I think it will be easier for me to write (and you all to follow) if I write it out by day....
Saturday, July 28th- Buses, airports, airplanes, and taxis. That pretty much sums up the whole day. We left my apartment early Saturday morning to catch our 10:40am flight. We were going to Chiang Mai first but it was cheaper to buy a round trip ticket from Seoul to Phuket (which was where we ended our trip) and then buy another round trip from Phuket to Chiang Mai. It seemed like the perfect plan... unfortunately it wasn't so perfect. Our first flight we were supposed to have a layover in Bangkok and then onto Phuket, where we would switch to our other airline and end in Chiang Mai (getting in around 10pm). The airline somehow had this sneak attack on us and we had to stop in Hong Kong and THEN go to Bangkok. Why this was nowhere stated on the ticket, I have no idea... So, it was 3 hours to Hong Kong, a pointless 45 minute wait (I swear like 5 people actually had Hong Kong as their final destination) and got back on the plane. Then, it was another 3 hours to Bangkok. The nice thing was we got a meal on each of these 3 hour flights. Asian airlines sure do how to treat their customers well! The food was actually good too. Woo hoo. Anyways, we're a little nervous because we were delayed a little in Hong Kong and we only had an hour layover until we were supposed to go to Phuket and if we missed our flight to Phuket, we would miss our flight to Chiang Mai.... but it actually ended up in our favor! We missed the flight to Phuket, but we explained to them how we were actually going to Chiang Mai that night. After much teasing (why would you fly south just to fly back north...good question) and a little waiting, they put us on a flight to Chiang Mai directly from Bangkok even though our flight through the airline was only supposed to go to Phuket. Thank you Thai airways!!! So we ended up in Chiang Mai earlier than expected and saved about 3 hours of travel time. It was only a 20 minute taxi ride to our hostel and it was pretty cheap. We got to our hostel, settled in and went to bed. We were in Thailand!!! Successful day number one.
Sunday, July 29th- Sunday we slept in a little because we had no real plans for the day except to meander around Chiang Mai and see a temple. We woke up and scrounged up some food at the oh so American 7-11 and headed up to the main temple Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep.
For those interested in some history...thanks to my friend Wikipedia...
"The original founding of the temple remains a legend and there are a few varied versions. The temple is said to have been founded in 1383 when the first chedi was built. Over time, the temple has expanded, and been made to look more extravagant with many more holy shrines added. A road to the temple was first built in 1935.
According to legend, a monk named Sumanathera from Sukhothai had a dream; in this vision he was told to go to Pang Cha and look for a
relic. Sumanathera ventured to Pang Cha and is said to have found a
bone, which many claim was Buddha's
shoulder bone. The relic displayed magical powers; it glowed, it was
able to vanish, it could move itself and replicate itself. Sumanathera
took the relic to King Dharmmaraja who ruled the Sukhothai.
The eager Dharmmaraja made offerings and hosted a ceremony when
Sumanathera arrived. However, the relic displayed no abnormal
characteristics, and the king, doubtful of the relic's authenticity,
told Sumanathera to keep it.
However, King Nu Naone of the Lanna Kingdom
heard of the relic and offered the monk to take it to him instead. In
1368 with Dharmmaraja's permission, Sumanathera took the relic to what
is now Lamphun,
in northern Thailand. The relic apparently split in two, one piece was
the same size, the other was smaller than the original. The smaller
piece of the relic was enshrined at a temple in Suandok. The other piece was placed by the King on the back of a white elephant which was released in the jungle. The elephant is said to have climbed up Doi Suthep, at the time called Doi Aoy Chang (Sugar Elephant Mountain),
trumpeted three times before dying at the site. It was interpreted as a
sign and King Nu Naone ordered the construction of a temple at the
site."
Interesting? Maybe, maybe not... But back to our story. We took a red taxi (a pick up truck with benches and a top in the back) up to the temple. It started to sprinkle a little on the way up but luckily that was the only rain we saw all week, despite the tropical storm Vicente passing over Thailand just days before. Phew! More pictures on my photobucket but here's a preview!
So much gold!
After the temple, we walked around the inner square of Chiang Mai. The city is the second largest in Thailand but the inner square is surrounded by a little river moat type thing (good explanation I know...) There are about 394802 temples on the map of Chiang Mai but we decided to walk on one road and head to another temple they recommended. On the way back from temple 2, we stopped for a Thai Massage which we had heard really good things about... Basically, the masseuse uses all parts of their body to massage you, feet, hands, elbows, they even put their whole body on top of our backs at the end! Maybe this is a good time to mention that clothes are still worn during these massages! Molly and I have mixed reviews. I thought it was great, Molly thought it was painful. She actually has a bruise from the lady's elbow! I left feeling relaxed but I guess it might not be for everyone!
After the massages, we rested in our hostel for a little bit before dinner. Later, we got some Thai food (spring rolls and curry) and headed to the night market where we planned on buying whatever our heart desired. However, our hearts didn't really desire a bunch of touristy stuff so we ended up not buying anything but some dried mangoes and I got a little elephant picture. It was still cool to see though, there were SO many people selling so many things that by the end of the street we were pretty overwhelmed! We went to bed pretty early because we were tired from the day and had to get up early for our visit to the elephant park!!
Monday, July 30th- Elephant Love Day!!! That's what Molly and I called it at least because we were spending the day at the Elephant Nature Park north of Chiang Mai. This park is a sanctuary with 35 elephants who have been rescued from logging and trekking. We got to spend the day feeding the elephants, watching them walk around, and even bathe them in the river. It was truly an amazing experience. At the end we watched a documentary of how elephants are treated in order to get them to become "submissive" so the elephants can be working elephants. It was heart wrenching and difficult to watch. Logging became illegal in 1989 so a lot of elephants were unemployed and were put into the tourist industry. People bring elephants on the street and use them to take pictures with tourists and make money that way. The government doesn't do much to stop these things. Maybe it doesn't sound too bad, taking a picture and what not, but if people knew that they kept this animal tied up for days as part of a method called "crushing" to get the elephant to be submissive and trained, maybe people would think twice. The documentary even showed elephants getting stabbed in the eye and anywhere else while restrained. One of the elephants at the sanctuary was blind after getting stabbed in both eyes when she wouldn't work after her baby died on top of a mountain. So no, we didn't ride an elephant, we didn't see an elephant painting pictures or doing tricks, what we saw was elephants who were given a safe and caring place to spend the rest of their life. I have so much respect for the woman, Lek, who started this program with just 4 elephants and 50 acres of land. It shows how much one person can do with dedication. I've now added buying an elephant to my bucket list to go to the sanctuary. If anyone wants to donate, let me know! I feel like I could say so much more about this day but I have to stop somewhere! Overall, as depressing as the reasons were that brought these elephants here, it was an amazing day!
Tuesday, July 31st- Thai Cooking Class! I had never really had much Thai food before, there's a Thai restaurant in St. Paul that my grandma took me to before I left for Korea and that was pretty much it, well and plus the Korean version of Pad Thai at a chain company called Noodle Box, which I can guess isn't too authentic. Either way, despite my lack of knowledge of the cuisine, I was really excited to take a cooking class! It was about 30 bucks and we got to make 3 dishes, pad thai, green curry, and a soup. My favorite was the Pad Thai for sure. So delicious! The lady who taught the class, Yui, was an excellent teacher and was really funny plus there were only 8 of us in the class so it was a nice atmosphere. She would demonstrate a dish, and then we would go and cook it with her helping us throughout the dish, then we would take a break and eat our dishes. I had pad thai a lot throughout the trip but the one I made was definitely my favorite. Maybe because the ingredients were fresh and I could control the sweet vs salty, or it was just the fact that I made it myself!
We also went to the market where Yui buys the ingredients for her dishes. It's so easy to forget that different parts of the world grow such different fruits and vegetables! One of them being the rambutan, tasted like the lychees I had in France (do those exist int he US? I don't know...) but it definitely looked a lot more exotic!!
A pretty little rambutan!
After the cooking class, we didn't have much to do since our flight to Phuket wasn't until 11pm so Molly and I sat around in a park and decided to walk the whole square of Chiang Mai. Nothing too exciting, but we got to just look around the city some more and be content with the fact that we were walking around in Thailand! We got some more Thai food and headed to the airport!
Well, Chiang Mai, what a beautiful city! It had so much tradition mixed in with modern day things too. The people were SO nice and the food was delicious. I had a great time there but I was also excited to get to the more "tropical" part of Thailand and relax on the beach. Phuket, here we come!
No comments:
Post a Comment