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Photos/Report from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia

Photos/Report from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia

Old Feb 20th, 2009, 05:19 PM
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Yes, apparently a whole bunch of bars and restaurants owned by foreigners have sprung up in LP. Go before the places changes too much!

Glad you're enjoying it. Here's the Chiang Mai portion.

Chiang Mai

We took an early afternoon flight to Chiang Mai on Air Asia. I love this airline. It was incredibly cheap, efficient, and has great service. Our hotel was the brand new Le Meridien and it was wonderful. Very nicely decorated and well located, just steps away from the Night Bazaar.

Since we only had 2 days in Chiang Mai, we wanted to make sure we can do one of the elephant/hiking combo trips in Chiang Mai, and the concierge helped us arrange it for the next day. After that’s taken care off, we walked over to the old town to see some of the historic sights.

Supposedly it was a 15 minute walk, but took more like 45. Finally we got to the moat and wall the surrounds the old city. We went to the main temple and saw a hand-lettered sign that read “Monk Chat”, with groups of tourists sitting under trees chatting with monks. Turns out this is a program for monks to talk about Buddhism and practice their English.

We sat down with a young monk, who had only been speaking English for 5 months. Turned out he was from Luang Prabang. When we told him that LP was our next step, he got extremely excited and animated, and talked about swimming at the waterfall, his old monastery, and how much he missed home. He said that he wanted to study Buddhism at the university level and had to come to Thailand. Very sweet young guy.

On the way back to our hotel, we stopped at the D2 Bar next door. It’s a “W-ish” hotel and made a mean watermelon mojito. We then set off to the Night Bazaar to explore all the shopping and food.

We loved the Night Bazaar in Chiang Mai. There’s a big open beer garden only open to pedestrians. The merchandise was much more craft-oriented with beautiful textiles, lanterns, and some cool jewelry. The beer garden is surrounded by food stalls and there’s live music (Thai’s singing American and Asian pop songs). The whole thing was like a big, casual party in the park. We picked an area that seem to have lots of locals and had a simple and delicious Thai meal.

The next day we got up early to go on our excursion. This was a group tour with 8 other people, a Swedish family, 2 Swiss girls, a pair of English nurses working in Cambodia, and us. I’m really glad we went on a group tour because these people were really nice and interesting.

We drove about an hour into the mountains. The scenery was beautiful with rice fields and forests. The first stop was an elephant camp. We got up on a platform to “mount” the elephant, sitting in these baskets. The mahout sits on the neck. The ride lasted about an hour and was fun. We bought bags of bananas to feed the elephants. They kept reaching back for more! Ours was a young female and quite frisky, getting off the track a few times and had to be encouraged to fall inline.

Afterwards, we went on a hike to a waterfall. It’s really more of a nature walk and very easy. Along the walk we visited two hill tribe villages, and saw some of the dwellings as well as meeting some of the inhabitants. We walked maybe a couple of hours to a waterfall, where we dipped our toes and took a rest. A bunch of trekkers came later and started diving into the pool, but we didn’t do that ?

Next on the agenda was lunch – probably the blandest meal we had in Thailand, but we were starving so no complaints. After lunch we drove to the river for our ride on a bamboo raft.

Now, this turned out to be totally different than what I thought. For some reason I pictured a quiet, gentle glide down the river while I sat on a raft. Nooooo. My first hint that it may be different was when our guide told us to take of our shoes and put on our bathing suits. But none of us had bathing suits. Because the top of the raft is submerged, you have to stand or swat to avoid getting your pants wet. Standing is not that difficult when the water is smooth, but when we hit even a small rapid, or when we hit a rock, you have to squat down to avoid falling off. Anyways, this lasted for about an hour, and was actually quite exciting/adventurous. We all agreed that this was the best part and the highlight of the trip!

We got back to the hotel around 5, took a rest, and went to the night bazaar beer garden for drinks and a nibble. I tried one of those mussel omlettes. Very interesting. It’s mussels encased in some kind of rice paste, than encased in eggs. Not sure it’s my favorite food but fun to try once. Dinner was at the hotel Italian restaurant. Decent pasta and pizza, and reasonably priced winelist.

We had debated quite a bit on whether to include Chiang Mai in our itinerary, but we both liked it a lot – perhaps more than Bangkok. The area is much more beautiful, the weather is cooler, the night bazaar was terrific, and the excursion was super fun!
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Old Feb 23rd, 2009, 08:34 AM
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I think we were on that tour a couple years ago, maybe even had the same naughty elephant. She never saw a tree or bush she didn't want to eat.
Enjoying your trip report, thanks.
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Old Feb 23rd, 2009, 02:58 PM
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Wow! I like your photos especially the railroad market. I am amazed how they can do that...I wonder how many accidents happen in a year.
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Old Feb 23rd, 2009, 03:15 PM
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Follow up comment, how much did you pay for the stay in Phuket where you had the nicest room I've ever seen?
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Old Feb 23rd, 2009, 04:57 PM
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Linjudy, I've been so busy, I'm just now catching up with your report. It sounds like you had a great time!

In my experience, people are either Chiang Mai people or Bangkok people. I'm a Bangkok person, it sounds like you're a Chiang Mai person.
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Old Feb 23rd, 2009, 05:11 PM
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Old Feb 23rd, 2009, 05:15 PM
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krishnax, I got the 3/2 deal at the Banyan Tree in Phuket. It ended up being about 20000 bhat per night. Due to a labor union strike (see future trip report installment , they gave us all our spa treatments (4) for free. But that's also a story for later report.

Kathie, I had a marvelous time! Yes, I think we're not big sprawling city people usually. That is, I live and love San Francisco, and can't stand LA
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Old Feb 23rd, 2009, 08:09 PM
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Here's the Siem Reap / Angkor Wat section.

Day 12: We said goodbye to Luang Prabang and our host while slurping the delicious Kao Sak noodle (note that if you stay in the Lotus Villa, they serve 2 kinds of noodle soup. Kao Sak which is a little spicy with ground pork and tomatoes, and a basic noodle soup like Vietnamese pho. If you ask for “noodle soup”, you'll get the second one). Our flight to Siem Reap was delayed because some dignitaries were arriving on an Air Vietnam flight. They were presented with flowers and driven off the runway by a limousine caravan. After about 10 minutes, the regular people got off the plane, and we were able to walk to our Lao Air plane. Because it's a propeller plane, the trip took 3 hours including a refueling stop at Pakse. Pakse, in southern Laos, is quite pretty from the air, and known for a major pre-Angkor Khmer temple as well as the “land of four thousand islands”, where the Mekong forks into many small branches. We met some people on the flight who were planning on spending several days in the area.

We arrived in Siem Reap and were happy and relieved to see someone from the Hotel Be Angkor waiting for us at the airport. The hotel has just 3 rooms and is right in the “Alley”, a street behind Pub Street. The staff is very nice though unusually talkative – I think they are really into practicing their English. We asked the hotel to arrange for a driver and guide for Angkor Wat, but was quoted a price of $75 ($40 for driver and $35 for guide). This seemed really expensive so we decided to walk around a bit. After visiting 3 different travel agencies, it seemed like $20-$25 was the going rate, so we booked one for the next day. We visited the Artisan D’Angkor nearby, and it was interesting to see various crafts being practices. The merchandise was beautiful but pricey.

We had a drink at the Linga Bar, owned by the same person the runs the hotel. The mango margarita was great and we ordered chips and guacamole from next door. After that we wandered around Pub Street and decided to have dinner at the Khemer Kitchen – who was having a BBQ special. The BBQ chicken was awesome! And we also had Cambodian spring rolls and tofu with basil. It was all delicious and very cheap.

We got up early and was down by the travel agency by 8am the next morning, where our guide and driver were waiting for us. Our day's itinerary started with Angkor Thom, followed by Ta Phrome, lunch near the temple, and then main Angkor Wat. I'm not going to wax poetic about what we saw, as you can get that from much better sources. Suffice to say that it was absolutely amazing. The jungle-entwined ruins of Ta Phrome were especially evocative. What we found the most rewarding was hearing about the stories depicted in the various bas relief carving at of the temples: the epic battles, the daily life of the people, the emissaries from other kingdoms, and the great religious fables. It was definitely worth paying for a guide – ours really brought the ruins to life. When we were at the elephant terrace, he described the scene as it occurred, where the fireworks would go off, where the king would emerge, and how he would greet the gathering of the people. I could really see in my mind's eye what it must have been like nearly a millennium ago!

We had lunch at a restaurant near the temple. All morning we seemed to be on the same route as some dignitaries accompanied by a police escort of motorcycles. Mid way through our lunch, this party came in the restaurant. Several Germans around our table started snapping pictures, and it turned out to be some sort of German politico. As we were leaving, we noticed the German minister running for the bathroom, followed by several policemen chasing after him. We had a good laugh, not know that the joke will soon be on us too!

We got back to town pretty tired. Unfortunately, whatever we had at lunch was causing problems. I had a peek of the kitchen, and am not surprised. We suspect the fruitshake. After having 3-5 fruitshakes per day in Laos with no issue, sadly, one in Cambodia was enough to do us in.

Neither of us were feeling 100% the next day, but Alan was especially out of sorts. So I set out to explore on my own. The old market was interesting, but not for the faint of heart. Lots of raw meat, flies, and uhh, interesting scents. I was especially taken a back by a fish which escaped its bucket and was flopping around in the aisle. There were many food vendors but I was definitely NOT in the mood to eat.

After the market I hired a tuk tuk to take me around. We drove out to the country side to go see the Artisan D’Angkor silk farm. It was quite interesting to see the entire process, from growing the mulberry trees, to feeding the worms that spin the cocoons, to making silk threads, and finally the spinning and weaving. Along the way it was nice to get a view of rural life in the country-side.

In the afternoon the driver took me back to the Frangipani Spa. This is a very chic little spa with excellent therapist. I got a great 90 min treatment for less than $20. Tremendous value!

I went back to our room and Alan was feeling better, but we decided to play it safe and eat dinner at the Blue Pumpkin. This is a café/pastry sort of place with westernized food. We had something bland, unmemorable but tummy-comforting, and prepared to say goodbye to Cambodia.
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Old Feb 25th, 2009, 10:58 PM
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20k baht...that's like 562 dollars for 3 nights at Banyan Tree right? I guess its all worth it.
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Old Feb 26th, 2009, 06:53 AM
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hi krishnax, sorry, it's more like 20k baht per night. I think it's worth it. the villa was spectacular.
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Old May 12th, 2009, 10:33 PM
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i thought your pictures were amazing. thank you for sharing this, as i plan our trip.... it is a huge help.
kawh
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Old May 15th, 2009, 01:22 PM
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I love your posts and your pictures! My fiance and I are going on our honeymoon at the end of August. We start in Bangkok, then to Chiang Mai, then Luang Prabang and Siem Reap... after all the travelling we're off to Bali for some relaxation. We are looking for recommendations for a trek in Chiang Mai and it sounds like what you did is right up our ally. Could you tell me the name of the tour company you used? And if you have the name of the tour guide/organization in Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat that would be great too!

Thank you!
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Old May 15th, 2009, 02:04 PM
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In Siem Reap, try Ponheary or dara. They can be reached at [email protected]. Do a search on this forum and you will see many favorable posts. She is the derivation of thePLF.org.
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Old May 16th, 2009, 08:57 AM
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Andy, fyi Ponheary's email is [email protected]
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