Dan and Robyn's Adventures

For the final leg of our 5 1/2 week SE Asia adventure, we decided to spend 10 days in Bali (not near enough time, by the way).  In order to capture the most of our short time here, we opted for 5 days in the mountains and 5 days on the ocean (this would be our first ocean visit here, if you can believe that!)

As I said, our first 5 days in Bali were spent in the mountains in a town called Ubud.  We had been living pretty frugally throughout this excursion (I know it hasn’t seemed that way, but let me tell you….if you want to really explore an amazing part of the world on a “dime”….this is it!)  Let me take a sidebar and elaborate a little bit for those of you who might be considering exploring this part of the world.  We lived a little more upscale, meaning we stayed at very highly reviewed hotels for $40-$75 per night in Thailand and Cambodia.  We later learned that you could stay in a private room, in a very nice hostel, for $10-30 per night.  If you are willing to share a room, dormitory style, we are talking $4 per night.  Meals at the street vendors could be as little as a dollar or two, and nice meals in a restaurant could be done as cheap as $7.  We hired personal drivers who took us around all day long to all the sights, with ice cold water waiting for us, for as little as $20 per day.

So back to Bali….After a little more than 4 weeks of running ourselves ragged, seeing as much as we could in the blazing hot heat and humidity, we decided that Bali would be our splurge.  We found a villa in the jungle mountains of Ubud.  Our villa had an outdoor bathroom (it was a fully enclosed bathroom attached to our bedroom with an open air roof); it also had a living room area, and a private backyard complete with gazebo and private pool.  It was absolute luxury (for a whopping $110 per night)!  Like I said, this was a splurge!  We were set amongst the jungle and rice fields….soooo peaceful!  Not only that, we had a multi-course, decadent breakfast delivered to our villa every morning (included in the price).  It was truly paradise.

We didn’t “chill” as much as we said we would.  Thanks to the new friends we had met in Thailand, we were hooked up with another great driver.  We spent 3 days touring the mountains of Bali with his expert guidance.  We spent our first day enjoying our villa and private pool (successfully achieving my first sunburn of the trip).  The next day we met our guide and headed out to some of the sights of Bali. We started at the famous Tegallalang rice terraces (absolutely stunning).  From there, we went to the Pura Tirta Empul temple.  As in previous posts, I will let the pictures and captions tell the story.

After the temple, we went to Satria Coffee Plantation.  As we wandered through the jungle grounds, our guide told us about the various coffee beans, cocoa beans, tea, spices, and fruits that grew along the grounds.  After, we were told how the beans were processed.  Here is where things get interesting….we were here for the kopi luwak coffee (better known as civet cat poop coffee).  This coffee is made from beans previously eaten, partially digested, and then excreted by the Asian palm civet, a small tree-climbing animal.  It is among the most expensive coffee on the planet (thanks to its undeniably gross production method!)  Here is the cliff notes version:  the civet cat eats the coffee “berries” (coffee beans are encased in semi-hard berry looking fruit);  the cat poop is a log of coffee beans which is collected and the beans are cleaned and dried out;  the bean casings are removed and then roasted by hand over a fire; roasted beans are then ground in a giant mortar and pestle looking piece of equipment. After seeing the process, we were treated to a tasting of 15-18 different teas, cocoas, and coffees from the plantation.  We also had the option to purchase a cup of cat-poo-chino….haha!  Yep….we did.  It was quite a bit smoother than the traditional Balinese coffee but still a bit strong for my taste.  I did love the variety of teas (unfortunately, they were all sweetened).  Before we left, we held a sleepy civet cat (soooo cute), but I’m pretty sure he was “stoned” on a flower bloom that was sitting beside him.  Our guide had told us earlier that if we sniffed the flower for 5 minutes we would get high.  Made me sad to see the flower laying beside this beautiful cat.

Next stop was another beautiful temple- Gunung Kawi.  While the temples up until now have been predominantly Buddhist, we were now seeing Hindu temples.  As always, these were beautiful temples steeped in amazing history (and a horrendous number of steep, steps).  Check out the photos and captions!  At this point, we had been running around for 6 hours straight in the heat and humidity.  We decided that it was time to rest, so back to our slice of heaven we went.  Since the next day had a number of evening events planned, we arranged to meet our guide a little bit later.

Day 2:  We met our driver at 6:30 for a fabulous dinner overlooking the rice paddy fields.  After, he took us to the Royal Palace where we watched a traditional Balinese dance show.  Similar to Cambodia, the costumes were spectacular.  Our driver then wanted to take us to see his friend’s reggae band perform at a local bar.  We spent the rest of our night listening to awesome music (with major participation by our guide and Dan….lol).  Dan decided to order a cocktail made with Arak….which we later learned is basically Balinese moonshine.  We also learned, after the fact, that if it is made improperly it can be deadly!  Apparently it’s estimated that 10-20 Indonesians die daily drinking it. It was known to be safe in the touristy areas (which we were), but two cocktails made for reggae Dan!  It was a lot of fun and a late night by our standards (midnight…haha).

Day 3:  We met at 1:00 and headed for another temple with a secret cave and waterfall.  As we trekked down the hill and headed into the slotted canyon, we came upon a beautiful, tropical entrance.  We had to go barefoot at this point (in the squishy mud….ewwww) through the water and under this spectacular waterfall to a hidden cave.  Unfortunately, we were also soaking wet for the rest of our day!  It was totally worth it!  Next was the monkey sanctuary.  This temple was nestled in the jungle and housed over 100 “wild” monkeys.  I say “wild” because they are use to tourists, but you are not suppose to feed them or touch them.  It wasn’t long before one scampered up the side of my body and rested on my shoulder.  Believe it or not, I remained calm (other than bitter beer face, yet again) and stood perfectly still.  He moved down onto my camera that was sitting around my neck.  At that point, our guide threw a peanut to the ground, and the monkey scampered down.  We then made a stop at our guide’s aunt and uncle’s home.  We were treated to coffee, homemade rice treats, and a giant Balinese orange while we learned about their village and how their homes are structured (very little is indoors).  It was quite a treat to learn how the local villagers lived.  Every home has it’s own little temple dedicated to their ancestors.  I promised to keep this short, but I really feel the need to share the story of how they deal with death.  In this village, when someone dies, they bang out a specific pattern on a wooden drum and everyone is expected to come.  Every house has an open air room with a single bed for the “final sleep.”  When someone dies, their first night is spent on this bed in the family home.  Afterwards, they are buried in a hand dug grave that is only about 4 feet deep.  Because the villagers cannot afford cremation, the bodies are dug back up after they decompose, and a mass cremation is done where the cost is split amongst the villagers.  The bodies are still cremated individually even though they are all done at one time.  The ashes are then spread in the ocean.  After, they create a “statue” which will house the spirit of the deceased who will reside in the family temple.  I’m sure I have not done the story the true justice it deserves, but it was pretty amazing to listen to this personal account of their death ritual in their home and village.  Our last stop of the day was another magnificent temple on the Indian Ocean.  We timed this to be here for sunset which was totally spectacular!  I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Sadly, it was time to leave our mountain hideaway for an hour and a half drive to the ocean.  Here, we took things up a notch one more time.  We will spend 5 glorious days, beachside, at the Westin.  Our plan…..to just chill before the long journey home….haha!  Care to take bets on how much “chillin” we actually do??!!

After 5 wonderful days in Siem Reap, we caught our next flight to Phnom Penh, the current capital of Cambodia.  Once again, we found ourselves immersed in a culture of incredibly friendly people.  I can’t even begin to describe how warm, caring and friendly the people are in SE Asia.  As you will recall, I was not overly thrilled about flying a 67 seat prop plane to our next location.  The reality….it was one of the best flights we’ve taken from city to city in SE Asia.  Unfortunately, we arrived smack in the middle of traffic hour, and it was horrendous!  Phnom Penh’s traffic rivaled the city of Bangkok.  Our 30 minute ride to our hotel took over 45 minutes.  We checked into our room and this is where the fun begins……

As we started to settle in, Dan quickly realized that his IPad was missing…..not missing, but left in the seat back pocket on the airplane :(. Believe it or not, this has happened once before!  Several years ago on a flight from Europe to Philly, the same thing happened.  Needless to say, the iPad was gone forever.  So, Dan begins to frantically call the airline to try and track down the iPad.  Their advice:  Go to lost and found at the airport.  Are you kidding me???  That means another 45+ minute drive back to the airport in traffic :(. They can’t tell us if the iPad is even there!  So off we go to the airport.  I’m pretty sure I know how this is going to end (been there, done that).  We head to the airport once again.  Oh wait…it gets better!  We end up getting rear ended (I am shocked that this has not happened a few times before given the crazy driving here!).  This results in about a 20 minute delay of arguments between the parties involved.  It was low speed, so there was not much damage and certainly no injuries….we are all perfectly fine!  We finally get to the airport and find our way to lost and found.  They don’t have it….shocking.  They call the airline, and OMG, they have the iPad!  Are you kidding me???  They tell us to go to the check in counter to pick it up.  After a bit of time, and coordination efforts, we get the iPad back.  Score one for the integrity and honesty of Cambodian Angkor Air!  We could all learn a thing or two from their ethics!  After all that, we finally get back to our hotel and settle in for the night.  Tomorrow, we have a big day scheduled…..a full day learning and participating in a rescue bear sanctuary.

After crossing a mega-lane round-about in frogger type fashion, we arrived at our pick up location.  We had over an hour drive out of the city and into the jungle.  Once again, the traffic was hellacious and downright scary.  Of course, we arrived safely and were ready to begin our adventure.  We started off with a slideshow that taught us about the sun bears and the moon bears, and why “Free The Bears” came into existence.  We learned that bears were captured in order to harvest the bile from their gallbladder for use in Chinese medicine.  Needless to say, it was done in the most horrific and cruel means possible.  In addition, bears were trapped, using steel cables, to be sold as exotic pets and for meat.  This often left the bears (or any other animal caught in the trap) with missing body parts.  This bear sanctuary happened to be a part of a bigger wildlife sanctuary which housed an incredible number of animals (many with missing limbs).  After our introduction, we were taken around to see the various groups of bears and observe their behaviors and interactions.  We then went to the “kitchen” where we chopped up amazing numbers of guavas and mangoes for the bears’ meals.  Once finished, we began the preparation of the bear treats.  These consisted of bamboo tubes and hard balls that we filled with bananas, sweet potatoes, mango, and guava.  It was finished up with peanut butter and grass.  From there, we headed to the enclosures and tossed the treats in (one at a time to ensure each bear got his/her own treat).  We then sat back and enjoyed watching them play with their treats in order to get the food out.

By now, 1/2 the day had quickly slipped away.  We headed off to a Cambodian lunch with the locals.  After a period of rest, we were treated to a tour of many of the big animals in the sanctuary.  We observed lions, tigers, elephants, gibbons, monkeys, otters, leopards, etc.  Some of the highlights…..I held hands with a gibbon (but had to carefully watch out for the male who did not like his female interacting with us), fed an elephant, got close up with a magnificent tiger, and observed an elephant with a prosthetic leg!  It was an amazing experience!  It was now time to feed the bears again.  This time, we entered their enclosure (they were not in there, of course) and hid sweet potatoes, mangoes, and guavas all around (in pipes, tire swings, hammocks, etc.). Afterwards, we observed from outside the enclosure as the bears went on their scavenger hunt in search of the hidden treats.  Needless to say, it was a long and sleepy ride back home….but a very fulfilling day!

For more information visit: https://freethebears.org

Our final day in Phnom Penh took us on a dark and sombering journey.  We began our morning with a two hour audio tour of the Tuol Sleng (also known as S21) Genocide Museum.  S21 was the secret center of a network of nearly 200 prisons where people were tortured by the Khmer Rouge.  Between 12,000 and 20,000 people were imprisoned here.  There are only 12 confirmed survivors.  The photos and captions will take you through the very bleak and gut wrenching walk that we took through the prison.

From there, we headed to the Choeung Ek Genocide Center and the Killing Fields.  Here we did another walking audio tour through the killing fields.  Choeung Ek is the most well known of over 300 killing fields throughout Cambodia.  Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh on April 17th, 1975.  They forced the evacuation of the cities to fulfill their plan of an agrarian socialist utopia.  As a result, millions of people (many from the highly educated and professional ranks of society) were brutally tortured and killed.  Entire families were wiped out under the premise that they did not want anyone left who might seek revenge.  Approximately 2 million (24%) of the population died.  60% were executed, and the rest died from forced labor and starvation.  Once again, I will let the pictures and captions tell this horrific tale.  Needless to say, the day was emotionally draining, horribly graphic, and heart breaking.  Prior to our experience with the genocide sites, we had been advised by some of the friends we had met here to see the movie, “First They Killed My Father.”  We watched the movie, and after our audio tours, I can say that the movie very accurately portrayed what life was like under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.  I highly recommend seeing the movie.

Links to places visited in this blog entry:

Welcome to Cambodia!  Siem Reap to be exact.  We flew out of Chang Mai VERY early and made our way to Siem Reap.  Here, we would spend 5 days and then head to Phnom Penh….from the long ago capital city to the new capital city.  My plan is to structure this post a little differently, so feedback is always appreciated.  Unless you are a history or archeological buff, I figured you might not want to spend a lot of time reading this post.  So, I am going to give you some quick highlights of the first half of our trip and let the pictures tell the rest of the story…..

We had arranged to have our own personal tuk-tuk driver take us around over the next 4 days.  He took us wherever we wanted to go and waited at each stop we made (all for $20 per day….how awesome is that!). Upon our arrival, and despite me being sick, he advised us to get our tickets for Angkor Wat rather than waiting until we planned to go, as the lines were notorious for being very long.  After purchasing our tickets for the next 3 days, we headed to a temple in the heart of the city and a memorial to one of the killing fields that took place in Cambodia in the 70’s.  To see the skeletal remains and read the horrific accounts of what was done to these wonderful people was very gut-wrenching, to say the least.  

That evening, we went to this amazing Cambodian circus (Phare).  It was nothing like the circuses in America. There were no clowns or dancing animals, it consisted entirely of phenomenal acrobatic stunts, skits, and dancing by young Cambodian artists.  Definitely check out the pictures and video of this show – we were very impressed.

Our next 3 days were spent touring the temple ruins of Angkor Wat which is the biggest religious structure in the world.  Each day was blistering hot (and humid), and we spent hours trekking and climbing the very steep, stone steps of about 11 different temples.  After each day, we returned to our room for a much needed nap from the heat and exertion.  What follows is a brief account of the first two days (we had decided to start with the smaller temples and save the granddaddy temple…Angkor Wat itself….for a sunrise visit on the third day).

Day 1:  Our starting point was Pre Rup. This temple was commissioned by the Khmer King Rajendravarman over 1,000 years ago and is dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. From here, we head back in time seven years to East Mebon, which honors the parents of Rajendravarman and is best known for the relatively well-preserved elephant statues watching out from the corners of the temple.  Our next stop was the slightly newer Ta Som, which is being captured by strangler figs.  This was an amazing sight to see.  Next was the serene Neak Pean.  You reach the temple (which sits on a man-made island) by crossing a rickety boardwalk over an eerie, tree-filled lake.  The last temple on the Grand Loop is Preah Khan – a huge complex of corridors, sunny terraces and Greek-esque columns.

Day 2:  Knowing that the first temple on our list today was the filming site for the movie “Tomb Raider” (which neither of us had ever seen), we made sure to watch the movie the night before.  I can’t say that it really helped me to identify with the temple.  I can say that it made for a ridiculously crowded experience which was not to my liking….especially for such an amazing temple :(. So, first stop was Ta Prohm, considered the most atmospheric ruin at Angkor Wat.  It’s appeal lies in the fact that it has been swallowed by the jungle (although well manicured around the temple to preserve it) as you will see in the pictures.  Ta Keo was next and built entirely out of sandstone.  The summit of the central tower is 50 meters high.  This temple was never completed, and one theory is that it was struck by lightning which was considered a bad omen.  From there, we headed to Sra Srang and Banteay Kdei.  Sra Srang was considered a pool of ablutions reserved for the king and his consorts.  Banteay Kdei was constructed in the 12th century.  It is believed that much of the temple is in a ruinous state due to hasty construction.  Our final stop of the day was Ta Nei.  This was considered similar to Ta Prohm in that it is moss covered and wrapped in the tentacle-like roots of the trees.  This small temple captured the atmosphere of Ta Prohm without all the crowds, making it a quite enjoyable place to experience.  This ended our first two days of temple tours. 

As we made our way back to the hotel, our driver suggested that we do a sunset tour of a temple that sat high on a hill overlooking a huge lake and surrounding rice paddy fields. Despite being exhausted, we thought this sounded like a good plan. By this time, our driver had figured out that I did not like crowds and really appreciated sites that were off the beaten path….this was definitely off the beaten path! What we did not know is that we would be dropped at the base of a tremendous amount of stairs (no, I did not count this time) which then spit us out 1/2 way up the hill. From there, we were told it was another 2,600 feet to the temple (all uphill, of course). Then, wouldn’t you know, more stairs! We finally reached the top! We were both a hot, sweaty mess….yuck. The temple was nice, but the goal was to snag a spot for a picture perfect moment. Needless to say, that was no easy feat either. We had to climb down the other side of the mountain, perched on rocks, to find our ideal spot to watch the sunset. There were definitely very few tourists here, and it was quite a sight to see. We ended up pretty beat up by the time we made our way back down to our ride. We actually asked our driver if he was mad at us (totally in jest, of course! He laughed…..hmmmm).

Day 3:  Known as the “small circuit,” this was one of the most intense of our three days at Angkor Wat.  We began our journey at 5 a.m. in order to be at Angkor Wat (the biggest temple in the world) for sunrise.  Silly me figured it would be quiet and peaceful for a sunrise viewing.  After all, who in the hell wants to get up at 5 a.m. if you don’t have to??!!  Well, apparently everyone going to Angkor Wat!  Dan and I (and 1000 of our closest friends) all descended on Angkor Wat in the dark to try and snag the ideal spot for sunrise photos.  It was beautiful, but definitely not the serene, peacefulness I had hoped for.  Angkor Wat is literally the symbol of Cambodia and with good reason. This huge, and well preserved, complex starts with a walk over a man made lake. The temple was built over 1,000 years ago! Unusual for Hindu temples, Angkor Wat is west facing and is dedicated to the god Vishnu. For this last day, our tuk-tuk driver hooked us up with a fantastic guide.  Once we finished with sunrise, we left Angkor Wat to the Bayon temple and would then return to Angkor Wat to fully explore it.  Our hope was that by the time we returned, the majority of people in Angkor Wat would be headed to Bayon.  Our plan worked perfectly, and the crowds were far less overwhelming than they would have been following the usual pattern of flow.  Our first stop was the imposing South Gate of Angkor Thom.  We hopped out of the tuk tuk before we went through so that we could see the demon and guardian god carvings, as well as the ancient city gates. Angkor Thom isn’t a temple per se, but rather an ancient city with a number of temples inside it.  Next was the Bayon temple, famous for its towers and carved faces which look out in all directions.  The upper levels of the temple have the towers and faces while underneath lies the cool, quiet and dark corridors.  Once finished, we made our way back to the temple of Angkor Wat where we spent several hours exploring the temple and its grounds.  By the time we returned to the hotel, we could barely walk from all the trekking and climbing.  Our entertainment for the evening would be a dinner and Asapara dance show.  Once again, our fabulous tuk tuk driver took great care of us and booked us front row seats.

All in all, we really enjoyed Siem Reap and were sad to be leaving it behind, but the adventure must continue.  Tomorrow we would hop a propeller plane (yikes) and head off to Phenom Phen for some new adventures.  Stay tuned for some wildlife adventures and a more in depth look at the killing fields of Cambodia.

Hold on to your Lunch?  You may be thinking….what a weird title….but here is the story.  At the end of our last post, I told you that we had rented a motorcycle and were planning a 4 day loop in the mountains outside of Chiang Mai.  The loop can be driven in as short as 2 days, but they are brutally long days and missing many great sites.  It was highly recommended to plan to do the loop in 4 days, and so we did.  We headed over to the bike shop where we had reserved a Suzuki V-Strom 650cc.  We loaded up the saddlebags with our essential belongings for the next 4 days and stored the remainder of our luggage with the shop.  For today’s ride, our plan was to head to the rural town of Pai.  This would be a 4 hour ride (with some scenic stops built in) up an extremely curvy road.  In case you think I am exaggerating, here is how some sources explain the road to Pai:  “It is no secret that the 3-4 hour drive to Pai is a daunting one.”  It is a steep and winding road that will make you feel every single one of it’s 762 vomit inducing turns.  This was truly no joke.  I can honestly say I have never been on a road that was nearly non-stop serpentine/hairpin turns.  I have also never seen so many cars, pulled over at various points along the way, with someone out vomiting.  I found this to be even more of a hair-raising experience, after I was strongly warned by Dan (repeatedly), that as the back passenger on a motorcycle it was imperative that I lean into every turn.  By not leaning into the turns with him and the bike, I would put us at risk for crashing.  Uhhhh, say what????

Out into the city bustle, we headed.  For me, this was probably the most stressful part of the drive (well, maybe).  We are having to really concentrate on which way to watch for traffic since we are driving on the opposite side of the road.  In addition to that, scooters come roaring up on all sides of you and wiggle their way in and out of traffic.  Oh, and let’s not forget me holding on to the iPhone to give Dan directions from Google maps while trying to hold on for dear life.  We finally made it out of the city and into less traffic.  No sooner had I begun to relax when the hairpin turns began.  The number of serpentine signs we passed along the road was almost comical.  I was gripped onto Dan’s shirt so tight, my knuckles were white and eventually began to cramp.  My head bobbed from side to side in order to see around him and prepare for each “lean” I had to be sure and complete.  In hindsight, it was quite comical.  However, at the time, I was scared out of my mind (needless to say, I can count on one hand the number of times I have been on the back of a bike).  As we corkscrewed our way up the mountain, we made our first stop at a waterfall.  This required climbing some steps and heading uphill (go figure…it was a waterfall).  I was struggling with this quite a bit since I had managed to blow out my knee with our crazy jungle trek.  The waterfall was a beautiful sight, and we got a real kick out of the sign posted before you enter to swim.  Check it out in the pictures….translations to English always turn out so funny! 

Anyway, after the waterfall, we jumped back on the bike and continued on our journey.  Our next stop was to a geyser.  Once again, we trekked into the jungle through some amazing scenery….me, hobbling my way along.  The geysers were all relatively small compared to others we have seen, but they erupted continuously which was kinda cool to see.  Afterwards, it was back on the bike.  You may be wondering at this point….how did you guys fair on those vomit inducing turns?  I am happy to say that neither of us ever felt sick or got sick!  Go team Muzich!

We finally arrived in Pai as they were beginning to set up the night market.  This seems to be a big thing in Thailand.  The streets are filled with various food carts, crafts, trinkets, etc.  People wander the streets noshing on street food and checking out the sights.  These night markets are quite lively events and very crowded.  We checked into our hotel which was about a 10 minute walk from the center of the action.  After our long day on the bike (our bodies actually ached after those 4 hours), we laid down for a rest before heading into town.  Since we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, we were both quite hungry and stopped into a local restaurant for some dinner.  We quickly learned that was a big mistake (not because of the food or the restaurant….we had not yet been to a night market and didn’t know any better).  After dinner, we headed to the market only to be overwhelmed by the delicious sights and smells….all hot and fresh.  Who knew??!!  We were novices and totally messed this up.  Obviously we were too full to enjoy any of the many food delights that surrounded us, so we just wandered around admiring everything….feeling a little blue that we were unable to enjoy the delicacies of street food.  This little town was bustling with backpackers and had so much going on.  In hindsight, we have decided to come back to Pai and spend several days next year.  One day was just not enough 🙁

The next morning, we gathered our things and headed to the bike.  Today would be a 3 1/2 hour jaunt to the town of Mae Hong Son.  This would mark the 1/2 way point of the loop.  From here, we would be making our way back to Chiang Mai.  Wouldn’t you know, this leg of the trip was non-stop serpentine as well.  By now, I was becoming more comfortable on the bike (for the most part).  I was still clinging to Dan for dear life, but leaning into the curves a lot more naturally.  On our way to our next hotel, we stopped at a fish cave (Tham La fish cave).  This took us along a path through some amazing nature and ponds.  As we progressed past the various ponds, the fish became larger and larger.  In the last pond, there were these very large fish.  They looked a little bit like cat fish in that they had whiskers, but they also had this beautiful, shimmery blue tail and midsection.  We were sold a big head of lettuce to feed the fish.  Lettuce?  Really?  They LOVED it!  They came in swarms, racing into one another, to grab pieces of lettuce.  We walked up to the “cave” to find a small monument to Buddha and a small inlet with more fish.  I put the term cave in quotes because it wasn’t really something that I would classify as a cave 🙂  We wandered the loop back through the lush landscape and climbed back on the bike.  I was still hurting pretty bad, so we skipped further waterfalls and caves (more to see and do next year).  We stopped at a couple of overlooks and headed to our next hotel.  Once again, the night market was being set up.  Needless to say, we would not be making the same mistake twice.  This time, dinner would be street food!  We checked into the hotel and decided to rest before heading out.  I decided to try my first massage here in Thailand.  It was amazing and just what the doctor ordered.  I felt remarkably better (including my knee!)  I had explained to her that my knee was injured, and I needed her to be careful around it.  Next thing I know, she was using some mentholated rub on it which really helped.  When all was said and done,  I had a fabulous 1 hour massage for a whopping $15 including tip!  OH hell yeah!  This might be my new daily routine!

Feeling like new, we headed to the night market.  If we thought the one in Pai was amazing, this was the Pai market on steroids!  In addition to the tons of food carts with every Thai food imaginable, there were fruit and veggie stands, clothing, arts, goods, souvenirs, and several stages with live music.  The largest stage seemed to be having some sort of Thai rock contest.  It featured various artists playing really loud music and several tables of judges.  It was awesome and echoed throughout the whole market.  Further down the road was a smaller stage.  Here, they seemed to be playing more traditional music (like folk music).  The performers were in a variety of time period (and possibly regional) costumes playing old-style instruments.  This was my first viewing of a couple of lady boys as well (lady boys are young men who are dressed and made up like women and perform as women).  Many of them are incredibly beautiful.  We watched some of the shows and tried our luck with the food carts.  We tried to be very careful with the items we chose in order to avoid getting sick.  We came across a number of stalls selling a variety of fried bugs.  We DID NOT eat any of those.  I am willing to try a lot of stuff, and do some crazy things, but eating bugs will never happen!  I draw the line there.  Our UK friend from our hill tribe stay had showed us a video of her trying a skewer of different bugs.  It looked like she struggled to get them down, but she said it really wasn’t that bad.  Ack…no thanks.  We finished up our exploration of the night market and headed back to our hotel.  It was so much fun!

It was now time for our 3rd leg of the journey….the town of Mae Sarieng.  About a half hour outside of our 2nd hotel, we headed to the Kayan long neck village.  This was a refugee tribe from Burma where the women where brass rings around their neck (many, many brass rings).  Once we parked the bike, we had to cross a river in a long tail boat in order to enter the village.  As we walked the hill that was flanked by their bamboo huts, we encountered many of the villagers.  The women were busy weaving on stick looms and selling a variety of clothing, scarves, hand carved items, and various other souvenirs.  We stopped an talked with one young woman who explained to us that the rings are put around the girls’ necks at 5 years old.  As they get older, more rings are wound around their neck.  She had a 1/2 stack of ring with fabric to tie it around my neck (theirs do not tie on….the metal is literally wound around their neck over and over again).  I was shocked at how heavy the half band of rings was.  I could not imagine wearing a full band of rings all the time….and I do mean ALL THE TIME!  She said her rings would be changed out after 5 years.  This was done by unwinding the metal from her neck before winding a new set of coils.  It was amazing.  The other remarkable thing was that this woman spoke impeccable English and was very easy to understand.  We have encountered many people who spoke really good English, but we often struggled with the thickness of their accent.  The Kayan were very friendly, kind, and open to sharing about their culture.  We made our way back to the road for our 3 1/2 hour ride to our next stop.  Along the way, we stopped at a few more viewpoints to check out the mountains and valleys.  Oh, bet you couldn’t guess that this leg was almost entirely serpentine curves as well!  At this point, I am rockin’ this motorcycle thing….I am actually resting my hands on the saddle bags instead of squeezing the life out of Dan!

By the time we got to our 3rd hotel, every inch of our bodies hurt.  We were now it the small town of Mae Sarieng.  We had only made the one stop, so we got in fairly early and did not see much happening.   When we asked at the front desk, we were told that there would be a night market about a 3 minute walk from our hotel.  Yeah!  This time I talked Dan into getting a massage with me.  We asked the front desk of this guest house if we could get a massage for 2.  She told us it would not be a problem and that they would come to our room since our room was air conditioned.  Not long after, 2 women showed up at our room for our massage.  Okay, this was a little weird.  They had us both lay down on our bed where they commenced our massage.  It was a little awkward (nevermind Dan wanted to chat through the whole thing….I’m going to need to train him in the peaceful silence of massage).  Once again, we had an hour long massage for less than $15 each!  It was very relaxing, but definitely not the quality of the one I had the day before.  Dan, on the other hand, really enjoyed it….I had now sold him on the beauty of massage.  Afterwards we headed to the night market for dinner.  This market was much smaller and more subdued.  It was still fun, but we found ourselves much more selective in our street food.  We were very careful to stay away from meat that had been sitting out.  It was a small market, so after a couple of snacks, we headed to a restaurant for dinner.  We stopped at a hotel restaurant along the river.  We both ended up ordering SUPER spicy dishes.  Unfortunately, Dan opted for a soup (I think solely based on it’s name!) which we think made him sick.  What was the soup, you ask?  Tom Fu** soup (I kid you not!)  It is the only thing that we did not both eat, and he ended up sick the next day 🙁

Well, we have reached the final leg of our journey which is a 4 hour ride back to Chiang Mai.  Dan is not feeling well, and both of us are hurting after 4 days on the bike.  We decide to forego any additional sightseeing stops as this will make our day over 6 hours long.  Neither of us is up for that.  As you can imagine, the beginning of our journey home is full of hairpin turns that eventually disappear and turn into fast paced “highways” with lots of big towns and traffic.  In the end, I would say 85% of this loop was serpentine/hairpin turns.  Most of the road was really good, but there were some really sketchy areas where the pavement was really rough and rutted.  After 4 days, we were totally in sync with the bike.  We even mastered communication through sign language when I was giving him directions through the various cities and into Chiang Mai.  We made it back safe and sound and had an absolute blast.  We are now thinking that next winter, we want to overland via motorcycle!  It was truly a great way to see the countryside.  Once we were settled back in Chiang Mai, we headed into town for another massage.  This one was very much like the first one I had, and Dan was in heaven.  While he enjoyed the first one, this one was done by truly skilled professionals, and he immediately saw the difference.  They did such a great job, we are going back for a 90 minute massage tomorrow!  I think I could get hooked on this….unfortunately, you can’t get $15 massages in America (and therefore NOT in the retirement budget)…..*insert super sad face here!

Sadly, this brings to a close our time in Thailand.  It was a great adventure, and we hope to return next year now that we know a little bit more about what we are doing.  Our next stop is Cambodia.  We hope you will stick with us as we continue our explorations of Southeast Asia.

Welcome to day 6 and 7 of our adventures in Chiang Mai.  I am doing my best to live blog this almost immediately following each experience which is why the story may seem to switch frequently from past to present.  So, we checked out of our hotel room and waited for our pick up to take us to the elephant sanctuary up in the mountains.  A tuk-tuk arrived (this time it was basically a pickup truck with an open air cover and two long benches running the length).  We climbed in and were surprised that we were the only ones in this tuk-tuk for the next hour and 15 minute drive up into the mountains.  When we arrived, we jumped out with all of our bags and headed across the suspension bridge to check in.  This giant suspension bridge spanned across a wide river and bounced around with every step.  Below we could see elephants playing in the water.  It was magical.  Once we checked in, we were greeted by our mahout (elephant handler).  As we walked over to the deck to feed some of the elephants some treats, one of the handlers was coming up from the water with an elephant.  I’m pretty sure he could see my unease because as I tried to step away out of the elephant’s path, he kept nudging him toward me.  Round and round in circles we went…me trying to escape the big elephant, and the handler giggling and nudging the elephant to get close to me.  I finally found escape in the middle of a group of people.

At this point, my sole experience with elephants has been on our self guided safari in Africa where we were repeatedly warned about the elephants and their aggressiveness (never-mind the several tourists I had heard about being killed by an elephant simply by accidentally being in the wrong place at the wrong time).  Needless to say, those memories haunted me, and I was quite uneasy around these giant creatures.  After feeding the elephants some treats from a platformed structure, our mahout gathered us up and we headed out for a trek.  We were quickly joined by a family of elephants (mom, dad, and an 8 month old baby) on our trek into the jungle.  First we stopped in an open field where we were handed large bunches of bananas.  The mahout told us to feed them the bananas one at a time.  Before I knew it, I was surrounded by the male and female who were both assertively seeking the bananas.  This definitely had me freaked out, as I was standing between these two magnificent beasts, and they were nudging me and wrapping their trunks around me in search of the bananas.  The next thing I knew, the male had manhandled the whole bunch out of my hands.  What the hell????  I felt bad that he got the best of me.  The mahout brought me more bananas, and I started to get more creative at hiding the bananas behind my back and out of his sight.  This did not keep him from using his trunk to try and get this golden treasure from me.  It was quite funny (and also somewhat scary).   They gobbled up bunch after bunch, leaving us slightly slimy and somewhat sticky.

After an amazing number of bananas we consumed, we headed out for our trek.  At this point, the baby had shed some of his shyness and was ready to play.  He was absolutely adorable and behaved so much like a human toddler!  He played hide and seek with the mahout and bounded around with such energy.  At one point, he came eagerly running full speed up to Dan and just about landed him on his butt.  Imagine an 800 pound toddler coming to snuggle and play with you.  He loved to have his hindquarters scratched and would plunk down at your feet.  After many games and playing, he decided it was nap time and laid down at his mom’s feet in the middle of our trek.  We didn’t have much farther to go, so the handler got him up and we headed to the river.  In the river, they rolled around in the water playing.  We tossed water on them, and they tossed water on us.  It truly was a magical experience. 

After a quick Thai lunch, it was time for our bamboo raft trip down the river.  We took a quick ride up the road and hiked down to our raft.  It was a 45 minute ride down the river with our guide directing our raft through the boulders and rapids.  The water was quite crisp, and the scenery was right out of Jurassic Park…..very lush….very giant sized tropical. 

At this point, we were done with the sanctuary, and it was time for our homestay in a tribal village.  We would be spending the night in a bamboo hut, up in the mountains, with the Karin hill tribe.  Our guide, a young 20 year old, took us to his village where we learned to weave fabric on a loom (holy cow was that hard!), learned how the ancient villagers cleaned their teeth (with a black charcoal type leaf….their teeth lasted forever without a dentist…but they were black), and how their huts were built back in the day. 

We then went down to our hut overlooking the valley.  It was a cement stilted hut with a mattress on the floor and mosquito netting surrounding it.  There was no electricity and no air conditioning.  There was a toilet in a room behind the hut, but no running water.  Thankfully it was a western style toilet (US style) and not the typical, porcelain hole in the floor.  It did not have a flushing system, so you needed to pour pots of water in to “flush” the toilet.  We were then treated to a Karin dinner cooked over an open fire out in the jungle.  After dinner, we sat by the fire and admired the millions of stars visible in the very dark sky.  Tomorrow we would be taking a jungle, waterfall trek (no details provided)…..this can only end well, right????

We awoke the next morning (well, I didn’t really sleep….and here I was complaining about my “Flintstone” bed…haha…I was missing it) to a wonderful breakfast prepared by our new friends.  After packing up and fueling up, we headed out.  Each of us (we had a new UK friend who had joined Dan and I) were given a freshly cut bamboo walking stick.  Off we went.  I am once again going to give you the cliff notes version of our trek.  It was 4 1/2 hours and 6+ miles.  This was the hardest hike I have ever done.  We climbed and descended steep hills, crossed log bridges with rickety bamboo railings, slid down rock faces, climbed straight up root strewn cliffs, climbed over and ducked under giant trees, hopped rocks, and navigated bouncy bamboo bridges.  After seeing all the amazing waterfalls, we then had to head straight up hill in the hottest part of the day and in the blazing sun.  Our guide, a wonderful 16 year old boy named Boi (I’m sure I spelled it wrong but it’s pronounced boy!), treated us to this very sour fruit that his people use for coughs (he said they never go to the doctor).  We also tried a fresh bean (longer than a green bean) right off the vine, and tamarind that had been made by the local indigenous women.  This was very sour but quite tasty (and probably a sure fire way to get sick since it was mixed with a bunch of stuff in a very unsanitary environment).  By the time we made it to our rest stop to pick up the tuk-tuk, we could barely walk.  It was an amazing trek but seriously painful with some scary moments.  This was one of those excursions that was dotted with moments of, “Are you kidding me?  You want me to do what???” and sprinkled with a lot of pain and stress on the body, but in the end…..it was an exhilarating experience and a huge sense of accomplishment.

Our next adventure here in Thailand is another mountain adventure.  This one in particular we are doing on a motorcycle up in the mountains.  We have been told there are over 700 hairpin turns to the first stopping point of this 4 day loop.  We hope you will stick with us on our final days in Thailand!