|
|
Places we visited: Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Hua Hin
Length of stay: 18 days
High point: Enjoying a relaxing and luxurious night in a Marriott hotel in Bangkok
including breakfast in bed (THANK YOU PINTOS!!!), eating lots of spicy Tom Yam Goong
soup in Chiang Mai, sipping iced coffee at roadside cafes, Chiang Mai's Sunday Night
Walking Market (our favorite market in Asia), being back in a land with $4 USD foot
massages
Low Point: Getting lost trekking to our hotel in Chiang Rai and realizing that we might
have to sleep in the wild, discovering the beaches of Hua Hin were not pretty even by
Texas beach standards
Local food/flavor: Of course there is Pad Thai, Tom Yam soup and Thai iced tea, but
we also enjoyed mango sticky rice, noodles for breakfast, Khao Soi, all varieties of
Tom Yam soup, Gaeng khiew-waan (green curry), etc, etc...
Language: Thai
Currency: Baht
Unique Sights: Buddhist monks collecting alms at dawn on the streets of Chiang Mai,
the beautiful bright orange robes of Thailand's Buddhist monks, the family Buddhist
temples found in homes and shops, seeing and feeling our bodies bend in previously
unfathomable ways during a Thai massage, enjoying foot massages from female
inmates at a Chiang Mai prison (honestly!)
Purchases: Earrings, silk flip flops
Things we did:
- Spent 24 hours straight enjoying the luxuries of a Bangkok Marriott hotel
- Visited the beautiful and gold plated temples of Wat Pho, home to the reclining
Buddha, and Wat Phra Kaew
- Spent half a day getting lost in the humongous Chatuchak weekend market
- Reveled at the hi-tech and modern Siam Paragon shopping mall. The USA has a
long way to go until we reach this level of shopping!
- Visited the seedy and infamous Patpong district of Bangkok
- Obtained our Vietnam visa from the Vietnam embassy in Bangok
- Ate an abundance of cheap but yummy street food in all of Thailand
- Explored the plethora of wats (temples) in the northern town of Chiang Mai
- Thoroughly enjoyed getting doused with water several times as we jetted
down the Mae Nam Kok River in a long boat
- Set off to hike to a remote lodge operated by a hill tribe near Tha Ton, Thailand,
only to get hopelessly lost and left in the middle of the jungle without a place to
sleep
- Added to Thailand's mess of mopeds by one when we rented a bike for the day
to explore the area surrounding Chiang Mai
- Hitched a ride with a local into Chiang Rai and enjoyed his impromptu and very
generous tour of local hill tribe villages, elephant parks and a Christian
foundation that provides services to local hill tribe children.
- Jarrod participated in a two day Buddhist meditation retreat at Wat Suan Dok
learning and practicing sitting, walking, and lying meditation and the basics of
Buddhism
- Spent a day trying to relax on the beach in Hua Hin as peddlers pushed fruit
kabobs, foot massages and horseback rides all day long.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
