Chang Mai, Thailand

After a really fun week exploring Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, my mom and I jetted off to Chang Mai, Thailand, for a week of relaxation during my holiday.  I choose to visit Chang Mai because of the famous Loy Krathong (Lantern) Festival that was happening during my time off work.  I had also heard great things about Chang Mai and the variety of activities to do outside (which is something I miss since moving to the dusty, concrete city of PP).  We arrived in Chang Mai on Sunday, November 1, a few days before the actual festival started.  However, there were still tons of things going on in the city, so we jumped right into the activities.  After arriving and settling into our hotel, we decided to head to the famous Sunday Night Market which is located in the center of the old city.  A few streets are closed down and vendors set up tables of amazing handicrafts and souvenirs.  My mom and I are avid shoppers, and these weren't just the run-of-the-mill junk souvenirs you find in the markets  There were some pretty incredible finds.  I found some amazing, hand embroidered tops for around $5 each, great beaded jewelry, and some ceramic, hand-made elephant tea cups and matching teapot.  We went crazy!  And only ended up spending about $60 collectively for about 4 bags of great, one-of-a-kind finds (Woot! I love SE Asia prices).  The city was also decorated for the lantern festival so we walked to a few temples and admired the colorful decorations.  

Here are some pictures from our first night. 

Lantern Festival decorations at one of the temples in the Old City. 

Pictures don't do the scene justice.  So beautiful and colorful. 

On our first full day, we went to the Elephant Nature Park which is an elephant sanctuary for domestic elephants that have been abused in the logging and tourist industries.  We got to feed them, bathe them, and interact with different herds throughout the whole day.  It was incredible to be this close to the elephants.  It was scary at times because these animals are huge and still somewhat wild, so if they got spooked, they would trumpet and move around really quickly which was a little unnerving.   We loved it though and had a great day.  It was definitely worth the money especially know it was going to keep these elephants safe and happy.

Cheesing with my new friend. 

Baby!

The elephant kitchen.  Most of the fees to come to the park go towards feeding the elephants.  The amount of food that is required to feed them daily is absurd!  There were tons and tons of fruit everywhere. 

This is bananas....B-A-N-A-N-A-S.

Bath time.

Our elephant.  And no, I am not throwing water on my mother...it is actually going on the elephant. 

Hey there big guy :) 

Waiting at the "kitchen" door for a snack. 

Oh hi, you are close. 

Photobombed by an elephant. 

On Tuesday, November 3, we decided to explore the temple of Wat Prah That Doi Suthep which is a Buddist temple located on a mountain above Chang Mai.  It provides great views of the city below. In order to get to the temple, you've gotta climb a lot of stairs to get to the top, but it's well worth the climb. We wandered around the temples, looking at the beautiful, extravagant details, and enjoyed a great view of Chang Mai from above.  There was also some shopping and food vendors along the road on the way up so I got to enjoy some fresh strawberries (which don't exist in Cambodia most of the time or are sold for a ridiculous amount of money) and other tasty Thai treats. 

Here are some pictures from the temple.

stairs on stairs on stairs.

After the temple, we decided to go back into town to do some shopping and look for a place for dinner.  Now, I know we were in Thailand, but there are just some days where I can't eat other grain of rice or meal with noodles.  Sometimes I just need something else, so we decided we would look for a more "western" restaurant.  We found this great little cafe that looked straight out of Restoration Hardware or Pottery Barn and decided to give it a try.  We had the most amazing passionfruit drink, pasta, and caesar salads.  It was delicious and a much welcomed change from Asian cuisine. I think even my mom was a little tired of rice and noodles.

Passionfruit drink in the biggest jar ever....so delicious. 

Refreshing and pretty. 

On Wednesday, November 4, we spent the day cooking at a Thai cooking school.  We started first thing in the morning and began with a fun trip to the market.  One of my favorite things about SE Asia is looking at all the crazy and unique food in the market.  There is so much variety, exotic fruits, 20 varieties of rice (who knew!?), fresh fish and meat, and lots of tofu (my favorite!).  After exploring the market and grabbing some fresh ingredients for the class, we went back to the cooking school to start cooking.  We made plate after plate of delicious Thai food, stopping after each item to sit and enjoy it.  I made Pad Thai, fried veggie spring rolls, Tom Yum soup, green curry paste, and a green curry stir-fry.  It was delicious.  I don't know how successful I will be cooking this stuff at home, but we did get a complimentary cookbook that included all kinds of traditional Thai recipes.

Fresh grilled fish...with the bones still intact.  Makes for interesting and complicated eating. 

Tofu for dayszzz

Barrels full of rice. 

Pad Thai...that I made!

Tom Yum soup (super spicy) and fried spring rolls. 

On Thursday, November 6, on our last full-day, we decided to get outside the city and explore the surrounding mountains.  We opted for a trip to one of the most incredible waterfalls I've ever seen. It's called Buo Tong Waterfall (better known as "Sticky Falls").  It is a waterfall that runs over limestone rock formations.  The limestone feels like sandpaper which makes it "sticky" and easy to climb.  When you first look at it, you think there is no way that you will be able to climb it since any other waterfall that steep would be incredibly slippery, but not so with this waterfall.  It was so easy to climb, absolutely no problems.  We climbed all the way to the top!

Thai Tuk Tuks

Stick Falls.  isn't it incredibly beautiful?!

Mom wouldn't stop taking pictures!

Close-up.

Second Tier.

Waterfall selfie.  I'm so Asian now, taking selfies.

Getting by with a little help from the rope.

As I said earlier, we were in Chang Mai during the Lantern Festival so there were lots of activities going on around the city.  On Thursday night, we holed up in Starbucks with some hot chocolate until the parade began which was beautiful and elaborate (as are all decorations in SE Asia).  The parade headed towards the river with all the people filling in the road behind the parade as it moved.  Once down by the river, people began releasing lanterns into both the sky and the river. There were literally thousands of lanterns floating in the sky.  It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life, pictures really could not do it justice.  We opted for the more traditional floating lanterns to release and walked down the river to send it off with a wish and prayer for the year. 

Pure beauty.

View from one of the temples in the Old City.

Lantern Prep.

There they go!

Crowds of tourist letting go of the lanterns.

Lighting our floating lantern.

Putting the lanterns into the water.  All the lights on the water in the background are all floating lanterns.

After walking around the city watching the lanterns for a few hours, we decided to head back to the hotel.  Our flight back to Cambodia left the next morning, so we needed to rest and pack.  All in all, it was a great trip.  I am so glad we were able to experience the incredible festival in-person.  It was such a beautiful city, and a true highlight thus far of my time in the region.  I loved sharing it with my Mom too :)

Weekend in Bangkok

Two weeks ago I got to take my first trip, and it was exciting.  We left early on a Thursday afternoon and headed to the airport to catch our late afternoon flight to Bangkok.  We had a three-day weekend, and I had a visa run to make so it was the perfect opportunity to head somewhere fun for the weekend.  The great place about my community here in Cambodia is there is always a travel buddy (or buddies in this case).  Pretty much as soon as I mentioned heading to Bangkok for my visa run, I had two quick volunteers who graciously offered to fly to the big city, sightsee, and eat an incredibly huge amount of Thai food.  

We arrived in Bangkok on Thursday evening, checked into our amazing (but incredibly cheap...perhaps because of recent political issues in Bangkok? oh well!), and headed out to find the famous Thai street food.  We started with some meat on sticks (is there anything better than just grilled meat on sticks, I'm thinking no) then graduated to a $1 noodle bowl with some kind of chicken concoction in it.  I have to say Thailand has some of the most amazing food I've ever tasted while traveling.  I felt like we ate all weekend.  Not to mention there was a Starbucks and McDonalds located right down the road, so we started every morning there.  It's funny what you crave in a foreign country because I honestly couldn't tell you the last time I had a McDonald's breakfast in the US.  Oh well, it was delicious and totally hit the spot in Bangkok, so cheers to McMuffins! 

On Friday (which was also a Buddhist holiday), we headed to do some sightseeing at some famous temples and sightseeing spots. We visited some amazing temples, had some great food, and just enjoyed wandering all over the old part of the city.  It was also photography heaven.  

The Royal Palace and Wats

Wat Phra Kaew

Really beautiful, intricate details on the temples. 



Wat Pho.  This is a giant golden reclining Buddha.  It was literally so huge. 



Please note my amazing outfit.  I had to rent a skirt and wear my coat.  Buddha likes conservatively dressed women, so I had to oblige. 



Street Food.  Shrimp Pad Thai.  YES, PLEASE.

Wat Arun



These stairs were incredibly steep.  It was quite the excursion to the top. Also, this is my new friend Shaz, the former Legal Intern who is staying for a few extra months.  She is super fun and really amazing.

Picture with the temple. 



I'm from Kentucky, y'all.  I gotta take pictures with a horse if I see one!

After sightseeing for the entire day, we decided to go to a movie at the mall.  First of all, it has to be made clear that Asians love malls.  Seriously, they are always super crowded, and these malls are nicer than anything we have in America.  The movie theatre is also pretty extravagant.  For example, for $30 you can sit on a reclining soft, with a blanket, get a free massage and unlimited popcorn/wine/champagne while watching a new movie.  And while we didn't splurge on this (mostly because it was the Buddhist holiday so we couldn't do the all-you-can-drink-champagne which would have been the best part anyway), we did check it out.

On Saturday, we went to the Jim Thompson house.  He was an American who started producing Thai silk products.  He loved Thailand and moved there permanently.  He combined like 6-something traditional Thai houses into one big house surrounded by lush gardens into his permanent home.  He mysteriously disappeared one day while visiting Malaysia and no one knows what happened to him.  It's kinda weird, very conspiracy-theory-ish.  Google him, it's kind of fascinating.  But anyways, his house has become a huge tourist stop just because it's super relaxing and an absolutely beautiful display of a traditional Thai home and gardens.  It was a morning well spent.



Spirit House.  Whenever you build, it's important to have a spirit house so the spirits you are disturbing have a place to live.  You see these everywhere in Thailand and Cambodia and probably everywhere else in SE Asia. 

Enjoying some fresh fruit smoothies at the cafe.  Delicious. 

After leaving the Jim Thompson house, we went to Terminal 21 which is a huge Bangkok mall that has multiple stories with each designed to look like a different international city.  They have Rome, London, Tokyo, Paris, San Francisco.  It is huge and super fancy and ever the BATHROOMS are decorated to match the theme.  It was amazing to walk around in and air-conditioned which was important since it was boiling hot in Bangkok.  I also bought my first "Asian-y" item.  See the picture of the fabulous, quirky shoes I bought below.  Bright, cartoonish things are very popular in Asia, so my shoes are very fashionable.  I thought they were adorable, and while I'm not sure how much I'll wear them in normal life back in the US, they were $9 and I couldn't resist.

After leaving the mall, we walked around and enjoyed another night of Thai street food.  I indulged in some kind of coconut curry with noodles.  YUM.  We finished the night at a rooftop bar on one of the skyscrapers in Bangkok.  All in all, another fabulous day in Bangkok.



Street market full of food vendors. 



Coconut chicken curry with noodles.  YUM.



Cutest shoes ever.  I'm sure Jess from "New Girl" would totally rock these.

On Sunday, we just slept in, had more McDonalds and Starbucks, then headed to the airport which ended up being a total cluster.  But atlas, we arrived back in PP late Sunday afternoon.  Good weekend in Bangkok.  I'm glad I went, don't know if I'll go back, but am enjoying the life of a traveler these days nonetheless.