Flying with the Gibbons
After riding on elephants, it was time to go higher . . . up to the sky . . . to fly with the gibbons! So we hopped in a van and travelled about 45 minutes outside of Chiang Mai to try the 30 various sky …
Month: July 2015
Ride ‘Em Elephants!
When in Chiang Mai, ride elephants! On our way out to the Blue Elephant tour grounds, we stopped at a market on the outskirts of Chiang Mai to buy some exotic fruits for our snacks. Once we arrived about an hour outside of Chiang Mai, …
Riding High in Chiang Mai!
We were so excited to finally be off the bus, out of the back of the pick up truck, and in the peaceful refuge of the Amata Lanna hotel in Chiang Mai. What Aliya was most excited about was finally seeing her good friend, Sofia!
Our first day in Chiang Mai, we rode and bathed elephants on the Blue Elephant Tour (see our post Riding High)
Although Sofia did not go elephant riding with us, she did come over and spend the night with us, and of course swim in the pool with Aliya & Asher.
On our second day, we started our day with a yummy breakfast at the Cat House restaurant, before heading past the walls of the old city, which were built in 1296.
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Dragon Temple
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I think my favorite were crumbling remains of the elephants that lined the the ruins of the Wat Chedi Luang. It was so fascinating to imagine what the Wat must have looked like before the 16th century earthquake that destroyed it.
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The Temple of the Fortified City
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Temple of the Great Stupa
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Upstream to Tha Ton
After a couple days in Chiang Rai, we woke up early, had a yummy breakfast buffet at Le Meridien hotel and then went down to an outdoor shack by the Kok River to haggle our way onto a wooden boat that would take us to Tha …
Chiang Rai
After a few days of bustling Bangkok, we flew for an hour on Thai Airways up to Chiang Rai. We loved our hotel – Le Meridien in Chiang Rai – on the banks of the Kok River, with its open air lobby, infinity pool, balconies, comfy …
Thailand Adventure: Bangkok!
The volcano eruptions on Sumatra finally settled down enough for our flight to take off from Bali to Bangkok. We had an amazing Thai adventure of canal tours, temples, markets, elephant riding, flying gibbons, and seeing friends.
After a long ride from the airport to our hotel, we finally checked in to our suite with an amazing view of the Chao Phraya River at the Royal Orchid Sheraton.
We loved the convenience as well as the beautiful view of the river, tasty food, and evening entertainment at the hotel restaurant, Thara Thong, that we ate there a couple of nights.
Our first full day in Bangkok, Jenny, our guide from Tong Tong tours took us on a guided private tour of some Bangkok sites. Our first stop was at the flower market, where we all learned how to fold lotus flowers.
After buying some lotus flowers as offerings at the Temples, we smushed into a tuk tuk, for a ride to the Grand Palace and The Royal Temple of The Emerald Buddha.
The Palace was gilded, shiny, sparkly, and colorful! The Royal Palace was built in 1782, by Rama I, as his residence and office, when he moved the capital of Thailand to Bangkok (from Thonburi). The king and his court was based at the Royal Palace until 1925. The Grand Palace is made up of numerous halls, pavilions, lawns, gardens, and courtyards. It feels a bit like walking around a shiny heaven. It’s so peaceful relative to the bustles outside the white walls.
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Just south of the Grand Palace, to Wat Pho, The Temple of the Reclining Buddha – the largest reclining Buddha in the world! It is 46 meters long and 15 meters high!
The kids loved getting the bucket of coins to make offerings at the Temple.
In an interesting twist, Wat Pho is also the home of Thai Massage. This is a Hindu phallus that was used to pray for fertility.
Wat Pho was founded in the 1500’s and expanded by Rama I in 1789. It is believed that Rama’s ashes are hidden in the base of a bronze Buddha in this Temple.
Asher particularly liked the Marco Polo statue!
And of course, no trip to Bangkok would be complete for Ben without a trip to the Snake Farm at the Bangkok Red Cross Institute.
Our next day, we went for a private Canal Tour of Bangkok with Pandan Tours.
After taking a taxi to the train, we met our tour guide and hopped into our wooden boat for an interesting ride down the polluted canals of Bangkok.
Our first stop was at the Watsai markets to sample some street food and some fun and exotic fruits, like rambutans and Durian.
Then, we hopped back into our boat to see some Wats. Our next stop was Wat Absornsawan, which was a more traditional wat, right next door to Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen, which felt like a modern white lego space building.
On our way to our next adventure, we had an unexpected treat, when a man in a cowboy hat came putting up to us in his wooden ice cream boat! Forget the ice cream truck, this is the way to go – where the ice cream comes to you in a boat!
We saw some interesting wildlife on our way to the Orchid farm.
Then we went for our last stop at the Klongbangluang Community for some lunch and fish feeding on the river, before we had to take the big ferry back to our hotel.
Bali Holiday!
After an exciting 5 days in Borneo, we arrived in Bali on July 7. Cristina’s amazing driver, Kumang, picked us up and took us to Villa Zen in Canggu, so the kids could recover from the virus they picked up in Borneo. Our first day, …
Borneo Blues!
On Tuesday, we moved out of our Hong Kong apartment; and, two days later, we were on a flight to Kota Kinabalu, Borneo. While watching the safety briefing on our DragonAir flight to Kota Kinabalu, Asher exclaimed, “Hey, they copied the safety video from Cathay …