Trippin' in Thailand

The best part about landing in Thailand after several months in Qatar is all the green vegetation everywhere. It revitalizes the soul as you exit the aiport and look around. Month after month of beige and grey is alot like rain day in day out.
We spent the first part of our trip in a little city south and west of Bangkok on the Bay of Thailand... called Cha-am.
The city is busy with Thais but it's not a big resort destination like Phuket. This was ideal as we just wanted to relax. Christmas and scuba was a lot of go, go, go. It was nice to be somewhere new and just be able to take it easy, enjoy and look around.
The main strip in Cham-am is about 5 km long and runs right along the beach. There is a buffer of parkland between the beach and the street where families hangout and picnic. On the other side of this street are people with their little stands cooking and selling food.

Fish stand where you can pick up fresh, uncooked seafood (wholesale).

It seemed like many of the vendors would buy from these stands, walk across the street and start cooking the seafood on their own grills.Prawns
Cuttle fish - squid

BBQ -Chickenon a stick ... its actually pretty tasty!
The beach is filled with umbrellas and tables. Basically, you buy your foodwalk across the street find a table and have lunch. If you look closely at the trees they look like some kind of pine tree..
reminded me alot of the Ponderosa Pines we have in BC.
We rented some bikes so that we could explore the strip at our leisure. The bikes cost us about a dollar each for the whole day and were perfect for where we were. 1 speed, a little to ring to let people know you're coming and a basket for all your loot.

Lenore, Conor and our bikes.
This was a very cool stand. This chap was selling sticky sweet rice cooked in bamboo. (Our flashy bikes to the right).
They crack open the bamboo and then you dig out the rice and raisin mixture with your fingers, a very thai experience.

We kept riding until we reached the end of the strip and found ourselves on a breakwater where the fishing boats are docked. It was interesting to watch some of the local fishermen going about their daily chores.

The end of the line on our bikes. Some times the best trips are simplest ones. We had such a nice timeon these bikes, we so much of the local people ... Cha-am break water

The boats that sell to the little local vendors and restaurants.

Fixing the nets.
The parkland between the maintstrip and the beach is also somewhere to get a local Thai massage. The women giving the messages are pretty tiny for the most part. They have incredible strong hands. One gal climbed ontop of me and drove her forearm into the base of my spine... Heaven! 10 $ / hour!
Beds and tents right on the beach! A gentle breeze blowing off the sea!
Conor's getting a rubdown too!
Our favorite restaurant in Cha-am was a family run business which was basically located in their front yard.. called the Rang Yen Garden . There was this little sign off the main road and we just walked up this little alley and there it was. Very authentic thai food. As well, easily the best hospitality we experienced the entire trip.
the owner of the restaurant was this cute jolly guy who tried so hard to make sure everything was perfect... His whole family worked at the restaurant which made the atmosphere cozy-homey. We ate there two nights in a row

I can't remember the owner's name but he was very kind and even drove us back to our hotel on his Tuk Tuk when we finished our dinner.
Quaint and welcomingThe garden surrounding the tables was so lush, they said there were over a 100 species of plants in the garden
When in Thailand you have to make sure you're careful when you order spicy food because my definition of "a little spicy" and there's is hugely different. Our food was delicious.
We took a day to go south to Hua Hin. We started by our little sojourn with a trip to and Elephant and Reptile farm.
The elephants looked like they were in a sorry state and they put on a litlle show... but it was the snake charmer who was really amazing!
The elephants in the show were a variety sizes and aome of the young ones were pretty athletic
These were the accomodations of the elephant trainers ... very humble living quarters.
The start of the show that day was the snake guy. I have never seen anything like this in my life. Its one thing to see it on youtube its another to see it live.
The snake is not poisonous but had lots of sharp little teeth. The fun really got rolling when he pulled out the cobras.

These snakes were not defanged and as far as we could tell sill had their venom glands.
Conor is helping to "milk" the snake.
We watched the venom drop into the cup.
This felow always tilted his head away from the snake when handling them. I don't know if you can actually train a snake, but it seemed that they were reacting to certain queues he gave them . I just sat there amazed that the cobras didn't strike this guy. One thing he did was he always kept his eyes down and never "eye balled" the snake.

He bent over these snakes and kissed them it was the craziest shit I have seen in a long time.
I can't tell you how he pulls this off. The size of a snake brain can't be all that impressive and those lips have got to look threatening... Maybe they drug the snake ?? No idea ..
The croc show afterwards was ok
Finished our afternoon with an elephant ride..


It is a very cool sensation to rub your feet on elephant skin. Thank God for those benches, I was able to actually enjoy the ride.

A little local boy checking us out.
Our driver took us up to Monkey Mountain which was very appropriattely named. There were so many infact that it kinda creeped you out a little bit. Like, what if they all ganged up on you at the same time... I'm telling you they were everywhere you looked!!

A Mom and her babe
This little guy unscrewed the lid then knocked back the water. If put a water bottle down and turned, it was gone!
At the top of the mountain is a budhist temple and novitiates are out and about cleaning up.
Nice smile!
Hua- hin has the oldest train station in Thailand. We loved the architecture and the colour of this little building.
They have a pretty talented gardner too...
The night markets in Thailand are a cultural experience. Its all about haggling after 6pm... even on your meal.

The night market in Hua Hin was Fun. It opens at 6pm and goes late. This is very popular in Thailand. Most big cities have these markets...
Vendors have little stalls they sell pretty much everything. We bought shirts and jewelry, little things.
Conor picking out his shirt.
Checking out the various restaurants... Settled on... you guessed it, curry.The hotel pool in Cha-am was very nice. I read Wibur Smith while Lenore studied for a test. I think I had more fun. We spent the last four days in Bangkok. The one thing that really stood out in my mind that sets Bangkok apart from Columbo, Kathmandu and Luxor was how much cleaner it is. It's not perfect but people are cleaning up everywhere. You don't see that so much in the other places we've visited. There are also garbage cans everywhere that are emtied on a regular basis. There is a real pride in the country and the countryside that seems to be missing in many other Asian countries.
Right across the street from our hotel in Bangkok! Lenore and I agreed that this was an ideal place to drop me off when I get cranky.
Our Hotel in the Heart of Bangkok. We were a stone's throw from the sky train which made getting around Bangkok very easy.
The skytrain was fast, driving in downtown Bangkok is not! going 10 blocks took almost 30 minutes.
The malls in Bangkok are like those in Doha... Grand Palaces. No bargains to be found here... the best buys are at street level, where you can haggle.
Outside the Siam Paragon Mall.
One evening Conor and I splurged and went out to see Muay Thai Boxing
Every match starts with prayers... ( none of boxing pictures are mine, forgot the camera)
But the pictures are a good representation of what you see
Very elaborate series of motions
Knees to the abdomen was the most common offensive tactic. Consequently, the boxers all had well defined washboard abs.
Many boxers were very young. Some were barely teenagers. But that didn't stop the locals from betting like crazy on who's going to win. During the first round of boxing there's no cheering, its like they are measuring the fighters before they place their bets. Once they decide they cheer wildly after each hit, especially the kneeing which is apparently a real crowd pleaser.
We spent one morning seeing the canals of Bangkok by boat.

It was amazing what you can see from the water front. It gives you a very different perspective of what life is like for the poorer Thais.

There are floating markets on the canals ... a very Thai experience.
We were let off the boat in the old part of Bangkok. We spent the next couple hours checking ou the Temples. I must say that I really enjoyed the exteriors, which are a feast for the eyes... But the interiors are very common in their layout.
Wat Arun temple

Our boat dirver gave us 10 minutes to look around the temple. In retrospect I should have made more of a stink, Wat Arun was pretty awesome.
The Bankok street scene was fun to walk through. " Nice lid Norie!"
We hired a tuk tuk driver to take us around to the various temples...
Tuk tuk Bangkok style ...
Our driver's agenda ended up being a little different than ours . They get money for bringing people to gem stores and the like. So for every temple we asked to go to there seemed to be a whole sale gem store with a "once in a lifetime sale" that we just "had" to see... Finally, I had to say "enough" before he got the message...
Loved the temples .... Very ornate
We were touring Bangkok on a national holiday, there were a variety of celebrations here and there.
We arrived at the Marble Temple in time for what appear to be the Buddist equivalent of confirmation.

Back of the temple ... cool lion statue.
Many of the temples have very cool murals ...
Obviously a story behind each of these plaques, but we didn't have a guide ... and I'm too tired to make something up ;)
Our final stop was the grand palace. We were there for maybe 20 minutes and they kicked all of the tourists out because there was a big ceremony and the king was going to be in attendance. No problem, by then we were all templed out.
The grand palace had a beautiful courtyard with a variety of interesting structures and statues...
On our way back to the hotel guess who drives by .... the King! On his way to the Palace.

We bought Conor a suit while were there, had it taylor made for his Grad. The store looked a pricey from the outside. But We got a good deal I think and Conor liked the suit!

Thailand was a great trip, the country is modern and clean. The people are kind and helpful. Looking forward to going back!
This little guy was a character, he kept spying on me and I'd make a face, he'd giggle - good fun... We had soup at his Mom's stand :)