Bob- I just hope we have the opportunity to continue to travel as much as you and other fellow travelers on this board. Your upcoming trip sounds exciting and I hope you have a safe journey. Look forward to hearing about it.

DAY 5: Travel to Chiang Mai
We booked the Thai Airways Discover Pass primarily because it had a direct flight from Chiang Mai to Phuket.

We left Bangkok at 10:30am and arrived in Chiang Mai at 11:40am. After getting our luggage and the Oasis Spa coupon (thanks Kathie), we got a taxi for 120 Baht flat rate.

FYI-there are numerous taxi's outside, but we made sure to stop at the airport taxi stand inside the airport. Our driver was very friendly and told us some interesting things about the city as we made the 15 minute drive to our hotel, Yaang Come Village.

Our boutique hotel was as charming as it appeared on the internet. We found it conveniently located just outside the ancient city and around the corner from the famous night market.

Once we arrived they welcomed us with cold hand towels and fruit drinks in the open-aired lobby (where they have free internet access for all guests)

We had a spacious room with balcony that faced a beautiful garden. The decor and architecture of the entire hotel was traditional Lanna-style Thai which we really liked a lot.

Each room came equipped with an electronic bug zapper that resembled a small tennis racket. When a mosquito flew into it, it made a very loud noise like a small firecracker (and I mean LOUD- the DH jumped the first time I used it) We had a lot of fun with it (we called it our Thai version of Nintendo Wii) Quite honestly we never had a problem with lots of mosquitos. This was a relief to me, but saddened the DH since he loved using the zapper.

Once we settled in, we had lunch at Yaang Come - pad thai and spring rolls. It was good.

We then headed out to explore. The entrance to the ancient city through the Tha Phae Gate was blocked with a huge memorial and billboard of the late sister of the King. We visited a few different wats including Wat Chedi Luang and Wat Phra Singh. It was HOT, but we enjoyed seeing the Lanna style architecture and since we were approaching Songkran (New Year), seeing all the preparations being made for the celebration.

We took a dip in the hotel pool when we returned to cool off. We decided to eat at Gallery for dinner and took a quick tuk-tuk ride there (taxi's are really hard to find - unless you call ahead).

Gallery is a beautiful Thai-style open-aired house that is right on the river. We had an intimate table right next to the water. Dinner was very good. We ordered a shrimp pancake to start. For our main entrees we had Phad ped moo (stir fried pork with spicy chili lime kaffir sauce), steamed chicken with vegetables and Northern style spices in banana leaves and sticky rice. We LOVED the phad ped moo and enjoyed eating sticky rice for the first time (you eat it with your hands and it's very different than just the white rice that accompanies curry dishes.)

Up next: Our day with Poon and cooking class with A Lot of Thai.

Keep it coming! I was sorry to hear that Tong is sick. We are booked with her for one day in June - hopefully she will be feeling better by then. We have another one of her guides for the other day we have booked (Nui).

Sounds like you had a really good experience in BKK - looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip.

i think tong is back working, at least part time...

i'm hoping to meet her wednesday nite for dinner so i will have the full scope then if not before

DAY 6 - CHIANG MAI DAY TRIPS: ELEPHANT CONSERVATION CENTER & DOI SUTHEP

We had hired Poon, a driver highly recommended on this board, for the day. She promptly picked us up and we headed to the Elephant Conservation Center near Lampang. It was a beautiful drive approximately 1.5 hours from Chiang Mai.

There were very few people there when we arrived. We were able to feed some corn husks to a few elephants while we waited for the mahouts to bathe them. There are these shaded benches overlooking the area they bathe, but as soon as the elephants entered the water everyone walked over to the edge of the water for a closer look and numerous photo ops. After that there was a short elephant show.

We really wanted to ride an elephant since neither of us had done it before. We decided on just a 30 minute ride (my husband has back problems so he was relieved we didn't ride for an hour). It was quite an experience. Instead of a basket, there is a bench and your feet just dangle over. There are handles and a seatbelt to hold you in. Our elephant was 45 years old and although Asian elephants are much smaller than African ones, she was very large! We made our way passed the hospital and into the jungle. Our mahout owned two dogs and they followed us everywhere. At the very end she went into one of the lagoons and all I did was pray she didn't spray us with the dirty water. Thankfully she just drank it and cooled off before we ended our ride.

I really wanted to do some shopping and celadon was at the top of the list. I didn't even think to check my Nancy Chandler map, but Poon took us to Baan Celadon where we bought some dishes and gifts. I had a hard time deciding so it took a little longer than we had hoped. Instead of dragging the DH to do more shopping we decided to grab some lunch.

Poon asked if we wanted a normal restaurant or a nice one and we said normal would be just fine....that is until she pulled up to a corner place and we realized she meant local spot. We love eating at dives and local little places are usually our preference, but this was a little too adventurous for us and instead we asked Poon to take us to a nicer restaurant. She took us to the beautiful Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi Hotel. The grounds were huge and it felt like we were far from any city life.

We ate at Le Grand Lanna and both enjoyed our noodle soup with prawns. It came with numerous condiments like fish sauce, chilis, sugar,etc. so you can modify to your own taste. We then strolled some of the property and saw the castle like lobby. WOW!

Then we headed to Doi Suthep. We are fairly active and decided to climb the gorgeous staircase (they also have a funicular). After buying our entrance tickets (which no one even checked), we decided to peruse the perimeter ringing the various bells and enjoying the city view. We then slipped off our shoes and went inside. It was stunning! We were both impressed. We were also able to watch them gold-leaf a pillar that was in the process of being restored. Definitely a highlight and well worth the trip.

We were hot and tired so we asked Poon to take us back to the hotel a little early so we could have some pool time. She was very sweet and helpful and her English was pretty good. We strongly recommend her.

Dinner was at Antique House where they had live traditional Thai music. We had shrimp balls, nam-mok (a sour spicy Chiang Mai sausage with ginger and peanuts), fried fish with spicy sweet and sour sauce and chicken with vegies. It was good (not my favorite meal), but the sausage was excellent and unlike anything we had tried before.

DAY 7: COOKING WITH A LOT OF THAI
Since we were only in Chiang Mai for a few days, we originally wanted to take an evening or half day cooking class. After researching different schools, A Lot of Thai appealed to us primarily because of the small class size (they take a maximum of 8 students), they offer half day/evening classes and many positive reviews.

It is a family run business comprised of Yui (the cooking instructor), her husband Kwan and their two adorable kids. Classes take place in the patio of their home with cooking stations for everyone. However, Yui had cancelled the evening class for a few weeks since she was taking a course (or teaching I can't remember now).

The DH is an excellent cook at home and loves cooking various Asian dishes. He had never cooked any Thai food, but is very comfortable in the kitchen. I can cook, but rely on cookbooks and don't have the knife skills like the DH.

Yui, Kwan and the rest of our class picked us up at the hotel around 9:30am and we headed to their house.
The first thing Yui does is pass out cookbooks for us to take home. It not only has recipes for what we were going to cook that day, but plenty of others. Then we got aprons, introduced ourselves (a couple from Jordan, mother and daughter from Canada, a young fireman from Orange County, CA and a woman from Switzerland) and Yui gave us a demonstration of our first dish, Pad Thai.

After explaining various Thai ingredients (and suggestions for things we can use if we can't find them at home) we each go to our station and cook Pad Thai. When everyone is done cooking we gather around a huge table and enjoy our first meal.

This continues the rest of the morning where we cooked Tom Yum Goong and Green Curry with Chicken. We are all quite full when Yui says we are heading to a local market. At the market she takes us around the various stalls showing us local ingredients -some that we cooked with and others we didn't. She stopped at her favorite drink stand where numerous people got thai iced tea or fruit drinks. This market was fairly large and one section even sold non-food items like toothpaste, cleaning supplies and those fun bug zappers from the hotel!

It was about 2pm when Kwan took us back to the hotel. The rest of the group went back to cook 3 more dishes!

We loved our time with Yui and Kwan. Yui is a knowledgable and fun teacher. She was able to help those not very skilled as well as those who had more experience, plus she has an excellent sense of humor. We hope to cook with them again.

Neither of us had gotten any massages yet, so I had made an appointment at Oasis Spa. Although they had couple rooms, the DH really wanted to rest. Therefore Oasis picked me up and I enjoyed a 2 hour massage. The spa itself is gorgeous and the women were all very sweet.

I had never had a Thai massage, but instead I decided to get their Lanna Package which showcased three types of massage: Thai, Lanna hot compress and oil. I LOVED IT! I really enjoyed the Thai massage part, but don't really know if I got the true experience. I am actually looking for a good place to go in Los Angeles. If anyone has recommendations please let me know.

For dinner we decided to try another Northern dish called Khao soy. It is a noodle soup with a curry base. You choose your meat/seafood, level of spice and then it's topped with fried crunchy noodles on top. It comes with 8 or 9 condiments like coconut milk, chilis, even sliced bananas to cut the spice. You modify yours to the taste you desire. It was delicious and fun.

Then we headed to the famous night market. We noticed a few stalls closed since Songkran started soon, but for the most part it was bustling. We bought a few gifts and then called it a night.

Up Next: Phuket and Songkran (Happy Thai New Year!)

enjoying it all

DAY 8: CHIANG MAI TO PHUKET
We slept in and relaxed at the hotel until it was time to head to the airport.

The airport was filled with TV cameras, school children with signs and hundreds of people. We are from Los Angeles, so seeing the media is not uncommon for various celebrities.

We quickly found out that the Prime Minister of Thailand was arriving for the upcoming Songkran holiday. Our direct Thai Air flight was scheduled to leave at 12:50 and get us into Phuket at 2:45pm, however it was slightly delayed due to his arrival.

Although Songkran is usually a 3-day holiday, certain areas in Thailand extend the celebration and Chiang Mai is known as the biggest party. All throughout our trip (BKK and CM) we saw HUGE water guns and colored powders being sold in anticipation for the festivities. As tourists and obvious targets, we were a little relieved to be leaving CM. More on this soon.

The flight was uneventful and we arrived only 30 minutes late. We stayed at Mom Tri's Boathouse in Kata. It took us approximately 50 minutes to get to the hotel.

Our taxi driver pointed things out along the way and I made the mistake of asking him if he was on the island during the tsunami. I realized right then just how small the community was when he politely said he lost his sister in the tsunami. I felt horrible and quickly offered condolences (It was never my intention to hurt him by asking and I never mentioned it again.) It was such a devastating and tragic event, however we didn't see any physical signs of noticeable damage. Buildings were in tact, plants, trees and vegetation were full and lush (we did see signs about evacuation points and were told there was a memorial on the island.)

For those who don't know, Kata is one of the smallest cities on the west coast and furthest south from Patong. The beach is beautiful and smaller than Karon and Patong from what we were told. Just past Kata is Kata Noi where the Katathani Hotel is located. This beach IMO is even more beautiful and much quieter than even Kata. (we prefer quieter towns and are not into the nightlife scene, so Kata and Kata Noi were perfect for us.)

Mom Tri's Boathouse is situated towards the end of Kata Beach and is right on the sand. It is a nice multi-story boutique hotel. The rooms were comfortable, but definitely not the Peninsula. It didn't matter, because you paid for the location and service. Our room was on the 3rd floor and we had a beautiful ocean view which we enjoyed from our balcony.

We had dinner that night at the hotel's restaurant The Boathouse Grill, where they have won numerous wine and food awards. It is international cuisine. While the food was very good (it was the most expensive meal of the trip), it truly rivals the ambiance. You are sitting in an open air dining room just steps from the sand with stunning views of the beach. Very romantic.

DAY 9: PHUKET - A DAY AT THE BEACH & EXPLORING
We started our day in the very same restaurant for our breakfast buffet. We then decided to head to the beach. I remembered hearing that some hotels had limited beach chairs/umbrellas so guests had to get up early to reserve one. Not a problem at Mom Tri's. We walked out and a very friendly man from the hotel set up our own chairs, umbrella and brought out cold ice water. Later he even brought us sliced fruit! The water is beautiful and warm, but we couldn't help notice how much trash was floating in it. :(

It started to rain, so we packed up our things and decided to explore the town. The rain didn't last long.

I had debated between staying at Mom Tri's and the Katathani, so I wanted to see it and Kata Noi. We walked up the hill, passing Mom Tri's other property the Villas (they looked stunning!) and went down a large staircase which drops you on the sand of Kata Noi beach.

It had gotten hot again and we were hungry, so we decided to grab some lunch in Kata and didn't actually go into the Katathani. It looked nice, but much bigger and not as intimate as Mom Tri's. As beautiful as Kata Noi was, we were happy that we chose Mom Tri's.

After some noodles for lunch, we went back to the beach for some R&R. The hotel cabana boy had kept our chairs open for us and got us fresh cold water.

After enjoying the sunset, we headed to Gung just a few doors down the beach (towards Kata Noi). It is a fairly new restaurant owned by Mom Tri's. It overlooked Kata Beach. The food and service were excellent and it was a little more casual and less expensive than the Boathouse. We enjoyed it so much we went back again the next night.

DAY 10- SCUBA DIVING & SONGKRAN
We are avid scuba divers so it was sad to only schedule one full day of diving, but we also wanted to relax and chill on the beach. West End Divers picked us up in the morning and we headed to the boat. It was a large boat and we were the only Americans. Mostly Europeans and Australians. We did 3 amazing dives: Shark Point, Anemone Reef and Koh Doc Mai. We both agree that it was some of the best diving we have ever done and hope to come back and do a live-aboard.

We hopped into the same songthew for the ride back to the hotels, but it was Songkran so we prepared ourselves. We were already wet from diving and in our swimsuits, so it was the perfect set up. Our driver rolled up the windows of his cab and we headed out. It was approximately a 20 minute drive to Kata, but traffic was horrible (just our luck) and the water fight festivities began.

There were people in open trucks with huge (I mean huge) buckets full of water, plus everyone was armed with the largest water guns you could imagine. They were throwing water at passing cars and motorcycles (I now know why this is also a very deadly holiday on the road) And there were people of all ages lined up along the street with buckets, hoses and anything they could get their hands on to throw water.

It wasn't just water, but ICE COLD WATER! I had my back to the street so I could never see the water coming, but oh my it was cold. There were 7 other people in our truck and we were ALL drenched from head to toe. We couldn't stop laughing in between the shrieks when we were hit with the ice water. It was a lot of fun (although it would have been more fun to be doing the drenching) and definitely an experience we will never forget. To tell you just how soaked we were, the DH had his wallet in a heavy duty nylon fanny pak inside our backpack. He had to empty the wallet contents out to dry - water just seeped through all the layers.

After that everything went into ziploc bags, and we were constantly watching where to walk trying to avoid the buckets and hoses.

That is partly why we returned to Gung for dinner since we could enter off the beach and no one was on the beach dumping water on you.

Up Next: JOHN GRAY'S HONG BY STARLIGHT

i have put gung on my list for next month...thanks

I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your posts. We are going Oct. 19 to Thailand (first time). Thank you for posting!

Debbie-thank you very much for the kind words.

Bob-I'd love to hear what you think about Gung. Both of the dinners we had were equally good and the service was excellent. I hope you enjoy it.

On a separate note, I forgot to include our overall feelings about Chiang Mai at the end of that section, but I will include it at the end of my report instead.

I'm enjoying your trip!

me too great report

Kimberly
Glad you enjoyed Mom Tri's. Did you happen to go the villas and have dinner at Mom Tri's Kitchen? Another costly but fabulous place to dine, with an even more appealing (IMO) location and ambiance than the Grill.

Next time, do try to stay at the Kata Thani on Kata Noi. Sounds like you would like the peacefulness of this beach.

Carol

Sorry for the delay on the trip report. Unfortunately life and work have gotten in the way, but I hope to write more very soon. Thanks for everyone's positive feedback. It is truly appreciated.

Carol - Unfortunately we never made it to Mom Tri's Kitchen. We really liked Gung which was 2 doors down from the Boathouse and owned by them too. Since it was Songkran we were trying to avoid the streets since we really didn't want to eat dinner soaking wet. It's on the list for next time though!

Thanks for the tip about the Kata Thani. We LOVED Kata Noi beach.

DAY 11 -JOHN GRAY'S HONG BY STARLIGHT
I had first learned about John Gray's Sea Canoe on this very board. His company offers eco-tours in various areas of the world. www.johngray-seacanoe.com We decided to do the popular Hong By Starlight trip.

This trip starts later than most other boats out to Phang-Nga Bay (where the well-known James Bond Island is located), so we were able to sleep in and enjoy another breakfast buffet overlooking Kata Beach.

Since it was Songkran, we put everything in plastic bags and just prayed we wouldn't be picked up in an open aired car like the day before. We were in luck - they picked us up in an enclosed air-conditioned van and we later found out that the water fight was only one day in Phuket (although it continues for at least 3 days in other parts of the country).

It was a full boat. Once we boarded the crew immediately brought out a hot lunch of noodles, spring rolls and other goodies. The boat goes very slowly so we had plenty of time to eat, be briefed on the day's activities and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

While Jame Bond Island is a popular spot, John Gray doesn't go there. Instead the boat takes you to a few different islands to explore. I had heard that John often accompanies the boat, but he was not with us probably due to the new year holiday.

For safety reasons you are not able to paddle your own kayak. Every two people are assigned a guide who paddles and tells you about the various animals and plantlife you see. The main reason they paddle is because they take you into numerous caves at the base of these hugh limestone mountains jetting out of the ocean and not only are some caves very narrow (you have to lay flat in the kayak to get through some), but entering them is very dependent on the tides.

After going through the caves, you enter this open aired lagoon in the middle of these uninhabited islands (called a hong - the thai word for room) where you see various plants, and wildlife. We saw strange insects, lizards, crabs and monkeys!

What makes this trip extra special is that after making a traditional Thai craft (can't remember the name) and enjoying a huge dinner, they take you to another island after the sun goes down and you enter the hong at night.

We released our floating art project on the water which was quite beautiful since they had candles and incense burning.

After returning to the boat we made our way back to the pier for the short car ride back to the hotel.

We both enjoyed our day and highly recommend it for anyone who wants to experience something different. The staff was very helpful, friendly and the service was excellent.

Since it was a long day, we packed and headed to bed. The next morning, we were flying back to Bangkok for our last day in Thailand.

UP NEXT: Our final day in Thailand plus final trip thoughts.

DAY 12: BACK IN BANGKOK
Our direct flight from Phuket landed early. We took a public taxi and arrived at our hotel, The Bossotel, around noon.

Originally I thought about staying along the river again, but since we had less than 24 hours in Bangkok and had to leave for the airport before breakfast was served, it seemed silly to spend the extra money.

The Bossotel is a very simple, cleand and inexpensive hotel located just down the street from the Shangri-La and right around the corner from the Taksin Sky Train station. Location was excellent (and it had a fabulous foot massage place next door!) Since the rates were so low (especially compared to the Peninsula), we splurged and got a Deluxe room that was very spacious and overlooked a wat. I booked through agoda.com and had no problems.

It was Songkran and unlike Phuket, the celebrations continued in BKK. We wore shorts, put everything in plastic bags and set out to get a cab to take us to Chote Chitr for lunch. It was difficult just finding a taxi that would use a meter, let alone understand English. The hotel wasn't very much help, so we set out on our own and after a few tries got a friendly driver who ended up calling the restaurant for directions.

I had heard how particular the owner could be when it came to ordering, so I didn't warn the DH. However, she was very friendly and didn't actually make any recommendations. The DH wasn't too hungry, so he ordered chicken glass noodle soup and I ordered the red curry with chicken, plus mee krob. Overall the meal was excellent. We both raved about the mee krob - the best we ever had. We both agreed we'd come back again.

We had managed to stay dry so far and luckily found a metered taxi around the corner and went to MBK for some last minute shopping.

Having visited MBK at the beginning of our trip, we knew what to expect and quickly planned where to go first. We got some great things and a few gifts and took the Sky Train back.

We were excited that we returned completey dry when a family sitting right next to our hotel entrance came up to us with buckets. Uh oh. They were very polite and asked if they could spray us and we said a little. They stayed true to their word, however they were pros and just poured a little water on our neck, which happened to travel all the way down our back and legs. It looked like we couldn't find a bathroom. Boy were we grateful to be back at the hotel to change.

Then we had our last foot massage of the trip. It was heaven and I was sad to leave.

We took the Sky Train to Lanna Thai for dinner. Thank you to those who suggested to go for dinner rather than lunch-the candles and overall ambiance was amazing!

On the Sky Train there were hundreds of powdered, soaking wet kids mostly in their teens and 20s. We were told the water fighting ended that evening, so many looked to be heading home. Thankfully they were not allowed to have any water fights in the Sky Train or at the station - although some tried. We were amused to see that they all had their cell phones in plastic bags while they continued to talk never taking it out of the bag.

While we didn't get the chance to visit Face Spa, it was easy to find just off the Sky Train station. We enjoyed our last dinner in Thailand: chicken spring rolls, pomelo salad (shredded pomelo with chicken, shrimp in a lime dressing), shrimp pad thai and the lanna thai chicken. Since it was the last night of our vacation we both ordered dessert - the ruby coupe. While we were enjoying it, one of the managers brought us a third dessert on the house - mango cheesecake. This excited the DH since he loves cheesecake and originally considered ordering it.

DAY 13: Heading home
We headed to the BKK airport at 5:45am. In Hong Kong, we were able to enjoy the much-talked about noodle bar in the Cathay Pacific business lounge (it wasn't open on our arrival flight). The return long-haul flight on Cathay was the "old" business class. The seats laid flat, but were angled. We were a little sad not to have the same set up as our arrival flight, but we were thankful that it wasn't a red eye.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Overall we loved Thailand. We hadn't even made it home and were already talking about where to go next. The people were incredibly friendly and the food was excellent! As I explained earlier in this report, BKK wasn't our favorite, but we loved staying on the river and agree that the sights were well worth it.

While we didn't feel as intimidated by Chiang Mai after experiencing BKK, we felt it was just okay and nothing special. The highlights were definitely Doi Suthep and our cooking class. Next time we want to visit Chiang Rai and the Golden Triangle. I think we would like that much more.

As for Phuket, I agree with those on this board that have said if you want culture and a true sense of Thailand skip the beaches. I am grateful that we spent time in other parts of the country and went to Phuket last. However, it was wonderful to end the trip on the beach to relax and just unwind. As scuba divers we couldn't travel all that way and not dive, so we are both happy we went.

Thanks again to everyone on this board and I hope we don't have to wait too long for our next trip to Asia. We are headed to Canada and the east coast to see the fall colors, but we are already talking about our next international destination. Happy Travels!

Kimberly
LOVEd your report great detail.
I just wanted to add the first time i went to BKK i wasnt overly impressed but for one reason and another i went back stayed on the river and fell in love with the place. We are hopefully going back for (my fourth and the Bfs 3rd) visit in November. I think it really can grow on you.
happy planning for your next trip
Smeagol

Wonderful report. The magic of Thailand has captivated another farang. We've been six times and had a great trip each time.

Kimberly-
Glad you enjoyed Thailand. I really think I liked it a lot better this time, so maybe it will grow on you too. Think about Bali and then a dive trip attached. You'll love Indonesian diving - it's the best in the world!