Highlights of the places we’ve seen, explored, smelled, and experienced so far:

BANGKOK:

         Bangkok, Sukhumvit (Sook-hoom-wid) Soi 38: So, there are some huge, busy, crazy streets in Bangkok, one of which is Sukhumvit Road, or “Thannon Sukhumvit” – off of these bigger roads are a bunch of smaller streets that jut off to the left and right, which don’t have their own names, they are just referred to as “sois” and are given a number. Sukhumvit Soi 38 is where our hostel (Hostelling-International Sukhumvit  or “HI Sukhumvit”) was located, which was filled with friendly and helpful staff and travelers alike, and at night, the street-food vendors filled up the first portion of the soi with AMAZING food and an incredible atmosphere. Once we finally found it (we spent about an hour and a half walking around with all of our bags in crazy Bangkok heat when we were apparently dropped off 100 meters from our hostel…) it became our favorite place in Bangkok.

Bangkok Skyline from the rooftop of HI-Sukhumvit

Part of the rooftop garden

The Soi became a bit of a safe-haven for us from the wild and crazy ways of Bangkok, where you are constantly hot and constantly
trying not to be sold something weird and unnecessary. We saw some strange and crowded night-markets that feel more circus-y, tacky, and western than authentically Thai. But of course, it is always fun to take a trip down one of the lanes to gawk at the black-market supplements (shark-fin extract?) and hand-made crafts and clothes and all of that, perhaps as you drink out of a coconut that someone just lopped the top off of for you with a machete and plopped a straw into (personally, I am not a coconut water fan, but as you’ll see in a number of photos, it seems that every time I turn

around, Bob has one in his hand. I’m trying to like them. But I don’t.)

          Friends! Danny and Steffen (the first set of Germans we befriended) became very close to us. It is funny how in these travelling situations, friendly faces come to mean so much to you. Danny and Steffen were fun and energetic and very genuinely good people to meet during our first week in Thailand. It is always nice to have interesting and positive people to come back to at the end of the day to share a meal, a beer, or a weird nighttime escapade with. We also met Cerri at our hostel – a fun and knowledgeable British chick who made us feel not-so-bad for getting so lost our first day, and gave us bits of good advice for exploring Bangkok (we needed it after our first couple days of getting swept up in a whirlwind of tuk-tuks and pounding the concrete by foot through some rancid-garbage smelling alleys - you know it’s bad when you actually feel relieved to smell somebody’s cigarette instead of whatever unknown-stenchy-puddle smell it is that you almost just stepped in). So thank you to all of our new friends for all of the ways that you made our first week in Bangkok so much better!

Soi by Day

Soi by Night

                                                                                            

Rooftop Artists at Golden Mountain

Self-Explanatory

AYUTTHAYA:
           Ayutthaya (Ayoot-aya): This was a short, but moving part of our trip for me. We caught a train from Bangkok to Ayutthaya on the third of March, which took only about 2 hours. The train ride there was very rumble-y and rough and hot. I found myself a bit cranky about silly things, like how prickly my pasty skin feels when we’re out in the Bangkok sun; how sweaty and smelly I was; how I still somehow couldn’t quite figure out to get my GoPro to work the way I wanted it to. Then, about an hour into the trip, an older man slid by our feet. I was startled by how shameful I felt about these stupid concerns and gripes I had been rambling off to Bob when I saw this man sitting on the floor with limp, contorted legs, reaching forward with his arms, lunging his body forward to grab something to hold on to as he slid the rest of his body forward along the floor of the train, tapping gently at peoples’ ankles and smiling kindly at them as a simple gesture to excuse himself as he scooted past, making his way down the crowded train car. He seemed happy - and I felt so embarrassed that I, a young, healthy traveler on an amazing and life-changing trip to Thailand, was not. It’s been something of a reminder for me since then to help me move past the pointless things that I can sometimes get caught-up on (feeling uncomfortable, hot, tired, and hungry, or getting lost, or having technology fail me when I really want to chat with someone from home, or post a blog entry….or figure out how to get my camera to work so that I don’t accidentally take 17 pictures of my neck and nostrils). Things are never that bad, and you can always be happy.

                           Ayutthaya was very cool. It was an old capital city when Thailand used to be Siam; there are old ruins everywhere, and the modern society has been built up all around it. Bob and I rented bikes for the day, which was fun! And scary! The roads here in Thailand are bizarre, and for the most part, very busy (I still will never get used to seeing an infant zoom by at the front of a moped, or in his mom’s left arm as she casually hangs on to the man driving with a loose grip). It felt so good to be out and moving around though, really exploring the city; particularly when we came across a GIANT HERD OF ELEPHANTS. They wander around the city with their trainers riding up on top of them. They walk right down the road and cars, bikes, mopeds and foot traffic all yield to them. Elephants always have the right of way. That was such an incredible sight in Ayutthaya. This is also where we had our first Rotee/Roti/Lodie/we-still-are-not-exactly-sure-what-the-right-name-for-it-is. It is basically like a crepe that they cook on these tiny street-carts with a large, circular, hot pan. The first one we ever had was filled with bananas and drizzled with sugar and sweetened condensed milk (I never knew exactly what that was until Thailand, where they use it quite a lot), and it was chopped up into bite-size pieces and served to us in a clear, plastic bag with an over-sized toothpick. IT IS DELICIOUS. You can put almost anything in them: bananas, chocolate, honey, eggs, corn, raisins, nutella (or nuterra, as it is frequently listed). To all you crepe fans out there, you understand. We rode around all day and got caught in a rainstorm on our bikes, so we took shelter at a small outdoor restaurant and played cards until our train came to bring us to Chiang Mai.

Thai sleeper trains are hilarious. The train cars are all open and set up as booths with a removable table, which convert into a sleeping space with a fold-down bunk above it. Bob usually takes the top bunk; I feel like I’m too small and I’d roll out through the cracks of the two seatbelt buckles that attach it to the ceiling throughout the night. So everyone in your train car is basically sharing a room, and starting at roughly 5:30 am, the wake-up calls begin as the train attendants walk up and down the aisles peeking into your curtains and repeating things like “Good morning, breakfast? Good morning, oraaaan juice?” in a repetitive, non-stop sort of song, until we got off at 8:30am in Chiang Mai.

Bathing on the train isn't easy - This is the classic Baby Wipe to the Foot Maneuver

CHIANG MAI:

Sunset at Karen Village

                Jungle trekking was so much FUN. We had a fantastic international group of 12 really great, interesting, and fun people including our guide; the group was made up of people from New Zealand, Germany, Canada, Norway, France, and Thailand, ranging in age from 19 years old to somewhere in the mid-50’s. In case anybody is interested, I shall name them: Blake and Angie (NZ), Dani and Aui (Germany), Kerry and Lauren (Canada), Morten (Norway), Antoine and Jean (France), and Mr. Beau (our guide from Thailand). We visited hill-tribe villages, took a bumpy ride down the river on some bamboo rafts, hiked to a waterfall where we camped for the night, ate snake soup, hiked some more, shot sling shots, ate great food (our first Massaman curry experience  - which is unreal and I highly suggest trying), hiked some more, stayed at a village with the Karen hill-tribe village people, learned a new game which is very much like a combination of volleyball and soccer, and sat around a campfire chatting and playing games with some wonderful people. The bathroom experiences take some getting used to, and not just because they are holes in the ground in little, rickety shacks, but also because you have to navigate your way in the dark between masses of cows, chickens, pigs, and (animal) poop in order to get there and back. After leaving Karen village, we hiked to the Mae Wang Elephant Camp where we rode elephants and fed them bananas. They are incredible animals, and our experiences with them so far have definitely spiked Bob’s and my interest in volunteering at an elephant sanctuary for a period of time while we’re here in Thailand – but we’ll let you all know about that when we figure it all out, of course! 

Snake Soup

  

HUGE spider by our waterfall campsite

Hairy Jungle Rat Delicacy (Bob tried, I did not).

               

                                                                             

Karen Village

         Bob here for a quick cameo in Emily’s chapter-book-blog-post. FREEDOM BAR. We sent an email out to everyone on our jungle trek the night we got back about possibly meeting up for some beers when we all returned to Chiang Mai [bei seung khord or “beeeya sung chord” (That is how you order “two beers,” which Emily and I have gotten very good at saying)]. My dear Tasmanian comrade, Henry, sent me a message when he heard I was going to Thailand, telling me to visit a bar called, Freedom Bar. So, I decided to recommend a friendly gathering at this fine, Chiang Mai establishment.

   
 I’m not sure if Emily has stated this previously in our Chiang Mai post, but we got lost everywhere. Whenever we didn’t take a tuk-tuk, we inevitably got lost. It would take us an hour to get somewhere ten minutes away. At the time, it was one of the most frustrating things ever. Now, when I look back, it really adds to the experience. As chapped as my butt was at the time, those extra hours wandering around in circles were great for people watching, street crossing (Crossing the street anywhere in Bangkok or Chiang Mai is comparable to the game “Frogger,” but instead of a frog, it is you), or fish feet massages (Big shout out to Martin Fish, the king of the Chiang Mai fish massage game – when the UK hits Asia, feet don’t ever feel the same).

Martin Fish - Fish Massage

         The whole point of that long rant was that we ended up taking close to two hours to get to Freedom Bar to meet everyone. Luckily, no one cared, and surprisingly, a number of them got lost as well. Also, everyone who was in town showed up! The Germans (Aui and Dan), the Kiwis (Blake and Ang), the Maple Leafs, eh? (Kerri and Lauren), and us. Freedom bar was amazing – a place where everyone is welcome, the tunes are great, board games are abundant, and every dread-lock in Chiang Mai will make an appearance at some point. Not to mention, if you forget to eat before, street cars with 1 Baht dumplings or fried fish skins will be happy to satisfy any craving coming over you.

   

                 It was a great night, which happened to be quite a late one. Nobody got any sleep, but most of us managed to find each other again the next day for a little sightseeing and hanging out. Good times. Back to you, Em!

                           Another Chiang Mai memory that sticks out to me, which I think embodies the fact that, as I wrote to my sister in an e-mail, “People are nicer here than in Bangkok, almost weirdly so…” is when Bob and I walked around the city our first night to find some sit-down street food before we left for jungle trekking the next day. Often these street vendors will set up some small tables and plastic stools down the alleys behind their carts so that you can sit and eat. We sat down to get some huge bowls of some super spicy and delicious soup; as we waited we struck up small talk with the owner of the street cart. He was really nice and friendly, but when our food came he disappeared. About three-quarters of the way through our meal, Bob stood up just to stretch for a quick second – at which point, the owner dashes over, bends at the waist and hugs Bob around his stomach; then he encourages Bob to sit back down and immediately starts giving him an arm, hand, and back massage at the table, as I sit across from them, eating my noodles in the alleyway.

This went on for about ten minutes, after which the man pretended to steal Bob’s glasses, and hid around the corner until I went to go find him and he laughed. THEN, he stayed with us at the table and performed a series of magic tricks. Strange night, but very entertaining.

           


AND I almost forgot to mention THAI MASSAGES. They’re awesome. It’s like a blend of a chiropractic adjustment and a full-body massage. We went to a place right on the street across from the place we were staying in Chiang Mai. They have you change into these light, airy, jumbo pajama-type clothes and then you lay down on a mat on the floor and these extremely talented little Thai women go to work on you. After an hour of this bliss, unfortunately our time was up. Bob, still in a completely relaxed stupor, stands up by the open slider door, and it takes him a couple of moments to realize that his giant pj pants are completely down around his ankles. We ran and hid behind the changing curtain laughing like schoolgirls until we could finally compose ourselves and pay. I’m still laughing now as I right this, because it was just that funny.

Back to BANGKOK:

                      After a few days in Chiang Mai, it was time for our quick flight back to Bangkok where we spent the day. We explored Lumphini Park, which was such a welcomed break from the bustling, commercial, traffic-filled area that surrounds it - which is funny, because nobody really tells you to go there. Usually when you ask around for fun or cheap things to do in Bangkok, everyone just tries to get you to go to a shopping mall/center, or to go to the Wats (temples). Nobody ever mentions the park. In fact, when we asked about it, people would just cock their heads and ask what we wanted to go there for. BUT! Thankfully, DJ had told me that he had heard very cool things about it, so we made it a point to go. So, thank you, DJ, even though you will most likely never read this blog. Anyways, our day in Bangkok after our flight was mostly spent running away from things. On our journey Lumphini Park, we mistakenly crossed in front of about 5 lanes of motorcycle traffic and had to run for our lives across the street. Scary. Then, we got to Lumphini Park during landscaping time, and had to dart across the fields to avoid all of the sprinklers; right when I thought we were just about safe, I was startled into another full sprint by a giant lizard that dashed in front of me. I am trying to figure out what these lizards are on the inter-web as I type this, and I guess they are maybe Monitor Lizards? But Bob and I are not lizard connoisseurs, so we just called them Komodo Dragons all day (well really, up until right now…and honestly we’ll probably still just call them that). We finally thought we could catch a break and sit down at some tables in the shade and look up a good place to grab food in the area, and as soon as I settled my things and took out our trusty guidebook, the sprinklers started up again and we had to run away. Again. But the park was very cool! We saw more lizards and birds and lots of beautiful trees and plants. Two thumbs up.

KOH TAO:

       Then, we caught another night train to Chomphon, down south, from which we took a bus, and then a ferry to Koh Tao (“Turtle Island!”), and then a ride in the back of a pickup truck to our Dive School/Accommodations. Which is where we are now, which is right on the water, which is beautiful, and amazing, and tropical, and paradise. Of course, we ran into our second batch of German friends that we met while jungle trekking (Dani and Aui) on our ferry to Koh Tao, and we convinced them to join our Dive School; so we’ve been able to spend even more time with them, which is really great since we’ve gotten to be so close with a number of people, but really only for about 3-5 days at a time.

Dani

Aui

Anyways, I am completely exhausted and starving as usual, so we are going to run down the road to grab dinner at the place where a ridiculously cute 3-year-old Thai girl came up to Bob and started painting all of his fingernails last night during our absolutely fantastic meal (which cost us about $3USD, by the way)

 – But we are having an incredible time here and we are learning so much, and we are loving it all and missing all of our friends and family back on the other side of the planet. Please know how much we think about you all, miss you, and talk about all of the different pieces of Thailand we know you would each personally enjoy most. Lots of love and well wishes, my friends :) Sowadee for now.

Here are some links to more photos! Make sure you create a Snapfish Account to view them...

(Helpful Hint: If you can't click on the link, just copy and paste it into a new window on your browser, and enjoy)

Bangkok:

http://www3.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=18443840010/a=162659602_162659602/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

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Ayutthaya:

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Chiang Mai:

http://www3.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=18509561010/a=162659602_162659602/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

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