11-days in Thailand: Bangkok to Chiang Mai
July 10, 2017 - July 20, 2017
After 2 US road trips back to back, we were itching to travel internationally again so this summer it was Destination:Thailand where we traveled from Bangkok to Chiang Mai! We’d been to Europe and Costa Rica, but the idea of Thailand took us a little out of our comfort zone. We decided group travel was the way to go so we booked a 10-day Northern Thailand Tour through the travel company, G Adventures.
Day 1 & 2: Travel to Bangkok, Thailand
Dana crushing that “24-hours on a plane” look.
Dana’s Morning: “Bathe in bug spray, if you need to go to the hospital make sure you tell them you can afford a clean needle, and don’t get bitten by a monkey.” This was the sage advice I got from the doctor when getting my vaccines. What on earth were we getting ourselves into? My adventure started before even leaving US soil. I was headed first to Boston to meet Alicia so we could take the 18-hour flight to Bangkok together - and I almost missed my 11:30 am flight. Whoops! It was not the first time I almost missed a flight, but it was certainly one of the closest calls (Alicia would’ve been maaaadddd!!!). We left Boston at 7 pm on Monday. With a 12 hour flight and a 7 hour time change, we landed in Doha, Qatar at 3:30 pm on Tuesday then finally landed in Bangkok (adding on an additional 4 hour time change from Doha) at 7:30 am Wednesday morning.
Day 3: Bangkok, Thailand
We had an airport transfer booked through G Adventures to our hotel, Bangkok City Centre. After checking in, we took a short nap (Dana would have slept longer, but Alicia insisted we go explore). We ate lunch at a cafe around the corner and enjoyed our first - of many - authentic Pad Thai. It was delicious! Then we started to wander around trying to find the Grand Palace. As we were trying to figure it out, we were stopped by a Thai man telling us where to go and how much we should pay. We only understood about 50% of what he was saying, but he helped us get a Tuk Tuk (Thai taxi) and before we knew it we were on a boat ride!
In case you haven’t figured it out by now, we definitely got scammed. We later learned it’s a common scam for a person “hanging out” on the sidewalk to be in cahoots with tuk tuk drivers who take you to the most expensive tourist sites. The boat ride was 800 Baht each; however, since 800 Baht is only about $25, it's not quite as bad as it sounds. After all, it’s all about the adventure! We floated down the river on a boat to ourselves sipping the included Singha Beer (local meal and local beer-check!) and bought trinkets from a floating market. We also had a couple of sightings of Asian Water Monitors: giant lizards about 5 feet long. When our boat tour ended, we were dropped off at the Grand Palace (our original destination). Due to our unexpected boating adventure, we opted to wait on exploring the temples and headed back to our hotel where we prepared to meet our G Adventures group.
Our group had 18 travelers total, 13 of which were female. We represented 6 different countries: England, New Zealand, Denmark, Canada, Scotland, and the US. After brief introductions, we went out to our first group dinner together with our tour guide, Phil, who gave us the rundown of what the week would look like. Then it was off for a night on the town! We headed over to Khao San Road with two of the other girls: Ida from Denmark and Ariel from Los Angeles (the only other US traveler). The street was basically a giant block party where we got bombarded with all different types of music, people trying to sell us scorpions on sticks, and monkey blow jobs (“don’t get bitten by a monkey!”). We settled at a rooftop bar where we drank some beer, people watched, and played a few games of Jenga before heading back to the hotel and our first full night’s sleep since the trip started.
Day 4: Bangkok, Thailand and Overnight Train to Chiang Mai
We woke up fully rested and (mostly) adjusted to the time change. We had breakfast and met up with two of the guys in our group: Jai and Aaron from Scotland. The four of us set out to see Wat Poh and the Grand Palace (take 2). We made our way through a subway system and were immediately approached by a lady with an official-looking badge. She had us follow her out of the train station and passed us off to another man who put us in a Tuk Tuk headed toward Wat Poh. When we unloaded our Tuk Tuk we were promptly greeted by yet another friendly Thai man offering to help us. He claimed to be a teacher on holiday and informed us that Wat Poh and the Grand Palace were closed until 1 because it was a special holiday in honor of their King who passed away in October. He showed us the white and black ribbons draped around the area as “proof” of his claims. He started showing us a map of other temples we could visit in the meantime and was trying to get us back into the Tuk Tuk. Finally (you guessed before we did, we had fallen victim to yet another tourism scam) our red flags started to go up. How could Wat Poh be closed since we knew other members of our group took a guided tour there this morning? And now that we think about it...did we actually see the Tuk Tuk driver signal to this seemingly random teacher on holiday when we pulled up? Given this eureka moment, we politely declined the additional ride and opted to go on our own. The two men got very verbally aggressive yelling at us that we didn’t know where we were going and we would get lost. We walked away as quickly as we could after that.
We did, of course, get lost as we wandered around in search of Wat Poh. Eventually we made it there, and it indeed was open. It was beautiful and worth all the trouble to get there. We spent some time exploring and visited the featured “Reclining Buddha”. It was so massive, you couldn’t see the entire thing at once! After we left Wat Poh, we went in search of a place for lunch. It was HOT outside (even by Florida standards), so we settled quickly on a place that had air conditioning and free WiFi. Then it was off to visit the Grand Palace!
The security at the palace was intense. You had to pass through guards just to get on the palace entrance street. And it was PACKED! There was bumper to bumper people traffic to make it through the main entrance. We were hoping once we got inside it would disperse some, but no such luck. We got as far as the ticket booth before we gave up and pushed our way back outside. We were disappointed, but there was no way we would be able to enjoy the experience in that atmosphere. Learn from our experience: If you want to visit the Grand Palace while in Bangkok, get there early!
We headed back to the hotel to change and meet the rest of the group, and then we set out for the train station. We grabbed some snacks and other essentials before boarding our sleeper train to Chiang Mai. Our group was split on the train. We were in the back across from Jess and Graham (cutest couple from England) and next to Jai and Aaron. On our other side were Nathan and Daniel (also from England). When we first got on the train, it was still early evening and the bottom bunk was set up as 2 seats. We ate our food and chatted with new friends. We found out that we were (by far) the old ladies of the group at 33 (Alicia) and 34 (Dana- who would milk the Grandma card every time she wanted to go to bed early for the rest of the trip). There was only one other member of the 30 club (Kate at 31), and most of the group was in their mid-late 20’s. The babies were 3 young girls from England (Olivia, Catherine, and Victoria) at only 18! We continued to chat and laugh and get to know each other until around 10:00 when we were scolded for being too loud. So we settled in for the night (Dana was secretly very grateful to the grouchy lady at the front of the train).
Day 5: Chiang Mai, Thailand
We fell asleep in Bangkok and woke up in Chiang Mai around 6:00 am. We took vans from the train station to our hotel: Chiang Mai Gate. Our tour guide, Phil, gave us maps of the city and sent us on our way. We went to Old Chiang Mai, meandered through some shops, and stopped at another beautiful temple. It was smaller and far less crowded than Wat Poh, so we were able to sit closer to the Buddha. We learned that when entering the temples, you always have to take your shoes off and sit with your feet facing away from Buddha (it is disrespectful to point your feet forward). After paying our respects to Buddha, we headed back to the hotel to prepare for our elephant encounter (spoiler alert-probably the best experience of the trip). Alicia was starving and grabbed some chicken green curry to go…it was promptly handed to her in a bag. With a straw. You haven’t lived until you’ve eaten chicken green curry through a bag with a straw.
Fourteen members of our group went to the Elephant Sanctuary, and when we arrived we all were given “elephant approved” clothes to wear. Our adventure would include feeding and bathing the elephants. We learned from Phil that elephants used for “tourist rides” are treated very badly and visiting an elephant sanctuary is a much better way to experience an elephant interaction. We started our adventure by prepping elephant food (chopping sugar cane in half with a cleaver) until we each had a full basket and then we headed out into the fields. We learned that despite their massive size, elephants walk very softly thanks to their padded feet. So beware, they can sneak up on you! When feeding the elephants, we would hold our hand out with the sugarcane, and they’d grab it with their trunk. After feeding, it was time for a mud bath. Three elephants got into a mud filled pool, and we hurried to follow (we tried not to notice that the elephants were also taking giant poops in the mud bath). We scrubbed the elephants’ backs and sides with mud. If we didn’t do it to their liking, they would spray us with their trunks! Once everyone was sufficiently muddy, we all (elephants and people) headed to the river to rinse off. There was a lot of splashing on the part of the people, and the elephants repaid us by spraying us again (at least this time it was water and not mud). We got to hug them and pet them while we were in the river. Their skin feels like leather and there are lots of coarse hairs.
After our river bath, the elephants went to take a rest and we changed and were served lunch. We had a traditional Northern Thailand dish called Kow Soi, which is a red curry noodle dish (Alicia still dreams of this soup and looks for it on every Thai restaurant menu). It was ‘quite nice’ (this was a phrase we picked up from the Europeans)! Then we headed back to the hotel for a quick shower before dinner with the whole group. We went to a restaurant near the Night Market, and afterwards we did some (ok, a lot) of shopping before heading back to the hotel to get a good night’s sleep before trekking tomorrow!
Day 6: Trekking the Northern Hilltop
We woke up early and had a quick breakfast at the hotel before loading up into the back of a pickup truck. We were headed out on a 3-day trek through the northern hilltop villages. Our first stop was at a local market where we went shopping for gifts for the kids in the villages and snacks for us. Next stop was the Mok Fa Waterfall. It was a short walk to the falls where we all went for a swim in what felt like a magical setting out of a movie. After our swim, we changed into our hiking clothes and loaded back into the trucks. We stopped for lunch and got to know our local trekking guide, Nikki. We also had our first (of many) experiences with a squat toilet, which is literally a toilet basin in the ground that you squat over to do your business. And true to its name, it’s actually much easier to squat and go on than a regular toilet...and who would want to sit on a toilet while trekking in the jungle anyway? So I guess it was not so bad. After lunch, it was time to officially start our trek.
The first stretch was about 3 miles and took us about 2 ½ hours. It was A LOT of uphill and very rocky. The path was narrow, so we were hiking pretty much in single file. “Grandma” Dana took up the caboose as we wound our way through the jungle. At one point we passed by two water buffalo almost completely hidden in a muddy pond! We arrived at our first village where we spent the night. The huts were made of wood and elevated slightly off the ground. All 14 of us shared a sleeping hut that consisted of a thin mattress on the floor covered by a mosquito net for each of us. We dropped off our bags and went for a “natural shower” in the small waterfall at the edge of the village.
While we were waiting for dinner to be prepared, some of the village kids came to set up bracelets and small things to sell. We gave a few of the kids the gifts we bought at the market, and they were very appreciative. Once the kids left, it was dinner time! Tonight was our first family style dinner, cooked by Nikki. We all ate at a long table on our “patio” and passed around the bowls and plates of delicious home cooked food to share. Once our bellies were full, it was time for games. Nikki said he would teach us to play “stick game”. Nikki lined up three sets of sticks in groups of 3, 5, and 7. Players would take turns moving sticks only from one group at a time, and whoever picks the final stick loses. Nikki declared himself “Thai Champion” before the game even started. He was jumping up and down, laughing, and yelling “Noo Noo” throughout the whole game. Which of course made all of us laugh hysterically, too. After beating the group several times in a row (and getting louder and more hysterical and harder to understand each time), Nikki told us he would give us 9 minutes to practice and then come back for a final round. Nikki always did things in increments of 9. We later learned he considered it lucky since the king that just passed away, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, was king number 9 and he was a very popular king.
So we spent some time trying to come up with a strategy. We got very good at figuring out how to lose, but we weren’t sure if that would help us win (it didn’t). Nikki came back 9 minutes later and schooled us 2 more times. We finally admitted defeat and Nikki remained Thai Champion of the stick game. We chatted a little longer until our only light source went out unexpectedly (which caused everyone to scream!) and we were plunged into darkness. That was our cue to go to bed. We all trekked back to our one-room hut and cozied up underneath our mosquito nets for the night.
Day 7: Trekking the Northern Hilltop
Our (very adorable and very loud) alarm clock
We woke at the crack of dawn to a loud “MOOOO” outside our sleeping hut. Livestock, including cows, chickens, and pigs, roamed freely throughout the village. After our lovely wake-up call, we had a quick breakfast and headed out for day 2 of our trek. Today was longer (around 7 miles), but it was a much easier hike along flat stretches of land and through many mazes of rice fields. The rice fields were a sight to see. They were mostly filled with water and the most beautiful green you’ve ever seen, and our walking path consisted of narrow strips of earth roughly the width of a balance beam. It’s amazing nobody fell in! We also did a lot of stream hopping and leech-avoiding on this leg of the journey (or in some cases, if the “hop” was too wide we just sloshed right through the water).
Around midday, we reached our next village, where we had about an hour to relax. Most of us decided to take a dip in the river to wash off and cool off. The water was a lovely shade of brown due to sand and silt, and the current was pretty strong.
For lunch we enjoyed another authentic, home cooked Thai meal served on a mat laid out on the floor in the middle of the seating area in one of the huts.With bellies full, we were just lounging and taking in our beautiful surroundings when out of nowhere a giant elephant sauntered by. Just an average occurrence in the hilltop villages!
A traditional basket-weaving demonstration
In the late afternoon, one of the older men from the village came to give us a basket weaving demonstration and then it was off to visit the local school. While we were walking that way, we saw groups of kids heading in the same direction. It was Sunday afternoon, but we learned that many of the kids who live in villages farther away would stay overnight at the school. The students who attend the school are between the ages of 7-12. In addition to learning reading and math, the kids grow their own crops and cook their own food under the supervision of the teachers. After spending time with the kids and touring the school, we headed back to the village where Nikki was already cooking dinner.
While we waited for dinner to be served, we played cards. Our last meal on the trek was a feast! Spring rolls, chicken with cashews, potato curry, and sweet and sour veggies. Nikki told us he hid a chili pepper in one of the spring rolls. We ate them all to find it...but of course there wasn’t one. He’s such a trickster, that Nikki! And now it’s time for him to teach us the night’s game. He had us sit on the floor in a circle and proceeded to teach us Ping, Pong, Pang. It took a while for Nikki to explain the rules because he is hard to understand when he is excited (and he was very excited about this!). When it was time to start playing we still were not exactly sure what was going on...but we heard something about face painting? That can’t be right…
The game started with 3 people in a row saying “Ping, Pong, Pang”. The last person who says “pang” has to then point across the circle at someone. That person had to sit still and smile while the people on either side of them lifted their hands and say “hey!”. We had a few practice rounds. Since we were all really confused at first, we kept messing up and doing the wrong things at the wrong time. This prompted lots of “noo noo” and jumping up and down from Nikki. Finally he told us practice time was over. Victoria (one of the young girls from England) was the first to get an official “pang” and lifted her hands instead of smiling. Her punishment for this was a soot mustache drawn across her face. We learned the rules fairly quickly after that! Even so, we all ended up with black soot painted faces by the end of the night. Including Nikki, Thai Champion!
After a great evening of games and laughter, it was time to crawl under our mosquito netting and call it a night. Everyone was just drifting off to sleep when we heard a bug-like noise, which was promptly followed by lots of screaming. Flashlights and lanterns turned on as we searched for the origin of the noise. Someone recognized it as the sound Phil told us the lizards make, but we couldn’t find any lizards. Since the noise seemed to have subsided, we settled back down. As soon as it was dark and quiet, the noise came back again. This time it sounded even louder and closer! Again there were shouts and lights turned on. Aaron searched the whole room but found nothing. Again we shut back down, but sure enough, once we were settled back in, the noise came again. This time there were no lights or screams, just a few grumbles. We seemed to have collectively decided to just accept it and go to sleep anyway. The next day we found out that Daniel (from England) had learned how to make the lizard noise with his mouth. It is still unclear whether or not there was ever a real lizard in our bunk.
Day 8: Northern Hilltops to Chiang Mai
We woke up in our hut around 7. After coffee and a light breakfast, it was time to board our bamboo raft. The raft was handmade by local villagers just the day before. We could stand or sit on the long and skinny raft, and we floated down the river for about 3 hours. It was mostly a relaxing ride, but there were some small rapids on the second half of the journey, which was fun.
We left the river and ate lunch at a village restaurant where Nikki cooked us his last meal. It was a crowd favorite-Pad Thai! Then we loaded into pickup trucks to take us back to the hotel. We were returning stinky and tired and with new lifelong friends. There’s something about spending 3 days in the jungle that really brings people closer together!
Upon arriving at the hotel, we took a quick dip in the pool before heading upstairs for showers and naps. It was time for a night out on the town! We met the group at 7:30 and went to a restaurant near the Night Market. After dinner we got front row seats to what the locals called the “Lady Boy” show. We were expecting a drag show, but instead it was actually a show performed by transgender women instead of men dressed in drag. We learned that Thailand actually has a very large population of transgender women. The show was very entertaining with lots of dancing and lip singing.
After the show, a bunch of us wanted to go out and experience the night life. This was our party night (we did survive 3 days in the jungle after all)! We went to a club called Zoe in Yellow. It was packed! We danced as best as we could in the cramped space. It was funny that they were playing a lot of older music from the early 2000’s. We felt like we were reliving our college days! We were only able to party for about an hour since everything in Chiang Mai closes at midnight (lame).
Back at the hotel we hung out in the lobby drinking beer and playing cards. We stayed up chatting until around 1:30 am. It’s been an amazing experience not only visiting another country, but also traveling with people from other countries and cultures!
Day 9: Chiang Mai, Thailand and Overnight Train to Bangkok
The pool at the Chiang Mai Gate hotel
Dana’s Morning: Alicia and I decided to split up today since I (the old lady) was ready for a day of relaxing, and Alicia was ready for more adventure! I woke up at 8 and joined the rest of the group for breakfast before heading back up to the room for some much-needed “me” time. I lounged about until around 10:30 and then headed down to relax by the hotel pool. Kate and Cleo met me there and we enjoyed a low key poolside morning, evening though it was overcast and drizzling most of the time. After a couple of hours, the drizzle turned into a pour and we took shelter at the poolside bar where we ordered lunch. Alicia and the rest of the group joined me after they were done with their cooking class.
Alicia’s morning: I joined a few others from the group headed out for a traditional Thai cooking class at the Baan Hongnual Cookery School. We drove about 20 minutes outside the city centre where we grocery shopped at a traditional Thai market. Just finding all of the ingredients and pursuing the unique arrangements at the outdoor market was an adventure! We then headed to a home in what seemed to be a suburban neighborhood where we made green curry, spring rolls, and soup. The food was incredible and we even got a cookbook to take home with us.
ack together for the afternoon, we decided the next thing on our Thailand bucket list was to get traditional Thai massages (no, not with a happy ending!). Ariel, Aaron, and Jai joined us and we walked down the street and around the corner to a massage parlor. When we got inside, the boys and girls were split up. We changed and laid on beds made up for us on the floor. Our bodies were twisted into every possible position, which was more awkward (and sometimes even painful) than relaxing!
After our massages, it was time to head to the train station for our trip back to Bangkok. We were taking another overnight train so we loaded up on different Thai snacks (like sushi flavored potato chips and plantain chips) for the long journey. The whole group got to sit together this time and we enjoyed snacking and chatting with our new best friends. We settled in for the night around 10 (we didn’t want to get in trouble again for talking too late into the night!).
Day 10: Bangkok, Thailand
For our last official day of our Thailand adventure, we spent a “free” day in Bangkok. Our sleeper train got into the city early. We said goodbye to “the girls” (Catherine, Victoria, and Olivia), and the rest of the group went to get breakfast together. After breakfast, (yes we ate Pad Thai for breakfast-gotta soak it all up in the last few hours!) some of us (including Ida, Ariel, Kate, Cleo, Jess, and Graham) went to the MBK shopping center across town. We took the subway for the first time there, and it was quite clean and easy to navigate.
We walked the 40 minutes back to the hotel to see a little more of the city. Bangkok didn’t feel nearly as overwhelming this time after spending a week in Thailand and getting to know the culture better. Then we joined Ariel for a foot massage (which was much more relaxing and less painful than our traditional Thai massage!). We ate our final meal of the trip at the hotel (which was probably also our most expensive at 1084 Baht!), and then we went to say goodbye to our friends.
Saying goodbye to our amazing G Adventures guide, Phil
Everyone was sitting in the lobby area awaiting the arrival of the newcomers (this was a two-part trip where we only did the first part...the rest of the group was spending another week on the coast. Us old people had jobs to get back to, though we seriously considered choosing irresponsibility and going on the rest of the trip). We gave hugs to all and got a bit choked up as we said our farewell.
It rained the whole way to the airport. It was as if Thailand was also crying at our departure.
And now it was time for the loooonnnggg trek home.
Day 11: Bangkok, Thailand to Boston, Massachusetts
The 6 hour flight to Qatar was uneventful. Since we had an 8 hour layover we decided to check into the spa (fancy) to relax and unwind. We were getting checked in when Dana realized she had a problem.
Dana’s TMI (but funny so worth a share) story: I started my period. It was early so of course I wasn’t prepared and had no tampons (if this had been Alicia it probably would not have been a problem!). I ran downstairs to the pharmacy to buy a box, but all I saw were pads. It did not want to sit on a 12 hour flight wearing a pad! Not to mention the fact that I wouldn’t be able to go in the pool or hot tub in the spa. So I asked a salesperson in the store (quite embarrassingly with the language barrier...using gestures as best as I could to show what I was looking for…). They didn’t sell them at the pharmacy, but the woman told me to try the liquor store?? I thought that was odd, but I was getting pretty desperate, so I went to the liquor store to ask for tampons. Surprise, Surprise! They didn’t sell tampons in the liquor store. So new plan-I would try and bum one off a stranger. I walked through the food court scanning the crowd for women who looked like they might speak English. I targeted a woman with two grown daughters and approached awkwardly to explain my plight. Score! One of the daughters had tampons and gave me a handful. I thanked them profusely and headed back to the spa where Alicia was waiting. These are the things I feel would only happen to me. But it does make for a good story (a story which prompted my mom to gift me an “emergency tampon” pouch for Christmas that year)!
The fancy spa at the Qatar airport.
Crisis averted, we went back and forth between the jacuzzi and the pool. Our second time in the jacuzzi there was a naked woman who asked us if she could join. We both thought...weird, but we didn’t want to be rude so we told her ok. She proceeded to make small talk with us in all her naked glory. We learned she was on her way to South Africa to lead a woman’s safari. When our prude American selves had about as much as we could handle, we politely excused ourselves to go shower and change.
We went back to the pool where we tried to nap (unsuccessfully) on the lounge chairs. It was the middle of the night by that time and we were exhausted. At 4 am we finally gave up on sleep and headed downstairs for brunch and coffee before boarding our next flight. 12 more hours to Boston (and an additional 5 hours back to Orlando for Dana) and we were home. Our first G Adventures trip could not have been more of a success!
Another great Dana & Alicia trip in the books. Until next time. :)
To date, this has been our favorite trip so far. Not just for the amazing sites and experiences of traveling to a place so different from where we grew up, but for the friendships we made with our travel group. I hope we all meet again on a future adventure!