The best of Thailand for last

KoYao Noi Island, most peaceful place imaginable:

The next lag of our adventure we flew south to Phuket to experience the island life.  We arrived very late at night at Phuket airport and couldn’t catch a ferry to our little island so we had to stay overnight in an airport hotel. It had decent ratings on Expedia, but this hotel was officially a roach hotel. It cost us $100 US dollars for two rooms for one night. That should have been my first clue. Actually I was just happy to find some place to sleep, but I think if you close your eyes and imagine the worst place you could, subtract one star….there you go, that was Phuket Airport hotel.  Sorry no pictures.

Next morning we get up eager to find our paradise. We are accidently sent to the wrong pier by our hotel and once we arrive the private driver we have hired is fine leaving us there with no means to get to our intended location. He just wants his money and is ready to go make his next delivery, although for a huge fee he will drive us to the correct pier. We have no idea where we are, but we know that this isn’t the right place. Oh boy! Eventually we find someone who speaks some English, we talk to our hotel on the phone and the driver and our hotel agrees to cover the exuberant fee to get us on our way since it was their error. Fun, fun!!  

We eventually find the correct pier. It was pretty baffling once we arrived. Of course nothing is in English and there are always “Helpful” people trying to profit from traveler’s confusion. For instance we were approached by a “Helpful, disinterested” third party, who didn’t know the captain, but could get us a “Really good price” on our trip. We met another American couple while we were waiting and the helpful stranger told them a price that was double what he told us. When the other couple and Jeff and I start comparing notes the helpful stranger now doesn’t admit to the cheaper price we were offered earlier (He doesn’t want to lose face and admit he told us different prices) he says we must have misunderstood the original deal. The crazy thing is that there is a public boat which costs about $1.50 per person, but it isn’t obvious when you first arrive. The helpful stranger was arranging for us to pay about $100, we did talk him down to $50, but that was his “Best price”. We end up taking the public boat for about $7 for the entire family. It really isn’t about the money in most of these situations, it’s about being taken advantage of, and that just feels wrong.  Our boat is relatively small, but many people are crowded onto it and many things. There were several motorcycles, many pieces of luggage and boxes and boxes full of I don’t know, but since this is the only way locals get to and from the island everything is loaded onto our boat. I wish I had taken a picture. It didn’t seem funny at the time, it felt fairly normal because we were growing accustomed to strange things, but thinking back it was pretty humorous.

While we are waiting for our cheap, slow, over filled boat to arrive we see packs of monkeys. It is pretty sad because they spend their time digging through the garbage, but they are awfully cute with their little babies attached to them.

Monkeys every where and they are so cute with their babies hanging on

We finally arrive at Koh Yao Noi, our island paradise.  Almost instantly a different feeling takes over for me. It’s a bit like arriving at Whidbey Island; you know that feeling as soon as you step off the ferry, but magnify it by 100? Everything is slower paced, more relaxing, it’s on island time.

 We ride in another  version of a tuk-tuk (no pictures of this version, but it’s a lot like the Red tops that were in Chiang Mai, although the prices have now soared from 60 baht for a pretty long ride to 100 baht per person for a short ride. I don’t know if I ever mentioned the exchange rate, but it is 30 baht to 1 US dollar. Our dollar goes a long ways in Thailand. That’s cool! I only mention the price of the tuk-tuk because it is noteworthy for getting around the island. What cost us 60 baht to get around anywhere else in Thailand, now costs us 500 baht to go anywhere. The island is a very small island. I think if you walk on the main road all the way around the outside it is approx. 10 miles total. Koh Yao Noi in the middle of Phang Nga Bay, between Phuket and the Krabi main lands. It was totally missed during the 2004 tsunami. We were told the water rose several feet and some areas were flooded, but nothing like Phuket, which took a huge hit during that tsunami. Because the island is in a bay the water is not rough and the surf doesn't get too crazy. It also means that you can’t surf if that is what you are looking for in a beach get away. 

Our tuk tuk ride is informative. We always manage to find the nicest people. One of the passengers in our ride is a restaurant owner on the island. He isn’t a native and he speaks perfect English. He shares with us all kinds of useful information regarding the island and helpful advice regarding the people. Apparently the island is 95% Muslim and we have arrived during Ramadan. He explained that most of the restaurants will not be open until dusk because everyone is fasting. He tells us all about the food that is specific to that region. In this area it is a very small fish (He didn’t know the English translation) that is dried and added to many dishes. We always ask what the regional food is in a new area and make a point to try that food.

Traditional dried fish meal on the left and green papaya salad on the right.

 He has bags and bags full of groceries that he got from the mainland that he is bringing back to supply his restaurant. It is called the “Rice Paddy” and is located right on a rice paddy, hence the name. It is a tiny little place with 4-5 tables. The kitchen is about 5 square feet. There are no true walls. There is a bamboo roof and partial bamboo walls.

Eating at the Rice Paddy. Wonderful food.

Typical toilet in the restaurants here. Toilets don't flush, but there is a large bucket of water and a pail to wash your stuff down. Paper goes in the garbage, it isn't suppose to be flushed. The floors are dirt, the walls are covered in lizards and they are usually decorated with various plants or weeds.

Bamboo roofing material from under side

  We ask him about the crime level on the island. He shows us as we are driving through the village that nearly everyone has open air houses, no windows and no real doors. Everyone’s televisions and valuables are in the front areas closet to the street. There are many scooters and bicycles, but very few cars. It really feels like we have landed on a different planet, especially after coming from Shanghai and Bangkok.

Typical houses on the island

Bikes, scooters, Muslims, "Town"...this picture just about sums it up

Finally we arrive at our little island resort. Wowza!! Beautiful!! The staff moves our stuff to our little villa. It is a three quarter walled building with the open side facing the ocean, set back about 50 feet from the water. 

Our sweet little home for a week

View from the villa facing the ocean

The open side can be shaded for privacy with rolled bamboo shades, but the outside is barely outside.

View from inside the villa with the shades closed

 Behind the villa is a walled garden area with a shower and sink. It’s like taking a shower in your own private Eden.

Shower paradise

Each bed is covered by a mosquito net and a ceiling fan as there is obviously no air conditioning and the nets will surely be needed come dusk.

The inside of our villa.

 I love to camp and this is camping in style, but I have never camped where there are poisonous snakes, scorpions, 6 feet long water monitors and so many mosquitos that you could be eaten alive. I have reservations, wondering to myself if this could potentially be a huge mistake, but on the other hand, it is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us. Game on, we are up for it.

Water monitor that walks through the hotel grounds every day. The bird is following the bird for several hundred feet, yelling at it and flying at it trying to get it to go away.

After unpacking we head out to check out the resort. We do what I witness every other new person do over the next week. We walk about with our camera, snapping picture after picture, with our mouth gapping open because it is so beautiful and it’s hard to take it all in. I could feel how tense my body was and it was hard to imagine being able to relax enough to really experience this place. I know that sounds weird, but you could just feel this calmness and even though I thought I was relaxed before I arrived, this was a new calm I hadn’t experienced in a very long time. Over the course of the next few days the island and my family get in sync with each other. We become as calm as the island. Nice!!!

Jeff finding his happy place on the island

Finding and breaking open coconuts is the plan. We have NO tools with us. 

MUST open the coconut. Look at that look of determination.

Everyone MUST open the coconuts....

If there is a tree near by Claire has to climb it. She should be on Survivor because she climbs right up without an issue to get coconuts. I love how she is usually in a dress climbing the trees.

Jeff is only able to stay for 3 days with us. Over the course of those 3 days we ride bicycles and explore parts of the island. We went to “Town” and experienced Thai massages. Well some of us did, some of us chose to have Swedish massages. The hotel has bicycles that we can borrow, but only adult size. They don’t have a Claire size bike so we decide to rent a scooter for the day. There are no instructions from the staff how to use this machine, not even turn it on. It doesn’t look too hard, I see older children driving them around.  Well…………I was wrong; it turns out that the brake and gas are on the same handle and it doesn’t take much to mess them up (especially going around a corner), or at least for me to mess them up. I take the thing for a little spin to practice driving before Claire gets on and I quickly crash the bike into a big pile of tiles.

Giant pile of tiles that I decided to take a trip through

 I am around the corner from my family, they can’t see me, but they hear the engine rev, a big scream from me and then quickly followed by a loud crashing sound. Turns out when you drive a scooter through a pile of tiles they make a really loud sound. Crap! Everyone comes running, I have knocked the bike over on top of the pile, cut my leg open and have filled my sandal up with blood. I didn't know I had cut myself and they are all freaking out because they see all the blood. The staff helps me back to the hotel, cleans me up and we head back out to ride to town. Claire and I are fairly traumatized by now (she is a very empathetic person. I wasn't in any pain (except my bruised pride), but she was very worried about me L). I have no intention of ever riding that device again, especially when there isn't a good place to practice. Jeff convinces Claire that he can drive just fine and we should go explore.

Love the look on Claire's face. She's a little nervous after my mishap

 I really should have gone and had stitches in my leg, but I didn't want to waste one of the few days Jeff had on the island at the local hospital. I have a pretty purple scar souvenir on my lower leg now, but it didn't get infected so I’m glad we continued on with our original plans for the day. The island is beautiful. Each area we pass has little stores, little restaurants and many little huts.

Riley learned within the first night or two why there are mosquito nets over the beds. While sleeping he tucked his net under his arms and slept with it like a blanket. His face and arms were exposed for a lot of the night. When he woke up the next morning it was hard to tell which part of his arms weren’t bitten by something. He was one huge mosquito bite. I guess it was a good lesson for all of us. Stay under the nets all night long. I didn’t get up once in the middle of the night because I was always a little nervous what I might find in the bathroom once it got dark.

The second day we all have our massages. Jeff had the Thai massage and he said it’s a bit like a judo match, but you are not allowed to fight back. These little ladies are strong. They look petite and sweet, but don’t let that fool you; they could kick any body’s butt if they wanted to. I am the only one who has ever had a massage, so I found it sort of fun to watch each of them finish with a completely dazed, drunk look on their face. They all look so relaxed and stretched in ways that I don’t think they have ever been stretched before.

Jeff heads home and the kids and I stay and do NOTHING. We eat, we lounge, we swim, we eat, we lounge, we swim; day after day. It never gets boring, until I finish my book. Then we decide to take a day and explore the karsts islands that we can see in the distance from our beach.  These karst islands are made from sandstone. They are beautiful.

We take a traditional long tail boat with our own captain out for the day and we explore.

Small lagoon that we kayaked into and found so many hidden treasures

Our captain sharing different fruits with us and the back view of the long tail boat.

Traditional long tail boat and three very happy children

 He takes us into hidden lagoons where we find schools of fish, blow fish, sea stars and mangroves. We snorkeled and swam.

Sea star, I only added this picture because they look so different than the variety we have in the NW.

Fishy, fishy, fishy

I knew nothing about mangroves before we arrived and here was a little informative sign

Here is a mangrove by our villa. It has a board walk through it so you can see close up what a mangrove is, but keep it safe from damage.

 He showed us many islands including an island called Monkey Island. It was fun to drive the boat by Monkey Island and have the monkeys swim out and retrieve the fruit we threw in the water.

This island had several monkeys. We threw fruit in the water for this little guy/gal for quite a while and it was fun to watch it swim.

That’s another thing about this trip. We are eating so many fruits and vegetables that we have never seen before. I had seen them in the Shanghai markets, but I didn’t know how to eat them or prepare them so we hadn’t bought them before. I don’t know the names of most of the fruit we have eaten, but it has been fun to try so many new foods.

Dragon fruit. Pretty yummy. Best in a smoothie in my opinion.

Not sure what these are, but you peel the skin off and a lychee type fruit is inside and it is yummy.

Durian. it is everywhere and it is very smelly. Some people compare it to rotting flesh smell. I tasted a small dried piece and it's pretty nasty tasting.

Next the kids and I take a Thai cooking class. We take a tuk-tuk to Ms. Mina’s house. She lives on the other side of the island and apparently nearly every one of her neighbors is a relative. She is a very interesting lady; we had a good time chatting with her.

Ms. Mina teaches us about the different foods. She is smelling something here. I loved all the smells of the ingredients.

This is Ms. Mina's helper. You can see her traditional Thai kitchen behind her. Notice no glass on the window.

This is one of the plates of food Ms. Mina has out for us to use 

 We cook four traditional dishes that are her family recipes: Coconut milk soup with fish, green curry chicken, Thai fried noodles with Prawns, and Papaya salad. We are introduced to many vegetables and spices that we don’t know or maybe we have them in a dry form, but I have never seen the actual plants. She teaches all of us some techniques for bringing out the flavor in our cooking. We learn how to make fresh coconut milk and cream. Our creations are our dinner that night. They are really yummy. She later sent us her cookbook online so I can go home and try to repeat these dishes. I don’t know if I can find all the veggies, spices and herbs at the Asian market, but I plan to try. I did buy a mortar and pestle in Shanghai to take home and try to grind my own curry pastes(it cost all of $4.50 J.

Eating some of our food from our cooking class.

Our final day we spend wasting time in Phuket Town because our plane didn’t take off until 2:30 am. We had quite an adventure trying to get on our flight. Turns out in Asian countries you must show the credit card that you booked the flight with at check in (because there is so much corruption we are told). They will not check you in without it. Jeff booked our flights with his debit card (we couldn’t book all of our flights with our credit card, which has the same numbers on each of our cards because at some point they thought we had booked too much overseas travel and they put a hold on our credit card…again trying to save us from corruption, but again making my travel more difficult), but wasn’t with us for this lag of the journey. After wasting nearly 4 hours in the airport they wouldn’t check us in. We spent an additional two, very long hours trying to get a hold of Jeff so he could confirm the debit card was his/mine. My phone ran out of service, Aiden’s phone battery died and we weren’t getting much help from the airlines. I was so frustrated because here it was the middle of the night, Aiden was leaving the next day headed back to the states so rescheduling our flight was not an option and I couldn’t get anyone to understand that my name was also on the account, but the number was for his card only. We never did get a hold of Jeff and I’m not sure why, but in the final moments they checked the kids and I in and let us fly even though it was against their policy. The worst part was that we had come from this really peaceful island with little stimulation and just getting back into town was a little overwhelming and now all of that peace seemed to quickly dissolve from this frustrating experience.  It seems like every time we fly in Asia there is something wrong, it gets really frustrating.

That about sums up our Thailand trip, overall I loved Thailand. I’m glad we explored so many different parts so that we have different parts to compare. If we had only visited one of those areas we would assume that all of Thailand was like any one portion. I think it will be hard to live up to this vacation; this is the new bar for us.

Next stop Chiang Mai

Next stop Chiang Mai…

We left Bangkok, with not a minute to spare. Our taxi driver didn’t seem to understand (or maybe he didn’t care?) we were headed to the airport and took the slowest possible route. It turns out that we were pretty sure he took that route so he could get in his afternoon nap. He fell asleep at all the stop lights. OMgosh!!!

Anyway, back to Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai is North of Bangkok and can best be described as a mountainous jungle. Chiang Mai made it in to the 2012 list of "25 Best Destinations in the World” by Trip Advisor. I would have to agree, it is very beautiful. The highest mountains in the country are here. 

This is a picture taken out of the city where we had dinner one night.

The weather was quite a bit cooler and actually quite pleasant.Chiang Mai is the largest and most culturally significant city in Northern Thailand. The city is along the Ping River. There is a very old wall with a moat built around the original city. Most of the wall has fallen into disarray, but the moat is still full of water.

The moat. You can see two fisherman. One is using a bamboo stick and the other is using line and a hook only.

 I believe the wall and moat were built in 1296. There are rumors that Chiang Mai is a contender for the World Expo 2020.

The only piece of the original wall that we found. This went all the way around the city originally.

On our first day we decided to go zip lining. None of us had done this before. We went with a company called Flight of the Gibbon. So the monkeys we had been hiding from the previous day at the zoo lived in the jungle we were now going to be “flying” through the trees with. Fun! The course was situated in a 1,500-year old rainforest. We flew under the canopy of the trees often and it was very beautiful. Our tour guide named Cash taught us about safety and made the experience really fun.

This is Cash. He was our guide, he was a crack up.

This picture gives you the general idea of the landscape and the long lengths we flew. You can see below Riley to the left is another line we went on too. 

One of the suspension bridges we crossed. SOOO long and cool.

Loved this tree and the platform.

Co-flying!

 We flew through 5 km of ziplines and across 24 different platforms, sky bridges and lowering stations.

 We heard monkeys occasionally, but we never saw any, too bad. After ziplining for hours we went on a small hike up to a local waterfall.

Ta-da, here's the "waterfall". It was pretty.

 And our day ended with a nice meal in the local restaurant with live musicians playing local music for us. Actually our day ended with another crazy driver. This particular driver was from the tour company and he put in a cartoon in the portable DVD player for the “Kids”. He left it plugged in on the front console.  All I could see in the rear view mirror was his smiling eyes. He smiled nearly the entire trip, then I realized it was because he was watching the tv and not the road. He laughed at all the really corny scenes (that were in Thai by the way, so I don’t really think it was for the kids.  Another Omgosh moment!

Second day of Chiang Mai is elephants. This is what Claire has been waiting for, if we just experienced elephants and then went home Claire would have thought it was enough. Turns out it was a highlight for all of us. We decided to go to a place called Baan Chang Elephant sanctuary. We chose this place because we learned that many of the “Tricks” elephants do are not natural for them and could be considered abuse;  this company buys previously abused or sick elephants to save. They have quite a chunk of land for the animals to live. Several baby elephants have been born here and they are allowed to stay with the mother, which I guess isn’t the norm.  Upon arriving at Baan’s sanctuary the first thing I noticed is the connection between the 20 or so elephants and their trainers, mahouts. There seems to be an incredible bond.

The first thing we do is change into our “Uniforms”. They are not very attractive, but they keep our clothes clean and if I understood correctly it also protects us so the elephants aren’t triggered by previous experiences because of the way some one is dressed. 

Baby elephant and our lovely uniforms.

Then our guide tells us about all the elephants, their care and some of their individual stories. We are told to stay away from a couple because of various reasons. One is blind in one eye and we are taught how to safely approach that elephant. Next we are given baskets of sugar cane to feed to the elephants. We walk around with our small group and all independently feed various elephants. The elephants know the drill. They beg, they try to charm you with their eyes, they EAT and eat and eat and eat some more. Turns out elephants basically eat, sleep, exercise and poop all day. That’s it and they are happy. There are two different baby elephants that are very sweet. We really enjoy meeting all the elephants.. Watching the mahouts climb around and interact with their elephants looks so natural, they reminded me of Mowgli from the Jungle book.

Training for our walk through the jungle

Next it is our turn to learn how to ride and train the elephants. We learn how to mount the elephants. We will ride them bare back.

Claire isn't having a good time at all.

Riley and Aiden with their mahouts.

 I am thankful for the uniform long pants since their hairs are quite thick and bristly. After our brief introduction it is time for our hour long ride through the hilly jungle. We are in a group with another family; we are each in groups of two on each elephant. Claire and I ride together, the boys ride together and Jeff has his own elephant. Claire rides on the front by the neck and I ride further on the back. It is amazing! The elephants are very focused on eating. They stop often to nibble on bamboo. At one point one of the elephants signals to one of the trainers that there is a humming bird. Apparently the trainers like to chase after the humming birds and try to catch them. The trainers all go running off in the woods leaving us with the elephants. The elephants love this because now they can eat and aren’t accountable to the trainers anymore. This moment really did seem like a scene out of a movie about natives. The young men were all running through the jungle, dodging, jumping and yelling with laughter and trying to catch the bird. They didn’t have a chance. I thought it was funny the elephants signaled to the trainer that the bird was there though. Anyway, we continue on, uphill, downhill at a leisurely pace. It turns out it is an incredible amount of work to stay on an elephants back side going downhill. They elephant we had swayed her hips when she went downhill and I nearly was bounced right off several times. The trainer held one of my legs so I didn’t bounce off. Elephants are also quite wide, obviously, but when you are riding one for nearly an hour it can be quite hard on the hips. Half way through we stop for an elephant free break and Claire and I trade positions. She rides on the back with a mahout and I ride in the front by the neck. The elephant we had liked to wrap her ears around your legs and she gets amazingly hot. It’s a sort of cool feeling with her ears around your legs, but wow I was hot.

The final part of our elephant time is spent leading them to a pond for a bath.

Baths for all. This elephant grabbed a big snack before heading to the water. LOL

 Our elephant couldn’t decide which side she wanted to lay on so she kept shifting back and forth; a little scary since she is enormous. By the time we finally can get close enough to brush her and splash her with water Claire and I are completely covered in pond water. Remember what I said elephants do, well this pond is full of the evidence. They seem like this is the place to let it all out. There are floating turds everywhere. It doesn’t smell and we just push the floaters out of the way. Our elephant decides to fill her trunk with water and spray it up in the air. She’s a spunky one with a fun personality. The guide explained that the elephants love their baths and it is a way of thanking them for the jungle trek.

Following this poop bath we are lead to the real showers where we enjoy a cleansing shower and change back into our clean clothes. Next we enjoy a nice traditional Thai meal that they provide. This was an incredible day. I thought it couldn’t get any better than zip lining, but I think this was another one of those once in a lifetime experience days. Two in a row!!

Our final day in Chiang Mai was only a partial day since we had to fly to Phuket next. We decided to explore the village by tuk-tuk. 

This is the Chiang Mai tuk-tuks, they called them Red Tops. There are some regular tuk-tuks, but these were more comfortable for our family of five.

We found a lovely flower market

LOVED the flower market. Beautiful flowers as far as you could see. Claire was in heaven.

One of the many views of the market. Amazing amount of stuff crammed in a very small space. 

 and a local market where we could get hand crafted goods.

 Their specialty were amazing wood sculptures, Buddhist art and statues, furniture, lamps, paintings, carvings, toys, souvenirs, rattan work, candles, soap, silverware and jewelry, fabric and woven products, ceramics, sandstone murals… the list is endless.

I forgot to mention our incredible hotel.

The front of our hotel. Three floors of grandness tucked into a residential area.

 We stayed in a partially enclosed hotel room. The bathroom had a full size Jacuzzi with an open deck overlooking the view.

One of the views from our hotel. Sweet little neighborhood.

This is our bath with an open deck to the swimming pool below. The curtain is the only screen.

  It had the most beautiful furnishing and architecture. We were situated in the middle of a small neighborhood off the beaten path. It seemed like they built it right in a residential area. There were houses all around us. Both of the tours we went on picked us up by van and we rode with families from other hotels. Every time they were in awe of our hotel because it was so beautiful and out of the ordinary. Several got out of the van and came into take a quick tour of our place because it was so amazing looking.