Northern Thailand Discovery Tour, Part 1

We met the 15 other people with whom we would be spending our next 9 days (excluding sleeping but that's about it) on Friday night at the Royal Hotel. Now, the Royal Hotel......you'd think with a name like that it would be pretty flash by Bangkok standards. While the entrance and foyer were fairly nice, our room proved what Lonely Planet had warned us about: Hotels in Thailand are notorious for fixing up the entrance because that's what you see before you check in, and leaving the rooms to decay. And, as this is the 3rd oldest hotel in Bangkok, decay it did. Our room had lots of water stains, peeling paint, and dirty floors but at least the sheets appeared to be clean. We didn't dare break out the blacklight for those though.
After checking in we headed to our group meeting. There, we made introductions and reviewed the plan for the tour and then went out to our first dinner together. This proved a great idea as our guide introduced us to some new thai food and we all had a great time getting to know each other. Craig and I also figured out that although everyone in the group looked about 10 years younger than us, 2 girls were over 30 as well! WooHoo! After dinner, we returned to our room which now smelled like paint fumes, and turned in for the evening.


Most of our group

Saturday morning we got up bright and early to have breakfast and then head out to see some Bangkok sights. The first place on the agenda was Wat Po, a temple housing the famous Reclining Golden Buddha. We had heard about this buddha and I imagined it to be a gold buddha, lying down, about the size of Craig but with a bigger belly. So, I think we were all shocked when we entered the temple to see a GIGANTIC buddha that literally took up the entire building, both in length and height. The buddha, made entirely of gold leaf (except for its mother of pearl eyes), is 15 meters high and 46 meters long. After staring in awe for awhile, Craig and I made a donation and were each give 108 coins. We were to put one coin in each of 108 pots aligning the wall and would, in return, be granted a blessing that meant we will be together in the afterlife. After securing our future together, we left the giant buddha and went back out into the sweltering heat down to the river where we were loaded into long tail boats and taken to another floating market. This one wasn't nearly as large as the one we went to on our own but the ride there was fun! On the way back, we stopped (in our boat) and were given some "lucky fish bread" via a bucket on a pulley system. The locals sit along the river and transport the bread into unsuspecting tourist boats and then charge you 20 baht. Clever......and we all fell for it but it was really fun feeding the fish. All you had to do was dangle a hunk of bread in the water and, within seconds, a huge catfish (or 12) would come along and gobble it up, usually with a soaking splash as a thank you.


Next to the Golden Reclining Buddha


Buying Lucky Fish Bread


Thai Boy Feeding the Floating Market Catfish

After our boat ride, we climbed back up to the street where our guide secured some tuk tuks to take us (or tuk us haha) back to the hotel. When we arrived, we were thankful to be just grabbing our things for check out as our room was now completely filled with visible paint fumes.
Next we took a 5 hour bus ride to Sukhothai where we arrived there just in time for dinner in the hotel. This is where we were first exposed to our guide's talent: karaoke. First (that's our guide's name) was very excited all day and had said repeatedly, "tonight we make party." And make party he did. After several large beers, First got up and showed off his singing talent. After a few slightly off key songs, we left the hotel and made our way across the street to another bar/restaurant where First again graced us with more sappy love songs with an outdoor karaoke system. Some of the braver members of our group joined in and it ended up being a lot of fun, mostly because First, with his beer goggles securely fastened, clearly thought he was the best singer in the world.
Some of the group stayed up drinking and playing in the pool until 3am. Craig joined them for a bit while I showered and listened to the rowdiness, and then we hit the bed for some rest before our 8am activities. The rest of the group showed up looking fairly rough in the morning but we made it out of the hotel, almost on time, and went to pick up our bikes for a tour of the historic park in town. It was raining, but that was fine as it cooled the temps and made riding around for a couple of hours (slightly longer due to First's 4 wrong turns) more enjoyable. The bikes were funny, old school style with bells and we all felt like we were in Mary Poppins. We stopped frequently to see ruins of old temples and statues of an ancient walled city throughout the park. It was pretty cool, and fun to see it by bike.


Sukhothai Elaphants


Craig and Katie by the ruins


Craig on his fancy bike

We were also supposed to go do a hike in a national park nearby but got rained out. The park closed due to flooding so we were stuck with nothing to do but eat lunch. And this is where we tasted our first really weird food of the trip. For lunch, we had chicken heart (pretty tasty if you could get over what it was), chicken intestine (or "chicken ass" as our guide liked to call it. It was nasty and fatty), and pig tongue (not bad til I saw the taste buds), all from the local market. Luckily the restaurant across the street also had normal food to supplement our weak western stomachs. After lunch, we headed back to the hotel for a nap, some pool time, and then dinner back at the karaoke restaurant.


Lunch: Catfish, Tongue, and Chicken A**

Next day, we met our bus at the petrol station! This is because we had to get on before the rest of the public in order to get seats. So, somehow, our guide arranged for us to bring our bags to the petrol station where the bus stopped to pick us up before pulling into the bus station just up the street. We were on the bus for about 5 hours before reaching Lampang. Once here, we went to a shopping center for lunch (sounds strange but Thailand is actually known for having really good food in its food courts). Not only were there tons of people eating here but there were also a fair amount of people drinking excessively. A couple of groups of guys even had beer tubes (large tubes of beer with a tap) on their tables, in addition to bottled beer! Weird, who drinks at the food court?! Ordering was difficult here as nothing was in English. I employed the help of First to order some rice with veggies as my stomach was starting to rumble ominously and Craig ordered by waiting until someone else ordered something that looked good and then pointing quickly at them before they walked away. Good tactics and he ended up with 2 tasty dishes!
After our bellies were all nice and full, we were carted off for some thai massages. The best thing about these were that they cost us about 10 NZD for an hour massage! When I normally think of massage, I think relaxing, nice and gentle......Thankfully we were forewarned but I was still surprised at how rough and strong these ladies are! They vigorously stretch (sometimes painfully) every muscle and crack all joints from toes to neck for an entire hour. Then they tell you you're pretty and ask for a tip. I actually did enjoy the experience but don't think I need to have it done again. I'm going for the expensive relaxing ones from now on. Craig said he would do it again "because it was alright."
After the massage, we had a few minutes at the hotel to shower quickly and head to "the most beautiful restaurant in Thailand." By this time, I was starting to feel as if I was having labor pains in my stomach. Only because the place was supposed to be so beautiful did I venture to dinner with the rest of the group. This was after extracting a promise from First and Craig that I could return to the hotel anytime during dinner. We rode to the hotel in the back of a pickup truck. It really was gorgeous. Our table was on an outdoor balcony, overhanging the river, with views of a pretty bridge spanning the water. Above us was a second balcony where a band was playing some western songs. They were surprisingly great to listen to. By the time we made it through dinner (Craig ate most of my pad thai) and one of First's songs with the band, I decided to make a break for the safety of our hotel room. We left the restaurant unwillingy as it was a great place, said goodbye to the large lizard on the wall, climbed back into the truck and were dropped off as everyone else stayed.


Greeting Lizard


View from the "Beautiful Restaurant"

Part 1 of our tour

I proceeded to curl up into a fetal position and try to sleep through the pains which were now coming in about 10 minute intervals. I was convinced that they were caused by the immodium I had taken earlier that day because I had never taken it before. So, at 3 in the morning when I couldn't stand it anymore, I had poor Craig go downstairs into the lobby to email our pharmacist friend Emily for drug advice. It ended up being a very long night for both of us and I was still not feeling great by the time morning rolled around. I wasn't losing any fluids though (if you know what I mean) so I decided to find the drug Emily suggested and go with the group to the Elephant Conservatory.
Our first stop was the medicine shop. The version of a pharmacy was a small shop with boxes upon boxes of drugs. Fortunately, the pharmacist spoke pretty good english and knew exactly where the hyoscine was when I spelled it for her. It was the shadiest "pharmacy" I had ever seen but I didn't care at that point. Then, finally, we were off to see elephants! Check back soon for those details. This one is getting too long!