Sunday, January 3, 2016

From Thailand back to the States!


It's hard to believe it's been nearly a month since we landed back in the States. Things have been non-stop thanks to all the holidays, but I want to somewhat document the final month of our trip in Thailand while I still can! From the Laos border we headed to the Northern Thai town of Chiang Rai. We only went to four towns this time around, and spent about a week in each. We had never been to Chiang Rai before but really enjoyed our time there. The majority of what we did in Thailand consisted of shopping and eating, but as Thailand has some of the best food and night markets our time was well spent. Chiang Rai had a couple really awesome night markets, they were sprawling and had a lot of really interesting stands. People made everything from their own bath bombs to sandals to repurposed hoodies from the thrift store. We were out late almost every night wandering through the streets with the hundred of locals looking over all the things available for sale. We spent about 5 days shopping and eating in Chiang Rai before heading down to Chiang Mai. We had amazing timing in Chiang Mai as it just so happened that we were there during the weeklong (or so) Loy Krathong/Yi Peng festival --- better known as the lantern festival. It's one of Thailand's most well known festivals and its absolutely stunning to see. For one night during the festival anyone can buy a lantern, light it, make a wish and watch it float up into the atmosphere. We ended up lighting two lanterns -- the first one soared, but we ended up losing track of it around a tree (there are probably thousands floating at once) so we decided to light another. We held this one and let it burn and burn until it nearly started smoking, but it never took off. It struggled a bit and went right into a short tree, luckily we didn't start a fire! Its actually amazing nothing treacherous seems to happen, with thousands a fire-lit lanterns floating in the sky and then slowly making their way back down landing in tress, parks and the middle of streets. Its really a unique sight and an amazing experience to take in - words can barely describe it, you must look at the photos. Another aspect of the festival was the homemade hot air balloon contest. This happened in the daylight and the lanterns got more and more complicated as time went on. They went from classic hot air balloons to ghosts to Hello Kitty to Spongebob (pronounced spunkybap by the Thai commentator). The whole festival is so sun and unique and its so great to see everyone getting so into the celebrations. It was another instance that convinced that asians just love any excuse to party and celebrate - they really have some of the most impressive celebrations I've ever seen. Each night, for three nights in a row, there was a huge parade as well - which included Thai music and dancing accompanying all the floats made by different community groups. There were beauty contests and performances and food everywhere! We spent a little over a week in Chiang Mai enjoying the festival and then exploring the town. I had a great Thai massage by a lady with a little shop tucked away in the back of the local market (halfway through she insisted on getting her nail polish remover and tending to my chipped nails) and we enjoyed checking out the multiple night markets/bazaars Chiang Mai had to offer. They have some of the biggest in all of Thailand, and they do get exhausting, but we were on a mission shopping on finding Christmas gifts and enjoyed market after market. In addition, they have some amazing food stands! One highlight was the cowboy hat lady, made famous by Anthony Bourdain, she boils pig parts all day and serves it up to you with rice and veggies and its delicious - and she's still cheaper than all the stands surrounding her trying to steal some of her traffic and rip them off. Funny how often that seems to happen... From Chiang Mai we headed up to the mountain/hippie/backpacker loved town of Pai. We weren't sure if we were going to check it out or not but we missed it last time and it is a somewhat famous backpacker town. There are drugs and clubs and western food and tourists lazing around in hammocks everywhere, but its also a beautiful town with a nice feel. We found a nice family owned place to stay and got our own peaceful bungalow overlooking the mountains and rice fields. They served breakfast every morning and there was a great community of fellow travelers, luckily our place attracted people who were there to just relax and have some good conversation and we had lovely breakfasts and talks with our neighbors from Britain,France, the Netherlands, etc. We didn't do much but relax and enjoy our surroundings in Pai, we rented bikes to explore and enjoyed our time - in addition to eating and checking out the night markets of course. From Pai our last stop in Thailand and the trip was Bangkok. We took an overnight bus there and were a little thrown off to be in a huge city again - Laos didnt have much, but after seeing a lady pop a squat in the middle of the sidewalk we were in the mindframe of dealing with big cities again. We happened to be in Bangkok on Dec. 5, the Kings birthday and another major holiday in Thailand. The locals really seem to love their King, everyone was wearing the shirt honoring his birthday and we experienced another big celebration - fireworks, performances, food stands, people celebrating everywhere. It was an interesting thing to see, people really happy and celebrating thier leader - especially in contrast to how the President is thought of in America. We spent a few days around the famous Khao San rd. area of Bangkok, explored the surrounding areas on the river ferry to return to the blind massage place we visited on our last trip 5 years ago and then decided to move into a quieter area of Bangkok and get out of backpacker haven. We found a small place to stay more in central Bangkok surrounded by small shops and stands and were happy to feel more immersed in 'asia' for the last few days of our trip. Bangkok has really advanced in the last few years - the skytrain and subway are as nice and Seoul and the numerous malls are fancy as well. Randomly enough in a huge mall we ran into an American we met in Laos, who was permanently working and living there. It was very random to run into him in a huge mall in Bangkok, especially as he is not on the same "traveller loop" as we were. He was in Bangkok as his wife was expected to go into labor soon and Laos is not the place to do it. According to him the treatment in Laos for anything is a saline drip - so good luck if you break a limb there. He was at the mall looking for a gift for his wife, so we spent an hour together in H&M while i helped him pick out some things i thought were cute. Hopefully she was happy! In Bangkok we soaked up all the Thai food we could and did all the last shopping we could fit in - figuring it would be smarter to buy anything we might need int he next year while we were still in Asia, especially thailand. As Thailand is one of our favorite countries it was a great place to end - and definitely gave us second thoughts about returning home so soon! Nearly nine months later, ha! From Bangkok we flew back to Manila, and then hopped on our flight back - complete with a full day layover in Seoul. Seeing Seoul in December was great - it gets really cold and Korean food lends itself great to that. We enjoyed spicy soups and steaming dumplings on the open air markets. Of course we had to spend one final night in the jjimjilbang, the ultimate refresher for before and after flights. I got the last thing on my travel bucket list checked off - getting scrubbed down the old Korean ladies in the spas. Lets just say after 9 months of traveling and collecting asian gunk I really needed it! Our flight back felt so quick and before I knew it we were in SF and on the Bart (kind ghetto even by asian standards!) and then reunited with my cousin Alex who picked us up, and then aunts and uncles and brothers and friends and parents! Its weird being back to everything that instantly feels so normal again, its almost like you never really left. Im definitely enjoying being back and having a solid place to sleep, but even after only a month i am starting to miss some of the life and excitement and chaos of Asia! It ws an amazing trip and we saw and experienced so much - but when five people and a chicken all riding one on motorbike doesn't seem to phase you anymore I think it is a good time to come home! Onto the adventure here, back in real life!