The adventure begins

Today the adventure begins for Don and Anna.  Uncle John kindly deposited them at the airport at about 6 am.  We asked him to capture a picture of the intrepid travellers.

 

Today’s activity was scripted like a ballet.  It was the day of some in and some out.  First up, the 5 of us were to fly to Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok at 4 pm.  The reason it needed to be so choreographed was because Mum and Dad needed to catch another flight up to Khon Kaen, and we needed to be at Bangkok to meet Grandma and Grandpa Tossell.

We needed to check out of the hotel by 12 so we decided we may as well go straight to the airport to wait for our flight.  Lucky we did, because when we tried to book in to our Thai airways flight they informed us that our flight didn’t actually exist, and that somehow we had managed to book on to it, on their website, and they had no idea how it happened.  Of course then a minor panic set in.  The counter chickie told us that they have two alternative flights, one at 2 pm and one at 5pm.  Either would have worked in ok for us, but not for Mum and Dad as their next flight was scheduled for 5 50 pm.  Oh yeh, both of them were fully booked!

The solution came fairly easily in the end, they re-booked us onto Bangkok Airways that had a flight at 2:10 pm.  They told us that we would miss out on plane food so issued us a voucher to eat in their restaurant before take-off.  They also asked us if we minded sitting in the back row – we were just happy to fly so probably would have traveled in the lavvy if it meant getting us to Bangkok in time for phase 2.  So, in the end it all worked out ok, and the rest of the family that were expecting us all, in 2 different locations, will be none the wiser as to how close we came to missing our rendezvous.

As nice and modern as Suvarnabhum is, its not that great to just hang out in while you're waiting.  We missed saying goodbye to Mum and Dad as we had to go collect our luggage and then we couldn’t get back into where they were in the domestic terminal.  Anyhoo only 90 minutes now till the Grand Tossells arrive so phase one is nearly complete.

Time actually passed pretty quickly, we had a feast of Subway and they were nearly there.  Right on 7 we moved over to the arrival gate so that they could see us straight away.  After standing there for a few minutes I realised that there actually 2 international arrival gates.  Arrgghhh   which one would they appear out of?  Well the only option was to split up and go to each gate.  After what seemed like an eternity they appeared out of the first gate we were standing at.  They were tired, but thrilled to be in Bangkok.  We quickly grabbed a taxi and we were hotel bound.

Then, the wheels fell off.  We arrived at I- Residence at about 9 pm to begin the booking in process.  Don and Annas booking was hunkydory no problems.  Ours on the other hand was quite the other.  We had booked 2 adjoining rooms so that Nate could have his own room joined to ours (we were quite looking forward to the added space).  However, they don't have rooms that interconnect - they booked us two separate rooms at either end of the corridor!  Clearly that wasn't going to work, so the only alternative (as they were fully booked) was to put the 3 of us into the one room.  Not a biggie you might think, but these rooms are tiny.  They jammed our bed up against the window and Nate on a fold up next to Tony.  While not thrilled about it we were ok to just go to bed knowing that tomorrow they would move us to a bigger room.

Not to sound like a complete whinger, but the rooms we had were terrible.  There was pretty much no insulation between walls as we could hear every thing that Don and Anna were saying next door, and at 4 am when I was awake I could hear someone talking in the street - and we were 8 floors up.  Add to that, our room faced onto the sky train track which is lit up light sunshine, and they have wooden shutters on the windows that don't close properly so you couldn't actually tell that the light was off in the room as it was so bright.  The clincher however was the aircondtioning unit.  It obviously had a mechanical issue as it sounded like a helicopter trying to land.  It was too hot to turn it off so we had no choice but to suffer.  I am blessed with the ability to sleep through pretty much everything, but this was even too much for me.  As we drifted off to the first of many brief periods of sleep, all I could do was prey that things would get better tomorrow, if not, I dare say a change in hotel will be in order.

She'll be coming round the mountain...

Up and about early again today, our last full day in beautiful Chiang Mai.  Lewis picked us up again and we were on the road to Doi Suthep.  Doi Suthep is a mountain that sits 1600 metres above sea level and overlooks Chiang Mai.  There is a small village at the peak, but more importantly to the locals it is home to yet another temple <insert groan> called Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep.  The first Chedi to be built in this province way back in 1383 still sits there.  Lewis told us a little bit of the history around it - it involves a monk who had a dream about searching for a relic and then finding a bone that was believed to be Buddhas shoulder bone.  To cut the long story short, part of the bone was tied to a white elephant and it was set free in the jungle.  Apparently this elephant climbed to the top of the mountain, trumpeted three times and then died - this was considered to be a sign and the then King ordered a temple be built on the site.  Buddhists are quite big on the number three, and while at the temple we saw lots of references to that number.

To get to the Temple grounds there are 309 steps to climb

Or like most white people you can take a cable car both ways..no prize for guessing which way we went.

The Temple grounds are quite an eclectic mix of Hindu statues and many different Buddhist effigies from at least 2 branches of Buddhism practiced here - Theravada and Animalism.  There is a very heavy Burmese flavor to the place which would be expected as Burma ruled (after they invaded) this area for a few hundred years. 

The air at the temple was cool and seemed thick.  There were quite a lot of low level clouds so it made viewing the city below a little difficult.

Of course the standard things you see at a temple were there; the Naga, the prayer bells, the ornamental statues and the very detailed lacquer work.

The current Abbot has put a lot of the local boys to work.  They have become sort of the caretakers for the temple.  They keep it absolutely spotless in exchange for food, lodging and an education.

The central part of the temple has a huge gold Chedi.  Its in a walled area that had hundreds of different Buddha images, often in their own separate alcove.  Lots of candles, incense and flowers adorn the area so the smell was quite intense.  Worshippers walk around the central chedi three times chanting and waving their flowers as part of their prayer ritual.

While we were inside the central area I sent Nate into one of the little alcove rooms to take a photo of the huge gold Buddha within.  Taking photos here is certainly allowed as long as you either kneel or sit while taking them.  Nate was very serene as he sat there setting up his photo.  When he finished, the monk who had been sitting silently in the corner gestured Nate over to him.  After Nate got the visual permission from me (as he always does when hes not sure) he went over and knelt in front of him.  The Monk gave him a blessing and wished him a long and fruitful life as he sprinkled him with water and tied a blessing bracelet on his wrist.  What a wonderful experience for him.

Someone of course needed to look after our shoes while we were inside as it was a no shoe zone as usual.

We wandered around for a little bit more and then said our farewells to this holy place.  We went back down the mountain which certainly was much faster than going up. We were able to get a better view of the city on the way down.

Next stop was supposed to be the handicraft village but we got hijacked to go look for remote control helicopters at the Big C shopping Centre which was in the vicinity of where we were, well sorta.  Poppa had been talking about getting a helicopter since leaving Australia and finally his wish had come true - for the price of 1100 baht (about $33).

Next was off to the handicraft centre.  Chiang Mai is well known for its artisans and the places we stopped at were fine examples of that  The first stop was "The Worlds largest Jewellery Store".  Tony and I used our smarts and left our money/credit cards in the van, which in the end worked a treat.  There were some amazing rings and pendants in there and I'm sure had we not pre planned we would have purchased.  Next up was a home wares store where we had a 15 minute demonstration of how Kashmir hand knotted rugs were made.  They were quite incredible - the rugs changes colour from the direction you look at it.  It also takes about a year to hand make each rug to an ancient family pattern.  The third and final stop was to a Thai Silk place.  We got to see silk worms in action which was fascinating.  This stop we shopped, couldn't resist it any longer.  The silk was incredibly cheap - Tony bought a black silk dressing gown and a red power tie for about $100 all up.  The tie itself would have been around the $70 mark at home.  Nate of course was the star attraction at each stop - so much so that at the gem store he had Tony pick him up so he could get some peace.  When we were leaving the silk place the manager ran out to us in the bus to give Nate an apple....maybe it was the blessing doing its work already.

Intermission

As busy as we have been this trip there is always time for little breaks.  Sometimes its a whole day, other times a few hours.  These are a few things that we do in our downtimes...

beer breaks

splash in the pool

eat wierd snacks like ham and cheese sandwich flavoured chips

admire the view from our window while I blog

take silly photos of ourselves in exotic locations

eat our favourite foods like malaysian satay

bathe

wait at airports

clear out the 'free' toiletries

&

some of us sleep....

No wonder the rice is sticky

I have to admit, I'm not the worlds greatest chef, but I couldn't wait for today's challenge.  In true master chef style we were embarking on a day of Thai cookery.  I had booked a day cooking course for Tony, Mum and myself with Siam Rice Thai Cookery School.

We were collected in the foyer at 8.45 by Pot, a young Thai man who I had thought just to be our driver.  After a couple more pickups we were off to the market to get a quick introduction to the fresh vegetables and herbs/spices we would be using later.  It was quite an eye opener as the market certainly was no Central Market.

The veggies all looked super fresh and were incredibly cheap.  He showed us the ones most well known for Thai cooking, some of which i knew and some Id never heard of (they have some weirdo looking mushrooms).  He also showed us fresh turmeric which is a bright yellow root vegetable - I got to demonstrate it by having it rubbed on my forearm (I still cant get it off after much scrubbing :-( ).

After finishing up at the market we were onto the school to start cooking.  The school was set up in a simple neighbourhood house, we prepared our food outside on a table right next to a set of wok burners.  We started the day by each choosing the dishes we wanted to make.  We made 7 different 'courses' and each course had a selection of 4 things to choose from.  The three of us each tried to pick different things so we had a better range of tastings.  By the time we made it outside to start we had already forgotten what we chose - lucky Pot had a good memory to make up for us.

We picked up our aprons and tools (cleaver and chopping block) and were ready to go.  First up were the soups.  Pot gave us our recipes on the go - I have trouble following one recipe let alone dishing out ingredients to a group of 7 people doing 4 different soups.  The ingredients were presented to us on a plate - each plate had the ingredients for us all to make our dishes.

We pretty much prepared two dishes at a time and then went over to the woks and cooked them up.  We then took them inside the house and ate them.  We rested for 10 minutes then it was another two dishes.  I asked Pot where he learned to cook and of course he learned it from his mother.  He then spent 4 months in an apprenticeship and then cooked in restaurants as a chef for four years before becoming involved in the cookery school.

Thai culture has a very strong emphasis on cooking and almost every social event involves food. 

To eat six-seven meals a day in Thailand is not unusual.  Like Thailand's language and culture, the Thai cooking is divided in to four main regions in the country: The northern part, the northeast (Isan and Isaan) the central parts and the south. A complete meal often includes the five different tastes: Sweet, Sour, salt, bitter and the famous, spicy (phet). Access to different types of food and influences from the neighboring country's, has given the food in the respective regions its special mark: Northern (Chiang Mai area) is heavily influenced by the Burmese and Chinese.

Pot taught us a little trick for reducing the oil content in food when cooking it - Tony and Mum are demonstrating it below.

In one of the breaks during the day we all had a mini lesson at carving vegetables.  Pot had seriously overestimated us if he thinks we were capable of copying him...haha

We certainly all agreed that the food that we made was the best we have eaten so far in Thailand.  The winners for the day was Tony's Pad Thai noodles and Mums Spring rolls.  Here are a couple of the dishes we made, clearly I cant show them all as we often gobbled them up without keeping a record  haha.  On reviewing the photos I note we have none of desert...hmm where did the sticky rice with mango and bananas in coconut milk go?

Chicken with cashew nuts

Chicken with holy basil

Hot and creamy soup

Green curry paste --->

Thai green curry

Pad Thai noodles

Spicy Pork Salad

The only downside to the whole day was the heat.  The hardest part was certainly only grinding up the ingredients for the curry paste.

our teacher at work

It was really humid, and poor Tony sweat so much through the day that his glasses kept falling off - once they landed in my curry paste!  We ended the day at around 4 pm, when we each received an apron, a cookbook of the recipes we made and a certificate!  Ive wanted to do a cooking class each time Ive been here and now I'm so glad that we did it!

The ying and yang of elephant riding

Today's adventure was one that we had all been looking forward to.  We were off to visit the elephants at the Maesa Elephant Camp.  A new guide today.  Mr Lewis Noi picked us up in the foyer dead on 8 30.  Mum and Dad had met him last time they were here and did some tours with him.  His wife came to meet us also and invited us back to their house for coffee after the trip.

I think it took about 5 minutes into the ride up to the camp to figure out why my parents were so keen n having him do our tours this time.  Lewis is absolutely a hoot.  He has this hilarious cackle of a laugh which was totally infectious.  Some people you meet leave a lasting imprint on you and I'm sure Lewis is one of those people.  He is pure joy.  On the way to the camp he had us entertained with both facts and funny stories about elephants.  We learned about the differences between Asiatic and Indian elephants, how long their pregnancies last, the lifespan of these elephants and what the role of a Mahout is.  En route to the camp is a spot on the side of the road that usually had monkeys hanging around there.  Of course Lewis had a story about them which he had difficulty getting out as he was laughing so much.

When we set out today we thought that the weather was much milder.  However as we were in thick jungle the air seemed really close and therefore way more humid.  The camp is set in thick vegetation which must be lovely for the elephants.  It felt quite like a wildlife park rather than a tourist spot which was good to see.

As soon as we arrived we took off pronto to go and see the 'baby elephants'.  There were two that we could see right at the back of the camp.  Cute doesn't come close to describing them.  We got to get quite close to the one that was 7 month's old - close enough for Nate to feed him and his mommy some bananas and sugar cane (last time we were close to elephants Nate was much younger and was quite scared by them - certainly not this time).

Next up was bath time.  Clearly I don't watch enough Animal Planet or Discovery Chanel because I had no idea how much elephants love the water.  We watched them for about ten minutes and I was amazed at how they move in the water.  One of the younger ones, who seemed a little bit rascally, spent most of his time under water, sort of swimming on his side.  It still makes me smile when I think of the two bits of the elephant you could see sticking out of the water - the butt and the trunk.  The Mahouts get paired to the elephants and they will be together for life.  Its quickly obvious how much they care for these big creatures, I'm not sure if they're more like pets or children.

After the bath it was onto the show.  We've seen an elephant show before but I still really love watching them.  They're all different, some seem to have a cheeky personality and it certainly comes out when they're doing their various tricks.  They play soccer, they shoot hoops, some played harmonicas and they danced, well sort of.  The part though that I always find most intriguing is when they paint.  They seem to really concentrate on what they're painting which is unexpected.

The artwork!

When the show was finished we were off for the "highlight" of the trip.  We had debated doing an elephant ride pretty well since organising the holiday - remember the story about the elephants that went beserk over in phuket?.  Once we were here though the doubts left us and we all signed up and paid the extra $50 each.  From this point on I probably should have had someone else blog this as our experiences of the trip were quite different.  Nate for example thought it was fantastic. I on the other hand probably was the exact opposite.  We clambered up on to our elephant from a platform built up high enough so we were really only stepping onto the great beast.  It all started well as we ambled off on a clay and pebbled path up a slight slope.  We stopped at the side of the path and the Mahout then asked us if we were going to the Long neck Village (more about that after) which we were.  Now I realise this was the point of no return.  Had I said no, it would have been a lot different.

Now that he knew our destination, we were off up the mountain, not on the lovely smooth path we started on, but up a mountain path that was really more like a path of muddy footsteps.  The slope up was both steep and not really very predictable.  I think when I took a decent look down and realised a) how far up we were, and b) how precarious the path seemed I may have gone into panic mode.  This ride was to last an hour and I think it was only 10 minutes into it that I knew I didn't want to continue.

A few years ago I went on the Scooby Doo ride at Movie World and was terrified to the point of crying.  It was the same today - I think I started to hyperventilate and my mind went nuts.  I knew our elephant was 20 years old as I asked the Mahout about him when we took off.  Our elephant was hungry as he kept trying to grab branches on the way up the patch and the Mahout had to keep telling him off before he weakened and let him pull down a huge branch to snack on as we walked.  Of course I thought then that we had scored the most rebellious elephant in the camp and that he would suddenly just do his own thing and we would be thrown off down the mountain.  The more I thought about it and the more I looked down at the ground and had my feet swinging in mid air the more upset I got.  I grabbed Tony and hung on for dear life.  I could hear Nate saying this is sooo awesome, and my parents on the elephant behind us cackling at our elephant who seemed determined to scratch his butt on any bush that we went past.

Having a medical background didn't help either as I then started to wonder if our elephant had arthritis in his knees and would he buckle under our weight (google tells me that its 1 to 2 tonnes).  Lewis told us that elephants can talk to each other with the various noises they make - ours was pretty quiet mostly, but when he did make noise I swear he was saying get them off of me.  Anyways with in about 5 minutes I managed to calm myself (well stop crying at least) after reasoning with myself that they wouldn't do these trips if they were dangerous as insurance would be a killer, and that there was no other option anyways as nothing else but a helicopter would have been able to get to us and I was pretty damn sure there was no way to walk the path of mud and clay.  I spent the rest of the journey either looking up into the sky or squeezing my eyes tightly shut.

With about 10 minutes to go our Mahout stopped and got of the elephant asking for our camera to take some pictures.  I'm glad he did because the shots look great and do not give away the fact that I was totally traumatized.  I did manage to video a little bit of the journey although I predict that the footage wont be that great due to the shakiness of my hands.  I must say that Ive never felt as relieved as I was when we turned the last tight bend and stopped at a treetop platform to get off.

Once at the destination we were at a little village which is famous for the "Long necks" who live here.  There are a number of different tribes, including the Kayan people, that share this location and were moved from an area in Burma to display what life for them is like there.  They live in this village and grow rice and sell handicrafts to the tourists.  I read a blog where this was described as a 'human zoo', but the reality is that these people were seeking refuge from their hometowns and they receive health care and support here, and finally they're actually quite happy there.

We had a look around for about 20 minutes and the most striking thing about this place is that the girls are all gorgeous.  They get their first ring place on their neck at about 7 years of age, and when they're complete the neck jewellery weighs 5lb.

Once the official tour part was over we our minivan with Lewis and headed back to their main office and small bed and breakfast place for a drink.  Once back in the town, we were greeted by Lewis's wife Durian (yes named after the stinky fruit that her mother craved during her pregnancy) and got to enjoy her very warm Thai hospitality.  We were served waffles and mangosteen fruit, surprisingly the fruit vanished before the waffles (that's how great these fruit are).

Their "small"  77 room bed and breakfast place was absolutely charming.  The newer section at the rear was 12 beautiful rooms with TV, airconditioning, swimming pool, en suite and free Internet access.  They offer a room with breakfast for 700 baht a night ($21 a night).  Yep that cheap.  Its in a pretty good spot with a supermarket just around the corner.  When we come back here we will have no hesitation in staying here because of the price and how wonderful Lewis and his wife are.  Their bed and breakfast is called Riverside House.

 

Lewis

For dinner tonight we decided to go local.  Dad wasnt feeling too well so the rest of us ventured out to find some yumy  thai food.  We're right near the night markets here so it wasnt too difficult.  A couple of Pad Thai noodles and some rice dishes and we were done for about 160 baht ($5.50).

No market trip is complete without shopping, Nate spotted Yoda from about 100 metres so we couldnt miss the opportunity...