Chiang Mai to Siem Reap - Day Five

Some final thoughts on Chiang Mai:

Chiang Mai has a very laid back, hippie vibe. The food is dirt cheap and delicious. Be there on Sunday night to experience the Walking Street Market. If you aren't going to have a day with elephants, I don't know if it's a must-see place in Thailand. The temples are plentiful, just depends how much you like temples. I'm so glad we went to Chiang Mai first, because we lost at least half a day due to jet lag, and I would've been heartbroken to lose any time anywhere else we went. All in all, for us, it was the perfect place to start our trip, but it's not a place to which we'll be daydreaming about returning.

We flew out from Chiang Mai to Siem Reap via Bangkok. Each flight was an hour.

When we arrived at Siem Reap, our tuk-tuk driver, Mr. Han, the man who would be our guide for our entire stay, was waiting for us with a beer for the ride back to the hotel (Angkor beer tastes worse than it smells). Not a bad way to start. Through our hotel package at The Villa Siem Reap, we basically had a driver at our call whenever we wished during the day. And at night, we were within walking distance from the downtown area.

I highly recommend The Villa Siam Reap. The hotel was clean, air conditioning was great, and the staff was very friendly. Perhaps we could've gotten a better deal elsewhere, but the convenience of booking everything we wanted to do through the hotel was worth paying extra for. Plus, the hotel had a nice bar and a good breakfast. And, most importantly, they employed Mr. Han.

After we checked in, Mr. Han gave us a quick tour around Siam Reap to get us acclimated. I immediately bought a bag made out of a Siam Co. cement sack. So much for shopping around, but I ended up not regretting the decision.

As we passed the  Children's Hospital, Mr. Han gushed at how great it was, how it was closed during the Khmer Rouge, and how glad grateful he is that it's open again. Down the road, he pulled into a cemetery where there was a display of skulls from a nearby killing field. This was the Cambodia I was nervous about putting a damper on our trip (and, yes, I realize how trite that sounds). But it turned out to be the Cambodia I needed to see. Mr. Han briefly told his story, the Khmer Rouge murdering many of his family members. The rawness of this event decades ago sitting just below the surface, tears still brimming at the retelling of its horror. Hearing his story, the resilience of all the beautiful people we met, the gorgeous country shone through. This war was so recent, not a single resident hasn't been affected by it.

Then we went to Angkor Wat to watch the sunset. The temple was beautiful, the temple of our dreams. We drank wine and ate cheese, the temple reflecting in the pond at our feet.

We ate a complimentary dinner at our hotel. Hubs had chicken and sour cabbage, which was great.

I had traditional Khmer curry (Cambodian curry is similar to Thai curry, but less spicy but still packed with flavor) served in a coconut. Fun! It was very good, not too rich.

And then it was time to sleep after a long, good, emotional day.

Wat Prathat Doi Suthep - Day Four

Everyone should have a monk garden gnome.

Today we went to Wat Prathat Doi Suthep, a beautiful golden temple on the top of hill, looking down on Chiang Mai. It's definitely worth the hour-long journey to get there. The cheapest option is the red truck, the public transportation system in Chiang Mai. There are red trucks driving up and down the busier streets all the time. You flag them, they pull over, you tell them where you want to go (in our case, Chiang Mai University), they say no and keep on driving. You aren't doing it wrong. Just flag the next one and ask again. I think it was our third one before the truck was going in the direction we wanted. The trucks are very affordable, a trip across town cost 30 Bht per person.

At Chiang Mai University, you wait at a stop and get another red truck to the temple.

The temple has a great set of stairs with dragon railings that you have to climb to get to the top. There was an adorable little girl dressed up, trying to make some quick cash with her cuteness.

The view is beautiful, though it was a little smoggy on the day we were there.

The actual temple is striking with all of its gold. FYI: Foreigners are asked to donate 30 Bht before entering the temple.

There's also a great market around the temple and lots of delicious food stands, so plan on eating lunch here. I found a white stone elephant charm and a heart pendant necklace, my favorite purchase of the whole trip.

View of vendors from the red truck.

Back onto the red truck and down the hill to Chiang Mai.

We ate dinner at Hot Chilli, an open restaurant, much more Western than the other places we'd eaten at Chiang Mai. We shared the Tom Sam salad, their version had pineapple, watermelon, and jicama rather than the traditional papaya salad. It was so good. Light and refreshing, and, surprisingly, not too sweet and a little spicy.

I had the regional sausage (slightly spicy) with fried rice. Yum.

Hubs had the duck curry with pineapple which was delicious.

Split a large Chang beer, which smells worse than it tastes. Love the label!

Add a bottle of water and our bill came to 500 Bht with tip. Not bad for the romantic ambience and a great last dinner in Chiang Mai.

Patara Elephant Farm - Day Three

I must admit, one of the major reasons we went to Chiang Mai was because I watched Samantha Brown ride and swim with an elephant at Patara Elephant Farm. I'd never had any desire to ride an elephant before then, but it looked like an amazing experience. I'd also had a thing for elephants after seeing an Oprah that showed elephants having a "funeral" for their dead in which they all mourned and "touched" the fallen with their trunks. I still get teary thinking about it.

So our third day was spent entirely at Patara Elephant Farm (also check out their Facebook page). There are many places to pay to interact with elephants near Chiang Mai. Patara is the most expensive. There's a reason for that. It's the best.

The elephants at Patara are treated extremetly well; they're treated like elephants. They have lots of space to move around, plenty of friends to socialize with, the right food in the correct proportion, and they get the care and exercise they need to thrive in captivity. Many of their elephants are rescues. Patara's focus is to educate people about elephants, increase the elephant population, and release elephants back into the wild.

BoonPak

At Patara, you become an elephant owner for day and an elephant is assigned to you. I got BoonPak, which means Happy. BoonPak is a big, beautiful, 17-yr-old male with long, glorius tusks. He was rescued from the circus when he was 6. Since I was now BoonPak's owner, I fed him bananas and sugar cane and made sure he was healthy by checking the quantity and consistency of his droppings.

Then I had to clean him. First, I had to brush the dirt off of him with a bundle of leaves. There is a lot of dirt on an elephant, and the surface area is large. After the dirt was removed, I took him into the creek and scrubbed him down. Cleaning an elephant is hard work.

Then we road them bareback down a trail to another small river. I thought it might be scary, but they're so slow and sturdy, no worries.

When we got to the river, there was an amazing spread of food. It was all so good, and great sticky rice desserts were wrapped in the banana leaves. I don't think we ate half of it. So the elephants got to finish it. Except for the chicken.

The most special part of the trek was that you could swim with the elephants if you wanted to. It wasn't hot on the day we went, so most people didn't want to do it, since the water was quite cold. But, hey, when are you ever going to swim with an elephant? Plus, they only picked two elephants to interact with in the creek, and one was BoonPak, so that sealed the deal.

Again, I thought I might be scared, you know, since he's huge, and water isn't my best surface. But BoonPak loved the water and he was so relaxed. I ended up relaxing with him, resting my body on his front leg and laying my head on his. Whenever he'd move his leg, I'd move right along with him. It was pretty awesome. I couldn't stop smiling.

BoonPak and his awesome handler, Thep, who assisted me in taking care of BoonPak all day.

I'm going to be honest, my legs inner thighs took about a month to return to normal. But Patara was an amazing experience. When you're there, you feel like you're doing something good for the world. And you're definitely doing something good for yourself.

Chiang Mai - Day Two

We went to a bunch of temples, which is mostly what you do in Chiang Mai. It's not a gorgeous town, by any means. It feels incredibly laid back and casual, an Asian hippie town. But no matter where you are, if you look up, there are gold and silver spires jutting into the sky.

Here are some of my favorite images from Wat Phra Sing:

My favorite temple in Chiang Mai was Wat Chedi Luang. It was a nice prelude to Angkor Wat. Loved the elephants around it. I could've spent all day reading in the peaceful courtyard.

The most interesting thing about the temples were how there were clusters of smaller temples around the larger ones, and some of those small temples were more beautiful and ornate than the large ones.

We ate at one of the restaurants on Intrawararot, near our hotel. Hubs had crispy pork.

I had boiled rice with duck. The dishes came with a lovely tray of condiments. I love condiments.

2 dishes + water + tip = 100 Bht.

This was the day the jet lag really hit. We went to bed very early and slept for many, many hours.

Chiang Mai - Day One

We had a direct flight from LAX to Bangkok, which was a red-eye, and the 16 hours went by shockingly fast. Took sleep medicine for the first time in my life and slept well, all things considered. And the food on Thai Airways wasn't half bad.

We took a cab from the Chiang Mai Airport to our hotel (120 Bht). There isn't much in the way of public transportation in Chiang Mai besides the red trucks that can take you from place to place. More on those later.

We stayed at the De Lanna Hotel, which was a great location. Lots of restaurants just up the road on Intrawararot. Not to be a wimpy Westerner, but the air conditioner could have been a tad more powerful, that was my only complaint. The daily breakfast is FANTASTIC, and made up for any shortcomings with the air conditioning.

After taking a shower, we walked around and had an early dinner at Huen Phen. When in northern Thailand, eat the curry. Khao Soi is the regional specialty and it's worth having as many times as you can. I had a red curry with noodles.

Khao Soi

Red Curry

Many desserts in Thailand consist of frozen pieces of gelatin floating in a sweet milky liquid. Appetizing, right?

It tastes like cereal milk. Momofuku Milk Bar didn't reinvent the wheel. The flavor of cereal milk is universally comforting. Most importantly, it's cold, cold, cold.

Not so scary.

Chiang Mai is an incredibly affordable place to eat. You can pick up some delicious snack being fried on almost every street corner. Our meal at Huen Phen with two curries, two waters, and dessert was 120 Bht.

If you are going to Chiang Mai, please, please be there on a Sunday. It's the only day of the week for the Walking Street Market 4pm-midnight.

This was our favorite market of the trip, and we went to many. First, it's at night, so the weather is cooler. It's stand after stand, lit by hanging lights, so the atmosphere is special. Of all the markets we went to, I felt that this had the most handmade crafts, and actually felt like we were supporting local craftsmen, as opposed to buying cheap junk straight from a warehouse. And if you see something you like, buy it. I still regret not buying a tiny, carved wooden elephant for $2 because I was sure I would come across another one later in the trip. Nope.

And, of course, there is food, food, and more food. The highlight was the Witty Ice Cream stand which served the best waffle cone I've ever eaten.

Thailand & Cambodia Overview

Over Christmas, Hubs and I took a two week vacation to Thailand and Cambodia, our first trip to Asia. It stemmed from The Amazing Race when, a few seasons ago, the teams were sent to Cambodia. When I heard Cambodia, my only association was the grainy black & white photo of a man kneeling, the blade already in motion, about to be beheaded. Who would want to go there?

But TAR had the contestants running through the most amazing, enormous ruins, unlike anything I'd ever seen. And then there were monkeys running all around and it looked like a fever dream. Hubs and I looked at each other at the same time, we have to go to there.

So, our trip was planned around Angkor Wat. We didn't want to fly halfway around the world just to spend a week there, and decided Thailand would be a good place to divide up our time. We made the decision to stay in northern Thailand and have more of a jungle trip rather than a beach trip.

This was the itinerary:

-Fly into Bangkok, fly directly to Chiang Mai
-3 full days in Chiang Mai
-Fly to Siam Reap
-4 full days in Siam Reap
-Bus to Phnom Penh
-1 full day in Phnom Penh
-Fly to Bangkok
-3 full days in Bangkok

We try to not travel to places during their peak seasons, but I had two weeks off of work and Thailand and Cambodia are countries with soaring temperatures. Going at the coolest time of year, when temperatures were in the upper 80's, low 90's, was a good decision for us.

You don't need any guidebooks. If you're going to any of the places on our itinerary, buy a Groovy Map, a guidebook and a map all in one. We went to many sites and restaurants recommended by Groovy and we were never disappointed.

At the time of our trip, $1 = 30 Thai Baht.

Oscars 2011

Here were my five favorite dresses of the night:

1.) Milla Jovovich

She was the first one on the red carpet and I thought, who is going to beat this? And no one did. I usually dislike the one shoulder thing, but this is structured so well it doesn't look like it only has one shoulder just because it's trying to be interesting. Perfection.

2.) Rose Byrne

Remember how I said I don't like the one shoulder? Love this as well. I don't think this dress would look good on many people, but I thought it looked amazing on her. Shiny.

3.) Michelle Williams

So bright. So pretty. Great makeup. I'd been waiting for her to do something I loved all season, and she brought it to the Oscars. Feminine.

4.) Leslie Mann

Sexy. Sexy. Sexy.

5.) Jessica Chastain

This had been a mostly unsuccessful awards-dressing season for her. She is so, so pretty and extremely talented. I'm glad she finally wore a dress that is deserving of her. Regal.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Cameron Diaz

 This is so surprising to me. The dress, and the fact that I like it.

********************************************************************

Octavia Spencer

It's not my favorite dress, but she looked great in it, and she gave a lovely speech.

********************************************************************

Gwyneth Paltrow

She wore a cape, man. A cape! And she made the simplest dress look pretty darn fabulous.