Buddha Head

28 July 2012

Our buns are still sore from last time, but we have another date on our bicycles. Map in hand, we plot out our course for the day over toast and coffee at our hotel, Ayutthaya River Hut. Characterized by a tidy row of huts made from yellow bamboo mat walls and thatch roofs, our hotel also specializes in woodworking and features gorgeous handmade benches wide enough so your feet dangle from the edge like a little kid. It is also the most comfortable bed we have slept in during the past ten months of backpacking, this is serious. I had the most beautiful sleep: frogs and birds twittering me into a dreamless slumber, and then sun though the windows in the morning looking out over a sugarcane forest. While brimming in charm, it is seriously lacking in the restaurant department, eat elsewhere if you stay here.

For only 40 baht, you get a cute easy rider bicycle complete with wire basket to tote your camera, bag, and Thai iced tea from the street vendor, in my case. My bike is Tiffany blue. I am so excited to cruise around town like a woman in the 50s. I even wear a skirt.

After an easy 15 minute pedal, we arrive at our first stop, Wat Mahathat. This is the home of a very famous and oft-photographed Buddha head being swallowed by a tree. Cool. Like many, many other temples in the area, this was commissioned by the King to house Buddha's relics, in the fourteenth century. There are hundreds of tourists here, and we have to wait in line for a photo with the Buddha head. I even get chastised for standing next to it, I must kneel - lower, lower! The guard standing nearby with his severe hand motions reminds me of a rule I read somewhere that your head must never be higher than Buddha's. You must also be very careful to never point your feet toward Buddha, as feet are dirty, sacrosanct objects. Thank God I wasn't painting my toes at the base of that Buddha tree.

It is at this juncture we discover the city is plotted with red brick bicycle pathways linking many of the ruins together so the tourists and tuk-tuks don't have to mingle on the main roads. Next stop on our Tour de Ayutthaya is the Ancient Palace. Everything is crafted from brick and mortar, which I find more modern feeling than ancient, despite the obvious age of these buildings. On our way to our next destination, we are happily biking down a quiet lane, when suddenly a train of elephants comes sauntering toward us. You might think, how could a crew of elephants suddenly appear, and in the middle of Ayutthaya?! Well, they did. Elephants have a secret: they're sneaky! We honestly couldn't hear loud steps, big trumpeting, nor even feel the ground shake! Apparently it's possible to spend an hour touring the city by elephant, though I wouldn't recommend it. While the elephants looked beautiful, with a gold-trimmed red headdress and blanket on their back, on which was perched a rocky love seat and tasseled gold and red umbrella, they had a horrible clanking chain around their neck and the guides did not appear to treat them very well, armed with a giant metal hook and using their great ears as footrests and violent rudder.

We arrived at the Wat Phra Si Sanphet, which was constructed to be a royal chapel for private use in the fifteenth century. It is a fantastic sight to behold, with three identical grey chedis keeping watch over the palace. Scraggly grey trees line the walkway and coupled with the cold chedis, give off an arty winter vibe. They seem to be new (the three chedis), and in fact there is construction at many of the ruin sites where the Thai appear to be rebuilding rather than restoring the ancient structures.

Across the river is a fantastic ruin, the Wat Chai Watthanaram, and a gorgeous place to watch the sun set. A tower stands 35 meters high, surrounded by twelve smaller oranges and a hundred headless Buddhas. I believe the heads were taken or destroyed by the Burmese, who sacked much of Thailand in the eighteenth century. A lone Buddha remains intact (or was rebuilt), and stands guard facing the river on a long rectangular bed of brick.

Several river boats cruise by filled with dinner guests. The boats look like big wooden Chinese vessels with large butcher knife rudders on the rear. Karyoke can be head from the bridge of a few boats. We take our cue and head back across the river in search of dinner. We cycle past a large two story home with a big open patio on the ground floor. There's a big sign out front in Thai, and a slough of locals dining inside, so we're guessing it's a good restaurant, though it could be just a very large family enjoying dinner. We hedge our bets and park our easy riders in front. We are immediately greeted by a warm Thai woman, who helps us order. Everyone is cooking pieces of meat and fish over a stainless steel cone, placed over a big ceramic pot filled with hit coals. It's like fondue! After dinner we excitedly return to our fluffy bed in our Thai river hut, and this is our amazing life right now. I feel so lucky to be witnessing all these Thai treasures.

Zip Line Photos Added!

'Nuff said.

Go back and check our Jungle Flight post, and see the newly added photos!

Well That Was Interesting

We journeyed from Sukhothai to Ayutthaya the other day... And it was a journey indeed.

We booked what we assumed (that is what the ticket said, after all) would be an easy 4 hour ride between towns. While we had good luck last time arriving after dark and saving some daylight to use before we left, we decided this time we would take off early in the morning as per our norm, in order to arrive at our destination with daylight remaining - which certainly can save some headaches.

That turned out to be quite fortuitous.

Thai buses, if we haven't expressed this before, are a bit of an adventure even on a good day, and this was not one of them. The bus drivers, it seems from our perspective, are lords of their own domain. Frequent stops at the side of the road to pick up or drop off strange and sketchy packages, envelopes, or whatever else are frequent. Mom's birthday? How about some flowers! etc... Sometimes the stop is just so the driver can use the toilet, other times he may decide he's hungry and stop for dinner - all while a full load of passengers wait.

The scheduled four hour trip quickly (or not so quickly, as the case may be) turned into a six hour trip. From there things went rapidly down hill.

It seems this driver had an arrangement with a group of locals - namely, he would leave us at their particular stretch of highway in the general vicinity of our destination, but not within walking distance. This is opposed to, you know, taking us to the bus station. As a result of this arrangement, these locals would have exclusive rights to charge whatever rate they deemed appropriate in order to pay the driver his due, and make a nice cut of profit for themselves. In this case, seven to ten times the going rate of driving that particular distance.

Since we are there with our bags on the side of the highway, clearly with no other options for leaving said highway, you really have no bargaining power when they tell you of this astronomical price. Keep in mind - this bit of the trip should be wholly unnecessary to begin with, as we should have been left in town at the bus station.

Did I mention it had started to rain?

What happens after you agree to pay their ransom and get into their truck, well, that's still up in the air. Also, they don't speak English, and are unlikely to know where it is you are trying to go.

After quite a bit of discussion, I was able to relay to them the general vicinity of where we needed to go. Having never been there of course, we didn't know exactly ourselves. An address, which we had and clearly showed them, provided no relief to the communication issues - the locals are unlikely to have a map, or know how to read it if they did. Indeed, upon showing them our google map of the area, they were just as boggled as before.

So! On the plus side it WAS still daylight, despite our rather lengthened journey, and after swallowing the bitter pill of what we would have to pay to get into town (more than a nights lodging in a private room!) we threw our bags in the back, and hopped into the truck.

I needn't really say how awkward the silence was in that truck... We both furiously angry at having been taken advantage of in such a way - he fully aware of what he was doing to us. Also, he still only had a vague sense of where we should be going, and we had no idea if that's where we were going. Right.

Well long story short, after a longer than it should have been drive, a few stops to talk to some other locals and eventually convince one of them to make a phone call to the place we were staying, we made to our new place. Alive. And, with only the relatively minor inconveniences of having lost most of a day, and some money.

I'll chock that one up in the "win" category, of the "You win some, you lose some" game. We are still here to write this, after all.

The Ruins of Old Sukhothai

We decided in a somewhat spur of the moment fashion to head out of Chiang Mai which we had enjoyed so much, and move on.

I had spent a large chunk of the time we were there rather sick, with a fever and shockingly unhappy stomach. Despite that we had a lot of fun, saw some beautiful places, had some good adventures, and generally quite liked it.

Regardless, Jake was flying out that afternoon, and we were ready to continue our adventure, so we checked to see if we could find a room in our next town (check!) a bus to the next town (check!) and if we weren't too late to check-out of our current one, as it was already 11:45 AM. Fortunately, even though it was clearly stated that check-out was at 10:00, the wonderful proprietor at Rama Guesthouse where we were staying, said if we could be ready by noon, it was no problem. (check!)

Next thing we knew we were settling on a bus for the 6 hour ride to Sukhothai!

It was after dark by the time we arrived in Sukhothai, a situation we prefer to avoid. Fortunately however Tuk Tuk drivers were waiting on hand, with a list of potential destinations that included our Ban Thai Guesthouse. We hopped right in and headed off. It took just a moment to realize however that this was no ordinary Tuk Tuk like we had been using. Instead of a contraption resembling the front of a motorcycle with a wagon welded in place of the back wheel, and open at the back (our typical Tuk Tuk) this was something like the opposite. It was the rear wheel and seat of a motorcycle, with a sort of shopping cart welded on as the front, which seemed to be driven the same as a shopping cart. The front was completely open, so it seemed like at any bump you may just tumble out forward, and immediately be run over by your own transport.

Despite this new sketchy Thai contraption we happily made it right to our new home. The next morning after breakfast we rented a couple of old-school single-gear bicycles, and set out for an adventure!

It was 14 kilometers (about 9 miles) each way to the ruins of Old Sukhothai, and we were very excited. It is often described as a "City within a city", the seat of an ancient Thai king it is walled and moated. If memory serves it was at the height of its splendor in the 13th century.



Today what's left are some magnificent, but crumbling cheddi, wats (Buddhist temples - Wat Si Sawai, Wat Mahathat) and various other building remains that would have supported those facilities.

With the Greatest of Ease

"Are you ready for Monkey Show?"

He seemed inordinately pleased with this bit of English. The Thai people absolutely delight in a 'double-entendre', although the meaning of this one was not yet made clear to us.

With that, and a huge smile, he expectantly looked up into the trees. 120 feet above us, nearly in the jungle canopy, a small platform wrapped around the trunk of a large tree. Shockingly small really. By western standards, perhaps unthinkably so. Something like 8 feet on a side, with a 3 foot wide tree in the middle, that left a mere 2.5 feet on each side. 10 people had until quite recently been gathered on that platform, practically hugging that tree. Oh, I can't forget to mention that they aren't keen on railings.

We had just abseiled down from this ponderous height. Strapped into a rather shoddy looking rope and lept over the edge to descend at an alarming rate. Quite exhilarating, really. The relevant bit however, is that our guide there at the top controlled (if one could even apply that word to the situation) our descent via some kind of well worn metallic device.

Ok back to the "Monkey Show". No... No, let me start at the beginning.

Chiang Mai is a beautiful city. Deep in the Thai jungle, it averages nearly 10 degrees cooler than the concrete jungle that is Bangkok, on any given day.

Additionally, at this stage of our travels and after nearly 2 months in Asia, it is a happy mix of traditional Thai, and modern western. Point and case? Mikes. Chili dogs, cheese steaks, and french fries. Right there on the canal surrounding the old city. A sight for sore eyes, let me tell you.

Our goal however while there was not the sad sight of 3 white people stuffing their faces with chili dogs, but a bit of jungle adventure. Jake (who since Bangkok, and for reasons that will have to wait for another blog post, has gone by 'Jaguar'), Krissy, and I set out to go on a zip line trek deep in the jungle, whatever that means. Krissy and I have been meaning to ride on of these zip lines for ages, having seen advertisements for them all over the world. Generally, such as in Hawaii, the high cost had deterred us. Lax safety standards and knock off equipment to the rescue! For the truly quite low price of 1900 Baht (... something like $65) we signed for not just 1 zipline, but 15! Add to the mix abseiling, some wild canopy-level swinging bridges, a hill-tribe village, free lunch, and a t-shirt, and we're there!

So after picking up a troupe of 6 slightly worse for the previous evenings' wear Irish girls, we head into the jungle. No wait make that 5, they had managed to lose one the previous night, and by our 8:15 AM departure had not yet recovered her... Whoops! They weren't too concerned, so neither were we. I do wonder if she ever turned up... While the trip was a good value, it was non-refundable and by backpacking standards still quite expensive. For comparison's sake, Jaguar was spending 250 Baht/night on his single room, we the a-bit-too-much rate of 400/night for our double. Something like $9 for him, and $13 for us.

Anyhow the road to our destination was long and winding, but truly beautiful. Deeper and deeper into the jungle we went, and higher into the hills we climbed. As time progressed, the roads regressed until it became necessary for the driver to creep along the track, letting the horn go at every (frequent, and always blind) corner, in case another vehicle is coming the other way. This deep in however, that turned out to be a rare occurance. We would turn off our mountain road onto a jungle road, turn off that onto a mere track, and from that to what I swear was an ill-used hiking path.

Finally we arrived into our hill tribe village, which would be our setting off point. After a quick bit of coffee, tea, or water, we were rapidly strapped into full-body harnesses. We were given a strange bamboo stick (to fight off the monkeys, we were told with straight faces), a hair net (of which my hat exempted me - score another for the hat!) and a helmet, then marched off down the road.

And that was that. Zoooooom! Slinging down zip lines of up to nearly 500 feet, one after another, across a gorgeous misty valley, high in the treetops. Wow.

Jungle Flight was the company we went with, and in the end we were extremely pleased. We opted for package 'A', the cheap option. It was well worth it, they guides were a lot of fun, and the zip trek was top-notch! It comes highly recommended, next time you're in Chiang Mai... :-)

Somewhere about halfway through I realized that on the previous zip, I had managed to loose my sunnies. Dang. I made the mistake of leaving the hanging on my shirt after a brief break for some water and the chance to use their "Five star mountain top toilet" as our guide laughingly put it. This turns out to have been labeled 'woman zone' and 'man zone'. For my part, there was a (large-ish) bamboo tube headed down the hillside... You get the point. It did have quite a view however!! Anyway it was my fault, and there was just jungle well below the zipline, so I told the guides to head back after work, and earn a free pair of Oakley sunglasses. Surprisingly, the stopped our group and spent 10 minutes zipping upside-down across the previous line searching for the missing shades. No dice.

So we moved on. The rest of the trek was just as amazing. And then we arrived at the end, our free-fall "abseil" from 120 feet, going on a mile.

After we had all dropped, with just the one guide who had controlled our descent still at the top, there it was:

"Are you ready for Monkey Show?"

We looked up, and suddenly falling from the platform our small dark-skinned Thai guide was plummeting, upside down, with a huge grin on his face. Moments before impact, he made a quick tug at his rope and came to a stop, still upside down and grinning, just above our heads and shouted "Monkey Show!" then dropped to his feet.

He pointed over our shoulders and said "Now time for Happy Ending!".

There was a large sign which read "Happy Ending".

They love a double-entendre, almost as much as a dirty joke. Usually at the same time, and always with a big Thai smile.

To top the day off? As we were having lunch and getting ready to head back home, one of our guides came running up to us - he had my sunnies! He HAD gone searching for them after the tour, but to return them, not keep them. I'd highly recommend Jungle Flight Zipline Trek.

(Sadly all our pictures for this were taken with our other camera, which has a wrist strap so it didn't plummet into the jungle - which means we can't get them into the blog until we are at a PC somewhere, likely after we get home)

Mystic Mountain Temple

19 July 2012

Another scenic moped adventure. We pick up our sweet Italian-style mopeds at eight in the morning and have breakfast at our favorite cafe across the street from our hotel, Angels Secrets. This place has warm homemade chocolate croissants that are better than what I had in France. Their ice coffee is equally inspired. Our lovely hostess at Rama has provided us with a map and advice on what we should see for the day. We are on our way with happy wind-in-our-face smiles to the temple built into a mountain: Doi Suthep.

The temple is named after the mountain it sits on. The road curves through green jungle all the way up the mountain and a fine mist descends upon us as we climb higher. According to local legend the temple was ordered to be built by the King after a sacred white elephant mysteriously died at the site, carrying a relic of Buddha's shoulder bone.

The temple is surrounded by a cool mist and all we can view of it is a massive brick staircase steeply climbing the side of the mountain. We pass the two golden bejeweled dragons guarding the foot of the staircase and climb toward the temple. When we reach the top we are breathless from the climb and stunned by the blindingly bright gold pagoda emanating from the temple. We proceed beneath an ornate white and gold stucco arch, past more dragons to the temple courtyard where we all leave our shoes in a pile with the rest. The temple is crowded with tourists and locals alike. Patiently we wait to push our way into the temple's interior courtyard. The gold pagoda is surrounded by a square path, which the locals follow with flowers in hand mumbling a sacred prayer. Everything is beautiful; golden, warm, welcoming. There are several small gold statues of Buddha surrounding the gold pagoda and a red and gold tiled floor paving the inner courtyard. A steel basin of oil is in front of the Buddha statues, with a small ladle to scoop oil into steel lotus flowers that hold fire - a wish you are igniting. There are two large temples, with small brass bells jingling from the roof eaves, on either side of the central pagoda. Chris waits in line outside one of them to be blessed by a monk in traditional saffron robes. He goes inside and kneels on the floor in a "wai" (hands make a temple in front of your face and you bow slightly, keeping your head below the monk's) with twenty other people as the monk chants and sprinkles holy water from a collection of branches. He then waits to be given a special prayer for "success in everything" by the monk himself, who seals the prayer by tying a piece of cotton on Chris' wrist. After this special blessing we have some coffee and wander the outer ring of the temple, taking in the views of Chiang Mai far below.

On down the mountain we head, below the cloud cover of the temple, on the lookout for waterfalls. there is nothing like riding a moped through foreign lands. It is the best way to see the countryside and get an impression of how the locals live day to day - harvesting rice from the flooded paddies, sharing meals on hand carved wooden table sets in the front yard, washing dishes in big tubs on the porch, returning from the market weighed down by fresh fish and produce.

We pull over at a promising location and pause for lunch at a jungle cafe. Now, you might think its a cafe decorated with a jungle theme, but no, this is the real deal. We bend under a short ceiling and go through a dark passageway to get to a tree-fort patio in the back of the cafe. There are large cracks in the floor through which we can see our potential landing pad ten feet down should the floor give way, which it very well might. At least it looks soft. We gingerly sit at a table and try to interpret the Thai menu. We all decide on chicken pad Thai, because we know they will have it and understand our request. We are served Coca Cola in a strange, skinny bottle that has clearly been reused several times by the factory. While we wait for our food, we admire the jungle surround and listen for gibbon monkeys. All we hear is the dog at the next table chewing up the floorboards (which are scrap wood panels overlapped and nailed together). We take pride in experiencing this authentic jungle Thai cuisine and commend ourselves on a bold choice, even while we are the only customers.

The food arrives and is less than tasty, the spare sauces are full of ants. Chris is already sure this meal will be his undoing. We finish up and follow the trail nearby to a spectacular display of water. It travels down soft brown rocks, working its way through levels and eddies to its final pool 60 meters down. There are brown signs along the trail with elegant gold Thai script. We find two more waterfalls and spend a good two hours hiking around, and moped our way down the mountain.

Our last stop of the day is Huay Tung Tao lake. We pay a small entrance fee and arrive at the lake, which appears mostly deserted but for a few cafe owners and a handful of tourists. We park and make our way across the park lawn to the water, excited for a swim to wash off the sweat and grime of the day. After we jump in I notice how brown the lake water is, visibility is only a few inches. The lake is surrounded on many sides by a long row of open air bungalows on stilts over the water. You can rent these for shade on hot days, or enjoy a cold beer and some food at one of the cafes, which also have bungalows. Paddle boats and inner tubes are also available for your enjoyment. Across the lake we can see a white gazebo with red tile roof, and a large golden Buddha statue. Above Buddha is a large hill of thick jungle. Chris and Jake decide to swim across the lake, Toward the paddle boats. I occupy myself with a homemade swing set.

After our swim we head back to town and stumble upon a large street market. We park it, eager to wash down our meager jungle lunch with something more substantial. Let the fun begin! Jake's first stop is a stand selling barbecue squid on a kebab stick. It's marinated with a yellow curry sauce and placed in a clear plastic bag with a very spicy salsa verde. The squid is tough but the taste is amazing. We decide to share everything we get so we can taste as much craziness as any person can tolerate.

My first bite is a pork dish wrapped in grilled banana leaf sealed with two toothpicks. It reminds me of the Pepes Ikan I had in Indonesia - it is a spicy mixture of pork, corn, and tomato in a sort of square pancake. Very good. Chris selects a roasted chicken drumstick and a few spicy chicken kebab. Jake grabs a few pieces of fried bread, I go for a bag of sliced cantaloupe, Chris gets a mango coconut pineapple shake where the woman slices a white coconut pouring the juice straight into the blender before ripping out the coconut meat with her hand and adding it as well. The result is delicious. Now we all go big, I have been eying this stand with an array of fish covered in different beautiful sauces. I try to ask her what kind of fish they are but she's hot and impatient and doesn't speak English well, so I simply ask which is less spicy. She grunts and points to a small fish in the front drowning in a bed of breadcrumbs, topped with a single red chili. She places my choice in a clear plastic bag and I find a table to enjoy my crazy fish.

I think I just ate a piranha. Once the breadcrumbs are peeled away, there's a dark fish with severe fins and a mouth full of hundreds of tiny sharp teeth. A ridge of sharp points stand at attention like a mohawk along its spine. Despite a severe grilling, there are a few tasty morsels of white meat, and there's no option but to eat the skin as well. So here I sit like a native in this sweltering market eating a piranha, skin and all, with my bare hands and enjoying every minute! The boys have a few bites but are largely absorbed in their delicious roast chicken.

Each one of us feeling slightly uneasy we head back to our hotel for a rest. Whether it was the jungle food or the market kebabs, we're not sure, Chris has come undone and we spend the next few days not far from the hotel.

-Krissy

Fight Night!

Wednesday July 18th.

From the moment we arrived in Thailand two weeks ago, we had seen plenty of evidence of their passion for sport. Not just any sport however, their national sport. Stadiums can be found sometimes two or more in even the smaller cities. It's not cricket, as they play so lovingly in in India, or rugby one may follow in Australia. It's not baseball they adore South Korea, nor basketball or football from the states. Nor is it soccer, the worlds game.

In Thailand, they fight. Thai Boxing to be specific, and only here would it be considered sport. This frequently brutal martial art can be found on public display most any night of the week, and it is a part of the Thai culture that we couldn't miss.

After having arrived with our buddy Jake the day prior in Chiang Mai, we set to exploring town, and planning a few activities. There is a lot to do in Chiang Mai, and some of it is even of the budget friendly variety! Much of travel in Asia is this way - many tours, treks, adventures and places to stay priced for western tourists on a short holiday. All of that unfortunately is as far out of our reach as Reece's Peanut Butter Cups, of which in the last 300 or so days we have been shocked and delighted to find just twice.

Fortunately, there are also enough backpackers such as ourselves traveling about, that with careful looking, and the consultation of secret-sources (ok, not se secret: Lonely Planet, Wikitravel, Rough Guides, and Hostel Bookers) adventures and accommodation can be had for quite cheap! Having accomplished accommodation the day prior, we settled on a Thai Boxing fight to spice up our day.

We had spied a delicious looking Mexican restaurant earlier in the day, and after discovering that the served FREE chips and salsa, the decision was made. Anything free after 10 months away from our home and careers, is a huge draw, believe you me.

There we sat sitting facing the street "having a perv" as an Aussie might put it (people watching, as the slightly less rough-and-tumble nations might turn the phrase) and thoroughly enjoying our free chips and salsa, when up walks a guy about our age. In no time at all we find he is from our "same same, but different" (a catchy Thai phrase) west-coast city of Portland, Oregon. He promptly joins us for dinner. Not more than a few minutes later, up stroll a couple who it turns out are from California. In less time than it takes to turn down a Thai tailor selling suits (believe me...!) we have a west coast party enjoying a Mexican feast at El Diablo, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Incidentally, it is the best Mexican food in all of Asia. Their home-made (and did I mention FREE) tortilla chips are amazing, truly.

While our newly met Californian friends had to venture off on a night safari (!) we convinced our Portlandian to come enjoy the evenings festivities, and the four of us set off.

I'll save the play-by-play, but assure you that we had a pretty darned good time. The fights, which ranged from young boys, to women, to a blindfolded-brawl were quite entertaining, and sometimes quite shocking.

Between our table we kept it interesting by trading between us bets of up to 20 baht (less than $1), and we all left with plenty of grins.

Our next planned adventure? Renting motor bikes and feeling the hot Thai wind on our faces.

...let's hope it goes more smoothly than last time!!

Technical Difficulties

It's quite possible that if you've been following our blog you may have noticed some formatting changes... Or perhaps i should say lack of formatting.

It seems that after departing for our travels with two laptops and two iPhones, we are down to a solitary iPhone - which means that we are blogging with our thumbs, and limited to photos taken with said iPhone.

Whew.

We will be making some efforts to find computers, and make more substantial posts, with more/better pictures. That may or may not pan out, but we will try. In the mean-time, please enjoy what we write, since it is painstakingly accomplished with thumb-pokes. :-)

Wandering Bangkok

16 July 2012

It is our last day in this lively city and I am determined to see just a bit more of it before we leave. We check the map for cool temples within walking distance and alight upon Wat Rachanaddaram. Like many other Buddhist Thai temples, this one gleams brightly white, with sparkling colorful mirrored tile roofs, finished with dragons. However, this temple has a beautiful landscaped garden, and also houses some of the Buddha's relics. I climb a gorgeous polished wood spiral staircase past the library, the walking meditation floor, the seated meditation floor, and on up to the pinnacle. The top is a quick trip due to the hot sunny tiles burning my bare feet. Beautiful view.

Across the street is the Golden Mountain, a circular golden temple with an awful lot of stairs. More gorgeous jungle landscaping with small golden Buddha statues set in rock waterfalls. We climb about 400 stairs into the sky itself, passing a few landings with brass bells of varying size and sound power. The top of Golden Mountain is one of the best views of Bangkok. There's a large gold pagoda to keep you grounded, and a few big black gongs to provide entertainment. On our way down we admire the Big Buddha, a fifteen foot golden Buddha who towers over you with a friendly yet authoritative air.

Another hot sweaty day and we are drenched and exhausted from walking. We can it to Sukhumvit, a neighborhood of good restaurants, fine hotels, and loads of shopping. We plan on passing our last few hours in air conditioned peace at one of Sukhumvit's many fine shopping centers. Terminal 21 is the destination. A modern mall where each floor is themed to a different city, with elaborate decorations and brands to match each city's personality. We view Rome, London, Paris, Tokyo, Istanbul, and San Francisco. After eating our fill at San Fran's Fisherman's Wharf amongst wrought iron crabs and a large Golden Gate bridge spanning the length of the mall, we head up one level to Hollywood to enjoy a movie. We are just in time for the new Spiderman. While the screen size is slightly more economical than in the States, the seating situation is far preferable. You are given assigned seats so there will be no mad dash for the back row and five seats together. The red chairs recline, and have all the leg room in the world. This feels like the pampered package, but then again we spent all day in the sun and haven't been to a movie in 10 months!

Back at the hotel we grab our bags and catch a cab to the bus station, where our night bus is waiting to take us to Chiang Mai. The night bus was our second choice, the train had been fully booked for days. However, the night bus was pleasantly surprising. Included were a bus attendant, who not only brought us juice and water AND crackers, but a chicken and rice dinner as well!!! The seats are far roomier than an airplane, they fully recline, have footrests and even back massage buttons! If it weren't for the warthog with sleep apnea sitting directly behind me, inhibiting my night's sleep, I would have quite enjoyed the nine hour overnight bus journey. But I'm not bitter. Even warthogs need sleep. The morning was pretty rough as well, being woken by the extremely loud vocals of a Thai pop princess music video at 6am, to signal our "descent" into Chiang Mai as our attendant most likely informed us over the intercom in Thai. We have arrived in the beautiful forest city of Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand.

The Floating Market

One of Bangkok's unique cultural experiences are the floating markets. Vendors in large straw hats sit perched in long wooden boats crowded together selling produce, wares, and even cooking meals from their narrow boats.

Taling Chan market is where our group is headed, in Thonburi, a twenty minute taxi ride from downtown. It's a blazing hot day in which we are persistently plagues by beads of sweat. Fortunately, there's much to catch our interest. We purchase mangosteen and strange red shiny pepper fruits and share in each of our crazy finds. There's a wild orgy of catfish near the market vendors, where thousands of angry foot-long catfish flop at the water's surface in mostly vain attempts to munch the hunks of bread being thrown into the river by Japanese children here on vacation with their family. There are tubs of tiny turtles and writhing snakes, we assume waiting to be fried up and served as food. We indulge in a few large coral crayfish, dipping them in a very spicy salsa verde. We order pork kabobs, five for 20 Baht, from a boat vendor who cooks them over hot coals in his boat! When the kabobs are done he tosses them in a red pail which is then raised via a rope to the boardwalk. The kabobs are mixed with a peanut sauce and tossed in a small, neat plastic bag, like almost all street vendor food in Thailand.

After wandering the boat vendors and eating enough for two families, we decide to book a one-hour boat ride up the river to see some of the countryside. A colorful longboat is packed to the gills with tourists, cameras at the ready, and we are shoved into a narrow seat space which none of us can fit into without turning our knees at a 45 degree angle. The boat is amply powered by a Toyota V6 and we shoot up the canal with running commentary in Thai, we asse about the views, or history of long boating. It could well have been a detailed account of his sister's aching love life for all we know.

The trip is well worth the pain in your backside from the cramped space and hard seats. The canal is lined with green grasses, towering coconut trees, mangroves, and colonies of floating houses. The river is larger than we thought, with "streets" and intersections and even neighborhoods. Old women sit in their boats making fish cakes, young women work on the dock washing a pile of dishes by hand from a big black tub, and monks teach the younger monks to scrub temple walls until they gleam white in the summer sun.

The sights and smells of Old Bangkok can be richly felt out here at the floating market and we are lucky to have tasted it.

Holy Peanut! Thai Cooking Class

14 July 2012

Cooking is an important part of Thai culture, and also a big part of our own personal life. Since we arrived in Thailand we have been looking forward to taking a cooking class and it is here in Bangkok we finally get to achieve it. The Massamun Cooking School is rated the number one activity in Bangkok according to Trip Advisor, and we have already had the pleasure of meeting the witty and industrious Chef Lee.

We learn to cook something like eight dishes, from papaya salad to green curry and panang curry to mango and sticky rice for dessert. This includes a lesson in making homemade curry paste and a strange brew of shrimp brains and fish sauce that is what gives Pad Thai it's color.

First stop: the market. Armed with a big empty bamboo basket, we walk as a group two blocks to the market, which I would never have noticed on our own, and haven't found in the countless times we've walked by in four days. There is a yellow sign with red Thai lettering and a long dark alley that stinks of fish - who would wander back here?

We are in good hands with Chef Lee who points out the produce we need and bus it for us, filling up each of our baskets in turn. The market has a thousand interesting sights, from sleepy kittens curled atop a pile of sweet basil to a small Thai grandmother pounding a rack of ribs with a meat cleaver on a round wooden cutting board - watch out, that meat sprays! In my basket I have basil, pea eggplant, khalanga root, kaffir lime leaves and prawns.

We cook in two turns, watching our partner cook as we eat. Chef Lee provides traditional background on the dishes as well as practical uses for the individual ingredients while she walks around adjusting our heat and telling us when to add the next ingredient. It's extremely hands-on, we get to do all our own prep work: chopping khalanga root, grinding coriander seeds and peppercorns with a mortar and pestle, and of course cooking the dishes themselves. My personal favorite is the coconut sticky rice with sweet mango, no surprise there. Chris and I both lived the papaya salad, which is not a sweet fruit salad as you might think, but a vinegary slaw almost. The green papaya is grated like a cucumber and served with sliced green beans, tomato, and roasted peanuts with a tangy dressing. Overall this is one of the best experiences we've had simply because we can take it home with us and experience it again whenever we feel like cooking. Can't wait to share our cooking with you all!