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  • TravelerThailand with Gi - 2024
    Day 22–28

    and here we are...

    April 23 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    After an overnight in Trat, we took a songthaew taxi to the pier to catch the Boonsiri Ferry to the very chilled island of Koh Kood also known as Koh Kut, in the Gulf of Thailand. The ferry ticket includes transportation to your hotel which is good because the beach we chose, Ao Phrao Beach is the most southern beach on the island but it's also supposed to be the most beautiful. We've been excelling at extreme laziness here and have not ventured off this beach, so I can neither confirm nor deny this.

    Beach life is the best! This beach in particular is almost perfect. Fine, soft sand, in appearance and touch. Calm, crystal-clear, blue-like waters with the gentlest of waves courtesy of a constant and welcome breeze that almost makes one forget the low to mid 30s' temperature. Apart from the usual coconut and almond trees one often sees beachside, there are also many coastal sheoak trees (Casuarina equisetifolia). They look like pine trees and even have needles and cones! https://pfaf.org/User/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Casu…

    Jellyfish are also in the hood (see attached pic of a poor swimmer being swarmed by said j-fish). Apparently they make the occasional appearance in the Gulf of Thailand - https://iamkohchang.com/blog/box-jellyfish-in-t… - but not, thankfully, in April as it's too hot, especially this year. We swam freely and without incidence...phew because I've been stung by a jellyfish, not a box jellyfish thankfully, but it still hurt like fuck! It happened in Sayulita, Mexico a few years ago and I thought I was having a heart attack until I saw all the red welts across my chest.

    More pics in the next post along with the less than perfect side of beaches in Thailand.    Read more

  • TravelerThailand with Gi - 2024
    Day 17–19

    almost done...Khao Yai National Park

    April 18 in Thailand ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C

    Our trip is winding down...we are actually on an island a little Southeast of Bangkok, our last stop before going back to Bangkok for our flight home. On our way here from Chiangkhan we stopped in Pak Chong for a couple of days where we rented a scooter to get to the nearby Khao Yai National Park for some hiking, went back to Bangkok for a couple of days to experience a floating market, onwards to Trat which is a couple of hours South of Bangkok and serves as the main jumping off point for ferry rides to a few islands.

    The hikes were OK but not spectacular since it is the hot season and without rain, the waterfalls in the park are mostly dry. Also, of the 9 available hikes, 6 have to be done with a park ranger for an additional, rather substantial fee, so only 3 hikes were available to us. We saw birds, butterflies, monkeys, a lizard or two, cool flora, and lots of elephant poo, some of it pretty fresh which had us a bit nervous, but we never saw any of the great beasts.     Read more

  • TravelerThailand with Gi - 2024
    Day 16

    Trip or Adventure?

    April 17 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 37 °C

    A trip or an adventure? Same same or different? What are we on? Let me see...walking dozens of kilometres on city streets in 40+ celsius (up to 47 with humidity) temperatures, sometimes taking third class trains and buses with no a/c still in those crazy temperatures, hiking up 7 levels in Erawan National Park for waterfalls, avoid getting mugged by monkeys on streets and temple of Lopburi, riding 3 up on a scooter at night with no helmets (wasn't our choice but we got stranded after visiting a night market and there was no other way to get back to our hotel), crashing on bus station seats overnight to catch 5 am bus to get to Phu Kradueng National Park, then same day hiking three hours up a steep rocky mountain path to sleep in rustic cabin on mountain top to see a sunrise then tough hike back down the mountain, taking a bike ride and a songthaew through water-throwing/splashing locals during Songkran - the water-splashing festival celebration of the traditional new year that is widely celebrated across South and Southeast Asia from April 13-15 or 16, adventures and misadventures trying to communicate with locals for transportation and food where there are very few foreigners so very few locals speak English (Google Translate with camera and microphone has been a huge help!), ripping up toe, etc. I think I'll go with adventure.Read more

  • TravelerThailand with Gi - 2024
    Day 14–17

    Charming Mekong town

    April 15 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 34 °C

    Chiang Khan, once a sleepy, little-known Mekong-side town in the Northeast of Thailand. The main street, Th Chai Khong, that runs parallel to the Mekong river, short streets that run off Th Chai Khong, and the waterfront walking and biking path are all full of traditional timber houses and shophouses. This place couldn't stay a secret forever, at least not to Thais, and it's became a trendy destination for well to do Thais and is now full of gift shops, cute cafes and places for taking selfies. We encountered very few westerners here, and spent a few lazy days walking Th Chai Khong, the small streets, and the waterfront, where everything was very quiet and peaceful in the daytime before the evening shopping and eating begins. Every evening Th Chai Khong turns into a busy Walking Street market with buskers, artists and street-food vendors. We saw a lot less than there might normally be as we arrived towards the end of the Songkran festival and most vendors and Thais in general seemed to have stayed home.

    So we strolled, we drank, we ate, we chilled, we took pictures...    Read more

  • TravelerThailand with Gi - 2024
    Day 12–15

    Songkran festival!

    April 13 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C

    After monkey madness, it was time for a little water madness. The Thais, like other South and Southeast Asian countries, celebrate Songkran. In Thailand, it is also known as the Thai New Year and is celebrated on April 13. It is a national holiday that the government nicely extended for a week (April 9 to the 16th), but the fun, for most youngins' and foreigners anyways, is that Songkran is also celebrated by splashing water on people, usually starting on the 13th, and lasting until the 16th.

    As a symbol of renewal in Buddhism, water is splashed on statues of Buddha for good luck. For most of the younger people though - kids to young adults - it's all about the water fights - fun, celebratory mutual splashing. There is a lot more to Songkran, and a deeper history but I'll leave it up to you the reader to do a deeper dive if you so choose.

    Groups and families gather on the sides of roads in cities, towns, and all places in between. They fill up buckets, barrells, small pools, whatever can hold lots of water, and arm themselves with small buckets they use to throw water at people, and all manor of water guns. People who walk, ride or drive by are all targets so you better be ready to get splashed! Those who drive by are often in trucks and they too have all sorts of water containers, buckets, and water guns...and the mayhem begins! Another cool part of the festival is Thais applying powder or a powdery paste to people's faces as they go by. This appears to be a symbol of friendship and good wishes and we happily accepted when approached and asked if they could apply it to us.

    Timing being what it was, we were fortunate - because trust me, being splashed with water when 40+ degrees outside is amazing - to be in one town, Sukhothai, at the beginning of the festival, and another town, Chiangkhan, for the last days of it. In Sukhothai we hung out with the kids of the wonderful manager or owner of the guesthouse we were staying at (Smilingface Guesthouse) on a busy corner of the old town and got right into it. The kids seemed to take particular pleasure in dunking Gi and I over and over again with pails of water. I loved seeing the pure pleasure on the faces of the young kids, and the mischievous grins of the older ones as they doused each other, and us, over and over. Great fun!    Read more

  • TravelerThailand with Gi - 2024
    Day 8–10

    Monkey Madness in Lopburi

    April 9 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 36 °C

    Oh sure, the Khmer ruins are cool, but the main draw for many who visit Lopburi, a laid back town about 3 hours north of Bangkok, are the macaques. They are plentiful, sometimes playful, sometimes agressive, and always looking to steal your food or maybe even something shiny that's not firmly attached to you. Thankfully, they mostly stick to the area around the train station, the Khmer shrine - San Phra Kan - and the Khmer temple - Phra Prang Sam Yot, which is where they climbed onto Gi.
    https://apnews.com/article/thailand-lopburi-mon…

    Apart from monkeying around, we also ventured out to the...interesting Cat Cafe & Hotel where one can enjoy a tasty beverage in the company of about a dozen cats running around. I imagine some cat non-likers are shaking their head in disbelief right now. It was weird for sure, even for a cat lover like myself but it was fun. The owner just likes cats and has built a very swanky place for the cats to live and play. The other activity we engaged in, and the one that got us stranded about 8km from our accommodations, was the pretty cool Z-1 night market. We left at about 8pm which was apparently late enough for there to be no buses, no taxis, no tuktuks, no way to get home. Fortunately, I had a Thai SIM card and was able to call Pee, the owner of Pee Homestay & Massage, where we were staying, who got her cousin to come pick us up. And that was how we ended up being three people on a scooter, at night, zipping along at decent clip, wind blowing through our helmet-less hair.

    On to Sukhothai next!    Read more

  • TravelerThailand with Gi - 2024
    Day 6

    elephants

    April 7 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    To elephant or not to elephant, that is a question many ask themselves when visiting Thailand. In 2024, it's not a question of riding or not riding an elephant as a consensus seems to have been arrived at that that this is a bad thing for the elephants, https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2023/03/2… . So just hanging with, feeding, and maybe cleaning them is OK, right? Well, that depends on what expert you read or talk to, and of course, what environment the elephants live in. Some experts believe that humans should not be interacting in any way with Elephants and should only observe them. Other experts believe the type of elephants in sanctuaries (rescued, abused, sick, etc.) are already used to humans and it would be detrimental to them to not have any contact with humans.

    We found an elephant sanctuary called Elephants World near Kanchanaburi that  was established in 2008 as a secure haven for sick, disabled, elderly, abused, and rescued elephants that have nowhere else to turn. https://www.elephantsworld.org/

    Assuming what we have heard and read about them is true, they provide these "majestic creatures with a chance to rest and recover, allowing them to live out their days in a secure environment filled with the happiness and joy they deserve."

    So we decided to go and we are glad we did. It's kind of funny, and our guide at Elephants World, who was responsible for a group of about 15 of us, even joked about it, that we were paying to work. We carried big containers of sweet potatoes to feed the elephants and then fed them. We then took jeeps to another area for more feeding then bathing, of the elephants, not us. On the way, we stopped next to a field with stalks of cane (* check the correct plant) where we were instructed to chop a bunch up and load them into one of the jeeps. We continued on and finally stopped to feed the stalks to the elephants, and enjoyed some extremely close interactions with a few of them. Then into the muddy (and sometimes poopy) give the elephants a mud bath, mud scrub and finally a rinse.

    They are beautiful, majestic beasts and I feel very fortunate to have had this close encounter with them, and that they didn't stomp us into dust.    Read more

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