Needless to say, there is a lot of information buried within all of these blog posts about our trip to Thailand.  This final post serves as a one-stop-shop for the nitty gritty details of our hotels and excursions that we did.  Our long-haul flights were with Emirates and domestic flights were with Bangkok Airways in and out of Samui.  No issues with either!

Hotels:

Bangkok:  Casa Nithra, 2100 THB per night (Superior Room), highly recommended

Ayutthaya:  Baan Kong Homestay, 900 THB per night (Standard Bungalow), highly recommended (no website, but available on booking sites)

Sukhothai:  Thai Thai Sukhothai, 1600 THB per night (Superior Bungalow), highly recommended

Chiang Mai:  Sakorn Residence, 1200 THB per night (Superior Room), recommended (misses being “highly” due to distance from the Old Town, but the river location has its merits as well.)

Koh Samui:  Hotel Pelegrin, 800 THB per night (fan) or 1400 THB per night (A/C), recommended

Koh Tao:  Ko Tao Resort, 1800 THB per night (Deluxe Room), I would look for another hotel before staying here, but if it was the only option, I would stay again.  We really struggled to find a hotel on Koh Tao since the majority of the review scores were average at best.  Luckily we didn’t have to choose a beach since we had found IHASIA dive school first so that narrowed down the hotel search.

Excursions:

Elephant Nature Park:  Pamper a Pachyderm program, 6000 THB per person, highly recommended

Cooking Course in Chiang Mai:  Thai Farm Cooking School, 1300 THB per person, highly recommended – make sure you’re hungry!

Ang Thong Marine Park:  100 Degrees East, 4500 THB per person, highly recommended

Scuba Diving:  IHASIA, 7000 THB per person, highly recommended for Spanish speakers.  There were also groups learning in English but our group’s experience was with Spanish tuition.  IHASIA is run by Spaniards and the vast majority of the students were Spanish.

Flying Trapeze:  Goodtime Adventures, 950 THB per person, highly recommended.  Just be aware that you will use muscles you never knew existed and will likely be sore the next day (and in my case sore for almost 2 weeks!!  I couldn’t stretch my arms back entirely until 2 weeks later….but so worth it!)

General Observations:

1. In general everyone was really friendly – except on the islands.  The majority of the Thai people we encountered on Samui and Tao were not very nice at all, which left us with a bit of a sour taste.  This was particularly evident at Ko Tao Resort…the housekeeping staff were all quite pleasant but the people working reception were indifferent to the guests (at best).  All of the expats though were super-friendly.
2. The food was all good, but we felt that it got a bit repetitive by the end.  Non-spicy options were quite limited for Virginia (pad thai, fried rice, pad see ew, and chicken with cashew nuts were the staples!)  Oddly enough, we also missed eating with chopsticks!
3. Transportation worked well….our buses, trains, and ferries left on time but were 40 minutes late arriving (coincidence?) while our 2 flights were bang on time.
4. Temple are everywhere!!  Easy on-off shoes make life easier!  Capri pants for women were long enough in most cases with exceptions being the Royal Palace in Bangkok and Bhubing Palace in Chiang Mai.
5. Generally we found everywhere to be organised and safe.  We were in Bangkok at a holiday time so it was quite empty.  It wasn’t until we had our final night there at the end of the trip that we experienced the dreaded traffic jams that it is famous for.
6. While in Bangkok, always use the taxi meter.  However, if it proves impossible, just remember that even though you are getting ripped off, it is still infinitely less than what you would pay at home! Another thing to watch out for is the meter that runs way too quickly.  This happened to us going to the airport for our flight home.  When the meter was already at 50 baht after 10 meters, I just pointed out that there must be something wrong and the driver reset it.
7. And finally, if your elephant guide offers you rubber boots, TAKE THEM!!!  🙂

The answer was “yes” but we had to move quickly!  Even moving quickly, this had to have been the selfie with the most preparation in history!  We started setting up at 18:20 and were still going at 19:13!!  In the end we did two selfies with two different cameras, a proper posed photo, and a funky flash photo to justify bringing the flashes all that way.  The geek out to end all geek outs!

At the end of the day though, an arm still has its merits!

As the only non-scuba diver in the group, it was up to me to keep myself entertained for the 4 days on Koh Tao.  While the gang was busy with their first scuba lesson, I took a taxi from the hotel to Mae Haad (where the ferry came in).  From the hotel it cost 200 baht (5 €) to go the 2 km (?) not sure of the distance, but it’s not very far at all.  This was my first introduction to the ridiculousness that is taxi travel in Koh Tao!  From Mae Haad I took the brick path that starts at Cafe del Sol and goes to Sairee.  It takes about 15 minutes and involves one steep hill up and one steep hill down.  Easy peasy!

My first stop in Sairee was at Goodtime Adventures.  I had been in contact before the trip sounding out potential activities so I was super-excited!  The activity I was most excited for was…..the flying trapeze!!!  Yes!!!!  And it just so happened that they had an opening that very evening so I just went with it so that I couldn’t talk myself out of it!  I was able to send a quick e-mail to Carlos to let him know the details in case they finished their lessons in time.  The other activity that I was most interested in (hiking, cliff jumping, and snorkelling tour) still didn’t have any trips scheduled.  They need a minimum of 2 people to run a trip and alas, I was all by my lonesome!!

Feeling pretty good (and scared) about my upcoming trapeze adventure, I went to the beach and had a lovely swim to pass the time.  I can see how some people wouldn’t like Sairee…too busy, too built up, too whatever….but I thought it was nice enough for a late afternoon swim.  It is a big beach so I’m sure you can always find a quiet corner (and to be honest, there was no one there that afternoon).

Next thing I knew, it was almost 5:30 pm and time to make my way to the big top tent!!  (Disclaimer: there was no tent, but there were funky lights!)  Ahhhhhh the nerves!!!!

Kelly and Bjorn were our trapeze experts on hand (Bjorn saving our lives on the platform by attaching the harness while Kelly was saving our lives by controlling the harness from below!)  Our group consisted of me and a French mother, father, daughter combo.  We first practiced hanging from a low-level trapeze (just needed a little hop to reach it) and doing the movement of bringing our legs up and hanging by our knees.  Ouch.  Kelly promised it wouldn’t hurt as much with momentum behind us!!

And just like that, I was climbing the 23 steps up the ladder to the platform.  By the way – the ladder is by far the worst part of the whole experience!!!!  Just don’t look down!  I definitely had a few choice words for myself as I stood there with my chalked hands, harness secured, and trapeze in my grasp!!  What was I doing????!!!!!  🙂  And then woosh!!!  I was off!  I was never really good at getting my legs up smoothly and quickly, but I killed the dismount every time!  In total we had 3 goes with salto dismount, 1 go with flying release, and then 2 tries at being caught by Bjorn on the other trapeze.  The video shows my 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 6th attempts.  The 2nd and 5th were omitted since the world really doesn’t need to see those failures (complete with some mild obscenities in the 2nd attempt!!  oops!)

The most annoying thing though is that I came SOOOOO close to completing the catch with Bjorn….our hands touched but we just couldn’t latch on.  The next one would have been a success for sure!!  🙂  For those of you wondering who was saving our lives on the platform if Bjorn was trapezing, it was Gemma!

What an experience!  Many thanks to Carlos for finding his way into town to bear witness to my greatness!  ha ha!  Adrenaline was definitely running high all the way back to the hotel.  The only thing that could knock me down was a rather large lizard waiting for us in the room when we got back!  It made a quick escape through the air conditioning unit (that was henceforth never turned off) and just when we thought we were safe, we opened the bathroom door and discovered….cockroaches!  Noooo!  First trapeze, then lizards, and now cockroaches???  My body was strung so high that I needed my harness back!!!  We chickened out and solicited help from the hotel in clearing out the bugs (the girl went at them barehanded while a man silently watched the air conditioning for evidence of this so-called lizard…they really must think we’re crazy!)  They left us a spray that we used liberally in the bathroom and never turned the fan off there either.  We are usually much more energy conscious….!  But we never had any surprise visitors again for the rest of the stay!

Today we traded big island life for small island adventure!  Koh Tao here we come!

Our Lomprayah ferry transfer arrived bang on time at 6:30 to bring us 15 minutes down the road to Mae Nam Pier.  Needless to say we were quite early for our 8:00 ferry departure, but it was nice to be checked in and ready to go before the waves of passengers arrived.  Everything was fairly well organised with everyone sporting colour coded stickers so that staff could tell at a glance what our final destination was.  Our bags were stored outside on the bow of the ferry so we were grateful for the sunny morning!

We left pretty much on time and were barely settled before the first stop half an hour later at Koh Phangan.  Amazingly the majority of the boat were on day trips to Koh Tao (from both Koh Samui and Koh Phangan).  The ferry was quite comfortable with the lower level filled with bus-style seats, the middle level had exclusive seating that you could pay 150 baht and up for quieter surrounds and cushier seats, and the top level was the sun deck with benches.  We sat on the lower level for the 2 hour journey.  Before stopping at Koh Tao, we let the day-trippers off at the neighbouring islet of Koh Nangyuan.  You can probably guess that we pulled into Koh Tao …. 40 minutes late!

We disembarked quickly and crossed our fingers that our bags would be waiting for us on the pier (they were!) and the ferry continued on its way to Chumphon.  We had arrived!

Koh Tao’s claim to fame is scuba diving.  There are over 50 dive schools on this teeny tiny island and it is the place to be in Southeast Asia to learn this sport.  I couldn’t bring myself around to the idea, so it was just Carlos, Javi, and Virginia who would be learning the art of scuba over the next 4 days.  I’m sure it is something that I’ll regret someday down the road, but for now, it was the right decision!!

And with over 50 schools to choose from, how do you choose?  In our case the choices were narrowed down considerably by language and then Virginia had found reports on an Spanish outfit called IHASIA that was the eventual winner.  We met El Brujo (the owner of IHASIA) at the 7-Eleven near the pier and got the day’s plan sorted out.  We all piled into a pick-up truck and hung on for our lives as we motored 10 minutes down the road to Chalok Baan Kao Beach – our home away from home for the next 4 days.

Luckily our rooms were ready at Ko Tao Resort when we checked in (or at least almost ready…the housekeepers were working hard finishing them, but we were able to drop our bags inside).  We sat by the pool and went for a walk on the beach to work up an appetite for lunch.

Before we knew it, it was time for the first scuba lesson down the beach at IHASIA.  I dropped the gang off and El Brujo told me that I could go out on the boat with the scuba students on Days 2 and 3 so that I can see them action and do some snorkelling on my own!  I also signed up for a snorkel trip around the island for Day 4 to make sure that I get my daily dose of water and fish!!

So off they went for their theory lessons and off I went to town to see what other activities I could line up for the next few days.  In the interest of brevity (which I am not known for AT ALL!) my extra-curricular activities are described in the next post!

The 3 hours of theory on Day 1 were followed by another 3 hours on Day 2.  At that point, they were ready to take to the water.  I joined the group as official photographer and cheerleader and we boated over to Aow Leuk which is a popular bay for diver training.  It was fairly smooth sailing but when it came time to prep the equipment, they quickly realised that there is a big difference between doing it on land and at sea.  Not something you really take into consideration as you practice in class!!

Once we dropped anchor in the bay, it was time for the final instructions and preparations. Before getting suited up, they had to swim a lap of the boat to “warm up”.  Carlos and Javi jumped from the upper deck of the boat but couldn’t really match the finesse of their instructor Tony!!!

Then it was back on board to gear up!

Since this was their first immersion, they swam for a bit above water and did drills to practice reacting to water in their masks, losing their mouthpiece, etc.  I didn’t see much of this since as soon as they were out of range, I was in the water myself for a spot of snorkelling!  Not to be left out, I jumped off the top deck as well.  Super Freaky!  I’m almost glad my cliff jumping trip didn’t get off the ground!  🙂  I had almost an hour to float around and explore the north reef.  It wasn’t as spectacular as Ang Thong (nothing will ever beat that!) but it was still entertaining and the time passed quickly.

Back on board I managed to capture the group resurfacing from their dive.  Such a weird feeling!!  There was only one immersion this day so we boated back to Chalok and hit the hotel pool for sundown and a good session of back patting!!  That night there was a shaving session….Carlos’s trip beard was interfering with his mask’s ability to keep water out.  He had quite enough practice that day clearing his mask of water!!

Day 3 started with the final exam – everyone passed!  Then it was back on the boat for the afternoon.  We returned to Aow Leuk but this time to the south reef.  The rocking boat didn’t phase anyone today and they were suited up and ready to go in no time at all.

The first immersion included more drills (this time practicing taking off their tanks and weights and putting them back on).  Meanwhile I was off playing with the fish…or rather they were playing with me! Little guys darting in and out around my hair fringe – freaky!!!

Between dives we reconvened back on board for a break and then it was back into the water.

This time they were diving at the reef so I followed them at the surface.  It was wild to see them down at the bottom swimming along.  I even witnessed the moment when Javi found his sunken treasure – a bracelet with a cute little bow that he never took off again much to Virginia’s chagrin!!

All too soon it was Day 4 and time for the final outing.  I couldn’t go on this dive since it was not snorkel appropriate (and they left at 7 am so I wasn’t completely heartbroken!)  They went to two sites: Hin Pee Wee and King Kong.  Instructor Tony had a GoPro with him so was able to capture the intrepid divers in action!  It’s hard not to get carried away with the underwater shots….bear with me!!!

And so ends the scuba adventure …. for now! We whole-heartedly recommend IHASIA for all your diving needs on Koh Tao.  Especially for the Spaniards out there!!  www.ihasiadivingkohtao.com

The next stage of our adventure brought us south to Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand.  We paid the big bucks to fly directly from Chiang Mai on Bangkok Airways (200 €).  100% worth it!!  Much to my delight, there was a Dairy Queen at the airport!  This seems to be a trend in South East Asia since we also found one in Phnom Penh back in 2010.  I could only convince Javi to indulge with me (after all it was only 10:30 am!)  You’ll note in the photo that we are wearing our “elephant pants”.  These baggy pants in millions of different prints are found all over Chiang Mai.  It seems to be a rite of passage to buy a pair – even for the men (although Carlos was having none of it!!)

We left at 12:30 pm and had a nice 2 hour flight complete with lunch and great clouds!!  As we took off, we could see Doi Suthep and the temple from our side of the plane.  The land was amazing as we made our way south…very fertile and a constant agricultural presence.

Before we knew it, we were on the ground and ready for island life!  We had booked a transfer through our hotel, Hotel Pelegrin.  This is a small hotel run by a Russian family.  It is inside the Fisherman’s Village of Bophut and ideally situated for village life.  It was certainly basic, but it was clean and fulfilled our needs entirely for this short stay of 2 nights.  Carlos and I even dared to book a fan room instead of air conditioning just to see what it was like.  It was definitely warm but the fan was powerful and we managed to stay comfortable.  Our room had a little balcony with a clothes line so it was perfect for a bit of laundry.  The sun even came around at the end of the day for some extra drying power.

We went to the beach for the afternoon and had a dip and a walk.  The water was like a bath!!  We walked all along the beach and ended up at a beach bar for a shake to hydrate us for the return.  It was a tricky beach to walk on since it was quite sloped and the sand was really coarse.  On the plus side, we now have perfectly exfoliated feet!

Friday night in Bophut is…you guessed it….Friday Night Walking Street!  Town was buzzing and it was a great vibe.  We weren’t really in the market for shopping so we just treated it as entertainment.  We ended up at the Smile House Hotel restaurant and had our dinner right on the beach.  It was a very pleasant evening watching people send up lanterns into the dark sky and hearing the waves breaking on the shore.

Saturday morning dawned somewhat ominously – the clouds here are out of this world!!  We had booked an excursion to Ang Thong Marine Park for today – essentially the only reason why we came to Koh Samui. Our tour operator of choice was 100 Degrees East (www.100degreeseast.com) and right from the first contact with Caz back in April, they were an absolute pleasure to work with.  And most importantly, the day out was fantastic – but I’ll get to that!

We were picked up at 9:10 am and driven to the 100 Degrees East base in Big Buddha Beach just 10 minutes away.  We filled in our waivers and got fitted for our snorkel gear as the group assembled.  This was a speedboat trip so we were a small group of 10 hailing from Spain, Canada, Switzerland, England, and Australia.  Our guide/cruise director/boat master was Milla from Finland.  During the journey we had a few moments of anxiety when a massive storm cloud blew over the islands where we were headed…we could see it coming and we could only hope that we would see it leaving too!!!  Thankfully we did!  The day was absolutely perfect.

It took just under an hour to get to our first stop of the day: snorkel time!  When we arrived, there were a couple of other boats in the area, but by the time we got sorted out we were all alone.  All alone above the water that is!!!  Below the water was a different story!  Never in all my snorkelling experience have I seen so many fish and marine life!  It was quite simply breathtaking.  And also hard to describe.  Fish zooming every which way and visibility like you wouldn’t believe.  Milla said that she had almost never seen it as clear before.  We were so lucky!  We snorkelled into caves and marvelled at the changing light with every ebb and flow of the waves.  I could go on and on forever, but I’ll spare you!!

In the end we were in the water for almost an hour.  Even so, it was a struggle to tear ourselves away from the magical world under the sea (cue: steel drums and Sebastian).  Back on board, we traveled about 10 minutes more to our kayak location.  We did a 40 minute circuit to build up our appetite for lunch.  Our leader kept close to the cliffs and rock overhangs (to grab some much needed shade while waiting for the group to catch up) so it made for some precise kayaking.  Carlos did a great job steering!

Once we surrendered the kayaks, we jumped back on board the speedboat for a few minutes to travel to our picnic lunch location on Samsao Island.  It was a perfect slice of paradise accompanied by fantastic food including the best fried chicken I’ve had in a long time (or ever?)

After lunch it was time for some R & R on the beach.  It was so peaceful that we even had a little snooze!

But the day wasn’t over yet!!  Our next stop was Mae Koh Island and its famous emerald lagoon, Talay Nai.  While the walk up to the viewpoint was relatively short, it had its fair share of challenges.  This was mainly due to the insanely steep and narrow steps that form the pathway.  Some people in our group managed it in flip-flops but I recommend shoes that attach to your foot to eliminate one level of concentration!  There are three viewpoints with the top-most being the most popular and shortest to get to.  From there you can walk down more steps to a lower level and then again to almost lake level.  We only went as far as the lower level due to time and energy constraints.  The steps were crazy!!!

Back at the beach we were all dripping in sweat and dying for a swim. Milla suggested that if we could hold on for 5 more minutes, we could boat to a nicer beach.  Naturally we held on!  And so we ended up at Park Headquarters on Koh Wua Talab.  This is where you spend the night if you wish to do so in bungalows or tents.  The beach was lovely and the water crystal clear.  Milla went for a quick walk to see if there were any monkeys about but with the rains earlier in the day, they had retreated deep into the island forest.

It was a perfect end to an even more perfect day! We were so fortunate with the conditions and 100 Degrees East was a fabulous company to go with.  I can’t imagine being on a big boat with 40 other people (having to take turns snorkelling and kayaking) and having to travel at least 2 hours to reach Ang Thong.  The speedboat was worth its weight in gold!!  And yes, compared to the big boats you do feel like you are dipping into your gold reserves to pay for the trip, but it was more than worth it.  Especially for us since we were only in Koh Samui to take this trip.  Like the elephants, exclusive was the only way to go for us. A day to remember!

The day I was most looking forward had finally arrived: our adventure at Elephant Nature Park (ENP – www.elephantnaturepark.org).

ENP is a very special place about 60 km from Chiang Mai.  It is there that a young woman named Lek started a refuge for elephants.  Many people don’t realise the brutal process that an elephant must go through in order to be trained to carry tourists, paint pictures, dance, or whatever else they are forced to do beyond their nature.  Lek endeavours to put an end to this torture and captive lifestyle by providing a safe haven for rescued elephants to live.  There are several programs that visitors can participate in and contribute to the cause.  We chose to experience the park through the Pamper a Pachyderm one-day program.  This special program began in early 2014 through the collaboration with a neighbouring trekking camp run by Muoy who decided to turn her focus to care and refuge.  Up to 6 people per day are given the opportunity to spend time with this small elephant herd.  On our day, there were 5 female elephants to befriend along with several at the end of the day at Elephant Nature Park:

Our final morning in Sukhothai greeted us with grey skies and driving rain.  We had already decided against another sunrise visit to the park so this weather erased any lingering “should I? or shouldn’t I” doubts.  Watching the rain pour down as we ate our breakfast made us so grateful for the wonderful day yesterday.

After breakfast we piled into a couple of tuk tuks and went the 2 km to the old city bus station to catch our 9:30 bus to Chiang Mai.  Or perhaps that should be “bus station”!!  The only thing reassuring us that we were in the right place was a picture of a bus on the awning that also declared: Old City – Bangkok / Old City – Chiang Mai.  Eventually we were joined by a few other tourists making us feel a bit better!  Note the red flag that was placed after we arrived to signal to the bus to stop.

The bus starts in the new city which caused some concern that the seats would all be taken (the booking process consisted of 4 scraps of paper so we are pretty sure that each point of sale doesn’t actually know how many seats have been sold in total!!)  In the end we were fine and we all got seats – but people at later stops did have to stand….  As seemed to be the trend, the bus arrived a half an late.  We can’t figure out how they always manage this since the trains and buses seem to leave the origin on time…and in this case, the new city is only 12 km away!!  Thailand Charm!  The 5 hr 47 min journey cost us 239 baht each (just under 6 €) and included a 20 minute pit stop.  The toilets at the stop were more than adequate and it was welcome break.  There was snack food available and even a proper rice/noodles stand.  All in all the journey wasn’t as bad as we anticipated – decent roads and much smoother than the train!!  I don’t think I mentioned the constant jostling on the train from Ayutthaya to Phitsanulok.  If I had to do the full 10 or 11 hours from Bangkok to Chiang Mai on the train, I would have gone insane for sure!!

Upon arrival in Chiang Mai we took our first of many songthaews (red pick-up trucks) to our hotel, Sakorn Residence.  The hotel is one block back from the river so a fair distance from the walled old city.  It was walkable (30 min) but with the trucks zooming around looking for fares we always just hopped in one.  It was 20 or 30 baht per person (50 cents) depending on where we were going.  The hotel itself suited us perfectly.  The rooms were large, decent shower, and there was a pool for cooling down at the end of the day.  There was a safe in the room but it wasn’t attached to anything and very light….i.e. with minimal effort, any would-be thief could just tuck it under their arm and be off!  It was a little comical!!  We didn’t have any security concerns but figured it was a good place to test out our new PacSafe travel safe.  Peace of mind more than anything else!

We arrived on a Saturday which meant we could experience the Saturday Night Walking Street on Wua Lai Rd.  The market was completely different to how I imagined it. The souvenirs and goods for sale were actually nice quality and it was all much more “bright and shiny” than I expected.  It was a very pleasant walk along the street even with the crowds of people.  For our dinner we ended up at the market area at the moat at the beginning of the walking street.  None of us were actually that hungry since we had a late lunch at little place across from the hotel that actually turned out to be the cheapest meal of the whole trip – some 360 baht for the four of us (and that included 4 beers)!  Lack of hunger aside, we still managed to have some coconut water, smoothies, and our first sticky rice with mango.

Chiang Mai’s claim to fame is it’s endless supply of wats.  Big wats, little wats, golden wats, wooden wats, new wats, old wats, wat-ever you are looking for, you can find it in Chiang Mai!!

Over the course of our stay we visited (clockwise from top left): Wat Phra Sing, Wat Chedi Luang, Wat Phan-Ohn, Wat Bupparam, and Wat Chiang Man.

We ended up on Ratchadamnoen Road just as the Sunday Walking Street was opening for business.  This was even longer than the Saturday Walking Street!  The setting sun was still beating down on us so we only managed a few blocks before we had to throw in the towel and retreat to the hotel pool (but not before enjoying a mango shake, of course!)

Tired from the day’s pursuits, we decided to treat ourselves to dinner at one of the nice riverside restaurants near the hotel.  We chose The Gallery and were not disappointed.  We enjoyed a delicious (and huge!) meal for not even 15 € a head (beer, main dish, shared dessert, and a gin & tonic).  The clear winner of the night was Carlos’s Massaman Curry, while the clear dangerous dish of the night ended up with me in the form of northern-style sausages that were amazing but SPICY and quite lonely on my plate…no sauce or other company!!  In the end it was just a bit much!  Nevertheless, it was an evening to remember.

After a great night’s sleep we awoke on Monday morning full of anticipation and excitement – it was elephant day!!!  We had booked the one day Pamper a Pachyderm experience with Elephant Nature Park (ENP – www.elephantnaturepark.org) and it was the day I was most looking forward to!!  To do it justice, I have written about it in the next post.  Truly amazing!!!

Another excursion outside of the city is a trip up to Doi Suthep and Bhubing Palace.  It took about an hour to get up the mountain in our red truck (700 baht round trip) and we visited the palace first due to its curious hours.  The palace is open from 8:30 to 16:30, but the ticket office is only open from 8:30 to 11:30 and then again from 13:00 to 15:30.  I think only foreigners need a ticket so locals can go anytime but tourists have to pay attention to those ticketing hours (50 baht)!  We also needed to rent “jedi” pants for 15 baht to cover up our shorts/capris.  Our trousers were all being “professionally” laundered at that moment since they were filthy after the elephants!

Bhubing Palace is the winter home of the royal family from January to March.  We didn’t actually see much of a palace, but the rose gardens and green houses were amazing.  There were some varieties of roses that were bred right there.  We also saw the huge bamboo and lovely butterflies at the fountain/lake area.  A nice peaceful walk after the chaos of the city!

We then trucked back down the mountain about 10 minutes to the famous Doi Suthep.  Or rather Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep since the mountain itself is called Doi Suthep.  We elected to take the funicular up the hill to save our energy.  The funicular takes 2 minutes or there are about 300 steps to climb.  When we arrived at the top, the whole wat area was shrouded in cloud giving it an eerie feeling.  We spent about an hour exploring the mount.  The clouds parted somewhat to allow a view of Chiang Mai below.  The most prevalent area was the airport with the runway clearly visible.  We then took the steps back down (dodging a dog fight – the street dogs in Thailand are SCARY!) and jumped in our pick-up truck for the ride back to the city.

We hopped out in Chinatown to have a look at the Wororot and Ton Lamyai Markets.  We were hoping for some street food but we didn’t see anything really appetising….  I don’t know if we were just never in the right places but generally the street food didn’t appeal to us.  All of the food was cooked and sitting in trays waiting for takers as opposed to being cooked fresh in the moment or at least staying warm in a pot or something.  I don’t know…we just never indulged in the street food the way we have done in the past in Vietnam, Cambodia, and China.  🙁

We wandered towards the old city in search of food and finally found a place almost at the city gates.  I think the street we were on is the longest stretch of street in the world without a restaurant!!  or maybe I was just hungry!!  We enjoyed a nice meal of soup/noodles/rice and then discovered that the owner of the restaurant is Canadian! He chatted to us FOREVER!  It is what we call “Canadian Mode” since the Spaniards always tease me when I talk to strangers…it’s a Canadian thing, eh!

Our final activity in Chiang Mai was a much anticipated cooking class!  Time to learn some secrets!  We went with Thai Farm Cooking School (www.thaifarmcooking.com) and were not disappointed.  It was 1,300 baht per person and was a full day from 8:30 until almost 5 pm.  They have an office in the old city (38 Moonmuang Road, Soi 9) but the actual class takes place on a farm about 40 minutes away from the city.  On the way out, we stopped at a market to learn about the curry powders we would be making, different types of rice, and the special sauces that are fundamental to Thai cooking (soy, oyster, and fish!)

On the menu was Yellow Curry with Chicken, Tom Yam Soup with Shrimp (or Tom Kaa coconut milk soup with Chicken for those looking for a milder alternative), Chicken with Cashew Nuts, Pad Thai, and finally Sticky Rice with Mango for dessert.  We were quite nervous about the quantity of food since each of those plates is what we would consider one meal!!!!  Before getting started, we took a walk around the farm to see some of the spices and herbs that we would be cooking with.  Carlos nibbled on a chili and 5 minutes later had tears running down his cheeks!!!  Don’t worry, 5 minutes after that he was back to normal!!  It must have been a doozie of a chili!

First up was the yellow curry.  My previous experience with cooking curry involved a complicated process of opening a jar from Carrefour…not so here in Thailand!  We ground our very own curry paste with mortar and pestle!  This of course is ideal since you can put as little or as much chili in as you want!  Once the paste was ready (after working up an incredible sweat!!) we set it aside and prepared our Tom Yam soup and feasted.  It was so delicious!  Mine was a little too mild since I was nervous about putting too much spice in.  Carlos’s was perfect though (no fear there!)  With the first course complete, we went back to preparing the yellow curry and chicken with cashew nuts.  Both were sensational.  This was quickly turning into our favourite meal of the whole trip.  I was hoping to pick up some tips on cooking rice, but they used a rice cooker!  Perhaps that is all the tip I need……

After lunch we had about an hour of free time to have a walk, siesta, or just chill.  And then it was Pad Thai time!  More food???!!!  The idea here was that it would be packaged up and we could take it with us to have for dinner.  Again with the prepared food just sitting around waiting to be eaten….!  Our Pad Thais looked so good that we decided to just eat it there and then since taking them with us didn’t really appeal to us.  So good.  Virginia was the official Pad Thai expert since she can’t tolerate any spice at all in her food and it is the safest dish.  She declared this one of the best, if not the best.

To cap off the day of indulgence, we had our amazing sticky rice with mango.  The rice was steamed in a bamboo basket and then combined with coconut milk.  This is the only dish that we didn’t make individually.  It was mind blowing!  So good and yet we were so full….!  We did the best we could and stopped short of licking our plates clean!

Needless to say, we definitely recommend Thai Farm Cooking School.  Just be ready to load up on delicious food!

And this capped off our 6-night stay in Chiang Mai.  We could have easily done everything with just 5 nights, but this allowed us to be very relaxed and not rushed at all.

We woke up bright and early to enjoy a local breakfast at the famous Lung Lek just around the corner from the hotel. Unfortunately we were a little too bright and early and they were still setting up!  Next door though there was another place that was already up and running so we had some dumplings and bowl of delicious noodles there. The dumplings were “same same but different”….still dumplings but kind of the sensation of comparing flour tortillas with corn tortillas…fundamentally they are the same but really completely different. How’s that for ambiguity!!!!  We didn’t have much time to linger before it was time to head to the train station for our journey to Sukhothai.

Once at the station we checked the white board that lists the delays. Our train (which started in Bangkok) was listed as half an hour late so not too bad!! By the end it was 40 minutes late but the time passed really quickly with people watching and general chatter.
Second class was certainly quite deluxe! We had comfortable seats, air-conditioning (that wasn’t frigid), and even a cold welcome juice that was a throwback to birthday parties at McDonalds and their “orange juice”!! The biggest surprise of all however was the lunch that was served – noodle soup and chicken curry!

The journey to Phitsanulok was under 4 hours and we maintained our 40 minute delay so didn’t lose any more time. Once at Phitsanulok we grabbed a tuk tuk to the old bus station to catch our bus to Sukhothai. Upon leaving the train station there is a list of tuk tuk destinations with prices so it is easy to know what to expect. As four people we paid 80 baht I think for the trip. This was the smallest tuk tuk yet so the big bags had to go on the roof….without being tied down!! With everything being open though the guys kept a hand on the cargo during the sharp turns!!!

At the bus station we bought our tickets at the window (being led there by a lady who turned out to be the conductor on our bus). We were certainly overcharged with the 50 baht fee but we weren’t about to start counting pennies! There were two berths on opposite sides with Sukhothai as the destination so I set out to try and nail down which one we should be at. It wasn’t very successful but my tourist look prompted a couple from Spain to ask me if we were on the same bus – safety in numbers!!!!!  As it turned out we were the only foreigners on the bus!  Team Spain!!

The bus ride was an experience in itself. The back door was wide open so Carlos tried to close it a bit since our bags were all piled right across from it. Not long after, the conductor lady came and opened it again!  However, Carlos thought that she closed it properly and when he went back to rearrange one of the bags he moved around with astonishing confidence and agility. I was gobsmacked that he wasn’t even holding on with his free hand. Eventually he realized that the door was open and couldn’t believe it!!!! Too funny!

We pulled into New Sukhothai an hour later at 3:30 pm and were whisked away in a tuk tuk truck to the old city where our hotel was located. We were staying at Thai Thai Sukhothai and it was lovely! The only thing it was missing to be perfect was a pool. The staff were really friendly and rooms very nicely appointed and comfortable. The hotel is about 1 km from the historic park so we rented scooters to zip around with ease. It took a little convincing to get me on board but in the end I gave in and I’m so glad it did! It was so much fun! It was 300 baht (7 €) for 24 hours.

We went to a neighboring hotel (Sinvana?) for a pre-dinner Chang. This was the most expensive beer by far at over a hundred baht each (a whopping 2.40 €!!) Ridiculous! Needless to say we got out of there quickly! We took our scooters for a test drive into the old town for dinner. We had some fresh coconut water and some standard noodle and rice dishes.

Before coming away we had read about how the water provided by hotels and often restaurants is called “drinking water” and is stripped of everything but the H2O it seems! We have really noticed that we feel much more dehydrated than on any other trip since unless you buy mineral water from a 7-11 you aren’t giving your body anything to work with. So coconut water is our new best friend to get a boost of electrolytes!!!

The guys dropped the gals off at the hotel and then went on a quest for petrol which turned out to be easier said than done!!! Especially in the dark!! They survived attack dogs, blank looks when asking directions, and in the end the pumps themselves and finally made it back to the bungalows!!! It was then straight to bed since we had a 5:15 wake up call to see the sunrise over the temples!!!

Needless to say, the wake up call came waaaay too quickly! Haha! But wow was it ever worth it! We weren’t exactly sure how to get into the park (since it was still technically closed) so it took us a little longer than needed to get in place at our temple of choice – Wat Tra Phang Ngoen. The sunrise itself wasn’t very spectacular but the cool temperature and exclusive access more than made up for any initial disappointment in the lighting!  Half an hour after sunrise we got about 3 minutes of amazing light as the sun broke through the clouds – magic!!!

We rambled around for a bit and then moved on to one of the most popular temples, Wat Mahathat. There was still no one else in the park so it was fabulous to have it all to ourselves. The first people wandered in around 7 am and while the number of people grew steadily you could never claim to describe it as crowded at any point. We set up the tripod for a photo of us and our amazing scooters by the lagoon.

We ducked into Wat Si Sawai which is known for its khmer-style towers and offerings in the roots of an ancient tree. This was very peaceful.

The next temple on our list before going back to the hotel for breakfast was Wat Sa Si. This one is famous for the Standing Buddha that touches the Sitting Buddha when looking at the right angle. It also sits on a little island that is reached by bridge. The groundskeepers were working hard clearing some grass so it was a hive of activity.

We did a few victory laps of the area on our scooters to take videos and photos while on the move!! Finally three hours after sunrise we returned to the hotel for a well deserved breakfast!! After a quick turn around we were back on the road heading to the northern zone of the park. There are three zones that each require a 100 baht entrance fee: the central where we saw the sunrise (and didn’t pay since the park wasn’t open yet!), the north, and the west.

Our first stop was at Wat Phra Phai Luang which also has a khmer-style tower. The most famous temple in the northern zone is Wat Si Chum which houses the enormous seated Buddha that peeks through the temple opening. It was truly astounding! Naturally it was the most congested place we had encountered since the space is quite small, but it is difficult to only take a quick look since the sight is so spellbinding.

Next we motored further out of town to the west to see some of the forest temples. Wat Saphan Hin was first and involved a climb up to the temple. There were steps and it wasn’t too bad! At the top are Standing and Sitting Buddhas looking out over the land and ancient city. You can’t make out individual temples but the view is lovely to take in.

As we descended it started to rain!!! Noooo! Rain is not easy on a scooter!!!! 🙂  We waited it out a half an hour and finally got back on the road. We saw a few temples from the road but the other one that we explored more closely was Wat Chedi Ngam. You reach this one through a forest path and it was very cool! The setting really adds to the feeling of adventure!

By now it was time for lunch so we continued to the little strip of restaurants and had our feast. The food was pretty standard from place to place and while our meals were not the best we’d ever eaten, they were still completely satisfying and tasty! Afterwards we went back to the hotel to have a little rest and gear up for sunset.

Our plan for sunset was to return to Wat Mahathat and the lagoon for the famous sunset photo. We took a quick detour to Wat Chang Lom near the hotel for a look at the elephant statues around the chedi. I was already getting excited for the elephants in Chiang Mai!!!!

As we were entering the central zone after closing time, we didn’t have to pay! Again! And remarkably there was really no one watching the sunset. We anticipated crowds of people at the lagoon! I guess we’re the only people don’t pay attention to the opening hours of the park! It has to be said for the record that the gate is open but the ticket booth is closed – so we aren’t even jumping any fences!!!!

We had another wander around the temple as the sun set. Unfortunately once again there wasn’t really any spectacular light but as with the sunrise, it was just magic to be there!

Our luck continued when night fell and they started testing the lights for a light show that was being held the next day. We hung around and saw Wat Mahathat lit up in all its glory. Very cool!

With darkness upon us, there was only one option to do: eat! And get ready for the next stage of the adventure: tomorrow’s bus to Chiang Mai!!

And so the “real” adventure begins with our first foray outside of the city as we make our way north!! We had a potential train schedule from the internet (potential only because I kept reading that schedules are so optional here in Thailand!) The site I found was www.railway.co.th/checktime and as far as I could see, the schedule was accurate.

We decided to take the 8:20 train to Ayutthaya from Hua Lamphong station in Bangkok. A taxi to the station was 60 B although the driver first offered us the low low fixed price of 150 B!!!! Since we had just taken a taxi from near the station in Chinatown the day before, we knew that there was no way we were paying that!!!! We asked him to put on the meter and when he said no and we said OK next taxi please, he changed his mind! So the lesson here coincides with everything I have read about taxis in Bangkok – always use the meter!!

We made it to the station and had the tickets bought in no time. We were first offered 2nd class tickets at around 900 B for the four of us (can’t remember exactly) but I asked about 3rd class and we made away like bandits in the night with a charge of 80 B for all of us!!!! That’s 0.47€/0.69¢ each instead of about 6€/$8 each.  For a two hour train ride! The trick with 3rd class is that you don’t have an assigned seat so you might have to stand and there is no air conditioning. We did however have soft seats which was a big surprise! We also were able to sit the whole time. The train left on time but ended up being “only” 40 minutes late into Ayutthaya.

The station at Ayutthaya was well equipped with luggage storage, advanced booking office, toilets, etc. And tuk tuks! We went ahead and bought our tickets for the next day to Phitsanulok where we would then take a bus to Sukhothai. This time we sprung for the 2nd class tickets since the journey was listed as almost 4 hours. Once we were organized we set out in a tuk tuk for Baan Kong Hotel. It cost us 100 B with no negotiation.

Baan Kong is right across the road from Wat Ratchaburana so ideally situated for exploring the central area of temples. The man on the desk was so nice and his English was quite good so we got lots of information from him (mainly helping me locate my list of temples to see on the map!) We also signed up for a private longboat trip around the island around sunset time. It was either going to be 200 B each to join a group or 1000 B to just get our own boat so we opted for the latter. Our bungalows were brand new (four weeks old) and great! Pretty basic but comfortable and really all you need!

Our first temple was our neighbour Ratchaburana. The most notable feature here was the tall tower that you could climb. Inside the tower was a bat cave!!! It was so freaky to see the bats flying around and hear them. We didn’t really venture too far into that area!!

We skipped over Wat Mahathat in the hope that there would be fewer people towards the end of the day when day trips would already be on their way back to Bangkok. Amazingly though, from the road you can see the famous Buddha head encased in tree roots.

From there we crossed the big park to Wihan Phra Mongkhon Bophit and marveled at the giant Buddha inside.

Next door is Wat Phra Si Samphet which is distinctive with its three chedis.

By now it was time to start heading back to Wat Mahathat so that we didn’t run out of time. There were still enough people around but as with all the temples, a little patience usually wins out in the end for photos. The Buddha head in the roots really was fascinating to see, especially because there were so few statues with heads that it was a bit different to see a head without the body. Its location was quite surprising to me since all of the pictures I had ever seen of it were really close up so it was neat to see the tree itself.

Next on the agenda was a bite to eat before the boat trip. We went to Malakor on the corner of our street.

The boat trip started at 4 pm with a tuk tuk ride to the night market area where we caught the boat. We motored around the moat/river clockwise and stopped at 3 temples with 20 minutes in each. The first was a new temple, Wat Phanan Choeng. And as is the trend, there was a huge Buddha inside. Fascinating!

The next stop was Wat Phutthai Sawan. This had Buddhas all around the perimeter and then towers in the middle. This trip turned out to be the ultimate test for us in that we only had 20 minutes to take pictures! We are usually very slow about the process (just ask poor Virginia who has to wait around for us!) So this felt like a sprint!

The third temple was our favorite of the day: Wat Chaiwatthanaram. It was khmer-style so had that Angkor aura about it. The sun was just about to set and the area was so peaceful even with the boatloads of people running around!

We then boated around the rest of the island and ended up back at the night market. We had a beer to quench our thirst while we pondered the food options. Meanwhile mother nature was hard at work building up a rain storm that would last over an hour and scutter our plans for market food. We eventually abandoned the area in a tuk tuk and went back to Malakor to eat since we knew we could stay dry. The hotel actually left umbrellas at our bungalow doors which was a nice touch!

Our three days in Bangkok followed a general format that we settled into quite easily: breakfast nearby, tourist trail, lunch, massage, pool, dinner, bed. Our hotel, Casa Nithra, was in the old side of the city about 15 minutes walk to Khao San Road (for lack of a better landmark – more about that later!) There were plenty of great restaurants in the surrounding streets that varied from super-local to nice tourist friendly (ie with air conditioning!) And then of course all the street stalls. Hunger was never an issue! We did find a favourite place that we went to a few times. We nicknamed it El Niño since there was a hilarious kid serving us. Everyone is so nice and we are definitely enjoying our food!

In terms of the tourist trail we concentrated on the old area since we’ll have time in the new part at the end of our trip. From the hotel we walked to the river and walked along it as far as we could then deviated to the the big park that leads to the Royal Palace. Bangkok is all decorated in preparation for the Queen’s birthday on August 12. It is also Mother’s Day. In the park there was a big stage set up and they were rehearsing for the celebration. We saw the cutest kids doing a traditional dance.

From the Royal Palace area we took the ferry across the river (3 B) to Wat Arun and saw that temple area. I’m not sure of the name of the Wat that is beside Wat Arun but it was a really peaceful introduction to Thai temples.

Wat Arun was much more crowded but still cool.  The steps up were crazy so I only went to the first level!! The temple was much more colourful than I imagined it with all the porcelain bits.

We then crossed back over on the ferry and saw Wat Pho and the reclining Buddha in all its glory. Wow. Seriously amazing!

We were pretty hot and sticky by this point so we hopped in a taxi back to the hotel (50 B) and hit the pool! It is on the rooftop of the hotel so great views and a very pleasant cooling breeze. In fact we were chilled when we got out!  Watching the sun set from up there was great. In fact we never did make it to any other sunset spots these days. The hotel is great (no breakfast included and the one on offer was waaaay overpriced at 250 B per person but with all the options on the doorstep that is more of an advantage than a disadvantage!) It’s a new hotel so everything is new and modern.

Day 2 had us in a taxi first thing in the morning to the Royal Palace (43 B). Even though it had just opened at 8:30 it was still crawling with people and very hot!!! The sun was shining and we had blue skies! The palace area was spectacular. Everything was so colorful and vibrant against the backdrop of the blue sky. We spent a good two hours exploring all that we could before finally retreating to cool down with a mango shake!

Refreshed, we set out on foot to Wat Suthat and the Giant Swing. We really found the temples to be fascinating and the devoutness of the people inspiring.

After the Giant Swing we went to the Golden Mount which is nearby. We were honestly left a little neutral from the experience but it is an easy climb up and worth a look for the views.

We hopped a taxi home (50 B) and had our first lunch with El Niño. We also had our first downpour of rain! Luckily all it meant for us was that we could order dessert! The fried banana…..oh.my.!!!!

Then it was time to see what this massage thing is all about!!! We actually just did back, shoulders, and head for 250 B on our street. It was a good experience with only a few strange contortions thrown in!! The four of us were in a row and we must have made quite the sight!!!!

This was the night we decided to check out Khao San Road. We have never felt so old!!!! Just one party after the other and we definitely weren’t exposing enough skin!!!! We walked the length of the street and got out as fast as we could!!! We retreated to our neighborhood and had a nice peaceful dinner!

We spent our final day touring the khlongs in a longboat. I’m quite sure that we paid too much (700 B each for 1.5 hours in our own boat) but we just couldn’t be bothered to either barter it down or find another departure point!

The canal life was really interesting. And terrifying when we saw the enormous lizards (more like crocodiles) that were swimming below us! Enormous!!!!! We stopped at the Taling Chan floating market. Everything looked delicious but we were still quite full from breakfast (I have to stop eating these massive rice soups!!)

After the longboat we grabbed the orange flag bus/boat to go to Chinatown.  We went with the cheap/local option so it was pretty crowded but it did the trick!  We were on the right side of the boat to see Wat Arun as we motored by.

Once we arrived, it felt like we had gone back in time to our trip to China!  We wandered the market lined sois and marvelled at the Canadian cherries – for real?

Finally hunger got the better of us and we found a great place Hua Sen Hong to indulge in our Chinese duck love. In the cabinets there were packages of “Birds Nests” for sale. We asked about them since they were insanely expensive or at least they appeared to be unless we were reading the labels wrong. From what we could tell, they put them in soups. I just asked google and they are indeed bird’s nests that average $2500 per kilo. Yowzas!!!!

This day’s afternoon massage activity of choice was a foot massage. I was quite reluctant since I’m just getting over tendonitis in my ankle but it was great. A lot of the points that she touched in the ankle area were exactly those that the doctor did in Madrid and it didn’t hurt so all was good! She did leave bruises on my calves though!!! 200 B for a hour.

There were fireworks tonight for the Queen’s birthday but it was raining! We didn’t try to see them (although we did see some right from our hotel window). We hoped that the show in the park was a bit earlier in the evening so that they didn’t get too wet!

And that was Bangkok! Overall we enjoyed it and thought the traffic and getting around would be so much worse. Being a holiday on Tuesday we suspect that the city was actually quite empty since its traffic infamy can not be based on anything that we experienced! Looking forward to exploring the bright and shiny side at the end of our trip!

EDIT:  Traffic in Bangkok is ATROCIOUS!!!!!  At the end of our trip we experienced the legendary traffic jams in all their glory.  45 minutes to turn at one intersection!!  Holiday weekends are the way to go for sure!  🙂

We made it to Bangkok!  And as it turned out, we arrived in high style. It seems that I made a mistake in my previous post when I said that we were flying in economy on the A380 from Dubai to BKK — yes! We were upgraded to business class! There were at least 11 of us who were given the golden ticket! (Note: it wasn’t actually golden….!)

But first let me comment on the first leg of our journey. Everything was perfectly on time leaving Madrid and we had a relatively comfortable flight. Our route brought us over Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Iran before crossing the Persian Gulf to the UAE. Dinner was good (even though they had run out of the better sounding lamb curry and we had to make do with chicken) and then settled in for about 4 hours of sleep.  It was only a 6.5 hr flight so between take off/landing and dinner there really wasn’t much time for shut eye.  I witnessed a spectacular sunrise over Iran – wow!

But even more of a wow was getting off the plane in Dubai. We didn’t have a Jetway direct to the terminal so we had to walk outside to a bus. At 7:05 AM it was 34°C and humid like you wouldn’t believe! The humidity really surprised us!

And even more of a wow was getting our upgrades an hour later! There was no one going through to the gate so Carlos and I each went to a different lady to show our boarding passes. Carlos was finished first and neither of us could see or hear the other lady so we weren’t sure if we were both upgraded!!! It was quite funny! And now I honestly couldn’t even tell you how long we waited to take off or how long the flight was (well actually I can – 6 hours of bliss!!!!)

We were in the middle with the two seats together. We passed the time before take off by playing with all the buttons while sipping our moet & chandon. Lift off was freaky since you couldn’t see out any window and it felt like the plane was moving soooooo slowly! Once in the air, we had fun with our noise canceling cushy earphones and watched a movie while we waited for lunch. The meal opened up with an impressive plate of Arabian mezze and green salad.

This was followed by a steak for me and curry for Carlos. The curry was delish while the steak was well done but still amazingly tender. We rounded out our meal with chocolate mousse for me and cheesecake with lychee for Carlos.

By this time a good three hours had passed so we decided it was time to check out the lounge. The barman was from Philadelphia and poured us an excellent Patrón tequila and coffee mix for me and a chives regal for Carlos. We stood at the bar chatting and a German couple came along. The husband became our good friend Helmut – as drinking with someone at 37,000 feet makes them an automatic friend! We were part way through our drink when the captain switched on the seatbelt sign. We were asked to take a seat and when we started leaving the lounge, we were directed to the bench seating beside the bar that is equipped with seatbelts! As it turned out, this was the longest stretch of turbulence …. EVER!!! so what could we do but continue drinking??? Over the next 2 hours we had a great laugh! I sort of feel bad for the people in the last row since everyone seemed to be sleeping in the cabin (lay flat and all) and we were all out belly laughing!

Finally with about an hour to go, we were able to return to our seats. This was good because we still had lots to discover. The main thing was the lay flat experience which I forgot to combine with the massage function (silly me). It goes without saying that this was the best flight of our lives!!!

Our welcome to Thailand was in the form of the most hilarious immigration officer. Hilarious but s.l.o.w. for every person that he processed, the guy next to him did 4 or 5 people! On the one hand it was brutal but on the other entertaining once we got through eventually. As it happened, I went through first and our luggage carrousel was right beside the booth so I was able to watch both Carlos and the luggage coming off! The bags came off together about  2 minutes later so once Carlos was through, we were off!

We had booked an airport transfer through our hotel, Casa Nithra.  I have to say that even though they are always pricier than the local transport options, this is something that I always arrange when possible. It is always nice to see a friendly face holding a sign with your name when you arrive in a foreign place. And most importantly in a place like bangkok, they know where the hotel is!!!

Before we knew it, we were at the hotel and reunited with Javi and Virginia. It turns out that Javi was upgrade too with emirates but Virginia wasn’t!!!! They had booked their tickets in two reservations so were in the system separately. Nooooo! We exchanged all our travel stories over some pad thai, soup, pad sieu (bad spelling!) And naturally a few large beers to officially kick off the holiday! Then it was back to the hotel for a long awaited sleep!