Thailand Part III: Bangkok

In addition to travelling in the north and south of Thailand, we also spent a few days in the capital city Bangkok. We visited Bangkok for a day and a half at the beginning of our vacation and then another day and a half at the end.

Our first night:
Chelsea's college roommates, sisters (Jennifer and Tracy) who are from Thailand, happened to be visiting their parents the day we arrived. They picked us up from the airport and took us out to dinner at a very nice Thai restaurant. They and were able to give us some useful insight into the Thai culture and recommended a few good places to visit. It was really a great way to start the trip!

After checking into our hotel, we walked around the streets outside our hotel. We were a little overwhelmed by the city. Bangkok is very large and is very developed, but it is also very poverty stricken. We often felt like we were in a third-world country as we walked through the streets near our hotel. There were many vendors selling meats and fruits and trash was everywhere. At the same time, though, there were many upscale malls and restaurants throughout the city.

Boat Ride

One morning we went on an hour boat ride on the river in Bangkok. We were able to see many houses and temples along the way. A few women on small row boats came up to us and sold us some souvenirs.

The Grand Palace

We really enjoyed walking around the Grand Palace, which also contains the Wat Pho. It took a few hours to see everything and was very crowded. Once inside the thick, white walls of the palace, we were really impressed with the beauty and intricacy of the buildings and statues.

The Royal Family

The Thai people have a very strong devotion to their King and Queen. Pictures of the Royal Family are seen everywhere around the country; their faces appear in almost every restaurant, business, and along the streets. After visiting a museum about the Royal Family's history and talking with the people we met there, we became very impressed and envious of the unity the country feels toward their leader. The first picture below is at our hotel in Bangkok, in the background you can see huge pictures of the king and queen displayed. The next picture is at the airport. The kings picture was displayed on each terminal.

The 2 weeks we spent in Thailand is an experience we will never forget. We feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to visit this great country.

Thailand Part II: The Beach in the South

After trekking and visiting the north of Thailand, we were very excited to have a change of pace relaxing on the beach for a week.

Ko Samui- New Year's Eve

We began by flying from Chiang Mai to Ko Samui on December 31. We had a really memorable New Year's Eve this year! It began by eating a buffet dinner at our hotel.

After dinner, we went to get foot massages near the beach. Everything is extremely cheap in Thailand. We got a few hour massages while we were here, usually costing around $6!

Next, relaxed from our massages, we headed to the beach where we walked around for a while. A man with a pet monkey came up to Chelsea and gave her the monkey to hold. As she took the monkey, it went to the bathroom all over her hand...which we found very funny (Chelsea thought otherwise)!

After walking down the beach for a while, we found a large patio lounge outside and we decided to sit and watch a few New Year's Eve performances, one of which Chelsea and Melissa went on stage to put lays on the dancers.

As midnight was soon approaching, we went back out onto the beach to light a paper balloon lantern. These lanterns are a Thai tradition and we could see hundreds of them floating in the sky, which was very beautiful! We lit and released ours right at midnight.

Ferry to Ko Phangan!

After spending a day at Ko Samui, we were ready to head to a more secluded and less touristy island. We took a 30 minute ferry to Ko Phangan where we spent 6 days on the beach!

We stayed at the Thong Nai Pan Beach Resort, which was really nice. We had our own little hut with a cute front porch that was less than a minute walk to the beach.

Everyday we basically did the same thing: eat breakfast at the hotel, lay on the beach and read for a few hours, swim and play frisbee, eat lunch at a restaurant on the beach, read a little more, then shower and go out to dinner. It was so relaxing and fun! The weather was in the high 80's during the day and got down into the 70's at night.

The beach was BEAUTIFUL! It was very secluded with mountains and rocks all around it. There were only about 5 beach resorts total in the bay, so it wasn't very crowded either. The water was really calm and the sand was very soft with only a few shells.

Sunrise and Sunset on the Beach

Kayaking

One day we went kayaking to another beach. We had a good time getting to see another part of the island. At one point we saw dozens of large sea crabs on some rocks.

Massages on the Beach

A couple of mornings we got full body Thai massages at our hotel right on the beach. It was really nice to be outside and hear the ocean, though we were in quite a bit of pain during the massage! Thai massages focus on pushing on pressure points, especially on your legs and feet. They also twist and turn your body in all different ways. At one point Melissa's leg was literally around her head with a large Thai woman pressing on her thigh with all her weight!

Thai Food

The food in Thailand was delicious! We ate a lot of Pad Thai noodles and Thai Curry...which was all really spicy and flavorful! We also ate a lot of sliced mangoes with sticky rice covered with coconut milk for dessert. We really enjoyed having a break from all the fish we eat here in Japan, but one night we did order shark and it turned out to be really good. We were able to watch them slice it and then cook it on the grill.

Stray Dogs

Thailand is a beautiful country, but it's also very poor. It was very strange to see such poverty in such a pretty setting. One thing that we could not get over was the amount of stray dogs running around everywhere...it was unbelievable! There would be groups of dogs all over the place, even inside restaurants and stores. Most of them seemed somewhat friendly, but we didn't get too close.

Goodbye Ko Samui!

After a week of relaxing, we flew from Ko Samui to Bangkok. The Ko Samui Airport was very different than your standard airport. It consisted of straw huts outside and had a great tropical feel!

Thailand Part I: Trekking in the North

We had our dream vacation in Thailand for 2 weeks, Dec. 26- Jan. 8. We traveled with our friends Matt and Chelsea. Our travels consisted of three main parts: trekking through the north, the beach in the south, and Bangkok. Considering we took so many pictures, we will do 3 separate blogs describing our adventures.

An overview of our trip: We flew from Japan to Bangkok and spent 1 night in Bangkok. Then we flew to Chiang Mai where we spent 4 nights. We then flew to Ko Samui for 1 night and took a ferry to Ko Phangan for 5 nights. Next, we took the ferry back to Ko Samui for a night, then flew to Bangkok for 1 night, where we ended the trip by flying back to Japan.

A 3 Day Trek through the North of Thailand:
We began by taking a flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai to begin a 3 day trek which consisted of visiting 5 different remote villages, elephant riding through the jungle, hiking up a mountain to a beautiful waterfall, and going rafting down a river on a bamboo raft. We took a private tour, so it was just us, Matt and Chelsea and 2 Thai guides (1 that spoke English). We all carried a backpack with our clothes, toiletries, and sleeping bags, and the guides provided our food whenever we stopped at a village.

Trekking Day 1:
The first day we were dropped off at a remote village about 2 hours outside of Chiang Mai, it was here that we began our hike through the jungle. After about 3 hours of walking, 2 HUGE elephants came out of the jungle that were led by a couple of Thai men and we got to ride them for an hour! The elephants were really trained. Whenever we would be blocked by a tree or a branch, the man would command the elephant to tear it down with its trunk.

We saw some beautiful views while on the elephants and while hiking the rest of the day.

Around 4:00 pm, we came to the Karen village where we ate and spent the night. This was the best village we went to! It was very small and surrounded by hills. We got to see the school and experience how they live with no electricity.

We slept in this hut. It got really cold at night, but we layered up and had sleeping bags. Inside, we had mosquito nets around us while we slept.

This is our shower and toilet. There was no plumbing here, so after going to the bathroom, we had to scoop a bucket of water into toilet to make it flush. The shower was outside and the water from the hose was from the river so it was ice cold! This really made us appreciate our luxuries!

At night, we had a campfire and the young village girls performed some traditional dances for us. They were really cute. We even got to participate in one of the dances!

Trekking Day 2:

When we woke up in the morning, we were so excited to see elephants bathing in the river in front of our hut! It looked like out of a movie!

This was our most challenging day of hiking because it was mostly uphill. We crossed over dozens of small streams and climbed a mountain to reach a beautiful waterfall.

We spent a couple of hours at the waterfall resting and having lunch. Our guides used machetes to make us bowls and chopsticks out of bamboo! They cooked us noodles for lunch using the fire they made. It was amazing to watch them do this! The picture below on the right is of the noodles and veggies cooking in the bamboo in the fire.

Here we are eating out of our bamboo bowls using our bamboo chopsticks!

Frank was the only one brave enough to go into the freezing waterfall!

After leaving the waterfall, we hiked a couple more hours until we got to the village we stayed in for the night. This village was not as nice as the first village. There were a ton of stray dogs, cats, and chickens running around. There were some pigs and monkeys, too. The mountains around the village we really pretty, though.

Trekking Day 3:

On our last day of trekking, we walked though some beautiful farmland with many vegetable gardens and crossed over a couple of unstable bamboo bridges. We only walked for a few hours until we got to an elephant camp where a van was waiting for us. From here, they drove us to a river where we went rafting on a bamboo raft for an hour.

Our trek ended by visiting the Padong ("long neck") village. It was interesting to see this tribe that came as refugees from Burma. They believe it is attractive to have very long necks, so the small girls and women where rings around their neck to lower their collarbone.

We were sad that the trek ended because it was one of the best experiences we have ever had. Although we did look forward to a hot shower and a bed! We spent our last night in Chiang Mai shopping at a night market and getting 1 hour foot massages!