Last Day in Thailand

I had my last (half) day in Thailand today. We woke up and headed to the hotel restaurant for our free breakfast. The selection of food was incredible! Thai, English, and American focused. There was even Nutella.

My first day in Thailand, we had tried to go to the Grand Palace, but ran out of time, so we woke up with plenty of time to get there. The traffic in Bangkok is terrible. Lights don't change as quickly, and it's extra boring sitting in the traffic when you are barely moving. It took us about 45 minutes to go 8 miles.

We arrived at the palace and were told by several people on the way that we were not dressed properly. This is because we were wearing pants down to our mid calf and Yuliya was wearing a cap sleeve shirt. You can wear pants, but they have to cover your ankles completely. You can also show above your calf, but only if you are wearing a skirt. I know, it makes a lot of sense. They let you borrow long skirts and shirts for free (you only need a deposit). This clothing is actually really nice (and super clean).

The amount of people at the Grand Palace is pretty overwhelming. Think the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. It's a 54 acre complex of buildings and is the most visited tourist site in Bangkok. The palace was used by the monarchy as a residence until the 1920s.

We observed several selfie sticks being used throughout the complex.

Close up of the gold:

Can't have a palace without potted lily pads.

The Grand Palace was very interesting, but I was completely ready to go after doing a quick one hour walk through. We headed away from the temple and walked through several amazing looking food vendors.

We happened across the ferry landing at the Chao Phraya River which runs through the middle of Bangkok. Unfortunately the ferry could not help us avoid the traffic nightmare.

We grabbed a cab and started the hour journey back to the hotel, and then I made my way to Suvarnabhumi airport. When we got to the actual road to the airport, it felt like it took us at least 20 minutes to actually drive the distance to the terminal. The airport is huge, and is the world's fourth largest single building terminal. I found that all four of the airports I used in Thailand were very efficiently run. There were a ton of people there, but somehow the wait wasn't too long. In the Bangkok airport they actually guarantee that the workers will give you a smile if you smile at them.

What an amazing trip! Thailand is a beautiful country with many fun things to see and experience. I hope to return again and explore the rest of the country. 

Last morning in Chiang Mai

It started pouring while we were driving back from the Elephant Park last night and it continued through to this morning. We had heard that Chiang Mai was supposed to cooler than the rest of Thailand, and we finally got to experience the coolness. By coolness I mean it was probably cool enough to wear jeans and a t-shirt and not die from the heat. We had another great hotel breakfast. This time I had green garlicky noodles, sweet sausage, pumpkin soup, and a cereal similar to cocoa puffs. 

Here's the breakfast patio on a sunnier day:

Due to the rain, we took our first tuk tuk of the trip. It's been great being able to walk in Chiang Mai and not use taxis. The Tuk Tuk was pretty nice for a Tuk Tuk, very spacious. It also had plastic covering on the sides so we didn't get wet. Our driver actually did not try to rip us off, he gave us a very reasonable price, especially given the rain.

He dropped us off at Wat Phra Singh on the western side of the city. Construction of the wat began in 1375. This is actually the only Wat I visited where there was a fee. I found it not particularly interesting, but maybe I was watted out at that point. The grounds were very nicely landscaped.

A lot of the temples have wax figurines of monks. They are extremely realistic, you can barely tell they are fake from outside the temple except that they don't move.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped to "warm up" and get some coffee. We both got white mochas. I don't think they were actually white chocolate, but there was a large mound of whipped cream on them.

We packed up and took our quick flight back to Bangkok. Our Chiang Mai hotel was pretty fancy, but the Park Plaza hotel in Bangkok is really fancy. We had several free kits (dental kits, shaving kits, etc.).

Hotel lobby:

 

The bathroom has windows!

Our booking included free drinks and canapes at 5:30. I had to wait 45 minutes, so I snacked on Thai chicharrones that I got at the night market.

Part of the hotel's happy hour spread:

I guess I was missing western food because I sat there and ate about 6 tomato and cucumber finger sandwiches.

Yuliya read on Trip Advisor that there was an ice bar around the corner. When we got to the bar, it felt cold, but then there was no ice to be found. She asked a waitress, and it turns out the ice bar is just a small room upstairs with vodka shots. We each got a shot for a total of $6. Unlike the ice bar in Copenhagen, they don't provide coats here, but the ice bar in Copenhagen also would have cost of $40.

Here we are being cold (the lights constantly change colors):

Lonely Planet had also recommended what they call the best bar in Thailand. We got to the bar, and it turns out it's run by a bearded hipster ex pat. It was a nice bar, but I can't believe it would be the BEST bar in Thailand. The Thailand Lonely Planet author seems easily impressed. I did have a great passion fruit hipster cocktail though. And yes, there were drinks out of mason jars and fernet.

We headed back towards the hotel in search of street meat. We found a jolly non-English speaking vendor. The best thing was the bacon wrapped hot dogs. Apparently were were exported back to the Mission. 

Tomorrow: last day in Bangkok!

 

Baan Chang Elephant Park

Yuliya and I had our Mahout training day at Baan Chang Elephant Park. Baan Chang Elephant Park rescues elephants from performances, logging work, and other tourist companies. In these cases the elephants are often abused and mistreated. In addition, the seat put on the elephant to ride them hurts them, so Baan Chang does not use them.

Baan Chang is home to about 40 rescued Asian Elephants. It's located about an hour north of Chiang Mai. After a long drive (having to pick up the rest of our tour participants added about 45 minutes), we arrived at the park. They had us change into the blue mahout clothes. You get elephant slobber on you fairly quickly, so I was glad not to be wearing my own clothes. They provides us with lockers and lots of breaks. Luckily I had read that it was safe to bring your DSLR with you. You can even keep your camera while riding the elephant if you wish, although a DSLR might be a little bulky.

We started with our guide telling us a little about the elephants and how to feed them their morning snack of bananas and sugar cane.

At this time they have the elephants chained for your safety, and so they aren't fighting with each other. We were allowed to walk around and feed any elephant we liked.

The elephants stick out their trunks at you to get the food. They make sort of a suctioning sound if you don't hand them food.

After feeding the elephants we did our rider training. The elephant kneels down and you step on its leg and then hold onto the ears and jump on its neck. As soon as you are on its neck, it's trained to stand up. To make it go, you yell "Pai Pai Pai" and kick behind its ears. To turn left or right you yell "Kway kway kway" and kick with the opposite leg. To get the elephant to lay down, you yell "On long" until it lays down. To tell you elephants its being good, you tell it "Dee Dee Dee" and pat it. We had to take our elephants around a tree and turn and then get it to lay down so we could jump off.

Here I am on the course:

We then took a lunch break and enjoyed the bamboo hammocks and view of the elephants:

After lunch we took a 90 minute trail ride around the property.  Our elephant was named Tong Sing and was actually the same one we trained on. Her trainer must have liked us or thought we were really good elephant riders because he picked us to ride her.

The elephants are pretty similar to trail horses in that they will follow each other for the most part, and try to eat things on the way. Our elephant kept picking up huge branches to munch on. The front rider (in this case me) sort of balances by leaning their arms on the top of the elephant's head. It does take some getting use to, and even small shifts in balance makes it feel like you might fall off! Luckily all of us stayed on. Here are some photos from the trail ride:

After the trail ride, we washed our elephants in the watering hole. Ours seemed pretty happy dunking her head under water. It seems like they can hold their breath pretty long.

After washing Tong Sing we were pretty soaked, but Baan Chang provides showers. Tomorrow - last morning in Chiang Mai.