Bangkok, Ayutthaya, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Siem Reap in 10 days
- hkitchstewart
- Jun 25, 2019
- 10 min read
Yes, it was an ambitious travel schedule. Yet, I had such a limited amount of time off and an itinerary to accomplish. The muscular Asian dude in my photos is a great friend from college, Ngu Tran. Over 10 years ago, Ngu and I met at art school at ECU. We ended up sharing a studio together, playing volleyball and of course coming up with a batch of ridiculous catch phrases like “trifling ho”.. This trip did not disappoint as Ngu’s new catch phrase is... “he’s feeling himself”. This phrase is always followed by looking at someone doing something ridiculous.
I picked Ngu up from the airport in Bangkok, we stayed in a hotel near Khao San Road. Khao San Road was the very first place I went in Thailand, almost 9 months ago, when I arrived. I visited it again and ….boy did it feel different. Loads of tourist all concerned with being robbed (which is a thing) wearing their oversized book sacks like baby bjorns, and trampling down the street buying ridiculous nick-nacks. Snacks for sell included scorpions and tarantulas on a stick, in which Ngu wanted to try. Lots of beautiful lady boys, (which Ngu and I figured out that you can tell from the hands). Khao San Road also has a smattering of hagglers waiting to sell you anything from a T-shirt, to an Armani suit, to a fake ID. Yes, one man approached me asked me if I wanted an Armani suit and when I didn't respond, he said fake ID? I don’t think I'll go back to Khao San Road, again if I do ever make it back to Bangkok. Just not my scene, and don't order a Bloody Mary if you go there.
Lots of people don’t realize how large Bangkok is, in fact I heard someone say it takes 3 hours to drive from one side to another. In Bangkok, I was able to meet up with my TEFL course and fellow American, Rithi. I haven't seen Rithi in several months. She is teaching about 5 hours north of Bangkok is a smaller town. (I am about 13 hours south of Bangkok). Rithi, Ngu and I spent a night out a beautiful rooftop bar with some fancy drinks and then power walked to tacos.. which I was extremely excited about. I have an affinity for tacos.
For the next two days Ngu and I walked almost 15 miles around Bangkok, we saw the Grand Palace, The Giant Swing, Lumpini Park, so much stuff. In fact, we laughed because I have a temple obsession. We took a day tour out to the ancient city of Ayutthuta.
Ayutthuta was a 14th century city that was once the capital of Thailand. It was destroyed in the 17th century by the Burmese (current day Myanmar). The temple is basically in rubble, and it felt like one of the oldest temples I had toured. However, the Prambanan temple in Indonesia was constructed in the 9th century, that Trevor and I went to on our way to Bali. Viewing this site was indeed eerie, all the heads of the buddha statues had been cut off. Many of them had fallen to the ground, where they remained for several years as the jungle took back over the temple. One of these heads, mysterious became intertwined within a bodhi tree, and now the buddha head and the tree are one. I knew about the famous Buddha tree from looking at my previous bosses photography. Jesse Kalisher a world traveling photographer, that sadly passed away last year. Jesse photographed many of the Asean countries in the late 70’s early 80’s with film. I remember archiving loads of these images, and I remember thinking that I would probably never get to see some of these places in real life... I’m glad I was wrong.
The Ayutthuta tour ended with a large ferry taking us down the Chao Phraya River, which goes right beside the Grand Palace. Also, this river cruise had a full lunch buffet. So Ngu and I stuffed ourselves are prepared for our 13 hour night train to Chiang Mai. The train ride was actually quiet comfortable. I booked us sleeper beds and we mostly slept through the entire night. Once we got to Chiang Mai, the trip dynamic changed we were no longer in a massive city. So I rented a motor bike, which is about $5 a day. The bike we got in Chiang Rai was one speed bump away from loosing a wheel but we made it work. We drove the bike out to a place called the Chiang Mai Grand Canyon. Ngu somehow talked me into jumping off a 27 ft ledge into the ravine. I wanted a video of my accomplishment, yet Ngu messed up the video and I had to jump twice. Trifling. About an hour later Ngu almost drowned. We had been messing around on a paddle board. Ngu had paddled out on the board to a dock that I had swam out to, in the ravine. We switched. I took the paddle board for a spin. As I was on the paddle board I saw Ngu kinda just bobbing in the water, he had a weird smirk on his face so I automatically thought he was tying to knock me off the paddle board. He asked me to come over to him with the board and I seriously thought he as joking. The next thing I know he goes underwater, comes up screams help so loud that it echoes throughout the entire canyon and then goes back under water. Even though I was certified in lifeguard training about 10 years ago. I just jumped into the water and swam to him, he grabbed me and pulled me underwater and we struggled for a bit but then I was able to get my arm around him and slowly pull him back to shore. Another girl helped us, by bringing over the floating board, which was what I should have done. It was intense and I was mad at myself for not believing him and just going over to help him when he asked me. We talked about it for the rest of the trip and ultimately laughed because Ngu said that I needed to believe when he speaks the truth.
The motor bike proved to be a great necessity as we drove it all the way up to Doi Suthep one afternoon (yes this is another temple that looks out over the city). We discovered an amazing night market in Chiang Mai, that had live music, meat on giant sticks and WINE. There has been a serious lack of vino in Thailand for me. You can’t really grow grapes in this heat so it is all imported, it’s very expensive. Also, the wine I have tried is all sweet. Hat Yai, has a strong muslim influence so there really isn't a market. Therefore, the last few months have been really good on my liver. However, things were really different in Chiang Mai, they had outdoor vendors that sold wine, beer and cocktails. Ngu and I liked it so much we went back two nights in a row.
While in Chiang Mai we also got tickets to a Muay Thai fight. I wasn't really sure what to expect but I definitely went with the right person, as Ngu has wrestled his entire life and went all-state many years ago in high school. He was able to explain what was happening. The most enjoyable and scary thing about the fight was this portly Thai mother on the side of the ring. We aren't sure if she owned the gym that the fighters trained at, or maybe she had her life savings bet on the fight. She was brutal to the fighters, knock them in the head and pouring water on them. Ngu and I could never figure out who won. The six fights we watched ended up being all women and a few younger 9-10 year old boys. It was definitely authentic Thai style fighting, the fighters were definitely professional. I almost was thrown out of the arena for sneaking in a bottle of water to watch the fight. I had another Thai mom constantly scolding me. So, I started going to the bathroom for water breaks. On our walk back from the fight we decided to get another drink and play some pool. We befriend the bartender at the pool hall and got several drinks on the house. Also, we tired some late night Thai snacks.. I ate a few salted crickets, and quail eggs. Ngu was probably over somewhere eating a ducks grilled butthole. Ngu and I decided we needed to work on our pool game as the bartender beat us about 3 times.
Then it was on to Chiang Rai. We stayed at a really awesome Airbnb called “Bee my guest”. The owner was named Bee and she was super helpful in almost every aspect of our adventure in Chiang Rai. She even suggesting a cafe down the street that we went to about three times. We also rented another motor bike which was a sky blue vespa styled bike. Chiang Rai is known for its artist community. With several local artists creating communes and temples. We went to a place called the Black Museum, the museum had a massive about of phallic objects but also beautiful wood carvings and artists working of massive wooden sculpture. There was also an abundance of alligator skins, and other animal oddities throughout the commune. I had to laugh because while the reviews for this museum were good, it did state that there would be an abundance of Chinese people… and it was correct. You can always tell when someone is Chinese, mostly because their language is very loud.
Ngu and I also toured the famous Blue Temple and the White Temple. Then we set out on our last day on a quest for durian, the smelly fruit that I haven't tried yet. I’ve gotten a lot of mixed reviews about durian..... some people love it, some hate it. Either way it is not allowed in many places because of its smell. There are loads of signs throughout hotels, train stations, malls, bathrooms, that state “no guns, no knives, no smoking and no durian”.
We did find one durian stand on the side of the road, on the way to an organic farm however the durian wasn't up to Ngu's standards. Sadly, the organic farm did not have the durian we hoped for, however it was amazing. We ended up getting mojitos, amazing deserts and drawing for an hour before we got back on the bike to head back to Chiang Rai. This ride back was pretty terrible as it was raining almost the entire way. We had to return the bike to get my passport back, by 7. The helmets we had, did not have any face shields so rain was pelting me constantly in the face. Sometimes the rain would clear up. Instead of rain pelting me in the face it was mosquitos. We were also out in the Thailand countryside in the middle of no where in the dark, so there was no where to stop and wait out the storm. We made it back in one piece but next time I will think more about the drive back before I do something like that again.
It was sad to say goodbye to Ngu, our original plan was for me to go to Vietnam with him for a few days, as Ngu is from Vietnam and has family there. However, school started back on Thursday, so I decided to go to Siem Reap, Cambodia instead and you guessed it tour the biggest temple in the world. Angkor Wat. (or Angkor WHAT... as some of the Cambodia tour guides kept bellowing).
Siem Reap, Cambodia is one of my favorite places. It was also the first time I have traveled alone since I started this trip. My hotel was bit shotty, and came with its own roach spray, but it was walking distance to the center of the city. The major difference about Cambodia and Thailand is that Cambodia is a 3rd world country. The roads are terrible, mostly dirt, with potholes the size of wheelbarrows. Cambodia is strongly influenced by the U.S.A. and prefers USD to Cambodian Reil. They also drive on the right side of the road. The city center, which was walking distance from my hotel had a plethora of restaurants. Vegan ones.. and yes I found a Mexican restaurant. By the time I arrived to Siem Reap I was exhausted, I walked around the town had an early dinner at 4pm and then booked a sunrise tour to the temples. The tour picked me up at the early hour of 4:30 a.m. As much as I thought I was going to feel constricted being on a bus and not a tuk tuk for the tour, I was really glad I took the bus tour. There were about 12 people on my tour bus, and by the end of the day we were all buds. We started out at the main temple of Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat was built as a Hindu temple in the 12th century, and later converted into a Buddhist temple. By the 17th century Angkor Was was completely abandoned. The jungle had taken back over, it was rediscovered, went under years of reconstruction, survived several wars and the terrible Khmer Rouge.
Today Angkor Wat is visited by more than 2,000 people a day, and it is still being restored. When I went on a Tuesday there were loads of people. It was hard to get a good photo without standing on someone. I was able to walk around the temple almost completely alone while most visitors were watching the sunrise. Later I climbed the steepest stairs to the top of the temple. There were even visitors in hot air balloons viewing the temple from above. The sunrise was beautiful, and I heard that the sunset actually turned the temple gold, however I was much to tired to return that evening.
My tour guide was one of the best. A young guy, maybe about 23, but he loved the temples and he loved Americans. He even asked me if I had a gun, in which I replied “yeah two, and then flexed my arms”. He laughed. He told me he did not like when people rode the elephants at the temple, and he also had a lot of interesting stories mainly relating to Chinese tourists. He was not a fan of the Chinese, apparently they are very loud and throw food on the temples.
I spent about 9 hours walking around not only Angkor Wat, but also Bayon and Ta Prohm.
Ta Prohm is actually where the Angelina Jolie movie Tomb Raider was filmed back in 2000. Angelina Jolie has a strong connection to Cambodia and the people really admire her.
It was extremely hot during my temple tour and I actually had an intense heat rash when I got back to my hotel. I was utterly exhausted. I managed to get some tacos and then took a two hour nap. The following day I returned to Hat Yai. I began teaching second semester at Thida the day after. Check out new snaps and scribbles of my adventure.
Back to work!
Comments