18 February (Paden’s Birthday) – Pai Day 2 – Water Falls with no Water

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Happy Birthday Paden!!

Breakfast was included with our reservation so we headed over to the office area where breakfast was. It pretty much consisted of bread and fruit. Not a lot of choice but still good. I don’t know if I was exceptionally hungry or what but I really enjoyed the toast. Coffee which was instant was drinkable for me, which was a bonus. Most of the coffee over here is like ink. It was great to sit in this outdoor covered area and enjoy our breakfast while listening to the birds.

We had booked an all day tour for today. Our tour guy came to the office area to pick us up. He actually parked on the other side of the bamboo bridge instead of driving around, but that was no issue and saved time. There was also a woman from Germany, who was traveling alone, from our ‘huts’ going too. Transportation today was another open back truck but this one had a 3 person cab, which is where the driver put us older folks. We got the air conditioning. Paden had told us it would get cooler the further north we went. He lied to us. It was still stinking hot here. The German woman didn’t want me to open the window as she had a tickle in her throat and didn’t want to get a cold. So I got to roast in the sun and wasn’t able to get any good pictures as we drove. Both the driver and the front passenger had their windows open so the air conditioning wasn’t doing a whole lot.

We were the last pickup as it turned out and off we went to start the tour. First stop was the White Buddha on the hill, Wat Phra That Mae Yen. There were something like 250 steps to get to it. I got wrapped up in my sarong skirt and my shawl and started my hike up all those steps. It took some time but I made it. Good thing this was the first stop as I can’t image doing it in the heat of the day.

We got to the top to find the white Buddha wrapped in scaffolding. The temple below had also had a fire and looked pretty badly burned. I’m thinking they are doing maintenance as the North is going into their ‘burning season’. This is where they burn their garbage and all the old crops to clear the fields in preparation for the rainy season. After the rainy season everything grows back and is all lush, green and a jungle again. The burning season had just begun and you could see smoke and haze in the air every day. I guess it gets really bad and some businesses close down for a few months.

You can see the haze from the smoke in the air.

Next up was Kui Lom Viewpoint where we had a 20 minute stop. This was part way up the mountains and had a manual Ferris wheel type attraction. The younger participants had a great time on it. The view from the lookout was spectacular. Again photos don’t do it justice especially with the smoke haze in the air.

Some of the roads we drove on were no wider than the bicycle paths that we have at home. I managed to get a couple of scenery shots in.

From the viewpoint we headed to Lod Cave. People rave about these caves. It had been advertised as a bamboo raft through the caves so I was not expecting to have to walk through them and didn’t really have the proper footwear on for it. I did the basic walk but we did not go up into the 3 separate caves as there were many steep steps to get to them. I’ve been in caves before and didn’t need to see other hard to access ones. Reading about the caves afterwards, I guess we missed some spectacular sights. Oh well!

We did do the bamboo raft portion but even that paled in comparison to the boat tour through the caves that we did in 2016 in Vietnam. It was pretty dark in there and I wasn’t feeling to secure on our narrow raft.

When we got to the end we got off the bamboo raft as that was where Cave #3 was. Not happening. These are part of the stairs to Cave #3

Plus it really stunk in here. There were so many bat droppings everywhere, plus dead swift birds. All the white spots are bat droppings. The place was covered with them.

Had our guide gone slower instead of racing through we would have been able to enjoy it more. Unfortunately the parts we did were basically a blur as she didn’t stop to allow us to look around and take pictures. I did stop now and then though.

I guess the faster they get you through, the more people they get to guide and the more money they themselves get. After the caves the group regrouped and we all had lunch together. Lunch was good but, how can you mess up chicken fried rice? That was what I ordered. Like to be safe with my meals.

After lunch we headed to Mor Pang waterfalls. There was a sign saying to be aware of the deep water.

This was actually quite funny to us as the waterfalls had no water running. We hiked up the trail to the waterfall and this was what we found.

There was a small pool at the bottom of them. Guess it has been dry here for a while.

Anyone need to use the washroom? A squat toilet at its finest!

Next up was the Hot Springs swimming pool and spa. When I hear hot springs I always think of natural pools but they never seem to be this. This one did look a little more natural than some I have seen.

The hot spring pool was way too hot for us, especially since it was already 1000 degrees outside so we headed over to the swimming pool.

We chatted with an expatriate from California who now lived not far from the hot springs. It was an interesting chat. The grounds for this place were lovely.

Our last stop was Pai canyon for the sunset. The sunset was spectacular. I wish I had of wandered around more while up there but Doug was a little nervous for me. The edges dropped off into the canyon.

Once back in town we headed out for Mexican. We both ordered chicken quesadillas and they weren’t half bad.

We called it a night.

17 February 2018 – Travel Day – Chiang Mai to Pai, Thailand – Day 1

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Today was a travel day. We were moving on to Pai from Chiang Ma. After breakfast at our usual spot, Welcome Inn.

We went for a short walk before it was time to depart. Saw lots of chickens.

We were picked up at our hotel in an open backed truck/bus/van of some sort. The driver was useless and no help whatsoever. Most have been good and usually carries this old ladies bag and lifts it for her. Not this one. Then I had to climb up into the back of the ‘vehicle’. That was no easy task with my bad knees. All I kept thinking is OMG is this how we are traveling to Pai?

After a couple more stops he dropped us at the bus station where we transferred to an air conditioned van. Mr Driver helped the young pretty girl with her bag and took her to the van. Left us to fend for ourselves and we had no idea where he went. We did find the correct van to Pai though.

The drive from Chiang Mai to Pai is the start of the Mae Hong Son Loop. We have traveled on quite a few Caribbean islands and through the Rocky Mountains. Let me tell you, we have never been on such steep and winding roads as these. This said, the scenery was breathtaking. We passed orchards full of fruit trees, banana trees and fields full of crops. Cabbage and what might be Taro root. Palm trees full of coconuts and honeysuckle vines growing wild. So many blossoms you could hardly see the greenery. Mango trees dripping with fruit. Jasmine trees too. Bougainvillea growing everywhere. Some must have been 20 or more feet high. Beautiful country side, hills and mountains with little villages scattered throughout. Not a cloud in the sky. Thank goodness for air conditioning!

Our driver was excellent. I think he took it a little slower as we had a young child and a baby onboard. We also passed through a few military check points. Not sure what they are all about.

Passed a couple of elephants on the way too but these were not wild elephants. Didn’t get any pictures.

On our arrival in Pai we were dropped off at the bus station in the middle of nowhere. maps.me got called to duty once again and it turned out our Pai Country Huts accommodations were less than a km away. No big deal, we would just walk. Really not sure what is in the mind of maps.me but it gives the weirdest route. After crossing over dirt fields (parking areas??), and wandering roads we ended up in a temple entrance. This wasn’t right so back to the main road. We knew we had to cross a bridge over the water to get to our place but just couldn’t figure out where. Some kind man who lives there took pity upon us and after trying to explain where to go he went and got a map somewhere. I was leary of his directions but we didn’t have much to loose. Low and behold he knew what he was talking about. We ended up at a dead end and had a bridge to cross. The bridge was totally made out of bamboo. Three steps up and down. So we lugged our luggage up the steps and then wheeled it across the bamboo bridge. Guess I didn’t take any daytime photos of the bridge.

Our huts weren’t too far from here.

Quite exotic from the outside we thought. Also thinking what did I get myself into? No A/C but we had mosquito netting over the bed!

Ours is the middle hut.

We got settled in and headed back to the office area for a couple of cold Chang, and then to town for something to eat.

The town was only a 5 minutes walk away when you knew where you were going.

Because it was between 2:00 and 5:00 our meal beer came in coffee cups. We seem to be drinking lots of Chang, but it is usually max of 2 a day. It is so HOT here and the beer so cold. We are also consuming litres of bottled water every day. Good thing the bottled water is cheap here.

After touring the town for awhile we decided to get some dessert. Haven’t had any dessert other than ice cream in quite awhile. Dougs cheesecake was pretty good but my chocolate coconut cake was really weird. There is a lot of organic, gluten free and vegan food here. Wondering if it was one of those because it certainly did not have the texture of any cake I’ve ever had before. I also ordered a Long Island Ice Tea. Not sure what I got but it was served in a nude woman glass and tasted terrible.

We called it an early night as we had booked an excursion for tomorrow. As we headed back lots of the street food vendors had already set up for business

As we arrived back to our huts, the grounds were all lit up.

16 February 2018 – Chiang Mai – Day 5 – Unexpected River Cruise

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Today is our last day in Chiang Mai before we head to Pai tomorrow and we have nothing planned for today so we figured we would walk down over the bridge, over the big river just to see what was on the other side. My look at those ‘balls!’ I have no idea what either tree is but, the first might be a Jackfruit.

We came across the biggest banana tree I have ever seen and I have seen plenty. Not only does this one have hundreds of bananas it had some amazing blooms opening. Once a tree has finished producing its bananas it dies and and child banana tree grows from the mother’s roots.

These banana bunches were probably 4 feet in length at least.

We crossed over the bridge but there wasn’t much in the other side so headed back. We did see a boat cruise sailing down the river so thought we would see if we could find where that was and what it was all about. Took us a little bit to find it as it was a ways down the river. The boat dock was actually inside the grounds of a temple. Where else would it be? LOL. Since there was a temple of course I had to have a look.

I could not enter the temples as I as not properly dressed but I did manage to take a few through openings. Inside one of the buildings a Monk was performing some type of ceremony with these girls.

We also noticed many people coming down to to dock next to the cruise tour dock and releasing young pigeons into flight and eels into the waters. Really not sure what it was all about but they seemed to say some prayer first and then release.

They had different pieces of this furniture scattered around. I would love to own it and have it all refinished.

We signed up for the river boat cruise. It would take us about 8 km along the river to what they called the Farmers House. This was a small area where they grew organic fruits, vegetables and many herbs and spices. The area was amazing. The guide pointed out some of the herbs and told us what medicinal properties they had. Starting to think there is something to herbal medicine.

We all got to enjoy some fruit and herbal teas. The pineapple was all carved out and the pieces just slid out. It looked like there was also a full restaurant there. The decor was amazing.

The ladies washroom sinks were carved out of tree trunks as were the men’s urinals.

The tables were old doors. I think everything had been recycled.

Once again you could see both the wealth and the poverty along the river. So many of these people have so little. Most always seem to be working and it really looks like a hard life. We have so much that it really makes you think. We are doing our best for their economy by giving good tips by their standards. Not sure if we mentioned it before but we did over tip in one place which seemed to stir up a lot of activity by the staff, but have now got a better grip on our tipping.

We took a new route back to our hotel and I bought a shawl to keep in our backpack so that I would be properly dressed. Grabbed a cup of my new Starbucks addiction. This has my name written on in. I thought it was pretty cool.

Took a few pictures to show how they tear down the night market every night and then set it up again the next evening. So much work.

Tonight we went to see the moat all lite up. I was hoping the fountains would be flowing and lit but they weren’t.

Had dinner at our favourite breakfast place and called it a night. Tomorrow is a travel day.

15 February 2018 – Chiang Mai – Day 4 – Watch Where You Are Walking!

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After such a busy day yesterday we thought we would take it easy today. There was a Wat that I wanted to go to and it was on the other side of the moated city. Wat Phra Singh. I have to choose them carefully as Doug will only do so many Wats in each city. It was a few miles away, but we thought we would walk it as it wasn’t too hot and humid yet. We stopped off at our favourite restaurant and had a smoothie and our English breakfast for breakfast.

It was delicious as usual. At the restaurant, every morning the girl would put out the offerings around 10:00 am. 3 beverages of assorted colours and I think 3 or 4 small bowls of food. At the first one she would place 5 sticks of incense and the second one would only put 1 stick of incense. It was quite the ritual with her saying what we assumed was a prayer at each placing. She also would remove her shoes before kneeling down to place anything. You could find similar offerings at almost every business, many of them just on the street.

As we crossed the bridge to the moated area we came across the traffic police who had pulled aside a whole bunch of tourists on scooters.

The traffic police then escorted most of these tourists to the local police station. We know this because we passed them again on our way to the Wat. Later in the day we saw another group of tourists pulled over. Big business and money for them in this. Not sure what the fine is here in Chiang Mai, Thailand for not having an International Drivers License, but in Vietnam I think it was around $50 Cdn. We know as our group was pulled over last year. Some of our group had their International Drivers Licences with them so weren’t fined. Others in our group were.

As we walked down the street to our Wat of the day we came across another Wat. I think it might be Wat Sumpow but not sure. Inside was a group of school children listening to one of the Monks speak.

. This was the sign as you entered the grounds of the Wat.

As we continued down the street we came across more decorations in celebration of the Chinese New Year. There is a large Chinese population in Thailand and they seem to go all out in their celebration of the New Year.

We also saw a couple of guys making these rope animals. They are really nice and if we weren’t traveling only with backpacks, I probably would have bought one.

I decided to take pictures of the obstacles on the sidewalks today. Paden had been telling us frequently to watch where we are walking. I think I jinxed myself.

We finally got to the Wat of the day after a few side trips and getting Doug a new pair of flip flops. His old ones were melting onto his feet.

This Wat was free for Thai people, but not for us foreigners!

Inside there was a group of Monks eating their lunch. Every morning the Monks go out to solicit donations of food and money from the people and the stores.

Can’t remember if I’ve mentioned before as to how real these wax figures are, but they really look alive. Right down to the ear hair.

Many buildings and beautiful gardens on the grounds of this Wat. There was one garden that had sayings nailed to every tree. Really good sayings.

Some were very old buildings.

By now it was noon and HOT. Since we were in this part of town we thought we would walk to the shopping district where there was supposed to be a mall. Punched the name of the shopping street in the app maps.me. It was a little over 2 kms away but we would just take our time and try to stay in the shade. What shade? Not sure where maps.me was taking us but we did not end up in any shopping district that we could see. Did another search and found the mall and hit start for the route on the app. It took us down a dead end street and had us walking across a creek on rocks. Maps.me works great sometimes but not always the best route. Made it across the creek and up the other side.

Doug continued walking as did I, but I was trying to orient myself with maps.me and figure out where to go next as we seemed to be in another dead end area and an entrance into some random building, not a shopping mall. Next thing I knew I was stumbling everywhere and landed on the ground. Some poor man saw it happen and came right over to ask if I was okay. He was saying there was a clinic just down the street. Took me a couple of minutes to get myself together and get up. Injuries weren’t too bad. I was pretty dirty as I fell in dried up, dusty mud and gravel. Both hands had a few scraps and my left knee was pretty scraped up and very dirty. Many tiny slivers of rocks under the skin. We had lots of first aid supplies in our backpack so I cleaned it up a bit and figured we would get to the washroom in the mall and give it a good clean. Thank goodness my camera had been closed and my phone was in my hand. No damage to either item. All I could hear in my head was Paden saying “watch where you are walking!” We spied a Starbucks just outside the mall and thought I could go into the washroom, clean up and then enjoy a nice iced coffee. Wrong! Starbucks over here don’t seem to have washrooms. Over to the mall we headed and found the washroom. Well no paper towels or toilet paper in there to do any cleaning with. Back to our backpack for more cleaning supplies. We had sanitizing wipes, polysporin and bandages in it.

Cleaned it up as best we could with our supplies and headed back to Starbucks for iced coffee. While sitting there, there was a performance put on for the Chinese New Year.

We decided we would take a tuk-tuk back to our hotel as it was just too far to walk and the tuk-tuk was only going to be approx $5.00 Cdn. It was a great ride back in the hot sun. So much better than walking.

Later in the evening we headed out for dinner and decided to try a new place for us that was right on the corner of the street our hotel was on. Doug had a Margarita and I had a Blue Margarita. Both were pretty good as was the food.

After dinner we headed down to the night market for a quick look around. Didn’t stay out too long.

And we called it a night.

14 February 2018 – Chiang Mai – Day 3 – Day trip to Chiang Rai – White Temple, Blue Temple, Black House

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Remember yesterday’s spider bite? Well, today you could see the puncture marks and it had swollen up to the size of a grape. Doug doesn’t think it was a spider bite, but I’m sticking to my theory. Add to that another bite further up my arm which was also swelling nicely and a nice rash on my ankle. You could say I was quite a mess.

Today we had booked an all day trip to Chiang Rai. Pick up at the hotel was for between 7:00 and 7:30. The tour included the White Temple, lunch, the Blue Temple and the Black House. The trip to Chiang Rai is approximately 3 hours each direction through the rolling hills and mountains, but the stops break up the travel time in the van. Let me say, I’m surprised we are still alive after that trip. Our driver was insane and I think, he thought he was Ricky Rally and in some kind of derby. The roads to Chiang Rai are winding and steep in many places and he was passing everything in sight, on curves and hills. Nothing phased him. A couple of times the oncoming traffic actually had to stop so they wouldn’t crash into us. The country side was beautiful but I wasn’t able to get many good pictures as it flashed by. I did snap this one of the rice paddies, but it was one of the few that came out, still a little blurry.

It took us a while to get out of Chiang Mai as it was rush hour and the traffic here was insane. Backed up as far as you could see. Their traffic lights don’t change as frequently as ours do so you sit at them for quite a while.

We had a ‘washroom’ break part way to the first Temple. At many washrooms you have to pay to use them and they will, if you’re lucky, give you a small piece of toilet paper. We were aware of this so came prepared and stocked up on toilet paper that hikers use. It’s a full roll without the cardboard Center so takes up a lot less space. We brought plenty. (We hope!) It was by a hot springs and an old abandoned temple.

There was a myna bird here that spoke Thai. I was saying hello to it and it spoke to me. I was pretty sure it was Thai so a lady near by said something to it in Thai and it answered her. Pretty cool.

First up was the White Temple. This is a relatively new temple that was built around 1998. Hard just to pick a few pictures as the place was big and spectacular.

The bathrooms were all in gold as was the water fountain. Didn’t catch what the reason was for this. Tour guide needed a speaker system but didn’t have one.

A flush toilet. Yeah! With gold walls and floor.

More freaky shots from around the grounds

From here we headed off to enjoy the provided lunch. It was a Thai food buffet. Not a lot of choice, but I choose what I somewhat recognized, a pork meat which tasted like teriyaki pork and was actually quite good. Took me a while to dig out 3 small pieces of meat since most of it was fat and pig skin. Doug had some kind of curried chicken and seemed to enjoy it. No curry for this girl! We sat with another couple and the girl was from Spain. After chatting with the guy for a bit, Doug says “your English is really good”. I almost peed my pants laughing. While Doug had been getting his lunch, the guy and I had been chatting and he was from the UK, south of London. I hope his English is good. Doug was thinking that they were both from Spain.

It took us about 30 minutes to get to the Blue Temple from where the White Temple was. Another spectacular and new temple. This one had been built by the town just a few years ago.

From here we headed to BAANDAM, which means the Black House in Thai. This is a collection of 40 buildings and is now a museum for the internationally known artist, Thawan Duchsnee who was born in 1939. He has passed away somewhat recently and his son now runs it. Much strange ‘art’.

This is the artist, Thawan Duchanee

The guy seemed to have an obsession with a certain body part. They were on display everywhere

This was the sign for the washroom.

Would you like a souvenir keychain?

On the way back to Chiang Mai we had another washroom break and these signs were posted in the stalls that actually had toilets and not the squat kind.

Would anyone like some snacks? We passed on them.

Crispy shredded pork roll

Dried Golden Squid anyone?

Another quick shot I was able to capture of a temple on a hill as we flew by at bullet speed.

We were tired by the time we got back to our hotel so went and grabbed a bite to eat at the Golden Arches, McDonalds. This was our view from where we sat outside eating over looking the night market stalls.

The prices at Hard Rick are insane. A Corona goes for about $18 Cdn. Needless to say we did not go in.

13 February 2018 – Chiang Mai – Day 2 – Where is that Wat?

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Today was a relatively relaxed day if you call walking around in circles in a thousand degree heat relaxing.

I woke up to a small white spider walking on my hand which I swatted and didn’t think much of. Later on in the day I will be thinking much of! We found a great restaurant, The Welcome Inn, on our way to see the Wat of the day. There were a few tables with people already eating. All tourists and no locals so we figured it would be good food for me. I have to say it was one of the best breakfasts I have had in a long time. I ordered the small English breakfast and Doug ordered the muesli and a mixed fruit smoothie. It was a lot of food!

We headed off to find this large Wat that is in the city that is surrounded by a moat. We asked directions at the local tourist office and thought we knew exactly where we were going. Turn right and two blocks down. Can’t miss it. On the way we came across another small Wat, Wat Phakhao, so of course I needed to take a quick look around.

They have some beautiful plants there.

We continued along the street taking in the sights.

Doug spied this cool car and wanted to see what it was. Turns out it is a Nissan Figaro. We’ve never seen or heard of that one before. It sure was cute.

Walking along both thinking we had gone way further than two blocks we came across another tourist office and asked again where this HUGE Wat was. Turned out it was blocks back. We had missed it. We followed the new instructions and Wat Chedi Luang Varavihara was not on that street either. We did finally find it. Turns out it wasn’t even on the street that the first tourist place had told us to walk down. Not even 100% sure of its name.

When we were heading to Chiang Mai, our son, Paden had said it would be cooler than Bangkok. It wasn’t and the sun was beating down on us. Add to this I had to be properly dressed to enter the Wat. This means covered and these wraps were made of a heavy fabric almost like canvas. I think they do it purpose to make us tourists sweat even more.

There were so many buildings in the grounds of this Wat. Here are a few pictures. Sometimes it difficult to get pictures without others in it.

Some buildings only allowed men. I call discrimination! LOL

Another Reclining Buddha. Apparently there are over 300 Wats in Chaing Mai alone. Wonder how many have Reclining Buddha’s?

This Wat was built approximately 600 years ago

The wax Monks looked so real you would sometimes swear they were real.

Since by now I was melting away we figured it was Miller Time and we headed to a nice little spot we had seen in the morning. There had been a lady there who had seen our Canadian ball caps and we had chatted with for a few minutes. I think she had said she was from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She had sold everything and had been traveling for 6 years now.

When the lady took our order she had to check the time. Didn’t think much of it. It was 1:50 pm. Around 2:20 she came back and poured all my beer into my mug. Then did the same with Doug’s and he hadn’t been using his mug. Turns out they are not allowed to serve alcohol between 2:00 and 5:00 pm. We decided to order a snack of French Fried.

Headed back to the hotel for a rest and to cool down. Dinner was back at our newly discovered favourite restaurant. Other than us these were most of the customers. So many old single white men over here. Too many with young Thai girls. See the cat Kimberly!

12 February 2018 – Bangkok – Day 5 – Travel Day to Chiang Mai, Thailand – Day 1

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Today we leave Bangkok and I have to say I was ready. The heat was getting to us and it’s taking longer to adapt to the weather than we thought it would. I guess going from -40 C to 40 C is a shock to your system. I’m really happy we’ve had the opportunity to see Bangkok and it’s been an education to see how others live. We have it so easy back home in Canada.

We were flying from Bangkok to Chiang Mai at 11:45 and it as only 1 hour 20 minutes flight. Nice and quick. We grabbed a quick breakfast and then the hotel got us a taxi to the airport.

The hotel door man negotiated the price with the taxi driver at 400 baht (approx $16 Cdn) which was to include the toll charges of 125 baht ($5.00 Cdn). When we were coming up to the first toll the driver asked for the toll money. This resulted in me not being happy but ended up paying for the tolls as we didn’t want to get stranded. Paid him 300 baht ($12.00 Cdn) when we arrived at the airport. He didn’t look thrilled but accepted it without a word. We usually tip well, but not this time. Apparently it is common for the taxi drivers to pull this kind of thing over here. I noticed that the hotel had written down the taxi number as we left. I’m thinking this is why. Anyways we got to the airport in what I thought was lots of time. This airport is HUGE (one if the busiest in the world) and you need at least your 2 hours to get checked in and through security. The airlines here open for check in 2 hours before your flight and close 1 hour prior to your flight. Don’t miss that 1 hour window! Flight went smooth and was uneventful but we were prepared.

Seats didn’t have much leg room but I guess that’s what you get for $50 a person.

Taxi from the Chiang Mai airport to our hotel had set prices so no negotiation needed and we much prefer that way. We arrived at the Montha Hotel a little before check in so relaxed in the lobby

It wasn’t long before we got our room key. We had booked twin beds as this was all that was available at the time but the price was right at $25 a night and the place had great reviews. We are not disappointed. Front desk service is excellent!

Beds bring new meaning to ‘hard as rock’.

Shower is basic but works great.

We decided to go for a walk and see what was around. We stumbled upon a Pizza Hut and the thought of pizza was so appealing to me that I talked Doug into it. Ordered a medium pepperoni as this was about the only thing that looked ‘normal’ to me. This was the tiniest medium pizza we had ever seen but it hit the spot.

After eating we walked around and to my surprise, not really, we came across a Wat. What Wat you ask? Wat Up Khut, I think.

It was a pretty basic Wat, but had some great plants around the grounds.

These ‘balls’ were actually growing from this tree.

This tree had no leaves only these marigold type flowers the size of your fist.

They were setting up for the night market as we made our way back to the hotel. Thought we would go out again later but it never happened. I’m not much for the night life, as I’m too tired after my day playing tourist.

11 February 2018 – Bangkok – Day 4 – Waterfront Property

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Today we decided to take the Canal boat tour starting in old Bangkok at around 1030 hours (half an hour late – about on par for this City, but it allowed us the opportunity to watch a restaurant employee feed old pizza to the fish).

The ticket cost 200 baht (around $8 Cdn). It allowed on and off privileges for 6 stops from our stop (#6) in the old city to #1 in the new city.

We disembarked at stop #5 and toured around the peace monument…

…and then went to McDonald’s. We were ordering breakfast when the server shook her head “no” and turned and switched the overhead menu signs.

OK, not a real problem, but when we ordered coffee, she told us, “no coffee”! (THEY RAN OUT!! – unbelievable and there wasn’t even a riot). That was about 1100 hrs.

Back to the boat around 1130 hrs – heading to stop #4. We visited a fruit market in search of some mixed fresh fruit.

Durian, these guys were HUGE. The size of 2 basketballs. Apparently they are a very stinky fruit and banned from every hotel where we have stayed.

During our search, through a filthy, odourous part of the market, I (Doug) came across a cat stalking a large rat (the body about the size of a small lady’s clenched fist – didn’t get a chance to get a picture (next time, I promise). It appeared that my flip flops had kicked up what looked like sewage onto the back of my legs and shorts. It sure didn’t look or smell very nice. Not much I could do about it until I got back to the hotel (and when we did, Joanne was gagging while cleaning my shorts).

In a waterway running through the market, we spotted about three large lizards. They are wild and all over the place.

We finally found a nice fruit stand and purchased a bag of freshly sliced pineapple. It was juicy and delicious.

It was now around 1230 hrs and ridiculously hot (in the 40s), so we decided to just get back on the boat and just ride it all the way to stop #1 and back to our starting point at stop #6. We would just sit back and view the waterfront property along the canal.

Stop # 1 is in the new city. Couldn’t get a lot of good pictures due to the fact we were down low and all the greenery around, but there are a lot of high rises in this area. Very modern buildings. Stop #6 is in Old City Bangkok.

10 February 2018 – Bangkok – Day 3 – Wat Wat is Wat?

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WARNING : Long and Photo intensive.

Saturday was the day we decided to see the other two Wats that were on my list. There are many, many Wats in Bangkok, actually the largest concentration in all of SE Asia but we can only handle so many before we got ‘Watted’ out. It’s seems that 4 was our limit. We weren’t really in any rush this morning so went to hunt out some breakfast. Found a nice little restaurant on one of the main side streets.

I saw that they had a fruit plate that sounded perfect and the menu picture looked delicious. The picture showed a variety of exotic fruits including dragon fruit which is abundant here. What I got was nothing like the picture and way over priced. I could have bought this from a street vendor for a fraction of the price. Plus our hotel gives free bananas.

Doug ordered a full breakfast and realized too late that the waitress never asked how he wanted his eggs cooked. He had wanted an omelette but got barely cooked fried eggs. The ‘sausages’ were mini hotdog wieners.

After breakfast we walked across the street to have a look in the 7 Eleven store. There seems to be one every couple of hundred feet. Found a few interesting products. You have to be aware of what you buy here as many of their products have skin whitening ingredients in them.

Now it was time to get a tuk-tuk to take us to our first Wat of the day as it was almost 5 km away and too far to walk to start the day off. I ended up doing over 16,000 steps today even with taking the tuk-tuk. The hotel had told us a tuk-tuk should cost about 150 baht to go there. The driver quoted us 500 baht (approximately $20 Cdn). Do we have ‘SUCKERS’ written on our foreheads? We told him what the hotel told us. After lots of negotiations we settled on 200 baht even though he wanted 250. We did give him 250 baht which included his tip. He was very happy.

First up was Wat Traimit, Temple of the Golden Buddha. We had to have covered shoulders and no knees showing. Have I mentioned it was HOT? I was melting with all this clothing on!

This should say Please take off shoes

From here you could see what I think is the start of China town or maybe we were already in China town. We’ll never know.

Then I spied what is turning into my little piece of heaven. Back home I’ve never been a fan of Starbucks but over in Asia it is a precious sight. Since my breakfast hadn’t filled me we went in to grab an iced coffee when I saw this delicious, scrumptious ham and cheese crescent. You have no idea how good it was.

Next up was our 2nd Wat of the day, Wat Pho, Temple of the Reclining Buddha. As it was only a couple of kilometres away we decided to walk. We plotted our route using maps.me. Well maps.me apparently likes to take you through all the tourist busiest routes available. Every street we went on seemed to specialize in one item. This street was shoes. Shoes as far as you could see.

Saw lots of

It had us going through a very narrow covered market. There had to have been a million people in there as well as close to a thousand degrees.

We finally said enough was enough and escaped on the next available street. Good thing maps.me works like Miss Garmin and will recalculate your route. After what seemed like an insane amount of time to go 2 km we finally reached our destination Wat Pho.

This place was huge and pictures will never do it justice. Here are a few of the hundreds that I took.

There are orchids everywhere and they are spectacular

Inside the main temple is where the Reclining Buddha lays. He is massive.

We were tired and hot and ready to get back to our hotel. This didn’t turn out to be a very easy task. We wanted to take a tuk-tuk back, but none of the tuk-tuk drivers seemed to know where our hotel was. Not sure what their problem was as it’s in a very busy part of Old Bangkok which is very popular and not that far from the temple. Next we tried a taxi since we figured they would have a GPS of some sort. That wasn’t successful either. Someone, won’t mention any names here, but you know who you are, had told us to always make sure the taxi uses their meter otherwise they will rip you off. Well the taxi driver refused and just walked away. We gave up and decided to just walk the couple of kilometres back to the hotel. This would have been fine in cooler weather but it was HOT and SUNNY! At 5:00 pm it was 42C (108F) with the humidity. We finally made it back and have now decided that some days it will just be worth it to pay what they ask for and skip the meter issue. After a cool rest we headed out for dinner in an obviously touristy restaurant. No locals here but were the Blue Hawaiian drinks ever good!

9 February 2018 – Bangkok – Day 2 – How Can You Miss It?

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Let’s start by saying it is HOT & HUMID here.

We thought we would go to the Grand Royal Palace today. Since the entry ticket included the Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) we figured we could do both in the same day. Turns out they are side by side. We had woken up early, 3:30 am early so decided to go for opening which was 8:30. Our hotel offers free tuk-tuk rides to this attraction so instead of walking the 2.7 km we opted for the tuk-tuk. Let’s say it was already hot by 7:30 am, so why walk?

It was great fun to ride in the tuk-tuk and I look forward to doing it more. For some reason they had to drop of us off about a block away but that was no issue as the gates didn’t open for another half hour. Saw this on the way, Uber scooters. As we walked the block to the compound we heard the song of the bird that has been waking us up every morning. These guys are early risers and appear to be following us. In Vietnam Doug had a rooster that would wake him up every morning. The birds just want him up early. The welcoming sign that greets you at the entrance

Inside the walls, the grounds are absolutely massive. Every temple was just so spectacular around every corner you walked.

By 10:30 we were so hot and tired that we really felt like it was mid afternoon. That’s what happens when you are wide awake at 3:30 am. So we decided to take a break and enjoy a cold drink as we stumbled across a small cafe. An ice cold beer has never tasted so good.

After our break we headed over to the Royal Palace side of the area. Pretty sure the inside of the palace is not open for viewing.

It boggles my mind how many people ignore and disrespect signs around these temples. They weren’t the only ones sitting. There were many people sitting in these areas.

Shortly after noon we decided to leave and walk back to the hotel and try to search out Khao San Road which is the hopping, lively area of Old Bangkok at night time. We got close but were getting tired, hungry and have I mentioned, hot? Found this street food restaurant named Yummy Yummy and it was doing a booming business so decided to get some lunch. We both ordered Fried Rice with Chicken and Cashew. It was pretty good but I’m finding that everything I eat over here all tastes the same. However the price was right. Under $12 for 2 plates of food and 2 ice cold Chang beers. I have never drank so much beer in my life and we haven’t even been here a week. Water and beer seem to be the 2 beverages of choice. A large bottle of water, maybe 2 litres in size is 13 baht, approximately $0.50 Cdn. We are going through a lot of bottles!

After lunch we continued to look for that street but we just got too tired and decided to head back to the hotel. Got back and laid down for an afternoon nap at 3:00 pm. Next thing we knew it was 8:00 pm. Best sleep we had both had since leaving Canada. We really needed it. Once again we headed out to find Khao San Road and we were successful this time in finding it. Turns out it was one street over from where we had had lunch today. Found a nice place with cheap beverages and good entertainment. He sang a great mix of songs. A little rock, a little country and a little Elvis. We’ve been told we shouldn’t pay more than 80 baht for a large Chang so pick our dining places based on their Chang price. There is definitely something wrong with this method but had worked for these few days.

The washroom left a little to be desired but it did have a sink to wash your hands in. Just nothing to dry them with which is apparently the norm around here.

We didn’t eat here so we grabbed a little street food on the way ack to the hotel. We should have got more as it was really good.

The next morning we realized that we never even saw the Emerald Buddha that we had originally headed out to see the morning before. Only we could miss it. Proving once again we had been over tired and jet-lagged. Guess we’ll have to look at others’ pictures on the web.