Southern Thailand

We stayed in the ultimate “glamping” spot in southern Thailand (complete with a bathroom in the tent). Wanted a quick stop down here to enjoy the heat, rain and of course what trip to Thailand could be complete without elephants!! We visited some elephants at a nearby sanctuary that were previously working (back in the ‘80s) in the logging industry. The youngest there was a measly 53 years old while the oldest elephant was 79! Riding elephants is bad for them since their backs aren’t built to take any weight but we did get to feed them pineapples and bananas and pet their trunks. Then we watched them take an after snack bath and learned that when elephants are happy they poop and their favorite place to poop is in their bathtub! Today there are around 3000 domestic elephants in Thailand and 2000 wild ones, up from 600 in the late 1980s! Unfortunately that population can’t increase much more because roads have split elephant habitats into much smaller areas and humans keep replacing forest with palm plantations and houses.

In addition to elephants, we took a little rafting trip down a river and saw some mangrove snakes and long tailed macaques (which are monkeys). What a good way to finish up our time in Thailand!

Chiang Mai

We stayed a while in Chiang Mai, a city in the north of Thailand that is known for its temples. And temples there were! Staying in the old quarter, surrounded by 14th century walls it seems there was at least one a block! The coolest one we saw by far was the silver temple entirely covered in… you guessed it, silver!

We took some time here to relax, go shopping, eat and just casually walk around. Unfortunately all this travel has made me a little delicate so I had to pass on a nice Thai massage which I’ve heard involves a little old women kicking you while pulling you into yoga positions. Thought it might break me if I tried that now but maybe next time!

Ayutthaya

We got to take a day trip from Bangkok to see the ancient capital of Siam! Finally I get to see super old stuff! And of course I loved it. The city was the capitol from the 1300s to the 1700s. It was super spread out with lots of modern city in between but we got to see the kings current summer place which was built in the 1600s and restored in the late 1800s, the tallest chupa, the ancient palace, and a large reclining Buddha!

Chinatown! (Bangkok)

For our short stay in Bangkok we decided to spend the night in Chinatown!! Since we flew in on Saturday we made it to the weekend market which was insane. And also unidentifiable for the most part. The easiest thing to recognize was shark fin soup which we avoided along with the pigs feet. We did however hear some lovely Elvis songs and get some excellent pineapple fried rice!

We also got to see the Grand Palace which was so gold and sparkly. So sparkly. Luckily it was a lightly cooler day. In direct sunlight I think the buildings might’ve set us on fire.