Thailand - Dec/Jan 2008

Sukhothai

Thailand was the first trip we decided to take over the Christmas holidays: work is slow at this time of year so it is easier to get away.  It is also the first time we decided to try a fancy-pants resort, recommended by David, a work colleague of Keith's. 

Accommodations:

Hyatt (Bangkok) - This hotel is perfectly central to what we needed in Bangkok.  It is a very standard business hotel (and because it was free on points it is hard to beat!).  The best part is the concierge lounge where they offer complimentary appetizers and drinks.  We turned this into our complimentary dinner - many trips back to the buffet and lots of rounds of wine.  I am sure that the waiters were turning their noses up at us!

Tharaburi Resort (Sukhothai) - Very quaint, with the rooms decked with teak beds and the shower partly outdoors with candles and orchids.

dusitD2 (Chiang Mai) - The hotel is quite a swanky place: while not too expensive it has a cool vibe to it.  The concierge button on the phone is called the "desires" button.  We clearly did not fit in! 

Banyan Tree (Phuket) -  Wow - this place is incredible.  It is the first report we have stayed at where you get your own villa.  The tsunami had only hit the area a year earlier, but there was no sign of it here. 

Banyon Tree Hotel - Phuket

Activities:

Bangkok
After almost 30 hours of travel, we arrived in Bangkok on Dec. 23rd close to midnight.  We mostly relaxed at the Hyatt for two nights and didn't really see much of Bangkok at all since we were both jet lagged.  We did, however, go to the Mandarin Oriental, famous for it's exceptional service, for the Christmas Eve buffet.  We were quite surprised at how Americanized it was.  It was funny to hear the Thai people singing Christmas carols -- it reminded Shawna of the movie "The Christmas Story" when the family ate at the Chinese restaurant on Christmas day and sang "Deck the halls with bows of horry - fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra".  There was even a Santa Claus -- a gay Thai guy dressed as Santa, dancing to "Dancing Queen" and chasing after the little boys.  The meal was really good, we sat outside along the river with stunning views, and the entertainment was 'entertaining'.

The other thing we had to do in Bangkok was shop for clothes for Shawna.  The airline had lost her suitcase - we eventually found that they had put the wrong tag on it, taking the bag to Arkansas instead of Bangkok (we only got the suitcase once we returned home).  Since Shawna had nothing with her, she had to buy some clothes -- talk about a downer when you have to try on clothes in a country where everyone is a size 0 or 2.  Of course Keith's level of patience with shopping did not help things either!

Sukhothai

Sukhothai

The first leg of our trip took us to Sukhothai for one night where we saw some really old temples dating back to 13th century when Thailand separated itself from the Khmer.  As Americans do, we say the whole park in about 2 hours. 

Chaing Mai
We then flew to Chiang Mai and stayed one night before we started our 3 day hike.  We mostly spent the afternoon walking around the market where there were all sorts of souvenirs from colorful scarves to carved wooden trinkets to beautiful candles.  

The following day, we drove about two hours to get to the start of our hike.  Along the way we stopped to see an old cave discovered by Burmese monks.  With us on the hike was our guide, Mr. Kan, who spoke reasonably good English and who liked to refer to himself in the third person.  We were also accompanied by a local guide who did not speak much English but knew how to find our way through the jungle -- which is a really good thing since there were no sign posts showing the way.  When we started out, we were a little worried when Mr. Kan pulled out a rather large machete -- it didn't calm Shawna's fears much when he told us it was for the snakes! 

Hike

We hiked for about three hours through a thick bamboo forest.  It was really beautiful and serene.  The only person we ran into was an old man who lived in the forest by himself -- he seemed reasonably nice but we were told later that he is a little crazy since he got in a motorcycle accident and injured his head.  Our first night was spent in a village with the Karen tribe.  Our five star accommodation consisted of a one room house made of bamboo on stilts and a thin mattress on the floor -- we had the house all to ourselves -- all 300 square feet.  The owners were very nice to set up a mosquito tent for us.  Of course the toilets were the usual squat toilets in a small enclosure to the side of the house -- this one even had the shower in the same place.  Keith was excited that he could shower and go to the bathroom at the same time!  It was an interesting juxtaposition to the resort where we stayed in Phuket.  Our guide cooked us a really yummy meal of chicken curry and stir fried vegetables -- we were amazed at how well we eat on these remote hikes.  Since there is not much to do after it gets dark, we read using our head torches and went to sleep around 8pm.  This was also a good thing as we had our wake up call at 2am by the roosters who then woke up the pigs who then woke up the dogs -- an animal orchestra was playing until 6am.

Elephant Taxi

On the second day, we hiked for about 5 hours -- through corn fields and the jungle.  Our guide gave Keith the nickname "Mr. Long Legs" since he could more easily scramble over logs and rocks.  The guide, like many of the people here, is only a couple of inches taller than Shawna.  We had a wonderful lunch eating stir fried noodles in bamboo cups right next to a waterfall.  For the last hour of the hike, we rode on a 45 year old elephant to the village where we spent the second night.  We had to climb up the back of the elephant to sit on the top and just as Shawna started to climb his hind leg, the elephant let out a big one -- Keith was even impressed!  The ride was fun after you got used to being up so high.  The village where we slept is part of the Palong tribe -- it is quite a metropolis with about 140 residents.  The accommodation was equally as impressive but this time we stayed in the same house as the family -- so, we not only were awakened by the animals but also the family snoring.  Our dinner was very good -- similar to the night before but using different spices and coconut milk for the curry.  Before retiring to some more reading, we walked around the village -- there is no electricity in the village but was quite impressed to see that one house had a large satellite dish out front.  It was also interesting to see the locals in their colorful garments talking on their cell phones.

Accommodaton on Hike

The last day, we only hiked about an hour and then drove to a place where we rode on a bamboo raft for an hour down the Ping River.  We also went to see the Long Neck tribe where the women wear gold rings around their neck which extends their neck.  Never quite got the real story as to why this tradition started.  The tribe descends from Burma, only a few miles over the mountains.  Our last stop was to see a beautiful orchid and butterfly garden.

After the trek, we checked back into the hotel in Chiang Mai where we spent a couple more days.  We toured the city and saw several old wats (temples).  There were so many Thai people making their "New Year's Wishes" at the temples, donating money, lighting candles, and floating flowers in holy water - I guess their tradition is different than ours of eating black eyed peas!   We also took a tour outside of the city to the oldest temple in the region and to a local tribe village that grows opium for "tourist reasons"! 

Temple in Chiang Mai

We had to go to a mall to buy Shawna a bathing suit -- what an interesting experience -- it was quite the sensory overload.  In addition to the stores, there were tons of video games and entertainment venues such as a karaoke place where you can rent out a room with a couch, sing karaoke and tape yourself.  We did not partake in the karaoke but we did, however, go to two movies (I Am Legend and National Treasure, both Keith's selections) which were in English with Thai subtitles.  The major difference in the movies were the Thai commercials in between the previews and the homage to the King where everyone stood up to a video and song about the King right before the movie began.

Temple in Chiang Mai

Phuket
The last leg of the trip was to spend a few days in paradise at the Banyan Tree.  We spent our time doing almost nothing... wake up, sit by the pool and read, have a late breakfast, sit by the pool some more, work out, have a massage, have dinner, go to bed...next day, wake up, sit by the pool and read...you get the picture!  The resort is spectacular -- there are no words to describe it.  Each room is it's own house...some of them have their own pools (not ours).  Other than walking around the beach and the lagoon area (where there are about 6 hotels all owned by the same company), we pretty much stayed at our hotel.  The dinners were fabulous, ranging from a seafood buffet, to Thai, to fresh seafood, and to a French/Vietnamese.  Dinners were always preceded by two mojitos each while sitting near the pool.  We will be forever in search of mojitos that were as good as these.   We each got two massages on separate days -- they were both the strongest massages we have ever had.  For such small women, they surely do have strong hands!   

Restaurants:

Mandarin Oriental Bangkok - This hotel has an amazing location on the river.  We were here for the Christmas Eve buffet which was fantastic

Mandarin Oriental Chiang Mai - We spent our New Year's Eve enjoying the buffet dinner at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Chiang Mai, possibly the most beautiful hotel we have ever seen.  We regretted not going earlier in the day to see it during daylight.  The dinner was much better and more extensive than the one in Bangkok and the entertainment was much nicer - in fact this is the best buffet either of us has ever seen.  In addition to traditional dance, there was a band that played mostly American songs and we each got to light a crepe paper hot air balloon that sent our wishes for the New Year off into the sky.

For more photos of this trip: