Bangkok-Chang Mai-Cambodia-Khaolak

Wow, Thailand is just a paradise of so many colors and flavors. After a LONG haul bus ride from Railay, we arrived in Bangkok at 5:30am on Khao San road. Home to backpacker hotels and street vendors galore, this would have been our natural neighborhood of residence in most cities this size. However, we were fortunate enough to have been offered an amazing generous opportunity to stay in the expat area of town by Kay Cariou. Kay is the mother of our friend in SF, Joon Hur, the proprietor of our favorite sushi restaurant (conveniently 1 block from our apartment!), Sushi Rika. Located in the Sukhumvit district of Bangkok, her place was absolutely stunning with 28^th floor views on three sides of the apartment. We can’t thank her enough for giving us to see this very different Bangkok experience (from that we would have seen in Khao San!). We arrived early enough to make the weekend Chatuchak (aka JJ) Market. If you have ever heard anything about outdoor markets in Thailand, this is the mother lode of all markets. Literally thousands upon thousands of vendors in a weaving, wondering maze of stalls. A map will show you there is some method to the madness, but once you’re inside the narrow passages, give up on that and just enjoy feeling a bit lost. All roads lead to a food stall eventually. So, a-shopping we did go. Let’s just say Christmas this year will have decidedly Thai flair to it.

After some initial confusion on arrival dates, Nancy arrived on Monday late night and so began the full “Nancersizing” events! Just a side note, but yes, Nancy Gulick has actually been credited with a new lexicon in the English language defined as cramming as many events into a short of an amount of time as humanly possible. Undertaking a “Nancersize” is not recommended for those of weak constitution. We did the mandatory “Wat-till-you-drop” tour. Wat is the Thai word for Temple, and we snuck in as many as you can in one day. One of the highlights had to be the Wat Phra Kaew (Grand Palace), home of the Emerald Buddha. No photos allowed inside, so mine attached from outside is a bit blurry. We did a really cool boat tour of the canals area of Bangkok in the late afternoon (the old part of Bangkok from where it became known as the Asia Venice). People in this area still live as they have for hundreds of years; in stilted houses over the water. We caught a beautiful sunset at a little placed called “The Deck” overlooking the Temple of the Dawn and finished off with dinner at a great Laotian/Thai restaurant with live music and Laotian dancing.

The next day, we caught a flight up north to Chang Mai. We stayed at the amazing Baan Oripan BnB which was recommended by a good friend of Nancy’s back in STL. Chang Mai is one of the ancient capitals of the Siamese kingdom and is considered one of the most culturally and physically beautiful areas in Thailand. Nestled in the mountains of the north (near the Burmese and Laotian borders), Chang Mai with only 200,000 people has almost as many Wats as Bangkok with 14 million. During our 3 days in the area, we traveled to the surrounding areas of Lanpung (to ride the elephants in the jungle) and Lanpang. The jungle and rice paddy views are just beautiful and you can’t help looking in awe at of the simplicity in which the farmers live; like they have for thousands of years. We also got to experience one of the real treats of Chang Mai, a Thai food cooking school! Getting picked up at our hotel just after 9am, we went with our teacher/chef Yui, took us first to the market to see all the ingredients not used in our dishes (as well as all the others normally used in Thai food of all types). From there we went to her home which is where she conducts the school. Classes are limited to no more than 8, but we were fortunate to have only the 3 of us and a mother/son combo. They hailed from Houston and the 18 year old son was doing a student exchange program living in a small village outside of Changmai. What an experience this kid was getting! We watched Yui demonstrate each dish and then went at it ourselves at each of our stations. It was a BLAST and the food was excellent if we do say so ourselves! You also come away with Yui’s cookbook, so our friends back home better get ready for some SPICE!

From ChangMai we flew back to Bangkok to catch a hoper flight over to Siem Reap, Cambodia, the hoping off town to visit the incredible temple ruins of Angkor Wat, Cambodia’s jewel. Not knowing what we were heading to see exactly, we were surprised to learn that Angkor is more a series of temple complexes covering dozens of square miles. Angkor Wat is simply the most well known and best restored. Staying at the Raffles hotel, and incredible 5 star chain around Asia, we took a leisurely morning at the pool our first day and then retreated indoors for some serious rain. The rain let up in the evening enough for us to head into the park area and climb Phnom Bakheng for the sunset. Though the clouds obscured us from the full color effects we desired, it was beautiful none the less and we are all very proud of Nancy for making the climb up and down the super steep steps knowing how much she just loves heights! Up top we bumped into a couple from NY who was also viewing the amazing sunset. This would not be last we saw of them. We wrapped up the evening with a traditional Cambodian BBQ and were all satisfied with the day’s events.

Angkor Wat at sunrise is a peaceful place. Getting up at 4;30, not so peaceful. But we endured. We were smart enough to hire a car and guide for the 8 hour tour of the ruins. Ankgor Wat was first. We weaved around the 3 corridors that surround the temple and viewed the 12^th century carvings which outline the Hindu legends including the Mahabharatah. Ankgor Wat is the most restored temple of the complex. Ankgor Thom was constructed in the 13^th century and has only been restored in so far as the trees and jungle that covered it as late as the late 19^th century when it was rediscovered by the French archeologist Henri Mouhot. As you approach the gates of Ankgor Thom you cross a causeway lined on each side with statues. On the right are 54 demons and on the left are 54 gods. The scene represents the battle over the snake in the milk sea. Ankgor Thom is smaller than Ankgor Wat but has 54 towers which each sat above a statue of Buddah. Most of the statues have either been stolen or sit in museums around the area. The number 54 represents the number of provinces in Cambodia at the time. The small country was once a giant in Asia. Thankfully we had the air conditioned car because it was about 110 outside. We were met at the exit and had time for some cold water and a cool down before exploring the final wat of the day., Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm is the least restored of the complex as none of the jungle has been removed from the temple. It was amazing to see what a few centuries of nature can do to such a massive structure. The walls and towers actually have trees growing on them. Apparently bird droppings contain seeds which grow into massive trees. It was interesting to see the 3 stages of the ruins, from Ankgor Wat being fully restored, to Ankgor Thom just having the trees and jungle removed to Ta Prohm being almost as it was found 150 years ago. The entire complex was breathtaking if not a bit revealing of the egos of the kings who built them. Back to Raffles for an afternoon nap before exploring the downtown area of Siem Reap. Angelina Jolie’s presence here has definitely been marked. There are drinks named Angelina and everyone claims their product to be Angelina’s favorite. We waited out a monsoon style storm on the 2^nd story of an open air restaurant before making our way to an Apsura dinner show. This traditional Hindu dancing is beautiful with the costumes, headdresses and almost awkward foot positioning, flexed feet rather than pointed toes. Our final day in Cambodia was relaxing and we ran into our NY friends at the airport who invited us to join them for dinner that evening in Bangkok. Bangkok is a massive city with traffic to match. It took us over an hour to make it across town to meet up along the river for a splendid dinner and final night for Nancy. Wednesday we packed up and said goodbye to Kay’s lovely apartment and headed to the President Solitaire hotel. We got in some final shopping, of course, and delivered Nancy to the airport so she could return to STL and plan the grand event, Whitney’s wedding! We are so happy for Whit and can’t wait to meet Tim, the man of her dreams. We can’t thank Nancy enough for showing her adventurous side and coming all the way to Thailand to meet up with us.

Back in Bangkok for our second round, we relocated to the amazing President Solitaire hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 11. This location is right in the heart of it all and we got experience a lot more of the nightlife from this very central location. The hotel was really nice and a total steal! A minor legal snafu with our condo conversion documentation (FYI Kinkos notary public sucks!), meant we had to stick around in Bangkok a little longer than planned and forgo our plan to hit up the diving mecca of Ko Tao; another trip some other time! So, we had to stay in Bangkok to use the notary public at the US Embassy on Monday morning. Luckily, we were already meeting up with our friends Jackie and John (last name unknown John) and their boys Conner and Andrew who were coincidentally visiting Thailand with the Thai buddy from SF, Sila. This gave us a couple of great days with them seeing some more sights and experiencing Thailand night life with Sila as a guide. Several amazing meals and one night out on the town for just the boys (‘nough said) and we finally departed Bangkok weary and ready for some down time on the beach. Our revised destination, Khoalak!

Khoalak, located on the Andaman Sea, was apparently experiencing a serious growth spurt prior to the 2004 Tsunami. 5 years later it is making a comeback albeit slowly. Only 1 ½ hours drive north of Phuket, Khaolak is an amazing and chill beach community actually made up of 3 distinct beaches/towns; Khaolak, Nang Thong and Bang Niang. We settle in the middle town, Nang Thong at a picture perfect little resort, the Green Beach Resort, in a bungalow 5 yards from the water. In another couple years, this place may become another Phuket, but for now it is relaxed and tranquil. Not the remote community of Railay by any means, the main road is full of restaurants and bars. But the beaches are untouched by anything more commercial than one story resorts. The main attraction of Khoalak is the Similan Islands National Park (diving and snorkeling extraordinaire). However, our offseason schedule didn’t help us in this instance as the islands are closed for 6 months of the year for a combination of protecting the wildlife and due to sketchy sea conditions during the rainy season. Undeterred, we rented a scooter and explored all the surrounding jungles and waterfalls. The Khaolak-Lumru National Park is on the south side of the towns and was amazing. Hiking south through the park, we trekked through pristine jungle trails stopping every 20 yards to allow a giant lizard or spider to scamper off the trail and grant us safe passage! The end of the hike to the south is an untouched white sand beach in a remote cove. Being the down season, this paradise was ours alone. Replete with a fresh water stream and pool for cleaning off the salt water, we relaxed on this Robinson Caruso-esque beach and listened to nothing but the surf and the jungle critters galore. Sweating our way back to the park entrance (yes, it is hot in the jungle in July!), we enjoyed several days of this paradise and needed down time. For those of you questioning the need for “down time” on a 6 month vacation, take it from us, little breaks from touring are mandatory. As our buddy Brian-chela-Rees will confirm, road warrior style touring requires little breaks of nothing but chilling to get the travel engines recharge.

Thailand has been a true paradise and a place we will no doubt return some time in the future. Do I hear a call out for a family get-together some day on the Gulf of Thailand??? So, fully recharged, we head off to our next destination of exploration, Vietnam! We’ll be there for about 7 weeks before heading back stateside (with a brief stop in Hong Kong to harass the Strines again!). So, stay tuned for further installments and wacky adventures!

Thailand- Phuket, Ko Phi Phi & Railay

If you have not taken notice lately as you are visiting your local Thai restaurant, be sure to make a special effort to have a look at Thai characters and writing. It’s beautiful. One of the things that struck us upon arrival to Thailand was the similarity of the sounds of Thai to Vietnamese. Both languages have multiple tones. In Thai there are 5 tones: low, level or mid tone, falling tone, high tone and rising tone. Well, that’s the start of the difficulties. It’s a very complicated language and we’re just lucky that the Thai people are ultra friendly and most of them know at least a little English.

After arriving in Phuket we hopped a taxi to Nai Han on the southern tip of the peninsula. We spent 2 nights in this semi sleepy beach town that had been taken out by the Tsunami back in 2004. We were given a recommendation by some folks we hiked with in Jordan, but apparently we mixed up Nai Han and Nai Yang. Oh well, there was a beautiful, if unsafe to swim in due to riptides, beach. We stayed in a simple bungalow and dove instead into the Thai massage culture. We started off our visit with pedicures and Thai massages for two for a grand total of 800 Thai Baht. At the current exchange rate of 34 that’s just under $24. We might be able to fit in quite a few massages at these prices. Oh, and to top off the experience for another 100 baht, as promised, Charlie got a new doo… that’s hair doo, or hair don’t as Rawson calls it. It don’t need washin’ and it don’t need stylin’. All it doo is look like a Thai monk. That’s right folks, all off. But honestly it looks quite good and was absolutely necessary in this heat and humidity. How about we take a vote… Should Rawson go Sinead O’Connor style too?

Ok, enough of that. We had a nice 2 days in Nai Han and our first taste of authentic Thai food was great. We decided to head to Ko Phi Phi. One Tut-tut (a taxi of sort, but more like a collectivo for those of you who have traveled in central America- in other words a truck into which passengers jump in the hopefully-covered back) and a ferry boat later we arrived at the Ko Phi Phi pier. Ko Phi Phi is most noted for 2 things being the site of the beginning of the movie “The Beach” and getting almost completely wiped out by the Tsunami in 2004 (one of the Thai princes died here during that tragedy). We found a decent place to stay and headed out exploring the island. After chilling on the beach with a fruity cocktail we watched the sun begin to set over the lagoon and come to recognize that we are one night before the full moon. In just about any beach town in the world that caters to backpackers, a full moon is cause célèbre – that’s right a Full Moon Party. Usually begins as the moon rises and goes until... This one was filled with locals doing anything you can think of with fire, and lots of booze (yes there are lots of accidents, bad combo). There is fire twirling, fire jump roping, fire limbo, fire walking etc etc. We found a bungalow on the beach where the best fire dancers would be performing the next night. We took in another day of Phi Phi and enjoyed the laid back atmosphere of southern Thailand. We had an afternoon Piña Colada at Carlito’s Bar on the beach (had to for Charlie’s namesake), then moved to the new bungalow and rested up for the night ahead. Being the oldest people at this full moon party we had to fit the stereotype and be the first to arrive. We don’t mind the stereotyping and it gave us a great chance to meet and get acquainted with the performers. Johnny was the “funny guy” who seemed to be leading the show a bit. Funny he is and quite talented as well. These young guys really put on a show for us and let us take as many pictures as we wanted, all before anyone else showed up.

Out comes the moon, out come the people and on comes the music and fire. What a spectacular show. After the main event was over they had games that the on lookers could participate in, fire games. If you jump the fire rope you get a shot of whiskey. The limbo winner got a bottle of Vodka. We met a Danish guy who burned his feet badly walking on the fire. You get the point. Charlie avoided the “peer” pressure in style (easy when your peers are 10-20 years younger) and we had a blast watching and making new friends. Check out some of the great photos. We finally turned in about 2AM but the thump-thump-thump of the Full Moon Party didn’t end…ever; didn’t sleep too well, but oh well.

The following day we took a ferry to Krabi town, a tut-tut to Au Nang and then a long tail boat to get to Railay Beach, our next destination. We’d heard from friends that this was a magical spot, and it did not disappoint. Railay is one of the premier rock climbing spots in the world. Its beaches are lined with towering cliffs and the green sea is sprinkled with massive out croppings of limestone rocks. This place is part of the mainland, but there are no roads there. It’s only accessible via long tail boat. We arrived on Railay West and asked every resort about their rates, but they did not fit into our Asia budget. So we took the advice of two guys from the UK we met on the way over and hiked over to Railay East. Where Railay West is beach front resorts and stunning sunsets, Railay East is back packers haven. This is a completely chilled out spot on the mangrove side of the island. By the time we arrived Rawson was at the end of her rope with her back pack. Broken, uncomfortable, lopsided etc. she felt she couldn’t go another step when a fellow asked if we wanted to see a 400 Baht/night room in the View Point Resort. Sure! For 400 Baht you can get a private bungalow with private bath and a fan that is quite nice. The view is of the bay and sunrise. But for 800 Baht you can get the same room but with Air Conditioning! Charlie talked them down to 700, of course, and we agreed to stay 2 nights there. We decided later in the week after having seen a couple of other places that 700/night (21USD) was just fine with us and negotiated an even lower rate for another 3 nights to total 5 on Railay. We met some truly amazing folks on the 2^nd day just as we found the best beach ever in Hat Pra Nang. This incredible spot is replete with staggering rock formations, powder white beaches and macaque monkeys at the end of each day (the monkeys took a shine to Rawson!). We ended up spending most of our time with our new friends and on this spectacular beach. First we met James. We’d seen James while we were on the beach sun bathing and having foot massages. He was sitting having lunch with a Thai woman and they looked like they could be good friends. Before we packed up to head in for a shower we asked James if he’d take a photo of us and chatted for a few minutes with him. Next morning we ran into him for coffee at Joy Bar and he invited us to join him on the beach for lunch with Sanah, the Thai woman we saw him with. This was the start of a grand experience not to mention a few new friendships. We met up with James, Sanah and Vanessa around 2:00 for lunch. Sanah and her husband Tik are from Au Nang and boat over every day giving massages on the beach. Before the Tsunami Tik (then aged 57) had a long tail boat and that was their livelihood (ferry goods and people). But it was smashed by the tsunami, as were those of so many people. Instead of looking for handouts, these amazing people instead took on the additional responsibility of adopting an orphan (a 5 year of boy who lost his parents in the tsunami)! Keep in mind this is middle aged couple already have 3 grown children of their own. Sanah and Tik are so truly kind, warm and prefect representation of the nature of the Thai people. When James met them a few weeks ago they invited him to join for lunch they had brought with them. After a few days of that James began inviting others to join and donate a nominal fee and now Sanah and Tik prepare lunch for about 4-6 others every afternoon. We joined them for 3 days. This was some of the best food we have had so far in Thailand, and many things you can’t get in restaurants. The experience was unforgettable and touched our hearts. Top all that with enjoying this experience sitting on one of the most spectacular beaches in the world (said to be loveliest in Thailand), there you go!

In the evenings we would meet up with our new mates and enjoy the vibe at Railay East. We loved this little slice of paradise and were sad to leave. We know that we’ll be back one day.

One long tail boat, one tut-tut, one overnight bus and one taxi to Kay’s condo in Bangkok. The next 10 days we’ll explore Bangkok, Chang Mai, Chang Rai and who knows what else, all with Nancy, Charlie’s mom, who we are off to fetch from the airport now!