Koh Tao, sometime in July

We arrived into Koh Tao somewhat worse for wear after a long night bus and ferry ride from Bangkok. The package we booked in Bangkok included several nights’ accommodation and the PADI Open Water diving course at Coral Grand Divers, one of many dive operators on the island.

Later that same day, we started our Open Water course. I think we were pretty close to dozing off as we watched a video covering some of the theory.  We were then given our own course books, and dive tables, and prescribed a few chapters to read that evening.

The whole course was four days long, involving much more theory than I had anticipated. On the practical side, we started off with two practice dives in the swimming pool, before moving to the Ocean, and completing four dives at various dive locations off the island. To complete the course, we needed to pass both a theory test and have completed all the necessary skills during our dives. Naturally, we passed with flying colours J, although were quite tired after all that – the course is quite compacted, a lot of information to cover in such a short space of time.

Kylie seemed to take like a fish to water with the practical skills, while I took a little longer to get the hang of things. Removing my mask and holding it, before replacing I found quite tough, as my natural instinct was to breath in through my nose, meaning I would then take on water; but I got there in the end.

Our instructor, Coco, was really fantastic. She was very thorough, super friendly, patient, and you could tell she was really passionate about diving and conservation of the marine environment.

After completing the course, we also did a few fun dives. It was so great to be able to just chill out and really enjoy the dive, checking out all the amazing sea life, rather than concentrating on the various skills to complete. Some of the most memorable things we saw were; giant grouper, puffer fish, trigger fish, and a stingray.

In between the course and the fun dives, we had taken a few days off from diving and explored the rest of the island on motorbike. As a warning, some of the roads, particularly down to different beaches, were quite rough, but it was definitely worth it.

As with most of the islands, Koh Tao really seems like a place apart from Thailand itself. Towards the end of our stay the island really started to fill up as revelers from the infamous Full Moon Party on nearby Koh Pha Ngan drifted in. The bars and restaurants are therefore set up to cater to this crowd, with predominately western or westernized food being served. That said, we did manage to find a couple of places serving delicious, authentic Thai food.

Bangkok, late June - mid July-ish

From Hanoi we flew down to Bangkok for the last leg of our South East Asia journey. Having visited Bangkok a few years ago and seen some of the key sights, such as the Grand Palace, we took a relaxed attitude towards sightseeing this time round.

We did visit the National Museum however, which was quite good and informative. It’s set in the former grounds of the 18^th Century Wang Na Palace so the buildings themselves are also beautiful. We found the Thai history gallery the most interesting, spending less time on the sections dedicated to King worship.

Having experienced so much more of Asia this time round, Bangkok seemed far less daunting, and much more tame than the first time we visited.

While in Bangkok, we spent a bit of time in some of the massive, beautifully air-conditioned malls. The extravagance of some malls is simply astounding; one we visited had an actual Lamborghini dealership, with three cars on display.

We arranged a trip to the island of Koh Tao to do some diving (see next post), and then returned to Bangkok for a few days before flying out. For our second stint, we again met up with Mike and Torika, and enjoyed spending time shopping and eating together.

Chiang Rai, 27th-28th March

Chiang Rai was our next stop as we made our way to the Thai-Laos border crossing. Chiang Rai itself we didn’t find particularly exciting. As in Chiang Mai, it’s a good place to go trekking and do hilltribe homestays, but we didn’t have time for this. We did see the large golden clock tower in the centre of town, and watched the show it put on as it struck the hour.

Outside of Chiang Rai is a wat known as the white temple. This is quite impressive and quite different from other temples we’d seen. This one was somewhat fantastical – you walk over a small bridge towards the temple entrance, and below are a multitude of roiling and writhing hands and heads cast in stone reaching towards you. Inside the main temple building, three of the four walls are covered with a colourful mural. The mural is the work of an artist, Chalermchai Kositpipat and his numerous disciples, and is an impressive work of art. Fire-breathing dragons fight modern movie characters, like Neo from the Matrix, Darth Vadar, Superman, and all sorts. Not at all what I expected to see inside a wat but quite a sight. Alongside the temple is a museum housing more of his work, and a little of his history.

From Chiang Rai, we had a night in Chiang Khong. Chiang Khong is a small town bordering the Mekong river. The river isn’t particularly wide here and you can see across to the Laos border town – Huay Xai.

Chiang Mai – Sammy’s Organic Cooking School - 26 of March

Recommendations from fellow mahouts-in-training led us to Sammy’s Organic Cooking School. We were picked up by Sammy himself, and joined just two others from Germany for the class. We stopped by a local produce market before continuing onto Sammy’s farm, around 30 minutes’ drive from the city. At the market, Sammy explained to us, making jokes all along the way, about different types of rice, in particular, sticky rice, and showed us how coconut milk and cream is made. We reached Sammy’s farm, which is surprisingly lush (given it was the dry season), and tranquil – such a beautiful setting for a cooking class.

Rice vendor at the market

Fresh from the farm

We were to make five different types of dishes, and within those five, could choose from two or three choices. The great thing about this was that we could all make different things from each other, allowing us to see how lots of different dishes are made. Under the patient tutelage of Sammy’s wife, various parts of the class made things such as green, red, or yellow curry – the paste, then the curry itself, tom yum goong (hot and sour prawn soup), tom kha gai (chicken in coconut milk soup), stir fried chicken with holy basil, phad thai, som tam (spicy green papaya salad), spring rolls, chicken in pandanus leaves, mango sticky rice, and pumpkin custard.

Pad Thai

Folding the Chicken in Pandanus leaves

Chicken Laab

Making Papaya salad

After we ate three of the five courses for lunch, we all went and had a bit of a nap in the hammocks for an hour or so. Our food suitably digested, we then made the appetisers and desserts, and ate those as well before heading back to town. Delicious food, beautiful setting, and even a nap – what a great way to spend the day.

Chiang Mai – Baan Chang Elephant Park - 24th of March

We spent a day at Baan Chang Elephant Park, around an hour’s drive north of the city. The Park rescues elephants from Myanmar or from people using them for logging or not treating them well, and then brings them back to the park to live. Each elephant ‘chooses’ their own mahout who looks after them.

 Our course involved us trying out our hand at being a mahout for the day. This included getting to know them by feeding them bananas and sugar cane (huge bunches of bananas just swallowed in a few gulps!), learning the commands for go, stop, left, right, and down (in Burmese as the mahouts are from Myanmar), and going for a ride with them and then giving them a good bath in the pond.

 It was a great experience and we learned some interesting facts about elephants; they consume around 300kg of food each day and leave behind around 70kg! We were riding the elephants bareback, Kylie and I on one aptly named ‘Big Mamma.’ We took turns to sit on the elephant’s neck and act as mahout, and sit on the back as passenger. During the walk, Big Mamma frequently sprayed us with water through her trunk, cooling herself down and coating us (perhaps intentionally?) Turns out elephant skin is quite tough and the hair on their back and sides particularly bristly, so I was quite glad to climb down at the end. While it was great fun, sadly neither Kylie nor I would make a good mahout anytime soon! 

Chiang Mai - 21st-26th March

We decided to celebrate our 10 year anniversary by treating ourselves while in Chiang Mai, and booked a resort in the northern hills about 60 minutes from town called the Rawee Waree resort and spa. After our more humble accommodation we were thrilled to find a bath tub, a comfy bed and the biggest pool I think I’ve ever seen, and which extended right to our back door. After a few days of luxury and being pampered we caught a cab and headed into town to stay a few more nights

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Chiang Mai is the biggest city in northern Thailand but the place still has a lot of it charm. And unlike Bangkok you aren’t harassed at every turn for massages, tuk tuks, or random merchandise. With more coffee shops in Chiang Mai than 7-11’s it’s easy to sit by the river and relax with a coffee although we would recommend something local and maybe not an espresso or latte as they aren’t great. With dozens of art, antique stores, and markets with surprisingly good quality goods and crafts there is a lot of shopping to be done. But as anything we buy we would have to lug around for the next few months we decided to spend our money on some of the many activities offered in and around the city. We spend a day at Ban Chang elephant sanctuary learning how to be a mahout, and another day on an organic farm with Sammy and his wife cooking up some northern Thai dishes but they will be covered in later posts.

With a market every day and night it’s easy to wander around and try some of the local street food like Chiang Mai sausages, mango sticky rice or just a refreshing fresh fruit shake with blended ice.
If you’re there for the weekend I would recommend the walking night markets which are held in different locations; one for Saturday and one for Sunday. The streets are closed off and tens of thousands of people wander the streets inspecting local handicrafts and enjoying local street food.

Sukhothai, 18-20 March

From Ayutthaya we travelled north to Sukhothai, another former capital of Thailand, built in the 13^th century. The old city of Sukhothai is around 12km from the new city, and is full of an impressive number of ruins wats and monuments, which are more intact than those in Ayutthaya. We rented bikes to get around the old city and enjoyed biking around from wat to wat - we managed to see quite a bit. Wat Mahathat is one of the most famous ones, as it is the largest, and quite beautiful. There were also wats on little islands, some of which you had to reach by footbridge. We also visited Wat Si Chum which contains a massive seated Buddha – at a guess around 10m high, it’s impressive and a little intimidating.  

 

Ayutthaya 16-18th March

Ayutthaya

After our 19 hour train ride into Bangkok from Malaysia we had a quick lunch at Bangkok railway station and jumped on the first commuter train north to the old capital of Thailand, Ayutthaya.
We arrived at a nice little budget hotel called Grandparents place, and headed off to the night markets for some dinner hunting. The night markets are situated next to a stream, in fact Ayutthaya is surrounded by a river which makes for a lot of mosquitos, and the hundreds of fluorescent lights lighting up the stalls seemed to attract every single mozzy in a 10 km radius.

After fighting out way through the mosquitos we collected a few take away dishes and headed home.
The next day we took advantage of the rental bicycles at our hotel and headed out on a cycle mission around the ruins that once were a thriving capital. The ruins are spread out across the city but all within biking distance as long as the roaming dogs don’t decide to take out your tyres.
After seeing a few wats (temples) we finished up looking at Wat Mahathat which boasts the famous Buddha head being lifted up in the tree roots. A lot of these ruins were poorly maintained, with many having been damaged by attacks from the Burmese. 

Later that night we headed down to the big muay thai tournament that was in town. With big crowds cheering and jeering and dozens of little food stalls dotted around we decided that this was the place to spend the evening.

There’s not a lot else to Ayutthaya except for these wats so the next day headed out to the bus station and headed for Sukothai  another  former capital of Thailand.