C'est Fin

After three months, four countries, and one wicked Chaco tan, we are finally done.  Thanks to those who followed along, and hopefully we'll get the chance to pick this blog up again one day.

Love,
R&A

Back To BKK

We didn't get the best impression of Bangkok when we started our trip here - we found it entirely too hot, too crowded, and too touristy - and we hightailed it out of there after 2.5 days.  Therefore, there's a certain pleasant symmetry (and lack thereof) to finishing our trip in the same city and leaving with a totally different impression.  So without further ado, here is R&A's guide to enjoying Bangkok:

1.  Visit in the cooler parts of the year.
2.  Do NOT stay in the Khao San Road Area.

We should mention that this recipe works only if you are willing to put up with some major big-city vibes (i.e. cinema megaplexes, malls, high-rises, etc.), but since we decidedly do, it worked out great for us.  After getting in from Koh Chang, we headed over to the mega-mall epicenter of Bangkok - Siam Square.  The area is a hive of large shopping malls, ranging from electronics, to bazaar-like, to super high-end, with a heavy stream of people and cars flowing through it every day.  The many pedestrian bridges and the skytrain network that criss-cross through the high-rise monoliths give the whole area a futuristically exciting yet mildly dystopian (think Total Recall or Metropolis) kind of look.  As expected, most of the lodging options here are quite expensive, but, luckily for the budget travelers, there is one side alley that offers a few cheaper guesthouse options.  The rooms may not be much - bare and only nominally air conditioned  - but you spend so much time outside surrounded by glitz and luxury (window) shopping options that you soon forget your humble quarters.

The MBK Shopping Mall

Inside MBK

Rach Amidst the Crowd

Crowded Streets of Siam Square

Avi Having Fun With Nokia Reps At the Mall

We spent our first evening back in Bangkok strolling around Siam Square, checking out the large mall buildings, the many shops and bakeries that line the streets around Siam Square, and the street market stalls that set up under the canopy of the skytrain lines.  The next morning, we took said skytrain up north to Chatuchak Market - a sprawling indoor/outdoor market that offers a sundry of goods ranging from tourist souvenirs to pet supplies and second-hand clothing.  The market was a lot of fun to check out, but we were surprised (and maybe a tad bit disappointed) at just how organized it was.  Far from the frenetic energy, the relentless advocacy of shop owners, and the chaotic commercial spirit that symbolize and govern most SE Asia markets; at Chatuchak, stalls and shops are grouped in relatively coherent and properly delineated sections (there's a map for god's sake), most shopkeepers tend to ignore the well-heeled customers until they are ready to buy something, and price-haggling is not easy to come by.  Nonetheless, we enjoyed strolling through the market, wrapping up our souvenir shopping, noshing on street food, and catching a very impressive performance by a Thai string band covering American rock classics:

The Skytrain Tracks Running Off In To the BKK Skyline

Shopping At Chatuchak

After taking a break back at our guesthouse, and grabbing dinner at the MBK food court (it's a much better idea than it sounds.  This is not your typical grouping of fast-food restaurants.  Rather, each stall specializes in one type of dish - noddle soup, rice and curry, etc. - and there is even a dedicated vegetarian food stand), we took the skytrain over to Bayoke Tower II, the tallest building in Bangkok, and a great place to get shots of the skyline.  Unfortunately, we made it to the tower after sunset, so all of our shots have completely black skies, but we think that under the circumstances, we did an admirable job taking some pictures.  Since the observation points from the tower are all indoors, we had to contend with smudges on the windows, reflection from the glass, and no great place to set up the camera so that it would stay steady during the long exposure.  We Jerry-rigged a mini studio for our ILC by placing it on a window ledge for stability, jamming our point-and-shoot camera underneath it so that it would tilt down (a makeshift ballhead if you may), and then blocking out reflections from the inside using Avi's black rain coat.  Here is what came out of all of that:

The next day we decided to finally hit up the most famous tourist spots and so we made our way over to Wat Pho temple and the royal palace compound.  In all honesty, seeing Wat Pho was not much different than seeing the umpteen temples we had visited prior, except for everything at Wat Pho seemed to be an order of magnitude larger than everywhere else.  There were more golden Buddha statues, more colorful chedis and stuppas, and finally, a reclining Buddha that is the largest in Thailand.

Wat Pho Chedis

Buddha Statues Lining the Grounds

The Large Reclining Buddha Statue

Rach At the Statue's Feet

Devotees Praying At One of the Shrines In Wat Pho

The Royal Palace was also a typical highly-trafficked tourist spot, that is to say, expensive to get in, but pretty cool to see.  Besides the royal residence, the complex contains many other government buildings and Wat Phra Kaew - the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, named for the jade Buddha statue that it houses.

The Golden Stuppa of Wat Phra Kaew

Royal Palace Building

Another Shot

From the palace, we made a quick trip back to Khao San Road to pick up some "Ray-Bans" and to revisit a favorite noodle stand of ours.

Khao San Road

We spent our last day in Bangkok lounging around Siam Square and catching a matinee of the new Batman movie (because when will we be able to spend only $3 on movie tickets again).  We then took the skytrain to the airport and killed some time playing cards until our 3 AM check-in for our flight.

Our Last Street Food Update:

It's short, but we wanted to squeeze just a few more items here:

Perusing the Many Options At the MBK Foodcourt

Rach Sipping On One of Many Refreshing Bubble Teas

A Heaping Plate From the Vegetarian Stall At MBK

Delicious Dessert "Tacos" - A Thin Wafer Shell Full of Sweet and 

Fluffy Meringue and Sprinkled With Toasted Coconut Flakes

We Were Hoping for Paradise...

And instead we found a beach.

Hoping to finish our trip on a relaxing note, we headed down from northern Thailand towards the water. We were warned away from the (western) Andaman Coast because it tends to get much more of a rainy-seaon lashing than the eastern seaboard this time of year and the inclement weather generally precludes all beach-side activity. Therefore, we opted for the eastern Island of Koh Chang due to its proximity to Bangkok (nobody wants to spend more than 24 hours straight in transit) and its relatively more inviting climate. Koh Chang is not a spectacular beach, at not least by the pristine white sand and crystal-clear water standard expected in Thailand, but that statement is not meant to deprive it of its many merits. The sand, although not the unblemished white of Hawaii or Phuket lore, is clean (except for post-storm days, when the tempestuous sea upchucks a lot of the refuse that has been tossed into it); the water definitely has that inviting turquoise-green tinge to it; and the jungly hills that abut the sea make the whole scene feel more tropical.  As for the weather, Koh Chang did its rainy-season damnedest to accommodate us.  We had 3 or 4 days of pure unadulterated sunshine, a few days with bright, overcast skies, and only one real day of rain - all in all, it was better than we could realistically have expected!

And our time on the island was straight up relaxation.  We alternated between walking on the beach, reading, napping, enjoying tropical drinks by the water, and lounging in our nicely air-conditioned room.  We also found a German-style bakery that offered freshly made bread and pretzel rolls as well as plastically-elastic yet surprisingly palatable cheeses.  It all made for some pretty good beach-side picnic lunches that were complemented by fresh fruit juices from a nearby restaurant-bar.  We also were able to find the time out of our busy schedule to squeeze in a foot massage and some nice sunset viewings.

The Tide Rolling In On To the Beach

Avi On the Rocks

Relaxing By the Water

This Doesn't Get Old

Our First, and Most Likely Last, Time Trying Durian

Sunset Shot of Rach

Trekking and Chilling in Pai

The town of Pai is a sinuous 180 km ride from Chiang Mai.  It's also a cute little mountain town that's good for relaxing before and after hill-tribe treks - and we're proud to say that we accomplished both activities admirably.  One of the highlights of our stay in Pai was our guesthouse, the Happy House.  It was staffed by a very friendly local, who in between embarrassing guests at the pool table, happily drove us from the guesthouse to the town center whenever needed.  It's also the official/unofficial home for a group of very cute dogs that made for great scratching partners as we hung out and enjoyed the free tea in the common area. 

One of the Many Cute Coffee Shops in Pai

We Found Another Falafel Shop - Mama Falafel

As for the trek, we joined with a group of six volunteers from England and Canada and the most animated (almost cartoonishly-so) Korean we've ever encountered for a two-day/one-night trek with an overnight stay in a village.  The first day we climbed over a 1600 meter (~5000 feet) hill on the way to the village, stopping for a lunch of stir-fried noodles and fresh fruit along the way.  The second day took us on a 11 km round-trip trek from the village to the base of a waterfall (where we lunched and swam) and back.  The hiking was good and so was our group, especially Lee-Jay the Korean, who expressed genuine wonder and excitement upon meeting his first natural blonde, bellowed gleefully from the top of the hill into the valley below, and even learned not to litter when he was scolded for tossing his plastic bottle into the forest (his defense:  "It's empty").

Rach With Our Guides

Jungle Lunch

Our Trek Group

Dinner Being Cooked In the Village

The Menu Featured Pumpkin Heavily

Hanging Out On the Trail

A Nature Shot Just Because We Have To

From Pai, we took a local bus back to Chiang Mai and then a VIP bus (a step higher than first class!) to Bangkok.  The difference is cataloged below:

Back In Thailand - Chiang Mai

After 3+ weeks of fun in Laos, we headed back to Thailand to wrap up our 3-month adventure.  We started in the city of Chiang Mai, a well-known traveler spot in northern Thailand.  However, despite being well visited, and therefore well chronicled, Chiang Mai surprised us, and in a good way.  For starters, the city is much bigger than we thought.  Lonely Planet clocks the total population at 174,000, slightly more than the 1-main-street "city" of Ayuthaya.  Maybe that's a strict population count of only the persons residing within the old city, or maybe it's an estimate of the total people employed by 7-11 in Chiang Mai (seriously though, if Laos was once known as "The Land of a Million Elephants," Thailand is now surely "The Land of a Million 7-11s"), but either way, Chiang Mai is a much larger metropolis than we expected it to be.  Additionally, we were BLOWN AWAY by how much time and real estate is devoted exclusively to hawking tourist wares.  Every night there is a large night bazaar that takes place a few blocks outside of the old city, right next to several large hotels.  Besides the many sidewalk stalls that set up along the streets, there are several multi-story buildings of shops one can visit.  However, that is apparently not enough to satiate the appetites of the throngs of tourists that descend upon the city, because every weekend evening, there are two major thoroughfares that are closed down (one on Saturday and the other on Sunday) and turned into kilometer-long pedestrian streets where you can fight amongst the crowds to get a chance to buy some souvenirs or some street food.  And don't let this mildly cynical tone mislead you to think that we eschewed the extravagant attempts to lighten our wallets.  Rather, we took on the daunting challenge of navigating through all possible shopping options with aplomb and left with our bags much heavier for it.

Aside from shopping, there are some other activities to occupy one's time in Chiang Mai.  The old town, a square block of streets in the middle of the city that is enclosed by crumbling walls and a shallow moat, houses many a temple and we spent a day snapping some shots there.  We also took a ride up to Soi Duthep, a temple compound on top of a mountain that is regarded as the most sacred spot in northern Thailand.  It also doubles as a great lookout point over the city.  Finally, we (shocker) took a cooking class.

We were excited about the class since Thai food is probably the most common Southeast Asian cuisine in the US, and we wanted to see first hand how to make those padthais we'd been eating all these years.  The class itself did not disappoint, mostly because the instructor was a bubbly, passionate, entrepreneur who had started her own cooking school, on her own organic farm, after traveling and cooking in Europe.  She took us on a tour of the local market, as well as her gardens back at the farm, and then we got to the cooking.  Each person got to select one dish from each of the following categories:  Stir-fry, appetizer, curry, soup, and dessert.  Here were our respective selections:

Avi:  Padthai, Khao Soi Curry, Glass Noodle Salad, Tom Yam Soup, Fried Bananas
Rach:  Pad See-Ew, Panang Curry, Papaya Salad, Tom Sam Soup, Sticky Rice With Mango.

We're assuming everyone here is familiar with Padthai, and probably Tom Yam (spicy-sour soup), but we'll give a brief description of the other dishes.

Pad See-Ew - broad flat noodles sauteed in a sweet brown soy sauce.
Khao Soi - red curry paste with (Indian) curry powder added. The paste is cooked into coconut milk and the curry is served over egg noodles with fried wonton strips on top.
Panang Curry - red curry paste with crushed peanuts added.  This milder curry is cooked in coconut milk and served over steamed rice.
Glass Noodle Salad - glass noodles (made from mung beans), tossed with veggies and chilies dressed in a sweet and sour sauce.
Papaya Salad - green papaya and carrot strips with tomatoes, long beans, peanuts, and a dressing of lime, chili, sugar, and fish or soy sauce.
Tom Sam Soup - a clear-broth veggie soup.
Fried Bananas - self explanatory; the batter is a mixture of coconut milk, palm sugar, and flour.
Sticky Rice With Mango - sticky rice boiled with coconut soup and palm sugar and served alongside a fresh mango.

And here are the pictures:

Grilled Chilies At the Market

Prepping and Posing With Our Food

An Amuse Bouche of Lettuce Leaves, Ginger, Peanuts,
Coconut, Lime, Chili, and Shallots, With a Palm Sugar Sauce

Padthai

Khao Soi

The Papaya and Glass Noodle Salads

Tom Yam Soup

Sticky Rice With Mango

Fried Bananas - Before and After

An Old City Temple At Night

Locals Enjoying Some Outdoor Karaoke



A Naga Head At One of the Temples

The Stairs Up To Soi Duthep

The Soi Duthep Pagoda

Soi Duthep Grounds

Chiang Mai From Up High

Us Posing With the City Behind Us

Local School Kids Grabbing Food After School

Neon Tuk Tuk At Night

Rach Loving Her Some Small Banana

Chiang Mai Food Update:

Another great activity in Chiang Mai is eating.  Be it at one of the many ethnic restaurants (Thai, to Turkish, to Indian, to a Falafel Shop with a Hebrew Speaking Thai man) or at the even greater multitude of food stalls that line the streets, you're sure to earn your culinary stripes in the city.  Here are shots of the foods we found to be delicious, interesting, or just plain odd:

Freshly Made Waffles With a Myriad of Stuffings At the Night Market

Awesome and Refreshing Fresh Fruit Packets

Mochi Ice Cream

Microwaveable Chicken and Sticky Rice Burgers At 7-11

Sushi At the Night Market - Since You're Hundreds of Miles
Away From the Sea It's Advisable to Avoid It