Our introduction to Thailand was traffic – Bangkok traffic. Arriving at the airport from Phnom Penh at 6 p.m., it took over two hours (longer than our flight from Cambodia) in bumper-to-bumper exhaust before we finally arrived in the city. Once there, traffic moved, but was otherwise utter chaos: cars, buses, trucks, motorbikes, bicycles, rickshaws, etc. squeezing into every available space, transforming a two to three lane road into a dozen multi-modal streams. I was grateful to know that we only had one night in this crush before catching a train north to Chiang Mai – we had only to get to our hotel, sleep and move on – but then we turned out of the traffic and into a narrow alley full of sidewalk cafes and multicolored lanterns.
The mood was instantly relaxed and festive, the lane full of pedestrians and just a handful of motorized vehicles – we were on Rabuttri Street, smaller sister to Khao San Road, and our hotel - midway down the lane - was in a courtyard set back from the street, with a fish pond in front and a pool on the roof. Suddenly, I was looking forward to our 18 hours in Bangkok. Aside from getting a good night's sleep, we passed the time browsing the crafts stalls along our lane, eating at the cafes, and swimming in the hotel's rooftop pool. We then made our way to the railway station for our overnight train to Chiang Mai.
Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai is a sprawling northern Thailand city centered by the fortressed old town – once inside, narrow lanes replace multi-lane highways and small guest houses with leafy gardens provide a respite from both heat and the external bustle. Chiang Mai is also adventure tourism central – high canopy ziplining, river rafting, and elephant trekking is all on offer, and we made a good effort take advantage of it all! We also – once again – met up with Meg, who we had met in Japan and crossed paths with again in both Korea and China.
On the evening of the day we arrived, the Sunday Night Market was in full swing. We wandered through the pedestrian plaza outside of the old town's main gate, browsing through northern hill tribes' handicrafts and contemporary Thai jewelery, nibbling on (mostly mysterious) thai snacks and sweets, and sampling locally-made fruit wines.
Earlier in the day, we explored old Chiang Mai on foot, found Meg, and discovered the innocuous-sounding but deadly “Long Green Bean Salad” - easily the hottest dish I have EVER encountered (and one of the best!). Feeling oriented, we laid out plans for the next few days, starting with satisfying Colin's persistent travel obsession – a Cooking Class!
The most ambitious one yet, the class started at 9 a.m. with a trip to the local produce/meat/fish market, and continued for the next six hours, through at least as many dishes and lots and lots of eating....
we made coconut cream from scratch and several curry pastes by hand with a mortar and pestle, fried a whole fish, and cooked up dishes colored by shades of red and green chilies until our eyes crossed. Yum!
Day 3 started early with an hour long drive into the northern mountains for a day of visiting hill tribe villages, elephant trekking and river rafting.
The villages we visited were short but pleasant stopovers geared mostly to demonstrating and selling handicrafts, 
and the elephant trekking proved to be mostly disturbing – the mahouts (elephant guides) carried spiked sticks and were not shy about using them – but we did our best to focus on our own elephant, who was guided by Colin instead of a mahout, with a bundle of bananas instead of a stick (we had one more passenger in our group than there were seats in the “chairs” on the elephants, so Colin scored the prime spot astride the elephant's neck usually reserved for by the mahouts).
The highlight of the day though, was the river rafting. We had been warned not to take anything that couldn't get wet – it took a lot of insistence to convince me to leave behind my camera! It turned out that in contrast to the bamboo rafts we had ridden down the Li River in China, these bamboo rafts were nothing more than 5 to 6 bamboo poles lashed together – once on board, we were sitting in 4 to 6 inches of water. And as soon as we were underway, the rafting guides began a water war that lasted for the entire two hour trip downriver, sending waves of water splashing from boat to boat and trying to topple each others' passengers. Fortunately, we all managed to stay attached to our rafts (except Colin, who jumped back and forth between the two), but another raft that passed us by was not so lucky – our two boats' guides attacked the third boat and dumped one of its passengers overboard, smoking cigarette and all!
The next day brought more wandering around the city, to markets, teahouses, temples and then dinner at a hilltop restaurant a harrowing 20 minute ride up a steep ridge in the back of a shock-less pickup truck – it was our farewell dinner with Meg, who would be making her way to Australia after our months in SE Asia, whereas Colin and I would be jumping over to India next...
Our final day in Chiang Mai we decided to treat ourselves to an extravagance – ziplining through the rainforest canopy (read $$$). Ive always wanted to see the forest from the top, and Colin was gung-ho to fly from tree to tree.
It was an amazing experience – more thrill ride than nature immersion, but fantastic all the same. And to our guide/instructor's surprise, we saw gibbons! (in several years leading ziplining tours, he's only seen them a few times, and never before with a group of zipliners trailing along). Unfortunately, about two-thirds of the way through our course, a guide who had been joking with Colin pretended to drop him about 10 feet down an abseiling (direct descent) part of the course (the part that was already challenging Colin's courage) and he wasn't able to recover from the fright enough to enjoy the last few ziplines. Up until then, though, he was a flying banshee, whooping and cackling as we flew from tree to tree.
Another overnight train took us back to Bangkok to meet Suzy, who was enroute from Montana to join us for two weeks in southern Thailand. Returning to our lantern-lit Bangkok lane, we went off in search of a barber (! - Colin had decided to cut his hair - !), then took an afternoon nap so we could stay awake for Suzy's arrival. Sitting at an all night beer garden set up in the street, we greeted her as she emerged from her taxi at about 3 a.m. before finally collapsing into bed.
The next day, we took a river taxi to the Grand Palace, where we were identified by the gate guards as “indecent” and sent to the clothing office to borrow long pants for Colin and a wrap-around skirt for Suzy before we were permitted to enter the grounds. The temples and statues were amazing – incredibly ornate and beautifully painted in bright colors and painstaking detail. Then on to the airport for our flight south to Phuket....
Southern Beaches
Day One in southern Thailand was spent on the beach in Kata, doing nothing more than lounging, sunning, swimming, eating and drinking.
Suzy had just emerged from several weeks of back-to-back trials (as a prosecutor) and needed the complete beach bum experience. The following day, while I recovered from a pesky cold, Colin and Suzy made the spa and shopping circuit of Kata town. After one more good night's sleep at our cozy guesthouse (Southern Fried Rice: good food, great family, host to the local chess club, and a pool table to cap it off) we headed to Phuket Town for an afternoon/evening of exploring (with Suzy still in shopping mode), then the morning ferry to Ko Phi Phi, where our really great adventures would begin.
Ko Phi Phi is a small island in the large bay between Phuket and Krabi. Its a classic tropical party destination – beaches, bars, guesthouses, and souveniers.
Fortunately, it is also a short 20 minute boat ride from Phi Phi Ley, a very small uninhabited island just offshore of Ko Phi Phi, and where Suzy had made advance arrangements for us to go camping with the only outfit in Thailand with permits to stay on the island overnight.
It was a magical night – stopping to snorkel and kayak along the way, we arrived on the island just as the sun was setting and the last of the day visitors were leaving. The island is formed of karst mountains, with a picture-perfect sandy beach – Maya Bay - hidden away in a small cove. Colin played soccer on the beach with some of the twenty 20-somethings we were sharing the trip with, while Suzy and I wandered the beach and took photos of the sunset.
We were served a beach picnic dinner and slept on the beach, under the stars. It was easily the most beautiful spot I have ever had the pleasure of soaking up (and the filming location for the movie “The Beach,” which Ill now have to see one day).
The following day had us waking up on the beach at Phi Phi Ley, and trying to pretend that we didnt have to leave – which we finally did, to catch our ferry connection from Ko Phi Phi to Rai Ley, the final leg of which was in motorized longboats that deposited us on the beach, where no cars can access because of the surrounding karsts.
We held our bags over our heads as we lowered ourselves off the boats into the surf, and walked directly into the resort Suzy had booked for us – right on the talcum sand beach and with a palm shaded pool and view of the sunset. I decided I liked this 'tell visiting friends to set their own agenda' thing – it was working for me!
After an evening sitting on bamboo mats on the beach surrounded by lanterns and eating duck curry, Suzy took Colin rockclimbing the next day, “to give mom a break.”
It just kept getting better! I spent the day wandering the island, finding the world's most perfect beach (after Maya Bay - but this one had its own fertility shrine) and getting a foot and leg massage.
A Dutch solo traveler Suzy met joined us for dinner, and we spent the next day kayaking around some of the offshore karsts with him, which Colin could not help but climbing at every opportunity. The day and night was capped by a visit to the “backpacker” side of the island, lined with under-the-stars bars, music and assorted entertainment, the nature of which at our choice – Last Bar – included fire dancers, snake charmers, music and dancing. Colin was the hit of the evening, and continued to be identified as “snake-boy” and “dancing-boy” by strangers we passed on the beach in the following days. At 3 a.m., Colin and I finally packed it in, leaving Suzy and (Dutch) Hans to whatever the rest of the night would bring....
Suzy climbed into a longboat with her bags in the morning – Colin and I had decided to stay another night, as I couldnt manage to pull myself away from Rai Ley quite yet. We had a lovely last day and night, going for a short paddle, lazing by the pool and eating dinner on the beach before catching the return ferry to Phuket the next day.
Back at Kata Beach, where we had left our bags, we spent one last night in Thailand before hiring a car to take us to a north Phuket beach for dinner and then to the airport to catch our plane to the Kuala Lumpur Airport, where we spend the night in the airport's 24-hour chocolate shop before leaving on our 6 a.m. flight to India to meet Kelly and Lex, a Seattle buddy/mom for me and her son, a school-mate of Colin's, who would travel with us for the next three weeks up the southern coast of India, from Trivandrum to Mumbai..... but that's the next installment. ;-)
Up Next: India's Backwaters and Hill Stations
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