Thailand, Week 5
Sunday, July 12th: We took the MRT (metro) over to church today. We attended the International Ward (in English), which is made up of people from all over the world. We even met the nephew of someone we know from back home. Right after Sacrament meeting, Siena lost one of her teeth that she had been wiggling during the whole trip.
We then walked down to a huge mall to look around (and find some clean bathrooms). The mall was 7 stories tall and each floor had a different theme (i.e. Rome, Paris, Istanbul). The top floor was San Francisco and even had a large scale model of the Golden Gate Bridge.
We then took the Skytrain and a taxi over to Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace (the place that was crowded the day before). It wasn't too crowded today and we were able to walk around and see all of the sites, including the famed Emerald Buddha (which is in fact made out of jade, but still impressive). The Wat (i.e. temple complex) was impressive. We were able to walk around the Grand Palace, but most of the buildings were closed since it was the weekend. It was neat to see, but we left a little disappointed, especially with the price we had to pay to see everything.
After a quick dinner stop at the KFC in the Train Station, we boarded a night train for the south. This night train was a tad bit different than the first one that we took. The Air Conditioned train was booked solid, so we were on the fan trains. This meant that the only way to stay cool on the train was to open the windows wide open and turn the one fan in your area on high. This worked somewhat well when the train was moving. In addition, there were no separate berths, which meant that there were bunks on either side of a central aisle running down the middle of the car. You could close a curtain for privacy, but if you did that then you would suffocate from the heat inside your personal cave. We put the kids on the bottom bunks and Becky and I took the upper bunks, which were built for, as Becky put it, "midget Thai men". Oh, I forgot to mention that they don't turn the aisle lights off at night, so you either pull your curtain for darkness and sweat to death, or leave the curtain open to get ventilation and have lights in your eyes all night. We settled for option B.
Tuesday, July 14th: We woke up to a surprise...more rain. When it let up we took a taxi truck over to the beach at Ao Nang. The ocean was pretty rough from the weather, so we just looked around at some shops and ate lunch. Siena had been picking her mosquito bite scabs on her legs, and some of them got infected. Needless to say, she was not in the mood for walking. We caught a taxi truck back just in time, since a strong storm started moving in. We were pretty wet from the rain blowing sideways into the back of the truck canopy.
We went back to the room for a nap, which didn't sit well with the kids. So we found "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" on You Tube and introduced them to 80's comedy. I think Becky ended up quoting the movie the whole time instead of napping. When the rain finally let up we went down to the night market for some more delicious street food.
Krabi is a very laid back town on a river that runs out to the ocean. Several of their stop lights have different themes. Our favorite was the four cavemen that held up the stop lights. Also, the tuk tuks here are more of a side car design with a bench to hold two people. The drivers still asked us if we wanted a ride, though I'm pretty sure it would be a tight fit getting all of us in.
Wednesday, July 15th: The rain finally let up today, so we caught a longtail boat out to Railay. Railay is a peninsula not too far away from Krabi, but it is basically cut off from the rest of the mainland by huge limestone cliffs. There are no cars or roads there; boat is your only transportation option. Well the longtail boat cartel in Krabi knows this and tries to squeeze ever ounce of money out of you to get there. Plus, they only go out when their boats are at complete (or over) capacity, which means you sit at the dock waiting for more people to come and fill the boat. After an hour of waiting (they could care less if you get upset cause they know you have no other option to get there) we finally took a 45 minute boat ride to Railay. It was definitely worth it. Railay is a very narrow neck of land with beaches on both sides and surrounded by steep limestone.
We got in the ocean to try and wash off, but found out that our suits were now stained orange. We hurried back to the dock since the longtail boat cartel told us the last boat was at 5pm (it was actually when they could convince enough people passing by to take their boat).
We ate dinner again at the night market, but tonight they had live music provided by a local Boy Scout troop that doubled as a rock band (I am not making this up). The guitarist was great but the lead singer could not hold a tune to save his life.
Thursday, July 16th: We went over to the Tiger Temple today. We first hiked up to a giant Buddha statue on top of a limestone cliff. There were 1,260 steps straight up. Some parts were closer to a ladder than steps. It was only 88 degrees out, but about 90% humidity. Becky didn't realize that her elbows could sweat. After about 900 steps Marcus turned to me and asked if someone was spilling water on him. Poor boy was drenched in sweat; he looked like he just got out of a pool. Everyone made it to the top without wanting to be carried (thankfully). The view from the top was amazing! And there was no rain!
We slowly made our way back down, then went for a short hike to some nearby caves. Several caves were converted into monk's homes and cave temples. Along the trail we almost ran into a giant spider's web. The spider was about the size of an adult's hand. After this we made our way to the Tiger Cave, which is a Buddhist temple in a cave. We then hitched a ride in the back of a truck (not a taxi truck, we literally just found a guy willing to let us ride in the back of his truck to town). We picked up our bags and crammed into a smaller car/tuk tuk to the bus station where we caught a night bus to Bangkok. This was a much better option than the train. The bus had air conditioning and had seats that almost laid flat. They showed a movie (in Thai) along the way that was horrible. Jacob aptly called it, "Guys who Shoot People and Smoke".
Friday, July 17th: Our bus arrived in Bangkok at 5am (actually 1/2 hour early) and dropped us off at a bus station on the other side of the city. We finally found a taxi that would use a meter instead of just trying to rip you off with an overpriced flat fare. As soon as we left we noticed that he was running both the distance and time meters simultaneously, which is illegal (the time is only supposed to run when you are sitting in traffic). The whole ride we kept pointing at the meter and trying to explain this to him and he kept acting like he didn't understand. He knew full well what he was doing but didn't think we were paying attention. We didn't want to get into a full argument with him in the end, but told him we were not happy with him.
We dropped our backpacks off at our usual guesthouse and then caught another taxi out to the Damnoen Saduak floating market. Luckily this time we had an honest taxi driver that volunteered to take us all the way there (almost 60 miles) for a cheaper price than if we took a bus. We then took a boat through the canals of the floating market. Vendors bring their boats up to yours and try and sell you stuff. We really weren't interested in the overpriced junk, and instead bought some snacks to eat.
After our ride we walked back to the market and looked around from above and the sides. To say the canals are chaotic is an understatement.
We didn't realize until it was too late that most people hire either a taxi or mini bus for the day when they come all the way out here. So we had to try and find a bus back to Bangkok. Every local we talked to kind of knew where the bus station was, but had that look in their eyes like they had never been there themselves and pointed in a vague direction. After a two mile death march in the heat we finally found the "bus station", which ended up just being a street corner where the Bangkok bus stopped. This ended up being a commuter bus that made lots of stops for the next two and a half hours and 60 miles. Once we got close to Bangkok we caught a taxi to our guest house and fell on the bed exhausted.
Saturday, July 18th: We took the MRT over to the Chatuchak Market. This is the largest outdoor weekend market in the world. Over 200,000 people show up daily and browse through 15,000 stalls. You can find just about anything you want here: souvenirs, home supplies, art, new and used clothes, food, massages, flying pet squirrels, puppies, full crocodile skins, even bluegrass singing cowboys! We got there around 10am and didn't end up leaving until almost 7pm. The kids had a blast and bought all of the junk they had been asking to buy the whole trip. They even found knock off Legos from China. We arrived back to our guest house completely worn out. The kids thought it was like Christmas with all of their new found treasures laid out around our room.
Sunday, July 19th: We took a train out to the ancient capital of Siam, Ayathaya. After looking at a great small museum, we walked over to Wat Phra Si Sanphet, which contains 3 giant chedi, or round towers.
We walked through a park and had lunch at a really cheap and good noodle place ($1.50 per meal). We then headed over to Wat Ratburana. In the middle of the center tower you could go down into a crypt where tomb raiders found rare gold Buddha statues.
We then went over to Wat Phra Mahathat, which has a mysterious Buddha head that is stuck in the roots of a tree. No one knows exactly how it got there.
The tuk tuks in Ayathaya are a completely different design. Out of all of the designs, the Ayathaya tuk tuks look most like an amusement park ride.
We caught a train back to Bangkok and started the task of packing everything back up one last time. We were able to get everything (including all our new found treasures) into our backpacks without going over the weight limit.
Monday, July 20th: Just after we passed through immigration and passport control, Becky accidentally dropped Elise's passport and it fell 50 feet down the side of a sky bridge to a lower level. Luckily no one could really access the area, but we couldn't go down to get it since we had just technically "left" the country. Some security said they would try and get it, but then just left. We were able to flag down some cleaning guys who brought it back up to us. Elise's boarding pass floated out of the passport during the fall and we never found it, so we had to get her a new one.
We then boarded an Airbus A380 for a six hour flight to Dubai. This was the first time we had flown on Emirates and loved it. They crew treats you like royalty, even in economy class. The plane was amazing. The A380 is a double decker...a gigantic plane.
We arrived in Dubai around 12:45pm and took the metro to find a somewhat cheap hotel (not easily done in Dubai). We then took the metro over to the gold souk (market). It was 104 degrees outside and with the heat index felt like 120. It was a drier heat that honestly didn't feel as bad as Bangkok.
We then took the metro over to the Mall of the Emirates to check out the indoor ski area. For around $85 dollars, you can ski on one little run inside. It's amazing what money can buy in Dubai!
We then went over to the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. The building is almost as tall as two Empire State Buildings stacked on top of one another. At the bottom there is a huge fountain and light show set to music. It was a pretty amazing sight.
Tuesday, July 21st: We caught the metro to the airport and caught
our 14 1/2 hour flight home. Luckily Emirates has an excellent in-flight entertainment system that kept the kids busy. Nobody slept much during the flight. Our route took us directly north over Iran and Russia, then directly over the North Pole. We then dropped down over Canada and finally to Seattle.
We were very blessed during this trip in that no one was seriously hurt and no one got very sick. We only lost one hat (almost three, but we found two of them) and one set of newly bought Frozen flip flops. We met tons of friendly people that were always willing to help us out, whether that be hauling backpacks up flights of stairs, helping kids cross a busy Bangkok street, or smiling and laughing with the kids. We loved Southeast Asia and would definitely go back again!
