by Missie Hills | Mar 13, 2015 | Asia, International Adventures
Well, I thought this week would be my chance to catch up on my way behind photo editing. It was supposed to be a slow week. But what started out as my normal Monday, ended in an unexpected trip to my cardiologist and an unplanned surgery scheduled for the end of the week. Before anyone worries, everything is fine. My pace-maker/defibrillator’s battery, which was 8 years old, decided it was low and needed to be replaced. So, I went under the knife yesterday for a quick out-patient surgery to have a brand new pace-maker/defibrillator installed. (Installed? Is that the right word? Makes me sound like a cyborg!) Now, I’m at home recovering, a little sore and tired, but healing wonderfully, which has left me a lot of time for day-dreaming about Thailand and it’s fascinating markets.
Chiang Mai is known for it’s wonderful night markets. Every night they have a rather large night market that has become quite famous and, from what I have heard, rather touristy. However, we were lucky enough to be visiting on a Sunday and, therefore, had a wonderful opportunity to experience the Sunday Night Walking Street.
The Sunday Night Walking Street starts at 6:00 PM every Sunday. We had some time to spare after lunch. So, we took the opportunity to explore some of the temples in the area. We saw more Buddhas, lit some candles, said some prayers, and then waited and watched as the street vendors rushed to set up their booths of all kinds of interesting things.
And right on schedule at 6:00 PM the Thai National Anthem was played (as it is every night), and the city froze in recognition. And when the anthem finished, the market was open for business.
This market was very different from the other two markets we had visited in Bangkok, Khao San Rd and Chatuchak. The first big difference was the absence of alcohol. The second big difference was the presence of local arts and crafts, making the absence of alcohol more understandable as the artists wouldn’t want drunks stumbling over their works of art. And the third big difference was the abundance and variety of street food beyond the same ol’ same ol’ meat on a stick introducing us to new and exotic flavors.
As we walked the market, we were in awe by all the amazing pieces of art. So much so that we each walked away with our very own masterpieces to hang on our walls at home. I found an elephant painting that I fell in love with. I stared at it for some time, and the more I stared, the more I had to have it. So I played it cool while Jason turned on his haggling charm with the seller walking that line between getting a good deal and offending the artist, Sakchai. They settled on a price, and Sakchai posed for this photo for me.
The aroma in the air from all the food vendors was very powerful despite the ever growing crowd. So as we walked and shopped, we stopped occasionally to try different appetizers such as ham wrapped mushrooms, pig intestines, and donuts.
Jason bought these tiny ice-cream cones. We ate them and felt like giants.
However, the giant feeling began to fade away as the crowd continued to grow and wrap around us. Soon, we felt more like cattle being herded in whichever direction the crowd pushed us making shopping or eating difficult. So, we spotted a bar tucked away behind the market and settled in to rest our feet and have a couple drinks.
An hour later we were refreshed enough to take on the crowd once more. And after being herded through more narrow streets, we found what looked like a food-court of sorts where we stuffed ourselves with more street food wonders. Then out of nowhere I heard Gaby scream, “FOUND IT!” I need to explain first: Some people are wine enthusiasts, some people are beer enthusiasts, but Derek and Gaby are the only true ice-cream enthusiasts I know. They know every method of making any kind of frozen sweet treat there is. When they travel, trying the local ice-cream is a must-do. Gaby had been on a search for what is called stir-fried ice-cream since we arrived in Thailand. Stir-fried ice-cream is a method of making ice-cream in which cream is poured on a cold flat plate until frozen and then mixed with popular ice-cream additions like fruit and cookies. It is then scraped off the plate into a crepe like roll and served. And we had just found it. Even though we were all pretty stuffed, we made room for this special treat which was delicious.
And with this additional check off our bucket list, we called it a night. We had a date with some elephants set for the morning that we needed to rest up for…
Until next time,
by Missie Hills | Mar 11, 2015 | Asia, International Adventures
First I want to preface this post by saying this:
When we first looked into seeing the tigers in Thailand, I was unsure. As an animal lover, I don’t want to support any tourist activity in which animals were treated poorly, and I had heard horror stories about some of these tiger “sanctuaries” that could be compared to roadside zoos here in the US. So I did my research before we went, and I felt like Tiger Kingdom was a moral institution. My research indicated that Tiger Kingdom does not drug or de-claw their tigers. I was still a little unsure before we went, but I decided that I should trust my research. Preface over.
When we arrived in Chiang Mai (after a long night riding the rails), we had some time before we could check into our hotel. So, we hired a tuk tuk driver to get us some breakfast and then take us to see some tigers. The tuk tuks in Chiang Mai were nothing more than trucks with the bed enclosed. We piled up into one and headed into the center of town where we found a local food-court like place. We each had an amazing Thai breakfast dish for around $2 a piece. Then nice and full, we piled into the truck again and set out for some sweet tiger action.
Upon arriving at Tiger Kingdom and reviewing the prices, we had to make a decision on what size tigers we wanted to see. There were four categories, tiny, small, medium, and large. Frankie, Kee-Kee, Jason, and I decided to see the tiny, small, and large tigers. Before we could go though, we needed to sign a waiver. The waiver basically said, “If your face gets mauled, we are not held liable.” But you know in better legal terms then that. It went on to say that if an accident was to happen, don’t expect a refund. This was a little concerning. I would hope that if one of the tigers attacked me, I could at least get my 40 bucks back. And it didn’t help matters that we had just read an article about a tourist that had been attacked by one of the tigers at this park recently. The danger was real. And very very exciting.
Nevertheless, Jason, Kee-Kee, and I signed our lives away. Frankie starred at the paper for some time, and then finally nervously signed as well, all while trying to play it cool.
Truth is, we were all a little nervous, or maybe excited… I’m not sure, but I definitely was feeling those butterflies.
My originally thought when choosing the tiger sizes was that we would start tiny and work up to large. However, the staff pointed us in the direction of the small first. So, we started there.
Before we could enter, we had to read the rather large list of rules which all sounded like common sense to me. “Don’t touch the tigers’ teeth or claws.” Um, Duh. This sign was a little concerning though.
Sure, don’t put your fingers or hands in the cage. But your whole body, that’s no problem.
Therefore, we walked into the tiger cage a little overcautious at first not really knowing what to expect. Our hearts were beating fast, and adrenaline was flowing through our veins. Our guide walked us over to a couple small tiger cubs laying out in the sun. He explained to us that the tigers like the attention from people, because they were all born at the park. There was nothing to worry about. But still we needed to be extra careful how we approached them. So, we laid down behind them and rubbed their bellies. They purred and rolled over for us, obviously liking the attention.
We became calmer and soon felt like we were playing with large house cats. A couple of the tigers were playing in the corner, jumping and fighting with each other. They would run around the space not really caring about the humans watching them and occasionally would brush up against my legs during their game of chase. You could see that the tigers had gone through a lot of training as they would lie down when instructed and let more visitors pet their bellies. My concerns about drugging completely went away.
I could have watched these tigers all day, but eventually our guide dragged us out so we could move on to the big beasts. Going into the big tiger cage, we felt much more confident. We were pros now after all. But then we saw one of the big tigers and all that adrenaline came rushing back. These tigers were much much larger than the tigers we had just played with. And this first one, named Nancy, was growling, jumping, and running around as it played with its trainer.
The guide took us to a platform where three very large tigers were sunbathing. The first tiger we met was named Frankie which gave us a little giggle as Frankie met his tiger counterpart. We gradually cozyed up to Frankie (the tiger not the Chicagoan) and before long found ourselves spooning him as he purred for affection.
Frankie approached Tiger Frankie extremely cautiously at first keeping a good arms length distance. After a little peer pressure though, he got a bit closer, and they became friends for life. Ok, maybe not friends, but they tolerated each other just fine.
The biggest tiger of the three was named Mike. He weighed close to 500 lbs! Our guide fed Mike some chicken, and my photographer brain took over as I tried to get the perfect closeup of his face completely forgetting that I was within feet of the tiger’s massive jaws.
Last up were the tiny cubs. They were in a small nursery full of toys. Their training was much less perfected, and they ran around playing with each other like kittens do. But they would lay down for belly pets after the trainer would command them a few times. And then they would purr, oh they would purr. With the babies, we were able to see their retractable claws up close which still looked like they could do quite a bit of damage. Frankie was much more comfortable with the cubs. Well really, we all were.
Then our time was up, and we headed out of the park still high on adrenaline while internally checking “playing with tigers” off our bucket lists and humming “Eye of the Tiger” in our heads.
(Note for all of our moms and other worried relatives who think we are becoming adrenaline junkies: Although the danger of this adventure was very real, and I will not discount it, this post was written with extra dramatic flare, well because that is what writers do. In reality, I felt perfectly safe at all times. So please don’t worry, we are still sensible safe adults.)
Until next time,
by Missie Hills | Mar 5, 2015 | Asia, International Adventures
After a full day of shopping the Chatuchak Weekend Market, it was time to head to the Bangkok’s Hua Lamphong Train Station and make our way to our next destination, Chiang Mai. The train was my brilliant idea. Who wouldn’t want to experience the country side while taking an overnight train up through the hill country? The idea sounded exciting and adventurous, and I was all about it. I did my research and read many blogs of backpackers who had taken this train. They all seemed to enjoy it. It took some convincing to my fellow travelers, but in the end we boarded the train with high hopes. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for those hopes to be crushed.
We all found our berths easy enough in the last car of the train. We each had private rooms with bunk beds. At first glance, the train was old and dirty, but that didn’t bother anyone too much. And while settling in, we found that we had enough space to be comfortable. However, it wasn’t long before we heard a shrill scream coming from Derek and Gaby’s room next door. We ran over there to make sure she was not being murdered by a train hobo, and what we found was quite comical. Gaby was curled up on the bed pointing, “Bug!, Bug!”. Frankie proceeded to stomp around killing small roaches that were skippering across the floor. And the night truly began.
Ok, I am a true country girl from backwoods Arkansas. A few bugs don’t really bother me. Plus, Jason and I survived the Amazon Rainforest during the flood season causing our eco-lodge to be crawling with very large roaches. So, this was nothing. And maybe that attitude caused me to not quite understand the turmoil that my fellow travelers were going through. Regardless, I could see the pain in their eyes when the realized they were going to have to sleep all night on this train crawling with bugs with no escape. Then I felt extremely guilty for pushing the train. However, everyone was ready and eager to try to make the most of the trip.
So, the plan was to head to the restaurant car and have dinner together while laughing at our misfortune. Unfortunately, the boys could not go to the restaurant car, because they would have to pass through the very strict female-only car. Dinner would have to be served in our rooms. I know I said earlier that the rooms were spacey, but not eat-your-dinner kind of spacey. We were forced to balance large trays on our laps whiling eating all while Frankie continued to stomp on bugs as the ran across the floor in front of us. He became our resident bug stomp-er, although we all had to pitch in from time to time.
After dinner, we settled in for a very long night. The rocky train (with the help of a strong Peruvian decongestant) put me right to sleep, and I was out until morning. Jason never seems to have a problem falling to sleep in weird situations. So, he slept like a baby too. However, the others had long restless nights as they cuddled up together in the top bunks of their berths avoiding the creepy crawlies. All which made me feel even more guilty when I woke up refreshed. But that guilt melted away quickly as I peered out of the back of the train and watched the sun rise to a complete new environment deep in the hill country of Northern Thailand. We had made it to Chiang Mai, and a new adventure was about to start.
Until next time,
by Missie Hills | Mar 2, 2015 | Asia, International Adventures
After our night on Khao San Rd, we were in no shape or form to make the original planned trek to Ayutthaya, where we planned to see the ancient city ruins of Thailand’s original capital city. We were sad to have to cut it out, but we just couldn’t hack it. We are getting too old I guess. So after attempting to recover by relaxing in our hotel courtyard and drinking a lot of coffee, we perked up and created our plan B.
Our friendly neighbor on the plane ride to Bangkok told us all about Thailand’s largest market. We were lucky enough to be in Bangkok over the weekend so we could see it, and our change in plans allowed us the time. However, we didn’t expect what we were about to experience at all. When we arrived at the market, our jaws dropped. I thought we were going to take it easy today! What we saw was a maze of tiny shops, half indoors, half outdoors, bustling with locals stocking up on just about anything you could think of.
I put this market on the same scale as Istanbul’s famous Grand Bazaar. However, the environment was completely different. Very much unlike the Grand Bazaar, Chatuchak was not filled with pushy annoying sellers. Instead the sellers pretty much ignored you until you were ready to buy.
The market was a bit overwhelming. So, we settled in at a small street restaurant for a quick Thai breakfast. Some spicy Thai food was just what we needed to cure the hangover in our bellies. We all got rice curry with pork and a few bottles of water, for only $2/person! This may have been one of the best meals we had in Thailand.
And then the shopping began. We all had great intentions of buying all kinds of cool things. But in the end, the market proved to be sensory overload. We walked and walked, while laughing at all the funny random items we discovered. Then we stopped for street food and walked some more.
And when we couldn’t walk anymore, we found a bar and had some refreshing cocktails. At the bar, a chef was cooking paella on the street, and I had to have some. I stood in line for what felt like an hour hypnotized by the aroma just to get some very over-priced paella. But it was still oh so good.
And then refreshed once more, we walked and shopped some more before finding a cab and heading to the train station for our next leg of travel. We had a long and interesting night ahead of us as we made our way to Chiang Mai…
Until next time,
by Missie Hills | Feb 25, 2015 | Asia, International Adventures
Oh Bangkok, you win. My legitimate attempt to not let you take me in and spit me out has failed. You tricked me with your cheap drinks, fake sunglasses, and laid back atmosphere. I now know how you got your party reputation. And it all starts with Khao San Rd.
The famous Khao San Rd is a backpacker paradise where travelers, young and old, stop during their short layover in Bangkok. It is packed with hostels, restaurants, and street vendors all ready to take advantage of the come-through tourists just like us. We knew we needed to stock up on cheap clothing for our trip ahead, and there was no better place then Khao San Rd to get our feet wet in the Thailand shopping ways.
After a full morning of walking through the King’s Palace in the hot Thailand sun, we were ready for lunch. We found a promising hole-in-the-wall restaurant and had our first taste of Thailand cuisine. What better to get then Pad Thai when your on Bangkok’s most touristy road? And it paired with Thailand beer quite nicely.
Jason, however, has never been one to go the touristy route. So he order a Thai pork salad and had his first taste of the spiciness Thailand food is famous for.
Then it was time to explore and shop. At this point, I can’t really give a blow by blow description of our night, because I can’t really remember it blow by blow. But it went something like this:
Haggling for Ray Bans for $2 and cool tanks for $1… Drinking beer on the street… Snacking on street food… More Shopping… More Drinking… More Snacking… Scorpions? Why not?… Drinking… Drinking… Temptations to buy a doctorate degree… Drinking… Letting tiny fish suck on your feet, Woah, ticklish! … Drinking… Meeting a cool French couple… Watching Jason get a random pedicure… Shopping… Haggling… Drinking… Dinner at an Israel Thai fusion restaurant… Packing 6 people into a cab… And, finally, finding our way back to our hotel.
That about sums it up. With a few “what happens on Khao San stays on Khao San” moments mixed in.
You would of thought after a first day like that we would have all passed out in bed and never gotten up. Unfortunately, Jet Lag had different plans for us. I hate to admit this: I never really believed in jet lag. Isn’t that just an excuse people use to be lazy? No. Jet Lag is real people. Very real. I figured that out quick as I woke up at 2:00am ready to start my day. And when you wake up at 2:00 am, still drunk, and feeling sick, well, that’s a problem. What started out as an annoying runny nose when I got on the plane had manifested into a full blown cold. Great. So I moved to the couch and starred out the window for awhile wondering what Bangkok had gotten me into. I could tell already that I was in for a good hangover. Next thing I know Jason is also feeling the jet lag effects, and he is up too. So we turn on the TV and watch a show in German, providing our own silly translations, until we finally fall back asleep.
Yes Bangkok. You win my friend, you win.
Until next time,
by Missie Hills | Feb 21, 2015 | Asia, International Adventures
This adventure starts as 6 friends come together to explore the wonderful country of Thailand. We are 3 couples who have each settled in our own little corners of world far apart from each other. 3 couples who have waited far too long to reconnect. Yes, 3 couples who decided to reunite halfway across the world.
Derek and Gaby made their way from sunny Miami, Frankie and Kyra from cold Chicago, and Jason and I left our beloved city, Houston.
And we all met up in the bustling city of Bangkok ready to start our adventure.
And we didn’t have time to spare, so as soon as we gathered, we headed back out the door and made our way to our first stop on the full agenda, the King’s Grand Palace.
The Thai people love their King. There are photos of him and the royal family EVERYWHERE, at the airport, on the street, on the walls of every establishment we walked into, EVERYWHERE. We were warned multiple times to be very careful not to criticize the King. It is not easy to offend the Thai people, but that is a surefire way to do it.
So, we all knew we had to see this Grand Palace of the King. When we arrived we were immediately ambushed, not so politely, by the locals, with warnings that we were dressed inappropriately, but we came prepared. The ladies quickly covered their shoulders with scarfs and Jason de-convertiblized his pants. I bought some fresh pomegranate juice, excited to get my first street vendor purchase out of the way.
And off we went. As we approached the temples the crowd began to get a bit crazy. The King’s Grand Palace is one of Bangkok’s top attractions, and we came on a very busy hot day. But because we avoided getting sucked into a tour group, we easily walked right up to the ticket counter and got our tickets.
As we waited in line to enter the palace, two very nice American girls informed us that after waiting in line for quite some time, they were turned away because they used scarfs to cover their shoulders just as we were doing. I guess we were not nearly as prepared as we thought. We needed t-shirts. So the boys remained in line, and us three girls went back to the street to find appropriate attire. We rummaged through tourist shops until we found three cheesy matching Thailand t-shirts. So now properly dressed, we were ready to enter the palace.
And oh my, it was worth it. Millions of gold tiles and fancy embellishments glistened in the sun covering every surface in sight. The multiple temples were surrounded by interesting characters that looked like they jumped right out of fairy tale books. The sight was like nothing I have seen before.
It was hot though. All the gold tiles seem to amplify the heat, and the extra t-shirt didn’t help. It was nice welcome to the Thailand heat.
Before we could see Buddha, we had to take off our shoes. Jason and I blessed each other with holy water (not really sure if we were doing it correctly), and then we walked into the small temple. It was very crowded so the “holy” atmosphere wasn’t really there. And it smelled like feet. But the tiny jade Buddha sitting atop all the presents did shine brightly.
After crossing “seeing Buddha” off the bucket list, we left the crowded palace (trying not be blinded by all the reflective gold) and made our way out to street to find lunch. The famous Khao San Rd was only a 15 minute walk away….
Until next time,
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