Tim and the baby elephant being playful.

Ok, so it’s been a long time since our last post. Times have changed for all of us, and our plans, like most people’s, have been disrupted by Covid-19. But we’re doing fine, and are fortunate to be in a situation where we can limit our exposure.

Looking back at the Thailand pictures, it seems like another world now. Even though we were there in February, Coronavirus hadn’t caused significant disruption outside of China. So we were able to wander through the country, seeing temples, city and rural life. And fortunately, Thailand has done a good job of managing Covid-19 since we left, compared to the US which has had 1300 times as many cases, while having 5 times the population. But now on to happier times…

Thailand is colorful, exotic country with ornate temples and carvings, bright clothing, and deeply religious, kind people. Tim and I were fortunate to attend a guided tour of Northern Thailand through G Adventures. Since we know we don’t do well in hot weather, an organized tour made sense, but we stayed a couple of days in Bangkok afterwards to do some more sightseeing.We traveled in a group of 16 or so people, mostly couples, a mix of nationalities with quite a few Canadians. We felt right at home for the two weeks with our fellow northern neighbors and enjoyed many laughs. All of us met in Bangkok in early February at a modern hotel where our itinerary was discussed and last minute details sorted out for us.

Below is Wat Phra temple, one of our first stops. The large towers in the back are stupas, burial sites for kings. The stupas are covered in handmade porcelain tiles in fancy patterns. The temple is located in Bangkok, which is where we started and ended our tour.

Below is a reclining Buddha from Wat Phra, covered in gold leaf. His feet are decorated with mother of pearl inlay. Hard to get a picture without being 100 feet away! (no pun intended)

The food in Thailand was wonderful. Deb had some challenges with the heat of the food, but the flavors were amazing. And the street food was incredible. In Thailand, it’s cheaper to buy prepared food on the street than for us to buy the ingredients. So eating out (or on the run) is very common. The picture below is from a stay we had in a quiet town called Chiang Khan. It gets few Western tourists, and was fun to wander.

Above we have, among other things, silkworms, baby crawfish, crabs and chicken. (We weren’t too fond of the silkworms)

The town had many areas to explore, had a couple of coffee shops to keep Deb happy, and provided full body massages for very reasonable prices. Deb had the experience of someone walking on her, but Tim decided to pass!

In this town, we had a chance to make offerings to the monks. The monks walk through the town very early each morning, collecting food and other gifts from the townspeople. We provided them with food, water and some small household supplies, and were then given a blessing by them.

The picture of the monks below is from Lampang, a small village we stayed at a couple of days later.

The Lampang village was a homestay, where we lived with the locals.We had our meals with them, went on hikes, saw their school, and met the village elders. On our first night, we each received a blessing from the village head.

At the local school, students showed us how they studied. The students, with the help of a few adults, also run a small business making specialty crackers which they package and sell locally.

The food we were served was simple but tasty.

Another Buddhist temple. I hope you’ll forgive me if I can’t recall the name of this one.

Many years ago, thieves stole many of the statues, or if the statues were too large, they would take just the head. In this case, someone set a stolen head next to a tree, then forgot it or left it behind. And nature took it’s course.

In one area of the temple, we ran across a head monk and a few of his associates. They had just toured the temple, and when they saw our group they climbed up on a pedestal and began gesturing to us.

We thought this was very kind of them, to pose so that we could take photos. But our tour guide explained to us that we had it wrong, they wanted to have their picture taken with us! So we were happy to oblige.

Next stop was Chiang Mai, where we spent a few days. The street food is wonderful, so many options. Squid on a stick, roasted chicken, corn on the cob, most any kind of meat or vegetable. Tim found a little stand where you pick out whatever skewers of food you like – mushrooms, meats, vegetables, then they are grilled on the spot.

Also in Chiang Mai we had the chance to attend a cooking class, making several local dishes. But first we had to stop at a local market to pick up ingredients.

We saw several silver temples on our trip. I believe both of these are in Chiang Mai, the second one shown (and interior) is Wat Sri Suphan.

On one of our free days, we stopped by an elephant sanctuary. These have traditionally had a bad name, due to mistreatment of the elephants. But people are more aware now, and the centers have adjusted to be more of a sanctuary than a sideshow. The elephants are not ridden, and don’t perform “tricks”. Instead, the guests learn about the elephants, feed and bathe them. In return, the tourists provide the funds to care for and feed the elephants. We got to interact with about half a dozen elephants, including a 3 month old baby.

As we continued our travels, we had the chance to try out many restaurants. Our guide usually gave us the choice of “Western-like” or traditional restaurants, our group always chose to go traditional. Below is the kitchen from one of our stops. Amazing that they can run a small restaurant from this kitchen, yet some people need an 8 burner stove in a gourmet kitchen to make a meal!

Looking forward to our good meal.

We had a stop at the bridge on the river Kwai.

And then headed to a quiet riverside resort for a couple of days. More of a luxury resort than a cultural experience, but we didn’t mind a couple of days to relax and enjoy the food. We took river boats a couple of kilometers to get to the resort.

As we made our way back to Bangkok we saw a few more temples.

This Thai boy was fascinated by our group, and spent his time explaining to two of our ladies everything that was going on – in Thai of course. He also borrowed their hat to try on.

At this monk university, we had the chance to speak with a monk for an hour or so, learning about their traditions and beliefs. The monks run their own universities – the monk we talked to had a couple of PhD’s, and spoke several languages. His words made a lot of sense – similar to our own beliefs about life. (By the way, Buddhism can be either religious or secular- there is no conflict in following secular Buddhism (including meditation) along with another religion such as Christianity)

Human interest story from Deb: “Our tour guide was a delightfully “sassy” one! She had a wonderful sense of humor and did everything she could to make people feel comfortable. Our first night on the train was interesting one. We had a gruff woman of around 65 years of age who came for our food order. As we were still learning our pleases and thank you’s in Thai, we had a hard time following what she was trying to convey. We were supposed to pick something off the menu for the evening meal and morning coffee, but she would show the menu and give you about 30 seconds before demanding an answer. One of the members of our tour got very intimidated by her gruff manor and another just pointed to the menu and said YES without understanding as she did NOT want to be yelled at. Ha! We all had such a good laugh. But the laugh was on us, we all had ordered a beer for the evening only to receive a non-alchoholic watered down brew. I guess having alcohol on the train is not okay with the Buddhist religion. Our sweet 65 year old gal was probably having a good snicker!”

Getting off the train was absolute chaos as many of our crew did not know that trains stop for a brief moment and you must be ready with all luggage and bags to depart quickly. Since several were still getting shoes on, it was a mad scramble. But we all managed to get off the train and find our bags again.”

We eventually made it back to Bangkok, where we said goodbye to the tour group. We then had a couple of days to sight-see on our own. We toured the Grand Palace, and the White temple, among others.

One of the many wall paintings at the Grand Palace.

Next stop- Zion Park, Utah for a month of hiking. But until the next post, (soon!?!) a couple of final pictures.

Sunset over the river.

Street vendor selling snacks to our tour guide.

Bye for now.