Thailand (August 1-13, 2001)

On a whim, I booked a trip to Thailand.

I left Phoenix around 6 am on August 1st for my flight to Thailand.

I flew to San Francisco then changed planes in Tokyo before arriving in Bangkok around 10 pm on August 2.

My itinerary was to spend about a 1.5 days in Bangkok (leave Aug 4) then fly to Chiang Mai. From there, I would take a tour of northern Thailand and stay in Ban Tha Ton before flying to Phuket the afternoon ofAug 8.

I planned to stay in Phuket for 4 nights, before flying back to Bangkok and spending the night in an airport hotel. The final morning (Aug 13), I scheduled an early flight home, with plane changes in Hong Kong and Los Angeles.

Bangkok (Days 2-4)

Day 2: 

I took a taxi from the airport and arrived at my hotel in Bangkok's Chinatown around 11 PM (on August 2nd). After I checked in to the Grand China Princess Hotel, I looked around the area briefly, then collapsed on the rock hard bed for the night.
Day 3: 

I got up early and wandered through the streets of Chinatown but most stores were closed and the markets were just starting to set up. This picture was taken from a pedestrian bridge early in the morning - BEFORE traffic got heavy. I found the fabric market and wandered through that for a while, then flagged down a tuk tuk to take me to the historical sites of Bangkok.
The reclining Buddha (Wat Pho) was enormous. Too bad they were restoring the murals on the walls... the scaffolds were everywhere! I also visited the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Keo (The Emerald Buddha)

I hired a long tailed boat to drive me up and down the river and canals. It was pretty fun. One of the places I stopped was the Royal Barge National Museum. This is the front of one of the barges. Another place I stopped was across the river at Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn). This temple was huge, and the detail on the outside was incredible!

This picture shows a close-up of a section of Wat Arun. The outside was covered with tiles and dishes!
View of Bangkok from the river. If you saw what I did, you would know why the river and canals were brown. People were using the river for EVERYTHING. I saw people standing in it washing clothes, bathing, swimming, and fishing. I also saw one woman empty a pot of rice in the river, and a man standing on his back porch urinating into the canal.
After I had spent the day sightseeing, I headed back towards my hotel. I ended up on Memorial Bridge, which I crossed, then crossed back after walking around on the other side of the river for a while. From this vantage point, I foolishly thought my hotel was within 10 minutes walking distance. I nearly got heat stroke walking to it. A cool shower, a long nap, and a Thai massage went a long way to helping me feel normal again.
Day 4: 

I learned my lesson about the heat, humidity and pollution yesterday, and hired a tuk tuk to take me to the different attractions. About six blocks after I negotiated a price to go to the Golden Mountain, he pulled over and asked if I was interested in hiring him to drive me to various sites and pay him by the hour. I asked how much. He said he would do it for 100 bahts (about $2.20 US) per hour. I thought that sounded very reasonable, so agreed without further bargaining. After I saw everything I wanted to see, and asked him to take me back to my hotel, we HAD to make the obligatory stops at the tailor and gem stores. It was actually kind of fun. I found something wrong with everything that they showed me, so didn't buy anything from them.

One of the places I visited was the Golden Mountain. When I got out of the tuk tuk, the driver asked if I planned on going to the top. When I said yes, he cautioned me that "There are many steps and you are very fat." Gee, thanks! So much for his tip! There were about a zillion tiny steps around the outside, but because they were so small, it was quite easy to skip every 1-2 steps on the way to the top.
The temple itself wasn't all that exciting, but there was an interesting view of the city from the top.
View of Bangkok from the top of the Golden Mountain
After leaving the Golden Mountain I went to the Giant Buddha, which really was giant. I think this is the second tallest Buddha in Thailand.
Another wat I visited that day. The walls were covered with beautiful murals. Later in the day, I caught a flight to Chiang Mai in the northern part of Thailand.

Northern Thailand (Days 5-8)

Day 5: 

After spending the night in Chiang Mai and buying assorted junk at the night market, I had a good night's sleep. At 7 am, Track of the Tiger Tours picked me up to start a 4 day tour of northern Thailand. I knew they were a small tour company, but I didn't realize how small. The tour consisted of a driver, a guide and me! In a way, it was good, because any time I wanted to stop to take a picture or just enjoy the view, I could. This is a picture of a tea plantation I visited.

I also went to an elephant farm to ride an elephant through the jungle. It is a very bumpy ride, and you have to hang on for dear life every time you go up or down a hill. Most of the time the mahout (elephant trainer) was riding on the neck of the elephant. He got off for a while to take this picture.
After riding the elephants, I went to the Water Buffalo Show. The actual show was pretty lame, but it was part of a living museum, where they showed how traditional Thai rice farmers used the water buffalo to help in the rice fields and to press sugar out of sugar cane. That part was rather interesting.

Using the water buffalo to plow the rice field. This is the girl who explained how rice was grown and was the narrator for the water buffalo show. Her English was quite good, and she was really funny! They had a tip box and I left a tip that was about twice the admission price because I liked her so much.

And now the show..... this is the Water Buffalo Band. They spent about 5 minutes walking down this muddy field playing a cymbol, a drum and a ukulele type instrument. After that they demonstrated for 5 minutes that the buffalos could turn right, then another 5 minutes that they could turn left, then for 5 minutes the different ways to get on the buffalo. As the grand finale (are you sure you are ready for this excitement?) they demonstrated that you could even sleep on the buffalo!! It was so bad, it was hilarious!

The red globs on this plant are clusters of snail eggs. I thought they were very pretty. The girls showing me around was amazed that I would take a picture of them, since the snails eat and destroy the rice plants.
One of many rice fields in Northern Thailand.
My tour included visiting 2 Hill Tribes. We were unable to get to one, because recent storms washed out a section of the road, and it was closed and was being rebuilt. Part of the road to the Paulong tribe was unpaved and had deep ruts from the recent rains. It was very bumpy and steep. Going up that road was as fun as going 4-wheeling. It was great. I liked the road better than I liked the tribe! I actually hated visiting these people. To me, it felt like I was in a human zoo, and I was gawking at people on dislay. As I walked around the village, my guide would just walk into these peoples' homes - without knocking! I refused to go in, because it seemed like such an invasion and I was put off by it. To top it off, only about 10% of the adults were wearing traditional clothing, which made me wonder if people were assigned to dress up for the tourists on a rotating schedule. The three little girls in the background of this picture started following me around as soon as I got there. They were playing a little game, where two of them would push the other into me from behind. I thought they were just playing a 'touch the tourist' type of game. It turns out, that they were picking my pocket! I hope they find many uses for the dirty kleenex that they took!
Because I didn't get to see the second tribe like my tour promised (no big loss there!), my guide asked if I wanted to stop at a food market. I agreed, because I wanted to be able to know which of the weird looking fruits were what names. It was fun.... I was able to know what a lychee, longon, rambutan, durian, etc actually were. I bought a durian (which was prohibited in my hotel in Bangkok). After cutting it open, I know why! In the market, there was one woman selling wasp larvae (still in the hive) and giant water bugs (Belostomatidae). Both of these insects were sold alive and I didn't have any way to cook them. Had they been cooked, I would have bought some to taste.
Day 6: 

The day started off with a hike. We walked from my hotel to the big grassy field (about 2 km), which was actually a plantation for longons, but the trees were quite small, and difficult to see in this picture. After hiking up the field, we then hiked into the dense jungle area and to the Standing Buddha at the top of the hill (see arrow). It had been raining for the past few days, so the ground was muddy and slippery. Every time I stopped to catch my breath, hundreds of mosquitoes would land on me!

Now I know why this hike was rated for 'Above Average Fitness levels' OOPS! :-) The last hundred meters or so were extremely steep (about a 75 degree incline) and very muddy, although it is hard to tell that from this picture. If it wasn't for these trees, I don't think I would have made it to the top. I had to use every ounce of strength to make it to a tree, then stop, catch my balance and breath by leaning against the tree, and when my legs turned black from the mosquitoes, struggle to the next tree. Eventually I made it to the top!
This is the Standing Buddha. Just for scale, the fence in the background came up to my waist.
This view of the hillside and Kok River made the torturous hike worth it! Just past the hill at the top (back) of the picture is the Myanmar (Burma) border. When I took this picture, I could see both Thai and Burmese army camps, but I guess they are too far away to see them in the photo.
After the Standing Buddha, we hiked to the Sitting Buddha. The hike here wasn't quite as bad, because it was a mixture of level, up, and down hill terrain. The mosquitoes still attacked any time you stopped, though. I think they thought my DEET was a yummy appetizer!
From the Sitting Buddha we eventually reached this White Buddha, which looks over the village of Ban ThaTon, where I was staying.

Finally relaxation. I spent the afternoon floating down the river on a bamboo raft, covered with a thatched roof. Ths view from the river shows you the three Buddhas on my hike. The arrow points to the Standing Buddha. At about 9 O'clock from the arrow (below and to the left) is a tan dot, which is the Sitting Buddha. Below and slightly to the right of the arrow is a white dot, which is the White Buddha.
For the next few hours, I floated down the river and enjoyed the scenery. I saw quite a few fishermen and rice farmers, not to mention a lot of interesting birds. There was some rain in the distance, but only a few drizzles were near me, and the raft's thatched roof kept me from getting wet.
Day 7: 

It rained in the morning, so I spent a lazy morning in my bungalow, then spent the afternoon in a fruit and vegetable carving class. I totally sucked at it! After the class, I wandered around the village of Ban Tha Ton for a while, and wandered to the next village across the river. The people were very friendly.
Day 8: 

In the morning, I took a cooking class. I was much better at cooking than I was at carving, which probably isn't saying much. After the class, I checked out of the lodge, and headed back towards Chiang Mai, so I could catch a flight later that evening. On the way back, I really had to use the bathroom. Up until this point, I've been able to only need the bathroom when I'm near my hotel and can use a western toilet. My luck ran out at this point. Since my eyes were turning yellow, I asked if they could stop at a gas station or someplace so I could use the bathroom. There were several places we passed, because they said the bathroom was not clean. This is where we finally stopped. If they consider this clean, I'm GLAD we didn't stop where they thought they were dirty!
On the way back, we stopped at a snake show and watched a guy play with cobras, pythons, and assorted other snakes. It was pretty funny, because the announcer ended nearly every sentence with "so sexy". For example,

"He's holding the cobra. So sexy"

"He's touching the cobra. So sexy"

"He's kissing two cobras. Oh, so sexy"
I was cracking up!

To top it off, my driver was scared of snakes, so every time the snake charmer guy pretended to throw a snake at the audience, my driver would shriek like a girl and run! After the show, I picked up a bent stick and walked up to my driver, then wiggled the stick near his face and said that I thought one snake got away. He screamed and ran!

We also stopped at an orchid and butterfly farm. I was really looking forward to the butterflies, but unfortunately, only the orchid part was open. There must have been a good 5 -10 acres of orchids. Very lovely.
There were also an assortment of flowers in the area. Later that afternoon, I was dropped off at the airport, so I could fly to Phuket, which is in the southern part of Thailand.