Blogs from Thailand, Asia - page 15

Today was another exciting day. We're off to an elephant excursion! We're going to visit an elephant sanctuary for animals rescued from unhealthy work environments. Our ride picked us up at the hotel right on time, and after picking up another family of four we were off to the mountains! It's quite a long ride, about an hour and a half in a songthaew (basically a pickup truck with a bench on either side of the bed and a roof over it). Not the most comfortable ride I've ever been on! At a rest stop along the way another truck joined us with four more girls for our group. Then we were off, and finally made it to the camp. And there were our elephants! Three beautiful beasts, all females. Our guide, Ken, was very enthusiastic ... read more

So, we left Chiang Rai this morning. We stopped at a roadside stall on the way out of town for something to eat. We got a couple of black buns with gold stripes for the road because they looked interesting. Shortly after that we arrived at the white temple, Wat Rong Khun. This is a strange place. On the one hand, it's a Buddhist temple with lots of statues of buddha & such. On the other hand it felt to me like plastic. Disneyland. Something fake made for tourists. At least that's the feel I got, but it turns out that the temple itself was closed for renovations and we could only walk around the grounds. I'll give you an idea of the 'fake' feeling I got: the entrance to the temple itself is over a ... read more

Waking up to the view we woke up to is a treat! And we had breakfast at the hotel today too. Not a very good breakfast, true, but it included coffee and tea, mandarin juice, and fried egg and toast, so better than nothing. Besides, we ate on the main balcony overlooking the view! And once we left the B&B our first stop of the day was a complete hour long Thai massage in Nan. Just what the doctor ordered! We got rubbed and pounded, twisted and kneaded and totally relaxed. Oh, that felt good! A short drive from there took us to Wat Phrathat Khao Noi, located on the top of a small hill just west of Nan and overlooking the town. Besides the golden Buddha looking over the town, there are several trees where ... read more

First thing this morning was to find a bank and exchange money, at a reasonable rate. We set out to the banks (there are three nearby) only to find them all closed! Turns out that banks are closed here on Sundays! Now we're in a bind - lots of money but none we can use! We asked at the hotel, and the clerk checked and found that banks open in the airport mall at 11:00. Ok, relief! Our rental car arrives here at 10:00. Precisely on time our car arrived with the rental rep, a sweet girl named Peng. She let us pay in dollars too. So off we went to the mall. Let me tell you, learning to drive on the wrong side of the road is a challenge! Good thing I have Gilat next ... read more

We're finally off to another trip! After two years stuck because of COVID... This time it's just Gilat and I, off to Siam! Getting here is NOT straightforward! We needed proof of vaccinations, PCR tests, special quarantine hotel ordered and more tests paid for. The check-in staff at Ben Gurion airport was unprepared, didn't know what forms they had to check so the process was a bit nightmarish. Still, we flew Gulf Air via Bahrain, a comfortable flight. There was actually space between my knees and the seat in front of mine! At Bahrain airport we went through another quick security check, then waited almost 4 hours for our next flight. Don't buy anything at the Bahrain airport if you're not a millionaire! Bahrain to Bangkok was smooth and uneventful. And Bangkok airport is efficient! They ... read more