Category: Travel

Our next stop was a monastery called Doi Suthep (Wat Phra That Doi Suthep), which is another sacred site for Thai people. It is said to have been founded in the late 14^th century. Doi Suthep is the mountain it is on, so you can imagine the view, as well as the stairs we had to climb…so worth it if you can do it (around 300 steps). The interesting thing about Buddhism is that you don’t have to be a monk for the rest of your life, but you can do it for certain periods of time. We were excited to visit this place since we were able to receive a blessing from a monk.

The dragons at the gate are amazing, made with beautiful colored designs. When you get to the top, the golden mount at the temple is gorgeous, as well as all the beautiful statues of Buddha. You are surrounded by gold there!

We learned that there are different Buddha’s for the various days of the week (i.e. Sunday is contemplation)…your Buddha is based on what day of the week you were born. Buddhists also burned oil there which I had never seen before.

This place was really special to me since we got a blessing, and received blessed rope to wear on our hands. Monks cannot touch women so another man put them on us. I had never received a blessing from a monk, so this was a completely new experience for me.

Kristina and I shook these containers with sticks in them, and the stick that fell out of the container had a number on it that was matched to a paper with a fortune. I included a picture with our fortunes on it. A trip to Doi Suthep is a really beautiful experience that I recommend if you are in Chiang Mai.

After this, we went to visit the Tiger Kingdom. I know many animal lovers have a problem with this place since they do tranquilize the tigers if they get too aggressive. We both wanted to go since we felt like this was our only chance to be up close with tigers (I know it’s a white people thing as my friend Terrence Gant, owner of Third Coast Comics, pointed out). We spent a couple hours there. We purchased time with the medium size tigers. We wanted to be able to see the baby tigers, but the wait was a couple of hours. Going back, I’d just go for it, and see the baby tigers since we walked by the area they were in, and they were the cutest things.

For some reason, the medium size was not popular so we got to see them pretty quickly. For the record, I was terrified. The medium size is pretty large to me. If a tiger snapped and bit me, I would have no one to blame but myself for being stupid. The whole time we were with the tigers, we were afraid to touch them…the pictures are hilarious since we are nervously smiling, not touching them. One even got tranquilized while we were there, so that did not inspire confidence in our situation. If you want to be up close and personal with tigers of all sizes, then go to Tiger Kingdom.

When we returned back to the city, we decided to explore a bit after cooling off in our hotel pool (which was lovely). We tried banana and chocolate roti from a street vendor, and it was delicious! I have a rule: no diets on vacation…just try anything you can, and enjoy. Just watch what you eat back home.

Preface: We did not research this, but you need visas to go to Laos and Cambodia. If you are going anywhere outside of Europe, you probably need one. Luckily they do not have to acquired beforehand, but can be purchased at the borders of those countries. You also need passport photos for this. We had to spend some time trying to find a place, so my advice is to have all this prepared before you go.

As a treat afterwards, we ate some street food. A woman made us the most delicious Pad Thai. My sister is allergic to peanuts and had never been able to eat Pad Thai, but they make it less sweet and peanutty(I know that’s not a word). We were able to communicate that my sister would pass out into convulsions if she ate peanuts, so the lady got it, and held the peanuts. I cannot express how delicious it was, or the joy my sister took in trying Pad Thai for the first time: priceless. The egg rolls were fantastic too. Our hotel also made the most delicious Thai iced tea, which was double the price you paid on the street, but enjoyable to drink in an air conditioned café. We were on a roll for gastronomic experiences that day…

Of course when you are in Thailand, you must get a Thai massage. There are places everywhere, so we picked a place close to the hotel. Disclosure: it is very different from a massage that you would receive in the states…we do not view privacy the same way. Kristina and I undressed (just our tops) in front of the masseuse, and laid next to each other with no curtain separating us. I could barely contain my laughter when the massage therapists were walking on our bodies and slapping us. They turned us around and had our heads lay in their laps…this was awkward…Kristina had a guy giving her massage. Plus, they were talking to each other, not creating a relaxing environment. However, it was one of the funniest experiences I ever had. I regularly get deep tissue massages here, and the atmosphere is totally different. It cost us about $10 a massage, and was totally worth it since it was a hilarious experience. You can go to a beautiful spa for privacy, as we did in Cambodia, but it will be more expensive.

That evening we had to catch the overnight train to Chiang Mai. This was another hilarious escapade since there were 30 of us lugging our suitcases, and lining them up in the train hallway. We had to create a work chain to get everyone’s stuff a board.

The food was terrible, and my sister ended up having a reaction to the pineapple she ate, and had to go to the washroom to give herself a shot. So try to buy food before and bring it on the train since you will not eat well. The time on the train was a great time for journaling, reading, and talking…some people brought cards games to pass the time.

Later, our seats converted into bunk beds. I ended up squeezing into Kristina’s bunk at the bottom since we made a fort with our bags and stuff. The strange part is we both had the most amazing sleep on the train…maybe it was the motion…The best part was in the morning when they started kicking people off their beds, and converting them back into seats. We thought it was funny since some people were still sleeping, and they just started pushing them off the bed.

After this journey, we arrived at the Empress Hotel in Chiang Mai. A great spread awaited us for breakfast… I waited in line for my custom made omelet that was so worth it…sometimes you need something from home. It wasn’t check in time so we had to shower in the bathroom by the pool, which wasn’t the best experience, but also worth it to wash the funk of the train off of us. After all, we had some major sightseeing to do that day, as you will soon find out…

It was crazy hot so we decided to cool off after the market with a swim at our hotel which had a nice pool. Afterwards we went to the Macaroni Club, a restaurant almost next door, which has a beautiful pond with koi, and statutes on the grounds. I tried Chang beer for the first time, and actually liked it. The beer is light since it is so hot most of the year. My theme in Southeast Asia would be to stick with the local beer since it is cheaper, and tastes pretty good.

We met our group at 6pm, and I immediately liked our guide Tara who surprise, surprise was Australian (almost every Contiki guide is). She was very positive, filled with excitement, and had come back from retirement to go on this tour that she had helped develop years ago. I was sure she would have great recommendations for us (this turned out to be true as you will find out if you keep reading).

We ate across the street from the hotel so we could get to know each other. I was there to spend time with my sister, and didn’t really put too much effort in making life-long friends as some people did. Plus there was this annoying guy that was thirsty to hook up with whoever he could that kept asking all the females weird questions…I will have some good stories about him and his escapades coming up. During dinner, random Thai people would come up to your table to try to sell you scorpions to eat. I passed but you’ll see what I ate later. We also got a lot of offers to buy goofy hats and all kinds of knick knacks. The night life made for great people watching, but I had no desire to go to a sex show (look up ping pong show if you are curious) with the group, which most people did. I enjoyed walking around and soaking it all in. We missed out on bonding with the group since we didn’t go…so don’t pass up on a sex show if you want to get close to your group.

I highly recommend that you go to the Grand Palace in Bangkok even though it is a clusterfuck of crowds, and you will have rude, Chinese people shoving you…so be prepared for that. There is a reason that places like this get boat loads of tourists. As a sign of respect, you must wear sleeves and cover up your knees, so I wore the elephant pants we bought at the market, plus a cardigan since I brought nothing with sleeves. I strongly recommend that you bring some clothes with sleeves if you want to visit temples, as most normal people want to.  I also had a hat on…so you can imagine how I was feeling. The discomfort was so worth it.

We had a local guide that took us around the grounds and explained a ton of history to us. The capital Bangkok was established in 1782 by King Rama I, as there had been two other capitals beforehand. Construction of the palace also began in that same year. Wat Phra Kaeo is the most important Buddhist site and every good Buddhist must make a trip there to pay their respects.

We also looked at Phra Kaeo Morakot, which is carved from jade; it is where the kings of Thailand are buried. The current king does not live there, but it is used for ceremonial purposes. I also learned that there is a Buddhist Bible that is housed there. At the temples you also have to remove your shoes before you enter, like when you see the Emerald Buddha. The grounds are just filled with gorgeous structures, temples, artwork and statutes. There is gold everywhere.

After the palace tour, I was much happier since I could take off my sweater. We took a canal tour on the river Chao Phraya. We passed Wat Arun, a beautiful Buddhist temple made with Chinese porcelain. We also took part in a tradition where you feed the fish for good karma. The canal was a nice way to cool off and chill after the craziness of the palace. Once we disembarked you could buy all kinds of juices and fruits. I tried freshly made pomegranate juice, which was amazing, so much better than what you can buy at the store. Walk around and try the fruit, smoothies, and juices since they are much tastier. They made them in front of you.

I had been wanting to go to Southeast Asia for ages. My sister-in-law is from Thailand and my brother had gone a few times, and raved about it. I also got cool souvenirs from them, and was told how fun it was to haggle and get stuff way cheaper than here. I have mainly toured with Contiki since it tours for 18-35 year olds, since the one time I took a tour with another group, I was one of three people under 55. So I went back to Contiki, and I found a tour called Asian Adventure that takes you to Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia…like you, I was thinking what the heck is going on in Laos. But trust me when I tell you that you will fall in love with the place and people. Cambodia has Angkor Wat, which was always on my bucket list (it’s quite extensive).

The journey to get to Southeast Asia is not pretty. I arrived at the airport around 9am on a Friday, and did not reach Bangkok until 1130 pm Saturday, so a day was lost  in travel. The good news is that you will time travel when you return. It took 14 hours to get to Seoul and then another 6 to arrive in Bangkok. Maybe I should have taken a sleeping pill and drank some wine, but I didn’t, so I barely slept. I had a book and movies to pass time(The Fury: good, and Dracula: The Untold Story: bad). Plus I sat next to these ladies going to the Philippines that kept offering me snacks, and they were nice and chatty. I had to wait for my sister in Bangkok since she was arriving an hour later (her journey was even crazier since she had three connections). We had paid for a car service to take us to our hotel since I wasn’t going to get into strange cab at midnight. The airport was pretty far from our hotel the Viengta, and you can imagine how crazy the city is on a Saturday night. Our driver couldn’t even get through, so he circled around and went in the back way through the garage. It was 1:30am by the time we got there so we decided to go to bed (yes, we are exciting people)…I don’t know how we did that with all the music blaring from the streets.

 

The next day we woke up refreshed and ready to explore. We started with an amazing hot breakfast buffet to get us going. It was fantastic because it was a combination of American breakfast with Asian staples, like veggies, rice, and noodles. It was Sunday, so we decided to check out Chatuchak Weekend Market. We got a tuk tuk, which I’ve included a photo of…now even in February it was hot so we wore our best Jackie O hats since you can never be too careful about sun burns. Riding a tuk tuk was lots of fun, and especially weaving through the crazy traffic of Bangkok. I wish I could pay $3 here and have someone take me wherever I want to go… Now we fell for a tourist trap thing where your driver takes you to a store…he did knock off the price of the fare, and we bought pretty silk scarves, which of course  were much cheaper at the market. We fell for his sob story…lesson learned, so don’t do that.

The market was so huge you could get lost in it…you could also buy anything from food, oils, clothing, luggage, etc. We also got a lot of our souvenir shopping done since silk scarves make great gifts and are easy to carry. Of course looking back, I wish I had bought a tea set, but the idea of carrying it around for a couple weeks didn’t appeal to me (I have a thing for tea). I was also in paradise since I could drink delicious Thai iced tea for under a dollar. And we had coconut ice cream that was eaten out of a coconut shell, which we topped with corn and pineapple (sounds weird but it was amazing). Did I mention that I have a thing for coconut? Love the way it smells and tastes…people either love it or hate it. So if you like coconut, Thailand is your place.

Kristina was really into clothes shopping,  and this is a snippet of a conversation between us:

Kristina: Is that Spiderman on that shirt?!

Maria: No, it’s a heart with a mustache (both start cracking up…)

That’s the kind of crazy that typically passes between us as you will learn if you keep reading… I  had no plans to buy clothing since I do not have a thin, Asian physique. I have a much bigger ass and hips than is standard there, so the only thing I got was the elephant pants everyone wears since they are stretchy and made a little larger for the tourists. The great thing about the clothes is how light the fabric is since nothing can prepare you for the heat. I still wear the pants back home since they are comfortable and remind me of the trip.

After we loaded ourselves with as many scarves as two people could buy…and Kristina went nuts when she saw a purse with an elephant. We both loaded up on magnets as well, which by the way, is the best souvenir you can buy people. It’s light and easy to carry, and people look at their fridge every day, and our reminded of what a great friend you are, and how exciting your life is since you get to go to these exotic places. So its win/win.