet on the tour and maybe the trip alone! We spent the better half of the day at the park and it was an amazing experience!

The day started off with a visit to some of the mahouts and their elephants to pet and see them interacting. The mahouts are Thai men who believe that they were born with the duty to care for an elephant and are assigned to an elephant early on in life, and remain together until either of them dies. It is pretty spectacular to see the two parties interact and how well they can communicate with the elephants understanding many of the Thai commands and motions. Apparently, the mahouts are unable to marry without the elephants approval of the woman first which brings a whole new light to the asking for permission part of the proposal...


The park even has a two-year old orphan who was rescued in the wild and brought to the conservation center which was quite amazing to interact with. While many of the elephants were quite 'naughty' as described by their mahouts, we got to pet, photograph and interact with all of the various elephants around the park for the better part of the morning. 



After this it was time for elephant group bath time in the lake to prepare for show time...


We then followed the parade of elephants as they proceeded to the show area tail in trunk the whole way through with even the baby joining in on the procession...

During the show, the elephants went through the various tasks that they were used for throughout Thailand including the pulling, pushing, kicking and just general transportation of logs and other materials, as well as some other tricks that their mahouts had taught them. These included balancing and adult male elephant on a log and having a myriad of pictures painted. Of the paintings there were flower abstracts and self portraits...needless to say it was pretty amazing to witness.

Following the presentation, we were off for an elephant ride around the parks with the company of the mahout and set out around the center....

After, we were off to play with some elephant dung and try our hand at making dung paper on site... mine was pretty bad...

Finally, our last adventure with the elephants involved a venture next door to the elephant hospital to visit some of their patients. One of them happened to be a seven month old baby elephant brought to the center with his mom as he was born a day premature and because of it wasn't able to utilize his mother's milk...

Others included this guy who suffered a broken leg after falling down a mountain as well as a large group that had been injured by land mines along the Burma/Thailand border. Unfortunately, their excursions along the border had cost many of the wild elephants their legs as they stepped on the mind, but after arriving to the hospital, they were able to be fitted with a prosthetic leg to help return some normalcy to their lives...


As we eventually had to leave the park, we made one last stop at the local pineapple farm along the road to get some great pictures of Jon jumping and plants a'growin'... This place was actually quite shocking as I admittedly had no idea this was how pineapples grew.

Sorry for such a long one with a myriad of pictures but the elephant experience was quite amazing and a once in a lifetime experience!! If you ever find yourself wandering the streets and neighborhoods of Thailand you have to make a pit-stop here for a day!

Sukothai Bike Ride

The second stop of our trip included a visit to Sukothai and the Sukothai Historical Park. We all rented bicycles for the day and set out on a journey through the park, visiting the various ruins throughout.

Sukothai was the first capital of Thailand centuries ago, and the ruins in the park dated back to the 13^th century. Most of the statues throughout the area were once covered in gold, but most of that has now either deteriorated or been stolen over time.

Getting to see the ruins was pretty spectacular, and getting to do it all from the seat of a bicycle made it even better. Although I don’t remember the last time that I actually took a bicycle ride—do not fret, as the saying that you never forget turned out to be true.

Included between all the Buddha and other religious relics was a statue built to honor a late king of Thailand. This was in fact the weirdest exhibit we had seen; as a woman was present during the visit repaying the king for the blessings he had granted her. As part of her retribution, she was offering the heads of six pigs and whiskey to the king. Come noon, she would then offer the feast to those also visiting the statue as part of her offering, and refusing the food wasn’t an option out of respect… given that it was ten minutes before 12 when we were there, the visit was cut short as we pedaled out of there.

Another aspect of the park was the releasing of animals that was offered as a religious gesture. With this you could release anything from eels, turtle, and fish to mussels and baby birds all bringing various blessings upon their freedom. Seeing the animals trapped in their plastic bags was pretty heart wrenching so we both bought into the trap and paid to release a bag. Undoubtedly, the evil trap lady probably just went and caught the same animals as soon as we departed, and us paying to release only encouraged her to continue doing it but it was really hard to avoid…

After spending the day at the park and getting in our cycle workout for the day, it was back to the hotel for dinner in the town of Sukothai and to prepare for another bus ride—this one only four hours—to the town of Lampang.

Bangkok

After leaving Phuket late yesterday afternoon, we were finally back in Bangkok again to get a chance to see the city, and meet up with the tour group we had joined for the duration of our journey. As the venture into Northern Thailand could easily cause you to lose your direction in the sea of historical and cultural sites, we went with a tour for this leg of the trip to help guide us into the lesser travelled and lesser english-speaking areas...   

We arrived in Bangkok and after meeting the group, we all set out for a group dinner. Our tour guide is from Bangkok originally and currently lives in Northern Thailand and having her along for the ride has been a huge bonus and it's only been a day. She can negotiate prices, speak to the locals, and better than all the rest she knows some amazing locals restaurants. One of these we happened to visit for dinner and with a view of the river and waterfront seating it was a pretty amazing intro to the city and that isn't even including the spectacular bridge view included as well...

After that we were off to explore the infamous Khao San Road, the mecca for all backpackers coming through Bangkok. The road was like a blown up version of Patong with street vendors, local shops and more, just with a few less hookers along the way. The street was pretty impressive and you could buy just about anything you wanted from shirts and dresses to fake passports and diplomas. The picture below I would like to dedicate to my sister... for a mere 100 baht I too could have had an education degree from the internationally acclaimed Arizona State University... who needs to go through the real thing when a 100 baht here could save you so much time?!

Following the tour and a ride in a tuk tuk packed full with six people although only intended to carry three, we were back home for the night and getting ready for a day in Bangkok to follow. 

Our morning began a visit to the main temple in Bangkok. Inside was the spectacular Reclining Buddha exhibit built to honor those born on Tuesdays including yours truly. Apparently, in Buddhism, being born on a Tuesday equates you to being short-temper, stubborn, slightly irrational when frustrated, and one who needs to listen and think about what others say and do rather than just reacting... That description couldn't be further from the truth if you ask me... :)

As a disclaimer, if you aren't into Buddha, monks, temples and probably elephants too the remainder of the blog to follow may not be for you...

After the temple we were taken on a river tour of Bangkok in a jumbo-sized longtail boat. To say that the water was dirty would be putting it mildly... the water was disgusting-trashed filled and pollution tarnished we all came to fear any sort of water splashing that may occur. As we went through the various canals of the river we passed by many temples built right on the waters edge. All the water in front of these temples is considered holy and because of this fishing is illegal. Due to this, the fish flock to these regions and at the site of a simple piece of bread hundreds of catfish surface at once... it was terrifying.

Last on our Bangkok exploration was a stop at the Flower Market to check out the stands. Filled with gorgeous flowers and jewelry on all types made from their petals, the market was pretty spectacular to see. Overall Bangkok proved to be just the polluted, congested city that we had read it to be, but if you know where you are heading, there are some pretty amazing sites to see. Unfortunately our time was brief here and we were onto a six-hour bus ride to our first destination of Northern Thailand.

Patong Beach

As our adventure of Phuket continues, we were off to Patong for the day to explore the area and see the sights. I think we were both going there believing it was to be this amazing city, with a gorgeous beach, and a fun beach town, but we were also both wrong. 

In its defense, we did not visit Patong on the nicest day possible, but it is monsoon season over hear so you just have to take what you can get. Weather forecast aside, Patong is gross...

Patong Parasailing, involving a
little Thai man hanging onto the ropes
for the duration of your ride

The city is hectic and crowded, the beach is dirty and the water full of trash, and if we thought that the items for sale on Samui was bad, here it is worse... Nonetheless we set out to make the best of the city since we had the day here, and after grabbing some food seafront, we rented a lounge chair and enjoyed the overcast day by the ocean. 

After this, it was off to get massages and explore the sights of Patong. Fun fact about Patong, there are in fact 7 McDonald locations in the city limits, one of which we got to visit! I promise the request for McDonald's was entirely Jonathan's but I certainly didn't protest... Thai people are actually quite lucky as they have McDelivery here, call 1741 from anywhere and they are there, McDonald's in hand, lucky bunch they are!

After this we set out to explore Bangla Street which is the center of all nightlife that takes place in the town, but we probably made it about 15 minutes there... Although you expect to run into your fair share of hookers in this country, the amount on the street was a little much... that combined with men with exotic animals chasing you around to pet them and in turn pay them and finally the 'massage' girls which by no means are offering pleasant beach side massages for 400 Baht were a little much. We left the street and set off to find a recommended bar from our guide book which we were unable to do, so settled instead upon the giant mall area that had been built dead center in all the madness. Here we had some drinks, browsed the stores, ate some food, and still got to experience all that is Patong but with a little less debauchery along the way...

The ever talented room service group can make swans too...

(The views of this blog are not entirely endorsed by Jonathan David Riff, aka McDonald's)