Thailand - Bangkok

Arriving early morning in Bangkok, our arranged transport to the hotel failed to show up (we heard from him later - he called to apologize that he had been given the wrong time). Again strangers were very helpful in assisting us with our troubles - and we managed to catch a taxi to the hotel no problem.

After checking in and showering, we headed to pick up our custom made clothing. We were re-fitted and they kindly had everything sent to our hotel later in the day so that we didn't have to carry them around. We can certainly recommend Briani of Bangkok if anyone is looking for custom suits in Thailand.

So free of baggage, we took the skytrain and a river boat to the Grand Palace. Even after all the temples and pagodas we had visited, the palace was still very impressive.

There were endless buildings, each one overwhelming on its own. But en masse they are all the more magnificent. The buildings were well maintained with some tile work and painting still being done. We were not sure if it was restoration work - if they were fixing older artwork, the old was completely removed first.

As in many other cultures, gold is much desired and there is no shortage of it at the palace. Anywhere you see 'gold' in these photos, it truly is gold.

We visited the museum where many more gold artifacts were stored - no photos allowed of course!! There were personal kits of kings and queens. Each person gets a whole new set - no reusing of the past kings effects. There were belts and rings full of gold and diamonds and rubies and emeralds. There were also many examples of coins over the centuries. The form of their conis was very different prior to the 1800's. At that point, the current king westernized the style of their coins and the old styles went out of use.

From the palace, we returned to do our final packing before heading out for dinner. We found a Korean neighbourhood where we had a very yummy Galbae. However, we (or should I say 'I') also ordered another dish of ground beef with spices and vegetables which is apparently eaten raw. So unfortunately that part of our meal went uneaten. Ah well, not an overly expensive lesson at $10!

Thailand Tour Day 5

We had a busy day on our last day of the tour - we started with a visit to Wat Doi Suthep - a temple in the mountains at 1,056 metres. We took an elevator rail to the top since were in a hurry (we had wanted to walk up). The monastery was built in 1383 by King Gue-Na. At left is the spiral pagoda - big chedi - which contains relics of Lord Buddha. We did walk back down the 300 steps though - which wasn't all that many after all!

Next we travelled back down the winding mountain roads to an elephant camp. We started with a one hour trek through the jungles - a journey taken by Stallone for one of the Rambo movies.

Elephants are much revered in Thailand - the Hindu elephant God Ganesh is the son of Shewa and is an integral part of the Hindu faith. He is the God of Intelligence and Success.

After watching the elephants head to the river for a bath, we were entertained with a display of 'skills' / tricks learned by the elephants - from lumber hauling and bell ringing to playing soccer and basketball. Some of the elephants walked on their back legs, others on their front - and many different balancing acts also. Very impressive. At the end, they called for volunteers for an elephant massage - and so here I am getting my 'gludial massage'!

There are 6,000 elephants in Thailand, and 4,000 of those are in camps. Each one eats 250KG per DAY - so imagine how much land they require in the wild!

We visited an orchid and butterfly farm for lunch. Absolutely breathtakingly beautiful! The orchids came in many different varieties and colours and aromas. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure! (It did make me quite sad that they grow so readily in this climate and not in Canada....)


And finally it was time to head to the Chain Mai station to catch our overnight sleeper train back to Bangkok. We had a cozy compartment, and Kyle had one which he shared with another person (not so bad as he only slept there). Although the boxed dinner left a little to be desired - we survived on our snack reserves that night!

Thailand Tour Day 4

We left Chaing Rai and headed for Ban Lorcha - a hillside village community. It is a tourist based community developed to promote a sustainable lifestyle for the villagers.

Two seperate tribes were relocated here and live in nearby communities, although not integrated. Their costumes were quite different and their languages also - they are so different that the two villages are unable to communicate verbally with each other.

The people in the villages tended to be either very young or very old. We suspected that despite the governments hope to sustain village life, the youth and middle aged people still left the village to find work in the cities.

As you can see in the photo at right, their household kitchen is very basic, and the whole home consisted only of one additional room. The entire village shares a toilet - so there is not much holding the youth to the village.

Although there were farming communities leading to the village (photo at right), the landscape in the hillside villages makes farming difficult. There is not really any farming in the village to speak of.

There were many crafts for sale - but most were not made by the locals, rather were brought in for sale. One exception seems to be the woven baskets - you can see the crop drying at right. But there aren't many on sale, so I suspect they make items for their own use. And since there is much more selection and better prices in the city markets, there seems to be little reason to buy from the villages. I suspect the 'sustainable tourism' they were hoping for is not likely to succeed.

We proceeded to Chaing Mai and visited craft making sites - lacquerware, silk making, paper umbrellas, jewellery making and wood carving. Some places did not allow photos, and they were generally quite crowded, so few photo op's -sorry!

In the evening, we attended a Kantoke Dinner with typical Thai food served in the traditional manner, and followed by dances and songs by various hillside tribes. Unfortunately, Mike had been downloading photos prior to leaving, and had forgotten to put the memory card back in the camera! So again no photos!!!

Thailand Tour Day 3

We made it all the way to the Golden Triangle on our 3rd day of the tour. Again we visited many beautiful temples of varying ages - stories will have to follow as we need to go for our traditional Thai dinner soon.

Thailand Tour Day 2

And here is the visual images from Day 2 - we travelled further north (cities and temple details will follow at a future time when time permits). We continued to be awed by the ancient and modern temples and the craftmenship that goes into them.