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| We flew on this prop jet to Phuket Island, Thailand's smallest province surrounded by hundreds of islands. | This is from our new home, a hotel tucked in a mountain overlooking the city and the Andaman Sea. |
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| This was our lift to get from the lobby up to our unit five rows of buildings up. | Our first outing was to explore the awesome island and rock formation in Phang Nga Bay. |
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| We walked along the beach and into this cave about 100 feet long. Water was knee deep. | When we reached the other side of the cave, we found this huge opening with these odd trees. |
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| From there we got rafts, where we paddled around these specular islands. | Glorine is enjoying the ride. |
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| We paddled into this cave with stunning cliffs covered with moss and trees. | This island was featured in the James Bond movie "The Man with the Golden Gun." Smaller than it looks in the movie. |
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| We spent the next day getting pampered with facials, sauna, massages etc. What a relaxing day! | The Big Buddha is a work in progress. It is part of a huge complex with the statue 135 feet tall. |
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| The old city of Chiang Mai was built over 700 years ago and was once a walled city about a mile square surrounded by a moat. Remnants of the four corners remain much as they were built in 1296. | The wall had one or two gates on each side. This Phae Gate was the most predominant. It was reconstructed in 1960 based on pictures taken in the late 1800s. |
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| Chiang Mai provence has over 1,000 Buddhist temples and are adorned with the finest artistry and craftsmanship. | This ancient Buddhist temple sits in the center of old Chiang Mai square. It suffered extensive damage due to an earthquake. |
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| Rather than tormenting the elephants at a typical tourist camp, we went to a reserve that rescues them. Here we are meeting and greeting them. Click to see Glorine get a hug from an elephant! | We had a blast playing with the babies in a river that ran through the reserve. They loved it. In fact, they are the ones that were bathing us. |
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| After three hours of feeding, bathing and playing with these beautiful creatures, we posed, then all headed for a much needed shower. | This temple is on a mountain top overlooking Chiang Mai. It is considered very sacred and one used by many Buddhist to do pilgrimages to. |
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| Like New Zealand, Jade is found here in Thailand, but a much harder quality. It takes about a month to carve one of these figurines. | While most Thai are modern, they have tribes that live today like they did centuries ago. We spent time learning about five specific tribes. |
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| We were allowed to walk into and through homes among these Hmong, where we watched women working on ancient looms. | While we were visiting with this lady from Kayaw tribe, she took out one of her earrings, which grossed Glorine out a bit. |
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| This women is from the Kayang Karen tribe, also known as the Long-neck Karen. This women is wearing coils of brass under her knees and around her neck. | Thailand makes the finest silk in the world. These caterpillars were born from moth eggs and at some point in their lives they begin to spin silk threads around themselves forming a cocoon. |
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| The yellow cocoons are then left to dry, then put in the kettle to boil. From there 60 cocoons can yield enough thread to make a 15x60 inch scarf. The thread is then died in every conceivable color. | These women are weaving silk threads on these people powered looms. There end product is a scene or bolt of 400 count high quality silk. From here, they are sewn into clothing, bedding, etc. |
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| Glorine attended a six-hour Thai cooking class. After touring a market, they leaned how to use spices and sauces to prepare curry paste, soups, stir fried dishes and desserts. | After preparing a few dishes, the class sat down to enjoy them. They were not allowed to take their food home, so at the end of the day, their bellies were quite full. |
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| This songthaews was one form of transportation we used in Chiang Mai. It is a red pickup truck decked out with a roof and two comfortable seats. | We also used these three wheel motorcycles called tuk tuks to get around. Bartering is normal and expected so a couple bucks will get you most places in town. |
| We flew from Chiang Mai to Hanoi on May 22 and returned to Bangkok on Sunday, June 5. Bangkok is known as the "City of Angels," consistently ranked one of the greatest places on earth and the World's Best City by Travel + Leisure magazine! We would agree with all the above! | |
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| This picture was taken from our hotel's Rooftop Pool and Bar located on the 15th floor displaying the Chao Phraya River and several Buddhist temples. | The hotel is located in the heart of Chinatown, which is the largest oversees Chinese community in the world. We were impressed with how fully integrated the Chinese are within Bangkok. |
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| This restaurant is located one block from our hotel and on one of the busiest streets of Bangkok. We stood in line for 30 minutes to get a seat on the sidewalk. And the food was great! | Chatuchak Weekend Market is one of the largest in the world, it consists of 8,000 stalls and with one to two people staffing them, it has up to 16,000 people there before the first shopper shows up. |
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| The isles were narrow and the crowds wide, which made it more hectic than relaxing. After an hour of shopping, we ended up with one shirt. | The Grand Palace is a complex of many ornate buildings. Along the entire perimeter is a wall with a covered walkway along the inside. |
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| While the exterior is painted white, the inside is one continues mural that depicts the life of Buddha. | Like Angkor Wat in Cambodia, these temples are over-the-top with handcrafted ornaments and lined with colorful tiles and jewels. |
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| The Grand Palace itself is home to the King of Thailand and has been the official residence of the King of Siam since 1782. | This miniature replica of Anchor Wat is built to scale and on permanent display in the center of the Grand Palace. |
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| We walked to the river and caught a river taxi that took us up stream to a wonderful restaurant. | This was our view as we feasted on another Thai dish. |
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| The Golden Buddha located in Wat Traimit was sculpted in the 13th century. The body of this 10' statue is 40 percent pure gold. The head is 99 percent pure gold. It weighs 5.5 tons and at $1,400/oz. is valued at $250 million. | Bhumibol Afulyadej, also known as King Rama IX, is the King of Thailand. He marked his 70th anniversary of his coronation, making him the World's longest reigning monarch. Very popular! |
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| Located near the Grand Palace is Wat Pho, one of the six 'must see' temples in Thailand and the oldest in Bangkok. It was built by King Rama 1 in the mid 1600s as a royal monastery. | Wat Pho houses a statue of the Reclining Buddha, which is 30 feet tall and 210 feet long. It represents Buddha's "serene and composed posture before leaving the world". |
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| In addition to the Reclining Buddha, Wat Pho houses the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand--lining the outer perimeter of the complex. | This temple complex is a maze of Buddhist temples, pagodas, etc. It is also the earliest center for public education in Thailand. |
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| While on tour, we learned that Wat Pho is the birthplace of traditional Thai massages and is still taught here at the temple. So we indulged. |
About an hour west of Bangkok is a Floating Market known as Damnoen Saduak.
It is huge and colorful with people loving to barter.
Watch a video of the "Floating Market"! |
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| We chuckled when we saw this lady cooking chicken and hot dogs as her boat was floating in the canal. Talk about drive through! | Next stop was the train market, yes they are set up on a working train track. It is mostly fruits, vegetables, meats and fish sold to and by locals. |
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| The Jim Thompson Museum is dedicated to an American business man who during the 1950s-60s was credited with revitalizing the Thai silk industry. Here are a few of his art collections. | Our last night in Bangkok and yet another first. We stumbled upon this Texas Suki, where an electric kettle is available for us to create our own soup from a selection of meats and vegetables. |
Our impression of Thailand:
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