Ayutthaya and Chiang Mai, Thailand, December 2009
Since we're leaving Thailand in June (moving to Romania), we've decided to stay in Thailand this year for all of our big vacations. In October, my sister and a friend came to visit. For the winter holiday, we visited Ayutthaya and Chiang Mai.
For each of the pictures below, click on the image to see a larger version.
Day 1, 19th December, 2009
| The train ride from Bangkok to Ayutthaya was uneventful, except we overpaid
for our tickets. (Sarcasm alert...) For all three of us, for a train
ride that took an hour and 45 minutes, we paid the exorbitant sum of 38 Baht
(Approximately $1.10) for our 3rd class seats. The train lacked aircon,
but all the windows were down and the breeze blowing through our hair kept us
relatively cool. (Well, except for me. I don't have hair.) We
even got the "token farang next stop alert" from the conductor, making sure we
knew where we were supposed to get off the train. We found a local tuktuk
to give us a ride to the P.U. Guest house and got settled. It's a nice
guesthouse with clean rooms and friendly staff. The biggest issue was
actually a small issue. The bathroom door was too small for me, and I
cracked my head on the frame of the door about three times, even drawing blood
once. Not fun.
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Day 2, 20th December, 2009
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After a nice breakfast at the guesthouse, we hired the same tuktuk driver from yesterday, Khun Noi, to take us around the ruins and temples of Ayutthaya. The tuktuks of Ayutthaya are a bit different than what we're used to. Something tells me they aren't designed for huge foreigners...
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| Khun Noi, with Devin and David in the tuktuk. |
Khun Noi took this picture of the three of us in the back of his tuktuk
at one of our stops. Not the most comfortable ride in town, but it worked. |
On our ride around Ayutthaya, we noticed that chickens played a prominent role, being displayed all around town. Not sure the significance. | |
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Our first stop was Ayutthaya Historical Park. It contains a number of ruins from when Ayutthaya was the capital of Thailand. Our trip to Ayutthaya was predominantly for Devin, the resident anthropologist in our family. But it turned out that David and I had just as much fun checking out the ruins. It reminded me of our trip to the Hearst Castle all those years ago. Devin and I had a short "honeymoon" trip to the Hearst Castle and some other sites along the way. I went there just for Devin and ended up thinking it was REALLY COOL. Well, the same thing happened here in Ayutthaya. I thought it was really cool to be walking amongst ruins that were built hundreds of years ago. To tell more of the story, check out the pictures below, with some information for each one.
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| The ruins of the Prang Prathans Pedestal (The Pedestal of the Central Sanctuary.) | And in a bit of cultural disconnect, the disco ball hanging above the ruins. There was some sort of New Year's festival going on. Apparently, disco balls were part of the festivities. | A ceremonial offering. Very beautiful, in my opinion. | Some monks taking pictures of The Head of the Sandstone Buddha Image. On our first pass through this area, there were a ton of tourists (and monks) taking pictures, so we came back later.) |
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| And here are Devin and David at the Sandstone Buddha Image. | |||
| Our next stop on the Khun Noi Tour of Ayutthaya was Wat Phananchoeng Worawihan. This was a very large temple complex with two traditional Buddhist temples and a Chinese Buddhist temple, all along the water. One cool thing about visiting Wats is the mix of tourists with locals. All of the tourists are there taking pictures in the midst of all the locals making offerings, praying and participating in ceremonies with the monks. It can make for some interesting juxtaposition. More on this topic later when I describe our visit to Doi Suthep. (I've always wanted to use that word in a trip report...) | |||
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| One tradition is to purchase small pieces of gold foil and affix them to statues of Buddha. | The very large Buddha in the big temple. | A wall of recessed Buddha statues. | A dragon on the front of the Chinese Temple. |
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| A carving on one of the doors in the Chinese Temple. | One of my favorite pictures. I was quite proud of myself for capturing the rays of light coming through the window here. | David ringing the bells for good luck. | At the river, there were tons of Catfish waiting to be fed. They were HUGE. |
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| David playing in the water. | Lowell coming down the water slide, about to cause a mini tidal wave in the pool. | ||
| Devin wanted some time to relax, so David and I ventured out for a river cruise around Ayutthaya. We had a lot of fun, even though one of our stops was a place we had visited earlier in the day. |
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| Looking to the front of the boat. | Our captain. | The river had quite a lot of barge traffic. They dwarfed our small craft. | |
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| A beautiful stupa at one of the stops. | A Buddha statue next to the stupa. | David climbing down the stairs. | Lowell and David at the bottom. |
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| David sitting in the boat. This particular stop was just a mud flat next to the side of the river. Some guy was standing there with a paper sign that said, "Admission 50 Baht." Not sure who got our money, but what the heck. | One more ruin in the fading sunlight. | ||
| Dinner that night resulted in a bit of a cultural disconnect. These are some of my favorite things about traveling. On some level, I suppose these "disconnects" are about how the world is now a much smaller place, with global media, etc. For dinner, we ate at an Italian restaurant in an ancient city of Thailand while Jimi Hendrix played on the restaurant speakers. | |||
Day 3, 21st December, 2009
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Not much to report for today. We endured a looooooong train ride from Ayutthaya to Chiang Mai. We left the guest house at 9 AM for a 9:30 train which didn't leave until 10:15. About eleven smelly hours later, we ended up in Chiang Mai. After finding a ride to our guest house, we discovered there was no key left for us. Devin had recently confirmed our reservation, but nothing was there for us. So we improvised and stayed at a guest house nearby for a night. |
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| Devin and David on the loooong train ride to Chiang Mai. | A cool gecko (not sure of the species) at the guest house. | ||
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Day 4, 22nd December, 2009 We got settled at our guesthouse, found an internet cafe (I was having withdrawal symptoms) and just hung around Chiang Mai today. There were really two highlights for the day. First, we visited the Chiang Mai City Arts &Cultural Centre. It's a pretty cool museum with lots of history of Thailand and Chiang Mai. Upstairs there was an artist-in-residence offering lessons in umbrella painting. So our resident artist - David - got a lesson and an umbrella. Quite fun to watch him fully engrossed in the lesson with Khun Lek. Then we poked around Chiang Mai a bit more, visited a few Wats, relaxed at the guesthouse, then went to the famous Chiang Mai Night Bazaar. Truthfully, we were a bit underwhelmed. There were tons of items aimed at tourists, but not as much authentic art as we'd hoped to find. But in the end, we found one spot that was a bit better called the Anusarn Market. |
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| Found this burger joint and thought of my friends Tim and Holli back home. They'll understand. | David getting his painting lesson from Khun Lek. | And the finished product. | This huge piece of honeycomb outside one of the temples. |
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| The hustle and bustle of the Anusarn Market. | |||
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Day 5, 23rd December, 2009 Today started with breakfast to order at the guesthouse and some time organizing tours for tomorrow. The big event for the day was a visit to the Chiang Mai Zoo and Aquarium. It's quite large in terms of space, but the exhibits are smaller, with lots of empty space in between. So getting around is best done on the shuttle. (Which will stop if it rains...see the picture below.) The best part of the zoo was the fairly new aquarium. It had quite a few really cool tanks. And one situation that made us all laugh was having people grab David around the shoulder and have him join the family picture. It happens quite a bit wherever we've been in Thailand, but it's still kind of funny. |
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| Devin and David in the shuttle. | And just for safety, the shuttle will stop if it rains. (And read the rest too... And to be fair, if you asked me to write all that in Thai, it wouldn't be nearly as good.) | What's a visit to the zoo without a stop at 7-11. | The Aquarium complex. |
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| Nothing special about this tank...except the snow in front of the glass. | David and Lowell getting eaten by a huge shark. | David hanging with the orangutans. | And a real orangutan. This exhibit was pretty cool. |
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Day 6, 24th December, 2009 Today was a fun day for all of us. Devin and David took a Batik class, while I got to go rock climbing at Crazy Horse with Peak Adventure.. They both had a great time creating Batik art, and I had a blast climbing. Of course, I wasn't all that skilled, since I haven't climbed in 10 years, but it was fun regardless. |
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| Painting the cloth. | David choosing some colors. | Wow! | David with their teacher and one of his finished products. |
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| Devin with the teacher showing off her masterpiece. | One of the guides, Khun Pui, leading the climb to set the toprope. | Almost to the top. | And the reason this area is called Crazy Horse. |
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Day 7, 25th December, 2009 David woke up to find that Santa Claus really did find him in Chiang Mai as we celebrated a quiet Christmas together. We decided to visit the Wararoat Market. We didn't find much, but there is an enormous flower section. If only we were near our house, we'd have bought some fresh-cut flowers for the dinner table. For dinner, we attended a cultural performance called the Khantoke Dinner at the Old Chiangmai Thailand Cultural Center. The evening started with a photo opportunity with two locals in costume. What followed was a FEAST, followed by a number of cool performances. David sat enthralled for the entire two-set show. |
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| A view of the Wararoat Market from a pedestrian overpass. | The photo op with two locals. | Devin and David. | Lowell enjoying the feast. |
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| One of the dances. | A sword show. | Children playing a traditional dancing game. (Ironically enough, the rhythm of the bamboo poles sounded like Queen's "We Will Rock You" | |
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Day 8, 26th December, 2009 Today we hired a taxi to take us to legendary Doi Suthep. There is a large temple on Doi Suthep that is considered one of the holiest places within Buddhism. When we visit temples, we are certainly outsiders as tourists. But I still enjoy seeing local Thais going through their rituals of prayer and offerings. I feel as though I get to step into their world for a few minutes and observe something that is real...something that would happen even without tourists. And at Doi Suthep there were certainly a lot of Thais, along with a large number of tourists. But something that was intriguing was the mix of authentic ceremony with the blatant tourist traps like photographers wanting to take your picture with the main chedi in the background. |
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| David near one of the statues near the entrance. | The stairs to the Wat...all 306 of them. | The seven-headed Naga that forms the railing to the stairs. | Devin and David on the stairs. |
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| The main chedi in the temple, undergoing some refurbishment. | David attaching some coins as an offering. | One of the guards to the temple. | A photographer offering to take your picture with the temple in the background. |
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| David on the way down. | There were groups asking for donations on the stairs to the Wat. On the way down, I donated some change to this group of chemistry students. | And a picture from Chiang Mai. This old ruin was on the street where our guesthouse was located. Part of what makes Chiang Mai intriguing... | |
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Day 9 and 10, 27th and 28th December, 2009 Our plan for the 27th was to be picked up by a driver we hired and start our drive around the Mae Hong Son Loop. This is considered by many to be some of the most beautiful territory in Thailand. But Devin was battling some food poisoning, so we found a new hotel that was a bit more comfortable than our guesthouse, and relaxed for a few days. David and I putzed around Chiang Mai a bit, played by the pool, watched some movies, visited the internet cafe, and just hung out. Even though we missed out on the loop. we ended up enjoying the down time.
Day 11, 29th December, 2009 Devin was still tired and worn out from her food poisoning, so David and I ventured up to Doi Inthanon to climb the tallest mountain in Thailand. Of course, it was quite easy. The road takes you to within about 50 meters of the summit. Not 50 vertical meters...but a 50 meter walk. But what the heck, David and I can claim that we've climbed the tallest mountain in Thailand. The locals were all freezing their tails off up here. The temperature on one of the signs said 4 degrees Celsius, which is about 20 degrees cooler than most of us are used to in Thailand. |
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| The walk to the summit is all of 50 meters. | David and I by the sign announcing this as the tallest spot in Thailand. Of course, we still have 40 more meters to walk to get there. | And David and I at the actual summit marker on Doi Inthanon, the "Gateway to the Himalayas." | Some coins on the summit marker. |
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| One of David's Christmas presents was a "Birds of Thailand" book. Here he is looking through my binoculars, trying to find a bird or two. | And here he's checking the pages, trying to identify what he found (or didn't find...as the case may be.) There weren't a lot of birds around, unfortunately. | ||
| Our next stop was the Twin Cheddies, one for His Majesty the King and one for Her Majesty the Queen. I thought this stop on the Doi Inthanon tour would be kind of boring for both David and me. Quite the contrary, we enjoyed it. The pagodas were beautiful, with lush gardens to wander through. | |||
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| The view of the pagoda dedicated to Her Majesty the Queen. | David in front of one of the wall carvings. | Locals praying to one of the Buddhas. | David and I were asked to join this family for a picture. So I asked for one with my camera also. Somewhere there's a family looking at this picture saying, "Wow, look at how big that guy is!" |
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| Looking up the garden towards one of the pagodas. | From the garden, looking at the twin monuments. | A local market on the road down from Doi Inthanon. | |
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After the twin pagodas, David and I had lunch at the park headquarters. The menu was all Thai food, and with David's food allergies he just can't have a lot of Thai food, so his lunch consisted of a strawberry jam sandwich. I enjoyed some Pad Thai. Next we went to the Siribhume waterfall. Wow! It's gorgeous. But you can't really get all that close to the waterfall. But we hiked up a trail a bit to get closer, and ended up right at the bottom of the big waterfall. |
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| David enjoying his tasty sandwich. | The waterfall from the parking lot. It's quite high up and hard to reach. | But we found a trail that took us all the way to the base of the waterfall. | David on the hike back. |
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| Not sure of the significance here...but this large boulder had all these sticks placed under it. In fact, just after I took this picture, a local placed another stick on the pile. | And a smaller waterfall on a side trail. | ||
| The next stop on the waterfall tour was Wachirathan Waterfall. This one was magnificent. We were able to get fairly close to it and feel the mist from the spray. We also hiked all the way above the waterfall to the feeder river above. There were a lot of tourists down below, but we had solitude at the top. Something cool about the whole day was the lack of foreigners and abundance of Thais checking out the beautiful scenery at the national park. We can never get away from the fact that we are tourists, but it's always fun to get out and join the locals at something they'd do even without us being around. | |||
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| David by the sign for the waterfall. | Beautiful. | David taking a picture of the waterfall. | Hiking up to the top. |
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| Another view. | Standing below the main waterfall. | Even the small waterfalls are beautiful. | |
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Day 12, 30th December, 2009 Today is shopping day! Actually, even cooler than that, today is Handicraft day. We hired our driver, Khun Samchai, to take us to a local handicraft area. First stop: A Thai Silk factory. They had displays with silk worms and a room full of woman hand weaving beautiful Thai silk. I forgot to take pictures, but it was pretty cool. Of course, after the tour we were ushered into the showroom in the hopes we'd buy a few things. The next stop was a wood carving facility. There were locals making amazing teak carvings. Unfortunately, all of their work was a bit too expensive for us, so we left without buying anything. Farther down the road, we hit a Celadon factory, Baan Celadon. This was our favorite stop of the day. In the back, we got to observe artists at work creating celadon pottery. David sat until we pulled him away watching the artist work with the clay, forming pots and lids. Additional stops included a lacquer-ware factory (much cooler than it sounds), a leather shop. (Not for anybody opposed to animal products, that's for sure.) and an umbrella factory. We didn't buy too much, and enjoyed the day. |
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| An artist at work on a teak wall carving. | Glazing the celadon. | David watching the clay take shape. | Broken egg shells to be added to lacquer-ware. |
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Day 13, 31st December, 2009 For our last day in Chiang Mai, we hired Khun Somchai to take us north to the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden, then to the airport. The garden visit was mostly for Devin, but David and I had a good time also. It's well organized with a lot of beautiful displays. |
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| A display. | One of the greenhouses. | Devin and David. | Lowell hiding behind a huge leaf. |
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| Sorry...this is my picture...I like taking pictures with patterns. | A waterfall inside the Tropical Rainforest greenhouse. | Khun Somchai and his chariot. | Me and David hiking to a small waterfall. |
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At the airport, David started a quick friendship with an Indian boy that lives in Kenya. And Devin spotted a couple with Romanian passports, so she convinced me to start up a conversation with them. It was fun learning about our future home. Overall, we had a great time in Chiang Mai. It's certainly heavy with tourists, and many of our best times were spent outside of Chiang Mai away from the other foreigners. We are bummed we didn't get to drive around the Mae Hong Son Loop. But we figure it's just a good excuse to come back to Thailand again some time in the future. Heck, since we're moving to a cold part of the world, we'll probably be looking for warm-weather travel destinations. |
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