Chiang Mai Part 2

For our second day in Chiang Mai, we planned to go volunteer at a childrens orphanage.  We didn't really plan much but Caitlin read some blogs online that said you could just go there.  We had the name of the orphanage and some brief directions on how to get there so we headed out on a public 'bus', which was more like the back seat of a truck, and hoped for the best.  The driver dropped us off in a place with children playing so we walked in and said we wanted to volunteer.  The people looked at us like we were crazy (nothing new really), but after a couple of minutes we figured out we were at a school, not the orphanage we had aimed for.  We figured it out and where  we were going was just down the street.  So we walked over but found out that you must apply in advance and the minimum amount of time you can volunteer is for a month.  We definitely didn't have that kind of time (and lets be honest, I couldn't be around kids for a month) so there we were several kilometers from town with about a half day left.  I looked on the map and noticed if we went further in the same direction we would get to the botanical gardens.  We both are into plants (Caitlin really into plants).  So we flagged down another 'bus' that took us one leg of the journey, then another one to take us the rest of the way.  We got there and paid and the woman asked us if we want to walk or take the bus.  We asked how much walking to see everything and she said about 4K so we said walk.  I am glad we did because on the walking you get to see much more but I see why most people take the bus.  The maps show one trail but when you are actually walking there are several trails to choose from so we mostly got lost trying to get to the different areas of the gardens.  Most of the walking was also up hill.  I feel like I sound lazy but it is actually much harder in 80-90 degree heat.  The plants were cool a lot of vines and ferns - very jungle like.  There were also some green houses and a natural science museum we got to enjoy as well.  When it was time to leave we weren't really sure how we were getting home.  We went to the road to flag down a bus then some nice people were pulling out and said they could give us a ride.  We figured people who visit a botanical garden have a low chance of being murderers or rapists so we hoped in.  We found out that both of them had worked in the gardens for 20 years so it was fun to chat.  Back in Chiang Mai we grabbed some dinner and decided to check out the regular night market.  Not as cool as the weekend markets but found some really beautiful art stalls that we hadn't seen before.  We went to bed early because we had booked for the next day a one day trek which included elephant riding, a bit of trekking, and some bamboo rafting.  We were mainly doing it for the elephant riding because we were planning on doing most of our trekking out of Laos, which is supposed to be better than Thailand.  The trek ended up feeling pretty touristy.  We did get to feed the elephants but we didn't quite like the way they were treated.  At one point a woman fed our elephant a plastic bag.  The elephant that we had had a baby with it and the baby was attached to the mom on about a 10 foot chain so it couldn't go far and the mom would follow with us on it.  It just felt mean.  We rode on a box on the top which felt more like a roller coaster than anything else.  After talking to some people we figured out that the experience you really want is to ride it without anything underneath you on the back of the head (I probably won't pay for it but if anyone reading this ever goes to Thailand).  We did a little walk through some jungle with a local guide telling us about the plants and we also walked through a village which was neat to see.  After that we rafted down a river on these little bamboo rafts it was touristy but also refreshing and fun.  They let you steer and at one point the guide made Caitlin steer in this tricky part with rocks and we rammed into one.  It was funny, all the locals gather to watch us make fools of ourselves.  We called it an early night back in Chiang Mai and started planning where we were going next.  For our last day in Chiang Mai we saw some temples and visited the University Art Museum.  Then we booked a two day bus ride to Laos.  As I am writing I have just returned from a three day trekking trip, will post about it soon.  Much love!!

At the botanical garden

At the botanical garden

The best shot of Caitlin feeding the baby elephant

My favorite snack!!

Chiang Mai Part 1

I believe when I left off last we were leaving Ton Sai to head north to the capital in the north Chiang Mai.  We used a day for travel and took a flight from Krabi to Chiang Mai, with a stop in Bangkok.  Our stop in Bangkok took longer than expected and put us in Chiang Mai around 11:30.  The hotel that we had picked out had free pick-up but when we tried to call from the airport, the payphones ate all our change, then we got someone to let us use our their cell phone but there was no answer.  So we grabbed a taxi and still tried to get there to see if they were open.   The airport is near the city so the cab ride ended up being short and cheap which was great.  We found our hotel, we found people drinking in front of it, but unfortunately reception was closed.  We were pretty tired at that point and just wanted to find somewhere to drop our bags and find some beers so we went to the place next store.  It was a little more expensive but we figured it was the quickest option, and easier to move to the hotel we wanted the next day.  Then we set out to the local 7-11 (anyone who has been to Thailand will know what I mean) to grab some beers.  We found out that because of an election happening the next day they couldn't sell us any.  Defeated we went to our hotel to go to bed.  The first day in Chiang Mai was a Saturday, we spent most of the day doing 'errands'.  Which for us was doing laundry, catching up on blog posts, Caitlin replying to job emails, me trying to figure out how to get reimbursed for my ipod getting stolen (my ipod touch was stolen somewhere between Bangkok and Ko Samoi).  In the afternoon we also fit in a museum visit and a massage.  We found that so far we liked Chiang Mai much better than we liked Bangkok.  For one it is a much smaller city where you can basically walk to most things that you want to go to.  There is this square moat in the middle of the city which also makes it really easy to orientate yourself while you are walking around (well maybe not for Caitlin :).  The city is not as hot, the tuk tuk drivers harass you less, there was a lot more greenery amongst the city, but there is still the pleasures of Thailand like daily fruit smoothies, cheap delicious food, and inexpensive massages.  So it was a Saturday and in Chiang Mai there are night markets where they shut down streets and venders come to set up food carts and mostly homemade items for sale.  Caitlin and I headed out and we didn't really expect was about to happen.  We both became shopaholics.  The market was amazing.  Both local and tourists were in attendance.  Most of the goods for sale were homemade - from purses, shoes, jewelry, art, clothes, housewares, and most of it for under $10 per item.  We had pretty good self control and bought some things for ourselves and some presents for friends and family, after a few days in Chiang Mai we ended up shipping home a box.  In about 2 or 3 months it will arrive in Olympia.  I however will not be seeing those items for at least a year.  The next day we had booked a cooking class through our hotel where you cook 5 thai dishes, where you get to pick what you cook from a huge list and in the end you get to take home a cook book.  The class was all day beginning with a visit to the market.  Caitlin and I arrived to the class and picked out what we wanted to cook.  We both picked out all main dishes (to get the most out of our class) and we were off to the market.  It was the food market near our hotel so we had already seen it but it is a really cool market - lots of produce and meat.  It is cool to see the different produce but also the cow brains and blood patties sitting in pools of water.  So we picked up our ingredients.  Our teacher was pretty cool, he had this really strange way of speaking, almost like an evil story teller.  We headed back to where we were cooking (there were a bunch of gas burners set up in an outdoor, covered patio) and chopped all of the ingredients for our dishes.  We were making 1 serving portions so it ended up not taking too long.  One of the coolest parts, I thought, was making fresh coconut cream and milk from freshly grated coconut.  If you have never seen it before, you start with a few cups of freshly grated coconut then you add warm water.  You then squeeze the coconut over a sieve, the first time you squeeze, the product is coconut cream and the second squeezing produces coconut milk (both used in ample quantities in our dishes).  I would like to make if fresh at home but I am not sure if fresh coconut is available.  The actual cooking process was incredibly quick and easy actually.  I think the hardest part of replicating it at home will be finding the correct ingredients.  The dishes I made were yellow curry, red curry, pad thai, coconut prawn soup, and a ginger chicken dish.  Caitlin did a few of the same but also did spring rolls and Chiang Mai curry.  We also got to eat everything that we cooked but after the first dish (coconut soup, really rich) I could only eat bites of our next dishes.  It was fun to learn but I am glad I will have a cookbook to help me remember the recipes we learned.  Caitlin will have to teach people in Olympia when she gets back.  That night we went to the Sunday night market and shopped our little hearts out again.  Here I am going to break up my post because it is getting too long.  Here are some pics of the market and our cooking class.

Some treats at the market.  I have no idea what they are though.

The market went on forever.

Caitlin and I at cooking class.

I believe this was the red curry - my coconut milk is boiling.

He taught us how to make fancy plate decorations.

More cooking, do you like our aprons?

Ton Sai

 It took us about a half day to travel from Ko Samoi to Ton Sai on various buses, songthaews (open air trucks), and boats.  As soon as we were there though I was really happy because it found like we had finally found a place that was really our style.  We got a bungalow set back from the beach for about 200 baht (about $6) and saw a game of beach volleyball happening on the beach so immediately joined.  It was nice to be around younger active people with nice climbing bodies (felt like home :).  There was even this one restaurant that had a batch of kittens running around - so cute!!  Everything on the island was a little bit cheaper than where we had been in Thailand and the town we were at you could walk everywhere.  That being said the town and our accommodation was pretty primitive.  It is the slow season now so there were a lot less people than would normally be there.  That night we scheduled a deep water soloing tour for the next day.  So the next day we loaded on a boat with 5 other people and we went to an area of deep water soloing.  I am sorry to say I don't have any pictures of Caitlin and I climbing - one was because we were too busy climbing and the other was the boat was incredibly rocky because the water was not calm that day.  I liked free water soloing - it was fun but really hard.  Actually I found one of the hardest parts was getting from the ladder to the rock.  Since the water was so rocky you had to time it so when you were climbing a giant wave wouldn't come and throw you against the rock and spray water into your face.  There was a fun traverse that we all worked on and I got to the top of one of the easier routes.  The jump from the top was probably the highest jump into water I have done since I was a child it was around 25 or 30 feet.  It was scary but nothing really hurt when I hit the water.  The other routes were pretty hard so I didn't get that far but traversing was fun.  We took off to go visit a beach for some lunch and some snorkeling.  They said we would go to another climbing spot but never ended up going (we think because of tides/weather) but other groups we talked to went.  That was a little bit disappointing but the beach we went to was really nice with really great snorkeling.  There were many kinds of fish and they weren't scared of you so at a couple of times I had whole schools of fish swimming around me.  It was fun.  When we got back I had started to feel a bit sick.  Now getting sick in Thailand isn't like getting sick at home - you are immediately afraid that you have some crazy tropical illness like malaria or dengue.  I chugged water, orange, juice, and tea hoping to feel better.  By the night my ears hurt and I thought I was going to have an ear infection.  But by the morning it had cleared up and my theory is some water got in my ears when I jumped down into the water earlier in the day.  I hadn't wanted to book any climbing for the next day not knowing how I would feel but since I felt good we decided to see if we could do a half day climbing trip.  Caitlin has had a shoulder injury and I am sort of at a low point as far as being interested in climbing but just looking at the walls in Ton Sai you can't be there and not want to climb.  So we booked an afternoon climbing trip and a guide took us to a wall that had several rountes that were around the 5.9 to 5.10b range.  We got about 5 routes in each - it felt really good.  We were out of the sun thankfully but climbing in that heat makes you covered in sweat by the time you are done with a route.  We were having a lot of fun in Ton Sai but as far as scheduling goes it was time for us to head north.  We wanted to spend some time in North Thailand and also Laos.  So that evening we booked a flight from Krabi to Chiang Mai that left the next evening.  We had plans the next day to rent some kayaks but soon learned in the morning that getting out of Ton Sai (only accessible by boat) was going to be a lot harder than we thought.  You have to wait for eight people to fill a boat or pay the full price.  So in order for a low stress trip we decided to miss kayaking and start our journey.  Currently I am in Chiang Mai and loving it.  Caitlin and I took a Thai cooking class today and had a lot of fun.  Need a nap before the night market tonight.  Cheers!!

View from Ton Sai beach - the tide was out

One of the walls at Ton Sai

One of the cutest kittens I could find

Our deep water solo spot

Our deep water solo boat

Lunch and snorkeling beach

Dragon fruit, very delicious and colorful in smoothies, which I have every day!

Ko Samoi

After 1 full day in Bangkok, Caitlin and I had decided to go south to the beaches of Thailand, that we had heard great things about.  We took a night train out of Bangkok, that you could sleep on, so that in the morning you would be at your destination.  The train was nice, it had air conditioning and bunks so you could fully recline.  I actually slept quite well.  I am quite proud of my ability to sleep through most amounts of motion, noise, and light - it comes in handy when you are traveling.  At some point at the beginning of the journey there was a sudden jolt that stopped the train.  We were stopped for over an hour (without anyone telling us why) and ended up getting in late to our destination.  We had missed the morning ferry that was supposed to bring us to Ko Samoi, an island off of the east coast of Southern Thailand.  This is the day that I learned when you are going from place to place in Thailand be prepared to wait.  Bring cards and bring food.  Since we missed the 9:30 ferry we had to sit all day at sort of a transfer station, where you could buy crappy food and pay to use the toilet, until the 4:30 ferry.  We met a couple from the UK and started some rousing games of Uno and Spades.  By the time we got to our hotel on the island we were hungry, tired, but mainly annoyed at wasting a whole day.  The island of Ko Samoi is pretty big - about 30 miles to drive around the whole thing.  That doesn't sound big but it was big enough where you couldn't really walk from place to place which we didn't really like.  Many tourists rent motor bikes.  We were hoping to rent human powered bikes but never got around to it.  While in Ko Samoi we mainly just looked at shops, hung out on the beach, and searched for local places to eat (harder than you might imagine, everywhere sells western food but for about 3x the price as local Thai food).  For the next day we booked a kayaking and snorkel tour out to a marine reserve about 15 miles from the island.  The tour was pretty fun it took us to a really beautiful green lagoon, a ok snorkeling location, but the best part was the amazing rock formations coming out of the water.  The tour was ok - I guess we didn't really enjoy it as much as we could because we felt sort of out of place as far as the crowd.  For one, everyone was a couple except for us and most of them didn't seem very active so when we would kayak it would only be for about 45 minutes at at time.  It was at this point that we also decided that was how we felt about the crowd at Ko Samoi - not really our scene and we decided to look for something else.  We had gotten a suggestion from our friend Chas about a small climbing hippy community called Ton Sai.  I will do that part in another blog post - stay tuned.  See photos from our boating/kayaking/snorkeling trip below.

The green lagoon (salt water lake connected to the sea via underground tunnels).

Caitlin and I at the green lagoon

Kayaking

Cool rocks

More cool rocks

Another lagoon that we got to kayak to

Kayaking

Love Hate Relationship with Bangkok

I have been in Thailand for about a week and a half now, but to be honest it has felt like a lot longer than that.  I think because in New Zealand my pace of doing things is much slower than the pace we keep here.  I arrived in Bangkok around 8 in the evening and checked into my hotel without much difficulty.  I was pretty tired from my 15 hours of flying so I set my alarm for when I needed to meet Caitlin and went to bed.  My alarm went off at 2 am and I went searching for Caitlin.  I found her in the lobby - it was really great to see someone from home.  She was wide awake from traveling, I had gotten a good six hours of sleep, and it appeared that Bangkok never slept so we went for a walk to find some beers and some food.  I believe we found both along with an impromptu dance party in the middle of the street.  It was pretty cool but we were winding down a bit so we went to bed.  The next day we woke up pretty early and the plan was to go to the Grand Palace.  We ended up talking to this guy on the street who told us the Grand Palace was closed until the afternoon.  He called up a tuk tuk and sent us to other sites that were supposedly open in the morning.  Now anyone who has been to Thailand will be laughing at this point because we fell for the classic scam that the guidebooks warn you about.  The local people will tell you that whatever you are going to is closed and send you on a tuk tuk ride.  The tuk tuk started to take us to some sites but then took us to some tailors, a travel agency, and a gem shop.  He takes tourists there and in exchange gets coupons for gasoline.  So we had to go into the tailors and gem shops and pretend we wanted to buy or he wouldn't get his coupons.  We played along but were a bit annoyed that we had wasted our morning.  Riding around in the city was pretty fun though.  In the afternoon we went to the grand palace, which was really beautiful but since we had wasted our morning we were tired and now it was the hottest part of the day.  So after 1 day in Bangkok we decided it was time to book our train ticket south.  Now don't get me wrong - I really love Bangkok.  I keep calling it a love/hate relationship.  I love the cheap, delicious, and sometimes spicy food (Caitlin and I have both had a situation where liquid was coming from our eyes because of accidentally chewing or swallowing a pepper).  I love the people (that are not trying to scam you) who are warm and helpful.  I love seeing a different culture from my own.  I love the spraying devices for your nether regions that are in every bathroom.  I love the fresh fruit and fresh fruit smoothies.  I love the $6 massages.   I love the sun and the heat.  I hate the people who are always yelling at us to buy something or take a ride with them.  I hate being sweaty all the time.  I hate trying to figure out when someone is trying to scam us or trying to help us.  So the next day in Bangkok we booked a train ticket for later that evening and did a little more exploring around the city.  We took a river ride and explored some markets, then picked up our stuff and went to the train station.  More about Thailand as soon as I can make myself sit down and write another post - much love!!

Caitlin and I in the tuk tuk

at the Grand Palace

At the Grand Palace

At the Grand Palace

This was in a bar - I thought it was a funny thing to have in a bar

 

So I did something touristy

I went on a bus tour.  I think I need to do something like this every once in awhile to remember that I am not a huge fan of touristy type activities, even though I currently am a tourist.  I am in the northern part of the north island and had plans to see the very tip (hehe) by continuing to WWOOF up north.  But plans changed, and I ended up buying a plane ticket to Thailand.  I had heard that Cape Reinga was really beautiful, and since I wasn't going to get to spend any time up north, I decided to at least see it.  And the best way to do that was a bus tour.  There were some things I really liked about the tour, but also a lot of things that I really hated.  The first thing that I really hated was as soon as the tour started, which was around 7:30, the bus driver would. not. stop. talking. and not just normal talking, the cheesy tour guide kind of talking where he kept repeating himself.  Turns out my brain cannot handle that in the morning or maybe that early I just don't have the ability to tune it out.  I become more ok with it as the day continued.  What was beautiful at that time of the morning was the sunrise + the scenery, stunning.  Unfortunately I cannot really take photos out of a moving vehicle very well.  Soon we got to a part of the tour that I really enjoyed.  There is a beach up north called the Ninety Mile Beach.  I think it is actually 90 miles long and the cool part is the beach is a state highway, so you can drive on it.  I would never drive my car on it, because I am from Washington, and have heard too many stories of people loosing their cars to the ocean.  If you ever get the chance driving on a beach is awesome!!  It was even cooler that our bus was basically the only car on the beach.  The next part of the tour was sandboarding on the sand dunes.  I almost left this part out because I didn't want to betray the true wussy that I am.  But I didn't do it.  Not because I was afraid but because I didn't want to get wet.  It had been a sunny day, but weather comes out of no where in New Zealand, and a shower was just coming up and it was freezing and raining.  I also figured I am going to SE Asia soon and I will probably have a chance to do it there and I know it won't be cold there.  We continued on to Cape Reinga, which is a place on the coast up north where the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea meet.  The place is considered very spiritual by the Maori population.  It is a really beautiful place.  It was pretty cool to see and hear the two large bodies of water coming together.  There is a little path and lighthouse that you can walk to.  Now another part of the tour that I hated.  We had dinner at a place that claims the best fish and chips in New Zealand, but we had to get it to go and eat it on the bus while it was driving.  I have to say the food was delicious but I hate eating in the car, especially in a moving vehicle.  I am not talking about snacking in a car, that is perfectly acceptable, if not preferable on a long car ride.  But when I pay for a hot, delicious meal I don't want to have to worry about the grease dripping through the paper onto my pants, or hitting a bump and having my ketchup fly off my lap, and not being able to take a drink of water because the bus is moving.  It ruins the experience of the meal.  After the meal the final stop of the day was to see a Kauri forest.  Kauri are a type of tree that grows very large in New Zealand.  There are different types in areas around the pacific but a certain type that are the longest living exist only here in New Zealand.  Then we returned and now I am cozy in my bed.  It was a long day and I am tired.  My introverted self got tired from being around strangers.  I am glad I saw the things up North but don't think I would do the tour again.  For the night I am at Farm #3 and I leave tomorrow.  I am headed to Farm #1 to store my car then staying in Auckland on Tuesday to catch my early flight on Wednesday to Bangkok.  Cheers!!

Ninety Mile Beach - the way it looked and the way the waves crashed reminded me of a WA beach (on a sunny day)

The bus driver had time to take pictures of people since he didn't have to watch where he was going.

Da bus

Lunch spot

Cape Reinga

Bench and lighthouse at Cape Reinga

This is what it looks like where the sea and ocean meet.

More of the lighthouse

The giant Kauri tree.  Sorry, no person to show perspective but it was big.

Kayaking and Farm 3.1

Usually I only do a blog post when something new and exciting has happened but since I have continued to stay at the same farm, not much new has happened but I have had a good week.  I am still at Farm #3 in the Bay of Islands.  For one day this week Kristina loaned me out to her neighbors (I am calling them Farm 3.1) who have taken a really different approach to managing their property than Kristina has.  They have an extremely neat garden and grow mainly tropical plants.  They are on a north facing slope and planted wind blocks so they created a tropical climate in a sub-tropical zone.  They even grow about 100 pineapples at a time in little pots.  It is pretty cool.  I mainly just did some pruning for them.  Below is a photo of one of their banana plants (I have been told they are not trees).

Bunch of bananas growing at Farm 3.1

 I also had a day off where I got to go sea kayaking.  It was one of those kayaks where you sit on top, which to me isn't as comfortable as the kind that you sit in.  It was free so I can't complain too much.  I saw some fish and some birds, but mainly, the highlights were the scenery and the sun.  I got a blister on my hand and was pretty excited that my arms and core were sore the next day which meant I was using both to paddle.  Hopefully someday it will just be my core.  I made a little map of the area where I kayaked (see below) and took a risk by bringing my camera along - it survived.

The red line is where i went to - then went back.  Going back was much harder.

Lunch spot

The classic self portrait

I also had a little scare this week with my wwoofer host.  We had come in from the rain one day and were planning on cooking some kale chips and parsnip soup when all of a sudden she couldn't remember what we were doing and she was very confused.  I was really worried and thought she might be having a stroke but she felt fine but just would ask me what we were doing over and over and never remember what I was telling her.  Her husband took her to the doctor and it turns out nothing was wrong she just had an episode of TGA (transient global amnesia).  Which just goes away on its own and usually doesn't happen again.  I am glad she is ok and we are back to cooking and working in the garden.  Today I made parsnip soup and my first bechamel sauce.  Someday I will have a kitchen again and will be able to experiment with it.
I am going to Thailand in less than a week couldn't be more excited.  I got my typhoid shot and malaria pills.  I have gotten a lot of good advice from friends who have been there and starting to separate my stuff in to things I am bringing with me to Thailand and things I am stashing in my car.  Turns out I am bringing a lot less stuff to Thailand than I brought to New Zealand.  Anyways I my next post will be from there.  Enjoy the sunrise.