Day one - Bangkok Thailand

After 24 hours of travel, flying first to Seoul and then to our destination, we arrived in Bangkok last night. \240We are here on a National Geographic Tour for the best 14 days with our adventure partners, \240Karol and Brad Hitt.

We set out this morning to explore this amazing city on a walking tour. It was hot but not as bad as we thought it would be. It was about 85 and humid but with a breeze.

We saw the Royal Palace and many of the government buildings. We will tour those when we come back through the city later in our tour.

We walked along the River and browsed the many street vendors and shops. Karol and I bought fun pants! More shopping to come as we get further into our trip.

We had amazing spring rolls and chicken satay for lunch and rested a bit before dinner.

Tonight after our tour meeting, we ventured to Thanon Khao San street for dinner. It was a place love with lights, music, street restaurants and , street massages.

We ate at Che Che and had fabulous Pad Thai and stirfry for $50 for two couples!

It would have been fun to stay later but we have an early departure tomorrow

Started out early today to journey to Kanchansbutu, which is the home to the Bridge \240on the River Kwai. It’s a 3 hour trip by bus so we will see a lot of the countryside. \240

Oops we left 2 guests back at the hotel.

New day, new location and adventures. Today we traveled to a national park called Erawan National Park. \240It is famous for its waterfalls, named Erawan Falls. It’s named that because the highest falls are thought to look like the three headed mythical, elephant, Erawan. \240There are seven waterfalls you to which you can climb and in most of the falls, you can swim it the blue ponds.

We hiked to the top and as we ascended, the climb was more strenuous. It reminded us of some of the climbs we have done in Colorado, just without altitude.

Making it to the top, we were rewarded with incredible beauty and fun sites along the way. At the 5th waterfall, a monkey was perched in the trees next to the pond. One of the tourists nearly lost his pack!

In the way down, we swam in one of the pools with lots of fish! They like to nibble at your legs n

After the hike, we stayed in the park for lunch and ate at a local Thai restaurant. The meals were TB100 each or about $3.50 and good!

I’ve included a picture of the shrine to Buddha. According to our guide, many homes have their Buddha room and that is where they pray. They also leave offerings like fruit, coke and other foods. At the end of the day they remove the offering and it is eaten. \240Kind of like cookies for Santa? 🤭

We are driving 3.5 hours to our next stop on our itinerary which is Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya. It was the former capital of the medieval kingdom of Ayutthaya, also known as Siam.

Tours are a wonderful way to see many sites but they all have their own personalities. Our tour group for the first half of our trip (in the north) is 13 people plus our tour guide (Chief Experience Officer - CEO), Andy.

Interestingly, most of those on the trip are Canadian as the tour operator (G Adventures) is based in Canada. Five of our 13 are from Calgary, one and one person is from New Brunswick. We also have one woman from Manchester UK, and two from the US. With the other four of us, our group is 4 couples and five single women.

Our tour guide (also known as the Chief Experience Officer/CEao) is a Thai man named Andy. He received his college degrees in Travel management and this is his dream job. He is allowed to guide all levels of trips and, at 40 years old, he has been with G Adventures for 13 years.

His job requires not only ensuring we get to our \240destinations safely and on time, but also dealing with the issues that come up with the group. Already our group has had lost luggage, hard hotel pillows, a travel agent who believes she is in charge, those with constant questions and extreme thrift travelers. Andy has had to deal with all these issues and it’s only day 4! They really all are not all his issues but he mostly deals with them well. We are pretty easy so he often comes to hang out with us.

Today we packed our bags and got an early start again. We visited two historically significant temples out of the more than 5000 temples in Thailand. \240We learned that there ar so many temples as each king, queen, and concubine built their own temples, sometimes many of them.

Both we saw were large complexes and each had been partially destroyed during the Burma war. \240Each had originally been covered in gold and one can only imagine what they looked like in their day. Like the Roman ruins, the gold was removed during the war and only the brick stands in the ruins.

The second we visited had been the grand palace when Autthaya was the capital of Siam, between 1400 and 1800. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Mark smartly observed that each temple is aligned east to west and north to south.

Today has been an amazing day. We were picked up and driven to one of the morning markets, where the local Thai people buy their fruits, vegetables and meats for the day. We were with our host for our morning cooking class and we bought the ingredients for our class.

We tasted rose apples, saw coconut milk being made and watched the live fish that had been caught and brought to the market.

Our cooking class was hosted and led my a lovely couple who run this as a businsss. The recipes came from the mother of the woman owner and they included green curry paste we made from scratch, a green curry chicken dish, chicken with basil, a Thai soup and sticky rice with mango. It was delicious and we can’t wait to make Thai at home.

This afternoon we participated in a monk chat where we learned the principles of Thai Buddhism. \240It is a common sense philosophy of karma, living by doing good and eliminating the bad, We could ask questions of our monk who had been one for 30 years. It was fascinating to learn about.

From there we drove to one of the most famous temples in Thailand high up in the city. It is reached either by climbing 307 steps or taking a furnicliar.

As our last stop of the day, we are on our way to the night market for dinner and shopping.

The night market is like a huge flee market with food courts mixed in. If you’re from the Milwaukee area, picture 10 State Fair exhibit halls or more and that is how big the area is. We had a ball eating Thai food, having a few beers and people watching.

Today was a free day to explore Chaing Mai. We chose well for our adventure and spent the day about 45 minutes north of the city on an Elephant Sanctuary. Ther is a lot of debate over whether these are good for the animals or not but we looked for trips based on their treatment of the animals.

We hiked to some waterfalls and then continued on to visit and interact with the elephants. Our first stop was to bathe the elephants in the river. Their body temperatures are hot so bathing is the cool water is something they love. The pictures of us in the water tell the story. \240It was like a water fight!

Elephants only sleep about 4 hours a day and the rest of the time they spend eating and drinking. It was interesting to hear about how they live, breed and thrive at the sanctuary.

Our next stops were to visit elephants of all all ages. The 3 month old baby was a hit, just like any baby. They are playful and once in a while stray away from their moms.

The 1 year old elephant had a personality and love the sugarcane treats we fed it. It found the bucket of chopped sugarcane and raided it. So funny.

The grandma of the group is 74 and they hope it lives for a long time. She had been a working elephant on Myanmar before rescued and brought to the sanctuary. Where we visited, there was a mix of rescued elephants and those born in captivity. \240In all we saw 19 elephants.

To finish the day, we took a ride in a bamboo raft down a river. It was mostly peaceful but there were a few rapids to make it exciting. It was such a great day.

Tomorrow morning we head back to Bangkok for the weekend. Our first half of our tour is over and on Monday we head to the south of Thailand. We loved the north and the south will be a very different experience.

Today was another travel day, this time back to the vibrant city of Bangkok. Our flight was delayed out of Chieng Mai because the King of Thailand had landed right around when we were to board. \240Mark passed him when he was walking at the airport. Cool experience.

Bangkok is a huge city with over 5 million people in the city proper and over 11 million in the metropolitan area. There are a lot of people and traffic.

When we got to Bangkok and collected our bags we went strait to Wat Pho, the temple built for the first king. \240It’s the largest \240temple in Thailand. \240It is beautiful with opulent Buddha’s and brightly constructed buildings. \240It is most famous for the reclining Buddha, a gilded \240Buddha laying on its side. It is 15 meters high and is 46 meters long. It was quite a soectacle to see.

From there we went on a longboat ride on the river and through the canal. It’s one of the best ways to see the true city without the traffic. Our guide told us that canal properties are in demand and many of the wealthy are buying properties as they can take their boats right to the city.

After we checked into our hotel, we went back to the same place we had dinner on Sunday night. It is an electric place at all times of the day but especially at night. We were entertained by a pretty good singer who knew s lot of US hits (think John Denver and Neil Diamond). But the highlight of my night was back and neck massage. Thai massages definitely live up to their reputation. My 30 min massage was $6! \240Next time it will be an hour!

Tomorrow is another day to explore Bankkok.

Hard to believe this is day 8! The days have been long and full but go by so quickly!!

It was our free day today and we had no problem filling it with new experiences. We shopped in the morning in one of the famiia gemstone stores.Rubies and sapphires are mined in Thailand and we saw the jewelers creating beautiful pieces.

This afternoon we booked a bike tour throughout the backstreets of Bangkok. The river separates the business and government area from the residential area and the tour went though the residential area.

Despite the miles I’ve out on my bike and being a pretty confident cyclist as a result, this was a challenging ride. The streets and alleys are narrow and crowded so a little unnerving to navigate. Over the three hours we cycled, we covered about 5.5 miles with a lot of stops for explanations of the areas and one stop for snacks.

One of the most interesting areas we went through was the flower market. Rows and rows of vendors were selling marigolds, orchids and chrysanthemums. We learned that the largest customer was the temples.

We also rode through Chinatown. There is a large Chinese population in Thailand so also a large Chinese district.

Bangkok is a city of sharp contrast between the rich and the rest of the population. We saw many of the areas representative of where the majority of the residents live. They are apartment buildings with single rooms and a bathroom. Our bike guide described his living arrangement as one room with a bathroom and a faucet outside to wash his clothes. He has no kitchen so he buys all his meals from street vendors or local restaurants. \240

Tonight we went back to Khao San Road for one last dinner in probably the most electric area of Bangkok. We had a chance to go to a rooftop bar and see the city sites. It’s just an amazing area and we wanted to see it one last time.

Our tour guide/CEO strained his ankle yesterday so we have been assigned a new one for the rest of the trip.

Today was mostly a travel day. We were originally scheduled to leave Bangkok in the morning but the departure was pushed until late afternoon.

In the morning, we took one more walk around Bangkok. We met a man who teaches English at one of the local schools. He stopped us in the street and asked where we were going and where we were from. He was really excited to know we were from America so we spent time talking with him. The locals are so friendly. We ended up taking a Tuk Tuk ride which was a great experience.

We are now in the south and it’s definitely a different feel and look. We landed in Ko Samui and saw the palm trees and beaches. We can’t wait to explore them tomorrow.

Our resort is right on the beach and we face east so I’m hoping to see the sunrise tomorrow. Rumor has it that we have a perfect view of it and the resort has coffee out early for it.

We had a welcome dinner at the restaurant on the beach and ur group has expanded to 16. The dynamics change again with a new CEO and four new guests.

Ko Samui is an island off of the mainland of Thailand and we have loved our time here. The resort is beautifully landscaped with three pools and directly on rhe beach.

Our original optional activity was to be a boat trip to a marine park but it was cancelled due to high winds and rough seas. Another trip was scheduled to see other parts of the island but we opted for a day to relax. \240This is our first free day of the trip where we chose to skip the activity so it was so nice to relax.

We got up in time to see the sunrise and enjoy our coffee on the beach. We met a sweet dog named Siam and she stayed around us shilemwenweee watching the sunrise.

It was a perfect day to sit at the beach and the pool for the day. Those of us who stayed back were treated to beautiful sun and perfect temps.

I made an appointment for a hour long massage and it didn’t disappoint! The spa here is calming and peaceful and the Thai massage professionals are excellent.

We were treated to an amazing full moonrise during dinner! We couldn’t have timed it more perfectly.

Tomorrow we are on the move again and start the day with an early ferry ride back to the mainland. We have a day experiencing a local farm that is owned by our tour operator.

Transportation, food and hotels

Planes, trains, automobiles, buses, vans, ferries. Longboats, bikes, Tuk Tuks and feet. These are all the modes of transportation we have taken so far! Each one has had its own story, some I’ve written about (the more interesting ones) and some have just been ways to get from one destination to the next.

We are currently on a ferry leaving Koh Sumai going back to the mainland. Fortunately the water is not too rough today! \240Despite the masses of people in Bangkok, most transportation ran pretty smoothly. Planning for traffic is a must!

On our longer rides, we have stopped at gas stations and 7 Elevens (which are all over the country). The ones we have stopped at are clean and all have western toilets (although I didn’t know that and I got a local toilet at our first stop - ask me about it if you want more details 😬).

We have loved the food. Thai food doesn’t need to be spicy as long as you know what to order and how to order it. \240Like most international travel, breakfast is included with your hotel package. All the breakfast buffets are similar with both Thai and western choices. I have started adding some of the Thai foods to my breakfast plate. You can get eggs anywhere, right?

The food and spice level varies based on where you are in the country. To the north (Chiang Mai), the spices are more mild. In Bangkok, you can get anything but it was described to us as typically medium spiced. To the south, it spiciest with less coconut milk used. My favorite so far is green curry. It’s delicious and I will find and make it when we are home.

It’s not safe to drink the tap water so bottled water is available everywhere. Ice should only be consumed at hotels and restaurants where their water filtration systems are good. I had ice with water yesterday. It was amazing and I’m still well! 🤞🙏

Most larger \240restaurants all had “western” options for food. Pizzas and pastas are pretty well done. Surprisingly, though, there aren’t many Vega tables other than in the Thai entrees.

Beer is the main alcoholic drink here along with blended drinks (think pina coladas). There are a few local beers you see everywhere. Chang is the biggest name followed by Leo, Tiger and Singha. You can sometimes find a few imported beers too. Funny story, when we lost track of what was in the poured glasses one night, you really couldn’t tell the difference between Chang and Leo. I was very happy to find an IPA at a 7 Eleven!

One of the local snacks our tour guide told us about are peanuts in the red and white bag. They seem like they are more of a flash fried peanut tasting snack. They are pretty good!

Hotels here are very inexpensive if you stay below 5 star hotels. In Bangkok, our hotel for an extra night was about $60. And the advertised price for our hotel in Koh Samui was about $135/night. It had the same views and weather as the more expensive ones. The rooms were fine as well. All this to say that once you get to Thailand, everything is very inexpensive. \240

We traveled today via ferry and van from Koh Samui to the largest virgin rain forest in Thailand. The area is called Kao Sok National Forest.

On the way, we stopped for lunch at a family run farm. They have a grove of rubber trees they farm with 10 families. The trees produce a liquid called latex. You will see the containers catching the latex in the pictures but it is much like maple syrup buckets. The latex can provide a very good standard of living for the locals.

After we ate, we walked through the gardens where they grew produce, jackfruit, bananas and pineapple. Our tour operator supports this farm by bringing groups to them regularly which also helps the locals.

After lunch, we continued on to our next hotel which is in the heart of the rainforest. The accommodations are cabins set in a lush valley. It’s more rustic than our other hotels (no hot water today in the shower) but it’s amazing.

For dinner we set out on an Eco walk through the forest. We saw a mango snake, some amazing spiders and a Slow Loris. \240A Slow Loris isn’t a monkey and it isn’t a sloth but looks like a cross between both. After our walk, we ate a dinner produced by the family of our guide. He told us about his life, how he started his business, how he used his farm to help others during Covid and how he gives back to his community. He is quite a business person and it was so interesting to hear his story.

Tomorrow we head out to the National Forest for a boat trip.

Our trek to Kao Sok National Park yesterday was another wonderful adventure. We boarded a longboat and rode about an hour across a huge reservoir. It was called Cheow Lan Lake and the water was emerald green. The cliffs along the shore were spectacular. The pictures don’t do the scenary justice though.

It rained much of the morning but we were in a rain forest! Thankfully the launch point sold some rain ponchos so we were able to stay pretty dry.

We stopped at a floating restaurant where we had lunch and time to relax, swim and kayak. The restaurant also has floating cabins for tent. \240Mark spent some time kayaking and I enjoyed the scenary. By then it had stopped raining so it was wonderful to sit and take it all in. \240The views were just what we expected to see when we thought about Thailand before our trip.

After lunch (and amazing coconut ice cream) we headed back to our resort. Although it wasn’t raining, we needed our rain ponchos again. The boat spray was heavy!

In the afternoon we had a heavy rain but it was so peaceful.

Before dinner we played a fun round of Uffda with another couple we met on the trip. Dinner was good and cheap. Marks Pad Thai was only $4!

The resort was set in a spectacular backdrop of the forest and we woke up to a beautiful day.

Today we drove about 3 hours to our last stop, Krabi. We will tour a small village and take a boat ride. It should be a fun new experience.

Yesterday we traveled from the rain forest to the southwestern coast. You can see from the pictures that it is spectacular.

We spent the day yesterday exploring a cave that was used during WWII but had fossils from ancient times. There was a family of monkeys that tried to steal anything they could. We often found ourselves really close to them as they followed us. One of the members of the group lost her wet wipes!

We had a delightful lunch at a floating restaurant on Ko Klang island and then were picked up by Tuk Tuks to tour the island. The island has 6400 residents who are mostly Muslim. They farm, create wood boats, make batik and honey and live as a society. It was fascinating to see their simple but peaceful life. We bought some beautiful hand made batik and honey.

Our last destination was our hotel in Krabi. It is right across the street from the beach. We saw the sunset and had a wonderful Italian dinner.

The city of Krabi has a vibrant night life with lots of shops, bars, restaurants and massage parlors. We even got Mark to have a foot massage! He actually liked it!

Today we go island hopping before we return home tomorrow.

Yesterday was the last day of our tour and it was a blast. We went island hopping off the coast of Krabbi. Our tour guide upgraded our boat to a motor boat so we sped across the Bay of Bengal to our destinations.

Our first stop was a great place for snorkeling. It’s been years since we snorkeled but we jumped in and saw amazing fish and sealife. We were able to swim alongside so many different brightly colored fish and saw them nibbling in the coral. I would love to snorkel again!

Our second stop was a small island called Koh Phak Bia. \240It is a popular stop for boat cruises and it was crowded! \240 The snorkeling wasn’t as good but the beautiful water was warm and nice for swimming.

The next two stops were both beautiful islands and we explored both. Getting from the boat down the moving pier was the biggest challenge but we all made without an issue.

The first island was a swimming and snorkeling stop and the second island was also lunch. The second island was a National Park on Hong Island. As we boated there, we went through a beautiful passageway. Apparently the movie The Beach was filmed on this island.

As we were waiting for lunch we, we had a surprise visit from a Monitor Lizard. It was incredible to see this creature in the wild.

We were able to do more snorkeling here and, while not as good as the first snorkeling spot, we still saw beautiful fish and some coral. You will see from the pictures how bright turquoise the water was. It was a wonderful day in the Indian Ocean/Bay of Bengal.

At night we celebrated our trip with our guide and our tour group at a going away dinner. The restaurant was set high above the city and the views were incredible.

Our trip home from leaving Krabi to arriving to our house is more then 36 hours. We travel from Krabi to Bangkok, Bangkok to Seoul, Seoul to O’Hare and O’Hare home with lots of wait time in between. Tiring trip home, yes; worth every minute, 100%

We have been replaying the trip trying to list all the best parts of it. We have loved each day and learned so much about the country, the geography, the culture and the people.

Some of our favorite experiences were:

Climbing the waterfalls and swimming in the cool blue pool of water after the climb

Shopping in the morning market and then cooking lunch at the Chiang Mai cooking school

Meeting and taking with the monk about the Buddist ways of life and beliefs

Experiencing the Chiang Mai night market

Having dinner at a local resident’s home and learning about their daily life

The elephant sanctuary visit, learning about how the elephants live and bathing the elephants

Bangkok’s Kao San road and its vibrant night life

Biking through Bangkok’s back alleys, flower market and residential areas

The rain forest experience with the boat trip to the floating restaurant and kayaking in the waters. Then later sitting under the roof of our outdoor deck while it rained peacefully.

Taking in the beaches and the beauty of the south and snorkeling in the blue waters of the Bay of Bengal

The massages! I wish they were so reasonable and easy to access in the US

Meeting the wonderful, happy Thai people and understanding why it is called the Land of Smiles (even the toilet is called the Happy Place).

Stopping at some of the many of the 23,000 7 Elevens that exist in Thailand for snack and water breaks. Not necessarily enjoyable but so interesting to see how 7 Eleven is part of the daily life of the country

Our two CEO’s (tour guides) who helped teach us about the country, make sure our trip ran smoothly and covered the details for each stop, ride, hotel and attraction.

The many new friends in our tour group we met on our trip. We hope to stay connected to many of them

The food! I’ve learned to love Thai food, especially green curry, and look forward to trying our hands at making it at home.

The beauty of each region

And, last but not least, our good friends and travel partners Karol and Brad who had the original idea of the trip that checked off one of our bucket list must see places in the world. We had a blast experiencing it with them and look forward to our next adventure.

During my corporate career, I was able to travel the world and my favorite part of that was meeting the people and learning the culture. It was wonderful to do that again