My Land Rover Wife

If there is one thing this trip has taught us, it is that Veronica is sort of like a Land Rover - very nice to look at but as soon as you take it off the beaten path, it has a tendency to break down.  I say this after she had to endure 4 bouts of stomach issues, countless mosquito bites, and peeing into an empty 5L jug of water inside the tent during the nights in the African bush.  Thankfully, she didn’t wake up in the middle of the night with a bug the size of a peanut M&M crawling up her leg (I was the lucky one who experienced that!) since the ensuing screams would have likely punctured my ear drums.

So, as bummed as we are that our nearly 3 months of round-the-world travel has come to an end, we are definitely looking forward to some of the conveniences that come with living in boring suburban California.

Love ya, babe!

-Jim

The Last of the Mangosteens

Southeast Asia had many interesting and amazing foods that amused the palate.  However, one in particular grabbed my palate’s attention and that was a fruit called mangosteen.  My first taste of this little ball of goodness was from the welcome fruit plate we had in our hotel room upon our arrival in Phuket.  Since then, every place we went in South East Asia, I would seek out these fruits and buy and eat a kilogram almost every day.  The fruit looks like a big plum and has a tough outer shell that you must cut through to get to the white fruit inside.  That part, which although unlike anything I’ve seen, most closely resembles an orange or tangerine, and tastes like a combination of orange, mango, and heaven.

I got so hooked on these that I wanted to  save the seeds and smuggle them through customs.  Unfortunately, as I did more research about growing them in Northern California, I found out that the seeds will not grow after they have been dried and that the trees need constant warmth, above 40 degrees F to survive.  Upon further research, I discovered that you can buy mangosteen in the US at very specialized markets but they can cost up to $40/lb.  Since I might be looking for a career change, becoming a mangosteen importer could be my next calling!

-Veronica

The Swiss Army knife was an essential tool in getting through the tough outer shell of the heavenly fruit!

Stuffing my face with mangosteen in a car

I am salivating just looking at the pictures!

Our last dirt street…for now

After a very authentic Vietnamese dinner of pizza and Coke, we headed to the train station in Hanoi to catch the overnight train to the northern Vietnamese town of Lao Cai, from where we would drive to the final stop on our itinerary- the hill village of Sapa.  This train ride was definitely more enjoyable than the Thai train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok because the cabin was bigger and the beds were side-by-side instead of bunked.  We arrived in Lao Cai at the break of dawn and were driven through the town, past a market, where, at the late hour of 5:30am, it was in full swing, with the entire town congregated in it.  We arrived in Sapa after an hour’s drive through the morning fog on windy mountain roads and immediately felt the relief from the heat (it was at least 15 degrees Celsius cooler due to the elevation), congestion and noise of Hanoi. 

Our VIP train accommodation

We wandered through the waking town to find some place to have breakfast.  Following our guidebook, we came to Baguette and Chocolat, walking past many other places claiming to serve baguettes and chocolate (because I guess those two things are must-haves, especially when they are together?)  After breakfast, we set off on the first trek organized by our tour.  We walked down the hill from Sapa to Cat Cat village, populated by the Hmong tribe people.  The walk down was beautiful, with steep rolling hills and green valleys, dotted with rice paddies and indigo plantations.  We welcomed the quiet and more leisurely pace of life here and felt a world away from the constant hum of the streets of Hanoi.  While the chickens, pigs and water buffalo grazed nearby, the villagers were busy dying cloth with the dye from their indigo plants, embroidering cloth and going about their daily farming life.  “Cat Cat” – the name of the town - comes from the word cascade and means waterfall, around which this town exists.  So of course, we couldn’t leave without seeing it.  Although not huge, the waterfall was beautiful given the surrounding landscape.  Feeling like we were back in touch with nature and a more rural life after having missed it since Africa, we walked back up the hill to Sapa and took a well-deserved after-lunch nap. 

One of the very picturesque valleys

That afternoon, we walked to Ham Rong peak, which seemed to be right in the middle of town and from where we could see more of the beautiful mountains that surrounded us. 

View of Sapa town from the top of Ham Rong peak

The next day, we set off further down into the valleys below Sapa to visit the Black Hmong and the Dzay ethnic minority communities.  The area had very similar scenery as the previous day’s.  I learned something that day - I now know where the expression “to grab him by the balls” comes from.  On our way back from the trek, we saw a farmer standing on the side of the road holding his buffalo by the balls.  The guide explained that it’s how the farmers make the buffalo behave and do what they want.  Watch out Jim, I might have to employ that technique next time you disagree with me ;)

Visiting with some of the local wildlife

Jim pretending he's a panda bear (which live in these hills)

Our last dirt street on this trip

That evening, we started the long journey back home, taking a car back to Lao Cai, a night train back to Hanoi, and two flights, arriving in San Francisco earlier than we departed Hanoi and making Jim’s birthday last 38 hours.  We were warmly welcomed by Jim’s parents who had cooked up a wonderful celebratory Great American meal of salad, burgers, and chocolate cake- so delicious!  Happy Birthday, babe!

-Veronica

We arrived home just in time for Jim's birthday cake!

On a Junk and in my Trunks

Before we went to Vietnam, everyone had told us that Halong Bay was a must see, so we made sure to book a one night stay on one of the many junks (traditional Chinese boats) that depart from the Halong City pier every day.  What we didn’t realize was that Halong City is a 3.5 hour drive from Hanoi, so instead of spending almost two full days out on the water, we ended up barely spending two half days.  However,  it was still enough time for us to be absolutely awe-struck at the tree-lined cliffs jutting steeply out from the bay.

Our van arrived at the Halong City pier by about noon and we were suddenly surrounded by hundreds of other tourists all waiting to board their respective junks.  I started getting a little worried that this trip was going to be too touristy for my liking, since I couldn’t believe that there was enough space in the bay for the 100+ boats I saw lined up at the dock.  Our group was quickly ushered on to our boat, the Jewel of the Bay, a two-story junk with 8 cabins, all with private bathrooms and showers (and as we discovered that night, a 6-inch spider – just another crazy critter on our trip!).  After a brief introduction by the guide, the boat engines were fired up and the captain headed us out into the bay.

I'm in my trunks and there's my junk!

Fleet of junks departing Halong pier

Cruising through the islands of Halong Bay

Because our time on the bay was quite limited, the tour schedule was very regimented to make sure we could fit everything in.  Eat lunch at 1, explore a cave at 2:30, go kayaking at 3:30, then go swimming around the boat at 4:30.  Even though there were so many other people doing similar activities, the scenery was so spectacular that I didn’t even notice.  The cave ended up being over 100m deep with 3 chambers and a “happy rock” (see the picture below to understand how it got that name).  The kayaking took us around a couple of the islands, through a cave, and into a lagoon completely surrounded by 100 foot tall cliffs (unfortunately we didn’t have our camera in the kayak so we don’t have any pictures of the lagoon – trust us, it was amazing).  And finally, the swimming around the boat involved jumping off the second story roof into the warm, clear water.  The only downside was the fact that we noticed a few huge jellyfish in the water (up to 12 inches in diameter).  Fortunately, we successfully avoided them as we jumped off the boat.

Can you see the "happy rock"?

Jellyfish, I'm coming for you!

As the sun disappeared behind the islands of Halong Bay, the focus quickly turned from enjoying the scenery to enjoying alcohol.  The guide pointed out the full bar on the boat numerous times and even though everything was extremely overpriced, we decided to just roll with it.  A couple beers and a bottle of wine later, we were befriending a couple of Aussie girls at dinner.  We kept the party going until almost midnight but then finally conked out. 

The following morning we had a couple of hours to explore an island and take another swim before heading back to the pier.  Veronica and I climbed to the top of the island for a spectacular 360-degree view of the bay and then cooled off at the beach below.  Unfortunately, the jellyfish at this beach were unavoidable and I got stung on my foot which quickly put an end to our swimming.  Supposedly jellyfish are most prevalent in Halong Bay from June-September.  

We made it to the top of the island despite the 105 degree weather - the view was worth it!

Quintissential Halong Bay view

As our whirlwind Halong Bay tour came to an end, we were definitely glad we had included it in our itinerary.  On a pure scenery basis, it was definitely one of the most dramatic places I’ve ever been.  Our only regret was that we had come during the jellyfish high season so we couldn’t enjoy swimming in the water as much as we had hoped.  Oh well.

Now it’s back to Hanoi for a few hours before catching the night train to Sapa, a town in the mountains of northern Vietnam near the Chinese border. 

-Jim

Hot Hanoi

Having dealt with many third-world airports to date, we weren’t expecting to have any trouble traveling the 1.5 hours on the domestic Vietnam Airlines flight from Saigon to Hanoi.  However, when we arrived at the airport 1.5 hours before our 6:30am flight, we found ourselves in a crazy, bustling city, called Saigon Airport Domestic Terminal.  No express check-in here…we waited in the nearly-hour-long line, serving all domestic Vietnam Air destinations, with all the excited locals traveling to beach towns all along the coast.  When we finally got to the check-in counter,  the lady seemed very confused when presented with our passports and asked for our confirmation.  When we handed it to her, she took about 15 minutes, just typing away on the computer and running away to talk to colleagues about our “situation,” whatever that was.  She finally told us that the flight we were on had been renumbered (or cancelled and then reinstated with a different number) but our reservation was not transferred onto the new flight.  Thankfully, they had seats and she was able to book us on the new flight but by the time we got through security, we were one of the last people on the plane. 

We found Hanoi to be very similar to Saigon, in its craziness and bustle.  We only had one day to explore the city so we decided to just walk around and get a feel for it.  We enjoyed the French-influenced architecture of the Old Quarter, which had narrow streets with many shops, art studios, and restaurants. 

We walked to the man-made lake in the center of town, around which beggars, sellers, locals and tourists were all going about their own business.  As we were taking pictures in front of the grandiose Opera House, a lady fruit seller accosted us.  After we politely told her we weren’t interested in buying the carved-up pineapple she was selling, she tried a new technique;  She took her carrying baskets – a traditional contraption consisting of a pole and two baskets balancing on each end, carried over the shoulder – and tried to throw them on Jim, saying “You take picture”.  Since we knew she would then ask for money for providing the props, Jim politely declined.  She then threw her traditional straw hat on my head and tried sticking me with the carrying baskets screaming “YOU TAKE PICTURE!”.  I litereally had to run around in a circle to get her to stop chasing me with the damn carrying baskets, laughing the whole while at the absurdity of the situation.  After all that exercise running away from her in 40 degree (over 100 degrees F) weather along with dodging the motos and cars while walking along the road (evidently sidewalks are used exclusively for moto parking), we found a respite from the heat in a cafe called Tamarind, where I had the best, fresh-squeezed passion fruit juice ever!  Feeling re-energized, we wandered around some more of the shops, finished our souvenir-shopping and finally found the pink ties Jim had been looking for (for a wedding later this summer).

Hanoi Opera House

Feeling like a dip in the dirty town lake in the 40 degree weather

Last-minute chicken supply for the local restaurants

We’ll be back in Hanoi briefly two more times, once after our Halong Bay trip for a few hours before catching the night train to Sapa, and then again for a couple hours after our return night train from Sapa before heading to the airport.  Hopefully it cools off a little! 

-Veronica

Good Morning, Vietnam!

The first thing that struck us as soon as we arrived in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) was the western architecture.  Not like western as in modern skyscrapers (which we had already seen in Hong Kong) but western as in it reminded us of ornate buildings from western Europe.  We walked by the opera house and city hall at night, which were beautifully lit up, and then we visited Saigon’s version of Notre Dame cathedral.  You could definitely see the remnants of decades of French influence.  It even carried over to the food, where we were surprised at how delicious the coffee and breads were, as well as the lack of curry and coconut in many of the dishes (compared to Thailand). 

Saigon Opera House

Saigon City Hall

Saigon Notre Dame cathedral - the first big cathedral we'd seen on our entire trip

Since we only had one full day in Saigon to explore, we decided to book a private tour with a guide and driver to help us navigate the sprawling city of 9 million people (and 5 million motorbikes).   We visited some key sites in the city centre (District 1), including the former US Embassy (which has since been renovated and switched to a consulate), Reunification Palace (where the South Vietnamese finally surrendered to the North after the tanks came through the front gate), and the apartment building where a famous photo was taken during the US evacuation (and incorrectly portrayed by the media on multiple occassions as a photograph of people evacuating from the US Embassy). 

Reunification Palace (minus the tanks)

We then headed to the War Remnants Museum to see a different perspective on the Vietnam War.  It was expectedly quite anti-American (considering the North Vietnamese now run the country and funded the museum) and some of the images were quite graphic, especially involving people affected by Agent Orange.  However, in general, we didn’t notice any lingering hostility toward Americans as we were walking around town. 

For lunch, we headed to Chinatown where we ate at a local restaurant and tried some black chicken soup, which was basically an entire black chicken (slightly different variety than we normally eat) dropped in a bowl.  We had some fun posing with the head:

I wonder if even that tastes like chicken?

After lunch, we drove out of town about 70km to the Cu Chi Tunnels, which was a sophisticated tunnel network that the Viet Cong built during the conflict with the French in the 50s and then continued to use during the Vietnam War.  It stretched for hundreds of kilometers, with three levels of tunnels, ranging from 3 to 9 meters below ground.  The air vents were cleverly designed in the shape of termite mounds to avoid detection.  The tunnels were so sophisticated, with bedrooms, kitchens, and meeting rooms, that people basically spent years living underground to avoid enemy fire.  Evidently, the American military accidentally built a military base directly on top of one section of the tunnels so they were periodically mysteriously attacked.  Nowadays, the tunnels have been enlarged and reinforced to allow the larger western tourists to fit in them.   

Tight squeeze

No claustrophics allowed

Even though our stay in Saigon was brief, we felt like we hit up pretty much all of the main tourist sites and enjoyed some good food, so we were ready to move on. 

-Jim

Rolling on the River

After saying farewell to the wats, we hopped a 6-hour bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh.  We just stayed one night in Phnom Penh and didn’t really find it that interesting (compared to everywhere else we’d been so far in southeast Asia).   It was merely a launching pad for our Mekong Delta adventure. 

As we were preparing to board the speed boat for our 4 hour trip from Phnom Penh to Chau Doc (a town on the Mekong River in Vietnam), the skies opened up with a torrential downpour.  We wrapped our luggage in garbage bags and made a beeline across the parking lot.  Fortunately, it was about 90 degrees out so even though we were wet it kinda felt nice to cool off. 

The streets went from zero to flooded in about 10 minutes

All aboard!

After a brief stop at the Vietnam border where they inexplicably separate you from your passport for 30 minutes while they take it into another room (and probably make copies), we arrived at our hotel in Chau Doc, which turned out not to be a quaint little town on the Mekong River but rather a million-person fishing metropolis.  In general, the ride down the river was a little underwhelming, since the Mekong River is just a giant brown working river so from a boat in the middle all you really see are fishing boats or barges.  I imagine it’s kind of like what going down the Mississippi River is like. 

One of the "stunning" vistas out across the Mekong River

Man of the Year

Since we were making our way to Saigon (everyone over there seemed to call it that instead of Ho Chi Minh City so I’ll do the same), we pretty much just hopped in the car with our guide, Phuc Doc, the next morning and drove through a few other towns in the Mekong Delta region, making brief stops at a crocodile farm, a brick-making factory (which was pretty interesting), and eventually getting into another boat for a quick trip to our homestay for the night, which was located on an island in the middle of the river (in a village called Vinh Long).  Again, going in, we had kind of romanticized this homestay experience as an opportunity to sit around the dinner table with a Vietnamese family and learn about their culture (or something like that), but what it ended up being was just a Third World version of a bed and breakfast.  We stayed in a dormitory style room and were served dinner at a table for two out on the patio while the rest of the family ate elsewhere.  I won’t even get into the amount of bugs that surrounded our bed at night, other than to say that in the morning the white tile floor looked more like a brown and black polk-a-dotted floor.  The only redeeming quality of the homestay experience was the fact that the village itself wasn’t very tourist, so when we biked around nobody hassled us (“buy from me?”, “cheap cheap”, “maybe later?”, “tuk tuk?”). 

Cutting bricks out of clay

Biking around the village near our homestay

We were happy to leave Vinh Long the next morning and get back in the boat to go visit a rice cake factory and take a canal tour on a small canoe before getting back in the car for our drive to Saigon.  The lesson we learned was that the Mekong Delta is over-rated (at least the section in Vietnam) and the best way to see it (if you feel compelled) is just to take a day trip from Saigon.  We preferred the fishing villages we had seen in Cambodia, since they were less developed and less touristy. 

Mekong River canal tour (hats included)

-Jim

Can I Get a Wat Wat?

We woke up super early to catch our hour-long flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia, gateway to the famous temples of Angkor.  Since we arrived at 9am, and weren’t planning on touring the temples until the following day, we had virtually an entire day to explore the other surrounding areas.  We hired a tuk-tuk and went to nearby Tonle Sap lake (one of the largest in Southeast Asia) to visit typical Cambodian fishing villages.  The poverty we saw was pretty eye-opening.  At the first village, all the houses were built on tall wooden stilts to withstand the heavy rains during the rainy season (which lasts from June to September).  Since we were there in early June, it hadn’t really started raining yet, so these houses sat a few meters above the water and various farm animals were running around underneath.  We could see inside these houses from the road, and realized there wasn’t much inside other than some straw mats for sleeping and pots for cooking (and of course, battery-powered TVs!). 

Cambodian version of a tuk-tuk

Stilted fishing village

The second fishing village had even more ridiculous living conditions because all the houses were actually floating on the water, as were the pens in which they kept their livestock.  Our guide explained that the toilets basically consisted of a hole in the back of the boat that emptied directly into the water (yummy!).  Right after hearing this juicy tidbit, we then saw people swimming and bathing in the same water! 

Notice the TV antennas on top of these floating "houses"

Floating pig pen (any guesses where their poop goes?)

After our Tonle Sap adventure, we returned to Siem Reap for dinner at one of the many touristy restaurants around the Old Market.  While the Khmer cuisine was tasty, we found it a bit over-priced. 

The following day we headed out with a private guide to visit several Buddhist and Hindu temples.  First up was Ta Prohm, made famous by the movie Tomb Raider which was filmed there.  While it would’ve been even more exciting if Angelina had still been posing there, it was still a spectacular setting, with the 12th century walls being hugged by tree branches and roots. 

Ta Prohm engulfed by the jungle

The tree roots are coming for me.

Next up was the grand-daddy of all the wats, Angkor Wat, a magnificent multi-spired temple surrounded by a giant moat.  Also dating back to the 12th century, its architecture was quite awe-inspiring and it’s no wonder that it was in the running for one of the Seven Wonders of the World.  In addition to the amazing architecture, the temple has numerous carvings in its stone walls depicting various scenes from Hindu mythology.  We spent a couple hours touring all the galleries at the temple listening to our guide describe the carvings until we were so exhausted from the 95-degree heat that we had to retreat to a shaded restaurant for lunch.

Approaching Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat spires reflecting in the pond

One of the numerous rock carvings on walls of Angkor Wat

The remainder of the afternoon was spent touring Angkor Thom, an ancient city with several more temples.  While they were also interesting, we didn’t find them quite as impressive as Ta Prohm and Angkor Wat.  We were definitely experiencing wattage overload by the time we returned to our guesthouse that afternoon. 

-Veronica

P.S.  We can’t talk about our stay at Siem Reap without mentioning the bathroom setup in our guesthouse.  Since space is at a premium in Asia (or maybe because people don’t take showers that often), the bathroom design consists of a shower hose located directly above the toilet.  This is convenient if you have a sudden onset of traveler’s diarrhea while showering but otherwise is pretty inconvenient since the entire bathroom gets wet when you shower.  Here is Jim showing off our bathroom:

Nothing like a little shower when you're on the toilet

Whirlwind tour of Bangkok

After gorging ourselves at our cooking class in Chiang Mai, we packed up our bags and headed to the train station to catch the overnight train to Bangkok.  We had opted for this mode of transport since we thought it would give us more of a “cultural” experience.  However, after spending 12 hours in a cramped “1st-class” cabin, sleeping on uncomfortable bunk beds, and having to use communal bathrooms that well, didn’t really flush very well, I think we both would agree that taking the 1 hour flight on Air Asia (which is also cheaper!) is the way to go.

Veronica doing her best Sherpa impersonation

After finally arriving in Bangkok at 7:30am, we hopped on the subway and then ended up walking, fully loaded with gear, the last mile to our hotel (in 90-degree humid heat).  Fortunately, our room was ready when we arrived so we flopped down for a quick nap and shower before exploring.

Like Chiang Mai, Bangkok has plenty of wats as well as the Royal Palace.  Although we pretty much had reached wat saturation, we felt compelled to at least visit the most famous (and touristy) ones so we hopped on a boat to take us along the river to the Palace and surrounding wats.  As expected, they were very ornate and impressive, but I couldn’t help but thinking to myself, “What if all this money had been plowed into infrastructure, education, and health care?”

In front of one of the many impressive buildings in the Royal Palace complex

Wat Arun towering over Veronica

Inside Wat Pho, home of the world's largest reclining Buddha

We could only take a couple hours of wat hopping since the heat was overpowering, so we decided to head indoors and check out the number two tourist attraction in Bangkok (at least it seems) – suit shopping!  I decided I was in need of a new suit for some upcoming weddings this summer, so we checked out a bunch of shops, most of which were run by very sketchy Arab or Indian guys that I didn’t trust with one dollar of my money.  Fortunately, we came across one less tourist-focused Thai tailor a little off the main strip that we trusted and decided to see if he could deliver on his promise of having a suit ready in just over 24 hours.  Lucky for me, he did!  Now I just have to deal with carrying around a suit bag for the remaining two weeks of our trip.

Later in the afternoon, we decided we could brave the heat once again so we headed to Lumpini Park in the middle of town to walk around.  I was surprised at how many people were out running after work in the 85-degree heat.  As we were sitting on a bench people-watching, suddenly we heard loud music blaring over loudspeakers and everyone in the park was standing perfectly still and staring in the same direction.  The music playing sounded like a national anthem or something very patriotic.  It was quite surreal.  I looked at my watch and saw that it was exactly 6pm.  We wondered if this happens every day at 6.  After realizing we were the only ones in the park still sitting, we slowly stood up in case we were showing disrespect by sitting.

Once life got back to normal in the park, we started walking home but as we were leaving, we came across hundreds of people, both men and women, jumping and swinging their arms in unison to techno music.  We realized they were doing aerobics en masse, which was SO cool.  We joined them for about 20 minutes, but then were drenched in sweat so decided to retreat back to our hotel’s A/C.

At least they don't make you dance to Thriller

After dinner, we explored some of the night markets (I bought a Manchester United jersey with “AIG” on the front and “Ronaldo” on the back – a true relic!) and the famous Patpong red-light district.  If I hear one more guy offer me a  “ping-pong show” I am going to go crazy.  I haven’t been to Amsterdam so I don’t know how its red-light district compares but I can definitely see why drunken sailors would love this place.

We fit in some more sight-seeing the following day, including taking a boat trip through some of the smaller canals within Bangkok, the “Venice of the East”, and then rode the monorail to some more shopping centers.  We finished off our stay in Bangkok by having a mellow night since we had to get up really early the next morning to catch our flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) our boat driver didn't serenade us

-Jim

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai was our first introduction to wats (Buddhist temples), which are so abundant in Thailand.  We spent the first day exploring the many wats of old town but by mid-day had gotten them all mixed up in our heads and decided to treat ourselves to foot massages in the women’s prison.  The massages at the prison shop are given by inmates – it is how the inmates earn money to set aside for themselves when they are released.  It was very relaxing and was the perfect cure for our aching feet after much walking.  After such a good experience, we decided to continue our own pampering by getting full-body Thai massages.  For Thais, massages aren’t these spa-like experiences with oil, incense  and calming music playing like they have become in the western world.  For them, it’s a way of life, like doing laundry or getting your hair cut.  They are done while you are fully clothed and are geared to stretch and knead tired muscles.  The two little old ladies giving us our massages looked so innocent and petite but man, did they have a lot of strength!

In the evening, after the torrential downpour stopped, we went to The Night Market, which had stalls selling everything from underwear to electronics to Tiffany’s jewelry (the art of forgery has been perfected in these night market stalls).  This night market wasn’t nearly as cool as the Sunday Night Market that we visited the night before.  That one had locally-made original artwork and crafts rather than the mass produced cheap stuff they were peddling at the following day’s stalls.

The next day, we wanted to check out the famous Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep (the wat on top of the mountain Suthep, close to Chiang Mai).  Supposedly, a king in the 1300’s put a relic, said to have been Buddha’s shoulder bone atop a white elephant and released the elephant into the jungle.  The elephant stopped at Doi Suthep, trumpeted three times and wouldn’t go any farther and the king erected a temple in that place.  That’s how Wat Doi Suthep came about.

We opted not to pay the $20/person for a set tour to the temple and find our own way to the top (it’s only a few kms away and our guesthouse had mentioned this was easy to do).  So we took a tuk tuk (a motorized tricycle with a roof and the most common taxi in Thailand) to the zoo, which is at the bottom of the hill on which the temple sits and then had to wait until a truck with benches in the back and a cover filled up with 10 people to take us up the hill to the temple.

The temple was very impressive, mostly for the long staircase leading up to it, that has a long dragon railing going up to the top on both sides and for the sweeping views of Chiang Mai that the temple’s location provided.  Unfortunately, since were were there in the rainy season, the view was completely obscured by the fog.

Stairway to Buddha

We also wanted to see Phuphing (seriously – Pooping!) Royal Palace, which was 4 kms further up the hill but, not wanting to wait for another truck to fill up with 10, we decided to walk up.  We were the only people walking on the paved main traffic road.

Our version of a jungle trek

When we got to the palace, we were charged and arm and a leg (by Thai standards) for admission and Jim was made to rent pants as his were deemed too short (something that hadn’t been a problem at any wat).  We found the palace itself to be very unimpressive outside and since no one is allowed inside, the whole experience felt like a waste.  We left feeling swindled and exhausted from the long climb in the heat.  Getting back down the mountain was a logistical nightmare.  We had to wait until one of these taxi-truck drivers was finally done chain-smoking and hanging out with his friends and agreed to take us down but he only took us as far as Doi Suthep.  We then had to wait nearly 45 minutes for another truck to fill up with 10 to take us down to the zoo, from where we had to find a tuk tuk to our hotel.  Visiting the temple and the palace – something that should have taken about 2.5 hours ended up taking all day.

Jim in his rented pants with the "amazing" palace behind

Lesson #1:  Organize transportation ahead of time for the day when going to visit Wat Doi Suthep.

Lesson #2:  Instead of visiting the Royal Palace, stroll through the surrounding jungle.

Upon recommendation from a few friends, we took a cooking class on our last day in Chiang Mai to learn how to make some of the yummy Thai food we had had during our time in Thailand.  Some of the dishes we learned how to make were spring rolls, pad thai, curry paste and curry and my favorite Thai dessert – sticky rice with mango.  We also ate all of our own creations as we were making them so by the time we left the private house-turned-cooking-school to catch the night train to Bangkok, we had a new appreciation for good Thai food as well as being completely stuffed.  It was an awesome experience and we look forward to trying to reproduce our culinary creations back at home.

Two Thai culinary geniuses in the making...maybe

Bon Appetit! (panang curry and sweet and sour veggies)

-Veronica