Life's a Beach!

Our travel day was a little tedious, but it was expected. Bangkok has 2 airports & we arrived in one of them from Chiang Mai and had to take a bus to the other one for our flight to the south. We decided to fly to Krabi, and once there, we hopped on a bus heading towards Ao Nang (in a matter of 30 seconds we decided to skip the National Park, and make our route to the western beaches.) Both the eastern beaches (Andaman Sea) and western beaches (Gulf of Thailand) have great weather and peaceful seas this time of the year. They alternate good weather/monsoons the rest of the year.

Ao Nang was a picturesque little beach town that contained lots of buzzing tourists and New Years preparations. We stopped in at a beachfront restaurant where I think I had the culprit of my first (and only) food sickness experience. Bold Statement: I am never eating bacon ever again. Okay, too bold, let me rephrase: I am never eating bacon from beachfront restaurants on Ao Nang Boulevard, in Ao Nang Beach, Thailand ever again. Anyway, the bacon reappears a little later on.

We hopped on a longtail boat and made our way towards Railay Beach. We got off too soon (maybe it was because some crazy lady on the boat kept staring and mumbling to Amanda). We mistakenly got off at Tonsai Bay – a really raw backpacker sanctuary with tons of the world’s most famous karst cliffs and rocks! The island was full of rock climbers and beach bars, but not much else. We had a nice walk along the beachside rocks and we slept that night in a primitive 10.00USD bungalow – well, Amanda slept. There was a Civil War in my stomach. The Northern nasties were battling over my food with the Southern sick-os. Everytime one side would win, the other would mount a stronger attack in my entrails.

We woke up the next morning and decided to escape from Tonsai and walk to Railay. It was up a small overgrown hill (felt like Everest) that wasn’t really marked (Amanda got a kick out of it at my expense though). My body was void of any liquid so it was pretty exhausting, carrying all of our clothes and gear. Everytime we stopped to catch our breath the mosquitoes swarmed, but we made it down to the other side. Railay looked nice, but it wasn’t our scene. Most people get a hotel/resort and don’t really leave, but we were just in time to catch a ferry to our next destination, the magnificent Phi Phi Islands…

Oh Me, Oh Mai (Last Day in Chiang Mai)

[Note: I'm sitting on plenty of photos/etc. but the internet access in KZ is very limited and very sloooow. There are 2 new posts, so please start lower on the page and work up!]

Last day up north, so we’ll probably cool out & write a postcard or two, right? Nah, we still had the rental car till 10:00AM, so we woke up at the butt-crack of dawn & went to Doi Suthep, a mountain about 20 miles from Chiang Mai. Here are a few of the pics!

A mornin' yornin'

Do you see what I see?


That would be Chiang Mai below

Peace in the Southeast!

Amanda (and some canine friends) walking up the 200 steps of Doi Suthep

A regular Dizzy Gillepsie here...


With bells on!


So, tell us how you REALLY feel!
On the way down the mountain, we were tempted by yet another waterfall. This one was one of my favorites. No frills --> just falls:

Another view of Chaing Mai

By itself portrait...


By itself landscape...



with us portrait...

with us landscape...


...and finally, zoom zoom!
We spent the rest of the morning walking the city one last time & taking in the sights. We reserved a half-day cooking course for the late afternoon/ early evening. Speaking of food, we had AUTHENTIC Mexican for lunch, not La Tolteca, but que bueno!

Lanterns by day near the East Gate of the city

Carved monkeys at our guest house

Combinacion: Dos Amigos
Now we’re cooking with gas!!! We piled into the back of pickup truck & we were off to Thai Cooking School. Our fellow pyromaniacs were a Dutch couple & a Swiss couple. My money was on TEAM USA!

Our first stop was a market, where our fearless leader Permpoon (thank Buddha he can cook, ‘cause with a name like that?!?) showed us the ins & outs of Thai cuisine, produce, & shopping. It was very interesting & he answered a lot of questions. Then back in the pickup truck to head to his house/cooking school. The class was hotness (no pun intended). Very intimate, fun, and we cooked up at least 5 authentic Thai dishes. Homeboy Permpoon kept crackin' us up like an egg!

The view from the back of his pickup truck

The class was actually on his backyard patio!

What a cut-up.

Don't hate on the apron...

This is the FIRST & LAST TIME I heard a dude tell me that I am great at 'wrapping bananas!'

Fruits of our labor...
And the youtube video to prove it is below:

We finally finished up & enjoyed our hardwork (or should I say hard "wok"). And a free Thai cookbook to prove it!

We ended the night with one last sally around the infamous Night Bazaar, knowing that we had 2 consecutive flights early the next morning & that it was goodbye Chiang Mai… for now!

On to the Golden Shower (I mean) TRIANGLE!

What better way to spend Christmas Eve Day (& Eve) than driving the hinterlands of northern Thailand in our right-handed sleigh! We woke up early, left Chiang Mai, & headed north. Our first stop was Chiang Dao – home to a cave & small town where we stocked up on some Oreos & other snacks.












Chaing Dao cave












Stallagmite or stallagtite?












View from on top of the cave
The long drive (heading to Chiang Rai) was more scenic than Delaware Route 9 son! Lots of mountainsides, mixed with farms, & dotted with small towns. We drove through some prime hill-tribe country. The most famous of which is the tribe whose women ordain themselves with those big rings along their long, extended necks (the Karen Tribe). Those villages can be quite voyeuristic & touristy so we hit smaller towns, including one called Phrao. It was nice being in a town where you didn’t see overstuffed NorthFace backpacks or menus advertising American breakfasts (actually it was hard to find ANY English menus in the small towns). The drive was very serpentine & every once in a while, we would hit an intimidating checkpoint. They quickly let us past when they looked in our car and saw nothing but roadmaps & Oreos crumbs. They’re looking for illegal people & drugs. I also enjoyed some of the radio stations – one had a steady format of (Christmas carol, Oldie, Surfer Beach Boy song.) Rinse. Repeat.

Hill-country

Farmers

Bunch of bull...

Rice-a-roni

What a drag...
We made it to Chiang Rai and found a comfy & cheap guesthouse. Nicely laid-out city with yet ANOTHER Night Bazaar. We treated ourselves to a delicious Christmas Eve dinner. I had Fettuccini Fra Diavlo & Amanda had Vegetable Lasagna. This was one of the most expensive restaurants we went to. Even with drinks it still only came to about $10.00 USD. We perused the Night Bazaar & open-air eateries where we bumped into a few Americans. I spotted the NC State hat, Amanda initiated the conversation. One of the guys was quite interesting – he founded the Carolina Skiff boat company and has since long retired & currently chills out in Chiang Mai. We stumbled upon a Christian-looking Church that was all lit up & joined some of their Feliz Navidad Festivities – live music, a nativity scene, free food & drinks – made me feel all pious inside. Then it was back to the guesthouse with visions of sugarplums dancing in my head!

“And so this is Christmas… and have you done?” Woke up & called my Grandma-ma’s since it was still Christmas Eve there. It was awesome to be able to talk to everyone. Internet shops are all over the cities, even in smaller towns like Chiang Rai. I really had an interesting/unique Christmas, but sure missed home.

No caption needed!
We then threw the bags in the ride, hit the side-to-side, & continued on to the Burma/Laos/Thailand borders!

We made a loop through some attention-grabbing border towns on our way to the Golden Triangle, including Chiang Saen (where I had a tasty Chai iced-tea) & Mae Sai (where Amanda threw down some dried strawberries). At the area known as the Golden Triangle, we walked around & abandoned the rice-burner for a boat. We took a long tail boat from Thailand to see Burma & Laos from the majestic Mekong River. Very cool way to spend Christmas! We even stopped on an island (visa-free) that was (apparently) part of Laos for a little bit. There we were hit with a barrage of touristy/souvenir salespeople on the Laotian isand before our cross-country boat ride back to Siam.

Good point!


Foreground (Amanda on banks of Thailand) Middleground (Laos) Background (Burma)

Welcome to Laos - A place to be somebody

A bear on the Laotian island

2 countries in 20 minutes

Heading back to Thailand (big Buddha in background)
There is a youtube video below:

We pretty much spent the rest of the late afternoon / early evening rollin’ down the road back to home base (Gap’s house) in Chiang Mai. Amanda called on her inner strength & drove for 4.5 hours straight; there was no prying of the wheel from her. In total, we put over 800 miles on the rental car over those 3 days. But that’s the way to do it. Forget guided tours & motorbikes. We were able to go slow or fast when we wanted to & see what we wanted to see. We even managed to call into a local radio channel late Christmas night (see the youtube video below):

We made it back to Chiang Mai pretty late & discovered an awesome little area with about a dozen reggae/roots bars and restaurants. Loads of live music & people partying. Reminded me of a Dewey scene, just more compact. And instead of Love Seed Mama Jump, it was Random Thai Dudes Jump…

We interrupt the Chiang Mai posts...

...to thank the Gerace family for their gracious gifts, which include: Combos, sauce, candy, butter cookies, mac n cheese (already at it), & much more!!!

I'm holding 2 packages of gnocchi in my hands - Italian night this weekend at my place, paisanos! Thank you Aunt Judy, Uncle Dennis, Denl, Erika, David, Michele, & Jakey.

I received the packages this week (approx. one month after they were sent - Kaz postal service is wack) and am thrilled with the contents! Shipping things here can be an adventure and I know it is CRAZY expen$ive! Thanks again and "nobody bakes a cake as tasty as aTastykake!"

Amanda has read like 12 books this week. I am in the last chapters of Don Quioxte (you know the book I started like 3 months ago...)

Also, due to popular demand (all 2 of my readers!), the Thailand Slide Show in the upper right corner is availabe a little bigger here below. Out like shout.

Driving Miss Doi Inthanon

Aww yeah! Driving on the right-side (or is it left-side?) or whatever side of the road. We rented a car for a few days. Honestly, it took about 20 miles of city driving followed by about 20 miles of highway driving to get used to driving on the opposite side of the road and than it was all good! It’s easy – 1) just avoid hitting the pesky motorbikes, 2) your turn signals are now windshield wipers now, & vice versa, than 3) pop in the bootleg CD you bought at the Night Bazaar to tune out Amanda nagging, “You’re on the shoulder, AGAIN!”

Our first trip by rental car (Honda City) was to Doi Inthanon National Park. And to save words, I’ll just let the scenery speak for itself.

I kept confusing the names of the waterfalls, but they were impressive

Here's the same fall with Amanda in it, to give some perspective
My youtube video of the fall is below:






Giant stuppas are built to honor the king & queen. Amanda is somewhere on the steps of the stuppa.

This stuppa in particular is for the current majesty, King Rama IX

Great views all through the park

The highest spot in Thailand, dawg!
So you can see that there's a lot to do & experience there. One of my favorites was a 3 km hike through all sorts of habitats (cloud forest, evergreen forest, grasslands). Here are some of the better pics from this pleasant diversion. FYI – the evening was spent at a Sunday Walking Street back in Chiang Mai – it went on for MILES with probably the best selection of goods & street performers from the whole trip (we spent 2 hours walking it and didn’t see half of it!) We were lucky to experience this boulevard of merriment that definitely puts the Tri-State Mall to shame:

During our little trek

This is actually my favorite waterfall pic from the entire trip

Welcome to the Jungle...

Rollin', rollin', rollin' ...

Sepia sunshine

Horizon

Amanda walking

Tree along the walk

Some red rhodadendrum

Back in the hoop-ride for more exploring further North the next day (and the next post...)

This is one of my favorite pics from the whole 2 weeks.