Sawatdee jarg thailand

  Bangkok, Thailand
Tuesday, November 11, 2008

We arrived a bit tired from a red-eye flight to Bahrain before arriving in Bangkok late in the evening. As we left the plane for the jet-way, we immediately knew we were somewhere new; Candy said, "welcome to one of the many smells of Thailand."

We took an aircon bus into the area of the city where most backpackers stay. Despite our fatigue, we stayed up several hours devouring street food (amazing pad thai and sticky rice with mango that night--and the next few nights as well). The variety, quality, and price of the street food kept us very busy in Bangkok. We had an unusual fruit smoothie most mornings (Banana-avocado was the most unusual we've tried so far. If we get back to Bangkok we plan to try the beet root-mango option!). This was quickly followed by something at our two favorite stands (Mr. Yim's for vegetarian curries and a stand run by several lady-boys for stir fries).

Khao San Road - Bangkok

Smoothies with Monica and Thomaz

We were in Bangkok for two interesting events. The November full moon is celebrated by Thais by launching flower-filled circular disks, krathongs, in the river from one of the temples near where we stayed. The purpose of releasing the krathongs is to receive forgiveness for any bad thoughts or deeds during the last year and make your wishes for the next year. We purchased our float, lit the incense and candle, and managed to launch it in the river despite the huge crowd. Amazingly, on our way out of the crowd we ran into friends we made on our Galapagos cruise. We spent the remainder of that evening catching up with Mark and Maureen over several bottles of Leo (a local beer), and more street food.

floating krathangs in Bangkok

with Mark and Maureen

The cremation ceremony for the King's sister (who had died in January) was held during our stay in Bangkok as well. Huge crowds lined the streets near our hotel for the events. Thousands of Thais (mostly in black clothing) lined the streets and parks to watch the ceremonies. We can't say we understood a lot of what went on. However, we could clearly see the importance of the Royal Family in Thailand.

It was quite warm in Bangkok with occasional downpours. As we were a bit jet-lagged and spent some time watching movies and catching up on Season 2 of "Big Love", we managed to be inside for most of the rain. We did get caught in one downpour during our water taxi trip down the river one evening. The rain didn't diminish the enjoyment of seeing the palaces and wats along the river at night time. (Plus, Ray was able to take his first tuk-tuk ride back to our hotel!)

On another day, we visited the world's largest covered market (over 15,000 vendors) in the northern portion of Bangkok and, as a counter-point stopped in Bangkok's largest mall complex (mostly for the air conditioning, although we did enjoy a couple of "New York" pretzel dogs). The heat and humidity in Bangkok, while nothing like Abu Dhabi, was unpleasant. We enjoyed air conditioning when we found it and even tried the Thai process of covering your body in talcum powder. We may not be performing the process entirely correctly, but at least we didn't end up with a pair of paste-pants like Ross on "Friends."

We had planned to head to an island near Thailand for a few days. However, a typhoon was causing 10 meter waves in the area, so we headed north to Chiang Mai on the night bus. After a long night, the bus dropped us well outside the city. Luckily, a hotel representative was there to greet us with a complimentary songthaew (a pickup truck with covered benches in the bed that serves as a taxi/bus in most of Thailand).

Chiang Mai was mercifully cooler. Near our hotel we visited a huge night market for tourists. At the nearby market for locals we were able to try more fruit shakes and Ray had some interesting fried chicken at "KFG"-- Kentucky Fried Gai (Chicken in Thai).

KFG necking

dried squid everywhere!

Candy took a week-long intensive yoga course in Chiang Mai (Ray explored the city during her class and found a rare treasure--a Reese's peanut butter cup, which we gleefully licked from the wrapper. Now, if only we could find some red licorice...). We both took a Thai one-day cooking course where we think we've perfected our Pad Thai and curry recipes. We hope the cookbook we received and the many videos we took will allow us to duplicate the results when we return.

Ray cooking with flame (intentionally)

We've already posted about our Thanksgiving and the protests in Thailand. As we mentioned, the protests weren't visible to us in Chiang Mai, although we understand there was at least one fatality in the area. As with the cremation ceremony, we can't say we understand all the dynamics of the protests (For example, a previous prime minister had to step down because his popular cooking show on television violated the constitution!). We could clearly see that Thailand's standard of living has increased remarkably in the last decades. We hope that the tensions based on how these gains in standards of living are distributed can be resolved without more bloodshed and damage to the economy. 

After thanksgiving we headed out on a 3-day trek into the mountains. The hiking wasn't terribly strenuous as we stopped every few hours for lunch or to swim under a waterfall. In the evening we stayed in traditional huts in a Karen village. It was very cold at night in the mountains, so we really enjoyed sitting around the campfire sharing a bottle of Hong Thong rum and some village moonshine.

waterfall we hiked to and swam in

no tractors here, elephants all the way!

hiking through rice paddies

inside our hut

along side of hilltribe village

bananas with flower

During our trek we took an elephant ride. The locals sell bags of bananas so that you can feed the elephants during the ride. We learned not to place the bag of bananas between our legs so that we could use our hands to hold onto the "saddle." When Ray made this mistake, our elephant's trunk managed to get to second base with Ray. At the end of our ride we were were offered a nicely framed picture of us on our elephant. The frame, however, is made of elephant dung. So, we're not sure where exactly that photo will end up.

elephant toes

elephants have longer eyelashes than Ray!!!

on elephant trek

ray's thai massage

the elephants could tell we had food

with our escort

Sex tourism in Bangkok is still alive and well. A more positive addition to the tourist trade is medical tourism. It's quite easy to get dental work completed by western-trained dentists really cheaply (a routine exam and cleaning is about $15). Many other types of the elective procedures are offered in the bigger cities.

front page of paper

We did go to the U.S. consulate in Chiang Mai to get a list of recommended dentists. Going through the extensive security process at our consulate was interesting.

Instead of going to the dentist, we enjoyed massages for $3 to $9 an hour. In one case Ray received an experience in torture called a Thai massage. His masseuse, Nam, drove her rigid fingers into pressure points into his leg until he begged her to stop. The next day, Ray's thigh was completely covered with yellow bruises. He still suffers from flashbacks from Nam.

From Chiang Mai we headed northwest towards the Burma border to a town called Pai. While Pai is only 80 miles away, the road contains 762 switchbacks. So, the trip took about 4 hours. Thankfully, we had a good driver and, amazingly, there were guard rails on the side of the road!

In Pai we stayed in a guesthouse run by a wonderful woman, Nu. Our bungalow reminded Ray a lot of the little cabin used by his family for many years. Pai was a busy place during our stay. The town was holding it's first film festival and 1000s of Thais were in town for a long weekend to celebrate the King's birthday (also known as Father's Day in Thailand). This is the second time during our trip that towns catering to western tourists were completely taken over by locals (Olympos in Turkey was the other). While this raised all the prices for us, Ray saw this emergence of a large middle-class as a really good sign for Thailand's future. 

The King was ill on his birthday and did not deliver his anticipated speech. As we mentioned earlier, the King is so revered in Thailand, that we think that the people decided everyone should become ill in sympathy. Almost everyone we met in Pai had a nasty 24 hour stomach virus. While we've both enjoyed eating Thai food for almost every meal, Candy needed some comfort food. She taught Nu how to make a baked potato in the microwave. Nu was very excited to add this dish to her list of foods she could cook for westerners!

In Pai, Candy took more yoga classes. We hiked out of town to see the countryside and a rural wat (buddist temple). Candy took a fruit and vegetable carving class on our last day in Pai (Ray was still recovering from his illness). Then we spent a very long day traveling back to Chiang Mai and north to Chiang Khong on the Laos border to continue our travels.

carving class in Pai

smiley moon and planets over Pai

Nu about to fly balloon

Moon over Mekong River

Tune in next to hear about our journey down the Mekong river and our adventures in Laos.

Candy and Ray