July 2018 - Bangkok

This blog continues our trip with Patrick's brother Ron, and his mother, Carolyn.  

This edition begins with our travel to Bangkok from Chiang Mai.  The picture below is our last view of Chiang Mai from the airplane window.  It's the temple we visited on Sunday.

Next hotel is Avani Riverside.  We have nothing but amazing things to say about this hotel - every room has a river view.  Here are a few shots from our room.

We wasted no time.  After settling in, we were off to an amazing food tour with A Chef's Tour.  A local chef guided us through the streets of Bangkok in search of amazing street food.  Our guide, Nutth, was fantastic.  We lost count of the stops we made, and our stomachs were full of amazing new tastes.

We meet Nutth and another couple at the Chinatown Gate.

Our first stop was for a super traditional street dish of our guides "auntie's" noodles.  We all ate every last bit.  Little did we know how much more was to come.

Next stop was for dumplings.

Then satay.

Then more... 

Then a little local digestive drink.

Then some grilled meat.

Yes - that grilled meat included insects.

Then a curry

Then a sweet

Then Jack Fruit

Then Soy Sauce Ice Cream.  As questionable as it sounds - it was really good.

Then an assortment of stir fried foods.

Then another sweet - fried dough.

And finally, we ended the night with a favorite - Mango Sticky Rice.

We all slept well with very full bellies.

Wednesday was another temple day.  We hired With Locals for "The Best of Bangkok Private tour" for a local experience lead by Tuangtip - If you're ever there, we highly recommend her.

We met Tuangtip at MRT Hua Lumphon.  Since we were unsure of traffic and timing - we arrived with plenty of time to find a local coffee shop.

Tuangtip found us, and off we went to Wat Traimet temple - to see the largest golden Buddha in the world.

From there we walked through Chinatown.  We found a spice shop to take home some goodies, so we can try our hands at Thai cooking.

Next was Wat Pho - probably the most famous temple in Bangkok.  It's home to the famous Reclining Buddha along with a lot more.

 

The we had a wonderful lunch - Pad Thai, Fried Rice and Mango Sticky Rice

After replenishing our energy, we headed to the flower market.

Then walked over the Chao Phraya River to see more temples.

First stop was a park by Wat Anangkharam.  We had a nice rest where we fed the fish and turtles.

Then we took tuk tuks to our last temple complex.

This is Wat Arun - temple of the sun.

From here we said good-bye to Tuangtip and took the shuttle boats up the river back to the hotel.   We decided we should take advantage of our hotel, so it was to the roof for the infinity pool.

Some photos of the city.

Dinner was at the hotel.  We had an early night, so we could be up and ready for an early flight to Samui on Thursday.

Next blog will be from the beaches of Koh Samui. 

July 2018 - HK to Chiang Mai

From my last blog, we left off with photos of Patrick's mom and brother arriving in Hong Kong - fresh off the plane and ready to go.

The next two weeks were spent touring Hong Kong, and Thailand.  It was an amazing time, and I am not sure if I can capture the amazingness, but here we go.  This is the first of at least 2 posts.  (We took over 1,800 photos)

Our first meal in Hong Kong, after a visit to a tailor shop, was at Alvy's for beer and pizza.  We did not want to throw them into the local culture too quickly, and this place is great

Next morning, Friday, we started them out on a day of sightseeing with breakfast at Australian Dairy Company for a totally Hong Kong breakfast.  The top photo is one of the set meals - scrambled eggs, toast, noodle soup with ham and milk tea.

We walked though TST with a stop for posing in front of the Peninsula.  Then we took the Star Ferry trip to Central to drop them on the Big Bus tour.  They checked a few items to see off their list while we went to work.

For dinner, we dipped their toe into the water for Asian food at Din Tai Fung - We love this place (remember Patrick's birthday) and we are pretty sure they liked it also.

Saturday was the beginning of vacation week for all of us in Thailand.  Hong Kong to Bangkok to Chiang Mai.  As is tradition in Asia - we were delayed long enough before take off that we missed our connection in Bangkok.  Kudos to Bangkok Airlines for meeting us as soon we got off the flight and escorted us to the immigration desk for transfers - and had seats waiting for us on our the next flight to Chiang Mai.

Cool shot watching the flight land in Bangkok from my screen in my seat.

Our late arrival in Chiang Mai did not hold us back.  We did a tour of Chiang Mai by Night including Buddhist Chant, Thai Dinner and Night Market.

We started by visiting a Buddhist Temple in time for the Monks chanting.  Very beautiful and educational stop.

Then it was time for dinner at 137 Pilars House - which was recommended to us as a place to stay.  We will possibly stay there if we return; the entire place was beautiful.

The 6 course meal was exceptionally prepared North Thai cuisine.

Before dinner photo with Pat, our tour guide.

Cute Washroom Signs:

After dinner was a walk through the Stroll Waroros night market - a lot of food and flowers.  We managed to only take pictures; no purchases were made.

Our stay in Chiang Mai was at the Raming House - highly recommended for a family of 4.  We had a suite with 2 bedrooms which worked perfect for us.

Sunday was another full day of getting to know Chiang Mai.

In the morning, we had a Private Tour from mychiangmaitour.com of the Doi Suthep Area + Bhubing Palace + Hmong Village and the Pra Nang Cooking School for dinner.

Our tour started an hour drive north of Chiang Mai with our guide Susi at the Hmong Village.  We did some shopping, looking at amazing views, and visited the town mayor/doctor.

Here is the entrance to the village of about 250 people.

First stop was a local coffee shop where Susi showed us she had barista skills.

The village is on a hillside and has a beautiful waterfall.  Yes - Ma is pumping water for the village in the bottom left photo.

The town mayor/doctor gave us free local-style check ups, and we purchased herbal teas for what ails us.

We finished out time here with some shopping; including a handbag for the Handbags for Hope auction in September.

Our next stop was Wat Prathat Doi Suthep, a revered Buddhist temple.

Anderson's posing with Chiang Mai in the background.

After the temple we stopped by a Jade artists' studio.

Back to the hotel, where we were picked up for our cooking class.  The class started at the local wet market to pick up fresh veggies before heading to the school.

We made 5 courses, and everyone was able to customize their own dishes.

Soup

Stir Fry

Curry Paste - used in curry dish (yuumm - Thai green curry)

Spring Rolls

Dessert (Mango sticky rice)

Luckily we were given a recipe book.  We did a lot of GoPro shooting, but even with video, we could never remember it all.

The chefs

Prep Work

Chicken in Coconut Milk Soup

Spring Roll - before frying

Stir Fried Noodles Thai Style (Pad Thai)

Sweet Sticky Rice with Mango (blue rice is colored from a local flower)

The end of our first full day was done, and we were full.

Monday - ELEPHANT DAY!!!!!

Many of our colleagues have visited Elephant Nature Park and come back with nothing but rave reviews.  Now we understand why.

ENP rescues and rehabilitates elephants who have have been overworked (hurt) for logging or entertainment.

We selected the Pampering a Pachyderm experience, which was unbelievable.

We were taken to a neighboring elephant camp where we met our 3 newest friends.  Well, we became instant friends as soon as they realized we had with bags of fruit and vegetables for them.

We fed them as we walked them along a trail to the river.

We ate our lunch while the elephants took a rest.

Then we made them some rice balls with extra nutrients.

After that it was chopping fruit and squash with machetes.  Elephants love pineapple, watermelon, and squash.

After we finished cutting into (big) bite size pieces, they strolled over to taste our work.

Then it was time to cool down with a bath in the river.

After the bath, it was time to say good-bye and pose before taking a raft down the river to ENP.

When we arrived at ENP, we changed into dry clothes before meeting some of the herd.  There a lot of elephants here living in packs, playing the dirt and getting used to being free again.  They are all in various stages of recovery, so we were not able to feed or touch the elephants, but they were still as beautiful.

After an amazing day pampering pachyderms, we had dinner in a local restaurant.  We found it strolling down the street.  We had a nice meal and local beer.

Tuesday morning we said good bye to Chiang Mai - and took off to Bangkok.

More to come from Bangkok in the next blog.......  :)