Thailand

Excellent Experience at Elephant Jungle Sanctuary

globegazers 6 Comments

We knew we wanted to experience some time with elephants while we were in Chaing Mai, Thailand. It was something that had been on our (especially Della’s) list for a long time. However, we had read a lot about elephant tourism and the pro and cons.

Choosing an Elephant Park

One of the biggest negatives we had heard about was some of poor practices that have traditionally been used in elephant tourism. Often elephants are ridden or trained to do shows for tourists. In recent years, there has been a lot of effort in educating tourists on the dangers some of these things cause for elephants. We had read several articles like this one by the blogger Nomadic Matt with the same theme: elephants have been treated poorly during training, so we were thinking hard about the place we would like to visit. Almost all of the articles mention the Elephant Nature Park as a place using proper practices.

But, as we arrived in Chiang Mai and saw the plethora of options available to us, we decided to do a little more research. The most highly rated elephant park offers elephant riding (without a seat), feeding, and bathing the elephants. After reading several lovely reviews of that park though, we came across this blog. It describes a counterpoint experience between two places and mentions that the most highly rated camp both chains its elephants and uses bull hooks on them. This turned us off. However, the description of Elephant Nature Park, while lovely, seemed a whole lot like an experience we had in Africa with actual wild elephants. We weren’t sure we needed to pay for that.

But finally, we found a brochure for the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary and further research led us to this blog. We scoured the pictures and saw no chains or bull hooks. It also showed that the elephants were rescued by and living in a Karen village. Many of the students Della teaches are Karen refugees so we were excited to visit an active village in Thailand. That sealed the deal.

Visiting the Park

We were more than excited on our day to visit the elephants! We were picked up by Ken (maybe Chem) in the morning in a songthaew and drove the almost two hours up to the village. The majority of the road is highway, but the last hour or so were on curvy mountain roads. We were very happy when we arrived as we were on the verge of car sickness. We walked a short way through the currently dry rice fields to arrive in the village. We were given our uniform for the day: beautiful Karen shirts!

Our fearless leader
The long drive
hiking to the village
lovely rice fields
Our Karen shirts!

Our group consisted of 9 people plus our leader Ken. There were about 2 other groups of about the same number. Each group headed off to a different group of elephants. The first group we met was a male and female elephant, both retirees of logging. Ken explained that they were “boyfriend and girlfriend” and enjoyed spending time together. The female elephant was indeed pregnant and we were told she had one year left to come to term. We enjoyed feeding the elephants bananas and stroking their trunks. They were calm and friendly and we saw no chains or hooks. The mahouts used verbal commands when needed. Each elephant wore a bell, which we were told was how the mahouts locate them at night as they are never chained. Ken also pointed out many times that both the elephants seemed fat and happy. He showed us some remnants of their time as logging elephants though, as shown by their ragged ears.

Ripped ears from past experience

Our next stop was to visit what we’ll call the Old Lady Elephant. She was very calm, but loved her bananas!

Our final feeding stop was really the most exciting. We met two momma elephants and their two babies. We can’t quite remember the ages, but we think the larger baby was more than a year and the smaller one was less. The larger baby was quite rambunctious and enjoyed shoving some of the mahouts around. We truly enjoyed interacting with these super cute creatures!

Two babies
Momma and two babies
nursing baby
so cute
The baby wanted to try the bananas but couldn’t figure out how to eat them
The baby wanted to try the bananas but couldn’t figure out how to eat them
One year ago this month, we were playing with elephants in a Karen village in Northern Thailand.
Yum bananas
Baby getting pushy

After feeding the elephants, we headed back to the main area of the village for lunch. It was delicious Karen food which we enjoyed while overlooking the river. With a little time to relax, Wayne headed down to take a swim (of course)!

Lunch
Heading down the river
a swim

The next part of the day consisted of the “mud spa.” The mahouts brought down Old Lady elephant and Momma elephant with the Big Baby. They were SO excited to enjoy the mud. It was a lot of fun to go into the mud and experience their glee! They would pick the mud up in their trunks and fling it all over themselves, catching us in the process sometimes. They rolled around and rubbed their faces on the mud wall. We were invited to help them by throwing mud on them and rubbing it on their bodies. We really enjoyed this, as did all of the other tourists. The only thing we worried about was that the elephants (particularly Momma and Big Baby) were so excited that they were practically running around. Without keeping watch and being ready, we could see an accident happening. The mahouts believed that the elephants would never have trampled the humans, but we were content to keep our space while they were moving and hope that future visitors will also be thoughtful about not getting themselves in dangerous situations. The elephants are clearly happy and well treated here, but we are concerned that this might change if there was an accident with one of them hurting a tourist.

So excited to get in the mud
Loving it
This baby couldn’t look any happier
posing for the pic
And getting flung with more mud by the elephants
Della enjoyed posing with Old Lady elephant because she was much calmer

After the elephants (and us) were thoroughly muddy, we headed down to the river. The elephants loved splashing and rolling in the water. We were given buckets and scrub brushes to help clean and cool them off. We never got on top of the elephants, and we kept our distance when they were so excited that they were rolling their big bodies around and climbing on top of one another.

At the end of the day, we cleaned the rest of the mud off in the river and headed back to camp. We were given the opportunity to buy Karen souvenirs before we headed out. Della bought a Karen bag and Wayne wanted a different kind of souvenir. He asked for and was sold an elephant bell!

A new elephant bell for Wayne

A new elephant bell for Wayne

Overall, we absolutely loved our experience here and everything we saw indicated that their elephants are happy and treated well. We hope that future visitors will show proper respect to the animals and make sure not to get in their way so that no accidents will happen!

Logistics

The cost of the day was 2400 baht (about $73) per person (so quite a splurge!!), but when we booked through our guesthouse, they gave us a small discount.

The trip up and down took about 2 hours each way, so be prepared to spend a lot of time on the road.

Wear swim suits that you don’t mind getting muddy. The mud stained some of the white portions of Della’s suit.

Be careful and enjoy these amazing creatures!

Black and White in Chiang Rai, Thailand

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To our email subscribers, we are sorry for the email you received of this post before. It came in error. This post, however, should have all functional links!

After Laos, our next plan was to travel through the northern part of Thailand back down to Bangkok. We debated which towns to include in that journey. We considered heading straight to the large city of Chiang Mai, but pictures and stories of quirky white and black temples convinced us to head to the far northern city of Chiang Rai for a couple of days.

Where We Stayed

We found a nice place online called the Jansupar Court Hotel with two large AC rooms with their own private bathroom. We were happy to take advantage of the cheap washing machine and also enjoyed some late afternoon drinks in the small bistro onsite. The family that runs the place was also fun to interact with. The main downside of Jansupar was that it was located somewhat far outside of town – about a 20 minute walk – so sightseeing wasn’t as convenient as it could have been.

Jansupar Court
Our room
Mango daquiri tasters on the house!

What We Did

The two main attractions in Chiang Rai provide a nice counterpoint to each other – one white and one black. We took a local bus from the main bus station to both which was really quite easy to figure out!

Riding the local bus
Monks ride too!

We first visited Baan Dum, the Black House. This attraction houses many different somewhat traditional structures, most painted black. It was built by the Thai National Artist Thawan Duchanee using his own money. The interior decorating for the buildings was mostly done with furniture made of animal bones and plenty of animal hides. We could only go inside the largest temple-shaped structure, but could see into many of the smaller buildings.

The main “temple”
Hanging with the artist
The interior of the temple
Interesting choice of placesettings
Inside one of the other structures
Black House Jelfie

The next day we took a visit to Wat Rong Khun, the White Temple. As the name suggests, this is a large, elaborate temple painted in all white (plus some shiny mirrors). This is definitely a modern take on a temple, with some very strange designs on the outside. It was constructed by a different Thai artist, Chalermchai Kositpipat, also using his own money. The main temple is reached by crossing a bridge over a sea of outstretched hands said to represent desire. Inside the temple itself, we spent a long time trying to decipher the murals. At first glance it seemed like typical Buddhist scenes, but the lower level included many images from popular culture, including Neo from the Matrix, Darth Vader, Michael Jackson and Elvis. We never could quite figure out what it was supposed to mean. In this room and on many of the other buildings we could see visible damage from the strong earthquake that hit the region in 2014. We were a bit bummed that we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside.

The White Temple
This statue felt Balinese
The pond of outstetched hands
Disturbing images in the pond
Disturbing images in the pond
Visible earthquake damage
Note the toppled spire on the smaller temple
Looking back at the temple
The group in front of the White Temple

Outside the main temple, there are a few other small attractions in the complex that were worth a visit. We paid the equivalent of a dollar to buy a charm to we wrote a small message on and hung up with others. Even the bathroom building was quite fancy.

Pretty yellow flowers
Our charm
Hanging our charm
The bathrooms
The bathrooms
Scary lawn ornamentation
I think they are trying to say smoking is bad for you

We had a fun experience on the way back from the White Temple. We had visited with another couple that we had met on the slow boat and we ended up having to wait for the bus back for a long time. It just wasn’t coming, so we tried to hail a songthaew , but the only one that came by was too full for 6 to fit in. Finally, a man in a truck drive by and asked if we wanted a ride. We thought he might be a songthaew but we were confused when we asked how much and he sort of shrugged. We clambered in the back and rode off towards town. Wayne had gotten in the front and chatted with guy who was enjoying the company and trying to teach him Thai. Wayne told him the way and he took us all the way back to our hotel (even stopping once to ask directions). We tried to give him money at the end, the equivalent of what we would have given the bus, and he even tried to give some back. It is times like this when our hearts are warmed that there are people who just want to meet others and help!

Our ride back from the White Temple

Our ride back from the White Temple

We only saw a few of the sights in town itself since it was somewhat of a walk to get there. We did walk by a pretty clock tower in town – it looks quite a bit different from the ones we saw in Europe! We visited the Hilltribe Museum, which felt a little similar to the museum in Luang Prabang but focused on the Thailand hill tribes. There was also a large display here on the opium trade, since the “Golden Triangle” area nearby was once an epicenter of production by the hill tribes. Della was quite excited because she found a new wallet in the gift shop after many years of searching! On the way to the Hilltribe Museum we came across an interesting city park filled with mannequins dressed up in fairy tale costumes made from fake flowers. There was also a night market where both Della and Peggy both bought scarves (yes… more scarves!)

Chiang Rai clock tower… looks a bit different than the ones in Europe
Tunnel of Love of Chiang Rai park
Fairy princess jelfie
Evil Queen in Chiang Rai park

Where We Ate

Everyone talks about the cheap and good street food in Thailand, so we were excited to again have to the opportunity to try it out. Our favorite meal was probably some fried noodles we ate from a stall in front of one of the ubiquitous 7-11s (where we got a cheap beer to wash it down with).

Street noodles!

Street noodles!

We also ate a dinner in the night market food court, which was filled with stalls offering many different items. The most popular seemed to be a hot pot that allowed you to cook at your table, but we stuck with fried noodles here as well.

The night market food court
Eating at the night market

One day for lunch we found a simple place near us (that we later think we learned was recommended in Lonely Planet) and got a nice noodle soup. Each one of these meals cost us about a dollar each!

Enjoying our khao soi

Enjoying our khao soi

Final Thoughts

Compared to larger cities, Chiang Rai may not have had as much to offer, but in terms of unique attractions it seems to have a plethora! We are glad that we spent a couple of days here to experience the white and black sides of Thai art.

Meandering up the Mekong on the Slow Boat to Thailand

globegazers 5 Comments

After Luang Prabang, our next major stop was to be Chiang Rai in Thailand. One can get there a variety of ways, including a long bus ride or a plane trip, but instead we decided to take the “slow boat” up the Mekong River. It is so named because the journey takes two fairly long days of travel just to get up to the Thai border. But, we figured that it might be more scenic and more of a unique adventure.

Day One: Luang Prabang to Pak Beng (Laos)

The Lonely Planet says that the boat dock is in town, but luckily we had done some extra research and discovered that the boats now leave from a dock 11 km north of town. We made sure to get a sŏrngtăaou (pickup taxi) to get us there in plenty of time so we could make sure to get good seats. We were the first people to get our tickets at the ticket office, but then panicked because a large group beat us down the hill to the dock. Luckily, they ended up heading to a different boat and we were able to choose good seats.

Waiting for the ticket office to open

Waiting for the ticket office to open

The boat looked as expected, a long narrow configuration with a roof. The seats seem like they should be in passenger vans and are mounted on bases which are moveable. When it became apparent that the boat was not going to be full, we spread out so each of us had a set of two chairs. A good number of locals got on board but all sat in the forward cabin. We also had to wait while some motorbikes and roofing tiles were loaded up front. They asked us to take off our shoes as well, like we were in their house.

Settling in
The roofing tiles up front

As we cruised along the river, life moved pretty slowly. At first it was a little chilly with a cool breeze coming off the water. We managed to stay in the shade as well. We all read our various books – Eric even finished one! The only food on sale on the boat was chips and instant noodles, but we had planned ahead and had some snack foods to eat for lunch.

Relaxing
There might have been some napping as well

The scenery outside was pretty nice. Lots of wooded hills on either side. Plenty of water buffalo lounging by the water. A few fisherman using large nets in the river. Not too many other people except for at a village where we stopped and unloaded the roofing tiles.

More boats on the river
Passing another boat
Water buffalo
Towns on the waters edge
People removing the roofing tiles and carrying them up to the town
This little girl supervised all the work
fisherman
Buddhist monks enjoying a dip

The river moves quite fast, especially when going through some of the narrow rocky stretches. Since we were moving upstream, it was kind of fun and bumpy in these stretches.

We arrived at Pak Beng, our stop for the night, at around 4:45. There were already a lot of boats tied up at the pier, so getting off was a challenge. We first waited for them to get two motorbikes off the front, then we went off the front and had to scramble up some rocks and sand before finding steps.

Scrambling off the boat onto the rocks
Remains of the day

As we walked through town there were plenty of guesthouses offering rooms for about the same rate. We had expected this and didn’t even book ahead, which is a first for us in a long time! Wayne had read about one called Monsovanh and zeroed in on that. They got a room with AC for 130,000 kip ($16). Eric wanted to negotiate more so we headed on further. We ended up with a room with a fan at a place called Vassana for 80,000 kip ($10). The room was pretty nice and clean actually.

Peggy and Wayne’s hotel view
Della and Eric’s hotel room

As the sun set, we found a nice wat in town which gave a good vantage point over the river. Restaurant options were not very exciting in town, so we just chose one that seemed cheap and had a nice terrace looking out over the river. The food was ok, but took quite a while since there just seemed to be one person working there.

sunset over the wat and the river
dinner

We picked up some snacks at a mini-mart in town in preparation for the next day. It was also pretty interesting to walk down to the docks and see all of the boats tied up for the night.

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Even though we didn’t have AC, it got cool in the evening and we didn’t even use the fan. Overnight we had to hush a loud cat outside our window but other than that it was a pleasant sleep.

Day Two: Pak Beng to Houay Xai (Laos)

We got up early to make sure to get to the pier in plenty of time to get a good seat… and to confirm that the seat was on the right boat, since it wouldn’t necessarily be the same one!

Morning Mist over the Mekong
Early morning walk down to the boats

Even with our early arrival, we weren’t the first ones there. Most of the other people from the previous day were already on board, so we only got ok seats. (And it was a different boat with a different crew.) This time we got four seats in a group from the start. There were even less locals on board, and it seemed a few people had stayed longer in Pak Beng, so the boat felt maybe only a third full. The boat was a little less nice as well – it felt a little narrower and the railing was higher so it felt like you saw less.

IMG_5938

As we got going, we realized that the motor also seemed louder. We tried to have some conversations but realized that reading would just be easier. As the morning went along we all read and relaxed. The scenery was a little less impressive but the time still went by quickly. We read and relaxed – Eric finished another book – and chatted with some fellow passengers (Wayne especially).

Scenery
Other boats on the river
reading
eating lunch
scenery

At one point in the late afternoon, we noticed two of the passengers helping bandage the hand of a local guy on the boat. Then we realized he was missing a finger! Apparently he had just lost it in an accident – although not on the boat. Wayne dug out some extra painkiller to give to him. What was amazing was that the patient was just smiling the whole time!

We knew we were close when we went under the big cross-border bridge. After that it still took about 30 minutes to get to the jetty in Houay Xai.

The Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge
Entering Houay Xai
A fantastic sunset on our final minutes of our water journey
Sunset over our boat as we leave it

Tuk-tuk drivers were waiting there to take us into town, but it seemed like it was just a kilometer so we decided to get some exercise and walk. A few other passengers from the boat had the same idea so we walked into town together. We formed a group and went door to door to a few guesthouses in the “center.” In the end we went back to the first one we had tried since it was 10,000 kip cheaper and got rooms for 70,000 kip – about 9 dollars.

IMG_5954

We found another basic restaurant for dinner along with our new travel friends. We were a little sad that our last meal in Laos wasn’t at a fancier place, but we were still able to get one last laab.

We returned to the room and got ready for bed. While Della was showering the power went out! We looked out in the hallway and all the lights seemed off, so we figured the whole place had lost power. But the Internet was still working, which seemed odd… We opened up the windows to let the cool night air in and headed to bed.

IMG_5951

Day Three: Houay Xai to Chiang Rai (Thailand)

When we woke up in the morning to roosters crowing and a loudspeaker blaring, we noticed our power was still out. Preparing to write a scathing TripAdvisor review, we then noticed that the power was back on in the hallway. This seemed odd… we finally went down to the front desk to ask and they saw that the circuit breaker for our room had tripped! So the whole time it was just our power and no one else’s that was out. Della is afraid that it was because her hot shower caused the breaker to flip. Oops!

The shower that might have caused the whole problem...

The shower that might have caused the whole problem…

The previous night we went ahead and booked a combination ticket through an agent in town that would get us to Chiang Rai, our first stop in Thailand. Some of our friends from the boat also booked the same thing, so we were happy to have some nice travel companions along as well.

Buying our tickets

Buying our tickets

Step one was a 15-minute sŏrngtăaou ride to the Laos immigration office, where we got stamped out of the country. Step two was then to ride a shuttle bus (included in the ticket price) over the Friendship Bridge and onto the Thailand side of the river. Getting stamped into Thailand went quite smoothly. We were especially happy because we got a 30-day visa – everything we had read suggested that land crossings would only give us 15 days, and we weren’t sure that gave us enough time in the country. But 30 days should be plenty!

Unloading from the souengthaw

Unloading from the sŏrngtăaou

The final step was a minivan transfer from the border to Chiang Rai. This seemed the most dubious step because no one accompanied us over the border. Instead, we were just given stickers with the name of some guesthouse and were told that someone in Thailand would come pick us up using the stickers to identify us. No one was waiting when we got over, so we were a little nervous. After about 30 minutes they finally showed up and turned out to be legit, so we got our ride into Chiang Rai.

The ride was pretty nice, although we were annoyed that the driver asked us for an extra payment to take us to our guesthouse in Chiang Rai. He claimed that otherwise he would have to drop us off at a bus station way outside of town! This seemed somewhat silly to us, but he was only asking about $1 a person ultimately so we just decided to pay it anyway.

Final Thoughts

We are happy that we used the slow boat to get to Thailand from Luang Prabang. It helped us see some parts of Laos that we wouldn’t have otherwise, and also to get more of a feel for the rural areas in general. The ride was very comfortable and relaxing, and allowed us plenty of time to catch up on reading and just enjoy the serenity of watching the scenery go by.

Monthly Recap: Month 7

globegazers 8 Comments

It is a little surreal to be writing a monthly update for month 7! That means we are more than halfway through our trip… Feels very strange. In some ways it feels like we’ve been going forever! In others it feels like we’ve barely started… And when we think about our long break at home and then heading off to a brand new continent, it almost is like we really just started!

Here are our stats for this month.

Countries visited: 5 (USA, Thailand, Burma/Myanmar, Singapore, Indonesia) Though, Indonesia hardly counts because we just arrived on Jan 31.

Beds Slept In: 11 (This is a particularly high number in part because we had 3 different beds in Mandalay… all in the same hotel, but three beds all the same!)

UNESCO Heritage Sights Visited: 0  Total on RTW: 34

We traveled by 6 planes this month!

We traveled by 0 trains this month.

We traveled by 2 long distance buses.

We traveled by 1 long distance boat.

We traveled by 2 shared taxis.

Top Moments:

~ We arrived in Mandalay not entirely sure what to expect. We had heard that it might be difficult to travel in Myanmar… However, the minute we arrived at our very first guesthouse we were overwhelmed with the kindness of the people. “Mama” at Yoe Yoe Lay guesthouse treated us as if we were family and was kind, generous, and fun to be around. Every other staff person there seemed unbelievably kind. The accommodations were also quite lovely and at a good price. It also didn’t hurt that the moment we walked in, we started talking to another couple who we really enjoyed and hungout with multiple times thereafter. The guests at the guesthouse were great and the staff was even better. It made Mandalay particularly enjoyable for us!

Della with "Mama" - the head of our amazing guesthouse - Yoe Yoe Lay

Della with “Mama” – the head of our amazing guesthouse – Yoe Yoe Lay

Eric enjoying breakfast at Yoe Yoe Lay

Eric enjoying breakfast at Yoe Yoe Lay

~ We knew we were going to take a boat tour on Inle Lake. It was a “must do.” However, we had read some conflicting accounts about the tours. Some people said they were canned and that the guides kept taking you to shops and trying to get you to buy things. Others complained about the limitations of being on a tour, feeling constricted in their freedom of where and when to spend their time. Some of those things were true on our boat trip, but somehow it didn’t matter. We spent hours floating through the lake. The destinations on the lake actually hardly mattered – we thought just being on the lake and observing the beauty and the way of life was wonderful. The day was gorgeous and we spent the time on the lake in quiet contemplation, enjoying our ability to do this trip and explore new places.

Families zipping through the waterways

Families zipping through the waterways

People working their fields

People working their fields

Beautiful Inle Lake

Beautiful Inle Lake

Runners up for Top Moments:

~ Our second town in Myanmar was called Pyin Oo Lwin. We had heard that the town wasn’t really worth the trip, that it was only blah. However, we were interested in visiting because Della’s parents had visited on their rtw trip 35 years ago. They had many great memories of the beauty of the town, the old colonial buildings, and of the people out strolling the gardens under their parasols. We wanted to see what they remembered. We spent a whole day chasing the past in Pyin Oo Lwin! We ran into some troubles finding some of the places, but ultimately succeeded and really enjoyed the time biking through town. In additions, the gardens were absolutely gorgeous. We again had a lovely day!  Unfortunately, we didn’t see any parasols.

The pagoda in the beautiful gardens of Pyin Oo Lwin

The pagoda in the beautiful gardens of Pyin Oo Lwin

The beautiful colonial house Candicraig - where Della's parents stayed when they visited 35 years ago

The beautiful colonial house Candicraig – where Della’s parents stayed when they visited 35 years ago

~ Our final day in Myanmar was in Yangon. We spent several days in Yangon, probably more than we really needed to, but it allowed for some relaxing days. Our last day, we headed to the National Museum and then to the nearby People’s Park. It is a lovely park with some strange attractions, like an old plane, trees with hanging bridges between them, and giant banana statues. It also has great view of the Shwedagon Pagoda. But the most fun part was that they decided to blast music throughout the park. When we first heard it, we thought it must be some sort of performance or event, but it turned out it wasn’t. Della was, of course, tempted to dance, though she didn’t because no one else was even moving to the beat. We enjoyed the music, the views, people watching, and the sunset as our time in Myanmar wound to a close.

Shwedagon Pagoda at sunset as seen from People's Park

Shwedagon Pagoda at sunset as seen from People’s Park

The sun sets on our time in Myanmar

The sun sets on our time in Myanmar

Items Missing, Broken, Discarded, or Added:

Nothing!

Packing Update:

See our posts on both Della’s and Eric’s packing update!

Books Read: (Have you read any of these??)

Della has read Snuff by Terry Pratchett (3), Animal Farm by George Orwell (4), The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (3), I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes (4), Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (4)

Eric has read Wild by Cheryl Strayed (4), Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind (3), Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling (3), No Birds Sing by Jo Bannister (3.5)

Eric and Della have BOTH read Burmese Days by George Orwell (4), Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (4), My Sister’s Bones by Cathi Hanauer (3.75), Hearts in Atlantis by Stephan King (4)

The rating system is for Della’s mom who is refusing to just go look on Goodreads. It is 1 to 5, 5 being the highest.

Make sure to catch up on all our monthly recaps: Monthly Recap 1, Monthly Recap 2, Monthly Recap 3,Monthly Recap 4, Monthly Recap 5, Monthly Recap 6

Bangkok, Thailand Part 1

globegazers 3 Comments

Our first stop for the second half of the trip was the capital of Thailand, Bangkok. We arrived on the evening of the 7th, and were leaving for Myanmar on the 10th, so we didn’t have much time in Bangkok. Therefore, we decided to not try and see everything we wanted to in Bangkok and instead take it easy and recover from jetlag. We know that we will be back through this Southeast Asia transport hub at least one more time.

Where We Stayed

Choosing a place to stay in such a large city is pretty overwhelming, especially when there are so many budget options. We saw good reviews for the U-Baan Guesthouse on hostelworld, and it sounded like it might be a little quieter than other places since it was in a non-tourist neighborhood. There was no double room available, but there was one with two twin beds, which is fine.

We ended up enjoying our time at the U-Baan, but didn’t really feel a connection to it. This was probably our fault though, because we never chose to hang out in the common area and interact with the other guests. The best part of the U-Baan is the owner, Joy: she was a great help with many of our needs while in Bangkok, most importantly coordinating with the airline to get our bags delivered the day after our flight.

Relaxing off the jetlag
Our small, but comfortable room at U-Baan

What We Did

Since we had the limited amount of time in Bangkok, we chose to focus on activities that were easily reached via the Skytrain (the elevated rail system), since there was a stop near our accommodations. This meant foregoing visiting the Royal Palace and the biggest temples, but we definitely plan to see them the next time through.

Riding the sky train
See the expansive Sky Train system above the roads
Sky Train heading into town

Our first afternoon in town, we were still pretty tired so we just took a walk around the neighborhood surrounding the U-Baan. We walked through a small local market then headed up a big road with a vague plan to make it to the river. On the way, we saw a temple of to the side and ended up investigating. It turned out to be the Wat Phitchaya Yatikaram, a minor royal Buddhist temple. There was hardly anyone else there, so we just strolled through the grounds. We weren’t really sure of the rules for visiting yet, so we didn’t linger. This was enough for the moment so we just headed back to the guesthouse.

 

Walking around Bangkok
Wat Phitchaya Yatikaram

In the evening we rode the Skytrain downtown to check out the MBK Center, one of Bangkok’s giant malls. We thought the mall we saw on Istikal Caddesi in Istanbul was large, but this one blew it out of the water! It was seven stories tall, and each story covered a huge amount of ground. This is known more for discount options, so instead of big chain stores it is dominated by small booths selling discount clothes, electronics and other merchandise. We took a while walking a loop on each floor to get a glimpse of all that was for sale. We also visited to try out the food court, which had come recommended – see Where We Ate below.

The MBK Center
International food court

The next day we hopped back on the Skytrain towards downtown, this time hopping off near Lumphini Park, Bangkok’s version of New York’s Central Park. We wandered through this shaded urban oasis and found a nice spot to relax and read our books for a while.

Reading in the park
Quite a creature! We saw these several places in Bangkok!
Lumphini Park jelfie

We then walked past more fancy malls and headed to the Jim Thompson House, the impressive complex of old Thai teak structures that an American expatriate put together to house his art collection. After his disappearance, it was turned into a museum. To see the interior of the main living quarters, we had to take a guided tour. The interior is quite impressive, with beautiful dark teak wood and Thompson’s art collection displayed throughout. After the guided tour we were able to wander through the other houses that made up the complex. Thompson made his fortune in the silk industry, so there were also some interesting displays on how the silk thread from the worm is turned into the fabric that is so highly prized in the garment industry.

Walking past the fancy malls
People worshipping
Entering the Jim Thompson House
The outside
The inside
The silk cocoon
Seperating the silk into strings
Creating thread
died silk

The MBK Center was in the area, so we returned there for dinner, then headed home on the Skytrain. While in the Skytrain station, we got to see a pretty cool Thai tradition: at 6 PM, the national anthem is played over the loudspeakers. Everyone froze in place and stood at attention as the anthem played. As soon as the song was over, everyone un-froze and continued on with whatever they were doing.

Where We Ate

We were very excited about the food, since we both love Thai food and we had heard that it would be very cheap! We were not disappointed. 🙂

On our walk the first day, we saw a small food stand on the side of the road that seemed pretty popular with locals. We wanted to jump right into the food scene, so we grabbed a plastic seat and waited for the magic to happen. Unfortunately, the cook didn’t speak English, and our effort to gesture at what someone else had didn’t work. Luckily, a traffic cop saw this and came over and helped translate. We ended up getting a tom kha soup with meat and seafood in it. It was quite tasty, and only $2.55 (plus $0.45 for a Thai iced tea).

IMG_4040

At the MBK Center, we were on the lookout for a food court where you could choose from a wide variety of international options for cheap. On the fifth floor, we saw the International Food Avenue and figured it must be it. We were given a plastic card loaded with a large value, and then you could go between different stalls and order what you wanted. They would then swipe your card for the appropriate amount. Della found a pad see eew (her favorite Thai dish) and Eric got a red curry with duck. The total with two beers worked out to be close to $20, so still cheap by American standards but not as cheap as we were expecting. Right after eating, we went up to the next floor and found a different food court that was almost half the cost, so we then realized we had ended up at the wrong place!

The prepaid card and a receipt for food from one of the stalls
Enjoying a yummy Thai dinner!

So, the next day, after visiting the Jim Thompson House, we returned to the MBK Center and ate dinner at the food court on the sixth floor. Here you also got a card to swipe at different stalls, but it was definitely less fancy but cheaper. Here Della got a fried noodle dish and Eric got a fried rice dish. The total with a beer was only $8.40, which was more in line with our cheap expectations!

Whoops, almost finished before we even take the picture!

Whoops, almost finished before we even take the picture!