Asian Adventures, Part 2: Chiang Mai, Thailand!!

As mentioned in the previous post, we arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand in the late evening & our tour guide, Lek, & his wife took us to eat some Thai food for dinner. They explained to us what our Monday adventures were going to be like. We were so excited! They took us to our hotel & we checked in around midnight. The next day, was fantastic!

Centara Khum Phaya Resort & Spa

We got up with enough time to get dressed & eat some breakfast. The breakfast bar at our hotel was fantastic! Several kinds of bread & rolls, almost every fruit you can think of, bacon, sausage, waffles, yogurt, cereal, & even omelets! There was also traditional Asian breakfast foods too. We ate a lot & enjoyed it. After a double check that we had everything we needed for the day, we headed out to the lobby to meet our tour guide.

Pool view from our room.

Can't even see the other end! View
from the restaurant.

Natural scenery at the hotel was
beautiful.

It was about an hour+ ride to get into the jungle. The ride was beautiful once we got into the jungle. We passed some elephants on the way. Then we were dropped off to go hiking to see a couple of beautiful water falls, & again, we passed some elephants on the way. We got a lovely view of one of them peeing & pooping right in front of us. Ever seen an elephant pee? It's like a waterfall! Then we continued the rest of the way to the sight where we'd be eating lunch & feeding elephants.

Caution, elephants!

Our first elephant crossing by foot.

Waterfalls on our hike.

The 4 of us & Lek.

Once we made it up to the sight, we rested a bit & had some fruit for a snack. About a half hour later, some elephants made it back & it was our turn to have a ride! Between the 4 of us, we were given 2 sacks of bananas for each of our elephants (one couple = one elephant). The bananas were something Lek provided us with & other people that were there were giving us dirty looks because they didn't get to feed their elephants some bananas on the ride. Our elephants would beg for bananas about every 3-4 steps! At times they would huff at us when we didn't give them one. We tried hard to make them last the whole trip! When we ran out we kept saying the faster you walk, the sooner you'll get more bananas! At times our elephants were temperamental & wouldn't move without receiving another banana.

Elephant ride!

Beautiful view on our ride.

It was hard reaching to give the elephants their bananas.

John riding on the neck!

Jude & Dodi's elephant kept trying to steal our bananas!

Nicole on the neck!

Having so much fun!!!

Banana relaying.

When we made it back to the sight, we were feeding all the elephants a laundry basket full of bananas. We were playing with them, petting them, feeding them, & feeling their tongues! Their tongues are so smooth! There was one hard-headed elephant that wouldn't eat the banana unless it was peeled for her! Such high maintenance animals.

Enjoying lots of elephant company.

After we went through all of the bananas we washed up a bit from our muddiness & started to cook some Thai food! Lek's wife is a fantastic cook. We made chicken in coconut milk, spicy pork curry, & pad Thai. Soooo delicious!! Nicole couldn't handle the spicy pork so she had more of the other two. There was PLENTY to go around. It's very hard to choose a favorite. We all kept wanting to eat more but we were so full! But now we can make it at home ourselves because we have the recipes! A few minutes after the table was cleared of lunch, we were given 4 plates of fruit. Yes, 4. They were: rambutan, pineapple, dragon fruit, & watermelon. So we ate all that too. After another 20 minutes rest, we got ourselves ready to go rafting. It was very calm & fun; the calm part was good for Nicole since she was very nervous. After 30 minutes or so on the water we were cleaning up & on our way back to civilization.

Pad Thai, YUM!!!

Do we look happy to eat or what?!

Only John would notice the camera & wave!

But wait, our day is not over yet. We went to Long Neck Karen Village & saw the men, women, & children who fled Burma to escape death. The women practice their culture of the coils worn around their necks. We saw young girls with a short coils & women with very long coils. It was a very wide range. We had stopped there for donation purposes. We brought 2 grocery bag-fulls of snacks & drinks, passing them out to the children. They were absolutely beautiful. The gratitude was shown so easily in their faces, we couldn't help but wonder why we hadn't bought more. Before we got there, none of us were briefed on what we were about to see. They make their money through tourists & selling their handmade items. Nicole bought a pair of earrings from an elderly lady & John bought 2 bracelets from an adorable, sweet, & bold little girl. John is still wearing one of those bracelets today & Nicole has worn her earrings a couple of times since then. It was an interesting & unique experience that made our hearts feel heavy & wishing that we could do more. Hopefully we still can.

This little boy was beyond adorable!

After that we had one last activity for the day. We were already exhausted at this point because we were all falling asleep on the way! But we made it to Tiger Kingdom. We got to enjoy the company of Tigers. The ladies played with some young tigers & the men went in with the full grown adult tigers. Of the 4 big tigers in the cage that John & Jude were in, one of the tigers rolled over onto John. And of the 10 tigers in the cage that Nicole & Dodi went in, 1 of the tigers went up to Nicole & pawed her leg (very lightly) & ran then ran away quickly. She was a playful little cub. We had a lot of fun.

After our adventures there, it was time to go back to the hotel. After some relaxing by the pool & bathing from our dirty day, we went out to eat. We were all exhausted & by the time we got back to the hotel at 11, we passed out, fast!

Restaurant in the hotel where we
ate breakfast.

Giant leaf!

Tuesday morning we got up & went to eat some more amazing breakfast. It was delicious. Nicole explored the hotel a bit & took some more beautiful pictures. We had to pack up our things & head out at 11. Lek picked us up & took us to the temple in the mountains: Wat Phra That Doi Suthep (วัดพระธาตุดอยสุเทพ). It was beautiful up there. There were several tourist tents set up to buy things & after we got past all of that, we had to go up 300+ stairs to get to the temple. It was beautiful; everything shimmering gold. Just look at the pictures. We were really way up there in the clouds.

Stairs leading up to the temple. 300+

Standing in front of all the stages of Buddha.

Most holy area of the temple.

Emerald Buddha

View from the temple. We were truly in the clouds.

After temple adventures, Lek took us shopping. We went to a silk factory where they showed us how the silk was made. We learned that fake silk, when burned, smells like plastic & real silk, when burned, smells like hair. The factory also had several items for sale. John bought a tie & Nicole bought a hair ribbon. The shop had everything though. All kinds of clothing for men & women & children, hair accessories, boxes, purses, animals, table sets, furniture, & much much more. Then we were taken to a store that made jewelry that is 92.5% silver. Nicole got herself a beautiful bracelet. We also went into a store that was beyond expensive for any of us & we wondered why we were there! The last store we went into was more our style. Most things were hand-crafted & it was just beautiful & pure Chiang Mai. We picked up a few more things there.

Silkworms

Silkworm cocoons hatching.

Silkworms making cocoons.

Silkworms in cocoons; cocoons are boiled
& silkworms are killed.

The dye is boiled in water, silk is added & remains for approximately 4 days.

Loons used to weave the silk. Can do up to 4 meters per day.

And once again, we were on the move, but this time it was to the airport. We were sad to go but we knew we had experienced a lot in our short time in Chiang Mai & we were excited that we were flying with Bangkok Airways again & that we were going to Phuket! We said goodbye to Lek & his wife & we were on our way.

If anyone ever wants to go to Thailand, we highly recommend Chiang Mai & our fantastic tour guide, Lek. We have his information if you ever want. He gives you a lot & can personalize the tour to what you want & does it for a very fair price.

Phuket adventures are soon to come. Thanks for reading!

Asian Adventures, Part 1: China

We are almost settled back into our apartment from vacation. But we are not ready to go back to work tomorrow. We are still reminiscing about our amazing adventures in Thailand!

After some mask fun, we are ready for our adventures!

First, we'd like to apologize for not making calls before we left. The phone that Nicole was going to get didn't work out due to a policy change that happened about a month ago. It makes zero sense, but we just chalk that up to: we're in Korea.

Playing dress-up at Incheon Airport

Making masks at the Incheon Airport
for free!

We had a rocky start to our vacation. Getting to Thailand was a real hassle. We had to take 3 flights to get there... due to late booking & cheapest fees. Unfortunately, between flight number 1 & 2, we had a 14 hours layover in China. We were preparing ourselves for some alcoholic sleep in the airport but as we were walking to transfers, we were screamed at to go through immigration. We tried to tell them we had a transfer flight but they weren't having it. So then we spent about 30 minutes in immigration explaining our situation. Language barrier was fantastic. Then we had another issue because John has a visa for China & they were wondering why he wasn't using it. In the end we were stamped & allowed 24 hours stay in China. 

America really needs to step up their
airline snacks. This is standard for all
Asian airlines. 

Next step... where do we go?! When we walked out of the airport, we had not a clue what to do. None of us had taken any time to do any kind of research about China because we were planning on hotel airport. We were greeted by a few people outside of the airport doors asking us where we were going. We said we didn't know where we were; they're response: "Qingdao, Qingdao Airport". That was repeated multiple times but we at least knew that much! Somehow we managed a ride to a bar about 20 minutes away. Of all places, we landed in the "Korea town" of Qingdao, China.

McDonald's in Chinese

Chinese Yuan

Just chillin' at the P-Mart!

We drank & ate & met a couple of foreigners. One guy had been living in China for the past 15 years & had his 5 year old son with him. That boy was a little cutie. At one point he was standing next to a skinny tree, lifted up his shirt, dropped his pants, & said, "I just need to go pee pee, daddy." We were sitting outside of a market, it was fantastic. We all were dying laughing. We found out that Qingdao is where they make the Tsingtao beer. We also learned that Kunming, China (our next stop) is called "Spring Forever" because the weather is always fantastic there.

Chinese Yuan

The other foreigner we ran into helped us with finding a hotel. We went to 2 hotels that were just flabbergasted that we didn't have a reservation & they had no rooms left. The 3rd hotel we went to had one room left. It had been almost a 2 hour search & we had seen a woman holding a 9-11month old baby upright on a motor scooter, so we took it. We get up there & the first thing we all see is the bathroom. Why? Because it only had a glass wall & a sheer curtain to cover it. How convenient! 3-4 hours of sleep later we were checking out & in a taxi to the airport.

Oh no... China adventures are still not finished. We make it to Kunming, China & have a 2 hour layover. That 2-hour layover turned into a 5-hour layover! This caused us to miss our flight in Bangkok to Chiang Mai. None of us were happy. Not a single notice that the flight was delayed came on over the intercom but just showed up on the screen. No apologies were ever made. No reason was ever told as to why the flight was delayed for 3 hours. None of us will ever again fly with China Eastern Airlines. They were beyond rude & unreliable & we are going to be sure that everyone we know, knows this. After our experience in China, none of us have any desire to ever return again!

Notice the current time is already after the expected departure time of our delayed flight.
We still weren't boarding at this point.

THAILAND... FINALLY!!! As soon as we got into Thailand, all of our moods were instantly lifted. We found a flight to Chiang Mai for cheap from a very helpful woman. At the check-in counter, the man who gave us our tickets told us about Bangkok Airways lounge open to all Bangkok Airways passenger. We went to see what this lounge was all about. It was AMAZING! Free food (popcorn, brownies, crossiants, sandwiches...) & free drinks (coffee, cappuccino, tea, lemonade...) & free WiFi! The smiles on our faces were ridiculous.

We had finally made it to Chiang Mai & we were greeted by our tour guide, Lek & his wife. They took us to eat dinner at a Thai restaurant & then took us to our hotel. We checked in around midnight & then we had to be up & ready to go by 8:30 the next morning!

Much more to come on our Thailand adventures!

Next stop: THAILAND!

Sometimes, all we need
is some chocolate ice
cream with M&Ms!

This time next week we will be settling into our hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand! We are so excited! We are ready to get on the plane right now. But we still have 5 days of work & some packing to do. We must contain our excitement until then.

The past couple of weeks have been better for us. Work is still very difficult for us & we don't anticipate that getting any better. But we can find ways to deal with it all... & Thailand is one of those ways! We haven't done anything out of the ordinary lately because we don't have the time but we're trying to come up with creative ways to live in Korea.

It has been 4 months now since we've been here. We've developed a routine, & it has come to the point where things just aren't new & exciting unless we go searching for them. But to go searching we need time & sometimes money - we usually don't have time, & occasionally the money either.

Bar, better known as Pop Con.

However, we did have a few enjoyable things happen. After getting paid, Nicole went shopping with a couple of her coworkers & got some clothes for our Thailand trip!
Nicole witnessed a taxi driver hit a delivery guy on a motor bike. The guy wasn't hurt but his bike fell over along with him & all of his stuff. The taxi driver got out, helped him put his things back & they both drove off. NEVER IN AMERICA!
We had a "foreigner night out". One of the foreigner-friendly bars (Yellow Taxi) in Time World was having a Jazz/Funk music night. They have a foreigner night about every other month. This particular night they had a band & a "DJ" alternating. It was a $20 cover & all you can drink beer & cocktails. It was a really fun night. And the band sounded great!
Nicole also bought a new camera for the Thailand trip! It's more traveler friendly & takes better quality pictures. We can't wait to use it on our trip!
Nicole also finally received a debit card from her bank. She found out that when she uses said debit card, she will receive a 3% discount on a few websites & markets, & also 10% discount at some cafes, including Starbucks!

Bathroom sign in Pop Con. If you look
closely, you can see that the woman is
actually peeing like a man.

After several attempts to wire money from our SK bank accounts to our USA bank accounts, we both finally managed to do so! We both were able to send a significant portion back to the USA to finish paying off some debt we have. That was a very big stress reliever.
We've started doing group workouts. It's actually for the ladies, but John & our friend Jude help out with the workout since they are very knowledgeable about Crossfit. The group thing is to get more ladies motivated to workout (for free) & create a new network of friends.

Nicole's coworkers know how to have
a fun time at work!

Trip to House Grill; John got the Double Monster Burger with bacon.
That's the height after he tried to push it down.

Other than that, we've just been finalizing our plans for Thailand. We are more than ready to go! We will be flying to Bangkok, then to Chiang Mai. Staying in Chiang Mai for 2 nights. In Chiang Mai we will do a jungle trek (ride elephants) & see some temples. Then we will fly to Phuket & stay there for 3 nights on the beach. We don't have any concrete plans there yet except to relax on the beach, but we are hoping to go thru an hour of trapeze training that they have there. Like we said, we're ready to go NOW! But in exactly one week, we will be settling into our hotel in Chiang Mai: http://www.agoda.com/asia/thailand/chiang_mai/centara_khum_phaya_resort_spa_centara_boutique_collection.html?cklg=1

Lemon drop shot!

Since it will probably be after our Thailand trip that we post again, we will also add a few things: tomorrow (Monday), we are finally getting a bed frame! No more sleeping on a mattress on the ground. Wednesday we are receiving a vacuum so we can tidy our place way better. And on Friday Nicole is getting a phone! We will be making calls to home before we leave for Thailand on Saturday afternoon. We know of a few apps that will let us call the U.S. for free, only using the minutes we are already paying for. We will double check to make sure that receivers will also not get a charge. So family & friends, anticipate a call next weekend!

Thanks for reading!

Best way to start the day.

Just another bar in
Time World

A couple of interesting things we've learned recently:
~In Korea, they make the 'V' for victory with their fingers for pictures (which we've known for a while). Well, we also found out that where they hold their 'V' says something about their self-confidence. The closer to their face it is, the more self-conscience they are; farther away, more self-confidence.
~The way Korea (and many other Asian countries) view marriage is very different from Western culture. Women will marry men based on their status, rather than for love. We've been told by our Korean bosses that you will rarely meet a taxi driver or bus driver that is married because of their job. Basics: the husband is to provide for the wife so that the wife can keep herself presentable & beautiful for the husband.