Ayutthaya, Bangkok, and Chaing Mai
We did our best to budget for the trip and ended up going from the August 21st-28th for just under $600 including our flights, food, accommodations, and all the adventures. Not bad, in my opinion.
For those of you who don't feel like reading the long, detailed post that's about to happen, let me save you the trouble and give you the link to the video. Here's the summary: 8 $6 60 minute massages, 7 days in Thailand, 6 Thai dishes made from scratch, 5 hours at the "Grand Canyon", 4 elephants, 3 cities, 2 mangos a day, and 1 friend with whom to experience it all.
(Although I promise the pictures will make much more sense after reading the stories.)
Tuesday 8/21
At the airport it was surprisingly easy (and cheap) to get a SIM card for the week. Only $4.5 for a week of unlimited data. Understandably, we were skeptical and expecting it to go out at any moment, but at least we had wifi to get us to our hotel and get us going. We hailed a taxi (a skill that we would get quite good at this week) and bargained a price to get us to our hotel. When we arrived we found the street like this. (Turns out it is like that every night from about 8 pm - 2 am but with pounding music and people trying to sell you scorpions on a stick.)
We didn't waste time when it came to getting a massage because there were shops all over the place (literally had at least three on our street alone.) We decided to commemorate it with a photo together with the people we'd spent the last 60 minutes but unable to talk to.
Then we quickly moved onto tackling the food stands. There was so much to try and not enough room in our stomachs so we quickly adopted the policy of buying only one of everything and splitting it so we could try more food. Here's our first mango sticky rice.
There was even a McDonald on our street that we didn't go to (obviously would have been a waste of a good potential meal elsewhere-anywhere else.) But it seemed a waste to at least not get a picture with Thai Ronald.
It was 1 am before we made it back to our hotel (even though we never even left the street it was on) because there were so many stalls to see and so much food to eat. (Sadly, 1 am in Thailand was actually 3 am for our tired Japan accustomed bodies.)
Wednesday 8/22
Our first official day in Bangkok and we headed off on foot to go hit the big tourist spots. Our hotel was close enough that everything we wanted to see today was within a 30-minute radius by foot so we didn't have to deal with taxis today (we especially enjoy exercise when it saves us money.)
Plus, since we wandered around we got to see more of the city and discover some more shopping places, a college, a park, and just see the sights. (How else were we going to find all the mango stands to eat?) We also got some lunch while wandering. I'd been looking forward to Thai food for weeks, and it did not disappoint. (How could it? Look at that name "Spring Rolls With Crap." Yum.)
The first place we visited was the Grand Palace which cost 500 baht to get in. These are 500 baht bills we are holding and for the first little while it really weirded us out that we were essentially holding $15 bills.
Even weirder than that was when we ran into our airport friend again! We knew she was flying to Bangkok too, but what are the chances we'd visit the same place at the exact same time? Even if we had been just a few minutes apart in the line we probably would have never seen each other through the crush of people all visiting the Grand Palace. (Clearly, it was a friendship of fate-except I don't' remember her name.)
We spent a few hours wandering around the Grand Palace and trying to not get distracted by all the Japanese people around. (How is it that we both live in Japan and are surrounded by Japanese people all day every day and suddenly, we go to a country where they are no longer the majority and we want to befriend every one of them we see?)
Fun Thai fact #1: It's extremely rude to show the bottoms of your feet in public, so be careful when sitting down!
Fun Fact #2: Bangkok's real name is one of the longest city names in the world. Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit. Luckily someone shortened it to Bangkok for those of us who don't have five minutes handy to say the original name or try to spell it correctly to buy a ticket to visit.
(By the way those are his toes in the front of the
picture.)
Here's me trying to recline with the Buddha.
We caught a ferry and rode across the river to go to the Temple of the Dawn. This was about the time that the skies dumped about a week's worth of condensed moisture on us in the span of an hour. I'm pretty convinced that nothing except a body suit and a miracle would have kept us dry during this since the wind was blowing it from all directions.
But we still had a good time exploring the Temple of the Dawn.
While exploring the city we discovered what we've decided to call the first of Bangkok's Seven Mysteries: the tree growing through the roof. Just why?
We had a bit of trouble making it to our night cruise on time because we couldn't figure out the correct address, but we made it with plenty of time to spare since they kept us waiting for 45 minutes. (Thank goodness we didn't get there early like we planned.) So we wandered around some shops to kill time.
The cruise was full of couples and families and Natasha and I were questioning why we were there without boyfriends. (Well except for the obvious part about not having those.) We were joking about how great it would be to find two Japanese guys also on the cruise that we could talk to, but we realized we were kidding ourselves because what were the chances of that happening?Apparently, the chances were pretty high actually since we saw two sitting a few tables away. So in order to not regret being a chicken later, I went over and chatted with them and the four of us ended up talking until the cruise ended. (Sadly, I forgot to get a picture.) But it was worth the experience just to here their story about how they had actually wanted to visit Taiwan but realized like a week before their trip that they'd accidentally bought tickets for Thailand instead.
The food was actually pretty terrible (would not recommend the cruise, haha) but it was fun to see Bangkok at night from the river, talk to the Japanese boys, and experience my first Cabaret with lady-boys. (A term I learned that very night. ) Three of them came out and sang songs (well actually mouthed the lyrics) but I was really impressed with their dramatic flair. They did a better job then I ever could.
We walked home that night and discovered the truly scary thing about walking home at night wasn't the street we were walking on, or the people around us but the rats that kept scurrying across the road. In our 45 minute walk home we saw at least 10 rats, and I was wearing sandals! Luckily we got home just in time to catch the last one hour massage before the place closed. (We obviously deserved it after the harrowing RAT STREET experience.)
Thursday 8/23
We may have gotten to bed late, slept like a bunch of rocks in our pitch-black hotel room, and slept through our alarms which put us behind for our plans for the day. Luckily, we didn't miss out on anything. I got car sick in the mini-van we rode in to Ayutthaya (turns out "early" mornings, little-to-no breakfast, and car rides don't mix well with me which may explain why I was sick every day on the way to school growing up.)
When we made it out I sat down and put my head between my knees and these really friendly Thai people came over and gave me some eucalyptus (I think) oil to put under my nose, and then our Tuk-tuk driver offered to give us an extra hour for our tour since I was sick. (Also he wouldn't be able to fit another tour into that last hour anyway which also could affect his offer, but I appreciated the kindness anyway.)
Ayutthaya was a lot bigger than we originally thought so having a tuk-tuk drive us on the shortest routes straight to all of the sites was actually better than the bicycles we were going to use.I have no idea if this sign is warning the non-Thai's about pickpockets in the area or warning the other residents about non-Thai pickpockets. Isn't obscure grammar wonderful?
Fun fact #3: Ayutthaya became the largest city in the world in the 1700's with 1 million inhabitants.
Here's a bunch of pictures of us exploring the ruins and seeing the sites for the day. Not a lot to say except that we almost made it through without getting rained on. Almost, but not quite.
We saw tons of people riding elephants here, but there was no need for us to be jealous because we were getting our turn to play with elephants tomorrow. Who would be jealous about a little ride when I'm going to give an elephant a bath!?
We saw tons of people who go to the temples apparently for the sole purpose of napping, so I thought I'd give it a try too.
Wasn't sure if anyone noticed that there's a Buddha's head inside the tree roots. It's a pretty famous attraction in Ayutthaya actually.
This temple was actually built in the 14th century but when the Burmese army came in they pretty much raided the place and left it in ruins in the 1700s.
Isn't history crazy?Also, how had I never even heard the name 'Ayutthaya' before in a world histroy class if it used to be the largest city in the world?
We made it back to Bangkok around 7 and tried to explore the night market we had planned for that night but it got rained out. So all we really did was wander through a park, look at tarp-covered stalls, and eat dinner before heading back for our massage. Tonight we tried a different place and they gave us special massage clothes to wear. Fancy.
The guy spoke some English so he talked to us a little bit during the massage, but I think Natasha and I kind of go into a massage-coma for those 60 minutes so I'm not sure we were great converastionalists.
Friday 8/24
Today was our last day in Bangkok and we wanted to go to the Damnoen Saduak floating market which was a good 2 hour commute each way so we actually had to get up early (and not sleep through our alarms.) We caught a taxi to the bus station, got a bus ticket, and then avoided the scam boat that offered to transport us to the floating market for way more than we were willing to spend when we could walk there in 2 minutes. And thank goodness we did or we might have missed out on our first banana trees! That would have been a shame. 
If you know me then you know I'm a sucker for journals (which could explain why I'm incapable of writing a short blog entry) so it was to be expected that the first thing I bought at the floating market was this obnoxious elephant journal that just screamed 'I'm a tourist in Thailand' to me. That wasn't the only thing we bought today though.
I also couldn't resist taking a picture of this adorable lemur. Although I did have to resist the temptation to hold it because that girl was trying to charge me $15! Who does she think she's kidding. (But it's seriously adorable. Look at it cling onto her. I want one.) This will change everything for me the next time I watch Madagascar.
Fun Fact #4: Floating markets can have a variety of goods being sold right on the boats from fresh fruits and produce, goods like my journal, or even meats being cooked on the boat as it's on the river. If you want to buy something you just get your boat next to theirs and make it happen.
Fun Fact #4: Floating markets can have a variety of goods being sold right on the boats from fresh fruits and produce, goods like my journal, or even meats being cooked on the boat as it's on the river. If you want to buy something you just get your boat next to theirs and make it happen.
We went back to our hotel, grabbed our bags, and headed to the airport for the second half of our trip: Chiang Mai!This room was actually nicer than the other one, but not in the middle of a tourist street. Luckily there was still plenty of things in the vicinity of our airbnb and we had no trouble finding food and activities. This meat on a stick is getting to be a favorite (and it's like 30 cents!)
Saturday 8/25
This is it. The day we've all been waiting for. IT'S ELEPHANT TIME!So you'll have to bear with me because I had a really hard time narrowing down the photos for the elephants.
So.....I just gave up after a while. We got picked up at our hotel and drove about an hour to get to the jungle. I've been in a lot of forests but this jungle was something else entirely. It was beautiful and there were so many banana trees and things I didn't recognize. This is one of my favorite pictures of the elephants.
At first we were all kind of shy and hesitant about touching the elephants. Not only were they huge, their skin was quite rough, the hair was coarse, and their tongues were huge and left all sorts of nasty slime on you. Buttttt we got over it all pretty quickly because it was a blast and what's a little personal hygiene when it comes to playing with elephants? Before the elephants even came our guide gave us a brief history of elephants in Thailand and some fun facts. I'll share a few that I remember.
Fun facts 5-7:
5. Only female elephants become the leader of a group and they are called the Matriarch.
6. Elephants are the largest land mammal.
7. Elephants are generally considered the third smartest mammal.
This is Natasha and I taking a picture with Bun. He's only three and even though he's already quite large, he still has the brain of a three-year-old. (Elephants develop around the same rate as humans but are pregnant for over twice as long - 22 months.)Bun was quite mischievous the entire day. This is Bun playing around and trying to push me off the rail.
The older elephants were much more careful about not hurting humans or pushing them at all really. They would go out of their way to walk around you if you got in their path. That didn't stop them from trying to wrap their trunk aroud any food you had in your hand before you could feed it to another elephant though.
I think I got along really well with the elephants. Kind of like how humans tease people they like as opposed to being formal, I'm taking the fact that they kept whacking me with their ears as a sign that our 4-hour friendship was developing nicely.
Next, we went on a hike with the elephants. This was exciting and also kind of intense because they were literally walking right behind us probably thinking "why are these tiny two-leggers so slow" as they tried to hurry to find the next bamboo stalk they were going to bring crashing down around us.
We had a moment where it was really muddy and we legitimately thought Bun was falling down the trail, but our guide told us he does it all the time and it's just him playing again.stopped for lunch and I don't know if I was more impressed with the food they'd made for us or hwo pretty the jungle was when I stopped to admire it. (Just a casual hike through the jungle with our elephant companions.)
Natasha and I were besides ourselves with excitement at the amount of fruit they'd given us. (Produce is so expensive in Japan that it's a significantly smaller part of my diet than it was in the US.) They made Thai stir-fried rice along with some egg roll and chicken nugget kind of things. Honestly, the whole meal was delicious and so big that we ended up taking home leftovers. At one point Bun came over and tried to sneak some of our food. However, he's a huge elephant so he's not very good at sneaking. He did hang around though waiting for another chance.
He kept sticking Bun's trunk in the river and having him suck up water and then spraying us. That seemed to encourage the 7-year-old to start splashing us with water. Which is how we ended up with a full on water fight.
Like I said, I didn't start the fight, but I sure finished it.Granted, I finished it by slipping and falling in the river, but still.
Well I thought it was over anyway, but really once we got the elephants back to camp and it was bath time for them the water fight started up again.
That kid in the yellow shirt was quite the instigator but he was super adorable. Technically, our elephant tour doesn't do elephant rides, but since they let us play with the elephants the guys let us climb on their backs during bath time since they do it all the time when they're playing around. 
So I still got to get on an elephant but also got to do all this other fun stuff. We made some vitamins for the elephants and fed them one last time before we had to say good-bye. (Natasha is clearly confused about who the vitamins are meant for.)
Our last stop on the tour was this crazy beautiful waterfall.Naturally, Natasha and I couldn't be satisfied with just a picture so we waded out as close as we could get to the pounding spray.
We got there at the perfect time so we were able to take our pictures without any other random people photo bombing and we were the only two out in the waterfall. When we made it back to land a big group had just arrived.
Sunday 8/26
This was our last full day in Thailand. We ended up doing something a bit unexpected. We didn't make it to church today, but we did stumble across the sign.
Isn't it funny how recognizable it is even though we can't even read what it says?Also, I found Spidey just hanging out in Chiang Mai.
Someone else that we found hanging out in Chiang Mai before we hopped in our taxi to go to the Grand Canyon: our airport friend! Seriously, we saw her across the street and yelled hello. Then we chatted for a few minutes (from across the road because it was too busy to cross without effort) and none of us could believe that we'd run into each other in Tokyo, Bangkok, and now Chiang Mai coincidentally. Wow. (Sadly, we were distracted and didn't get a picture.)
Honestly, I'm quite bummed that all I have to show you are these pictures because if my phone was waterproof I could have had some quality videos to show. As you can see it's a giant water park with inflatable toys. Plus a sweet trampoline you could jump off of into the water. So just to give you an idea on what you're missing out on with my lack of videos-here's a one-minute youtube clip that shows it pretty accurately. When we got there around 10 am we were literally the only two people out and it felt like an abandoned amusement park. Not long after another 2 girls showed up and we felt reassured knowing we weren't at some sketchy place. It was actually really fun having the entire park to ourselves (well pretty much.) We tried out all the toys, raced across the slipper floaties, fell into the water repeatedly, tried to walk through the giant hamster wheel, jumped off the trampoline, and did tons of other things. It was surprisingly terrifying doing everything for the first time, but I was proud of us for trying. 
And, of course, the trip wouldn't be complete until we had our encounter with a Japanese group that showed up around lunch. We ended with a zipline over the waterpark and then caught a taxi home with the same two girls from that morning.The day was a blast and not at all what we picture ourselves doing when we planned our trip weeks ago, but I'm glad we didn't miss it. We had time to rest back in our hotel room for a bit (being in the sun for 5 hours is exhausting.) and then we grabbed dinner and explored the Sunday Walking Market.
Message to family: Does anyone want any elephant pants or any other souvenirs?
Mom: Are the pants expensive? Do you have room for them?
Me: No and yes.
Mom: Can you get 5?
(That escalated quickly. Leave it to Mom to make sure the girls have matching pants.)
We got our second to last massage and then called it a night.
Monday 8/27
I don't know when it happened, but our last day in Thailand was upon us. We ended up signing up for a cooking class yesterday and although it was a spontaneous decision it was another I don't regret in the least. Yam, our instructor spoke really great English and was also very funny. The good food was 65% of the experience but the other 35% was all Yam. (Yes, like the sweet potato.) (I promise she liked us way more than it looks like in this picture.) 
We started out the class when the picked us up from our hotel and drove us to the market. Yam told us all about the ingredients and gave us time to explore after her lecture. So much of it looked so good. Look at all the produce! *drool* (and those mangoes)
Then again, a lot of it looked...not so good. Like this bag of bugs for example. Or this stand of chicken heads. Just the heads. (Where's the rest of the body that I'd actually eat? I don't know.)
Today I learned how to make coconut soup, yellow curry, pad c eaw noodles, and mango sticky rice. It was all delicious, and I couldn't even finish it all. (Luckily, unlike Japan, take out bags are very much a thing at least where we've been.) This was the couple from Italy on their honeymoon that we did our class with.
We've had so many chances to talk to people that aren't American on this trip. Today we met a couple from Italy. Yesterday at the waterpark we met these girls from Israel. The couple on our elephant tour were from Spain.
After the cooking class we had the afternoon to explore the city before we had to go to the airport. So we finally took the time to walk, explore, and get to know the area of Old Chaing Mai where our hotel was.
Fun Fact #8: The Old City is a one square mile area contained inside a moat that has around 30 temples.
Then we decided to escape the afternoon heat with a massage. This was it. Our last massage in Thailand. (Probably my last massage for a good while.) Even though we always opted for the "Thai massage" meaning the full body one, and even though they were the same general massages you still never knew when someone was going to do something new. This picture for instance, I had no idea what was happening and am just laughing awkwardly as I laid on top of this Thai lady. Yup. Good times.
Our timing was good since it started pouring about 30 minutes into our massage, but it wasn't good enough. The rain lasted for two hours and pretty much rained out the last of our plans to go to the park before the airport. Eventually we braved the rain (with bare feet to spare our shoes) and picked up our bags from our hotel before calling a taxi to take us to the airport. Then we started the long trip back. We had a one hour flight back to Bangkok that we waited about 3 hours in the airport for (glad we went early though since the rain never stopped.) We arrived around midnight and caught a 2 am flight back to Tokyo, arriving around 10 am. 
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