We sometimes joke that our vacations are often more work than play; that we tend to spend more time digging in, walking around, and trying to learn than just kicking back and relaxing. But the more I travel the harder I find it to “vacation” – especially when traveling in places very different from what you are used to. It seems somewhat irresponsible to just parachute into a place and order drinks from a local without any understanding of where they are coming from.

On this trip I had a number of realizations of things I have long taken for granted. Things that, through this trip, I now have a renewed appreciation for as well as a more nuanced understanding of how fortunate/lucky/privileged I am to have at my fingertips back home:

* Hot Water: This was a question mark at each place we stayed. Sometimes they had it, sometimes they didn’t, and sometimes they had it for a couple seconds and then nothing. I have to assume that if it is so hit or miss in places that are busy and making money, it is also a real issue in individual homes.

* A Shelter: Speaking of homes, I am grateful to be able to come home to a roof over my head and walls to keep out the cold. We passed countless lean-to’s and similar housing situations on our trip. I initially thought: well, the weather is so warm, maybe it just makes more sense to save money in this way. It wasn’t until asking Blake one morning how he slept and he replied, “Well, it gets pretty cold at night” that I realized that it may be less of a choice than I’d optimistically wanted to believe.

* Clean Tap Water: In nearly every place we were, the tap water was not safe to drink. Not only did this exacerbate an already overwhelming pollution issue (everyone-local and tourist alike – having to buy bottled water), but it also made me wonder what you do if you can’t afford to buy bottled water?

* Free Time / 8 Hour Days: Every local we encountered, from hotel staff to drivers to tour guides worked all. the. time. Our elephant guide drove Uber at night. Our outdoor adventure guide in Vietnam started our tour at 7am and was still serving food in the hostel restaurant as we were headed to bed. The front desk at nearly every place was manned day and night by the same people. I am thankful for labor regulations in the US.

* Minimum Wage: Along the same lines, I imagine the reason these folks were working so much is that they didn’t make a ton of money, so working more = being able to survive better and, in many cases, support their families.

* Safety Regulations: We chose the boat to Siem Reap that we did because it was the only one that provided life jackets. In most places, the road situation- for cars, pedestrians, motorcycles and buses alike – was a free for all.  It made me grateful for the invisible luxury of safety regulations. Especially when you throw in the wildcard of [often intoxicated] tourists.

* Sidewalks: With the exception of Singapore, none of the places we visited had sidewalks just for pedestrians (sometimes they doubled as extensions of shops and you had to navigate around them). We – and everyone else – spent most of our traveling time as pedestrians walking in traffic. Thinking about shoveling our corner lot back home feels more important now.

* Coughing Customs: From day one, we (with our “I can’t get sick!” radars on full blast) were shocked at the sheer number of people who didn’t even attempt to cover their coughs and sneezes.

* Personal Space in Public Places: One of my pet peeves in general is when individuals lack a sense of space (bumping into people, standing in others’ line of vision, etc). However, I had a bit of an epiphany on this trip that, if you are from a busy place (such as Tokyo or NYC) where people are always in your personal space, you must HAVE to turn off the “bubble” or you’d go nuts.

* Familiarity with a Place / Space: Anyone will tell you, I’m a planner. But when traveling, things don’t always go as planned. I’ve never in my life had so many close-your-eyes-and-jump moments. Should we get on that bus when we need to get on a boat? Should we accept this stranger’s offer of a ride? Are there actually guides at this attraction or is this a scam? I think it’s taught me 1) sometimes the best and most surprising things can come from these unplanned moments, and 2) overall, people are trustworthy and legitimately WANT to help.

* That I Know English: I am so incredibly fortunate that English is my first language. Everywhere we went, signs were on English and/or there was someone who spoke English. Even fellow travelers from Germany, France, etc. had to know English to get around. As a native English speaker, my travel horizons are endless and I get to be immensely lazy in my language learning.

The following are much more tribal things, but things a have a renewed appreciation for nonetheless.

* WiFi / Fast Internet: Oh man, is it challenging to navigate, figure out what to do, answer questions, and get transportation without WiFi in public! Very grateful for that as well as for fast internet (I spent SO many hours trying to upload photos …)

* Shower curtains: Not sure why, but with one exception, all of our shower heads were just IN the bathroom with no separation, so anytime a person showered, the entire bathroom would be soaked for the next person. I’ll be glad to have a separate shower area again!

* Price tags: Especially in Vietnam, prices simply weren’t listed. It was surprisingly nice when we got to Thailand to be able to see how much something cost before approaching the vendor.

* Pockets: I’ve started calling Ray my walking pocket. I’m not the first, nor will I be the last woman to complain about the sheer lack of pockets in women’s clothing. Never had this been more apparent. Ray had to hold my phone, camera, ID, money, and umbrella on a daily basis. Thankfully, he was a good sport about it, but I really should have had them install pockets in all my garments when we were in Hoi An!

As usual, we have limited internet, and won’t be able to add pictures until we’re somewhere with better internet, so probably not for a few days.

Today was our last day in Singapore, and also the last day of our trip. It’s Sunday where we are, and we arrive back in Minneapolis on Tuesday morning. This means that, given time zone shifts, we would really be Tuesday in this time zone, making our total travel time somewhere around 48 hours. Even though we are not looking forward to our return trip, we are both looking forward to being home again.

We started our day with a trip to the Botanic Gardens. Surely there are interesting things to do, see, or eat downtown, but in this moment, I wanted to enjoy the beautiful tropical rainforest environment.

The park is host to a number of gardens. I was very interested in seeing their orchid garden, but they also had a fragrant garden (devoted to nice smelling flowers), an evolution garden (where the path traversed through plants that were common at various times during the four-and-a-half billion years of planet earth), a bit of rainforest (where we encountered a monitor lizard), and a ginger garden (where we encountered two monitor lizards!). It rained lightly for ten minutes or so as we were leaving.

From the Botanic Gardens, we took the subway to the Gardens By The Bay, which is home to some of the shinier attractions of Singapore. The park itself is adjacent to the Marina Bay Sands: three hotels connected at the top by a curved boat motif, known for its famous infinity pool. Also in the gardens were a series of “SuperTrees,” which are large structures which plants grow on top of – one of which houses a restaurant. At the north end, there are two domes: Cloud Forest, which contains the world’s largest indoor waterfall, and presumably some foresty stuff, and the Flower Dome, presumably an indoor flower park. Both of these large structures were beautiful, but as we were low on time, we skipped them.

On our way back to our hotel, the rain started again, this time much heavier. Compared to some other tourists, we felt like geniuses for always having umbrellas with us. After walking in the rain for only three blocks, we returned to our hotel, where we had left our luggage, hired an Uber, and then made it to the airport in time for early check-in.

We had purchased these tickets forever ago. Since then, Japan Airlines had entirely changed their ticketing system, and our reservation number was reassigned without telling us. Any attempts to use their web site have always ended in aggravation and despair. No matter what we did, it didn’t recognize us as on the flight out of the USA, and it took talking to my credit card company to get things worked out. This time around, it was the same, except for the phone. Instead, we arrived early so that if something went wrong, we would be able to respond to it.

We arrived even earlier than we had hoped- before the ticket desk, or any Japan Airlines representative was available. However, there was an early check-in desk that was able to help us. The moment of truth! The man at the counter was able to find our full itinerary to Chicago, and was about to print out our boarding passes. He groaned, and winced, with a look of disappointment. Did they overbook? Were we not going home? Our hearts sank. He had some bad news.

They had placed our seats across the aisle from each other. I could feel the blood flood back into my fingers! What a relief! We were going home!

I love Singapore. It’s beautiful, full of lush parks and greenery, world class museums, clean streets, a well thought out public transit system, lovely people, delicious food, and a glorious melting pot of people and ideas. Even with all of that, I’m ready to say goodbye. This city is not my city, and I’m excited to return to my home, my friends, and my family!

Our transit to and through the airport in Penang went smoothly, despite our slight worry that our bags might get weighed again (I put on two pairs of pants and five shirts for nothing!). Our arrival in Singapore was equally smooth, but we’re beginning to have anxiety flashbacks knowing that Japan Air (our carrier to the US tomorrow) was not present at the time we were there. But we were reassured that they’ll be there starting three hours before our flight tomorrow evening.

We took an Uber from the airport to our hotel and got a really lovely driver who told us about himself (“Made in Singapore!”) and an overview of the city-state that he clearly loved: It’s a democracy, but with a figurehead president, it’s primarily Chinese and Muslim/Malay, and there’s lots of good food. On his recommendation, after checking into our hotel, we walked down to a Chinese place to try “Chicken Rice” which we couldn’t find on the menu, so ordered some rice and chicken and pretended we knew what we were doing.

We then took another Uber into the heart of the city. Our driver – who also had an apparent love for Singapore – told us we were staying in the wrong area as it was not within walking distance of the sights. We told him the hotels were too expensive there 🙂

Ray and I have been noticing how we unintentionally made our way, throughout this trip, from the least developed and least expensive countries to the most developed and most expensive. Our driver remarked that Singapore was a mini-America, and I have to say he’s not wrong. Although, despite the high-rise buildings and luxury hotels, there’s also a kitchy playful vibe that is distinctly Singapore.

We walked around Clark Quay, a very touristy and active area, stopping for a flight of Singapore-made beers on the Singapore River.

We noodled around the area for a while and made our way to a bus station to pick up a 24 hour transportation card, but were told that that particular station didn’t have it and to make our way to the Chinatown station.

Approaching the station there was suddenly a crowd of people. Ray asked a bystander (English is everyone’s first or second language in Singapore) what was going on. This was a kickoff celebration event for Chinese New Year which happens in about two weeks. We proceeded through the crowd to the station, but couldn’t help stopping to watch some dancers, acrobats, and children dancing before a huge amount of firecrackers went off and a Chinese dragon passed us by.

Realizing the event was over and we still needed to get our tickets, we tried to leave before the majority of the crowds, but were a little too late. No worries – we got to see an aerial fireworks display through the roof of the bus terminal!

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With our newly acquired tickets in-hand, we jumped on the train (I may have gotten smushed in the doors) back to our hotel. Picking up some ice creams and beverages on the way, we are now safely back in our hotel, looking forward to one last day squeezing the most out of our short time here before a looooong (but welcome) journey home.

Now that we’ve decided to stay another day, what do we do with it?

We had been trying to figure out how to work in a scheduled beach day during this trip, ideally once a week. Our initial plans had us stopping for a beach day in Cat Ba, Ko Samui, and possibly Langkawi, but Cat Ba was a bit chilly, and we skipped Ko Samui and Langkawi in an effort to optimize travel time. Even after yesterday’s jellyfish, my prospects for a sunny day with swimming and fruity beverages were surely shot.

Given this extra day, we knew what we had to do.

In the morning, we bought our plane tickets for tomorrow, and did some research on public beaches. We discovered a resort that had a deal where you pay $10 for pool access, and receive $8 bar / restaurant credit. We grabbed a few iced white coffees (coffee beans roasted in palm oil margarine, served sweet) and walked to the Komtar tower where we hoped to find our bus. We took the now familiar 101 bus to the ParkRoyal hotel, and settled in for the day.

There’s not much to write about with experiences like this- it was essentially a lazy day of sitting around and enjoying ourselves. There was swimming, waterslides, a tequila sunrise, and a mountain sunset.

Jessie’s appetite seemed to kick in after being upset yesterday, so around six o’clock, we walked to the nearby food court, where we ate dishes from Indian and Chinese vendors. Of note, we had a masala paratha, which is a kind of flatbread folded around a kind of gravy.

After dinner, we returned to the beach to watch the sun set, all the while surrounded by people offering horse rides, parasailing, and jet skis. There were also many families and couples enjoying the evening as well.

Once it got dark, we returned home on the same bus. Once we got off, we walked back through the Kimberley Street night market, grabbing one last bowl of Penang Laksa for me, and a plate of Char Kway Teow for Jessie.

This is our last night in Malaysia. Tomorrow, we’re on to Singapore, and then we start our trip home!

After another lovely morning of tea/coffee and coconut pastries (and Ray trying hard to backwards engineer them in order to figure out how to make them back home), we set off for the bus station to catch a bus out to the northern part of the island for a “beach day.”

Our first obstacle of the day was trying to find our bus. We saw it just leaving where we thought we should pick it up, but the map by the stop showed a different location of where we should wait for it. After finding that location and three buses passing us without stopping, a local woman directed us down to the next stop. We waited there for a long time in the heat before our bus finally came.

We rode until the end which was the stop for the Penang Butterfly Farm. This was a really magical place, with thousands of paper-thin butterflies swooping and fluttering everywhere you could see in this vast, open space. We saw large white butterflies that looked like washed-out monarchs, tiny orange and blue butterflies, iridescent butterflies, butterflies on fruit, butterflies on flowers, butterflies on butterflies!

We also got to hold a lizard, see cocoons being hatched, observe snakes and giant ants and bugs and frogs, and release newly hatched butterflies.

The second half of the exhibitions were much more education-focused and, while we learned some interesting facts (monarch butterflies’ populations have decreased dramatically in the last 20 years), they were certainly less magical than the first part. Between a silly giant bug city, strange smells, and lots of sound effects, Ray started getting claustrophobic and my tummy got rather upset.

We took a taxi over to The Spice Park. Grabbing the audio tour devices and slathering on bug repellent, we started on down the path.

Before long, my tummy troubles worsened and, unfortunately I ended up spending most of our time there in the bathroom. Fortunately I had the audio tour with me, so I feel like I still learned a lot, LOL. Emerging from the park with a settled stomach and lots of bug bites, we crossed the street to a beach.

I’d really been looking forward to beach time here because it has been SO hot. The water was beautifully warm and just as I was making my way in, Ray yelped. He’d been stung by a jellyfish. He said it was worse than the last time he’d been stung in Mexico and I started worrying. What if he became paralyzed? What do I do? How do I find a hospital? Thankfully, this sting was just that – a sting – and he emerged just fine.

After the clouds rolled in, we packed up and headed to the bus stop, passing the time by watching a bunch of monkeys crossing the electrical wires from the spice park, across the street, and to a tree perch above the beach.

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After waiting for quite a while, a friendly young guy who was parked in the lot by the bus stop asked us where we were going and if we wanted a ride. Something about his kind face told us that, although this day had had it’s drawbacks, this might be a nice turn of events. Thankfully we were right. A highlight of the day today was getting to know Bam, a young Malaysian entrepreneur who loves fishing and is visiting his grandma in Penang. He has a degree in tourism (even though that’s not his current career) and gave us a casual tour of the area. After dropping us at the door of our hostel, we took some selfies and he gave us his card. “I just love everyone I’ve met here,” Ray reflected later.

Having skipped lunch, we were quite hungry by this time and excited to try some more local specialties at the food carts on our street. We had Assam Laksa (a hot, sour noodle soup) with eggrolls, Char Koay Teow (similar to Pad Thai), some Dim Sum dumplings, and for “dessert” we had Nutmeg Juice and Soy Curd with Brown Sugar. We also made a stop at the postcard-size art store Ray’d mentioned yesterday, but found the style did not particularly mesh with ours, so made our way back home.

This afternoon, Ray had realized (gasp!) this is our last day here! We’d been under the assumption that we had one more day. Fortunately, after coming back and looking at a calendar, we realized we actually do have one more day! Despite what I perceived earlier in the day as signs that Malaysia wanted us to leave, the day ended with more of those smiles and unsolicited bits of kindness that makes me excited to extend our visit – even if just for a day.

After being rained out last night, we decided to pay close attention to the forecast. There were two thunderstorms predicted today, and only one for tomorrow, so although we wanted to have a beach day, that may have to wait.

As Jessie mentioned yesterday, George Town is host to clever street art and historical installations. Today being our first full day in town, this seemed like a good way to get our bearings. Before setting out, though, we decided to grab a quick breakfast.

Half of a block from our guest house lives Leong Chee Kee Pepper Biscuit– a traditional bakery listed in the “Heritage” section of our tourist map. Their main draw is their coconut tart. We snatched a few items including the tart and a pack of their pepper biscuits (reminiscent of a thin gingerbread) and brought them back to the guest house, where we prepared instant coffee (Salute Brand Cap Tabik Kopi ‘O’) for breakfast.

 

 

 

Our guest house, like many private spaces in Malaysia, asks us to take off our shoes before going upstairs to our room. Jessie says that she saw somebody taking a picture of my sandals, a size fifteen among the size sevens, eights, and nines of the other guests.

After breakfast, we hopped on the free city circulator bus, and rode it to the end. From there, we walked the esplanade. It was a warmer day than we were used to- mid to high eighties, with humidity to match. Along the way, we saw a large food court, bustling with people and their tantalizingly iced beverages, so we stopped for a quick iced coffee.

The esplanade itself was empty and without activity. On a hot day with no shade, we found ourselves eager to get back to our exploration. We got aboard the bus again, and went off to our next destination. There were a few shops that we wanted to check out. Notably those containing souvenirs made by locals. There were a few items that piqued our interest, but we made no purchases and continued on.

After visiting the shops, we went to see some street art. I have more photos than I ought to share, so I’ll limit myself here. There is a series commissioned by the city from a cartoonist, depicting the local history of various streets. There were also many installations using real items (basketball hoops, bicycles, benches) permanently fixed to walls. One topic that also stood out was cats. The quantity of murals focusing on or involving cats was encouraging— demonstrating the universality of affection towards our fuzzy friends.

After walking for a few hours, we decided to sit down for an actual meal at a local Indian restaurant that I had heard about. Since we were in the “Little India” neighborhood, we thought it appropriate to taste a more authentic version of some of our favorites. A cat with an injured tail stared at me while I ate my chicken tikka butter masala.

As we wandered around Little India, we got a few smiles from locals that we debated about. Were they being nice or friendly? Do they think Jessie is cute? Do I have gum in my hair?

Soon after this, a local art shop was scheduled to open, so we scurried on to the next stop: Unique Penang Art Gallery, a gallery that only sold art at postcard size. After a bit of confusion finding it, we browsed a neighboring shop until well after it should have opened, only to find it remained closed. Mildly disappointed, we decided to head back to our guest house, passing a family of cats along the way.

The thunderstorm soon came in, so we spent much of the evening waiting it out from the comfort of our room. Once things had calmed down, we ventured out for a late night dinner of Nasi Kandar. We had went out looking for this specific vendor yesterday, without any luck. This time we found a different address online and made our way there.

This style of dining was very new to us. The restaurant itself was basically an alleyway with a kitchen in it, you pass all of the food before you sit down, with about 6 cooks manning different stations. We obviously needed help.

Nasi Kandar is a Penang specialty, which could best be described as “going to an Indian restaurant and getting all of the food on one plate.” We ordered just one plate of it to share between the two of us, and they grabbed spoonfuls of various curries and sides, and before long we had a mountain of food. We were clearly satisfied, and the man we had ordered from wanted to take a picture of us together with a plate and the man with the spoon. I can only imagine that this is for social media purposes.

Sitting down, we once again found ourselves in the company of cats, with a little calico staring at me, and meowing whenever I stared back. With my back turned from our table and towards the cat, I notice a man from the table behind us clearly taking a picture of us. When I told Jessie, she turned back, and he quickly acted like he was taking a panorama.

I’m not sure if I’ve gained any wisdom, or even any sense of resolve, but my current theory of why we’re getting paparazzi here could not be because we’re white, because even though this place seems to have the least number of European tourists, they still are not uncommon. Jessie thinks it’s because there’s a giant red-head walking among them.

Originally, we’d wanted to go to Malaysia, but didn’t think we’d have time. So when booking our flight out of Thailand, we were pleased to find that tickets to Penang (an island on the Northwest corner of the country, bordering Thailand) were cheaper than flying directly to Singapore. So, here we are! And so far, we are very pleased with this turn of events.

Our flight out of Thailand was graciously unremarkable. We arrived in Penang earlier than most of our flights (11AM) and were whisked from the airport by our first female Uber driver, listening to a Malaysian radio station based out of Malacca (like Milaca!) in southern Malaysia.

Our first impressions of this place so far: 1) everyone seems to speak remarkably good English 2) it’s a very multicultural place with a larger Muslim population than we’ve seen to date 3) its beautiful 4) it’s hot and humid 5) it’s like a mashup of Hoi An (UNESCO world heritage site / historic) and Los Angeles (metropolitan, business-oriented). Granted, we’ve only been in a small area thus far.

We are staying at a place called “Rope Walk Guesthouse” – initially I’d thought perhaps there was some gimmicky rope bridge within the facility, but apparently this was a part of the city that once was home to places that made rope. So, there you go.

I am a little bit giddy at the amount of options of things to do here. Our guesthouse provided us with a map that not only helps orient us to the city, but also lays out it’s rich public art scene. Apparently, when they designated this area (Georgetown) a UNESCO site, the city was challenged with how to tell the story of the history of this place. It was decided to do it through art and they commissioned a number of cartoonists to create metal sculptures on different walls around the city telling the story (often in a humorous way) of different neighborhoods and streets (this is how I found out about “Rope Walk”). They also have a bunch of larger than life murals that I hope to visit too.

After orienting ourselves a bit on the map, we set off to explore the street art and grab some lunch. Ray’d found a place he wanted to try online, but being unable to locate it, we stopped instead at a storefront where a bunch of locals were seated. They had a plethora of green, red, and brown vats of meats and sauces out front and a menu (not in English) on the wall. Ray asked them to direct us and they graciously did so, telling us they’d give us a plate of rice and we could load it up with scoops of the different curries and meats. The only one we were clued into was an delicious spiced beef called Rendang that, according to the restaurateur, is famous in Pedang, Indonesia. We also had three other fabulous items, but I’m not sure what they were! All for a whopping $6 for both of us.

While I’d wanted to explore the street art some more, I was simply overheated, so we retreated to our air conditioned room (it seems in Penang, folks mix AC and open windows much more than at home – our room doesn’t have glass in the window, just shutters). During our break, it started to rain and I couldn’t resist taking a nap. I woke up to a heavy downpour which soon cleared up.

By this time it was dark, so we decided to go get some dinner and entertainment (Ray did a bunch of research while I napped). We went to a place called The Canteen which has nightly live music and cheap(ish) food. Drinking is generally looked down on in Malaysia, so the drinks cost more than the food. The musician this evening was a talented young local guy (I assume) who played acoustic covers. He accepted requests and we were surprised to find he didn’t know any of the eight or so options we suggested, his wheelhouse seeming to reside in 2000’s pop. Regardless, we enjoyed our sweet potato fries and beers in the company of Australians, locals, and others.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow as we are spoiled for choice here, even if the weather doesn’t shape up!

Today is our third and last full day in Thailand. This country, like all others, deserves a longer investment of our time than we’ve been able to give. There are many other cities here that we would’ve like to spend time in, but perhaps we need to come back again.

We started our day at a leisurely pace. We had made lunch plans with my cousin Jeff, but nothing before that. After waking up at 10:30, we grabbed a small cup coffee. Careful not to spoil our appetites, we skipped breakfast.

Our scheduled cab didn’t show—likely due to a miscommunication between the hostel staff and I—so we hailed an Uber and took it to the local shopping mall. We found our restaurant, The Duke’s, on the third floor, and shared a pleasant lunch with Jeff.

Jeff has been living in Chiang Mai for about a year and a half as a missionary. He and his wife have studied ancient Greek and Hebrew, and are learning Thai in order to translate the bible from it’s original text into Thai and other regional languages. Because it’s impossible to do a direct translation from one to the other, it requires a lot of nuance and consideration to make the meaning and context of the written word come out in the new languages. Because many regional languages are similar, often they will base a translation off of an existing translation of a similar language.

This was also our first American food on our trip. Nothing that they offer stood out as particularly interesting, but my Italian sandwich on ciabatta was just perfect.

After catching up, Jeff and Irene drove us back to our hostel in time for us to meet the ride for our evening activity- a cooking class courtesy of Siam Garden Cooking School. Cooking classes are very popular among tourists, and it sounded like a good time to me! Thai food is a personal favorite that I’ve never been able to successfully pull off.

The school was started by a Swiss man and his Thai wife. Our group was large: three Australians, a Canadian, two French, a German, and the two of us. They picked us up, one by one, and then took us to their favorite local marketplace to do a demonstration of which ingredients to look for. Many of these items—Kaffir Lime, Lemon Basil, Thai Holy Basil—are difficult finds in the U.S.A. that may necessitate a few trips to the local Asian markets.

At the school, we each were set up with the recipes that we had chosen. Each person made a curry sauce, curry, stir fry dish, appetizer, soup, and dessert. Everything that we made turned out delicious, but also demystified. Red curry, Pad Thai, Papaya Salad, and Mango Sticky Rice, Khao Soi, deep fried Bananas, spring rolls— everything was delicious.

We were returned to our hostel with a cookbook with all of the recipes we had made. This is definitely a souvenir that will come in handy.

Tomorrow fly to Penang, and then on Saturday we start our journey home.

One major difference we’ve noticed between this trip and our last big (Europe) trip is the complete lack of walking tours. Last time, that was our first agenda item in each city and served as a way to get oriented. Today (with the help of the GPSmyCity app) we took ourselves on a walking tour of Chiang Mai.

After a sweet breakfast (actual eggs-and-sausage-and-coffee breakfast, not noodles!) at the restaurant in our hostel, we took off on foot. Our tour got off to a rocky start at our first stop, Tha Pae Gate (one of the main gates to the “old city” of Chiang Mai), when one of the hundreds of resident pigeons let loose right on top of our heads. Grossed out but undeterred, we continued on into the old city, stopping at a number of monuments and opulent Wats (Buddhist temples).

Because we needed to do laundry today, we were limited in our clothing options. While my outfit was determined to be okay for visiting temples (knees and shoulders covered), Ray’s shorts did not fit the bill and he often had to borrow one of the complimentary sarongs to tie around his waist. On the other hand, my outfit did not have pockets (go figure), so Ray was the only one who could navigate, handle financial transactions, and take photos for the day.

This was not the only patriarchal annoyance of the day: on the grounds of Wat Chedi Luang (built in 1475), the “city pillar” (dedicated to the spirit of the city of Chiang Mai) is housed in a building that only men can enter because women menstruate and that would “defile” the spirit of the city … yeah, okay.

All that aside, Wat Chedi Luang was really quite neat. It is a massive pyramid-like structure with four sides guarded by giant elephants and staircases (now defunct to deter visitors from climbing) framed by giant naga snakes. It was destroyed by rains and an earthquake in 1575.

Neither of us being very familiar with Buddhism, we had some questions and, fortunately, got the chance to talk to two very young monks through a program called Monk Talk where those who are studying English get a chance to practice (we were amused to find these two monks on their smartphones as we approached). Turns out the Buddha on the Naga Snake (referenced in our post on Angkor Wat) stems from a pre-enlightenment story in which the snake protected Buddha and also is good luck for those born on Saturdays. Also, the form of Buddhism practiced by the Dalai Lama is a different form than is practiced here (the same way Lutheran / Christian Reformed / Catholic are different forms of Christianity).

We also saw the “Three Kings Monument” which honored the three Northern Lao Kings who founded the city of Chiang Mai. I found this especially interesting given that earlier in the day we’d learned that the Thai defeated the Lao in some battle. When they went from being friend to foe, I don’t know.

Very thirsty after our long walk (it was estimated to take two hours and we ended up taking at least five!), we stopped in a cafe to sip on yummy banana and papaya shakes while watching the Sunday Night Market take shape on the street in front of us. We spent the remainder of our evening walking through the night market (which was much more manageable than the one last night) and finding a couple of treasures before jumping off of the walking street just as the crowds were getting heavy for a delicious dinner of curry and some cold beers.

Walking back to our hotel along the gorgeous moat / canals, we reflected on our privilege at being able to take this trip, the challenging dichotomy of wanting “authentic” experiences while not disturbing the local culture, our excitement for the last days of our journey, and our longing for home.

January 20th is the day we have been looking forward to the most on this trip— it’s really the only day we had planned with any specificity. But because of this plan, we knew that Thailand had to come somewhere close to the end, which, combined with the weather, dictated the entire order of this trip.

Today was the day we go to the elephants!

Elephant Nature Park is an elephant sanctuary near Chiang Mai, which focuses on ethical practices. They currently have around 70 elephants under their care in the sanctuary itself, and they also work with local communities to better care for the elephants, without taking away their livelihoods.

The package we had chosen was a day trip to a Karen farm community. The farmers used to use the elephants for labor and riding, but now they contract with Elephant Nature Park to allow travelers to visit, so long as they receive proper treatment.

Our day started with a long ride from Chiang Mai to the farm. We were picked up at 8am, and arrived no sooner than 9. Once there, we met our three new elephant friends. There was a mother-daughter pair that had been rescued from a local circus, and an adult male that grew up on the farm. The mother was in her mid forties—quite docile—and the daughter was only nine years old. The male was somewhere between the two.

Our host, whose name was something like “Batcha,” is Karen, from the north of Thailand near the border of Burma. He currently speaks four languages, and learning a fifth (Spanish). He explained that he actually learned English by studying under a Minnesotan. Minnesota has a fairly large Karen population, so I guess it makes sense that Thailand would have a few Minnesotans!

 

Our first interaction was feeding the elephants. There were three large baskets of squash, pineapple skins, and bananas that the elephants happily accepted. The youngest was rocking back and forth, which we initially assumed was nerves, but were later told was excitement. If any were visible in your hand, a trunk wouldn’t be far behind. The youngest would even try to snatch food out of the older male’s mouth!

Working closely with humans, they knew a few verbal commands. One command would get the male to open his mouth, prepared for a snack. The guides encouraged us to put it directly on their tongue, rather than trying to throw it in.

We then took the elephants on a walk up the mountain. The twelve tourists marched up the clay path, book-ended by elephants who would stop at the first sign of bamboo or other snacks. After the walk, we went back for lunch provided by our Karen hosts. A delicious mix of fruits, curries, and fried foods.

The last activity of the day was a mud-bath. We got a little messy as we rubbed mud all over these animals. Our hosts then decided to have a mud-fight, which added to the mess. Once they were good and covered, we walked them to the river to rinse them off. The logic of all of this escapes me, but my understanding is that it is a way that the elephant likes to cool off.

We walked back, without our elephant friends. Our host explained to us: “No food, no friends,” which I think we’ll have to get turned into a needlepoint at some time. We were returned to our hostel after a long car ride through Chiang Mai rush hour traffic.

In the evening, we went to the Saturday Night Market to see the sites. I’ve been told that Chiang Mai is 90% tourist, 10% Thai, and that was apparent in this market. We went browsing for a few gifts, and found some dinner. We tried a few things, including some Pad Thai, fruit shakes, samosas, dumplings, and egg rolls.

We ended our evening with a long walk home through the Old City, and a long shower to get all the remaining mud off.