Northern Thailand - Chiang Mai

I had always heard great things about Chiang Mai and so I definitely wanted to make it a stop on our trip. The first day, we went ziplining up in the jungle. It was awesome!

The next day, we decided to explore the city so we had the concierge draw us a good map of the best temples (there are over 300 in Chiang Mai) and then we walked that route. We also did a little shopping and of course grabbed some great food. To top it all off, we got a hour long Thai massage for $7 - can you believe it?!

We also rode in our first Tuk-Tuk which was really fun! 

That evening, we decided to sneak into one of the custom tailors that we were seeing everywhere and see if it was worth a try. They said they could do 4 custom button-up shirts for us in 24 hours for a really good price so we got measured and picked out the fabrics.

Afterwards, we had a great dinner on the river and then bought a lantern and released it on the way home. I had always wanted to do this in Thailand so it was just awesome! 

The next day, we went to the Baanchang Elephant Park and spent the day with the elephants. It was such an incredible day! One of the interesting things about this park is that all of the elephants are rescued (from tourist companies that don't take good care of them, the logging industry, etc.) and each elephant has a Mahout that takes care of them. You can tell that they have quite a bond with each other. 

First, they had you change into some Mahout clothes (which turned out to be a good idea because we definitely got messy) and then we got to feed all the elephants bunches and bunches of bananas. 

After that, they taught us a few basic commands which we practiced - up, forward, right, left, and down. It was SOOOO cool! 

Then we went on an hour long ride through the jungle - we were riding bareback on these elephants which was quite an experience! They had given us the largest elephant, too, so he constantly tried to eat during our ride. :) 

Finally, we walked them over to the pond and got to give them a bath which was really great and super fun, especially because he kept spraying us. :) 

That night, we went out for dinner and also checked out the Night Bazaar. We picked up our custom shirts - which turned out really nice and got some mango and sticky rice (we were seriously addicted!). Then we headed back to the hotel to rest up because we were heading to Phuket the next morning. 

Chiang Mai was one of those places that we realized very quickly that we did not want this to be the last time that we visited - it's such a great city with beautiful scenery, extremely nice people, and a very relaxed vibe. We just loved it! I hope we head there again sometime soon! If you're thinking of going to Thailand, make sure to include a stop in Chiang Mai!

Bangkok - Sight Seeing!

The next day, we went down to the water ferry to go to see a few of the famous Bangkok sights! The ferry is funny because you are crammed on there with lots of other people and then you travel down the river to various stops in the city. Traveling alongside you in the river are these river taxis that are long, slender boats that have a giant engine in them - very iconic Thailand.

We went out onto the front of the boat to take pictures and saw the Temple of Dawn which was really cool!

As we got off the boat on our way to Wat Pho (the Reclining Buddha), we passed several street vendors selling freshly squeezed juices and fruits. We got some fresh pomegranate juice and some fresh pineapple which were both delicious! We walked to Wat Pho, got our tickets and went to see the world famous Reclining Buddha. I don't even know how to describe what I thought when I was there but something about it felt magical. It was so impressive - the big, gold statue was just so cool.

The feet were engraved with mother of pearl, too which was beautiful.

Afterwards, we walked over to The Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha. As we were walking in, they told us that we would not be able to go in if we were showing our knees. They had sarongs and pants for rent so Ryan and I rented a pair so we could go into the temples. These snazzy additions to our outfits certainly added to our pictures (see what I mean in the pic below?).

On our way back to the ferry, we passed some stalls selling food. I passed an older woman selling mango and sticky rice which is my absolute favorite! It was 50 Baht (about $1.60) and it was as fresh as it gets. She peeled the mango in front of me, pulled out some sticky rice, covered it coconut sauce and nuts and put it in a to go container. It was hands down the BEST mango and sticky rice I had ever had!

In the afternoon, we headed to the Chatauchack Weekend Market; it was about an hour away on the Sky Train which was a pretty awesome public transport system - complete with air conditioning which was very refreshing as Thailand is super hot and humid! The market is absolutely gigantic - it's over 35 acres and it has anything you could possibly want. We spent quite a bit of time wandering around and found a few souvenirs that we liked. The best part of our afternoon was meeting up with Ryan's friend, May. She is from Thailand and had worked with Ryan in Houston. We had the best luck because she was going home to see her family during the same time that we were there, so she met us at the market and then took us to her favorite restaurant. It was great to see her and to eat such delicious, authentic Thai food!! :)

The next day, we took it easy and walked around the city a bit and went to a great restaurant for dinner. It was called the Blue Elephant and the food was delicious!

Early the next morning, we headed up to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand...

Bangkok Muay Thai Boxing

I have spent quite some time dreaming of going to Thailand one day and here we were getting on a plane to head to Thailand and spend 10 glorious days there! Afterwards, we were going to spend 4 days in Cambodia which I was also super excited about - I had seen pictures of Angkor Wat and had always wanted to check it out! I was so incredibly excited and couldn't wait to get there!! Our first stop on our trip was Bangkok, Thailand; we had 2 days there and a lot to see. Our flight ended up being delayed so we got there at dinner time, but that was totally fine.

View from the plane on our way there! 

We got to our hotel and immediately headed out for our first Thai food adventure. We already knew that we loved Thai food so we were especially excited to try it in Thailand! We went to this cute little place near our hotel and Ryan ordered Pad Thai and I ordered Red Curry (these are our all time favorite dishes!) and they were delicious! I do have to admit that the Red Curry was a little spicy for me - I forgot that "Thai" hot is above my threshold and so Ryan graciously offered me his Pad Thai - I am blessed with such an awesome husband!!

Afterwards, we went to Muay Thai Boxing and that was quite an experience - we had ring side seats to the evenings' fights. It was particularly crazy because the fighters were all around 100 pounds. The main event were two fighters who were 138 pounds and those were the heaviest guys of the night -  very different from any boxing events in the US! What made it so interesting was the ritual involved in it. First of all, there were signs around saying that the boxing ring was considered a sacred place and women could not touch it.

Also, each boxer would kneel before they entered the ring and then walk around the ring and perform their own ritual. It entailed punching each corner, and then performing a dance-like walk in the middle of the ring.

During the entire event, this band was playing non-stop - it was exactly the type of music you would expect at an event like this. This guy was rocking out on the oboe for every fight!

Every boxer had a group of his friends/family cheering him on standing behind his corner of the ring...it really made it feel like a local event (despite all of the foreigners sitting around the ring. :) ).

There were about 10 fights during the night and most of them were about 100 - 115 pounds (smaller than me!!). These guys really had no mercy with each other...it was crazy to watch! It was certainly a fun first night in such an awesome country!