Days 81 to 91 - Thailand (Koh Samui, Bangkok, Chiang Mai) plus some travel time

Sawatdee from Thailand!  We started our week long tour of Thailand with a $25 budget flight to the southern island of Koh Samui (airfares are so affordable between places in southeast Asia, we used planes to get around- much faster than trains or buses!).  Koh Samui is an island known for having some of Thailand’s best beaches and resorts, and it delivered!

Extreme heat and humidity didn’t bother us much, as we settled into our tiny resort fitted with two pools, one of them being over 50 meters long (again, around 150 feet for all of us Americans), it’s own private beach access, and breathtaking views of the Gulf of Thailand.  Much like the Maldives, it felt like paradise.  Ines quickly discovered what may go down as her favorite aspect of the whole trip…$12 hour-long massages!  She took advantage, daily.  She even “tricked” Korey into getting one the next morning (much to the chagrin of the masseuse, who had a heck of a time with Korey’s knots and tight muscles).  Korey apologized profusely afterward (sounds just like him, right?) for his bad posture and the difficulty he posed for the masseuse.  

After a day of relaxing and playing in the pool/gulf, we ventured down to the local Lamai Night Market to get a feel for the local culture.  We knew we had arrived as we saw the streets buzzing with people, voices yelling out deals of the day and, of course, the world’s best pricing.  Again Ines took full advantage of both the exchange rate (divide by 36!) and came away with some great purchases (she thinks they don’t count because they will be used as gifts, but Korey would like to point out that these “gifts” looked dangerously like things Ines would purchase for herself…).  Korey took this opportunity to seat himself at a sideline restaurant and watch football, meeting a nice couple on their honeymoon that coincidentally were from California and also work at one of his favorite breweries (Stone Brewery, for the craft beer crowd out there)!  A win-win this time for both Ines and Korey!  Ines would like to clarify that it’s not American football Korey is referencing, its fútbol-soccer, and that he has started to follow it because, well, it’s everywhere and all he has!

We had an evening flight the next day and had some time to burn after checking out of the hotel and checking into our flight.  We spent the morning lazily, with Ines getting one last Koh Samui massage and Korey sleeping in.  We checked out of the hotel at noon, with about five hours before our flight.  What did we do?  Going golfing was the obvious choice!  So we found “the” (only one 18-hole course) golf course on the island, named Santiburi, and proceeded to see how much our golf skills had declined in the past three months.  After a rough start, we ended the afternoon having played decently and had a great time on a beautiful course.  Korey even had a chance at eagle on the last hole, but missed the putt.  He didn’t complain with a birdie.  After a quick late lunch/early dinner we were off to the airport!

The Koh Samui airport itself is worth mentioning.  The airport’s welcome sign mentions it’s an “open-air” airport, and its true!  We found no part of the airport to be indoors.  From ticketing to security to the odd little benches for sitting at the gate to basically just walking onto the airplane, it is all outdoors with partial shade coverings.  We met what appeared to be a disgruntled Canadian couple sharing our flight on their way home that were so happy to be leaving.  After baking in Thailand’s heat for a week they decided they couldn’t take it anymore and were eagerly anticipated their dead of winter weather back home.  Hilarious!  They each separately told us they couldn’t wait to get back to the cold in Alberta.  Ines thought they were crazy, but Korey definitely could relate!  We’ll both see how living in Michigan goes…

That evening our flight took us from the beaches of Koh Samui to the city of Bangkok, Thailand.  The combination of a delayed flight with a longer than expected train experience finally brought us to our hotel, just missing the closing time of the restaurant/bar, leaving us both cranky and hungry.  So we did what we have been able to avoid on this trip…broke down and ate a late dinner at the only open establishment nearby, McDonald’s.  Terrible and delicious simultaneously, we consoled one another with the saying, “desperate times calls for desperate measures”!  We did learn, however, that even McDonald’s celebrates the Chinese New Year of the Monkey with their very own version of the Prosperity Meal, thought to bring prosperity in the new year to the consumer.

After a good night’s rest our next day was spent playing tourist in Bangkok.  Temple’s appeared out of nowhere, tucked between residential and commercial spaces throughout the city and in front of what seemed like every domain.  We found the most interesting to be the Wot Pho next to the Grand Palace.  The architecture and design of the entire temple space was intriguing, and the highlight was the reclining Buddha that was so big, they carefully built an entire building to surround it.  In between the enormous columns holding up the structure, we caught glimpses of this Buddha’s enormity, all clad in gold.  We were impressed!  After venturing around the famous Khaosan street, we headed back towards our hotel for dinner.  We avoided the street food and ate some terrific Japanese Yakiniku food instead.  After dinner the “night crowd” was starting to come out in Bangkok, and in the interest of keeping this PG for our younger readers, we’ll just say we learned a lot about Thai night culture.  We decided we’d seen enough of Bangkok and would head out the next day.  Plus we’d heard so many good things about Chiang Mai (our next destination, thanks Chia-Ti!) that we were eager to check it out!

We did get a local culinary experience in before leaving Bangkok, opting to eat lunch at a five star french restaurant (Ines’ favorite food type!) just before traveling to the airport.  What normally would’ve been a ridiculously expensive five course meal was quite reasonable, taking advantage of that exchange rate again!  Another short budget flight to Chiang Mai and we were in our element.  Still maintaining the excitement and buzz of a city like Bangkok, Chiang Mai also exudes great charm and culture.  And, it wasn’t nearly as crowded, which we both appreciated greatly.  

Our first day was spent exploring the city.  The “old” part of the city is surrounded by a giant moat and old stone gates that date back to the 14th century.  Ines of course had to have a massage (you know, “to see how they compare to other Thai cities” she said slyly…), and after a day of walking around in the heat, we found ourselves at a little Irish pub, exhausted.  We had originally planned for our stopover to be a wedding planning session and it quickly turned into an impromptu night of global pub trivia!  We thoroughly enjoyed our trivia experience during our days in Portland, Maine (miss you Northe, Meg, Chelsea, André!), and were excited to challenge ourselves abroad!  We were paired with a couple from California and a couple from Toronto, ON.  A few hours later after some ridiculously tough international questions, we found ourselves in second to last place.  We quickly realized we weren’t in Maine anymore…yet we still had so much fun and met some great new friends from North America.

The next day was a planning and blog catch-up day.  Our original grand plans of climbing the mountains of Chiang Mai and visiting the Elephant Sanctuary were quickly dashed when Ines’ knee swelled up and prevented her from walking much (the doctor we are traveling with on this trip believes she has re-injured an old ski injury to the knee, likely during Kilimanjaro and further aggravated by golfing).  That said, flying by the seat of our pants on this trip requires us to stop, pause, reset, plan, “discuss”, and repeat- and before we knew it, the day was gone!

Well, the following day it happened.  We took a cooking class…and It was great!  Korey actually cooked some amazing food, he didn’t burn down the building, and others were decently impressed!  We were picked up from our hotel by the cooking class company and joined four other Americans and a woman from France for a trip to a local Thai market to buy and learn about our ingredients for the cooking experience to come.  Our guide/chef (named Apple, who also loved tattoos of apples…) talked us through what to do every step of the way, but really let us do the work.  Six courses of food were made and each was great!  Pad thai, penang curry, coconut milk soup, pork stir-fry, spring rolls, and deep-fried bananas were amongst the culinary delights.  Korey was volunteered (by Apple, not Ines) to make the coconut milk for the group, used as the main ingredient in the soup.  This meant he had to hand squeeze fresh coconut shavings wrapped in cheesecloth until enough coconut milk oozed out.  Ines got a kick out of this…and would like to note that Korey was selected because he is a mammoth in a country full of what can best be described as tiny humans.  All in all it was a great experience and we’d do it again in a heartbeat.  We wish we’d have done it in other countries as well!

One tiny adventure to mention on our way to the airport was our Tuk Tuk ride, a modified motorcycle taxi that consists of a three-wheeled motorcycle with a metal covered two-seat compartment for passengers.  A thrill ride, indeed.  Especially in the rain!

Things we learned, 1) Thai massages are just different enough in each venue across Thailand that all must be tried (Ines), 2) Laundry is so affordable and easy in Thailand, which was absolutely needed as we sweated out our weight equivalents daily, 3) We both have a sorry understanding of global trivia history, entertainment, literature…..we do, however, hold our weight in science, art, and geography!, and 4) Korey is a giant in this land of tiny humans!  Unfortunately for her, so is Ines….

A view from Koh Samui.  Tough debate whether to hit the pool or gulf!

Night market in Lamai.  Korey took this picture trying to get as far away from the shopping as he could

The golf course was picturesque!

This shot actually went straight!  

Post round meal.  Nursing the sore knee...

The Koh Samui airport "gate"

Really?

Center of old Bangkok

Inside Wat Pho

Reclining Buddha

Khaosan St.  It's actually not as crowded as other parts of town...

The old gate surrounding Chiang Mai

Global trivia night!  Korey blended nicely into the background

Apple at the market

Ines hamming it up per usual

This is how coconut milk is made?!

Ines not paying attention while the cooking crew is hard at work

Don't disturb chef Korey while he's creating his masterpiece

Penang curry, pork stir-fry, and some pad thai.  So delicious!