Wednesday, March 11, 2015

....There and Back Again ~ Thailand

We have arrived home ~ safe and sound......well a little jetlagged maybe.  We left Bangkok at 7am Tuesday March 10th and arrived in SeaTac Tuesday March 10th at 10:30 am ~ Whaaaaat? you say?  3 1/2 hours from Bangkok to Seattle?? .....(oh yea plus the 15 hour time difference) made for an almost 40 hour March 10th ~ pretty cool ~ because it was my birthday.

In any case - we had a fantastic last couple of weeks on our 2 month southeast Asia trip!  Let me catch you up........

Sunrise at our condo in Hua Hin, Thailand
 
We left Cbang Mai in northern Thailand with Stuart and Sara for our last week together and spent a week on the beach at Hua Hin about 3 hours south of Bangkok.  Hua Hin is a popular beach resort on the Sea of Thailand and has been a Royal summer retreat for the King of Thailand starting with King Rama VI,  http://www.tourismhuahin.com/history-huahin.php
 
We stayed south of the main town in the Khao Takiab area at a beautiful place called Baan San Suk.  Beautiful pool, white sandy beach and lots of restaurants and massage parlors made it a great place to just relax and enjoy Thailand's sunny side.  an initial thought on exploring the larger general area turned into poolside and beach relaxation.
 view from our balcony
 
 the pool
 


 lots of beach ~ very few people
 


 
                                                   monkeys at Khao Takiab Point

 
 Night Market at Hua Hin

 
 It wasn't easy leaving Hua Hin but we were looking forward to going to Bangkok to spend the evening with Brian & Lindsey Bean and their 2 daughters Mirabelle and Calliope.  Brian is the son of my first cousin ~ Mary Helen and her husband Ken who live in Maryland.  Brian and his family have been living in Bangkok for almost 2 years - Brian heads a program called Leaf ~ that deals with environmental issues - primarily concerning deforestation practices around Southeast Asia.   It was also the last night before Stuart and Sara flew home so it was great to have us all together and we had a  fantastic dinner at one of Brian and Lindsey's favorite restaurants and the food was top notch Thai inspired food with local and sustainable foodstuffs. Yummmmm!
 instant bond with the girls

Dinner with Brian and Lindsey
 
Stuart and Sara had an early start the next morning and we got them off for their taxi ride by 6am and then Carol and I had one more adventure before we were due to leave on Tuesday March 10th
We had heard some great things about Ayutthaya - the old capital of Thailand for over 400 years from the 1300s to the 1700s  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayutthaya_Kingdom
We were not disappointed.
We had a wonderful 2 night stay at I U Dia (a play on the cities name) and it was an incredible location right on the river that surrounds the city and right across from us ~ a beautiful temple complex.   We road bikes and explored other temples, we took a 2 hour city boat tour, and spent time in the pool.   The last night stayed up until 2 am with a nice Danish couple who were travelling with their 3 daughters (age 4  - 7) and the next day returned to Bangkok and had a wonderful farewell dinner with Brian and Lindsey - prepared by their Burmese cook "Sheila" complete with fresh roti flatbread and an assortment of Burmese specialties.  What a treat!
 
the old city is surrounded by the Chao Pharaya River
 
 Our hotel in Ayutthaya

Breakfast at the hotel
 
 Bike ride to the temples





 
Epilogue:
 
We loved Southeast Asia.  We will return.  There is a serenity and joy of spirit here that was different from any place we had visited before.  Buddhism plays more than a major role across the area.  It is integrated into their lives on a deeper level than one experiences with Christianity in western cultures.
The people, the food, the history, the traffic, the flora and fauna, all will draw us back ~ probably  in the near future.  There were so many little things as well.....
the curiosity of children towards "farangs" when we were in small towns,  the crazy combinations of smells (many wonderful ~ some not so much); seeing a family of 5 on 1 motorcycle or a moto just being used as a truck to haul a cage of chickens or 10 cases of Heineken beer; exotic flowers and other flora of all sizes and colors; tuktuks and other odd vehicles; trying to learn a few key words in Thai or Vietnamese,  getting used to the money; long tail boats, the central and night markets filled with an amazing array of foodstuffs and goods, and so much more.
 
 
No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path
~ Buddha


5 comments:

  1. The sunrise looks stunning and you've got so many nice pictures here!
    I have friends who have visited Thailand before and they told me it was so much fun!
    Wish I could visit it someday!

    ReplyDelete
  2. OpenRice is the Yelp of Asia. It shows a city’s most popular restaurants, ratings, menus, booking numbers, and everything in between. It’s widespread
    in Southeast Asia and a better resource than Yelp. It has listings for Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines. The app
    puts the power of the website at your fingertips.
    App Name: OpenRice

    ReplyDelete
  3. OpenRice is the Yelp of Asia. It shows a city’s most popular restaurants, ratings, menus, booking numbers, and everything in between. It’s widespread
    in Southeast Asia and a better resource than Yelp. It has listings for Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines. The app
    puts the power of the website at your fingertips.
    App Name: OpenRice

    ReplyDelete
  4. OpenRice is the Yelp of Asia. It shows a city’s most popular restaurants, ratings, menus, booking numbers, and everything in between. It’s widespread
    in Southeast Asia and a better resource than Yelp. It has listings for Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines. The app
    puts the power of the website at your fingertips.
    App Name: OpenRice

    ReplyDelete
  5. OpenRice is the Yelp of Asia. It shows a city’s most popular restaurants, ratings, menus, booking numbers, and everything in between. It’s widespread
    in Southeast Asia and a better resource than Yelp. It has listings for Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines. The app puts the power of the website at your fingertips.

    ReplyDelete