Phuket -- Living Large

Going from Chiang Mai to Phuket, the one thing we noticed is that things are more expensive on Phuket and the island is almost completely filled with tourists. Talking to one of our cab-drivers who drove us pass some of the areas and for the most part it looked like most of the places have been rebuilt after the tsunami.

I'll just shut up and let the picts speak...

Dinner right on the beach! My toes were in the sand...

Taking a nice stroll along the beach



Waking up at the crack of dawn for the 1st annual Phuket Tri-athlon...






We then took a boat over to James Bond Island, where The Man with The Golden Gun was filmed. It was about a one hour ride. The ride was very relaxing. Relaxing at the deck of the boat and feeling the wind blow in your hair (well, in my case, my head) was nice. We stopped a few times to get off and ride the canoes into the caves.

Zen-like moment and enjoying the ride...







Canoeing at the caves




Traffic jam on the 405...


James Bond Island...







On the way back to the main island, there was a chance for everyone to jump off the boat and go for a swim in the ocean. I'm not a very good swimmer but was so tempted to jump off. I thought better of it as Lauris, Alvaro and Quang went in for a quick dive.



The following day, all of us went for a half day of snorkeling. I've never actually gone snorkeling before but hey as they say "When in Rome, do like the Romans". We took a speedboat out to Khai island. The ride itself was very bumpy and I was thinking to myself, if we hit a speed bump or something, we could easily all tip over. We just all hung on and soon enough we were on our way. Once I realized that I was not going to drown with my life jacket on, I felt more at ease and was able to enjoy the view. There were so many fish of all sizes and colors. It was just beautiful. It felt like an aquarium. I had some bread in my hand and each time I tossed a piece, schools of fish would instantly converge. It was incredible!

On the way back to our villa, we got into a conversation with one of the locals. We told her where we were staying ($150/night) and she was in awe. She said that was about how much she made in a month and that it was very difficult for her to travel outside of Thailand. She wasn't upset or anything, it was just the way things were. I felt very fortunate to be able to travel and see other parts of the world and how realized how lucky I truly have it. Normally after a taxi ride, a tip of 40 baht ($1) is more than enough and the locals are more than ecstatic to receive it. It's not that we felt sorry for her and the cab driver, but we felt we would bring some joy into her face so we gave her and the driver a tip of 500 baht ($12.50). It wasn't much to us but just to see the smile and genuine appreciation on her face was priceless.

Back to the beach for massages...

On our last evening, the four of us went to see Fanta-Sea. It is a huge amusement park and dinner and a show was included. Since we had time to kill before the show, we played some of the standard carnival games. Since we were going to lose our money anyways, Alvaro and I decided it was best to chat it up with the locals and give our money to the ones that were cute and willing to chat with us.

Back to Bangkok for Earl and Aporn's wedding and the last leg of our two week journey...

Update from Thailand

** We intererrupt the normally scheduled post for the following important announcement ***

We're living large in Phuket!! The last two days we have been staying at a golf-villa. 3 BDS, Private Swimming Pool, Butler service... Golf course in our backyard. You know the feeling of the people on the "Real World" when they walk into their new home? That's the feeling we experienced. Apparently the Sheraton messed up on the rate and my sister was able to book the room for $150/night.

Here are some picts of our villa...









Okay.. back to the normally scheduled posting...

Chiang Mai - Continued

Breakfast was included when we book the hotel rooms at $30/day!! Man… I think I can live like a king here in Thailand. P’Dao meets us at bright and early with his infectious smile and we head out to the mountains to ride the elephants. This was the one thing that I knew about Chiang Mai and what everyone said had to be done when visiting the city. Mid-way thru our ride, P’Dao pulls over for no apparent reason. He then brings us these bamboo shoots with sticky rice inside. It tastes like the “yellow sticky rice” that my mom cooks that tastes sweet.



We mount onto our elephants and we’re off. It was basically a mile trek thru the trails. The trainers were very helpful and pacified the elephants. I’d figured I would ride with Nhi since of the weight disparity. The cool part of the ride when we would buy bananas and sugar cane and instinctively the elephants would raise their trunks back and we would put the food right on the tip. At first it was a bit terrifying but as time passed it became second nature. The elephant would blow air if food wasn’t given and would show his displeasure. We passed the living quarters which were made of bamboo shoots and we witness people playing checkers with used bottle caps. The life seemed very simple. No TV, no electronics, though we were surprised after the trip when a man presented us with a nice photo of our experience. It was only 100 baht so we had to buy it. He said that the frame was made out of frame was made out of elephant dung!!

We then headed off to a small village and it was cool to see how different the village people lived. A group of small girls approached Lauris and selling handmade necklaces for 10 baht/each. It was like flies approaching meat. There was no way we could say no. The lifestyle was very different that what I am accustomed to. It just opens your eyes when you see people living in hand made huts with kids running around peddling small gifts and the mom in the back hand making scarves. This is all they know and they seemed content.



We then headed off to the waterfalls for lunch. A pack of stray dogs approached us as we exited the car. They were actually very well disciplined as they somehow knew where we wanted to go and led us to the waterfall. The hike was around 2k and we sat on this huge rock for lunch. It was nice to have the whole area to ourselves. The falls were not huge but good size. P’Dao brought us barbeque ribs and rice. The dogs stood on the side and ate the leftovers. We then started to take pictures of the falls and enjoying the view. It was very nice.

Taking a quick shower...

We then head of for some bamboo rafting. This was cool and probably the highlight of the day for me. I remember seeing something like this on the Amazing Race (Season 2??) Basically the four of us boarded the raft and went down the river for about three kilometers. Somehow I was assigned to the back as the three of them sat comfortably on the perched seats. I think I did rather well, except for the time that I tipped over once and fell into the water and lost my Oakley’s. It was like a cool water amusement ride with no regulations. That's something we learned very quickly in Thailand. In America, there would normally be like a 15 minute spiel on safety regulations and stuff. Here, two minutes if your're lucky. You're on your own... There was one turbulent stretch where three of us had to get off and Alvaro was the only one allowed to go thru it. There was one point where he was holding for his life and he looked frightened.

We then headed back to the hotel for a quick shower then all of us got Thai massages. Alvaro and I had to stick with the original plan of at least one massage every other day. I think we ended up paying like 300 baht ($7.50) each for a two hour massage. The four of us where crouched in this tiny room with our own masseuse. Time flies when you are getting a massage.

The highlight of our last day was probably going to the Elephant academy and riding the scooters on the streets of Chiang Mai w/ P' Dao's daughter =)



The elephants are actually very well disciplined considering they could trample over anybody in their way. I think the coolest thing was the elephant art. The elephant would have a canvas and paint and each would grab the paint brush with their trunk and paint.



Alvaro and his massages!! We must stick to the orignal plan... At least 1 massage every other day

Chiang Mai - Day 1

We finally meet up with Earl and Aporn in Bangkok at the Beer Gardens festival. It’s basically an outdoor concert and is an avenue for people to relax and unwind. Earl looks extremely tired and jet-lagged. The two of them have been running around all day with pre-wedding errands.

My initial impressions of Chiang Mai: a lot of old buildings, the streets are very narrow and crowded, lots of people getting around in scooters. The city itself is much older than Bangkok. It also seems poorer than Bangkok. We meet up with our personal tour guide at the airport. His name is P’Dao. He’s this 55 year old man with the energy of a 25 year old. He’s lived in Chiang Mai most of his life and is basically our chauffeur for our stay. My sister Nhi and I started conversing with him in “Teo Chew” at which point Alvaro has this look on his face like “Since when did you guys learn Thai?”

He takes us to a Buddhist temple high atop the mountains. We climbed 306 steps to get to the pinnacle. There were a lot of street vendors around the area and at one point we saw cute little baby girls dressed in very bright outfits. It was actually quite sad once we realized what was going on. As we approached them, they had little cans and would say “Photo, Money”. We took a picture with a few of the girls and at one point I sat on the steps and gazed into one of the girl’s eyes. It was a look of innocence and playfulness. I felt bad that this was the only life they knew. The temple itself was nice. There were photographers all around once we reached the top asking to take pictures of each party for 100 baht. I felt bad since no once was purchasing. Everyone had their own digital cameras. We lighted some incense and enjoyed the view from the top.

There was an elephant at the bottom of the steps and we purchased some fruit to feed the elephant. It was a bit frightening to hold out the piece of fruit and have the elephant’s long trunk approach and snatch it away. P’Dao was there to meet us and took us to the Jade Factory were we saw how jade is made from inception to completion. We soon learn that these factories are quite common. Visitors would come in, there would be a hostess that would describe the entire process and in the end there would be a shop were the finish product could be purchased. P’Dao took us to the Jade, Silver, Silk and Umbrella factories. Lauris and Nhi really enjoyed the silk factory as I believed they both did their complete Christmas shopping! It is rather amazing to see how much work is involved to get to the finish product. We saw the silk warms, who then laid little eggs and there would be a machine that would extract the threads. There would be a woman stitching the threads together and designing the final pattern. The umbrella factory was also cool. There would be artists who would paint the blank umbrella and customize it. We all think Alvaro got the best designed umbrella.

At his point, we are all extremely hungry. P’Dao takes us to this new Thai restaurant high, high in the hills. He’s the funniest guy. He starts making these funny noises like that of a monkey and I play along with him and make pig noises and it would go on and on. It made for an entertaining ride. The restaurant overlooks the city and is beautiful. Unfortunately it is a Friday evening and extremely crowded. After waiting for around twenty minutes we become restless and P’Dao takes us to another place. The second place overlooked a river and was very nice. We ordered like we never ate before. I think we had like eight dishes and when each dish came out we devoured it instantly. The whole meal: eight dishes, five drinks. Only $25! We couldn’t believe it!

We then went night shopping along the streets. I’m not a very good bargainer. My sister Nhi on the other hand is the queen of all bargainers. I found some silk boxers. The game plan would be I would ask for the price, Nhi would say half the amount. The vendor would go higher. Alvaro would be side and say he wanted one too. Nhi would take over from there and get a mult-item discount. They would say no. Nhi would give us the sign to leave and we would walk away. The street vendor would scream to us to come back. We got most of our items at around 60%-70% of asking price. We stood back in awe at the master go to work…

Our tour guide P'Dao



Temple shots...







At the top..




Lauris would get better the next day.



Silkworm factory



Umbrella anyone?

The winner for best umbrella...



Important warning at our hotel!


Enjoying a nice dinner next to the river.


All this for $25!!!



Parade at the night market.





The crowd gathers for the transvestite beauty show