Thailand: Chiang Mai wonders

So we left you at the Sunday night market in Chiang Mai, where we met up with a nice English couple we met at the cooking class. At the Sunday market they sell a bit of everything. Reminded us of Carmel Market and Nachlat Benjamin back home. It's basically the same idea: cheap clothes, food, and handmade art and crafts of all sort. The price is about the same too, so we didn't buy anything.

Also, we know that we have to schlep (carry) anything we buy, so next time we'll just finish our trip in Thailand :-)

At one point we ran away from the crowd and entered an architecture exposition that happened to have a photo exposition of Paris (!) - how random is that?!

So of course, Rony had a bit of nostalgia and suddenly missed Paris, but it lasted only a few minutes.

No time to linger!

Back to the market. We had to stay focused on not losing each other (literally, not figuratively). We already lost our English couple somewhere on the way,  so no need to worry about finding each other. Anyway, we said that if we do, we meet each other at the entrance of the market.

Because of all the dishes we prepared earlier and the strong smell of (fried?) food in the market, we couldn't eat anything so we ended up having a cup of mocha/hot chocolate at a nice coffee shop. And guess what was playing when we were there? You got it: Taylor Swift! It's like she's everywhere we go. Even on magazines:

We walked back to the hotel which takes 45 minutes more or less. We exercise whenever we can :) 

Today we had an easier day. We woke up late (8:00) and decided to take it easy: breakfast at the hotel, laundry in our room (it's about time!!) and reading about the rest of our trip. And a tour of Doi Suthep and Bhubing Palace that started in the afternoon.

First, the guide we had was very funny and instructive. He told us about Chiang Mai history (it's a 714-year-old city), Thai history, and the king's life. For example, we learned that the king has American citizenship! He was born in Boston, Mass., and apparently Elvis came to sing for him in the 60's. He didn't know what song, but serenaded us with Love Me Tender just in case. Anyway, very interesting.

Doi Suthep itself is a very interesting and beautiful site. The whole site is set on the top of a mountain,  2500 meters high.  And the Bhubing Palace, the royal winter residence, is a big complex of gardens and big lodges where everything is carefully taken care of to the small details. Beautiful roses and other flowers all around, fountains, and huge bamboo trees.

After that we went to Doi Suthep itself. This temple is one of the most venerated temple in Thailand.
There are 300 steps leading to the entrance, but we took the cable car to get up. It's main distinguished feature is the golden Pagoda at the center. It is currently being renovated after being partially ruined in the 2005 tsunami/earthquake.

Pagoda at Doi Suthep

We learned a lot about Buddhism traditions. For example, a color represents each day of the week: Monday is yellow, Tuesday is pink, Wednesday is green, Thursday is orange, Friday is blue, Saturday is purple, and Sunday is red, and you are supposed to walk around the pagoda 3 times: once for Buddha, once for  karma and once for the monks.

At the end of the trip, Talia won a bracelet because she answered correctly the trivia question about our tour: When was Chiang Mai built? And the answer is: 714 years ago.

At least we walked DOWN the stairs...

We were dropped off at the night market where they sell all the funny T-shirts, and had the typical meal when you've been in Thailand for more than 2 weeks.

McDonald's and Subway :)

That's it for today! Tomorrow we'll be on a more serious tour: Doi Ithanon in the south of Chiang Mai.
We wake up at 7:00, so we've got to go to sleep now!

See you tomorrow!

Photos from this photo and up:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=15686717&l=bf2238fb28&id=906005363

Thailand: Bangkok to Chiang Mai in 1 hour

Yesterday we left Bangkok for Chiang Mai, which is in north Thailand. We'll be back in Bangkok at the end of the trip to see the temples we haven't yet seen.

Lantern ready to fly near Chiang Mai Sunday market

Originally we were going to take an overnight train to Chiang Mai, but we tried getting them 3 days before and it was sold out, so we had to order a flight on Air Asia, the low-cost airline. The flight isn't that much more expensive than the train at all, but we did have to get another night in the hotel, which was an additional expensive we hadn't expected.

We took the morning to rest up and get some things prepared for more parts of our trip, and then took the train to the airport. In case we weren't clear enough before, there is zero reason to take a taxi to the airport. It is expensive and takes a really long time since traffic is horrible, and public transportation in Bangkok is marvelous. Check out our tips on the backpacker's practical info page

We arrived in Chiang Mai yesterday evening and got to our hotel, Rainforest Boutique, which is really cute, but it's kinda in Harlem, Chiang Mai. We haven't heard any gun shots, so we think we're OK. They hotel has a nice service where you can rent bikes here for pretty cheap, and the first hour is free, so we grabbed a couple of bikes to go to the 7-Eleven to get some stuff.

We had originally intended on going to the night market, but for some inexplicable reason we were exhausted, so we had a really delicious and inexpensive meal at the hotel and decided to get a couple of massages. We were both hurting a bit from carrying our bags on our backs for so long, so it sounded like a great idea, and for 300 Baht (under $10) it's hard to say no.

The ladies who did our massage were a bit late, and incredibly apologetic - and adorable like everyone in this marvelous country. They gave us some traditional massage clothes to wear and got started. I wanted to explain that I didn't want the massage to be too hard, but of course they didn't understand, so I said "No" and then sign languaged rough squeezing with sound effects. It was funny, but they understood.

The massages were great, even if they hurt a bit, until we got towards the end when Rony's masseuse felt his shoulders, and for the next 30 minutes she kept saying "no good, no good" and making "tsk tsk" sounds. It was really funny. Well, not so much for Rony.

We called it a fairly early night, because this morning we got up early for a whole day at a cooking school. That was such a fun experience! And a great way to know new people (Side note: gather people around food so they will get to know each other, that's a start up!)

After a gigantic breakfast (though we didn't eat much since we knew we'd be eating a lot at the school), we were picked up at 9 am by the cooking school. Most of the people taking the classes were American, but there were a bunch from all around, and one Israeli guy.

We call him The Annoying Israeli.

And he didn't know we were also Israeli.

We made sure of it.

We walked into the school and were given a menu from which to choose which 5 dishes that we wanted to make, divided into soups, curries, desserts, etc., and of course we both chose different ones so we could taste the most, and were given a really nice cookbook with all of the school's recipes to take home with us.

Side note: I couldn't remember how to say dishes in English. I had to ask Rony for help. To which he just replied, "If you need any more help in English, just let me know."

Back to school. The food was amazing, classes were fun, and all the teachers spoke great English. After choosing which dishes we'd like to make, we all went to the market together and got an explanation about everything and picked up what we'd need.

Basically, every time we made a new dish, we were divided into separate cooking areas to make whatever we chose, and then we would meet after each dish to eat them.

All in all, today was a wonderful day. We got back to the hotel to watch bootleg TV and are now about to head out to the famous Sunday market. Talk to you soon!

You can see pics from today here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=568258&id=906005363&l=cdcee0fa2f

Sorry they aren't labeled yet, we need to head out to meet some of our new friends.

Bangkok - Day trip to Ayutthaya (the former capital of Thailand)

As you may have read, yesterday we planned on taking it easy, seeing as we were still tired from the week of no sleep at the WFFT, but it didn't really work out the way we planned and we ended up being on our feet about 5 extra hours.

So today Rony wisely changed our plans and decided we should take a day trip to Ayutthaya instead since it involved a 1.5 hour train ride in each direction and would allow us to sight-see and rest simultaneously. Being the dutiful girlfriend that I am, I followed.

Also, I really can only find our hotel.

Ones of the rare whole Buddhas remaining in Ayutthaya ruins

Ayutthaya used to be the capital city of Thailand, and at one point was the largest city in the world when it boasted 1 million citizens. Most of the historical areas of the city are actually ruins, having been destroyed and left to burn back in 1767 by the Burmese army.

End of history lesson.

Let me start with this: Historic Ayutthaya is really nice. The town itself is kinda grungy, but that's OK.

Don't worry, they have 7-Elevens, so they're cool.

Anyway, most of what you'll see there is ruins, and it's a nice breath of fresh air (when you're not on the main road) - literally and a change from Bangkok.

Getting there is really easy. We took the Metro (MTR, not the Sky Train) to the end of the line, which is Hua Lamphong, and from there we took a Thai train. What I mean by Thai train is that everyone on it, except us and a few others, is Thai. It also means that the cost of the train's 1 hour and 45 min ride to Ayutthaya is - wait for it - $0.47. The touristy train comes less often and costs about 10 times as more, which still isn't a lot of money, but you can buy a lot in Thailand for that amount. And since we'll be backpacking for 4 months, we figure we should be as frugal as possible.

The train isn't air conditioned, but it's an open train, so there's lots of air, no bad smell, and people are walking up and down the aisles selling food and drinks all the time (and the locals buy it).

As everywhere else in Thailand, the people at the train station and everyone in Ayatthuya was incredibly friendly, none more than the very old and very drunk man on the train who "God bless you"'d us more than once and told me I was beautiful.

Now before you think the comment was because he was under the influence, please note that I was told 4 (four) times today that I am beautiful, none by people I know. Well, once I told Rony that, he said it too, of course, so that's 5, but the first 4 lead me to believe that either 1) Everyone in Thailand is drunk or 2) I am a goddess.

I'm going with #2.

We arrived in Ayatthuya, where the locals drive as marvelously as the people of Bangkok, and then took a 2-minute ferry to cross the river that cost a whopping 12 cents per person (per direction, 25 cents round trip, if you will) and then started walking.

So here's the thing. We didn't have a map and didnt' really know where we were going. But we never ended up in Harlem, Ayatthuya, so we were fine. As usual, everyone was very friendly, but most spoke even worse English than in Bangkok, so we took to asking the few tourists we could find where we could get a map.

The head of the sandstone Buddha image in Wat Mahathat

Eventually, after walking through another typical market, we arrived at our first location: Wat Mahathat. Like basically all of historic Ayatthuya, Wat Mahathat is mostly ruins of a Temple. The place was burned down, and even though much of it has survived, it is mostly black, and almost all of the Buddhas have had their heads chopped off. It's very sad, in our opinion, that someone would disrespect someone's beliefs that way, but most of the Buddhas are like that now there.

Once we finished walking around that area and the one by it, we sat down at the cutest coffee shop/guest house. Their mocha was great, and even though we didn't eat there, we loved that all of their food was offered in two different sized portions: Big and very big. The owner was incredible sweet and so very helpful. Since we didn't really know what we wanted to see (the change of plans was literally this morning), we asked her what the best places to go were, and she told us - and she was right.

One Love - the coffee shop/guesthouse/tuk tuk negotiator where we asked for directions

The best part was that she actually negotiated a tuk tuk price for us. Generally the rates there go for about 250-300 Baht ($7-9) per hour, but she got it down to 150 Baht ($4.70) for us by saying that we are her guests. The place is called Coffee One Love, and it's a bit more expensive than most places in Thailand that we've seen so far, but still very low budget, and we were so tired from updating the blog until 2 am, that we really needed the coffee pick-me-up (which was delicious).

The place we went next used to be a temple, also destroyed by the Burmese, named Wat Chaiwatthanaram. It was so far from everywhere else, that the only way to get there is by tuk tuk or cab. Another popular option is to rent a bike or a motorcycle, but we didn't want to die.

Wat Chaiwatthanaram

This temple is magnificent. At first we couldn't really understand why she recommended it, but when we saw the last side of the temple - wow. See for yourself in the Facebook pics, it's just gorgeous!

At this point, we had another hour that we could have been walking around for, but we were exhausted, so we went back to the guest house where we were picked up and walked the 30-minute walk back to the river and just waited for the train.

All in all, we had a really great time, and the (relative) rest today was really needed. Rony is lucky, he can sleep whenever he decides he wants to, but me? Not so much. So I'm updating the blog. It's only 12:20 am, though, but I will go to sleep soon becuase we have a long day tomorrow including temples in Bangkok and a flight to Chiang Mai.

Talk to y'all soon!

P.S. More pictures in our album on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=567114&id=906005363&l=0f03363831 (We added today's pics to the Bangkok album)

Bangkok, Thailand: China Town, Siam Malls, Patagon, and Dean and Deluca's

So, as we started to say yesterday, we had a surprising first evening in Bangkok. Som, E.P.'s friend, asked us to meet her at the BTS sky train station Chong Nonsi. Our hotel is on Sukhumvit street and very close to the Sky Train, not to mention we have a complimentary Tuk Tuk from the hotel to the station, so it was very easy to get meet her.

Dean & Deluca Christmas tree

She invited us to the Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Bangkok's Dean & Deluca. Neither of us being from New York City, we had no idea what it was, but it sounded interesting. Som has all the pictures from last night, so one day we will get them and upload them, but for now our descriptions will have to do.

The Christmas tree is gigantic, there was Christmas music playing, and a live band was playing Christmas music, too. Santa Claus sang a lot and he had a great voice! I took a picture with him - my first! - and he gave me a lollipop. :-)

There was tons of great champagne and wine, and loads of small sandwiches of all kinds, and some incredible looking desserts, all on the house, of course. We met the manager of the place, John, who is a friend of Som's (since she eats there every day), and he invited us to lunch today, so these pictures below are from today.

While we were at the party, Som asked us if we knew what couch surfing was. We said of course - we will be couch surfing in Australia and Japan! And before we knew it, we were at our first couch surfing meet up that took place in a nice non-touristy area. It was so much fun - I can't imagine our first evening in Bangkok being any better.

Dean & Deluca desserts - yum

After updating our blog last night and uploading some pictures, we sank into a marvelous bed, infinitely more comfortable than at the volunteer center (but no complaints!). This was, of course, after enjoying our first hot shower in a week and staring at the marvel that is a flushable toilet (after not seeing one for a week as well).

This morning we got a bit of a late start, since we weren't able to get a train ticket to Chiang Mai and will be taking a flight with Air Asia instead, so we needed to extend our hotel stay here by another night. We went for brunch(ish) at Dean & Deluca and then set off.

Dean & Deluca line and menu

About D&D: The place is magnificent. We got salads first, mostly because we were craving fresh vegetables after over a week of stir-fry and fried foods. Here's a tip: Everything at D&D is so great, skip the salad. Babies eat more when they're 3 weeks old. The portion was tiny. But we also ordered a sandwich later which was delicious and definitely a normal (not huge) sized portion. We also had a couple of desserts, cause we had to, and they were also wonderful.

Rony eating an opera cake at Dean and Deluca

Talia eating a coconut cake at Dean and Deluca

Then we were off. We walked over to Silom, which was not far away, and then walked down. We originally intended on taking a boat up the river to the Wat Pho Temple, but we could only find one-hour (and more) tours that were incredibly expensive, so we forewent the boat ride and walked through China Town.

Walking through Silom was great, but China Town was such an awesome experience! First of all, I got the cutest traditional Chinese outfit for less than $7 for my 2.5 year-old niece to wear as a costume (or whenever if she likes it). But the colors and the smells and the sounds were so wonderful. Though we have to mention that the air pollution took its toll on us and we had to escape into a mall to be able to breath for a while.

China Town - so clean

One of the biggest things we noticed about Bangkok - not just China Town - is that it is absolutely impossible to find a trash can. The funny part about this is that it's a very clean city - we rarely saw trash on the streets, and definitely monumentally less than we should have had there been trash cans.

Yum!

The stands through China Town had basically everything you could possibly think of - and some you really couldn't - but it gave us a preview of what to expect when we're in China. Every few feet you could also buy all kinds of fruit, which is awesome, but the most common is the pineapple. The pineapple here, as we learned at the volunteer center WFFT, is incredibly aromatic and full of juice. This is great when a human eats it, less great when an elephant splats the juice on you.

But I digress.

We love that we have the option to buy something small to eat on the street when we need a bit of sugar instead of having to give in to the really fattening and expensive options elsewhere.



Sidenote: There's Dairy Queen in Bangkok! How random is that?

Back to us.

We enjoyed walking through China Town (and Silom) so much, that before we knew it, it was almost 4 pm, and the temple was closed - it closes at 3:30 pm. So we did what any self-respecting person would do.

We went shopping.

We didn't actually get anything at the shopping center we went into, but it was so much fun to browse. After we got enough "fresh" air at the shopping center, we decided to take a bus back to the Sky Train, seeing as, for some reason, the Metro and Sky Train doesn't reach China Town, and a two-hour walk back was not an option.


Luckily, we plan ahead and we already knew what bus routes would take us to the Sky Train.

Not.

We had no idea how to get there, other than by foot. Fortunately, the Thai are incredibly friendly and helpful, and once we found a random bus station, a lovely lady pointed us in the direction of the station that we needed. Once there, we asked another Thai man which line we would need and he let us know. Not only that, but when a different line came by, he walked up to us to let us know that line would take us there, too. Wonderful man.

We got on the bus, that had like, one other tourist on there (it's a regular Bangkok bus), and instead of paying when you get on the bus, there is a lady whose sole job is to walk up and down the bus to charge people for the ride. It was very interesting.

This wonderful job is what allows the bus drivers to start driving with the doors still open and people still stepping up on the bus. Also, here's a tip: Bangkok bus drivers (not just the one we were on, we observed this on at least 5 other buses) do not feel the need to actually stop at the designated station. Anything withing 50 meters is fair game. So if you see a bus coming up that is the one you want, just start running towards it. The only time we saw buses actually stop at our station was when there was traffic, and even then they pretty much glided past us.

While we're on the subject of Bangkok transportation, we suggest you never ever drive here (unless your eyes are closed), and if possible, you should keep your eyes closed for as much of the drive as possible. The drivers here are insane. We thought Israelis are bad drivers, but oh my goodness, we're pretty sure all Bangkok driving lessons are defensive driving. Everyone knows they can pass and push to get where they want and someone will eventually stop. You can see people on bikes randomly crossing through driving traffic. The driver we had yesterday who brought us into Bangkok is probably still laughing at the mini heart attack I had yesterday when we were cut off.

So we had our wonderful map and just kept looking to see where we were. Siam is one of the biggest stations and is also a connection station, so about 1/3 of the bus actually got off there. The nice ticket lady who had asked us where we were going earlier also told us that this is the stop we should get off at.

Having a peach tea for two... at Tea For Two

We fully intended on going back to the hotel at this point - it was about 5 or 5:30 pm - but we couldn't find the Sky Train entrance and found ourselves inside the Siam Discovery mall. Which was cool. And we walked around a bit, I bought a new pair of sneakers because the soles of the (old) ones I brought disconnected, and then we went into a few toy stores to find gifts for my niece and nephew. We ate at a really cute local restaurant/coffee shop named Tea for Two and it was really delicious, though their definition of "only a little spicy" leaves something to be desired.


All in all, we walked around the mall for about an hour and then proceeded to find out about the International Film Festival going on at the Siam Patagon just down the street.

But once we stepped into the building...

Oh
My
Goodness

Y'all just don't understand. There was everything you could ever think of, it was huge, there were tons of restaurants, and that was just the first floor. It was gigantic and spacey, and Som told us that the Krispy Kreme just opened and there was often a 2-hour line (for a donut!!), so we did what every self-respecting person would do.

We stood in a two-hour line for a donut.

Not.

We took a picture of all the idiots standing in a two-hour line for a donut.

We decided to go up tot he 6th floor to see if there were any movies that we wanted to see so we could walk around later, but we never made it. Each floor of the mall is more amazing than the one before it. We took a few pictures, but they will never fully portray how incredibly huge the place is and completely gorgeous.

All this is made of Lego! For real!

There was an incredible Harry Potter Lego display on the 1st floor (we were able to see it well on the 2nd floor) and after oohing and aahing for a few minutes we walked into the most amazing department store on the 3rd floor. Honestly, nothing else needs to exist outside of that store, other than food. I actually found Candyland for my niece and nephew - how exciting is that? And it was really inexpensive. While we were browsing the children's section for presents, they had this amazing American kids songs CD playing that I really wanted to buy for them, so we asked the manager what CD it was and he told us where to get it - which we did.

This store is huge!!

The funny sales people at the CD store

The sales people at the department store were great, but the guys at the DIY store, where we bought the CDs were so completely awesome and hilarious. While marveling at their selection of country CDs (for real - we kept hearing country music all around Bangkok! Totally odd), a salesperson walked up to us to see if he could help, so we asked him about the CD. When he saw our camera was out, he started posing as if he were in a photo shoot (it was closed). He then called his friend over and they both said they wanted us to take a picture of them - so we did. Then they told us they were cute in the picture. They totally were.

After letting us listen to a selection from the CD to make sure it's what we wanted, the guy asked me where I was from. I said, "Texas." Then he said, "How did you get here? On your horse?" I was laughing so hard, I couldn't even come up with a smart answer. Even buying a CD in Bangkok is an experience.

Finally, literally over an hour after we reached the mall, we made it up to the cinema area. Oh my goodness, you don't understand. That place is gigantic. We saw the list of international movies that are playing while we're here, but couldnt' really find any we wanted to see on dates that we could attend, but we did see that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1) is playing in the IMAX when we get back, so we got tickets. They're cheaper than the ones in Israel and it's IMAX. Totally cool. So we'll be going to that on our last night in Thailand.

All in all, it took us 2 hours to get to and through China Town, and about 5 hours to get back. You know, when we had no energy to walk anymore. :-)

See more of our pics from today and yesterday here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=567114&id=906005363&l=0f03363831

Goodbye WFFT and Hello Bangkok

 Tommy the volunteer coordinator and Lucy the medical chief

A couple nights ago, we went out to dinner with Tommy, the volunteer coordinator who was actually a volunteer himself the first time that Rony was at the WFFT, and Lucy, the animal nurse who was also there before, and had the best time. They were tons of fun, we learned a lot about their lives and what it's like living so far away from everyone, and it's so awesome to see that they love those animals and the center so much, that it really doesn't phase them.

The highlight of the evening for me, I must say, was that I road on a motorbike for the first time in my life. It would have probably scared me more but 1) There weren't any other people on the the road and 2) I was in between Rony and Tommy (a Talia sandwich, if you will), and couldn't actually fall off.

Today was a bitter-sweet day. On the one hand, our traveling officially started and we are in Bangkok. On the other hand, we had to say goodbye to our friends, human and otherwise.

You wouldn't think that you can get attached to a bunch of random people (and animals) in one week, but indeed you can. Seeing as I (Talia) am overly sensitive, I already had tears in my eyes when I said goodbye to the elephants. I'm not sure I can correctly convey how connected you get to those animals, but you do.

June was like "whatever" when I said goodbye, Bua grabbed me a usual, and Pai Lin wrapped her trunk around my arm when I hugged her, and then pushed me away. She was all, "Fine, go!" And I'm like, "Are you a Polish elephant? Cause I was under the impression that you were an Asian elephant. Just sayin'."

We woke up "late" this morning, around 8 am (two hours later than usual, just to remind you) and cleaned the room, picked up our laundry, packed, and went around taking some last pictures. Then lunch time came, and it was time to say goodbye.

After a very teary goodbye (on my part), we set off for Bangkok. And next time we definitely should come back for a longer term.

As we arrived in Bangkok, we thought that we will finally have a quiet day/evening, but no such thing: Our friend, E.P., introduced us to a Thai friend of hers, Som, who had plans for us tonight and we barely had time to shower and book our flight to Chiang Mai before going out on a surprising evening.

But that's a whole other story that we'll tell you tomorrow :)

You can see the last photos from the center here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=566721&id=906005363&l=82d6005d4a (direct link as usual). We are still adding more, so give it like half an hour before you click :-)

Talk to you soon!