From limestone walled lagoons to bathing elephants

Last Day in Phuket:
The sun was finally shining and I (Emily) took a wonderful swim in the Indian Ocean and then walked along the gorgeous beach looking at tide pools filled with interesting fish and crabs.

At noon, our ride picked us up to go to Phang Na Bay for our sea kayaking trip into the limestone caves. As we approached our destination by boat we saw beautiful shadows of islands that seemed to come up out of no where. Apparently there are more than 150 of these islands in this part of Thailand.

Our guides educated us about the limestone and told us how we would canoe through low ceiling-ed caves to enter in to lagoons that are in the center of many of these cylindrical islands. Sadly our camera battery died and the pictures below are the last few that our camera let us take. The cliffs were seemingly vertical and they had areas at the bottom that had been hollowed out by the tides. You could kayak under these areas and look at the amazing stallagtites hanging down. Then our guide would take us to a cave where we had to lie flat down in the kayak and he would push us in to a clearing. The ceiling of the caves were often filled with sharp oyster shells and the ceiling was just inches from our face. It was a bit claustrophobic in there.


Once through the cramped caves, the world opened up in to a private lagoon shielded by huge cliffs all around. Trees clung to the sides of the cliffs and grew wherever there was a horizontal piece of land. One lagoon had mangroves growing in it's private world. We headed back to the boat for a sunset dinner and the food was fabulous. After sunset, we prepared Katong's which are composed of banana trunks and leaves, orchids, candles, and incense. It is a tradition that the Thai borrowed from the Hindus in India. We canoed again in to a lagoon where we all released our Katongs in the peaceful night. Then we stirred up the water to see the tiny sparkler-like algae that glows in the night - bioluminesence. It was a perfect day. We did make friends with a South African couple and a French couple and are hoping that they will share their photos with us.

First full day in Chiang Mai:
We arrived mid day on Monday and did a bit of exploring, but our big adventure came Tuesday when we went to the elephant rescue park about an hour north of the city. A woman started this project years ago when her disgust with the street elephants that are abused pushed her in to it. She adopts elephants that are orphaned or have been broken by working for the Thais and the tourists and can no longer do their job. She now has 36 elephants each with their own tragic and inspiring tale.
After hearing about a few of the elephants and how to safe around them, we arrived at the camp set on a plateau with a river running through it. It was gorgeous. The itinerary for the day was to:
1. Feed the elephants. They get a huge basket of fresh fruits several times a day. The food comes from local communities.

2. After watching the elephants and feeding them, it's time for a bath. It was pretty fantastic to be in the water with them and play as they rolled over and enjoyed the water.

3. Get a kiss from one of the elephants that was orphaned at 1 week of age that is now 6 years old and very friendly.

All in all it was a wonderful day. There were no hooks or beatings. They only give elephants love and food to control them. You should come here if you ever get the chance.

Another set back with positive results

Phuket is an island in the south of Thailand that has been heavily developed and is complete with a 24hr Burger King and McDonalds. It still has striking views of the Indian Ocean with impressive cliffs and unbelievably blue water and white sand, but the beaches are often cluttered with umbrellas that cover ever inch of sand.

Our plan for these three days was to 1. explore the island 2. Go on a kayak trip and watch the sunset and 3. go to the surrounding islands like the famous Ko Phi Phi (where The Beach was filmed, also near a James Bond Island where Man with a golden gun was filmed).
When the Tsunami and earthquake hit Japan, the government shut down most day trips to the islands as a precaution. Sadly we had to cancel our trip to Ko Phi Phi.

Ankoor's turn to blog:
Surprisingly, our time thus far in Thailand has been marked by cloudiness and rain with spurts of bright sunshine. But this did not in any way diminish the beautiful views we have encountered. Luckily, Emily convinced me to rent a motorbike to travel. The taxis charge roughly 10-15 dollars to go from points A to B, which adds up if you want to see the island. To have a bike for the whole day was only 10 bucks! Granted, you are putting your life in peril, but you are 50 bucks richer. Truly, riding the island on bike, while stressful, has been just fantastic. We have felt free as we fly by huge cliffs, amazing vistas, and scenic beach fronts.

Day 1 involved several minitrips. First we went to the Gibbon Rehabilitation Park. While tiny, it was still impressive to see such dedication to saving many of these creatures from the abuse they suffer here (one gibbon was forced to drink and smoke as entertainment at one of the local night clubs). It was fun seeing the gibbons play and be noisy. Nearby we saw "the largest water fall in Phuket". It towered all of 40 feet or so and was just a little stream. It was a nice dive (except for my bruised elbow) on a muggy day. Next, we drove to the Big Buddha. It is only 1 foot shorter than the Statue of Liberty and sits at the highest view point on the island. You can see it for miles and the view is spectacular. The ride down on the bike, however, was frightening.
At the Big Buddha, we discovered that Emily is famous. For some reason, a group of tourists (it was difficult to tell where they were from, they seemed Thai though) came up behind me and seemed to be congratulating me. Then, they caught up to Emily and proceeded to thank her and ask to take photos of us, and then group photos with us. Mind you, there were dozens of other Western tourists. We still cannot figure out who they thought she was.

After we headed to find some good grub with a nice view. After getting lost several times, we eventually found a spot called Rockfish, which perched over a beech with a great view. The more impressive part was the food. They had odd dishes, but they were amazing. The best was a prawn dish cooked with strong Thai spices and glazed with soy sauce, but served on a small piece of tortilla with guacamole. So good!

After driving by the Tsunami memorial, we drove home and found out about the horrors in Japan. It was rather surreal.
Despire reassurances to safety, the government held off all activities. Also, it was raining a bit so our day 2 activities were canceled. We decided to hang on to the bike and check out a restaurant recommended by the lonely planet. It was located next to a viewpoint and jutted out of a cliff. The view was amazing. It was also fun to be served by a transvestite wearing a shirt with Bob Marley on it while listening to a Thai acoustic album, including a duet to Crazy in Love by Beyonce. Oh, and the food was good too.

We rushed back home (after getting lost again!) to indulge in a day at the spa. We opted out of the "Kings Package" with aggressive Thai massage and treated ourselves to a 2.5 hour regular massage. The place was situated on a pond and it was peaceful being surrounded by nature. It was wonderful and almost worth missing a trip to Ko Phi Phi.

Bangkok in a hurry

With only 1 1/2 days in the big city and a twelve hour time difference to overcome, we tried to squeeze in as much as our tired bodies could handle.

Day 1:
Walked around Bangkok taking in the noisy, bustling city. Headed to Wat Phra Keaw and the Grand Palace. This houses the famous emerald Buddha (actually made of Jade) and the former residence of the Thai Monarch. The complex is an impressive matrix of large ornate buildings and statues. Unfortunately a thunderstorm soaked us to our core and cut the tour a bit short. When the rain finally let up we headed out to dinner at The Deck which was on the river and overlooked another famous temple - Wat Arun. After dinner we thought a Thai massage sounded like a good idea...it is now 2 days later and I am still sore from the experience. They use their whole bodies to stretch and contort your body in ways I didn't think possible. It was a poor decision to put our airplane stiff bodies through that. See the cartoon drawing - that is not pleasure on that man's face. Ankoor's massage was a little worse for the ware because his masseuse's limited English did not include the phrase, "stop you're killing me!" Although sore, I did feel considerably looser the next day and my posture had unwillingly improved.
At night we went to an open air bar and listened to some live Thai music mixed in with "I want to be a billionaire so frickin' bad" sung in a Thai accent. Our table was perched a top an unrealistically blue pool, so you could dangle your hot feet in the cool water. It was lovely.



Day 2:
We explored the last of the the big three temples of Bangkok. We decided that getting there by boat would be a better option than the long walk we had the day before. It was great. We got a whole new view of the city and the busy river that is toting tourists along with transporting huge amount of goods. Wat Arun was our first stop. This temple is one of the oldest temples and the former home of the Emerald Buddha. Now it is named after the Hindu God of the Dawn - Aruna. The temple houses many Buddhas and a large temple covered in mosaic tiles that you can climb to the top of. I recommend that if you are planning on getting a Thai massage and wanting to climb the ridiculously tall steps of Wat Arun, that you do the steps first and the massage after.
Wat Pho was our next stop. We got lost in a maze of seemingly identical square rooms with countless Buddha statues. There are 3 big Buddhas here - the sitting Buddha, the standing Buddha, and the famous reclining Buddha. We finally found the main attraction - and it was HUGE.
While walking we could not resist the fresh mangoes off the street, so we risked future illness and had some...worth it so far.
After this we had planned to head to Little India in Chinatown for some good Indian food, but Bangkok's rush hour had started and we needed to head off to the airport.

We arrived in Phuket last night at sunset. Our driver did not show up to pick us up, so we paid the steep taxi fee and headed to the hotel. The hotel upgraded our room and offered us a free ride back to the airport as compensation. Seems like a pretty good deal to me.

And now off for a Phuket adventure. Tomorrow is our big Kayak day and then we are planning on a day of snorkeling and touring the surrounding islands before heading off to our final destination in the north.

Safe in Thailand

After over 19 hours in the plane and 4 hours sitting around an airport, we are exhausted. The second half of the trip was seamless without delays and a nice driver from the hotel picked us up at the airport, and delivered us safely to Diamond House where we will call home for the next 2 nights. No good pictures...
Good Night!

An unexpected start

Ankoor and I woke up to snow in Cleveland yesterday after several days of rain and gloom. With anticipation or our trip to Thailand we headed to the airport, got on a plane, landed 30 minutes late in Chicago, ran as fast as we could, and watched our plane take off. Disappointed, we started to call the Blocks and got a hold of cousin Sheri and Bob. They excitedly agreed to come rescue us and swept us into a world of fun old pictures and movies, ping pong, hot-tubbing, Chicago deep dish pizza, and a rowdy game of Shanghai. At night, we slept in the world famous bug room, which until recently was the Guinness World Book record holder for most lady bugs. It truly is unbelievable. After a late night of greeting Lydia at 12:30am after she returned from a trip to Michigan, we finally got some good sleep and woke up this morning for another drive to the airport. One less day in Bangkok, but one fabulous day with relatives.