Family in Thailand! - Part 2

Continuing our adventure... We traveled from Phuket to Chiang Mai. We (Josh and Beth) visited Chiang Mai over New Years and were very excited to return.

Thursday - Chiang Mai 
We took a crazy van ride to the airport in the morning to catch our flight to Chiang Mai. After that van ride we were all happy to arrived safely on solid ground! Our flight landed, we gathered baggage and all piled into a songthaew (back of a truck bed with two benches and a roof) and headed to our hotel. We grabbed some lunch then hopped in another songthaew and headed up the Doi Suthep mountain to see the temple built near the top. We climbed all 306 steps up to the top of the temple and enjoyed the beautiful views. We slowly made our way back down browsing through all the little shops along the way. We returned for a relaxing evening - pool, massages, games, dinner, and family time.

Swished in the Songthaew

A Songthaew  in Chiang Mai

The Guys

The Ladies

Friday - Chiang Mai
Ziplining Day! We loaded into the Flight of the Gibbons van and headed into the mountains. We arrived and geared up and headed into the jungle. We had a total of 33 ziplines, one being the 2nd longest in the world - 800m, in addition we also crossed a few suspension bridges and abseiled down a few lines. The ziplines were great! We saw gibbons! The company takes care of a family of them near  the longest zipline - they were very cute! The 800m one was awesome - such a long ways down to the jungle floor in these high mountains! After spending 2.5 hours in the trees zipping here and there we enjoyed a lunch then trekked up tiered waterfalls. What a trek - steep skinny steps and railing that was too short (well for Beth it was good). We all had heaps of fun ziplining!

Superman Zipline

Gibbon

The gang at the waterfall

Saturday - Chiang Mai
We decided to hit repeat with an activity we did over our New Years holiday - Cliff Top Adventures. We enjoyed it so much then and were very excited to repeat!! We did waterfall repelling and walking up the limestone waterfall. All 7 of us repelled down the practice 3 meter then graduated onto the 15 meter waterfall. We each made it down safely and the cool water was great. When we did this in on NYE the water was FREEZING - it has warmed up to a refreshing temperature now. All down, we climbed back up and went again, this time in couples. It was neat repelling in couples and decided which way each of you should go. We could jump a few meters or slowly repel into the water. Such a fun activity!!

 After repelling our guides (same two guides we had - they were great and took amazing care of us!!) heated some water on a campfire so we could make some coffee and warm up a bit. We all enjoyed the company and relaxation time at the campfire before setting off into the jungle. We started our 45minute-1hour trek into the jungle; stopping here and there to hear information on the different things and dangers in the jungle. We emerged from the thick jungle at the foot of the limestone waterfall - Buatong Waterfall.  This waterfall amazed us all! The way you can easily climb up barefoot while water rushes over the limestone rocks.

Once up the waterfall, soaking wet again, we enjoyed a great lunch with our guides then headed back into town. We all had a great time today!!! Our guides took great care of us and were glad to see us (Josh and Beth) again.

 

When we arrived back home - we got ready quick and headed to the Saturday Night Walking Street. The street was filled with food stalls, and street venders selling all sorts of goods - shirts, handcrafts, souvenirs. We piled into two tuk tuks for a quick ride home!

 Sunday - Bangkok/Nonthaburi
We flew back to Bangkok Sunday morning. We shared taxis back to the hotel, ours driver sure gave us and interesting ride; he was excited to speak English to, however he would mix English, Thai, and Laos languages all in one sentence - making it very difficult to follow. After the ride back, we cleaned up, dropped off our luggage, and headed back out. We got onto a Chayo Pryah River Taxi and rode 45 minutes downstream to downtown Bangkok. We got off a stop early so had to walk a bit to our final destination - Wat Pho and Wat Arun. After shaking a sneaky "helpful" tour guide - we made our way to the river to take a quick ferry across to Wat Arun.
Wat Arun, known as The Temple of Dawn, is 79meters tall. It is a beautiful Khmer-style temple; the porcelain that covers the 5 structures were pieces of pottery that traveled from China to Bangkok centuries ago. It used to hold the Emerald Buddha, but that has been relocated to the Grand Palace.
We crossed the river again and visited Wat Pho, Temple of the Laying Buddha, is one of the oldest and largest temple in Bangkok. This temple holds one of the largest Buddha in the world - a massive laying Buddha 15meters high and 43meters long! One of the compound areas there has more than 1,000 Buddha images! After sweating in the heat exploring these two temples we hopped back onto the water taxi, then a free city bus back to the hotel.

Full Water Taxi!

Monday - Nonthaburi - Flight Home
After breakfast we traveled on a free city bus to Nonthaburi Market, about 8 minute bus ride from our place. This is a authentic Thai market, well know for is fresh produce and meat stalls - unlike others we've visited so far. They were a bit shocked at what we saw, much like we were our first time through. We stopped by the pier to look at the crazy fish, the back to the hotel for packing and pool time. We enjoyed drinks and games together. After dinner we said good-byes and sent them off in a taxi. See you in a month and a half!

It was so good to have them visit!! We enjoyed taking them around and showing them a little bit of the place we've called home for the past 5 months. We saw a lot of Thailand and had so many adventures in the 10 days they were here! We had a GREAT TIME! Thanks for visiting :) :)

Family in Thailand! - Part 1

We had a big busy itinerary for their 11 days in Thailand - here's a look at what we did. With all the photos from 5 cameras it was hard to choose and limit for this blog - enjoy!


Friday - Arrive in Bangkok
We were so excited to see our family at the airport Friday night! :) After many long overdue big hugs we hopped in the taxis and headed to our area of town.

The group.

Saturday - Bangkok and Nonthaburi
We took Beth's family on a school tour and chatted with some of the teachers in the office. We then checked out our apartment, we actually got 7 people our one bedroom studio- ha! Then we headed to Chatuchuk Weekend Market - one of the biggest outdoor markets in the world! We all piled into 1 taxi (a small compact car) 7 of us and the driver - it was a tight squeeze! After some shopping and exploring in the market we all piled into one taxi again for the 15 minute ride back to our apartment. We then went for lunch at our favorite Kow Pad (fried rice) place. It is a small hole in the wall family restaurant near our apartment. We spent the rest of the day swimming in the pool and relaxing poolside to allow our newly arrived travelers to slow down and relax a bit after the sun at the market and their 24 hour journey to Thailand. They all needed it because we had a full schedule for the remainder of the trip planned for them.

 

Our School

All 7 of us in one taxi!

Chatuchuk Market Stalls

Sunday - Ayutthaya
We arranged for a student of ours (Pink from Beth's 5/4 class) to come with us to Auytthaya, be our tour guide. She and a driver picked us up in a very nice and big van (sure beats a cramped taxi) and took us to Auytthaya, about 45 minutes from Bangkok. Auytthaya was the second capital of Siam (name changed from Siam to Thailand in 1939) was founded in the mid 1300s; in the mid 1700s it was destroyed by the Burmese. We visited three ancient sites, made up of many temples and buildings. The first was fairly preserved and some parts restored. The second was almost completely destroyed, none of which has been restored to any noticeable degree; all the Buddha heads were cut off at this sight, all ransacked by the Burmese.
We had a great Thai style lunch (everyone shares all dishes - Beth's favorite kind of dinning!) right next to the river. We moved onto Auytthaya Floating Market. Some got a fish foot spa, others more shopping, and all delicious Thai desserts. We then visited a modern Chinese Buddhist temple with a massive sitting Buddha (dating back to before the fall of Auytthaya) in the temple.

Wat Yai Chaimongkon

Wat Phra Sri Sanphet

Wat Mahathat - Headless Buddhas

Delicious Thai Dessert!

Wat Phanan Choeng

After this sweaty exhausting day exploring history we were dropped off at the airport to catch our flight to Phuket.

Monday - Phuket & Khao Sok National Park
Today was elephant day, everyone was excited! We took a 3 hour bus ride to Khao Sok National Park, the oldest rainforest in the world, the breathtaking scenery helped pass time along the way. Once there we learned that the elephants were all females. This camp in particular is noted for its humane treatment of the animals. We boarded the large elephants and made our way into the jungle. The manhouts, elephant trainers, let the elephant travel wherever she wished, so some of us did some off-roading elephant style. What a great feeling it was to be on top an elephants back with the tall limestone formations and thick green jungle surrounding us. After elephant riding and a delicious Thai lunch we boarded inflatable rafts and floated down the river.
 

Baby Elephant!

Khao Sok National Park

 Tuesday - Kata Beach, Phuket
Beach Day! We were very surprised and disappointed by all the tourists here, it did not feel like Thailand to us. We did expect some tourism in this area, the Phuket beaches are a well-known tourist attraction, but the scale of it was surprising. In Bangkok we are used to seeing signs in English but here we even saw signs in Russian, which was a first for us. Regardless, we made the best of the busy beaches. The water on the beach was warm and the sun powerful! There was some snorkeling right on our beach. We all took snorkel gear out a few times through out the day to check out some reef (unfortunately most was not colorful anymore) and some fish and other sea creatures. Most of the coral around Phuket was damaged in the tsunami so it had lost its color. We had a great day on the beach. We played a few games to end the evening.

 

Wednesday  - Koh Phi Phi and Surrounding Islands
We decided to take a speedboat and snorkeling trip around islands of Phuket, mainly Koh Phi Phi. We loaded into a speedboat with our snorkel gear and sunscreen and headed out to sea. Our first stop was Maya Bay, a location from the movie The Beach. It was a gorgeous bay of aqua water surrounded by large rock formations - and tons of boats! After spending time on this beach we headed to the backside of the bay to snorkel. Lots of colorful fish and coral formations, but again these were damaged so most color was gone.

The Gang

Next up was Monkey Beach. This beach is overrun with monkeys. Tourist feed the monkeys little peanuts and fruits, we even saw one monkey drinking a coke! Next up was a drive by of Viking Cave - where they collect bird nests for the famous bird nest soup. No, we didn't try it.

Beach-side lunch was next on Koh Phi Phi island. Then we traveled to get some sun on Khai Nok Island where there was white sandy beaches and clear water. We enjoyed more snorkeling and sun before boarding the boat heading back to Phuket.

Riding the wave on the floating dock.

Khai Nok Beach

We enjoyed our time in Phuket - the sun was powerful and the temperature was HOT! It was great to spend adventurous days and conversation/game filled evenings with family. Stay tuned for Family in Thailand - Part 2, we travel to Chiang Mai then back to Bangkok/Nonthaburi.