Thailand Redeux

 Yesterday we set the alarm for 5am so we could meet our tour guide at 5:30 to see the Buddhist monks walk through town seeking alms. This is a traditional ritual in a devoutly Buddhist country where at least one son in a family spends some part of his life in a monastery. The monks from several monasteries (several dozen) walk silently down the streets with bowls into which people place sticky rice and fruit as an offering. By doing so you earn merit for your next go-around in the circle of life. Ricki and I were given a container of rice and some bananas and hopefully earned some merit. We went next to the morning market. The locals brought their wares into town…mostly produce, although there was the occasional weird thing. It was still early so we went back to hotel for breakfast and were picked up at 9 for a tour of the former palace and a 500 year old temple complex. Today we’re off to Bangkok.

 Our last day in Chiang Mai was another lazy day. We started in this little breakfast place just down the street from our hotel. Yummy breakfast and then we were ready to go back to the hotel and chill by the pool. We were saving ourselves for a trip to the Saturday Night Market. We took off around 5pm and within minutes were immersed in a chaotic mass of people, food and stuff. We didn’t have much interest in the stuff as it was the usual stuff we had seen at every other market. We were hungry and wondered through the food stalls and foraged. Ricki found some grilled chicken skewers that she liked and even went back for doubles. Our work was done for the evening and we headed back. The next day we got ourselves ready for our flight to Laos. The flight was at 3pm and by 4 we were in Luang Prabang. Our hotel didn’t disappoint and was another wonderful place to stay.it’s a large room with a large balcony overlooking the Mekong River….magical.

 We got up early for our planned trip to the Elephant Nature Park. From our research on Reddit one could not just go to any elephant sanctuary in Chiang Mai…it had to be an “ethical “ sanctuary where the elephants were treated respectfully and not made to perform for the visitors. ENP fit that criteria so off we went. It was about an hour ride from our hotel into the hillside forests outside of Chiang Mai. It was a huge place…over 300 acres with over 300 employees most of whom seemed engaged in the primary activity of feeding the elephants. There were over 125 elephants all of whom had been rescued from various logging camps…failed elephant camps or wherever. They milled around in groups of 2 or 3 looking around for food. Each elephant had a backstory… this one had a broken leg… that one was blind…another had mental issues and couldn’t socialize with other elephants…and so on. The visitor activity amounted to walking around with our guide (Joe) in 95 degree heat and watching each s...

 We’re really liking Chiang Mai…the scale of the city allows us to reach any part in no more than a 10-12 minute cab ride. Last night we went to the Night Market… a blocks long collection of stalls selling the usual array of stuff …tshirts…may thai shorts…elephant print pants, etc…of course there were tons of food stands as well as live bands blasting out Creedence Clearwater tunes. I picked up a pair of faux Vilebrequin bathing trunks for $10 so it was a successful night. Today we lazed about the hotel and made our adventure for the day going to a grilled chicken place we saw on Instagram. For a change it turned out to be a home run. Great grilled chicken in a little hole in the wall place. Tonight we’re off to another night market in a different part of town…we’ll report on it later.

 We’re discovering that while we love Bangkok we just don’t have the stamina to walk around aimlessly just for the sake of  immersing ourselves in the city’s vibe. This time around we’re more inclined to just take a taxi to our destination…taking the ferry or subway while cheaper and often shorter (time wise) just requires more walking and stairs. The heat is also affecting us in a way that it didn’t last year…it’s just tiring us out and we’re napping after each morning excursion. We spent 6 days in Bangkok and we were constantly amazed at the vibrancy of the various neighborhoods… it’s the kind of city that we could easily see living in but not one that we feel we need to come back to as tourists. We arrived in Chiang Mai yesterday. A 1.5 hour flight north of Bangkok. Smaller and more gentle we liked it immediately. Once again we’re in a really nice hotel. It’s located in the Old City part of town… surrounded by centuries old walls and dotted with fantastical temples and shri...