Phi Phi Island: All the Snorkels!

Took a speedboat to Phi Phi Don, the largest island in the Phi Phi Islands archipelago east of Phuket.

Stayed here for 2 nights... the Tropical Garden Bungalow, where all your jungle dreams come true, but mostly you just get feasted on by mosquitos.

The mosquitos in Thailand are ninja-like, they are stealthy and don't make any noise.  Also my skin reacted differently to them... my bites resembled little puss-filled blisters so by the end of Phi Phi my limbs looked like I had barely survived the bubonic plague.

Took a snorkeling/sunset cruise the first day where we sailed around the island south of Phi Phi.

Our guide was the epitome of a Thai Jack Sparrow in every way possible without meaning to be.  He was cracking me up the whole trip.

First stop was Monkey Beach. I have way too many pictures of monkeys now.

Monkey stare down

Look at that face lol

My favorite place was Pileh Lagoon... took a kayak into the secluded lagoon where the water was shallow and crystal clear.  We stopped at a few other places to snorkel.  The snorkeling experience here is amazing because when you look up you are surrounded by these stunning limestone cliffs.

Watched the sunset on the way back to Phi Phi.

By the time we got back to Phi Phi, it was completely dark and we got in the water to swim with the magical glowing plankton!

Phuket: Kata Beach

Arrived in Phuket and spent my first night on Kata Beach!

Jet lag still messing with me... morning jog at 6am

Kata Beach is just south of Patong Beach, which I purposely avoided because apparently I'm officially old (things that also make me feel old... immediately buying SPF 50 sunscreen when I arrived because ever since I turned 30 my mom has drilled into me a fear of wrinkles).  Patong is the more well-known area of Phuket and reminiscent of freshman year spring break at PCB but even dirtier.  I passed through Patong while on the minibus from the airport, and even with the windows closed I could feel all the booze and bad decisions seeping through my pores.  If there is a Senor Frogs that exists in Thailand, it would be here. Gross.

Seeing all the 7 Elevens and mopeds reminded me of Taipei.

At my hotel I tried to get the poolside bartender to give me some good recs for Thai street food nearby, but he was too terrified that he'd be responsible if I got sick and started peeing out my butt so he only told me about the tourist-approved spots.  I decided to go to The Boathouse next door for a fancy pants romantic dinner with myself by the beach. 😌

Me and myself were diggin the softshell crab and noodle-wrapped prawns 🍤 .

 

Kata is supposed to have good snorkeling at the rocks on the North end of the beach but I left early in the morning for Phi Phi Island so I didn't get to check it out.

Chiang Mai: Last Night in Northern Thailand

Massages by ex-prisoners! There are a few branches in Chiang Mai and these massage centers help the women be reintegrated into society. These women were the nicest locals I encountered in the city.  I got stretched like dough and put into a human pretzel, massage therapist limbs also included.  

This is also a real thing here -- skin-eating fish spas... because if you're going to remove your dead foot fungus skin you might as well recycle it back into the food chain.  I just stole this pic, didn't actually do it, but next time I'll make sure I give those fish the pleasure of eating my feet.

Met up with Anna, from Munich, who I bonded with over baby elephants, rice milling and mud fights at the elephant sanctuary earlier that day... all the normal beginnings of a friendship.  She's the definition of a true backpacker (couch-surfing & hitchhiking with strangers, both things that cause me anxiety in my 30s) and inspired me to stop being such a planner :).  We got German beers at the Beer Lab outside of the Old City.

Afterwards I ordered more street food than I could eat at the North Gate.

  

Tried my best to do the food scene here justice, but in the end I didn't have enough time to make it to the spots I had in mind.  If you want some foodie articles on Chiang Mai:

The Guardian: Chiang Mai Food Paradise
Serious Eats: Khao Soi in Chiang Mai

I love that even though Chiang Mai is a big tourist destination, it still retains its culture and history and you get a good sense of what real life is like for locals here. 2 days was definitely not enough and I will be back!

Full-time resident @ The Green Tiger hostel. Meow 

Chiang Mai: Elephant Jungle Sanctuary

Mudbaths and waterfall showers with elephants... this is an experience I will never forget.

First, an obligatory food post -- Started off the day with some noodle soup for breakfast at the hostel.

It was a 1.5 hour ride to the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary. There are several camps with a different herd of elephants at each. The camp was simple, consisting of a few bamboo huts. I did the full-day trip but you can stay overnight or even volunteer for a whole week.

Sanctuary edu-ma-cation:

• Started 3 years  ago to support the safe-keeping and well-being of elephants, to keep them out of the tourist-driven riding camps and other situations where they might be mistreated.  
• Elephants' spines aren't meant to carry humans and the riding camps often work the elephants hard but don't feed them enough. Riding camps are still legal as the government doesn't ban them because they collect tax revenue from the camps.  We passed by a few riding camps on the way, where sadly the elephants are kept in pens right next to the road.
• Every elephant in the camp is owned by an individual, usually a villager who inherited the elephants from their family but no longer needs the elephants to perform manual labor due to modern technology. In many cases the owners can't afford to take care of the elephants and it is common for them to sell the elephants to investors who own riding camps. The Sanctuary offers an alternative to the owners by offering to take care of the elephants so they don't have to sell them to riding camps. 
• The Sanctuary rents huge plots of land from a private owner and provides all food and care to the elephants.  The land provides a natural habitat for the elephants, including jungle and water sources. This is all funded by tourists who pay to visit the Sanctuary. 
• When the Sanctuary first started, they had 5 elephants under their care and have now grown to 55.

The elephants make their way over to our camp.

Elephant hugs! It takes ~1 month for an elephant to grow a bond with a human and after that the elephant will never forget the human.

Feeding sugar cane to the elephants. He found the stash in my pocket. 

Baby elephant hugs! He is 3-yrs old and his mama took good care of him all day.

There's nothing like the feeling of putting your hand into an elephant's mouth and having a huge, moist elephant tongue suck on your hand to get those sugar cane goodies. I am so happy you can barely see my eyes.

Elephants eat 350 kg, drink 150 L of water and sleep 3 hours per day.  So basically their life consists of non-stop eating.  Next ,we hauled a bunch of corn stalks down for another feeding.

   

The elephants are so adept at using the end of their trunks to strip the leaves off the stalks before they eat them and it was fun watching how each of them had a different approach to accomplishing this.

 The baby took a break to play with dirt. :)

After lunch we made vitamin rice balls for the elephants. Tamarind for their intestines, iodine to help their throats since they swallow a lot of coarse fiber, bananas for potassium and rice. 

Both cooked and raw rice was used (cooked rice only retains 40% of the nutrients).  The raw rice had to be ground using this fun contraption to help separate/soften the sharp husk of the rice grains so it's easier for the elephants to swallow.

We fed the sticky rice vitamins to the elephants for dessert and they loved that shit. Then we took a mudbath with them... this was my favorite part!! We got in the muddy pond and rubbed their backs with mud to cool them down. They were rolling around in the mud being super playful with us. They were throwing mud on themselves while we were throwing mud at them and at each other. 

Fun fact: When elephants eat something with worms that makes them sick, they'll eat a bunch of mud to help them poop it out quicker. 💩

Then we walked down to a river where the elephants huddled around the waterfall to drink.  We all got in and aggressively splashed water all over the place to wash them and ourselves off. The elephants were loving every second of playing in the water. Will update this with pics when they are posted on Facebook.

Chiang Mai: Temples in the Old City & the Night Market

I loved wandering the streets of the Old City. It's the definition of Past-Meets-Present when you see the most regal Bhuddist Temples amongst scooter-drivers disobeying traffic lights, massage places staffed by ex-prisoners and every kind of elephant-printed pant-skirt you could want (I'm still trying to figure out how to pull off those Bali/Harem/Hippie/MC Hammer pants). In summary, all of life's necessities packed into a perfect 2km square.

I walked from The Green Tiger House by Chang Phuak Gate (the North gate) to the Night Bazaar outside Tha Phae Gate (the East gate) and passed by many of the well-known temples along my way.  It was good practice for me and my new BFF -- the Olympus E-M10 Mark II mirrorless camera -- because I still haven't figured out what 2/3 of the buttons do.  Yes, that's right... me and my buddy Mark are fulfilling all of your Asian stereotype fantasies.

P.S. If you are even remotely thinking about buying a digital camera... do yourself a favor and read this techradar guide first.

Monks are real people who get wedgies, too

I was on a weirdly obsessive mission to find the best Khao Soi in Chiang Mai.  It's a traditional Northern Thailand dish that's Burmese-influenced. You can read more about it and the best places to find it the city here and here.

Khao Soi

The Night Bazarre... very similar to Taiwanese night markets but there was more of a shopping vs. street food emphasis here.