Thailand

We completed the second leg of our trip after having spent twelve days in Thailand having a wonderful time as well as dodging a few potentially disastrous events. As most of you probably know, Thailand's military threw a coup de etat the week prior to our arrival, and the most devastating flooding to happen in Northern Thailand in 60 years occured two days after we left Chiang Mai. Thankfully, the coup was as peaceful as a coup can be and the flooding hit a little too far north to have affected us anyway. We were absolutely delighted to have Scott's cousin, Lana Noble, join us for this portion of the trip and here is what we were up to:

Two nights in Bangkok: We arrived late in the evening after a long bus ride from the brand new airport to Khaosan Road. Lana, Scott and I found a good deal on a hostel/guesthouse and sat down for our first meal of Pad Thai, Veggie Fried Rice and Cashew Chicken. We all share a strong affinity for Thai food, so this first meal was rather exciting. Like most other foreigners, we took a day to explore the city by Tuk Tuk in order to visit some of the local Wats and see the cityscape. We were surprised by challenges that the drivers make against trucks four times their size while careening through the caotic streets of Bangkok. A Tuk Tuk is a vehicle the size of a bicycle with a golf-cart sized engine and plenty of eye-catching ornate design. The drivers make more money in gas tickets than they do from their customers and the Thai Fashion and jewelry shops hand them out if the Tuk Tuk drivers bring the tourists to their shops. We did our obligatory walk-through and magazine flipping to help our young city guide exceed his quota for the day. Sadly, none of us was in need of a prom dress or business suit!

Also from Bangkok was a day trip to the floating market outside of town where hundreds of vendors gather on a shallow river to sell their goods. Alyssa enjoyed the fried bananas and fresh coconut milk, Lana was accosted by Thai women that dressed her in traditional clothing as a sales pitch (we have the pictures to prove it), and Scott spent most of his time taking pictures and examining the huge insects and exotic butterflies for sale.

Next stop - Chiang Mai: The cheapest and seemingly most time-efficient way for us to get to the Northern city of Chiang Mai from Bangkok was the overnight bus. None of us got much sleep, in fact, we were afraid our bus driver was getting more sleep than we were...
This part of the trip kept us on our feet and moving for several days. Chiang Mai is a fascinating ancient fortress city with a lively night market and night life.

One night we got ring-side seats to see Muay Thai boxing. Similar to our experience watching Sumo, we tried to catch a couple of highlights on videocam. Although nimble and quick, the fights can be quite brutal and the younger fighters can start at age 7. It's a bit tough to watch fighters this young get in the ring, but most Thai boxers never compete at ages much over 28. Here it was promoted that boxers gain heroic status and competing is a sign of pride and strength. Their careers are very short, so it is customary to start very young! Lana and Alyssa found solace in the game of Connect Four at our table...of which Lana is the reigning champion...

From Chiang Mai, the three of us ventured on a long day trip to go for an elephant ride, trek to the Maewang waterfall (which we were unable to swim in as the rains had been too stong over the past few days. We also trekked through several immigrant villages and took a ride down the Wang river on a bamboo raft. The rafts are made from 6 long giant bamboo pieces lashed together. Alyssa and Lana sat topside while the guide and Scott navigated our way down the river through the rapids with a long bamboo pole to push off of rocks. Our guide for this was quite amusing and repeatedly said the following in English, "Oh...so sorry...it's raining....hahaha!" while he splashed us with water, and "Oh! My Buddha!" instead of the usual "Oh My God!" What a character.

The most relaxing day we had in this city was an all day cooking class with a Thai woman at her home. She allowed each of us to pick out 6 items from a menu, took us to the market to pick up fresh ingredients, and then instructed us how to put it all together from scratch (including the curry paste)! This was by far the best food we had the opportunity to eat in Thailand, and most of the dishes can be replicated at home. Anyone up for some green curry soup, spicy beef salad, Masaman curry, Holy Basil with chicken or mango sticky rice?? Soooooo good!

Lastly, but certainly not least - Island life in Ko Pha Ngan: We spent nearly a full week unwinding in the island lifestyle to complete Thailand. We stayed at resort that features small ocean-front bungalows called Haad Son on the Northwest side of Ko Pha Ngan (we highly recommend it). To get there we traveled by air, bus and ferry which added up to a long day. Most of our time was spent beachcombing, snorkeling off the beach and drinking an endless flow of watermelon shakes.

This area is also very close by long tail boat to some great dive locations. The three of us took a day to scuba dive at the Anthong Marine Reserve (a chain of 40 islands in the Gulf of Thailand) at the unusually named Japanese Rock and Japanese Island. Lana received her certificate for her first Discovery Dive and completed her tasks fearlessly! Scott and Alyssa did an open water dive with a guide named Wendy in the same vicinity.

The next day, Lana stayed back at the bungalow and Scott and Alyssa dove at Sail Rock - one of the premier dive destinations in the Gulf of Thailand known for a great live coral garden, sea life and a chimney swim-through. We completed our deep diving certification course at Sail Rock. At 30 meters (approx. 99 ft) depth, we had to complete simple math equations and spell our name backwards to see if either of us experienced nitrogen narcosis at that depth. Scott was fine, but Alyssa spelled her full name Assylsa Nordgern after 5 minutes at depth...and the giggles sent in a bit...looks like she will have to keep her deep dives short.

One day in Bangkok to finish a bit more shoppiong (jewelry and fun gifts galore!) and then we were all off to our respective destinations. Lana back to Seattle to design stores for Starbucks in Asia, and Scott and Alyssa off to India!

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