Thailand: Photos from my Iphone

I know I have already posted about my time spent volunteering in Thailand, but my mom keeps asking me when I will post about the rest of my trip. So in this post I'll be sharing some photos I took with some notes and commentary about my trip dispersed throughout.


Although it is nearly 10pm in late December, as I step out of the cab at Don Muang station, Thailand greets me with a smothering blanket of humidity. Surely this gesture is intended as a welcoming embrace, but I can't peel my layers off fast enough  (talk about a warm greeting!). According to my ticket my train should arrive at 10:20pm, but in reality I'm sitting at the station over an hour after my supposed departure time before I finally hear the low rumble that announces the trains imminent approach.

After depositing my belongings on my bunk I make my way to the food car and am greeted by Christmas lights and bros. From here the heat of Thailand is no longer overbearing, but I'm still glad I opted for the first class AirCon car. 

The view from the food car in the morning (morning used quite liberally as I slept in until around noontime). Those cars you see ahead are the lowest fare seats as you move back they become nicer and more expensive my first class (caboose)  fare was a staggering  900.00 baht, or just over $30.  But put in perspective, this is more than I spent on feeding myself on an average day.

This being my first overnight/long distance rail trip I'm fairly impressed with the experience. While I ended up stuck on an upper berth which doesn't afford me a window view or much upright seated room, I otherwise can't complain too much, it is certainly much nicer than the other seating options I passed on my way to and from the food car . Upon plucking up the courage to use the toilet (a 13 hour train ride means it can't be avoided) I was surprised to realize not only were the toilets cleaner than expected (of course, not up to Japanese standards) but also that the view my upper bunk lacked was more than made up for by the views from the bathroom. Not only could I observe the passing scenery from a small window, but I also got an excellent view of the tracks whizzing by below me as I whizzed down upon it.. 

I didn't take this photo, but this is an exact image of my train toilet experience.
photo courtesy of: http://gobackpacking.com/woman-guide-using-squat-toilets/ (this is also a very insightful article if you are unfamiliar with using a squat toilet).

Most of my stay while in Thailand, volunteering aside, was spent in Chiang Mai, the largest city in Northern Thailand. Being not particularly partial to very large cities, I greatly preferred Chiang Mai to Bangkok.

Alongside being famous for its temples, nature, and wildlife, Chiang Mai is known to host some of the most exuberant Night Markets in Thailand. There is the nightly Night Bazaar, the daily Food Market, the Night Market on Sundays, Walking Streets dispersed sporadically throughout the week, and of course the New Years Count Down and Night Market. Nearly everyday I was in Chiang Mai there was a night market going on.

I met these school girls about to perform a traditional dance while wandering through and sampling the different food stalls. At this point I hadn't found my favorite mango sticky rice stall.

Here I am snacking on some lemon flavored Ancient Ice cream. I'm not sure what makes it ancient, but it came highly recommended by a group of tourist I met on my train ride to Chiang Mai.  It was tasty, and more importantly it kept me relatively cool in the over 80 degree heat.

Here I am posing in front of Tha Phae Gate. Chiang Mai was originally surrounded by a wall  and moat that fenced in the city with 4 gates located at the cardinal points. The wall has since been torn down, but the foundations are still in place and serve as a visual cue that you are crossing over into the Old city. Tha Phae Gate is the most famous of the gates and is the starting point of the night markets held along the main streets of the old city. In Thailand appropriate attire for females consist of shirts that cover the shoulders and no cleavage(!) and bottoms that go down to your knees (at least. At some temples you must wear pants to enter). This can be challenging when trying to stay cool, this day I sweating it out in 90 degree weather.

In Thailand they celebrate the New Year not once, not twice, but THREE times! The Gregorian New Year, Chinese New Year, and the Thai New Year (Songkran). Here I am putting up a prayer at a Thai temple. These all serve as decorations for the New Year celebration. In preparation for the new year the monks were busy wrapping the temples in a yellowish/golden cloth for goodluck, I think.You write your wish and name on your Zodiac sign. Because I am born in the year of the snake and this is the year of the snake it is supposed to be a very lucky year for me. 

Doi Suthep Temple. The grandest temple in Chiang Mai. Being an idiot, and without time to choose a better day, I went on New Years Eve day, probably the most crowded day to visit this already popular temple. 

Khao Soy, the regional specialty of Chiang Mai and some Iced Tea (Thai style, lots of sugar, that's why the Thai are so sweet!). 

Mango sticky rice I made at Thai cooking class. Delicious. 

After a week of volunteering and a week of sightseeing in Chiang Mai it was off to Bangkok!

                              

                 The view of Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn) on the approach from the  water taxi. The attempt to catch the water taxi was an adventure, because if you wander onto the wrong port it'll cost you 100x's the cost to catch the longboats. They cost about 1300 baht (after haggling) the water taxi, a cool 15 baht. This is the most stunning temple I saw while in Thailand, the details are amazing, the entire temple is covered completely covered in statues and etchings.  It is a bit reminiscent of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, but more colorful and elaborate. I'll add more photos onto my flickr soon and link to it so you can see, but you can click that link for the meantime to get an idea.

                                     

          Alex and I celebrating our one year anniversary sans our wedding rings at the Thai Grand Palace. haha. No, in reality, I met Alex at the hostel I was staying at while I waited to meet up with my friend Ciara. But everyone kept assuming we were a couple so we started going along with it and telling people we were celebrating our one year anniversary, which got us many congratulations (which was the source of my laughter in this photo). 

On our last night in Thailand we decided to wine (more like fresh fruit cocktails, the passion fruit one was to die for!) and dine at the rooftop bar and restaurant Sirocco as made famous by The Hangover II

Roisin, Me, and Ciara with our diligent attendant Noppadol. He was so sweet and chuckled at Ciara because of her fear of heights.

In the evening we got a party tuktuk, met a new Thai friend, and even stopped by the infamous Khao San Road. Although we joked about going to see a ping-pong show, we DID NOT! Family members, don't look this up. I was so confused earlier when people who were volunteering with me made some comments about going/not going to see a ping pong show. I didn't see what the fuss was about  (on the travel sites it was recommended as something popular to do in Bangkok) until they explained it to me. 

I'll slowly starting uploading my 1000+ (mostly of elephants) photos onto my flickr soon.