We Love Trunks

 As part of our trip to Chiang Mai, we decided to check out the Elephant Nature Park. This is a sanctuary for domesticated elephants who have been rescued from their previous lives as beggars on the street, as illegal loggers, or working in unsafe trekking camps. Many of the elephants are scarred (mentally and physically) from their previous lives, and some of them have broken legs, or even broken backs, that make it difficult for them to walk (and heartbreaking to watch). Over our day at the centre we got to feed the elephants, bathe them, and just generally hang around watching them and seeing what happy elephants do on their days off.A wonderful trip and an amazing experience!

 

Tourists in Chiang Mai

From Bang Saen we flew to northern Thailand, the city of Chiang Mai. This is a beautiful city with a charming old-town surrounded by the ruins of the 100s-of-years-old ancient city walls. We splashed out a bit and stayed in a beautiful bed and breakfast in the heart of the old town, close enough to all the action but peaceful and comfortable for sleeping (it even had hot showers!). This time we decided to really get into the tourist spirit and try to do as much sight-seeing as possible over our short visit.

In Chiang Mai we got to visit some beautiful temples, our favourite of which was Wat Chedi Luang (right next to our B&B). It had beautiful dragons and elephants and was the temporary home for a whole crew of young novices who were staying at the temple. It is customary for Thai men to don the robes for at least a short period in their lives, and for these kids it appeared that it was some kind of summer-camp.

From the temples in the city, we headed up into the mountains for another temple and a hike through the jungle. On our hike we were followed by an adorable puppy (for the whole 3 hours!) and by the end I think everybody wished we could have taken him home with us.

We also enjoyed lots of yummy nothern Thai food, walks about the city, checking out the botanical gardens and touring around the markets (lots of neat souvenirs for people back home). We even got the chance to go on a lovely river cruise, a perfect way to relax after a long day of sight-seeing.

Bang Saen

From the sleepy beaches of Koh Mak it was off to the Thai holiday town of Bang Saen. This is a bustling little waterfront town where many Thais come from Bangkok on the weekends to enjoy sitting under rafts of umbrellas so that the sun doesn't actually ever touch their skin. We spent a couple days here visiting my father's PhD supervisor from long ago, who has moved out to Thailand.

While in Bang Saen we got to visit some great places like a big Chinese buddhist temple (couldn't fit more dragons on it if you tried), a mangrove swamp restoration project that is being led by the princess, and the busy pier where they sell 1 million kinds of squid. 

 Beautiful Chinese Buddhist temple. Note all the dragons everywhere (basically every pillar has a dragon wrapped around it)!

 A dog guarding "his" fishing boat at the pier in Bang Saen. He makes sure nobody sneaks aboard while the owners are selling their squids...

 Walking in the mangrove swamp. A mangrove swamp is a salt-water swamp that is muddy at low tide and covered with sea water at high tide. This was possibly Mum's favourite part of Thailand??? Upon arriving she exclaimed "wow! Look at this swamp!Look at this boardwalk! We don't have boardwalks this long in Canada!" Sadly you can't see all the gazillions of mud skippers who were fighting each other in the mud. Since they are the same colour as the dirt, it is pretty hard to get a good picture.

A Thai Buddhist temple in Bang Saen. Many stairs!

It was a great visit, enjoying some AMAZING home-cooked Thai food and some new fruits (now have a fridge full of mangosteen) courtesy of our hosts. It was neat to see a part of Thailand that is off the beaten path for English speaking tourists and catch a glimpse of what the Thais do on vacation.

Parents' Arrival in Thailand/ Koh Mak

Mum & Dad arrived safely in Bangkok after their long flight (part of which we were able to track through the Tokyo airport!) ready for all kinds of adventures! We thought we would start them off with a bang, and took them to Chatuchak market (as mentioned in an earlier post). We shopped for a bit but Chatuchak can be daunting for the most experienced, let alone two jet-lagged Canadians whose busiest city experience is probably Toronto...

After the busy first day in Bangkok we retired to the rather more peaceful Koh Mak... an island we visited early in our travels and totally fell in love with. Koh Mak is a lovely little island, fairly close to Bangkok (close enough for a long weekend visit) which is only about 16 kms away from the more famous Koh Chang. While Koh Chang is full of bars, parties and wild times, Koh Mak is teeny tiny and is home to a much quieter lifestyle. It is near the Marine National Park so is home to some pretty good snorkeling and the beaches are quiet and beautiful. To us, it is paradise. We stayed in the tiny and basic, but charming, Suchanaree resort in little thatched wooden huts where you could lie in bed under your mozzie net, listening to the sounds of the night and the sounds of the waves.

As expected, Mum is a big fan of snorkeling. She says that she is giving up terrestrial ecology to become a marine biologist and run an ecotourism outfit in Thailand. We spent a glorious day with our faces in the water, watching the antics of the reef fish.

 A jellyfish we found in the water!

 Evidence of my Thailand tan...

 Mum enjoying snorkeling!

Beautiful sunset at the end of a great day!!

Cold Snap Hits Thailand

Yes, for all our Canadian friends this must seem like a real oxymoron... but it is true! There is currently a big weather system in the South of Thailand (causing the worst rains in memory apparently) that is hitting our region with some unprecedented cold temperatures. At this time of the year we should be into the hot season, and the temperature should be around 40C fairly often... instead it has been hovering right around 20C!

In their kind Buddhist way, the Thais have sought to alleviate the suffering of some of those less fortunate around us... namely the soi dogs. Somebody (or possibly a group of somebodies) has been putting shirts on the soi dogs.

This little fellow is just one example of the several dogs that we have recently seen sporting shirts... We are pretty sure that it is due to the recent "cold" temperatures. We like his rugby style with the striped shirt and mohawk, so he has now become "Rugby Dog".

Things made in our oven -part 2

Sundays are such excellent days for cooking... This Sunday we decided to make quiche! Well, Shane lay on the couch and moaned (shouldn't have eaten that McDonalds fishburger for lunch) and Hannah made quiche...
After a quick trip to the grocery store we came up with an easy quiche full of leeks, bacon and topped with cheddar cheese and tomato. Yum! We also attempted a rye flour pressed pastry crust, turned out a little soggy (next time will pre-bake the crust first!) and a little grainy (stone-ground rye flour...) but not too bad and a little healthier than the white-flour pastry option.

Adventures in Thailand Part 2...

After a whirlwind trip this weekend, we have returned with the news that we will be moving to Phuket (Thailand's largest island) in April to teach at the schools there! Our weekend was spent touring the schools and checking out the area. We will still be working for the same company, just in a new location. We are excited to explore a new part of the country!

Phuket is in the Southern bit of Thailand, and has lots of beautiful beaches and delicious seafood, and probably lots of tourists wearing speedos and such (hopefully we can avoid these?). We still have about a month in our current place and then it's off to new adventures!