Destination: Chiang Mai

The Wat at the top of Doi Suthep

When we visited Chiang Mai in April, it was Songkran, the water festival.  We had been told that if you really wanted to experience Songkran, you had to do so in Chiang Mai.  I believe they must have been right since thousands of people traveled the streets in trucks with huge barrels of water and adults and children with small buckets, dousing walkers on the streets.  Packs of people armed with super soaker squirt guns roamed the streets, taking aim at anyone in close proximity.  It appeared that everyone, young or not so young, was involved in the craziness.

Fast forward to July of 2011:  This time around, decisions on where/what we wanted to visit was not impacted by water of any kind (well, sometimes the rain). We stayed in Mae Rim, about 15 minutes from downtown.  It was a lovely place in the country.  Chiang Mai is absolutely gorgeous.  The tall, lush mountains are breathtaking.  Having our own car afforded us the opportunity to drive paths not taken by many other than locals.  One day’s excursion took us through hill tribes and to the Royal Gardens of Queen Sirikit.  I couldn’t get enough photos of the stunning flowers and plants that we saw.  On our ride home, we weren’t exactly sure of where we were so we decided to use the GPS on the iPhone.  We ended up taking these little-travelled dirt roads in the middle of what appeared to be rice fields, not knowing if our car might sink at any moment.  It was quite an adventure as we raced against time to find our way back to our lodging before the battery died.

Our home away from home for the week

Of course, food is always a main attraction of any trip we take.  We enjoyed returning to one of our favorite Khao Soy (thick, savory soup with noodles) “restaurants” that we had discovered on our last trip.  It is always amazing to us the quality and quantity of great food we can get for 60 – 90 baht ($2-3 dollars).  Our friend Jenny is a vegetarian so we are always looking for good veggie eateries.  We found a fabulous vegetarian restaurant that David insisted we return to at least once or twice more before we left. It was amazing what they could do with tofu (da-hu). 

We also took our obligatory trip up to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, the Buddhist temple atop Doi Suthep Mountain.  It is probably the most visited spot in Chiang Mai by foreigners.  It was a wet and rainy day, so navigating the 309 steps to the very top was a feat in itself.  When we reached the top, we enjoyed the view of a number of golden buddhas, huge chimes and a golden chedi.  It was worth the climb.

The Chiang Mai Countryside

After five days, we said goodbye to one of our favorite destinations in Thailand.  But if all goes as planned, David and our friend Duff plan to film a documentary of a trip from Bangkok to Chiang Mai in one of David’s golf carts.  The working title of the film:  David and Duff Do Doi Suthep.  Watch for it in your local theater soon.  JK

The State of Affairs: Flooding in Bangkok

Flooding in Nonthaburi

In and around Bangkok, it is a sad and uncertain time.  Flooding up north in Ayuttiah, Kanchanaburri and Sukothai is making its way to the ocean via the Chao Praya River which runs right through Bangkok.  Nonthaburi and Pakkret, communities along the Chao Praya closest to us, have been flooded and parts evacuated.  Where we often catch the water taxi to Bangkok, the water is 2-3 meters higher than normal.  Thousands of people have lost their homes and belongings.  People have parked their cars on the expressways to get as far above ground as possible.  This has caused up to three lanes deep of cars in certain areas.  This has also resulted in tremendous traffic because of only one or two lanes available for transport.

All schools in Nonthaburi (where ISB is located) have been closed since last week.  We have just received notice that the Ministry of Education has mandated that all schools remain closed until November 7^th.  ISB will continue e-school for students during the interim.  How this impacts the rest of the school year will not be known right away.  Many of the ex-pats from our community, after securing their homes and preparing for flooding, left town last week for the October holiday and are extending their holiday to stay away from Bangkok until the threat of the high tide this weekend passes.  Although many members of the Thai staff at school have lost their homes and are now living with family and friends, they still showed up for work on our last day to make sure the school was prepared for the threat of flooding.  It is amazing how resilient the Thai people are through such difficult times and how everyone has stepped up to help one another.

From Railay to Phi Phi ~ Please tell me this was just a nightmare!

Recall our stress from the last post regarding water transportation?  If we were to rate that journey on the TSS (Tammy’s Stress Scale) from 1 to 10, 10 being most stressful, that situation would have probably been rated an 8, had I not had the experience you are about to read.  Now let us tell you about our “10.”

When we were leaving Railay Beach, David had arranged for a tractor device to take us out to the long tail boats, providing an easy transition into the boats.  We were able to board quite easily (a 1 on the TSS).  However, what we weren’t informed of is that this long tail boat took you out to sea and then you had to board a ferry there. We learned of this as all of the long tail boats leaving Railay were hovering out at sea.  Soon a small ferry arrived.  I could feel the anxiety swell within me.  Later, I would learn that David was anxious for me, as well, but would have never let me know.  As usual, I waited until after everyone else had disembarked the long tail.  David would also tell you that as he watched fit, young, athletic women with two good legs struggle to board the ferry, he could only think, “Is there a hoist onboard?”  Now imagine a small ferry filled with probably 100 backpackers all sitting along the outside edges of the boat, watching us board.  Between David and three Thai workers, they all tried to "help" me get my leg up on the edge of the long tail and then a big step up to the ferry.  Unfortunately, my leg doesn’t move that way.  No such luck.  As part of me left my body and observed from above, I watched myself do some version of the worm (think of the dance) on the deck of the ferry, with the Thai men pulling on my arms and David pushing on my back side until I finally got my entire body up on board.  I glanced up and saw too many sets of eyes on me.  The entire front of me was filthy from scraping along the deck.  I made a bee-line to the cabin so that I could settle in to cry.  I’d like to say that I didn’t develop a cold sore or popped blood vessel from the stress of the situation, but that would not be the truth.  Ninety minutes later we arrived at the Pier at Koh Phi Phi and my nightmares from less than two hours earlier were replaced with the beauty of an island paradise!

Destination: Railay Beach, Krabi

From Phuket, we headed towards Krabi.  This was a place I had wanted to visit since we arrived in Thailand and a friend said, “If you don’t go anywhere else, go to Railay Beach in Krabi.”  I keep thinking that we’ve seen so many amazing places in Thailand, it can’t get any more fabulous.  Well, the drive to Krabi was spectacular.  The tall limestone structures were breathtaking. 

Boarding the long tail boats to Railay Beach

As far as we knew, we were on our way to Railay Beach.  We had read about a place to stay and put the address into David’s iPhone.  We followed the directions down an unpaved road and ended up at a little Thai resort called Arawan instead.  We discovered there that you can only reach Railay Beach by boat.  There must have been some kind of glitch in the GPS.  But it ended up a great mistake as we stayed at Arawan and met some lovely people.  We were even invited to dinner by the owner, as he had some friends visiting from Federal Way in Washington and he wanted us to meet.  It ends up that they own two Thai restaurants – one called Wild Orchid in Tacoma.  So if you are in the Tacoma area and have a hankering for some Thai food, please check it out.

We spent a couple of days at Arawan before we headed to Railay Beach.  From a pier not far from the resort, we took a long tail boat to Railay Beach. We had to walk out into the surf and then climb into the long tail boat.  This was challenging for me, but I persevered and was able to board with minimal embarrassment and no popped blood vessels in my eye. 

David on the West Side of Railay Beach

Railay Beach has two sides.  The east side has a view of mangroves.  It’s not the most beautiful sight, but it is pretty.  After a short 5 minute walk through the middle of the island, you arrive at the west side.  As we passed through the trees to the beach, it seriously took our breath away.  Again, these huge limestone cliffs hovered overhead on the left and the right with the beach inbetween.  We had lunch at a cute little café right on the beach.  The beauty of Thailand overwhelmed us.

Our few days at Railay Beach were lazy and restful.  We would rise late, grab some brekkies, walk to the west side to lie on the beach, read, eat, swim, read, walk the beach and eat some more.  This is definitely a place that we want to revisit with Amanda and Caryn.   

Destination: Phuket

The view of Kata Beach from Aspasia

Our next adventure would end up a 14-day journey to several islands and beaches.  Our first planned stop was Phuket.  It was such an amazing drive from Bangkok to Phuket.  The landscape was beautiful.  We stopped along the highway on several occasions to purchase fruit or roasted chicken from a stall on the side of the road.  We got a kick out of the response of the vendors each time we pulled over to make a purchase.  They would approach our vehicle.  I would roll down the window.  They would see that we were farangs.  They would giggle and then walk away.  Our take on this was that they didn’t know what to do because they didn’t speak English.  Luckily, David and I know enough Thai to get into trouble, so we were usually able to communicate what we wanted.  :0)

Halfway to Phuket, we happened across the amazing Pun Ya Ban Waterfall.  We have to say that it is the most spectacular waterfall we’ve come across so far in Thailand. It was located close to Ranong, where we ended up staying the night.   Ranong is known for its hot springs.  We checked into a local hotel.  We love finding establishments like this where there aren’t many westerners and generally the price is usually really good.   We ended up finding a great local restaurant for dinner and then had a good night’s sleep before resuming our journey to Phuket. 

Pun Ya Ban Waterfall near Ranong

The next day, we continued our drive.  All along the way, we saw signs to different beaches.  We decided to turn down one road and ended up at Pra Pat Beach.  It reminded us a lot of some of the beaches we have frequented near Newcastle in Australia.  It was a surf beach and there were small crab everywhere. The surf would come in and the little crabs would scurry as fast as they could across the sand.   

A couple of hours later, we arrived in Phuket.  We were surprised at the size of it.  There was the busy area of Patong, where tons of tourists explored.  We stayed up on a hill overlooking the ocean.   At the bottom of the hill was Kata Beach, a surf beach.  Our time in Phuket was wonderful, mostly because we stayed in a lovely place with a qualified and friendly staff.  We had several yummy meals, enjoyed a couple’s massage, took drives around the island and stopped at Karon Viewpoint.  Would we come back to Phuket?  Probably because we didn’t take the opportunity to sea kayak around James Bond Island this time around.  But that will be another adventure.

Destination: Koh Chang

Khlong Phlu Waterfall

Just a four hour drive and a car ferry ride from Bangkok, we arrived on Koh Chang.  “Koh” in Thai means island and “Chang” means elephant. It was truly beautiful there.  David loves ferries, so the car ferry ride from the mainland to Koh Chang was right up his alley.  We stayed at a nice bungalow near the beach. The weather cooperated half of our stay.  On the rainy days, we drove around the island, checking out the various viewpoints.  It was breathtaking. There was a road that went almost all the way around the island.  It would climb very high and then drop really low - very dramatic.  In our minds, we think our little Soluna is a 4-wheel drive so we often drove down roads that led to who knows where and I think we were lucky to get ack. We had to really pay special attention as the rain, at times, was coming down so fast and hard that parts of some roads were flooded.  The drives were quite adventuresome! 

On one of the drier days, we took a hike to Khlong Phlu Waterfall.  David encouraged me to try the mile hike each way.  It was rugged terrain - no paved paths here.  One would think that at the end of such a hike, I would have experienced sore legs, calves, etc.  Not me!  I had sore arms as I must have been tensing them as I grabbed for branches, rocks and David's hand along the way.  I even popped a blood vessel in my eye from the stress.  Ahhh, but the view was well worth the hike.  

View on a road trip around the island

Always at the top of our list when exploring is where/what our next meal will be, whether it be street food or a restaurant.  Italian food was EVERYWHERE – not necessarily GOOD Italian food, however.  We used Trip Advisor and a traveling magazine to choose our dining options, but everywhere we went, the establishment had either gone out of business or was closed for the season, since this is the rainy or “green” season.  We did manage to find a cute little German bakery, good pizza and of course, yummy Thai food.  One of the highlights of our stay on Koh Chang was having dinner on the beach.  We stopped at a restaurant in one of the little villages and ended up walking through the restaurant directly to the beach.  We had some Thai dishes but we were most impressed with the 10-inch long prawn that they BBQed for us.  Yummy!  While on the beach, David also experienced something climbing on his back.  It was some sort of many-legged insect, hairy and about 4 inches long.  We think it might have been dangerous since the waiter got a stick and carefully removed it from David's back and gingerly took it away somewhere - we don't know where.  All in all, we really liked the feel of the island with its little villages every few kilometers.   It was a beautiful island, with beautiful views and beautiful people!

Koh Chang Coastline

The Summer of Beaches, Islands and Mountains

Being new on the international school scene, the end of the school year took me by surprise.  Saying goodbye to newly made friends was so difficult for me.   I don’t like goodbyes and I had to say goodbye to a good number of people who I had really enjoyed getting to know.  Also, most of my colleagues were heading back to their home countries or some exotic places around the world.  David and I decided that this summer would be the best time to explore Thailand.  In our 25 years of marriage, we have never both had time in the summer to just take off and see where the road took us.  In May, we purchased an economical car, created our wish list of destinations (to be referred to from this point on as “The Summer of Beaches, Islands and Mountains”) and started researching.

What you need to know about this time of year in Thailand:  Between May and September/October, Thais experience the rainy or “green” season.  That means that one can expect rain anywhere from a huge downpour/wind storm all day, for just an hour, or no rain at all.  Rain or not, it is generally still hot and humid.  This reminds me of a conversation I had with an Aussie 4^th grader early last year. Like me, it was his first year living in Thailand.  We were talking about the seasons and he asked, “When will it be winter?”  I said, “Honey, there really isn’t a winter here.  There are three seasons:  the hot season, the rainy season and the cold season.  But it really isn’t cold during the cold season.”  His mouth dropped open and his face scrunched and he said, “You mean it’s ALWAYS going to be this hot?”  It was hilarious.  The good news is that it IS hot here.  I have never had to wear a down jacket (although we have seen some Thais wear down jackets), a sweater or closed toed shoes.  If I didn’t have to dress up for school, I could live in shorts and capris.  I can swim outside almost every day of the year.  I have never had to turn on the heater in the car.  In fact, there are no heaters in the cars here.  And when it does storm, it is AMAZING!  Huge storms with lightning, thunder, gale winds that knock planters over, etc.  My friend Susan says that on days like that, she cranks up the air con, they put on some winter clothing and eat chili for dinner.  As long as they don’t go outside, it seems like winter to them.  Most people do not travel through Thailand at this time of year because of the weather.  However, this can be the perfect time for visitors who are traveling on a budget because hotels/resorts WANT YOUR BUSINESS!  So starts the first of many road trips during The Summer of Beaches, Islands and Mountains.

The next few posts will be dedicated to educating you on some of the most beautiful places to visit in Thailand.  If you do not come away with an urge to travel this way, you are probably dead.  Ha!