R&R in Krabi

After a busy month on the move throughout Southeast Asia, Sarah and I were ready for a relaxing week on the beach in Krabi. Our schedule, combined with our various colds, wore us out a bit and this “vacation from our vacation” really helped recharge our batteries.

We split our time in Krabi between two hotels to get a feel for the whole area here. Krabi (the general region) encompasses several beaches and two towns, Krabi Town and Ao Nang. Our first three nights were at Rimlay Villas, right on the beach closer to Krabi Town; our last four nights were at the new Poonsiri Resort, which is further away from the ocean but closer to Ao Nang. For the most part, we spent our days relaxing and reading by the pool or on the beach. I set aside some of the more serious non-fiction I’ve been reading recently, instead opting for some more appropriate beach reading: Tina Fey’s Bossypants and Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train. Both very entertaining light reading. Sarah read Defending Jacob, which she highly recommends, and The Handmaid's Tale, which she does not recommend.

The highlight of our trip was a private longboat tour of the Phi Phi Islands. The Phi Phis are about an hour offshore but almost everyone who visits Krabi makes the trip out there. The movie The Beach was filmed on the Phi Phis and Krabi became one of the most popular tourist destinations in Thailand as a result. The beaches and limestone mountains jutting out of the water were stunning – definitely one of the most beautiful places we’ve been so far on the trip!

We fly to India today and have two weeks to explore the country. While we’re waiting at the airport for our flight, we added our best pictures from Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia to our Galleries – check them out for a Cliffs Notes version of our time in Southeast Asia!

The beach was just steps from our room at Rimlay Villas.

Relaxing in the pool.

Just before sunset on the beach.

Low tide occurred at sunset and sunrise while we were there; we were able to walk out pretty far from shore to snap some more photos.

We got up early to watch the sunrise.

Strolling on the beach at sunrise.

Like I said earlier, we didn't do much during the day. So most of our photos are from sunset or sunrise when we left our hotel. Here is a shot of sunset at Ao Nang Beach.

There were a lot of other tourists on the beach for sunset, so we didn't have any trouble finding someone to take our photo.

First stop on our tour of the Phi Phis: Bamboo Island.

We pulled into a small bay for snorkeling...

...and had fun swimming around for an hour or so.

After snorkeling, we headed to Monkey Beach.

In Thai, this sign actually says "Beware the vicious monkeys." The monkeys are pretty aggressive and have no fear of humans so we kept our distance (though some tourists were happy to let the monkeys climb on them...).

An aptly named longboat at Monkey Beach.

Soaking up the sun.

We found a secluded beach with only a few other people on it after lunch.

After a few minutes, though, everyone else left. So we had the area entirely to ourselves. We stopped by the famous Maya Bay (the exact location where The Beach was filmed) but there were literally hundreds of tourists there so we didn't stay long. We had a much better time exploring the less populated areas - the natural beauty is the same and there are no crowds!

Another sunset at Ao Nang Beach.

Poonsiri Resort. Not that close to the beach, but still very nice!

We took a longboat to Railay Beach for our last day in Krabi.

We weren't the only ones with this idea! The beach was great though - very fun way to spend the day.

Riding back to Ao Nang we passed this huge limestone island.

We had a great week in Krabi and would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Thailand! Our plane to India is boarding soon so we're off to new adventures there!

Top Takeaways - Sixteen

As our first foray into Southeast Asia proper, Thailand has been a great jumping off point. We are spending the next three weeks in Vietnam and Cambodia until returning to explore Thailand's notoriously beautiful beaches. Here are our top takeaways so far.

This is how a traditional Thai massage ends!

1. Thai iced coffee and iced tea are amazing, once you get used to the sweetness! They are always available - on the street and in restaurants - and really help to beat the heat. But be prepared...they are super sweet!

2. Mosquitos are no joke. We've been through a bottle of bug spray already and take our malaria pills daily but still wound up with a ton of swollen bites.

3. The music of choice at hotels and restaurants consists almost exclusively of American covers - slower versions of recognizable songs, which has been somewhat amusing to us. Imagine smooth jazz versions of Ke$ha's songs...

4. Thai massages are a bit different than what we are used to - lots more stretching and pulling! Also, mine ended with a fancy hair braid that I wasn't expecting (see above)!

5. Hiking and running don't seem very prevalent here. There aren't consistent sidewalks and no one could point us to hiking trails so it was hard to see how one would go about these activities.

6. People are very nice here, just like in Japan. However, unlike Japan, many people tried to hawk us various items or services, even our hotel attendants.

7. A love of spicy food is a must. We're big fans of the red chili sauce used in most dishes - which is good because it's hard to find bland food here!

8. Infrastructure is a work-in-progress. Modern hotels and malls exist alongside produce stalls, run-down buildings and spiderwebs of electrical wires. As we mentioned in our Bangkok post, walking around is not always the best choice in getting from A to B.

9. The temples are beautiful and varied. While the Thai temples are far more intricately designed than the more simple Japanese versions, they are also sometimes more kitschy as well. We loved the older, ornate ones but found some of the newer temples (think fake animals and plastic Buddhas) to hold less charm.

10. Sanitary concerns pretty much fly out the window unless you are at a more upscale western-style place. Besides bottled water there isn't much you can do but roll with it. We prefer not to see how the food is being cooked or if the dishes are being washed - so far so good!

Peak: Playing with the elephants at Patara

Pit: Walking through the stifling heat and humidity in the industrial part of Bangkok

Next stop: Hanoi, Vietnam

Back to Bangkok

Getting across Southeast Asia has actually proven to be a bit more complicated than we originally thought. Having read that overland border crossings were somewhat sketchy (think: bribes, broken down buses and long, tiring nights), we decided to fly between Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam as air travel is still very cheap. However, this has resulted in three additional stopovers in Bangkok, which as you will note from my prior post, is not really preferable.

On Friday, we flew back to Bangkok from Chiang Mai and I swear it was even hotter and more humid than when we left. We made sure all of our Vietnam visa forms were in order and then walked to the river to catch a "water taxi" to Wat Arun. Sadly, the sun had already disappeared behind the incredibly thick haze but catching the temple at dusk was still a very pretty sight.

The temple was just closing so most of the surrounding areas were deserted.

The temple grounds were all very well manicured.

Wat Arun, sadly covered in scaffolding.

Just after sunset.

Nighttime view from across the river.

After taking in the night views of Wat Arun from a rooftop bar across the river, we headed to Asiatique for dinner and a stroll through the outdoor night market.

We woke up early this morning so we could enjoy a home-cooked breakfast at our guesthouse before heading to the airport. We fly to Hanoi in a few hours and we are both excited to explore Vietnam!

Patara

Our day at Patara Elephant Farm was one of the highlights of our trip, hands down.

We were picked up from our hotel promptly at 7:30am and driven to the farm, then spent the rest of the day interacting with elephants. The theme of the day was that we would become "elephant caretakers" for the day - so we were each assigned an elephant and taught how to look after these gentle giants. But really it just felt like fun (once we got over the fear of being squashed by one of them)!

First stop of the day: hanging out with a new mother and her 10-day old baby.

Snapped a picture with the family.

Then Sarah sat down and played with the baby for a while. He was surprisingly playful for only 10 days old!

We fed the elephants - here I am giving Lekho some bananas.

Then bathed them.

They could lay down and get up on command - Meemai was happy to let us snap a picture with her while she was lounging on the ground.

Close up with Lekho post-shower.

After an hour break for lunch, we were instructed on the three ways to mount an elephant, none of which are very easy (and not very graceful for first timers). Once we were all successfully perched on our elephants, we began the hour-long hike through the forest to a waterfall.

Lekho hardly seemed to notice me up there.

Almost time to cool off in the water.

When we got down to the water, the elephants were quick to jump right in - it was a hot day and they wanted to cool off! We joined them after a few minutes to help scrub them down.

Once we'd finished cleaning them, the trainers lined up the elephants behind us and, predictably, they sprayed us. Even though we were all pretty much expecting it, the cold water was still a bit of a shock!

One last picture of just the two of us getting sprayed.

After waiting a few minutes for the photographer to load all these photos onto a CD for us, we were headed back to our hotel in Patara's shuttle bus. The day was not over for us, though. Sarah wisely assumed we'd be a little sore after the long day with elephants so she booked us a two-hour Thai massage right afterward. The massage was the perfect way to end the day - very different than other massages we've gotten, but it left us feeling very limber and relaxed!

Spending today with the elephants at Patara was really a bucket list moment. We had such an incredible experience and cannot recommend it highly enough to everyone!

Chiang Mai

The 12-hour overnight train ride to Chiang Mai was actually not nearly as bad as I feared. Our accommodations were basic but Alex and I both managed to get some sleep before arriving right on time at 8am.

We hailed a songthaew (basically a combination between a small pick-up truck and a tuk-tuk) and in no time we were relaxing, eating breakfast at our hotel in the old city. After showering, we mapped out a walking tour of the city and set out to explore the many historic temples nearby.

The entrance to Wat Phra Singh Woramahaviharn.

Monks in training...

Lots of elephants and Buddhas in Chiang Mai.

The beautiful Wat Chiang Man.

We quickly realized that Chiang Mai is far more manageable than Bangkok - not only is it much smaller geographically, there are fewer people and less cars. The sights were easily viewed by walking around and there were ample restaurants and shops everywhere.
For dinner we headed in the direction of the night bazaar and ended up at a restaurant called Mammary Delicious (we wondered about the name choice too). Afterward we grabbed beers and explored the night markets for a bit, scoring a couple of elephant t-shirts for a very reasonable $3.

Today we woke up planning to start the day with a hike to Doi Suthep, a nearby temple perched on top of the area's highest mountain. Unfortunately, hiking appears to be something of little interest to most Thai people and we really couldn't find any suitable maps or guidance. We settled for a songteaw ride to the temple and back (a beautiful temple but completely overrun with tourists - we much preferred the less-traveled temples we saw in town) and spent the afternoon wrapping up some travel logistics for our upcoming time in Vietnam.

Standing in front of the Doi Suthep stairs. We seriously had to wait over 10 minutes just for this crowded shot.

The temple was pretty cool once we got to the top.

One of the less-visited Buddhas within the temple.

We've seen a handful of temples that display a different Buddha for each day of the week.

Everyone else was so busy with the main temple that they paid no attention to this "side temple."

At 4pm we were picked up for our evening activity - a Thai cooking class at Zabb E Lee cooking school. We spent five hours with Ann,  the owner / instructor, visiting the local market, creating a menu and cooking and eating. We learned a lot about Thai food in general and also that pad Thai - one of my favorite dishes - is actually not made with nuts, but is only garnished with peanuts at the end, meaning Alex can eat it! Ann was a great teacher and our four dishes all turned out to be delicious. What a great way to spend the evening!

First stop of the cooking class: buying ingredients from the local market.

Not the best quality image but the only one our Chef took while we were actually cooking!

Armed and ready to cook.

Tomorrow we head to Patara Elephant Farm for the day and I expect this to be the highlight of our time in Chiang Mai!