Our adventures in Thailand continue. Chad wrote the last post on the morning of his birthday (May 2nd). After leaving our beautiful hotel that morning we headed into Sukhothai. All of the ruins are contained in national park that you can ride around on bicycles. In true Thai fashion, the only place renting bikes only charged 20 baht for the entire day (that is about 80 cents). You know that in the U.S. someone with a monopoly like that in a tourist town would charge $20! Riding on the bikes was a great relief from the heat. The ruins were truly beautiful.
They have some of the only “walking” Buddah images in Asia. The highlight of the day, and one of the highlights of our vacation thus far, occurred unexpectedly. We were separated from our friends who were also biking around. They called us on one of their cell phones, which we were borrowing, and told us about a large Buddah statue that was just a little outside of the park. We began biking through the Thai countryside. It was really stunning. Unlike Bangkok, the northern part of Thailand is hilly and green. We passed small Thai houses in the traditional style (built on stilts). Children were swimming in small lakes. Cattle were grazing by ruins scattered along the way. There was no one else on the road! We kept biking and kept biking. This Buddah was much farther than we expected. We called our friends and told them that they should turn back (they have a six year old who was on her own bike and there was no way she could make the trip). When we finally arrived, we had to walk a long and steep stone pathway up the large Buddah. We were tired and sweaty, but happy at having seen rural Thailand. When we arrived at the top of the hill we had the ruin all to ourselves and really enjoyed the view.
After returning our bikes, we grabbed a quick lunch and got back in the van. This was one of our long traveling days. We had about four hours in the van before we reached Chiang Mai. Once again, we saw beautiful countryside, much of it clothed in clouds.
As we had been dragging three year old Cyrus and six year old Cyan to all kinds of ruins they had no interest in, we agreed to treat them to a theme park type experience as soon as we arrived in Chiang Mai. We arrived at the “Night Safari” in Chiang Mai at about 8 p.m. It was the most western thing I’ve seen in Thailand. It was almost like Disneyworld, on a much smaller scale. We got in open air van type things and were taken around the park to see the animals. The animals weren’t in cages, and in some cases they came right up to the van. On one of the tours our guide’s English was so hilariously poor that we could hardly keep from laughing. She said it was her first time giving the tour, and to top it off she had a bloody nose! Poor girl. She couldn’t have been any older than 20. We could hardly understand anything she said except “so cute” every time she pointed out a baby animal. It was a good laugh. We finally made it to our hotel. It was….not nice. It was a long day and we were hoping for a nice place to rest our weary heads, but we made due.
The next morning we began exploring Chiang Mai. It is all the good parts of Bangkok, plus more. It is much smaller than Bangkok, so you can navigate it quickly and easily. It is cooler because it is in the mountains. The people are very helpful and friendly. And, most importantly, the shopping is great and the prices are much lower than Bangkok. We started out the day with a massage (they are too cheap to pass up!) Then we visited one of the beautiful wats in Chiang Mai. The wats in the north are of a different style than those in Bangkok. The roof lines are different and there is much more wood carving, as opposed to the reflective materials covering the wats in Bangkok. We met a wonderful woman at the wat who teaches the monks. We had seen a number of young monks and asked her about them. She told us that at age 11 a family can decide to send their son to a monastery to be a monk. They stay at the monastery until age 13, at which time they can choose to continue or return to “ordinary” life.
We also went to a large day market selling everything you could ever imagine. Clothes, jewelry, flowers, birds, food of all sorts, etc. They also make beautiful silk goods and embroidery. It was so much fun.
That evening we went to the Chiang Mai “Cultural Center.” We had a delicious, delicious traditional northern Thai meal. They make salsas in the north that you dip veggies and other things in. Most are spicy, but they are all very flavorful. They also eat sticky rice, fried chicken, and fried bananas. It was all just so good. We ate in the traditional style (on the floor, with the food on small, round, raised pedestals).
After dinner dancers performed some traditional northern Thai dances. It was a wonderful and full day.
Our next day in Chiang Mai was one of the most unforgettable. When a friend of ours heard that we were going to Thailand she gave us an old issue of National Geographic about the mistreatment of elephants. The article had information on a place in Chiang Mai where they rescue elephants. We looked on the internet and sure enough they were still in Chiang Mai and offer a day long (or longer—even for months if you want to volunteer) experience with the elephants. It was a little pricey by Thai standards, but we decided to do it and we were not disappointed. A van picked us up and took us on a long ride up in the mountains to the Elephant Nature Park. It was like driving to paradise. The setting was something out of…..I don’t know…..it was just unlike anything I’ve ever seen. They have over 30 elephants who roam around. I could go on and on about it, but I’ll keep it short. We got to feed them and bathe them and just spend the day learning about them.
Best of all, there was a Thai man and about three Thai women who absolutely would not let go of Jack. They insisted on watching him all day long. They were even telling me how to feed him, hold him, etc. It was so funny (and so great to have a break and be able to enjoy the activities).
Really an amazing day. It rained all day, but we hardly noticed. Chad and I went to the night market when we returned (our friends stayed with Jack). It was nice, but we preferred the day market.
Our final day in Chiang Mai we spent mostly shopping at the day market. Chad and Joel took the kids for a while and Som and I went out on our own to find the real bargains, and we did! It was so much fun. In the late afternoon we boarded the night train back to Bangkok. We had first class tickets, but first class is not how I would describe the accommodations. Lets just say that I’ve had to work hard to relax some of my germ phobia tendencies to survive during this trip and the train really put them to the test. We arrived safe in sound in Bangkok early this morning (May 6) and have spent the day recovering. Tomorrow we leave for Angkor Wat in Cambodia for more adventures.
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