Day 9: Khao Lak

We said a bittersweet goodbye to our wonderful jungle treehouse in Khao Sok this morning. As Diane put it, “we are sad to leave, but happy we are going to the beach!”

One final swing in the jungle

We will miss the lizards, frogs, and even the monkeys. We will miss the cacaphony of night music lulling us to sleep and the surprisingly effective mosquito coils and netting. We will miss the cool shady breezes under the tall leafy trees. Maybe most of all, we will miss our house gecko and the presents he leaves for us in our bathroom.

Not “our” house gecko, but a smaller one of the same species (we think)

Only a little more than an hour later we stepped out of our van into the Manathai Resort in Khao Lak.

We were greeted with icy watermelon juice and cold towels smelling of lemongrass. A porter took our luggage (4 backpacks) in hand and asked, “this is all?” We sat on cushy sofas while the concierge described the multiple restaurants.

We felt completely out of place.

That’s not to say that a bit of luxury isn’t nice, it just isn’t really our style! At first we were wowed and couldn’t believe we’d stumbled on this place for just over $100/night, but soon the reason became apparent and we started to miss our more humble digs. Laundry service costs a fortune so is out of the question (I am likely the first person to wash underwear in this fancy sink in our room), the restaurant is easily 2 or 3 times as expensive as anywhere else we’ve eaten, the filtered water that has been free or cheap everywhere else has to be purchased from the mini fridge at a premium, and the hourly shuttle to town is pricey and seats must be reserved in advance.

But. We are right on the beach.

The pool is gorgeous.

Our room is clean and spacious.

And we have booked snorkeling trips for the next two days. So all in all, it’s a win.

After check-in and lunch we spent three hours at the beach and pool. The ocean water is HOT (it must be close to 100 degrees) so is not refreshing at all, but we swam a bit and being wet cooled us a bit while we walked the nearly deserted beach in search of shells. We found lots of hermit crabs, some cool tide pools with barnacles, fish, and sea anemones, and Zach’s favorite, the spiral shells. Diane even found some pretty rocks she wants to bring home for her rock tumbler.

Mystery shells? seed pods? live animals? that we could not identify.

The pool was only slightly cooler, but again, being in the water was better than not being in the water so we swam and played. The girls noticed some cultural differences, like how Europeans don’t put swim suits on their kids (even at the pool). The girls were dying to use the floating toys in the pool but I was sure they belonged to someone. They disagreed and insisted they we’re there for everyone. I was proved correct when a buck naked boy started motioning to Melina from the side of the pool. She was definitely a little creeped out until his mom came over and told her in English that the inner tube she was using was theirs and they were leaving. Oops! Well, I do give her credit for not staring.

Since the restaurant here is overpriced and has more American menu items than Thai ones, we called a cab to go into town (because the shuttle bus was fully reserved). The town is nothing much from what we could tell, just a strip of restaurants and touristy shops along the highway. We randomly picked a restaurant and were pleasantly surprised that it turned out to be quite good! Our “fish in holy basil” was fresh and the girls loved their squid in sweet and sour sauce and smoothies.

Afterwards we stopped for Thai “fried” ice cream sold from a cart. The ice cream starts out smashed onto a super cold slab of metal, and then is mixed over and over and spread into a thin rectangle. Then it is shaved into large curls. It was so fun, and also delicious! Zach and I shared the passion fruit flavor (my new favorite fruit) and Melina and Diane had Oreo and blackberry, respectively. We hope that the place in Charlottesville that does this is as good- we will have to try them when we get home!

Now we are getting to bed so we can be ready for our early snorkeling trip tomorrow. Some rain in the forecast- hopefully it holds off!

Day 8: Monkeys in the Morning

This morning we were treated to a family of longtailed macaque monkeys on their daily commute through the trees and over our treehouse!

We stayed inside and watched them, mesmerized. When one got a bit too close for comfort we closed up the windows, but otherwise it was so cool to see them climbing on our deck, swinging on the Vines and to hear them running on the roof above our heads. When they had passed by to a safer distance, we went back on the porch to continue admiring them from afar and after a few minutes Zach looked up and realized one was still sitting in the rafters of our porch above our heads! We quietly retreated back into the house until he had gone. Wow.

We also discovered the mystery guest in our bathroom! He had left us another “present” in exactly the same spot this morning, so we looked up to discover a giant gecko! We had been admiring one of these huge guys at the restaurant last night, and were actually pretty glad to find out he was the culprit since we know he will leave us alone. He hid before Zach could take a picture, but maybe we’ll get another chance. He is about six inches long without including his stubby tail, and is fat and sticky-looking. Pretty adorable!

Today we signed up to go with Mr. Le to his home in a nearby village. There, we sat in his lovely garden while he and his wife taught us to make a delightful pineapple jam. Then he gave us each a bamboo cup and sounded out our names in Thai for us to carve into them, along with any other designs we liked. The girls loved this, and Diane drew a jungle scene on her cup and Melina drew some animals and encouraged Mr. Le to draw her a flower and a coconut tree. Yet again we were reminded that the name “Zach” is nearly unpronounceable in other languages. Mr. Le gave the same reaction we saw in Peru: a wide eyed look of surprise when Zach says his name. “Sex?” he asked, incredulous. But he finally got himself close.

Making pineapple jam

“Zach” (or “sex?”) in Thai

View from Mr. Le’s garden

He gave us all a small packaged Thai cake to try. It was a very sweet, dense and dry cake with a mild banana (or maybe even bubblegum?) flavor. He said Thais take this snack out in jungle or fields, and would fill up on only two or three of them, which along with water will keep you full all day. So basically, it’s like Thai lembas bread!

Mr. Le was friendly and was a joy to talk with; he loved discussing Hollywood action moves, especially those with “old superstars” like Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis. He told us about studying machine engineering but how after years of working in the commercial refrigerator business he moved back to his home town here in the jungle to raise a family and help his friend who was writing tourism guidebooks. Now his daughter is almost done studying Law at University, and he grows fruit trees (pineapple, rambutan, durian, mangosteen, coconut) and rubber trees. The rubber trees were all tapped and dripping rubber into cups, which then gets sold to make Firestone and Michelin tires.

Rubber tree

We had our afternoon open and spent it walking to town, exploring the nature trails nearby, and swimming in the creek. The creek (which is a river in the rainy season) was so beautifully peaceful and cool and fun. Zach swung on the rope swing, Melina sang and splashes, Diane practiced her snorkeling, and I floated lazily watching the cliffs and trees above. We found a sizeable snakeskin on the cliffs by the creek, and Diane delighted in chasing fish with her snorkeling gear and even saw a few pufferfish. Bodes well for the snorkeling we plan to do over the next few days.

Ice cream in Khao Sok town

Melina leads the way with the map

Nature walk

Cool leaf bug

More monkeys on our walk!

When we went back to our room to change we had more visitors:

These guys were brazen, and one was clearly trying to get into our house. Thankfully the windows were closed as we were on our way out, so we had nothing to worry about. However, Diane was a bit shaken (after being the brave monkey admirer until now) and the girls flipped roles with Melina taking on the part of the protective older sister. It was very sweet.

Later at dinner the skies opened up and it started to pour down rain. Timing was perfect as we have checked off all the “must do” items for the jungle part of our trip, so we could just sit back and enjoy the cooler air. It is close to the end of the dry season here so the plants immediately seemed to react to the much needed rain. Everything looked greener, more lush, and more alive. Some animals even came out of hiding, like a GIANT frog that hopped lazily through the restaurant during dinnertime! There are even some fireflies that responded to the lightning.

The frog is half the size of my purse!

We have been told then when the rains come, so do the leeches… thankfully we haven’t seen any of those yet! We will be sad to leave this beautiful place tomorrow but are so excited for the next part of our journey. Goodbye, Khao Sok!

Our treehouse, “Rambutan”

Day 7: Cheow Lan Lake

There is no way I can do justice to our day today. It was completely magical. I will put in writing what I can, but I think the pictures tell the better story.

We took an all day trip to Cheow Lan Lake today. Here’s what we did:

1. Drove 45 minutes to a local market to pick up some snacks.

2. Continued 15 more minutes to the lake. Boarded a longtail boat and over the next hour experienced the most dramatically gorgeous surroundings we have ever seen. Cooled down with ice cream from a guy selling it from a canoe in the middle of the lake.

4.Docked at a pier on a different part of the lake inaccessible by car. After some delicious local snacks our guide had brought along (fried banana rolled in a ball of sweet sticky rice and coconut and deep fried, and gelatinous coconut with yummy mystery filling), hiked 45 minutes over a ridge to another part of the lake.

5. At a remote floating village, boarded a bamboo raft, rode 10 minutes to yet another part of the lake.

6. Climbed a hill to explore the Coral Cave. Admired limestone formations sparkling with silica that look like elephants, curtains, and people. Admired bats on ceiling.

7. Returned to bamboo raft, crossed lake, hiked back to longtail boat. Rode 15 minutes to floating pier and restaurant for a late lunch of fish and curry. Swam in lake (not pictured as photos are on waterproof camera).

8. Rode longtail boat back to harbor, rode in van back to Jungle Lodge.

Whew. If that sounds like a lot, it isn’t even scratching the surface. Here are some more highlights:

– This morning we had a visitor in our bathroom: a frog. The girls were so excited, and Melina realized he was trying to get down the drain in the floor. We opened it up and sure enough, he hopped right down!

– This evening while we were at dinner, we apparently had another visitor. Our house is in a favorite place of the macaque monkeys, so we have followed the advice of locking up anytime we leave and never leaving food in the room. Which is why we were surprised to find that someone had left us a little present on the floor of our shower: poop. It could have been from a monkey or another small mammal that squeezed in through the eaves or the vent in the shower. The girls were pretty freaked out by that one. In fact, I think Melina will always have a slight fear of monkeys after her encounter in Lop Buri.

– We had the option of a group tour of the lake or a private tour. The private tour was only $100 more so we splurged, and I’m so glad we did! It was amazing to move at our own pace, get to decide on the itinerary, and not have to worry about other people mucking up the experience for us.

– Our guide, Tian, was born in Cheow Lan Lake. Really. It used to be a valley between karst formations with a small lake in the middle, but 30 something years ago it was dammed up by the government for electricity. Families were paid to move, and hers was one that had to resettle on higher ground. At the bottom of the 100 meter deep (!) lake there are houses, temples, and other remnants of this lost city.

– When swimming, the girls were giggling like maniacs trying to climb onto a kayak from the water. A lithe, athletic American girl (probably 11 or 12 years old) swam over and easily pulled right up into the boat. The three of them played happily in the water until we left, plotting to steal a kayak and live on the lake, subsisting on only ice cream from the ice cream boat guy. They were so happy to have made a friend.

– Once the girls were asleep, Zach and I snuck out to the bar for festive beverages and to write this blog. This cat climbed in my lap and made herself comfortable. I love her.

Zach’s note: what an amazing day! I’ve named the cat “Campylobacter” after the bacterial infection Karen got the last time she patted a random cat while traveling. And swore she wouldn’t do it again.

Day 6: Welcome to the Jungle

The tooth fairy came! Diane found 55 Thai baht under her pillow this morning when she woke up on the train. It was a surprisingly good night sleep for all of us- the beds were relatively comfy and the cabin was cool and the clickety clacking of the train was soothing.

When we arrived in Surat Thani at 8am I realized I had made a big mistake. I had completely forgotten to send our train information to the place we are staying so that they can pick us up. I panicked, but the travel God’s were on our side! There was a person holding a sign from our jungle lodge (with someone else’s name on it) right as we exited the train. We told him wat happened and 15 minutes later he had secured us a private van. Whew.

The scenery here is dramatic, with bulbous mountains and limestone cliffs surrounded by lush tropical jungle. We zoomed by it all in the van but hopefully we can see a lot more of it over the next few days.

Our Jungle House (that’s the place we are staying) is amazing. Way better than we’d expected. It’s kind of like glamping in the jungle. We are in a two-room (plus bath) wooden house on stilts that opens up to the jungle on all sides. It is sparsely decorated and somewhat rustic (no a/c, limited electricity, no wifi) but immaculately clean. Best of all, we can sit on our porch and listen to tree frogs chirping and birds calling while we watch monkeys play above us in the trees. At night, we see geckos hunting and vying for territory. It is unreal.

We spent our first few hours here exploring the grounds and swimming in the river. Heaven.

Then we headed off on one of the activities we were most excited about on this trip: a visit to an elephant sanctuary. I did my homework and stayed far away from any inhumane elephant riding tours, but this place is more like elephant rescue. They adopt domesticated elephants that have been mistreated or are nearing the end of their lives. Because these elephants were born and raised in captivity they cannot survive in the wild, so they provide a lovely home for them to retire. They are fed 350 kilos of food every day, and have large areas to move about. Their enclosures have a simple gate which the elephants could easily open, but they do not because they choose to stay with safety and plentiful food. One elephant was blind, another had no teeth, one had an injury from being in a car accident, and another has a limp from being kept by her previous owner in a tiny enclosure for a full year where she couldn’t so much as turn around.

We had expected to be able to see the elephants and maybe touch one and help bathe it. It turns out we did so much more than that! In our two hours at the sanctuary, we were assigned an elephant, we prepared her food, fed her by hand (calling out her name so she knew we were friend), slathered her with mud, helped give her a shower, then scrubbed her clean in a pool! Talk about a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

After dinner we went on a night safari where we saw lizards, frogs (including a GIANT tree frog the size of a dinner plate), tarantulas, scorpions, two kinds of monkeys (long tailed macaque and the dusky faced langur), and even a fleeting glance of a civet. The civet is a small jungle cat known for fermenting the coffee beans it eats as part of it’s digestive process. Our guide actually used to search for civet feces to sell to crazy foreigners. Gross.

Dusky faced langur

Scorpion (this guide- not ours- cut the poison from it’s tail and delighted in scaring people with it)

The girls were troopers through all of this, even though they were tired and a little scared on the night hike. They asked great questions and were as quiet as any of the adults so as not to scare the wildlife. They loved hearing the guides stories about his scorpion bite, tiger and bear spottings, and his close encounter with a python while swimming in the river. At the end of the hike it was 10pm and they collapsed into a deep sleep under the mosquito netting in our treehouse. Zach and I were not far behind.

Day 5: The Curious Incident…

This morning we packed up with the intent of getting breakfast in the guesthouse and then catching a 10:30am train to Bangkok. I was locking our door when I heard Zach say from the porch, “um…we have a problem.” I rushed over and looked at what he and the girls were staring at. There were my shoes, Zach’s shoes, Melina’s right shoe, and Diane’s right shoe. Each girl was missing a left shoe.
It is Thai custom to remove ones shoes before entering a temple, home, or other sacred space. Our room in Ayutthaya is in a separate building from the rest of the guesthouse and we enter from a garden gate before removing our shoes and setting them in a shoe rack on the porch. Which both girls had done before going inside last night.

A little mad and a little panicked and a lot confused, we quickly scanned the garden area and then I took the shoes to reception. Two nice young girls came to help. We all looked everywhere, and eventually they called the owner to check her CCTV. Five minutes later and she named the culprit. Her dog, a Zellie-sized black mutt had snuck through the gate when it was opened to let a car in during the night and made off with the girls’ shoes! We asked the young girl if they could find them, but she just shook her head sadly. “No. Need to buy.” Well. I guess this is a good way to test Zach’s theory that all we really need to remember to pack for a trip is our passports, our credit cards, and ourselves.

The culprit, just sitting there. Digesting shoes.

We couldn’t stop laughing about what we’ve been calling “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime” all through breakfast. The receptionist was very apologetic and offered to reimburse us for the cost of new shoes for the girls, but we had to get back to Bangkok and figured it would be easier to get shoes there anyway. It was an annoyance (especially since they were brand new shoes) but it wasn’t any person’s fault. Thankfully, the girls have sandals they can wear for the day, but they definitely aren’t fit for hiking in the jungle. As we checked out Zach made a deal with the receptionist: our breakfast was free, she gave us a partial refund for our room, and the owner would email us the CCTV footage of the heist because, well, it’s priceless.

On the train we were in third class again but with more success: not only were we able to find seats but they were almost all together! I was the one with a seatmate who, you guessed it, was the only guy in the train car with his window closed. Seriously. And this was with no air conditioning. Thank goodness for the fans.

One of the vendors came through the train car with a treat I had been searching for in Ayutthaya after I read about it in the guidebook just yesterday. It is called roti saimai and was invented in Ayutthaya. When I did a Google image search so I’d know what to look for, I recognized it immediately as something Zach and I had seen sold on the streets of Bangkok but we had assumed it was bags of uncooked noodles. In fact, it was described online as a “Thai cotton candy burrito.” So I bought a bag on the train for later.

In Bangkok we checked our backpacks at the left luggage counter in the train station. Then we were forced to spend our afternoon doing something we would never choose to do, especially on vacation: we went shoe shopping at the mall. But this was no ordinary mall.

Sign at the left luggage counter at the train station

With 8 levels of stores, kiosks, restaurants, arcades, and international tourists (due to its easy access from the airport), this was actually a site unto itself. Not typically our thing, but still pretty amazing. We had fun picking out our lunches at the giant food court. You don’t pay the food vendors directly; instead you put money on a card and use the card to pay. That meant service was fast and easy. Melina chose noodle soup (her obsession), Zach ate pad Thai, and I opted for a plate with larb and stir fried greens. Diane ate hard boiled eggs and noodles. For dessert, Zach and Diane ordered bowls of shaved ice swimming in a syrupy sauce and and surrounded by brightly colored gelatins, fruits, beans, and corn. Really, it was truly terrible. They tasted it all but ended up just eating the shaved ice and leaving a bowl of purplish slop to be cleared by the bus boys. We all shared the roti saimai from the train and it was AMAZING. One of my favorite desserts ever! I can’t describe it fairly, but it is palm sugar cotton candy strands rolled up into a thin pancake. Believe me, it tastes way better than it sounds!

After getting the shoes, we still had a few more hours before we needed to be at the train station so we walked to the nearby Jim Thompson house. Zach had read about this popular site, the house of a rich silk magnate, but it hadn’t piqued our interest. It seemed silly to go to Thailand to tour an American’s home. But it was close to the mall and turned out to be beautiful and fascinating. On the 20 minute tour the guide compared Thompson’s home to traditional Thai homes, so it was a great way to learn about the way Thais in Bangkok live. Thompson had taken three separate teak homes and attached them to make his estate, combining Thai design with American conveniences in a way that was pleasing to the eye as well as functional and comfortable given the weather and customs in Bangkok. It turns out that on this very day (March 26) in 1967, Jim Thompson went missing in Malaysia and was never heard from again, so we were there for the 52nd anniversary of his disappearance. We weren’t permitted to take pictures inside the home, but Zach took many in the garden and at the silk worm demonstration where we watched how they boiled real silk worms to extract the silk. It was amazing, and the exhibitors delighted in the girls by giving them real cocooned silk worms to take home! We are not sure if they are alive or dead…we’ll see if they are allowed through customs.

Boiling silk worms

Jim Thompson house

On our way back to the train station we stumbled upon the Bangkok Art and Culture Center, a gorgeous building remniscent of the Corcoran art gallery in style full of art shops and cafes (and combos of the two) along with some very unique exhibits. One showcased Thai agriculture and we sampled fresh coconut and pomelo (looks like a giant lime but tastes like a less sour grapefruit). Another had self portraits painted by refugees living in Bangkok along with their personal stories. Most were Christians that had to flee religious persecution from Vietnam or Pakistan, and their stories were tragic and hopeful at the same time. This would be a great exhibit to have at home, especially with Charlottesville’s refugee population.

Eventually we picked up our bags and hopped on to our overnight train south to Surat Thani. We are in a first class sleeper car this time, and although not even close to swanky, it has been so fun! Some highlights:

– We ordered dinner from an attendant that was delivered to us. There were other vendors with food that was probably better and cheaper, but the attendant was so sweet! She told us she had only wanted two children, a boy and a girl. She kept trying for that girl and was now stuck with four boys! She brought her youngest to meet us, and he was an adorable 10-year old helping her out on the train while his school was on holiday.

– Our compartment is really two connected compartments, each with a spacious bench seat. At night an attendant comes and converts it into surprisingly comfortable bunk beds, on which the girls have been sleeping soundly.

Train food

– There are two bathrooms at the end of our train car: a regular toilet and a squatty potty. As our first experience with a squatty potty was a near disaster, I haven’t let them use the one on the train but personally I actually prefer it as there is no chance of touching a disgusting public toilet seat even with the train bumping and rocking.

– Right before bedtime, Diane lost a tooth! It had been hanging by a thread for about two weeks, and she finally popped it out. Her lisp is quite charming, and Zach and I are thrilled we are going to have so many pictures of her adorable tooth gap on this trip. D is thrilled that the tooth fairy will visit her on a train (we hear she brings Thai baht). It also seems fitting that we would begin and end our day by losing something!

Zach’s note: I always say we need our passports, a credit card, each other, and (not to be forgotten) two pairs of underwear per person.

Day 4: Won’t you take me to…Monkey Town!

Today was our much anticipated day trip to Lop Buri, the monkey town! We were intrigued by this town that allows macaque monkeys to run rampant, and seeing a similar town in India on the Planet Earth series secured it a place on our itinerary. We bought third class train tickets which I actually much preferred to our swanky second class seats yesterday. There was no air conditioning but the windows were open and the breeze was quite nice, and vendors passed through the car with delicious foods for just fractions of a dollar. It also didn’t hurt that the price was under $3 total for all four tickets! I was an instant convert to third class.

Slushies at the train station

Rolling in comfort in third class

Arrival in Lop Buri was a breeze: the train station is right in the middle of the old town, and it’s a short walk to the temples in the “monkey zone.” After about a block and a half we saw our first monkey. It was swinging on the power lines, and we ooh-ed and aah-ed and Zach snapped picture after picture. Then we looked down the street and realized that just ahead of us the place was literally teeming with macaques. They were sliding down telephone poles, sitting on parked motorbikes, harassing people leaving the corner 7-Eleven, and lounging on sidewalks. It was amazing but also kind of scary.

We were lucky to have a cloudy day today so the weather was much more bearable, and we slowly walked the grounds of a ruined temple with eyes only for the monkeys. They were hilarious to watch- mamas walking with babies clinging to their tummies and backs, fat alpha males strutting and intimidating each other, juveniles defending precious food scraps or plastic bottles. When we purchased tickets we were given a long skinny stick. “For the monkeys,” the attendant told us, making a slashing motion with his hand. We were very grateful for the stick. In Lop Buri it is believed that the monkeys are disciples of the Hindu god Hanuman, who is said to have founded the city. Because of this, the monkeys are never harmed and have become exceedingly brazen and aggressive with people.

Monkeying around

Carrying food in the monkey zone is a prescription for an attack, and if you don’t give up your food immediately the monkeys do not hesitate to bite. We didn’t see any stupid tourists feeding monkeys (as you would normally expect in these situations) due to the aggressive behavior of the monkeys, but locals do leave food out for them around the monkey zone and they delight in raiding trash cans as well. Diane was thrilled to watch the monkeys while keeping a safe distance, but Melina was jittery and slightly terrified. I tried to explain to her that there was no need to be scared; a healthy respect for the monkeys was plenty as we didn’t have any food or other reason they would come near us and besides, I was brandishing a stick. She couldn’t be placated but clung to me desperately until we entered the inside of the ruined temple, which kept the monkeys out with a heavy metal gate. Then she relaxed as we admired the bats on the ceiling and rats darting across the paths. Those didn’t bother her at all.

Bats in the temple

After retuning the monkey stick and leaving the temple, Melina’s nerves intensified. At one point, Diane turned to me and said (quietly, out of her beloved sister’s earshot), “I’m kind of scared of the monkeys too, but I get it together.” About a minute later I heard high pitched screams behind me and turned to see a monkey chasing Melina and Zach! Melina ran to me and Zach barely escaped, but the monkey did manage to bite the back of his shoe. We don’t know what set him off, but he had initially gone straight for Melina. Maybe it was her big blue eyes (we noticed they do not like direct eye contact and are likely to bare their teeth if you stare too much), or maybe he could smell Melina’s fear. Either way, we high-tailed it out of the monkey zone.

We recovered at a quiet and monkey-free cafe. Zach and I shared some mango and (bright green) sticky rice and I made good on my promise of ice cream as a payback for dropping mine yesterday. The girls relished their victory.

As I’ve mentioned before, Thais fawn over the girls, but especially Diane (either because of her curls or because she is younger). One woman in Lop Buri stopped us on the street to learn D’s name and then when she saw us again an hour later was so delighted that she kissed Diane on the head, calling “bye bye, Diane!” as we parted.

Ready to be done with monkeys, and with some of the major sites closed in town on Mondays anyway, we decided to catch the midday train back to Ayutthaya. As we waited in the train station we met a beautiful blonde woman from North Carolina with young blonde children hanging all over her. She and her husband and their six kids have been living in Lop Buri for the last eight months (the youngest was born here) and attending language school to learn Thai. Then they will move to the southeastern coast to live as missionaries. Not my thing, obviously, but she was so delighted to see other Americans (and especially Americans traveling with children) that we stood for a while by the sinks of the pay toilets, baby bjorned on her chest, and she told me about the trials of living in Thailand with kids. “You have to carry a stick to keep the monkeys away,” she instructed, “but the stray dogs are even worse. They run in packs and chase us on our bicycles. If you don’t have a stick with you, act like you are throwing something at them to scare them away.”

When our train arrived we were devastated to see that it was packed full to the brim. People were crammed in the aisles gripping rings hanging from the ceiling, babies slept on the floor, and men crowded in the open air space between train cars. All of a sudden those second class reserved seats were looking pretty good again. We squeezed ourselves on and almost immediately the jolting and rocking of the old rickety train was too much for Diane, and she had to sit on the floor with a lollipop to settle her stomach. I readied the emergency barf bags I keep in my purse and cursed myself for not giving her a dramamine, but Melina stepped up as the heroic big sister and encouraged Diane to wrap herself around her leg to steady herself.

Halfway through the ride a nice man noticed Diane’s glassy eyes and gave her his seat, and soon afterwards the woman across from D gave hers to Melina. We bought a Fanta from passing vendor (yes, the vendors continued to push their way through the crowd hawking cold drinks even in this mess) and that seemed to help Diane, but what helped the most was when Melina taught her how to play sticks (a math game) and Diane perked up and they played happily for the rest of the hour long trip. No need to use those barf bags! Hooray! Melina for the win.

Back in Ayutthaya, we hopped in a tuk tuk (they are much safer here) and sought out a restaurant that is known by locals as the best place to get “boat noodles,” a local specialty. We were the only foreigners in the place and the girls were fawned over, the waitresses delighting in Diane’s hair, caressing her curls. She was polite and a bit uncomfortable with the attention, but was distracted quickly by the delicious noodle soups she and Melina devoured. Zach and I relished our boat noodles, which are basically noodle soups stewed with the broth reduced so they are basically just very flavorful noodles and meat that you garnish with basil, fish sauce, and chilies. So yummy.

On the way back, a pack of dogs followed Zach and Diane at an uncomfortably close distance. When they didn’t relent, Zach shooed them away but that only seemed to embolden them. “Pretend you are throwing something at them!” I called, and that along with Zach’s deep assertive voice scared them off. It was a bit unsettling for all of us.

We rested up in our guesthouse for a while and then again explored the night market. It was much more alive in the early evening on a weeknight than it had been late Sunday night. The stalls were jam packed with bubbling curries and brightly colored sweets. We found a stall selling fresh durian and bought one, which was cut and packaged for us. The smell was completely unremarkable, but we really liked the taste (only Melina wasn’t a fan). It was remniscent of a paw paw with it’s creamy texture and sweet milky flavor. We think ours was not overly ripe, which accounts for the lack of noxious odor and the less intense flavor. Maybe we’ll have a chance to get the full experience later, but for now we were quite pleased with our sampling.

We picked up some mango and sticky rice (white rice this time) to-go for dessert later and walked across the old town for dinner on the river. It was calm and relaxing, and we feasted on giant river prawns and duck while listening to a live musician croon Thai ballads.

Back to Bangkok tomorrow for just a few hours before heading south on an overnight train for the next part of our adventure!

Day 3: Thai Hot

We all woke terribly early for some reason. I have no idea why but at 4:30am I realized we were all laying quietly, trying and failing to fall back asleep. We gave up and started out early by grabbing street food again, but this time we took it to the Lumphini Park and ate our breakfast in the shade while watching an aerobics class burn theirs off. Our street food this morning was even better than yesterday! More doughnuts, chicken skewers, coconut pancakes, grilled banana, and juice.

The park was hopping in the relatively cool early morning temperatures. There were more runners than I have ever seen outside of a race, and they all jogged in the same direction through the park. There were families with pots of food congregating for their Sunday cookouts. At 8am sharp everyone stopped what they were doing and stood while the Thai national anthem was blasted through the park. A kind man explained to us what was going on and we stood and listened with everyone else. Then it ended and everyone was busy again, getting the most out of the day before the thermometer hit 100+ degrees. We assumed everyone would be used to this heat, but it is so hot this week that just about every Thai we speak to mentions it. We are starting to refer to it (like the spiciest food) as “Thai hot.”

After breakfast we were off on the search that brought us to this park in the first place: monitor lizards. Zach had read that these smaller relatives of the Komodo dragon have become a local menace in the park. Apparently hundreds were rounded up and shipped off a few years back, but a small population was left to appease tourists and control the population of stray cats. Yikes. Our lizard safari was a rousing success, and we watched them slink through the murky waters and bask on the muddy banks of the pond. It was definitely one of the coolest parks we’ve ever seen.

At this point it was only 10am and we had already had a pretty full day, so we grabbed our backpacks and headed to the train station and bought our tickets to the temple town of Ayutthaya. Our train was full and had assigned seats, so we had to split up a bit. The girls sat together and Zach and I were in aisle seats one in front of the other. I was disappointed because I had been looking forward to taking in the scenery on the ride with the kids, but I figured at least I could still do that, if only on my own. I was wrong. My seatmate in the window seat turned out to be the only person in the entire train car that pulled his shades closed. Not only that, but he spent the whole ride surreptitiously peeking through the curtains like a creep at a peep show, taking care that I could not get a single glimpse of the passing countryside. I stole a quick pic of the absurd scene:

Another first for us was that a meal was served on the train! I don’t know how to describe it except as “authentic Thai airplane food.” There was red curry fried mackerel (which was surprisingly decent) and stir fried chicken with garlic and pepper (which was surprisingly terrible) along with rice and water.

Saying goodbye to our Bangkok hostel

Some other memorable moments from the train station and short train ride:

– There were a lot of Buddhist monks in the the traditional orange robes, and Diane asked about what monks do. I explained they mostly pray, but also study and teach and often have jobs like making cheese or beer, and they don’t get married. “That sounds boring,” Diane muttered dismissively, while Melina sighed and said, “that sounds lonely.” So completely in character for both of them.

– Diane asked out of the blue, “do we take a trip every month or every year?” “Every year, I replied. She frowned. “Oh. I wish it was every month.”

-While waiting for our train, Zach got pooped on by a bird. Again. Then on the train he craned his neck around from the seat in front of me to say, “remember when I got pooped on and then you wouldn’t let me sit with you on the train?” We giggled like idiots.

At our adorable teakwood guesthouse in Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya is a mid sized town famous as the former seat of the Kingdom of Siam until the 1700s. It was then ransacked multiple times and all that is left of the former glory is a bounty of still very impressive temple ruins. We had expected something like what we saw in Bangkok but were thrilled to find temples (wats) that looked like they were straight out of Disney’s The Jungle Book, minus the jungle. The were so massive and impressive that you could *almost* forget the blazing hot sun (as long as you were in the shade with a nice breeze to cool your sweat-soaked skin). Zach and I were completely flabbergasted and the girls were really good sports, especially given that Diane’s dramamine from the train had left her pretty drowsy.

Wat etiquette. Ignored by many (but not by us!)

The weirdest part of the day was definitely the Asian tourists that gaped and gawked at us. The stares and the young woman who caressed Melina’s arm and admired her pale skin as “so pretty,” were bad enough. Much more awkward was the group that pantomimed us taking a picture. We assumed they were asking for us to take their picture, but no; they wanted to take pictures of themselves with our family, linking arms with us as if old friends. We were so completely confused that we agreed, but after having to pose with five or six different people we had to put a stop to it. We were all totally weirded out, and used it as a teaching moment about how not to treat people that are different.

Between wats we stopped for Thai ice cream, which was frozen in the shape of a stick of butter and served on a tiny skewer. They were delicious, and Zach even got to try the durian flavor! It wasn’t stinky like fresh durian and was very good, but Zach did complain of stinky durian burps for hours afterward (I can’t wait for what happens when we try the fresh stuff). Melina and D had chocolate and strawberry, but my taro-flavored ice cream was the best. Unfortunately, I dropped the last bit of it on the ground and the kids teased me MERCILESSLY for the rest of the day. I had told them years ago that grown ups never never NEVER drop their ice cream, and made a deal that if they ever see a grown up drop ice cream that I will buy them ice cream. Well. I guess I owe them now. “I just can’t believe it was you!” Said both Zach and Diane, completely independently.

Some other fun at the wats:

– Watching stray dogs and cats sunning themselves on priceless ruins and thinking about our Zellie.

– Coconuts left in trees to feed the adorable local squirrels…and also an occasional rat.

– A massive tumor-like object high up in the spire that looked like it was moving…Zach got out the telephoto lens to confirm what we suspected: a refrigerator-sized bee hive!

Our day ended with dinner at the night market. We’ve had some trouble at restaurants as the food we have received has been mostly tasteless. For the kids’ sake I’m glad that they are able to tone down the heat, but Zach and I have been gravely disappointed in the lack of spice in restaurant food. At dinner I think I discovered the secret to tasty and spicy Thai food: soups. While our made-to-order meals were bland and not worthy of a place on a menu even in Central Virginia, my Tom Kah Gai was superb and left my lips burning wonderfully after each bite. I think that soups (and probably some pre-made curries) are already seasoned to Thai tastes so can’t be made bland for tourists. Hooray! I can’t wait to test this theory again tomorrow.

The Night Market (can you find D?)

Tired but still smiling!

Day 2: One Day in Bangkok

Zach and I were showered and dressed with day packs packed before we finally eased the girls from their slumber this morning. They thankfully managed to get a solid seven hours of sleep after our marathon journey to Bangkok.

From the roof deck of our hostel

We crossed off number one on our Bangkok “must do” list immediately: street food! Our hostel in the Silom neighborhood is conveniently located right next to an alleyway brimming with vendors serving up freshly cooked delicacies. It was a really fun introduction to Thailand! We munched on Thai doughnuts, a steamed bun filled with custard, papaya, watermelon, and orange juice. Diane consumed most of the fruits and juice herself and was in heaven. Thankfully it is the dry season and there are hardly any bugs around because otherwise she would have been a fly magnet with all the sweet sticky juices running down her face and hands.

Breakfast

We took a leisurely walk to the river to grab a longtail boat to see some sights.

We toured Wat Pho, an incredibly ornate Buddhist temple and the Grand Palace, an incredibly ornate royal complex. These sites were grand and strikingly gorgeous in a way that we found very difficult to capture on camera. The sheer size of the buildings and statues just don’t come across on film, especially given that it is considered extremely disrespectful to pose in front of the statues of Buddha (which is so so tempting given their evocative poses). Melina took this rule very seriously and was spooked about posing for any pictures at all in any site of significance. Diane however, never failed to provide a cheesy grin.

Reclining Buddha (above) and his feet (below)

We loved the massive gold Reclining Buddha with his sultry eyes and mother-of-pearl feet. The Emerald Buddha (no pictures allowed) was small but striking on his pile of gold and jewels. Even in the intense heat and our sweat-soaked clothing it was so thrilling to see these sights in person.

Side note: Thais love children. The girls get smiles and waves wherever we go. A nice lady gave them free bananas, and a man gave them bread to feed to koi in a pond then presented them with Hello Kitty barrettes and asked us to take a picture of him with the girls (on his camera). It is sweet and innocent but it’s so hard to shake that “GET AWAY FROM MY CHILD YOU CREEP” feeling. But we are working on suppressing that urge while the girls soak up the attention. Diane wore her barrettes proudly for the rest of the day.

Somewhere along the way between breakfast and the boat ride Melina’s mood took a nosedive. She was whiny, rude, and overly emotional for the next two hours while the rest of us enjoyed the sites above. She complained she didn’t feel well but also refused to take any of our suggestions on how to make herself feel better (more water, food, Dramamine) and just got more surly as the day went on. She even refused the cold and refreshing coconut water that Diane was so excited to try and that I promised would help her feel better.

Around noon she told me she needed to find a bathroom and before we could, she threw up in the Grand Palace courtyard. Great. So maybe she wasn’t just being a moody preteen pain-in-the-bum.

We rested up, coerced Melina into drinking more water, and found an air conditioned cafe where we all ordered delicious juices. Melina had honey lime but traded me for my passion fruit once she tasted it. Both were delicious, as was Diane’s strawberry juice, but Zach’s”Chinese apricot” was a little…salty. Not sure why, but it was our least favorite by far.

Thirty minutes later, cooled down and rehydrated, Melina was her usual happy traveler self. We kept buying her cold drinks and juices and slushies and she was perfectly happy for the rest of the day.

That was a very good thing, because we had a lot of day left! It was past lunchtime but we were having trouble finding a restaurant in this area, so took a chance at a local shopping mall. I’m so glad we did! There was an “Old Siam” food court with stalls of traditional foods, and no other white people in sight. And, it was air conditioned! Hooray! We bought everything that looked good to us and had such fun feasting together for well under $10 total.

These were peanutty garlic balls of goodness that even Melina (our resident peanut-hater) loved!

Creamy coconutty delights filled with all sorts of things. And Diane’s favorite: tiny fried quail eggs.

Refueled and energized, we hopped in a tuk tuk to go to the Golden Mountain Temple. We had read that it was good for views of the city, but from talking to two tuk tuk drivers that had no idea where it was we wondered if it was a tiny unknown knoll hidden behind a garbage dump or something. The first driver took us on a wild ride, smoking a cigarette and spitting out of the side of the tuk tuk the whole way. The girls squealed in delight at the speed of the open air death trap. I was a white-knucked ball of terror, clutching desperately to Diane and squeezing my eyes shut every time we nearly slammed into a pedestrian. The driver let us off at a stop where we paid him and waved goodbye only to realize that he had taken us to the wrong temple in the complete opposite direction from where we had wanted to go. Driver number two was much less disgusting but maybe even Wilder on the road, whipping between cars and motorbikes with absolutely no regard for lane lines or stoplights. Melina and Diane raves that it was better than a roller coaster and decided that Epcot Center needs a Thailand ride with tuk tuks on a rail. Each would have a crazy driver and four people crammed into a seat made for two. Zach and I secretly vowed that we would stick to cabs in the city for the rest of the trip, and leave the tuk tuks for quieter, less trafficked towns (if that).

In a tuk tuk built for two. Did I do a good job of hiding the fear in my eyes?

When we finally reached the Golden Mountain Temple it turned out to be a delightful and beautiful tourist trap. There were goofy creatures and bells to ring and a coffee shop on the gentle slope up to the hilltop temple. The temple itself was pretty and the views of the skyline were surprisingly clear and smog free. (In general, the pollution here is hardly noticeable, and not nearly as bad as we expected. Budapest was far worse!)

Our day ended with a lovely dinner of Thai favorites back in Silom. Melina found a non-spicy noodle soup that she slurped down happily and Diane feasted on shrimp entwined in rice noodles and then deep fried. Zach and I relished our pad thai and curry. We all drank hot lemongrass tea in the humid night air.

The restaurant manager (a London native) lectured the girls about wearing sunscreen and drinking lots of water. “If you don’t, you’ll find yourself feeling tired and cranky, and your stomach will hurt because you will be dehydrated!” Melina nodded, wide eyed, as he described exactly what had happened to her that morning. “And the best cure is fresh coconut water!” he concluded. Well, if she doesn’t listen to me maybe she’ll listen to him. But I still couldn’t resist telling her, “I told you so.”

Day 1: To Bangkok

This is a huge trip for us. Back in 2008, Zach and I had planned a trip to Thailand but then found out I was pregnant with Melina. Feeling it was probably safer and easier in my first trimester, we switched our trip to Eastern Europe instead. Since then the long flights have kept us from traveling to Thailand and the rest of Asia. But now that a few things have fallen into place, we felt like it was finally time to take that trip that was so many years in the making. First, the girls at 10 and 7 are now old enough to read and watch movies on a plane for hours on end without crying and whining. Second, they are also still small enough to be able to stretch out in the seats enough to get some sleep. Third, we have amassed enough vacation time at our jobs to make the long trip worthwhile. And fourth, (and possibly the most important reason of all) we finally seem to have a handle on Diane’s motion sickness. She hasn’t grown out of it, but we have developed a routine with Dramamine, lollipops, and Ziploc bags that has kept puking (and damage from puking) to a minimum for the past few years. Even so, the potential for disaster on long flights, buses, boat rides, and even trains is not lost on us, so the idea of flying halfway around the world has at times seemed like an incredible risk to our sanity. Needless to say, we decided that this year it was a risk worth taking.

After all the stress about our flights, we had an amazingly easy day today! Our stay with Tina and Doug in Woodbridge made it painless to get to Dulles for our midday flight, and after 21+ hours in the air (in coach) we are not only less bleary and wobbly than I expected, but actually still smiling and in good spirits. My worries about flying on United turned out to be totally unwarranted on this trip as our seats were comfortable and the full plane somehow didn’t seem so full. The in-flight entertainment was much better than expected, and Melina was on cloud nine catching up on the Marvel and Fantastic Beasts series that we hadn’t let her see before now. We all squeezed in a couple of hours of sleep here and there on the first flight, and enjoyed the bits of Japan we were able to experience during our short layover in the Tokyo airport: futuristic vending machines, sumo wrestling on TV, and public toilets with all sorts of crazy cleansing options that we were way too timid to try out. While we sat at a cafe and shared a surprisingly good bowl of beef udon, I even heard an airline paging “Christopher Zeigler” over the loudspeakers, but couldn’t hear which gate so wasn’t able to find out if it is the Chris Zeigler I know!

Resting in Tokyo

Delicious udon!

Our connecting flight to Bangkok was on ANA and turned out to be fantastic. We had two unoccupied seats next to us so there was room to spread out. When Melina switched seats to be next to Zach, he reminded her that even though the seat next to her was empty, she still couldn’t put her backpack on it and needed to stow it underneath the seat in front of her. “Dad, I know,” she replied, rolling her eyes, “I’ve been travelling almost as long as you have.”

We also marveled over the intricate and plentiful Japanese airplane meals. See below for a picture of Diane’s kids meal, which included fruit and vegetable gelatin, fried potatoes and meat both fashioned into smiley faces, two different kinds of prepackaged cookies, and a beautifully presented cold meat salad with a teddy bear toothpick. Oh, and also tiny balls of a pale yellow substance that were wrapped like candy which Melina assumed were taffy until she bid into one and discovered it was some kind of cheese.

The adult meals were just as generous, although not quite as beautiful. They were full of things like smoked salmon, potato salad, and cold unidentified meats and veggies. We barely made dent in any these items due to the aforementioned udon and the fact that none of the above are appealing on a plane.

Upon arrival in Bangkok the customs line was not bad at all, and Melina immediately pointed out the “no fresh durian” signs. We have been anticipating those signs and are looking forward to trying the notoriously foul-odored fruits on this trip. She was so thrilled to see the signs right away especially since an episode of Carmen Sandiego she watched on the plane had referenced the stinky but delicious fruit.

After some searching, we found the driver we had arranged in advance and embarked on our 40 minute ride through Bangkok in the middle of the night to our hostel. From the road and in the dark Bangkok didn’t look any more exotic than parts of DC or New York, but we still caught glimpses of the exotic. Even at 2am, tuk tuks (open air motorbike/van hybrid vehicles) carried tourists between bars, food trucks were still operating, and intricately gilded signs state, “long live the king!” I also somehow missed in all of my planning that they drive on the left side of the road in Thailand. Since Thailand was never under British rule I looked up why, and it turns out that everyone used to “drive” (walk or ride) on the left in order to keep their sword or lance on the right where they could attack an approaching enemy. Japan also still drives on the left, which we had figured out quickly when we kept running into people in the Tokyo airport!

Arrival in Bangkok

I honestly don’t feel like this long day of travel was any more taxing than a flight to Europe, which is good considering we will have to turn around and do it again in two weeks!

Zach’s note: this was a looooong trip door to door. Left Thursday and arrived Saturday long. But we did ok.