Snacking, Thai Style

 Nearly all day, on any random street, parking lot or back alley, food carts and stands abound, usually surrounded by 3 or 4 people picking up a "little something-something", as one of my friends calls it.  From fresh fruit popsicles to bowls of soup, nothing cost more than 30 Bhat or roughly a $1.  Here a a few choice examples:

Banana or hotdog on a stick in a waffle!!

 Green Tea and Fresh Fruit  Popsicles:  4 Bhat!

 

Eye to Eye with Elephants

Back in the days when I worked in development, we had a corny saying:  Fundraising begins with FUN...the notion being that when donors feel connected with your program in way that giving is a pleasure, the giving comes naturally.  Baan Chang Elephant Park really gets this concept.  This preserve not only rescues and rehabilitates abused elephants but also keeps them healthy and exercised and entertained by having curious folks like us come and participate in their upkeep.

Our small group was collected by minivan early in the morning and driven an hour out to the countryside, re-dressed in traditional garb, and set to work.  Our first task was feeding the elephants bananas and sugar cane.  

Sophie is feeding the first baby born in the preserve.

Here's a little video: 

After breakfast, we learned about the journey these beautiful creatures took to come to this preserve, about some of their problems, how they were treated then versus now and about their prodigious drinking and eating...outputs were demonstrated frequently during our stay, and while prodigious, surprisingly not stinky.  For those in the early childhood stages of life....elephant poop is about the size of a large grapefruit and looks like a grassy ball. 

Then we learned the proper way to climb on, sit on and give commands (these elephants speak Burmese).  Unlike riding a horse, one sits astride the "shoulders" with the legs tucked behind the ears.  A command word and a gentle nudge behind the right ear turns the elephant to the left.  To go forward, another command and nudge behind both ears.  To stop, squeeze the legs together.

    

Teams of two were made to take the elephants on a one-hour trek through the jungle.  

My elephant was a sweety, and fairly obedient until she saw a nice stand of bamboo and decided to have a snack...

After the hike, elephants like to do what we all do...take a bath. 

 All Clean!

 They called her The Elephant Whisperer....

(Actually, the handler had been trying to get her to spray me with her trunk (eww), and I was trying to convince her otherwise!)

 

Elephant Kisses

All in all, an experience we'll never forget

Thai Cooking School

We love cooking.

We love eating.

And we love Thai food

  

No surprise...Thai Cooking School was a winner!  Class began with a tour of the organic garden at the back of the cooking school where we learned about some key ingredients in Thai cooking.  There is now a movement afoot now to convert one of our garden beds...

Our group, which included a rowdy bunch of 20-something Kiwis who kept clamoring for beer (I'm not making this up), and several sedate vacationing couples, was charged with selecting which courses we'd prepare.  Then we individually picked the dishes within those courses.

A short walk from the school was the local open air market where we learned about the different kinds of noodles, rice, and other ingredients that go into our dishes.  The "boys", for whom "Chang" was one of the four food groups, made a detour to purchase this necessary ingredient!

 Anna!  She was an amazing teacher.

 

So many kinds of rice!

38 Bhat for a dozen eggs..about $1.20.

Back at the school, we began preparing...

 Team Red Curry Paste!

And cooking...

And best of all, eating!

Chiang Mai

From the quiet outback of remote Koh Lanta, we moved to the bustling northern city of Chiang Mai.  Remnants of the wall which surrounded this city can still be seen as they define the border between the old and newer parts of the city.  

My first impression: grey, dusty and polluted small streets, but then interspersed, the golden nuggets of the many, many Buddhist temples and hidden gardens of hotels and restaurants.

We stayed in the old part in a place built in the style of Chiang Mai's golden age: 2 acres of gardens and courtyards walled in away from the noise and smell of the two-stroke engined scooters and tuk-tuks running all over the town.

After checking in (we could barely drag ourselves away from this beautiful hotel), we went out to explore the Sunday Night Walking Street...crafts, local products, food and other things for sale.  We had our first taste of "street food", a dish of tiny fried eggs cooked in what looked like an ebelskiver pan, a noodle dish, and mango sticky rice.  Here's the thing though:  Each of these dishes cost about $1 or less.  

The next day we headed up and out of town to the mountain top temple, Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, the city's most famous, and dating from the late 1300's. 
From the temple base we climbed the 309 steps to the sacred grounds of the temple.  The rest of this story is best told in photos. 

Here, Lizard, Lizard....

Next to the Thai massage sessions on the beach, the day spent snorkeling was the highlight of this portion of the trip.  After a breakfast-churning, hour-long power boat ride, we stepped off the boat in a cove near Koh Rok.  Perfect temperature water, hundreds of gorgeous fish, sea cucumbers, lobsters hiding in the coral, even a "Nemo" sighting in the undulating anemone.  No underwater camera, though...you'll have to take my word for it.

Back in the boat, we approached the island where we disembarked in the water, hiked through a tropical forest to a campground and one of the most pristine beaches I've ever seen.  Sand like powdered sugar and turquoise water and big waves to body surf in.

After a quick meal prepared by the outfitter, we spent the next two hours swimming the wild surf and visiting with the local fauna…monitor lizards and hermit crabs.