Starting with New Years Eve in Chiang Mai with Emily (our youngest daughter). We had so much fun and found ourselves partying all night with great people in a beautiful city. We stocked up on fireworks, which are readily available at very affordable prices. You would not believe the size and selection of the firwarks that anyone can buy. We thought of our son, Carson and how much he would have enjoyed being a pyro all night! We also bought some floating lanterns for the festivities.
Happy belated New Years everybody! We have been putting on the miles and have really struggled with Wi-Fi connections and have not been able to send an email with any attachments let alone upload pics and blog. We now have a decent connection and will use it wisely to get caught up and show you some of the great places we have been... Starting with New Years Eve in Chiang Mai with Emily (our youngest daughter). We had so much fun and found ourselves partying all night with great people in a beautiful city. We stocked up on fireworks, which are readily available at very affordable prices. You would not believe the size and selection of the firwarks that anyone can buy. We thought of our son, Carson and how much he would have enjoyed being a pyro all night! We also bought some floating lanterns for the festivities. It was very cool to see the sky full of floating lanterns and then fireworks being lit off into the sky at the same time. It is very hard to see a sight like this and not think about the fire hazards we have in Canada and the rules that we have when it comes to fire, fireworks and safety. Life in the tropics is so different from back at home. After all the lanterns from the various festivals and parties that we have encountered we did not hear of even one fire. Incredible! We made our resolutions, we partied all night and we were mesmerized by the environment that we were so fortunate to be apart of. We hope that you all had a great New Years and that you have much happiness, health and success in 2016!
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We have been waiting for this day for so long. We booked this tour with a company called Chai Lai Orchid after much research and hours on the internet. It seems that most elephant tours are not very good for the elephants and the more we read the more we wanted to support a place whose interests are in the health and well being of the animals and not just pushing as many tourists through their doors as possible. Well, did our homework ever pay off!! What a day! here is the link to Chai Lai Orchid if you would like to check it out. http://www.chailaiorchid.com We booked a one day tour and shortly after arriving we wished that we had booked an overnight stay with these amazing animals. The day started out getting to know the elephants up, close and personal. To be honest it took Benjilynn and I a little while to feel comfortable with these massive animals but there was Emily, jump right in and start getting kisses right away! We spent about 30 minutes feeding, petting and then playing with the big, small and medium sized elephants, oh and the really small! It was then time to mount up and start our bareback trek through the jungle. What a crazy ride! We all loved it which is evident from the huge smiles we are sporting in these pictures. Oh and no, that is not Fred Flintstone in that sexy elephant riding shirt, it is me, Shayne! Yubba dubba doooo! Benjilynn made a comment after our trek, she thought they matched us to our elephants perfectly as her elephant was sweet, gentle and patient and mine was big and pushed its way to the front of the pack and made lots of noise while Emily's was always off in the rhubarb causing trouble, that's my girl! Emily and her ride sure kept the trainers busy trying to keep them both in line hahaha. When we finished our trek we met back at the main building for a great lunch and a beer while watching another group bathe an elephant in the river. Then we were off on a Thai rafting trip so we jumped in the back of a pick-up and drove up river for the float back down. I must say I thought I was going to capsize this raft but the bamboo was surprisingly buoyant and our captain did a great job navigating the narrows of the river. This was so peaceful and relaxing I could have had a nap. When we returned to camp it was our turn to bathe the elephant... The cleanest elephant on earth with the best job ever. The girls loved it and Emily really bonded with this elephant, it was great to watch. While Emily was playing and bonding Benjilynn, as usual, was doing all the work LOL. That elephant was going to be clean! LOL Benjilynn was thanked with a great big smooch at the end, it was all worth it. What a day! We could repeat this everyday, we all loved it. I was very surprised by how gentle these giant animals were and their sensitivity to people. It was a very special and memorable day and one we will all cherish forever.
Now it is time for another party!! We will be celebrating the 2016 New Years Eve party downtown Chiang Mai and it should be spectacular as we hear they do the floating lanterns again. We are resting up today as tomorrow will be an all day and nighter. Happy New Years everybody!! From Shayne, Benjilynn and Emily We were so excited to get back to Thailand and meet Emily, our youngest, in Bangkok! We had some much needed laundry and some shopping to catch up on so we stayed there a couple days. We found a great apartment using Airbnb right on the river, with an amazing view. While on the balcony we noticed a Fair Grounds on the other side of the river so off we went! Great pizza and beer! We then packed our nice clean clothes and bathing suits and made our way to the airport for a 1 hour flight south to Koh Samui. We stayed at a great facility called Shangrilah Bungalows and we were right on the beach. It is so nice to hear the waves crashing night and day. The weatehr was either hot and sunny or pouring rain and enough of both to enjoy. We laughed how nice and warm the rain was and a nice break from the really hot and sunny days. The beaches here were always quiet and seemed like we had the whole place to ourselves. Needless to say we were at the beach a lot! We found ourselves walking miles each day up and down the beach and it was always nice to know that there was a beach front bar or restaurant only a few steps away! One of the hi lights from this trip was the amazing full moon on Christmas night, check out these pics, it was magical! Christmas was pretty laid back and really didn't feel much like Christmas with the heat and lack of marketing. It was a nice break from the normal but we also missed it and especially missed our family. Carson and Cortney were having our family tradition fondu while we were eating green curry and rice on the beach hahaha. At least we had Emily! We all agreed that we could have stayed at least another month in this beautiful place. There is something about an island environment and it's people that just slows time. We will return to this place one day, I promise.
Now back to Chiang Mai to show Emily where we have been spending most of our time on this trip and we are going to spend a day with elephants and hitting some of our favorite markets. We know, it is hard to believe but we found another party! Some of you may think that we plan this but honestly we do not. I think there are lots of festivals in Asia and we also got lucky with some of these. This one wasn't nearly as spectacular as the Loi Krathong festival but Benjilynn got to hang out with her favorite animal, the elephants were front and centre for this one! This festival was the 20th anniversary on Luang Prabang becoming a Unesco World Heritage Site. Lots of colourful costumes, dance and music which was dominated by traditional Hmong themes and people. There was even a float dedicated to weaving silk, a very common product here in Laos. This was a fun festival and you can tell by the locals faces and laughter. Great people and culture here in Laos. We thought we had missed the elephants so we were walking back to our hotel and there they were, 2 blocks from our hotel gate and they were amazing. Check out their costumes and the mahouts riding them being led by the very rare white elephant. There was even a baby elephant! Such a magnificent animal and so much fun to photograph, I really hope I get more opportunities to photograph these animals up close again.
We were feeling a little restless after our leg muscles stopped contracting from the hike up to Mount Phousi the other day so we went for a walk in the late afternoon and circled the central town area and were walking along the Mekong River as we heard the sunsets are beautiful. The weather has not been cooperating for a sunset view but this day was shaping up nicely with rain in the morning and then clearing in the afternoon. As we mentioned before, this town is great to walk in and as usual we found lots to look at as we strolled around town for a couple hours. We made it down to the Mekong River around 4:30 and we knew it would be a great night for a sunset watch as the sky was already in full glow. Check out this view from the river bank looking out over a boat waiting for customers to ferry across or upstream. Well, you can understand why we walked down the bank and hired a boat for the hour as the sun started setting. The photo shoot was never ending and Shayne had to finally admit that 500 pictures of the same sunset may be a little excessive LOL. Good thing he invested in digital! You must admit though, it would be pretty hard not to marvel and shoot this as you may never see another sunset like this one again. We are now fully in love with the mystical Mekong River. Please enjoy a fraction of the photos we took and we hope you feel the same mystical, spiritual feeling that we did. It was a magical evening and with only 3 more sleeps left in Luang Prabang we promised each other that if we had another clear day that we would get back onto the water. Our hour was up and we were wishing that we had the boat all night. Imagine how much fun we could have had with a bottle or two of wine and... oh yeah, we did have wine haha. We were just getting into the boat when Shayne asked if the captain might have a couple beers so I reminded him that we bought a bottle of wine earlier that afternoon and it was in my purse! Yup, I am amazing! Oh, and I had a corkscrew but we did have to paper bag it LOL!! What a romantic evening as we walked along the river ad watched the captains tying up their boats. Could it get any better? As our visual overload was easing and we meandered along the river on our way back to the centre, sniff, sniff..."Hey Benjilynn, do you smell BBQ?" Yup I did. We then enjoyed our first Laos Buffet BBQ on the banks of the Mekong, wow what a meal! For less than $25 we had over 60 items to choose from, 2 large beers and tip included and the BBQ method was brilliant! They set you up with a ceramic stone caldron in the middle of your table which they filled with red hot coals and then covered with a bowl type device. As you can imagine, it did not take very long to heat the metal bowl up to cooking temperature. OK, you have to follow us on this as we only have 2 photos due to no time because of the feeding frenzy that was taking place. We poured water into the outer circle of the bowl and then cooked our meats, mushrooms and seafood on the grill part of the bowl and then we put veggies and noodles into the water = broth... Yes, the meat juices dripped into the water creating a wonderful rich broth. It was like BBQ, fondue and hot pot all in one over a fire pit! WITH BEER! We were in heaven, what an amazing meal and easily ranks as #1 meal in South East Asia.
Here is the last pic of the BBQ, I hope it make sense and that one of you can recreate this wonderful contraption before we get home. What do you think about a chain of Laos BBQ's across Canada? We have been very excited about this trip since we booked it while back in Canada. We planned this as a Visa run, meaning that our 30 day Thai Tourist Visa expired and our Visa Extension of 30 days is close to expiring. The rule is that you must exit Thailand and re-enter at a border or airport. Benjilynn and I were sitting at AMA in Calgary and were recommended to book this flight to actually show that we were planning on leaving Thailand. So, we remembered a show by the chef Anthony Bourdain where he raved about the country, food and people of Laos so that was it. We booked a two week trip to Laos, arriving in the north at Luang Prabang and departing the south at the capital of Vientiane. We had researched the country a little bit and from what we found it is much smaller and quieter than the places we have been visiting in Thailand. We really didn't expect how remote this place actually is though. It feels like westerners may have just found it but this is a false feeling. Laos has a brutal history of other nations tormenting these poor people. Loas is the most bombed country in all the world and during the Vietnam war the US forces dropped bombs every 8 minutes for an 8 year period. Can you imagine? Why are they so friendly and inviting to us? Laos is considered one of the poorest countries in the world but they have now opened their doors to tourism and you can see the growth and investment happening within Luang Prabang. Located on the legendary Mekong River, the views are extraordinary and the environment brings back all the feelings we have read and seen in movies over our lifetime. This is a relaxed, mystical and tropical location and we would recommend you visit although we would like to just keep it to ourselves a bit longer haha. The temperatures in December are a perfect 24 to 30 celsius and we have had some rain this past week. The rivers have grown and washed out this bamboo foot-bridge the other night. Budhism is the national religion similar to most South East Asia countries and Laos seems to house more novice monks in training than most other places we have visited. Their saffron coloured robes can be seen from blocks away along with their peaceful smiles. They are intertwined into this community and can be seen every day and evening. At the centre of town is a temple on a mountain called Mount Phousi. We hiked the hundreds of steps up the mountain to the top and what a view. You can see this pretty village is quite small and surrounded by mountains and rivers is very peaceful. While at the top you can purchase a small cage with 2 small song birds, chirping and singing for their freedom. Here is Benjilynn releasing her birds at the top of the mountain. Definitely worth the 30,000 Kip ($5 Cdn). Naturally, we have to spend our fair share of time at the local market to enjoy the food and beverages. The Luang Prabang market is extra special as you are not packed elbow to elbow with hundreds of thousands of other people. There is lots of breathing room and we could even sit at a restaurant on the main market street and enjoy a cold Lao beer. (cheaper than a cup of coffee by the way and yes, Shayne reminds me of this every morning). Lots of room to walk on great brick sidewalks and ride our rental bicycles without worrying about traffic. We have not visited a place in Asia yet where we could walk down any street or alley without worrying about traffic, so this has been very nice for our evening walks along the river and through town. A couple more days in Luang Prabang before we catch a bus down south to the capital city, Vientiane.
Sabaidee!!! Once a year, for the last full moon of the 12th month in the Thai Lunar Calendar, Thailand celebrates with a festival called Loi Krathong and in Chiang Mai they do things the Chiang Mai way, they make everything much cooler! They also have a festival on the same night, when they launch thousands of lit lanterns into the full moon lit sky. The day starts off with the traditional Loi Krathong ceremonies along the river where budhists light small floating, floral rafts with candles, incense, money and their wishes for the new year. They then place these floating shrines into the Mae Ping river that runs through the centre of Chiang Mai. It really is quite beautiful and it appears most of the items on these small shrines and the rafts themselves are bio-degradable and some even invlude coloured ice cream cones for decorations, the catfish which populate this river must love this festival! This festival had everything going on and we could have stayed there all night, oh yeah, we did! LOL Check out the stunt guys cruising the sky up and down the river! Lots of photos in this one... Enjoy! Fireworks of all shapes and sizes light up the sky, water and ground. There was one that appeared to be dynamite and was thrown into the river and when exploded you could feel the percussion. We were a little late on the photo but you can still see the "Smoke on the Water". It can't be a festival without a parade! They went all out with floats, costumes, musicians and dancers. There was no end to the entertainment and festivities. Oh and some street food! There was a sea of people all night long, walking the streets and partying along the river. The environment was intoxicating. The hi-light for us was definitely the lanterns, so beautiful. The skies were full of them, floating overhead with wishes and prayers written on them. Not all of them made their intended journeys with trees, power lines and other obstacles, some ended up burning out in the river. We were a little worried a couple times but if you read one of our earlier blogs you will recall the fire safety training here in Thailand. We were certain there were hotel maids somewhere in the crowds to save the day! What a great night and highly recommended for everyone who visits Chiang Mai. Spectacular to say the least!
This was a great way to draw our Chiang Mai visit to a close and one that we will always remember. Now we are off to The People's Republic of Laos! After our romp in the city we were quite excited about getting out of town for a day so we packed up the bike and off we went, north this time. Took a left at Mae Rim and headed west into the mountains. Traffic wasn't too bad and after we passed all the regular tourist traps it thinned out even more and we could open up the 155cc Yamaha Scooter... Easy Rider like. The road started to wind and climb into the mountains, the temperature started to drop to a very comfortable 25 celsius and the smells of the jungle were intoxicating. It was like smelling flowers and unburned incense as we cruised around each corner. We stopped a couple times to see if we could determine the origin of the aromas and realized there were banana trees, everywhere! Imagine driving down the hi-way, through a green walled jungle and the smell of ripe bananas all around you. We continued on and when the road turned to gravel, well Shayne was at home. He was looking forward to seeing how the 155 would handle in the dirt. We came to a small village called Samoeng and rode through town when we came upon a view of the rice fields with mountains in the background. While sitting there taking some pictures you could hear people working the fiends. Turned out this was a harvest day and most of the villagers were working there. What a great office to work in, beautiful fields, mountains, clouds and mist covering the mountain tops and fresh air. Beautiful. We carried on our little road until it bacame very rutted and narrow and when it started pouring rain I was able to convince Shayne to turn around. Good thing we brought our rain coats as it started pouring! We looked for a good place to pull over but there wasn't anything so we carried on and got a few laughs from the locals as we hauled ass in the pouring rain on our little scooter and rain coats... full speed, uphill means about 64 km/h. It really wasn't as bad as we make it out, it actually felt great, it was warm, the rain was warm and it was a lot of fun. When was the last time you played in the pouring rain and loved it? Well, the rain stopped and we were drenched, really didn't need the rain coats hahaha. Stopped for a bit to rest our butts and take some pictures of a very cool guesthouse with a chocolate river! Back on the bike and found another trail that looked like it climbed up over the clouds so off we went. We were not disappointed, what a view! The farms in this area seemed to be lettuce, strawberries and some kind of squash that were growing on terraces carved into the mountains, it was a great location and reminded us of home in the mountains and... yes we rested our sore butts again (there is a theme here). You definitely have opportunities to take picture when your ass is killing you and you need to rest it. Hhhmmm wonder if I can get that massaged... That may be for a different kind of website LOL. Check out the views here If you want to see more pics of our trips then check out our Flickr site at the top of the page or just click here.
Thanks! Shayne and Benjilynn signing off for now... So Shayne and I decided that it was time to take a little break from our break hahaha. We have been sitting at the computer far too much lately but this is required in order to plan the next stages of our trip, destinations, book flights, hotels, transportation and that kind of stuff. We also had some business to take care of such as shipping 3/4 of our clothes back home. Yes, we brought too much stuff and never wore 3/4 of our clothes so we shipped an entire large suitcase home. We then decided that since we are shipping this home we should do some market shopping and get some Christmas items for the kids and some keepsakes for ourselves. Since it is the peak season here in Thailand it was not easy finding a place to stay but we lucked upon a very unique B&B after a couple days of searching. We found Baan Boo Loo and so glad that we did. Here are a couple photos of this traditional Thai house in the middle of downtown Chiang Mai. Once you walk onto their property you completely forget that you are in the middle of a huge city. The yard and pond were incredible with tropical trees, ponds with turtles and an open outside kitchen for all to use. Shayne loved the "help yourself to the beer". The architectural design was ancient Thai called Lanna, beautiful. After checking in we were off to the market and shopping began! We have already shown pictures of some of the markets so we will not show again here but we got some nice gifts and had a great day. After shopping was done we needed to cool down so we ran a nice "cold" bath hahaha. The next day we spent walking around downtown, some more shopping, a one hour foot massage ($8 Cdn) and a great seafood lunch with squid, clams, Spicey soup, BBQ pork ribs and 2 beers ($24 Cdn). Then back to the room for a shower, changed clothes and off to the Night Bazarre and Cabaret show. The cabaret show started at 9:30 and featured lip-syncing cross dressers. This was one of those "out of the box" moments and definitely needed an open mind. Some of the "ladies" actually looked like women! Pretty amazing actually. Yes, those are men dressed as women!
On our ride up the mountain we noticed a sign for Wat Palad and remembered seeing a blog on this "Hidden Jungle Temple" and if you know Shayne, he cannot resist an off road adventure so on our ride back down the mountain, after visiting Wat Doi Suthep, we turned off the main road and put a little gravel in our travel (yup that's what Shayne calls it...). After turning off the main road there were a couple Y's and with some guessing along with the capability of the scooter we made our way down the seldom travelled trail. At times it felt like we were trespassing, which is a familiar feeling when Shayne takes back roads as sometimes they are actually driveways to the Klampits hidden cabin. Fortunately we came across a local lady and she pointed us to continue down the trail with sign language, so glad we saw her. The trail opened up a bit and we passed a small village with 5 or 6 houses on stilts and some activity with people working their gardens. Then we showed up at the temple with immediate awe. We knew right away this was going to be a cool place. We ended up spending a couple hours here as there were no tourists and the environment was tranquil and beautiful. The grounds were filled with 650 year old ancient artifacts, moss covered landscaping, waterfalls, butterlies, monks performing their daily chores, sweet incense burning, ancient religious buildings, spires and statues. We knew we had found a truly spiritual and inspiring place. After leaving a very busy tourist trap with hundreds of gold painted Buddhas, immaculate temples and thousands of tourists waiting in line, sweating with crying children and heavy camera straps choking them and cutting the blood supply off to their brains (Yes, you guessed it, this blurb was brought to you by my dearest Shayne). This was a most peaceful and by far our favorite location in Thailand to date. Here are a few pics of our time spent here and there are more if you click the flickr link at the top of this web page. If you ever visit Northern Thailand, this is one place you should make time to see.
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AuthorsShayne and Benjilynn DeMarce are world travellers, exploring people, food, culture and themselves Archives
October 2016
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