We left Chiang Mai on Sunday and headed to Bangkok. We didn’t want to jam-pack our day, so we just picked a couple of places to visit and explored those areas a bit. The first stop was Lumphini Park. We hung around here for a bit, hunting lizards and enjoying the sun.
Some of these lizards were HUGE. I think they’re water monitors.
Next, we visited Jim Thompson’s house. Jim Thompson was an American entrepreneur who basically revitalized the Thai silk industry. He mysteriously disappeared one day – no clues have ever been found. His house is actually six old traditional-style Thai houses that he had moved into the city. He was an art collector, so there was some pretty neat stuff. And the garden was absolutely beautiful.
A nice turtle shot for Craig & Megan
We had to be sure to snap a photo of the terrible rash we both got – we think from riding the elephants bareback. The garden on the right is a much ore pleasant site.
We searched for this particular restaurant for over an hour only to find out that it was closed for the night, but here’s a shot of our transportation – a tuk tuk. These are fun to ride around in.
The next day we caught the bus to Pak Chong for in order to visit Khao Yai National Park. Our guesthouse also ran tours, so we went on a half-day tour outside of the park on Monday. Not even ten minutes into the drive, the driver slammed on the breaks for us to see what was hanging in a tree by the side of the road.
Matt bravely holding the oriental whip snake
The next stop was a natural spring. Matt was really wanting to get in, but nobody else jumped in and he wasn’t too wild about staying wet for the rest of the night anyway.
Then we went to a bat cave! This was located on the grounds of a temple, and the monks go here for meditation. There aren’t many bats here right now – we say maybe 50. In the summer, there are hundreds.
Bats always return to the same spot each time, so the tour guides have named some of the bats. They were neat to see up close, but I think Matt’s favorite part was the bugs. This is some kind of centipede.
This Buddha was carved directly into the limestone – pretty cool!
For the last stop, we went to another cave where we were told we’d see “millions” of bats. Since some of the English can be a bit incorrect here (as you can tell from our favorite printed quote in the last post), we figured there’d be a few hundred. But we were so wrong. Bats come out of here at a rate of like 550 per second for an hour. If you cup your ears, it makes a neat sound – kind of like listening to a conch. They flew in a random pattern but dispersed further out. It was incredible!
We stayed there past dark, and then grabbed a quick dinner at our guesthouse before heading to bed. We went on a full day tour of the park next day. Apparently those whip snakes like to hang out in the same spot, because our driver stopped again today. This time the snake was angry and he got way too close for comfort – even Matt looked a little freaked out. He bit at Matt’s pants, and he also attacked another guys camera. Meanwhile, I jumped across the truck into the laps of two complete strangers in order to avoid the snake. A happy snake is one thing, but this guy was ready to fight!
We spent the day in the park searching for gibbons, birds, waterfalls, and elephants. Unfortunately we didn’t see any elephants, but we saw plenty of monkeys!
This is a photo of a gibbon through the telescope, so it’s not the best photo. Watching them swing from the branches was amazing, and they were LOUD!
There were a lot of incredibly tall trees – very cool
Weird looking spider on the left
Matt held a scorpion
This waterfall is also from The Beach
Great hornbills. These birds are huge – their wings were quite loud when they flew
Our whole day in the park was a lot of fun and we got to see a ton of neat animals. We were bummed that we didn’t see any wild elephants, but we can’t really complain. We headed to Bangkok that night, hung around in the city a bit before our flight the next day, and are now en route home. We’re in Germany now, waiting for our flight to Chicago, and then finally to Denver. It will be good to be home!
We used Tuesday and Wednesday to explore the city a bit, visit the night markets, and eat some really good street food where we could get two meals and drinks for about 100 baht, or a little over $3. If we eat at restaurants, it is around $9 for more than enough food and drinks. Our favorite street dessert has been the mango sticky rice, which we get almost every night. We also got a few massages (about $4 per hour) and changed hotels. The one we stayed at for the rest of the week in Chiang Mai was less than $10 per night. I can’t really complain about those prices.
There are a ton of temples in Chiang Mai, and we visited the largest one, located at the center of the city square: Wat Phra Singh.
They also had a program running every day where you can stop to chat with some monks at a table and ask them about their life and beliefs. We did this for a bit on both Tuesday and Wednesday with two different monks, one from Laos, another from Thailand.
On Thursday we did a tour with at an elephant camp where we learned how to ride like a “mahout” or elephant trainer. We started by picking out our elephants for the day. I got Lulu, a 35 year old female and the second largest at the camp. Stevi got an 8 year old smaller female named Paboon who she claims was the prettiest one.
A couple of Lulu and Stevi
Lulu and the only male in the camp Stevi with Paboon
We spent a lot of the day riding trails with some great views overlooking the jungle. We also took a break at a small jungle hut for lunch and for playing a bit with the elephants. We learned how to give commands so that we could mount and dismount, which is a challenge considering how high they are.
After lunch we rode up to a area that has black mud, which is supposed to be good for the skin (for humans and elephants). So the guides got us all to rub it on our faces. Later we noticed quite a few elephants pooping and weeing in it, so we weren’t quite sure this mud was actually good for our skin. We could tell the elephants loved it though, so it was quickly forgotten. They’d just roll in the stuff and wanted it rubbed all over. Before going on this tour, we were a little concerned that is was one of those places that might mistreat the elephants, but I’d say these were pretty happy and well cared for.
After the mud spa, we rode down to a river where the elephants would go completely underwater with us on them, usually with the water coming up to our chests. This was really the best part of the day and an unforgettable experience. We spent about 30 minutes swimming and playing with them here.
All in all, the elephant day was one of the highlights of the entire trip. We saw a printed ad in a tourist office window front that pretty much sums up how great it was:
“You will receive the amusement and see praise something infront love of intelligent elephant very with the ability to impress at you not forget to know.”
The next day we took a zipline tour in the jungle. This was a good time with some awesome zips and free falls up to 40 meters.
That night we went to a Muay Thai kickboxing match. There were about six different matches in total, and most were pretty exciting with some serious kicks to the head.
On Saturday, it was a bit rainy, so we just relaxed, got some good food, and walked around the night bazaar. Lots of good street food, artists, and music. The best part was when they started playing the Thai national anthem and everyone noticed and stopped moving and talking except for Stevi. Tomorrow morning we’re off to Bangkok.
