11. Chiang Mai, Thailand

Sat, Oct 25 Chiang Mai, Thailand

We have completed the cruise, we have completed our Bangkok add-on, and now we are setting off for new adventures in Part 2 of our Asian experience: Exploring Thailand. We bid goodbye to ship mates Cindy/Curt, Stacy/Wally, Carol/David and Catherine/Roy and head for northern Thailand in a 90 minute flight.

But first, we have to deal with some luggage issues… We are travelling on this trip with 7 suitcases and 2 carry-ons (one of them being the laptop). At any time, 7 suitcases is a lot, but we have cold weather clothes (Alaska in Sep and Beijing in Nov), hot weather clothes (Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong), dressy clothes (9 formal nights on the ship), lots of sweaters, pants and shoes (for the in between times). Seven bags is not a problem on Air Canada, where Don gets 4 by having Elite passenger status, and Colleen gets 3 by flying (reward) Business Class. There is also no problem bringing 7 suitcases on a cruise. However, other airlines are less generous, and we stick with Star Alliance partners to optimize the allowance. To Chiang Mai, we are on Thai Air, and Air Canada partner (and a fabulous airline) where Don is permitted 3 bags, and Colleen 2 for reward Business. Accordingly, before we board the plane, we stow 3 suitcases of formal and cold weather stuff at the safe Left Luggage lock-up for re-collection when we next come through Bangkok 13 days from now!

Chiang Mai is Thailand’s 2nd largest city at 900,000, woefully trailing Bangkok’s 12M, but is the largest and most culturally significant city in the north, and is located 700 km/435 mi north of Bangkok, among some of the highest mountains in the country.

Chiang Mai was founded in 1296, and was a strategic location on ancient trade routes. In recent years, Chiang Mai has become increasingly modern; with dozens of topnotch hotels at half the price of Bangkok’s, and attracts many foreign visitors each year.

Don’s former Fisheries and Oceans Canada colleague, Dave Meerburg, recently bought a home in Chiang Mai with his Thai wife, Pim, and they greeted us at the airport. Little did we know he and Pim were about to put their own lives on hold for 6 days while they ferried us (and cruise buddies Steph & Peter who were also visiting Chiang Mai) around the area! Thank you, Dave and Pim!

After refreshments at Dave and Pim’s home, we checked in to a wonderful little boutique hotel just outside the moat-ed heart of this easy-to-get-around city, called the Puripunn Hotel, then with Steph & Peter too,.went up to the lovely Palaad Tawanron restaurant with its waterfall in the hills above Chiang Mai.

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OK, who wants to ride an elephant? OUR hands are up, so Day 2 saw us atop some really big elephants at the Elephant Conservation Center south of the city. We were certain the basket carrying us would slide off and we would be crushed, but we survived the terrific 60 minute ride through the nearby jungle.. The mahout spoke no English and continued to prod our beast every time he paused for some vegetation, so his tip was limited as was Colleen's patience with him… The Center also had an elephant hospital on site and we saw some poor creatures on the mend.

Later in the day, we drove a little further south to Pim’s home village, Soem Ngam, to witness some local rural festivities and meet some of her relatives.

In the evening, we had another highlight of our Chiang Mai visit: lighting paper sky lanterns - called khoom loys - near Dave’s house. These beautiful 3 feet by 18 inch white paper cylinders fill with hot air generated by a burning micro-fire log. They ascend gracefully into the clear night sky, trailing a 2 foot string of firecrackers and sparklers, and taking away the senders’ evil spirits (which will then of course land on some unfortunate’s home when the fire burns out…).

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They are a mesmerizing sight. Great fun. Dangerous and high risk, but then as Dave says: "Hey, this is Thailand!". Colleen wanted to bring some home for the cottage, but decided we'd likely be arrested as arsonists.

As mentioned before, Thailand is a devoutly Buddhist country, and there are colourful wats/temples of varying size and importance everywhere – far more abundant than churches in Canada.

The next day we visited several beautiful ones, including the famous Doi Suthep, some 400 steps up from the parking area near the summit of Suthep Mountain, just outside Chiang Mai.

We sought out jewelry treasures at a large central market, then had a wonderful (but rough) Thai massage at a spa Pim recommended. Later, for a terrific 4 course dinner for 6, including wine and spirits, and Thai music by 2 different bands, in a very nice restaurant, we spent $65US… total !! And Dave said we would try to do better the next night!

Colleen and Steph decided it was finally time for some serious silk shopping. Peter and Don disagreed but were overruled. A large establishment called Jolie Femme fit the requirement perfectly. Not only did we see a live demonstration of the stages of making silk - from the silk worms eating the mulberry leaves, the subsequent cocoons being boiled, dried and unraveled, rewound, combined, twisted, dyed, etc – but we saw actual crafts-ladies at actual wooden looms weaving the incredibly beautiful silk from those cocoons that Colleen subsequently bought and had transformed into a beautiful jacket, pants, and hand-beaded camisole, which were delivered to the Puripunn 24 hours later! Incredible operation.

Next door was a factory making furniture and gorgeous large patio parasols. Chiang Mai has a 200 year old tradition of handcrafting large umbrellas from plant fibers, and bamboo frame spokes, and then hand painting them. After you see how complicated it is to make one of them, well of course you have to buy one…

Let's talk public health and safely: to say that it is somewhat less developed than in Canada is an understatement. Apart from the tolerance for crazy driving, there are also steps and ledges with no handrails, a few potholes of some size, and occasionally sidewalks with gapping holes and no barriers!

In 2006, for the 50th anniversary of the King’s reign, Chiang Mai convened a magnificent Floral exposition - the biggest horticultural show ever in SE Asia – called the Royal Flora Ratchaphruek. Some 2000+ plants and 2 million (!!) tropical plants we on display for the 20,000 visitors that arrived each day of the 3 month show. An impressive display of tropicals still remains, and in 85 degree heat, we toured the site by a little tram/train. Dave thought it was time we saw more of the hinterland, and in the afternoon we took a scenic drive around the winding, beautiful hills and valleys below Mt Suthep, on Mae Sa Road.

Day 6 of our northern Thailand was a day of rest around the Puripunn’s pool, and an evening of lighting off more khoom loys at Dave’s house

Chiang Mai was terrific, and we would definitely consider spending a winter there some year. Rest up, Dave and Pim, because we'll be back!

10. Bangkok

Wed, Oct 22 Bangkok, Thailand

Luggage in the hallway by 10 pm last night, and suddenly the 38 day Pacific journey was OVER!



By 9:30 am we were off the ship at a port called Laem Chabang, had met our pre-planned ride/guide – a diminutive ball of Thai energy who calls herself Ratt - and were underway on the 2 hour drive into steamy Bangkok. First impression: the heat. Even though Singapore is further south and virtually on the Equator, Bangkok is hotter. 95 degrees and high humidity. Whew!

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Second impression: the drivers are madmen. It is not as chaotic as Vietnam, but the amount of lane-changing, line-riding, weaving, non-signaling, passing on shoulders and on both sides, and cars and bikes driving the wrong direction – is still quite dizzying.


Third impression: everyone adores the King. His image is omnipresent, on billboards, signs, and roadside shrines. It is a punishable offence here to speak badly of the King: most Thais would turn you in if you did, since they almost well up with tears when they speak about the Man.

Fourth impression: you can’t understand a single sign because their alphabet is unintelligible to Westerners! At least with Chinese, one can see different distinct characters. The Thai language appears comprised of variations on “u”s and “n”s !

But the Thai people are extremely happy, and friendly. This is indeed “The Land of Smiles”. There are an amazing number of beautiful women and open, gentle-looking men. Everyone greets everyone with a demure hands-together-in-prayer gesture, called a wai, and a bowed head, and the words Sawasdee-Ka (or-Kub, for men), hello/good bye. It is all so charming and disarming.

Thailand is in the heart of SE Asia, bordered to the north by Laos and Myanmar (Burma), to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and Myanmar. By the maritime boundary, the country is bordered to the southeast by Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand, to the southwest by Indonesia and India across the Andaman Sea.

Thailand is the world's 51st-largest country in terms of total area, with a surface of about 198,000 sq mi – half the size of Ontario - and is the 20th most-populous country, at 63 million people - twice the size of Canada’s. About 80% of the population is ethnically Thais, 10% is of Chinese origin, and 3% is ethnically Malay. The rest belong to minority groups including Mons, Khmers, and various hill tribes. As in China, it appears to us that the minorities are respected, not slandered.

The capital and largest city in Thailand is Bangkok, also known in Thai as Krung Thep, the City of Angels, and 1/5 of Thailand’s 63M population lives there. There are not many big cities; Thailand is predominantly rural. It is one of the most devoutly Buddhist nations in the world, and 95+% of all Thais are said to be active practitioners.

Thailand is a constitutional monarchy with King Bhumibol who is highly admired and revered, and has reigned for more than 50 years - the longest reigning Thai monarch. Lastly, Thailand is the only country in SE Asia that has never been ruled by a European power. During WW2, Thailand claimed neutrality, but was occupied by Japan who used captured Allied POWs and slave Asian labourers to build the infamous Death Railway. Although modern Thai politics is notoriously unstable, and rife with corruption and coups, the takeovers are relatively civilized and bloodless. (In fact, a former significant Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, was found guilty of corruption during our stay!). Perhaps it is the long reign of the King, and the long history of self government, that have endowed greater civilian harmony than in adjacent countries who have endured generations of conflict, occupation, and civil unrest. To us, Thailand is reminiscent of bright and upbeat Prague (not destroyed during WW 2), versus the fatigued and faded glory of today’s Budapest (with its a tumultuous history of political takeover and residual WW2 destruction).

Bangkok became the capital of Siam – the country name changed to Thailand in 1949 - in 1782, and in the span of over 200 years, grew to be the world's 22nd largest city by population. Counting all the unregistered migrants from (especially) Burma, the population of greater Bangkok is estimated at 12M people.

Silk? Did someone mention silk? On the way into Bangkok, we stopped for 3 hours at the world famous Jim Thompson Silk Factory, Colleen’s version of Heaven. JT was a US intelligence officer in SE Asia during WW2, who was so captivated by Thailand that he stayed there, and re-introduced Thai silk to the post-war world. He had phenomenal success, but mysteriously disappeared forever in 1963 (about which much has been written) leaving a silk manufacturing empire bearing his own name, and many successful competitors across the country. Five floors of silk products; we shipped a box of purchases home since we cannot drag any more stuff around with us.

We stayed at the beautiful Shangri-La Hotel right on the edge of the busy Chao Phraya River [“chow pry-a”] that meanders through this teeming city. It is repeatedly one of the top 50 hotels in the world, and we got into stunning accommodation on a 5th floor balcony suite with a butler (!!!), directly on the river, at a terrific rate for such luxury.

Vertigo Restaurant sits atop the 62 storey Banyan Tree Hotel in downtown Bangkok, a mile or two from our Shangri-La. (The taxi ride through hideous Bangkok traffic took 25 minutes, with a total fare of about $2.75 !). It is an open air dining oasis – no roof – and commands the grandest view in the city. With our ship dining mates Carol/David, Cindy/Curt and Stacy/Wally, plus new friends Roy/Catherine from Midland, Texas, we shared a memorable experience and view on this warm and starry night. Breathtaking. As we left, the restaurant provided gratis a photo of each couple with the lights of Bangkok below as the backdrop, and staff lined up “wai-ing” their gratitude for us having chosen their restaurant- rather a nice touch!

Day 2 dawned as another hot and humid day, with brilliant sunshine, and a high level of industriousness on the Chao Phraya below our balcony. We retained Ratt’s company to be our guide for the major sights of Bangkok, for two partial days, and as a group of 8 we were loaded into a luxury mini-van with her husband Nick at the wheel.

First stop: the King’s Grand Palace, another of the 100 Places to See Before You Die, and a more exotic, majestic, spectacular set of structures on the Palace grounds we will be hard pressed ever to find. It is totally amazing architecture, integrating a vast collection of Buddha statues in different postures, and an even larger collection of icons, symbols, half man-half beast figures, half beast-half other beast figures, demigods, and other assorted characters all related to Thai legends and the traditions of their main religion, Buddhism.

Following that, was a 45 minute tour of the Chao Phraya River on one of the unique long-tailed boats (see pix). You would never mix Bangkok’s shoreline with, say, Toronto’s or Vancouver’s; there are a LOT of hovels and mess in Bangkok. Much of it is not nice. However, the food and flower market, and thousands of other vendors, were a sight not easily forgettable.


Later, we went back to the grounds of the Grand Palace to visit a famous temple called Wat Pho - which houses the gigantic "Reclining Buddha" - and then the most sacred Buddhist temple in Thailand - Wat Phra Kaew [“Wat Pray Cow”].
This temple was built in 1780 to house the Emerald Buddha, one of the most sacred icons in the country. Evidently, the 18 inch high jade statue was created in India in 43 BC, and was an object of war and reparations often in the history of Thailand.



Only on a handful of days per year can the public enter this temple to see the little Buddha, who is dressed in garments made of gold, and we were there on one of those days!

At night, our group of 10, with reservations Colleen made months ago, went next door to the (6-star) Mandarin Oriental Hotel to take their river boat – the Maeyanang - for the evening dinner cruise, and we dined to the accompaniment of Thai musicians in costume, watching the twinkling lights of Bangkok along the river illuminate towering modern skyscrapers, and ancient temples alike. Very exotic, very memorable.

Day 3: Omnipresent in SE Asia are “markets”, gathering places for people to buy, sell, and exchange goods. Vendors set up anywhere and everywhere. Thailand also has a lot of rivers and canals that provide access to otherwise remote areas, and many floating markets were common until recent generations. This tradition is still alive, however, an hour south of Bangkok, at the Damnoen Saduak floating market. Again, see the pix, and double click on any one to enlarge it. The pictures describe it all! We have had terrific weather on this entire trip, but at the floating market it rained. At this time of year, the official rainy season has just ended, but we were told that it tends to rain for a bit everyday, and when it does, it rains hard, then blows away to brilliant sun again.

We capped off the day with some shopping for silk and custom tailoring at a mall near to our hotel: a very satisfactory ending to 3 marvelous days in steamy Bangkok. We loved the place and our experiences, and at no time felt endangered even though elsewhere in this huge city, large crowds of anti-government protesters - the People’s Alliance for Democracy - had occupied Government House, and were on the verge of escalating their attempts to oust the corrupt Prime Minister.

We recognized, however, that we did not see the “real” Bangkok, but instead were seeing the city through a lens of privilege – with our guided tour, air-conditioned mini-bus, our very upscale accommodation, and restaurants. But that was OK with us…