Laurie's World

Today is Saturday! We looked forward to today all week, ever since we made plans with Riam earlier in the week to hang out with her, Pat and their kids. Riam said we could go to her home village in Samong to where her father still lives. This would be part of our loop tour to see Samong, south Samong, Hang Dong and some other villages. Unfortunately I wasn’t on top of my camera game today so i don’t have many pictures….I was trying to video tape also…

They picked us up at 9:15 am and off we went. It took a couple hours to get to her father’s house, but what an amazing experience that was. He asked if we wanted to stay over, since we didn’t have our stuff, we declined, but told him next year for sure!

Stopped at a road side vendor for banana chips. I got three different kinds, but the best ones were sour cream and onion flavour! Nom nom nom!! They are now officially all eaten….

We had the most amazing lunch at this restaurant in South Samong. Had Khow Soi Gai for 30 baht! We ordered 7 meals and 3 iced coffees for 280 baht (that is about $9 USD). That is small town prices….and it was delicious!!!!

Troy has all the best pictures on his camera, but I snapped a couple out the car window…

I managed to get a photo of this power pole…once again….it amazed me!

This was not an emergency pole that went up as a one time thing, there were miles of power poles like this….

We are going to go to the Saturday market tonight…..I am pleased about this, with all my research done last Saturday, I am READY. My travel companion will cautiously join me so as to enjoy some dining, but then I am sure will leave me to my own devices. Wish me luck!

We made plans for Riam to take us out for the day to Doi Inthanon National Park. We went there three years ago, with a trip to the top and a visit to a waterfall. This time, we asked to go see three other waterfalls….one of these, Riam had never been to….see….she is learning stuff from us ; ))

I don’t think it was intentional, but the waterfalls got progressively more impressive as we went along. The first stop was Siriphum Wateralls. The actual waterfall wasn’t very big per se. It was very high, but not a lot of water. The gardens surrounding the area were very impressive if even just a little bit confusingly so. We were literally the only people there. It cost 20 baht per person entrance and i wanted to pay with a 50 baht bill and she couldn’t make change….but you could tell the paths, gazebos and flora and fauna were elaborate….which seems weird for a place no one goes.

I gotta see if I could get a fern tree like this to grow in my yard! Cool eh!!

Gorgeous!!

Then we went to Wachiratharn (or Vachiratharn) Waterfalls. Basic surroundings to an otherwise significantly more spectacular waterfall. Pretty impressive hike for us, up to the top…and this would be the very first time we have not had the sweet pay off for making the hike! The was zip, zero, zilch at the top. A small parking lot….no view of the waterfalls from the top. So we started to make our way back down, there was a spot where we moved off the path and someone (not me) decided to go past the signs that said “slippery route” and “danger” etc to try to get a better picture. Hmmmmm…..when he disappeared, I would like to say I threw everything down and flew in there to rescue him, but his head popped back up pretty quickly. Bruised bottom and elbow, muddy clothes and a very lucky camera save….he came back to my side of the handrail. He did confess, he thought the camera was going to skitter away from him for all eternity….but alas, he used up some of his chok dee (good luck) and was able to pull it back from the brink of disaster.

Yes, it would have been quite a ways down….

This is what the stairs looked like….they were steep, but totally doable….

Our third and final waterfall stop of the day was the grand finale! Mae Ya waterfall. Riam had never been to this one before!

It literally had the best path of any place we have ever been!

I believe they refer to this as a cake walk ; )

As we were meandering up the path, we saw this! What is this even?? We LOL’d….yes we did….how many centuries old is this?

There was no dial tone. REALLY??? I totally tried to call you Mom!!

These falls were absolutely stunning…..best of the day.

And this is what strikes me today about this place they call Thailand! Often you can go a mile before you can find a darn garbage can here….but in this park, there had to be 100 garbage cans and recycling bins and reminders and signs and fine notices if you get caught littering. Everywhere else in the country is basically a free for all, but here it will costs you 1,000 baht if you drop your candy wrapper.

And then when I saw this sign, I was able to keep Troy on the right side of safety (this time; )

All in all a wonderful day….we were exhausted when Riam dropped us back off at hotel….time for quick dip in the pool, supper at Ginny’s, a massage and then rolled into bed.

Ahhhhhhh……..

Thursday came and went with absolutely nothing accomplished except for the planning of the final phase of our trip. After much thought and flip flopping, we have decided to go to Malaysia! This could be considered close to sticking to the “original” plan….if one wanted to say we actually had one. So we leave on Tuesday the 23rd at 9am for Kuala Lumpur. We will change planes there and head straight to Penang. I know nothing about any of these places….so stay posted!

We did manage to get ourselves torn away from the pool by 5pm to be first in line for the fresh hot Pantongo at the Chiang Mai gate food market! Some fried chicken and a mango shake later, we went for a meandering walk through the old city, still hoping to walk the 4 mile perimeter of the old city, but it looked a lot like rain (you know the supper time monsoon thing), so we decided to not venture too far from our final destination. And that would be heading over to Ginny’s where we ate some more (after a while-not straight off! We aren’t that piggy!!! ; ) Tom Ka gai for me and Pad Thai for Mr Troy…. Our timing was perfect as the first few raindrops started just as we crossed onto the block that holds Ginny Cafe. Landon (have i mentioned him? guy from florida, working here teaching english? studied Muay Thai!) came over too. I hung out til 8:30, then left the guys to their guy talk and I headed back over to Chiang Mai gate for a banana pancake. Now while this may sound like a lot of food consumption, you have yet to hear about my Friday. ; ))

…for a real blog all about food! I know I allude to it, I have tried to gloss over it, not focus on it, move on etc etc etc. But the food here just needs to be talked about.

Troy swears this is a brilliant idea…..but I have my doubts….and NO, we didn’t try it, but here is the promotional banner.

I dunno who needs to talk to Dominos, but if this could take off in America, they would be the ones to do it.

Here is the funny part about this….I have tried to consciously not write too much about food, but I am all the way to Koh Tao in my pictures, and every food picture I have, I have already blogged about, other than the hot dog stuffed crust sign! Hahahahahahahaha

I’ll keep looking!

Ha! Here is one for the Canadians! Look what is in the condiment tray at Ginny Place! Literally the world’s best steak sauce. I am not sure what folks use it for as they don’t serve steak. Maybe on the burger, or the American breakfast (has real sausage)!

Can you imagine coming to Thailand for HP!

Ruby….how about some Pad See Ewe! So so good at Ginny Place!

Uh oh! Look who just had to have his American Breakfast?? Not sure if put the HP on or not! I was too busy eating my pad see ewe!

But look how happy he is? I think happier than almost any other picture you have seen on my blog!

So today was “eat our way around Wararot market” day. Some of the best street food we have had has come from this local market. In my opinion,today was no exception. And we deserved some nice treats because it really dumped rain on us on our way there. So we were decently drowned rats by the time we found our way over there. Things started off well when I found waffles, and a new little delicacy! A tiny pancake wrapped around pandanus custard! OMG! So good, Troy says he prefers Pantongo, but I have to say they have paired a couple of my favourite things here!

Some of the raw food at the market totally takes my breath away….literally have to hold my breath as a dash down some aisles.

There were all these fresh crabs, all tied down, and a fair warning posted. They did not have to worry about me….

How about this one? A couple pails of eels, a pail of frogs and some turtles….whatever you fancy. One of the larger eels flipped out of the pail somehow, they were very gregarious in my opinion. Anyway, it happened right as I walked by and my gasp elicited quite an eye roll from the lady who had to get off her chair and come around and pick it up and toss it back in the bucket.

For anyone interested in chili…..this is the place to go!

We bought a bunch of stuff at the market for making even better Thai food at home. Ian got us some curry paste the other day at Rim Ping market, but we found Massaman and Khow Doi curry paste, so we HAD to get those. We also got some dried mango and some toasted mung beans (for mango sticky rice!)

Anyhow, the grand finale to food today was a stop at Ginny Cafe where we were royally spoiled by Tee. She had Som Tam for Troy and a special fruit we were told about by Frank and Oy before we left home. Noi Na (or the sugar apple). Agree with Frank! Very very tasty!

OH YA!!!!! I forgot to mention the mango and sticky rice at the market! We did have an opportunity to try Durian, but we (I) chickened out…..that is it in the bowl on the left….ya….couldn’t do it.

So…….as far as supper goes….I stuck to the plan (my plan) and continued “the Thai food streak”. I had green curry for supper! Best ever!!

Someone…..not naming names……had a burger……sigh…..even though he claims it qualifies as Thai food because it was made here in Thailand by a Thai person.

…..I am so tired right now. Other than a wee habit of staying up late has started to settle in. And that really is not like me at all….I am early to bed early to rise girl.

We weren’t home until after midnight last night, so after I got settled in, it was after 1am. Yikes, and we had to be up and ready for Riam at 8am today. I slept like a LOG however so was completely disoriented when the alarm went off….ack! An alarm on vacation!! Trust me, it only happens when it absolutely HAS to!

I was sitting by the pool just now, but the requisite supper time monsoon just swept through, so I moved to the breakfast sitting area. No worries, it will pass in 30 minutes or less and be all hot and muggy again. Heaven forbid should the humidity drop all ; ))

Actually more comfy here as the chairs are padded, so I may last longer….

So the plan for today was for Riam to pick us up at 8am, then go get Thomas from the Eurana, then head up to the MaeTang elephant park, which is about a one hour drive. As always, we left right on schedule, and we did have a stop by a long neck hill tribe village. We stopped at one in 2009 when we we here with all the kids, but have not been to one since, this was a different one I believe. 500 baht admission each to get in (very steep) but I feel like it is my community service donation while here. The hill tribes are here with the permission of the Thai government, but they are sort of like refugees from their own country (mostly Burma, and Laos I believe, maybe Cambodia). The Thai government does not provide any services to them, no education, health care or anything like that. So the admission fee to their village and the handicrafts they hawk are their only source of income.

Bought a few things (gasp), most notably, a new hat for crazy hat day at school ; )

It really is a beautiful location where they are.

I didn’t take any pictures of the long necks, I am sure Troy will post some, so feel free to click on over to his blog to check for that.

Then our arrival at the elephant park! This is always so well done in our opinion. We have been to this elephant camp twice before and feel that the elephants are happy, and well cared for in this environment. (Compared to the elephants we have seen walking the streets on Bangkok begging for food and money) Asian elephants eat 250 kilo (550 lb) of food every day and 150 litres (40 gallons) of water. That is a lot, and there is no way that can be done by begging for bananas in the concrete jungle that is Bangkok. Anyway, for 100 baht, you can buy a big basket of bananas and sugar cane and feed it to the elephants and all the little babies (SO cute!!). Not sure how much of the 150 kilos they need comes from us….but they can easily make up the rest with the ample jungle environment they live in! It’s really great up there! We had a lot of fun!

After they eat their treats, they go down to the river for a bath. They usually have some fun by squirting the tourists etc…. Gets a lot of squeals.

Then they come back on up and go over to do a show with some tricks. Amazing how they can train these animals.

Jackie, Suda is still there painting, she is 9 now. The are 2 other younger elephants that are also learning to paint, so they had three elephants working on paintings.

Suda is their most famous painter, her paintings are 2,500 baht now. We bought the painting she did in the show in August 2009 for 800 baht.

It is seriously the coolest thing!!

Then we enjoyed a wonderful buffet lunch before the final most relaxing part of the whole elephant park, the bamboo rafting down the river…..

The skies opened up and seriously dumped during lunch, but was just a light drizzle by the time we got on the raft, then within 10 minutes we didn’t need the umbrella as it was full on sun again…

Super SUPER sad note to end our day was we had to drop Thomas off at the airport when we got back to Chiang Mai. He had a 4:25 pm flight to Bangkok as he is on his way to three days in Abu Dhabi before returning to Ireland. We really really enjoyed him, we will miss him tremendously! But will likely be looking at a trip to Ireland now! Yay! Not this year though…..

Well folks, keeping up on blogging about food is almost a full time job!

More on that in a minute…

We wanted to start our day by going over to see Riam at the temple she works at right after breakfast. We did that and had a really nice visit with her, gave her the photo book book that Troy made for her of our last 5 visits since 2009. She was delighted which was fun to see. Then we made plans to go out at 8am on Tuesday morning to MaeTang Elephant Park. Thomas wanted to see the elephants up here in Chiang Mai, so we wanted to squeeze that in before he flies out late Tuesday afternoon.

Then we literally came back tot the hotel and flaked out at the pool until 5pm! We did manage to get ourselves a foot massage before heading over to Ginny’s for some Pre Mu Kata beer/shake frivolity.

We went to a Mu Kata place last year, it is a BBQ thing they do here that is more like a fondue BBQ. You have a super hot upside down cooking thing on your table, there is a ring around the outside that holds broth and all the drippings from your meat that cooks on the top. Noodles and vegetables cook in the broth….it is all very yummy, especially if you eat seafood. If you don’t (ME) then there is always ample supply of chicken wings and French fries. My table companions were way more adventuresome than me and had all kinds of things I didn’t recognize. Especially Thomas. Tee pretty much ate everything too. Anyway for $5 it was fantastic fun! And no one came away hungry.

Ian is a serious ham!

Thomas is also a Serious ham!

Quick story about the ice cream….super tasty! I filled my little bowl right up….no calories in ice cream on vacation! That’s a real thing BTW! But check out the tiny tiny spoon! I took a picture with my finger as a point of reference. Th whole thing was only as long as my first finger up to my first knuckle. I guess that is hey Thai people are so small?? They eat with sample size spoons!! Everyone can take a quick pause in reading to glance down at your own finger….I know you will ; ) it’s why I used the reference!

We took a little red truck over to the Mu Krata place, but decided a walk was in order afterward and besides we wanted to make a pit stop at “The Crazy German’s”. A bar run by shock surprise, a really crazy German! My first drink in Thailand….see I can be FUN too!!!!!

When the boys came to this place a couple nights ago, at some point the owner got out his home brew schnapps, and as luck would have it, it took absolutely no prompting for him to get it out again. He poured everyone a shot. I just couldn’t even smell it let alone drink it, (i guess i am not THAT much fun!), but so as to not be rude, Troy and Thomas split mine (being successful at the bar is all about choosing the right mates ; )

Here is the posse…..

And just for some real fun…the German got out his crazy hat for some photo opps!!!! Hahahahahahahaha

TTFN

Hi friends and family! I don’t have much to report other than I am enjoying a slower pace of life here in Chiang Mai! We moved to the Chiang Mai Boutique house yesterday. It is a place we stayed last year and really liked. I booked the Eurana for 3 days upon arrival due to no rooms at the Boutique house. But we are settled here now until the 22nd : D

Slow morning yesterday, after getting packed up, had an hour or so at the pool at the Eurana before we got a tuk tuk for 50 baht over to the Boutique House. Poor Thomas had a slow start as he stayed out very late with some of the boys last night after the Muay Thai boxing match. But he did meet up with us at noon at Ginny Place for some lunch.

We all then took a songtao, or little red truck, up to Doi Suthep yesterday afternoon, round trip 500 baht. We have been there a few times before, but it is a spectacular temple, so always a nice trip.

It was incredibly busy….so much more so than I recall before, so thinking it must have been because it was a Sunday?

My boys in the SongTao

Ringing the bells for good luck…

Wrote on a tile for my girls! Here is where the current roof repair is going on! So hopefully the tile makes it up there soon.

Here are the Buddhas that represent birth day for each day of the week. Aren’t they cute? These are my kind of Buddhas!

I was born on a Friday…(blue is my colour-see earlier blog entry rom Ayuttaya ; )

The view is always stunning!

We got some blessings from the monk and I shook the sticks to get my Chinese proverb. Stick #11 for me…..I am happy with my proverb! Even though I am not involved in any lawsuits…that I know of?

The 309 steps are a much easier task on the way down, than the way up…

So that was Doi Suthep : ))

We are in a junior suite at the Chiang Mai Boutique House…$41 a night….this is the super deluxe room here with my own Keurig coffee maker! Includes breakfast…..can’t believe the good deals sometimes!

Things got off to a super slow start today, maybe partially due to DH being out until 3:30am last night! The “Ian special” pub tour was more fun than anyone suspected : )

So I was up, at breakfast and ready to see Thomas off for his mountain biking excursion. Someone else, not so much….

We did manage to meander down to Ginny Cafe by noon so “someone” could get his American breakfast fix!

We stopped by the temple we usually find Riam at, a couple times, but she wasn’t there….I guess we will have to use the old fashioned device called a telephone : ) to get in touch.

We came back to hotel to snag some pool time as it is really hot and humid today….by the time I get down here, around 1:30, I am only here less than 15 minutes and the freakin’ skies open up! Run over to umbrella to wait it out…it stops, I resume pooling as the sun comes out…. 15 minutes later monsooning again…..so I wait 20 minutes or so, and it’s not letting up, so I give up and go back to room. Researching Malaysia anyway….so not a show stopper, all I need is Internet.

15 minutes later….it is full on sun again, so here I am…. Back at pool….enjoying the sun….

Listening to the staff sweep the puddles away….

We can hear a loud pidgeon cooing nonstop in our room! I think I have discovered the source. That is our room window, and there is a nest that is occupied!

Here is my spot that I have staked out…..doesn’t that look inviting? ; )

I will be in holding pattern until weather changes again or 5pm….when Thomas, Troy and I head over to Sopa’s for massage. It is Saturday, so I have a market to attend tonight….I think Troy and Thomas will be going with the guys again to enjoy a Muay Thai boxing match? Not my thing….but maybe something that should be seen?

TTFN

First off! I want to say how very pleased I am with the hotel we are at. New place because we couldn’t get into the place we were initially wanted. So I booked 3 nights at Eurana Boutique hotel. It also helps that the room I booked was not available, so they had to upgrade us ; ). So super happy with my deluxe pool view room. It has tea/coffee : D see I am a simple girl….throw a little instant coffee at me and I’m quiet….but it is very comfortable regardless, I did book us a room over at the Chiang Mai boutique house for 4 nights starting on Sunday night, and we are in the junior suite over there (it’s all they had ; )
It is a 15 minute walk to Ginny Cafe, so that. Why we have not stayed here before, but it is doable I have discovered.

We had breakfast here, then the three of us headed over to Ginny Cafe to see if we could book some Activities. Mainly hoping to go zip lining today and Thomas wanted to book mountain biking for Saturday. All those things accomplished, we had about an hour before getting picked up by zip line folks.

We decided to try a different zip line experience than the one we did with the kids back in 2009. Not because we didn’t enjoy that one, because we sure did! But bcz at least 7 more zip line places have popped up in the last 4 years and they have really raised the bar….with the new places putting in a lot of cool fun new features. So we settled on Eagle Track Ziplines. 35 platforms with bridges, absailing, net climbs, and more! Also longer than the Flight of the Gibbons….so looked like a win. Cost 2,100 baht ($65 USD). It was very very fun! We were gone over 6 hours including transports to and from the jungle. So we were prolly zipping for about 3.5 hours. They served us a meal aso at the end…it was very good, pad Thai, Thai omelettes , green curry! Nom nom nom!!!

Once you jump off that first platform, it gets easier, but it sure is a thrill every time!

And our “we survived photo at the end!”

It was indeed a happy ending : )

Came back to Chiang Mai exhausted but happy, and had enough energy to go over to Sopa’s for a foot massage. Even though Sopa is not there any more, they have kept her name on the shop and they have kept her way of running the shop. There is no such thing as a bad massage, but I’ll tell you, when you get a good one you know! They do a few little things that I dearly missed in the other massages we have been getting, plus the cup of tea at the end is such a great way to end things!

Also just confess I stopped for Patongo on the way back (Chinese donuts with pandanus custard)

Great day folks!

We are safe and sound in Chiang Mai! It is fabulous as always! I will be blogging about our “over the top” day we had today when I get back from a massage!

But wanted to update that the missing entry from day before last has been competed, so scroll down for it ; )

The animals have a super cool Hang out spot here!