Touring Thailand.

I feel like I have had this Thailand vacation planned for years.. and by years, I mean year singular. Before I even moved to Korea, I promised my college best friend, Lisa, that I would meet her in Thailand for the vacation of a lifetime. Well, during my winter vacation in January I finally fulfilled that promise! Getting my good friend Jessica on board, we headed from Seoul to Bangkok and met Lisa. Starting in the capitol, we set off to tour as much of the beautiful country of Thailand in the two weeks we had.

We arrived in Bangkok late at night on a Saturday, so we checked in to our hostel and tried to get some sleep. The next day we set out to tour the city and came across some very interesting sites, including this adorable street performing kid. He had some chops on that guitar! In the afternoon we met up with my friend, Jocelyn, who had been living in Bangkok for almost two years with her boyfriend. They are both English teachers there and were able to give us some great pointers for places to see that day and were also kind enough to take us to dinner and out to some popular bars. I enjoyed Bangkok, but it was so much different than Seoul. I'm not quite sure how to explain it, really. There's a certain level of insanity, history, fear, excitement, and uncertainty about Bangkok. We only had one full day and night there, but that was enough for me.

The next day we hopped on a train and headed to Ayutthaya. In the 1300's King U Thong made Ayutthaya the capitol of Thailand when he went there to escape the small pox outbreak. The ruins and temple remains there are phenomenal and breath taking. They look nothing like the modern, golden Wats of the North and South. Ayutthaya was the only place we went in Thailand that really exhibited the history and heritage of this ancient country. The history dork in me was supremely pleased.

After spending the day in Ayutthaya, the three of us took an overnight bus to Chiang Mai. The bus ride was about 10 hours and was not the most comfortable experience of my life, but it could have been worse. Once we arrived in Chiang Mai we took a taxi to our hostel, but were unable to check in as it was a little before 5 AM. So we let ourselves in and passed out on the couches down in the common area. We were eventually woken up by fellow hostel-goers eating breakfast and were then able to check in. After putting our belongings in our room, we set out to rent some motorbikes and explore the city.

Riding our bikes up the mountain, we toured a temple at the top and took in the spectacular view over Chiang Mai. I was SO excited to be up north! I had only heard amazing things about Chiang Mai and was ready to take in all it had to offer.

Our second day was tiger day! I was SO excited about visiting Tiger Kingdom as I had read so many positive reviews about how they treat their animals. Before you read this and get all PETA on me, Tiger Kingdom is infamously known for not tranquilizing their animals. All the tigers have grown up there as cubs and are very well acclimated around humans. It isn't a zoo, but a sanctuary. Getting to play with, touch, pet and observe the tigers was amazing. I never stopped smiling the entire time we were there!

That night after spending the day with tigers we took a traditional Thai cooking class. The company took us to a giant market and showed us all the ingredients that we would be using in our class that night. The full day class actually bought and picked out their ingredients at the market, but we decided to just take the half day class and I think we got plenty out of it! This is me making some delicious banana spring rolls. I also made pad thai, panang curry and chicken coconut soup. Yum!

The other highlight of our time up north was spending a day with elephants. This is something I have been wanting to do my entire life and was hands down what I was most excited for about our Thailand trip. We went with a bunch of other girls from our hostel and all partnered up to learn how to ride and guide our assigned elephants. There were two ways to get on the elephant: one was to have the elephant lift her foot and step up on it and climb up the side. The second way, however, was WAY more fun!

The elephant would kneel down on her head and we would jump on to their heads. When she would raise her head up, we would be on backwards, so we had to turn ourselves around. I enjoyed this method the best. Lisa, who is not the best jumper, did not. Still, we all got on to our elephants and went for a ride around the beautiful jungles of Chiang Mai.

We got to bathe our elephants during the middle of our trek. It was unexplainable. This picture was my favorite of the entire trip because I SWEAR our elephant is smiling. Yes, I know that sounds silly, but her face is just so cute in this picture. And, if you can't notice, she's trying to steal the stick from my hand with her trunk. We used those sticks to brush them because they were naturally soapy, but they also ate them when we were finished. The trainers told us that the elephants ate over 250 kilograms (over 500 pounds) of food a day. Clearly our gal was making sure she met her quota.

After a beyond spectacular time in Chiang Mai, we caught a flight down south to the islands. We flew in to Phuket, then took a ferry to Kho Phi Phi. We spent three days and two nights there and then spent a night camping on the beach of Maya Bay, which is easily one of the most beautiful places in the world. Then we took off to Kho Lanta and spent another two nights and two days relaxing there. Our time up north was taken up with classes, tours, and activities, but our time down south was spent on beaches, in bars, and eating baguettes.

The last big event of our vacation occurred on our final night in Kho Lanta. Enlisting our hotel receptionist for help, we hopped in a tuk tuk and found a tattoo parlor. I had been wanting to get a new tattoo the entire time we had been in Thailand. I had seen all the tattoo shops in Chiang Mai and Phi Phi and was fascinated. Traditional Thai tattoos are done with sticks of bamboo that contain needles at the end. The tattoo artist engraves the ink with the bamboo stick in a similar fashion to an artist chiseling rock or a sculptor crafting a sculpture. Unlike my other four tattoos, the bamboo method did not make me bleed, sore or swell after. It was amazing. Thai people try to say that the pain is less with bamboo, but I disagree. They all hurt about the same. Lisa and Jessica also got tattoos, but here is a shot of me during the process.

On my left hip I got three very small, very subtle Thai characters that mean "year of the tiger", which is the year that I was born. While we were in Thailand the Thai people, as well as the rest of Asia (and the world), celebrated Lunar New Year. The celebration is such an important holiday there, as well as here in Korea, so I wanted to get a tattoo that signified something special to me and also would remind me of my trip. I like it a lot, no matter what my mother thinks. :)

The trip, like any other, had its ups and downs. But overall, it was spectacular. It was an experience unlike any other I have had in my life and I would go back again in a heartbeat. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to finally see Lisa again as I haven't seen her in almost a year and it was also great to go with Jessica since I don't know when I will get to see her again after I leave Korea. In about two weeks I will be packing my bag once more and departing for Bali. After that, I will be home in Washington. I have a lot of traveling on my plate this month, but I'm fairly certain that I am ready for it. I can't wait to get back to the beach and escape this cold Korean weather, but escaping Korea itself evokes a lot of emotions from me that I'm fairly certain I'm not ready for... but I'll save that for another blog entry. ;)