December 12 - December 15, 2014. Bedford, N.S. to Auburn, Alabama

  Driving through the Northeastern United States in winter is unpleasant at best with most of the unpleasantness coming from the unpredictable weather. On days one and two of this trip we encountered snow and rain which made the driving challenging. Another complaint I have is about the condition of the Interstate through Massachusetts and Connecticut. All that aside, we made it as far as Harrisburg, PA on day two. Listening to and singing along with Christmas music while driving helped pass the long hours on the road.

Fortunately on day three we drove in fair weather and on highways in good condition, ending up just outside Knoxville, Tennessee for the night. I always enjoy the scenery through Virginia. As I was admiring the rolling hills I noticed a lone Santa in a sleigh on an enormous green lawn; such an unusual site where one would normally see horses and cows.

         

Day four was a breeze. We left Knoxville, Tennessee and decided to avoid Atlanta by driving to Auburn on state highways instead of the interstate. It was very pleasant with the temperature rising as the morning wore on. By the time we reached Auburn it was around 18 degrees. It felt good to outside without a hat, gloves, heavy sweater and vest.

Monday & Tuesday, November 17-18, 2014. Homeward Bound.

There were many good byes said on Monday with our group of 10 women who spent the last 12 days together all heading off in different directions.  What a great group!

                           

Our songtaew arrived at noon to take us to the Chiang Mai Airport for our 2:50 departure. We traveled with Thai Airways to Bangkok and then transferred to Jet Airways and flew to Delhi, then Brussels and then Toronto. It was Air Canada from Toronto to Halifax.

Thai Airways was great. However, I cannot say the same for a Jet Airways. Jet is a low cost, Star Alliance carrier based in India. Leg room was limited,the flight attendants didn't smile and were rather abrupt and worst of all, many of the passengers were rude.

 A woman sitting behind me tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to put my seat upright when it was obvious that I was trying to sleep. I watched a man bully a young woman when she was trying to put her bag in the overhead bin. He admonished her, in a very rude tone for moving his bag. If that wasn't enough boarding and exiting was a zoo, a regular free for all. Very few people paid attention to the boarding announcements. Consequently, when the announcement was made for "those traveling with young children or needing assistance" most just pushed ahead. When trying to exit people literally pushed past us as we were getting our carry ons out of the overhead bins.

Needless to say, I will do my best to avoid Jet Airways in the future. 

In spite of the long flights and airport waits; about 40 hours in total, we survived. Quite frankly, I can't wait to get moving again. I so enjoy being retired and on the road.

Sunday, November 16, 2014. Thai Cooking School.

After breakfast we boarded a songtaew and along with chef Sammy, stopped at a market. At the market Sammy showed us the various kinds of rice grown in Thailand and also took us to a booth to see how coconut milk was made from fresh coconuts. From a list we chose the foods we would like to cook and while we roamed the market, Sammy's Organic Cooking School staff gathered up the few needed items that did not grow on Sammy's farm.

    

At the farm we we were introduced to various fresh herbs and spices. We learned about all the fresh ingredients that go into Thai food, such as lemon grass, sweet basil, garlic, ginger, and coconut milk, to name a few.

After doning our aprons, our cooking lesson began with using a mortar and pestle to make curry sauce. We chopped, diced, sliced and ground and pounded. We were then led over to our individual cooking areas where we proceeded to make the first dish of our five course meal. I made hot vegetable soup, green curry, pad Thai, mango salad and banana in coconut milk. All were delicious and such fun to make. 

      

   

In between our first few courses and desert we took a break and relaxed out by the garden. Some of us rested in hammocks while others chose to relax on lounge chairs. Swinging in a hammock while watching rice plants sway in the breeze and listening to birds fly overhead is a great way to relax.

We left Sammy's with very full stomachs and a copy of his cookbook. A cruise on the River Ping in the evening rounded out our day. 

Tomorrow we part company with a wonderful group of women and start the long flights back home.

Friday & Saturday, November 14 & 15, 2024. Walking With Elephants.

We spent most of Friday in a van driving the winding, hilly road from the Fern Resort to BEES (Berm and Emily's Elephant Sanctuary). On the way we did stop to visit a couple of temples. Since this area of Northern Thailand is close to the Burmese border, the temples have a distinct Burmese style. Of particular note were signs that excluded females from entering the alter type areas of the temples.

                       

The views are spectacular in this mountainous area of Thailand. We stopped at a couple of spots just to admire the hills.

        

      

At the end of the day we arrived at a Homestay very close to BEES. All 12 of us slept on thin mattresses on the floor, in the same room. A big plus were the new mosquito nets, while we were just a bit disappointed that the toilet was a squat.

We had breakfast at Bees at 7 am and then followed the elephants along with their mahouts and Berm, Emily and about 10 dogs on their daily walk through the jungle. The two female elephants are retired from the very difficult job of providing tourists with elephant rides. We learned that this practice is  painful for elephants and that the way they are trained to carry people is extremely cruel. Berm and Emily are remarkable people. They have rescued several elephants and are raising funds to rescue more.

     

Walking with these enormous and yet gentle creatures was truly an incredible experience. Watching them as they took down bamboo trees to eat was a sight to behold. Elephants eat constantly and sleep only four hours a night. 

                          

     

We sat on large leaves and ate our lunch in the jungle as we watched the elephants. On our walk back to BEES we spotted a very large snake skin. Our guide said it looked like a king cobra skin. Apparently a king cobra is the only creature besides humans that can kill an elephant. Emily spoke of a baby elephant who died after being attacked by a cobra. Thankfully we didn't see any snakes today.

                             

     

The most fascinating part of our time with these two elephants (one was 56 and the other in her 70's) was feeding and bathing them. The elephant stood perfectly still as we threw buckets of water over her. Feeding her pumpkin and patting her trunk was such a thrill.

                    

                               

     

After our day with the elephants we got into our air conditioned vans and winded our way up and down mountainous hairpin turns for the three hour drive to Chiang Mai. Dinner and shopping at the night market completed a very full day. 

Wednesday &Thursday, November 12 & 13, 2014. Rafting the Pai River.

Our rafting adventure began with a safety talk and reassurance that we had the best guides and top of the line equipment. After being fitted with oars, life vests and helmets we piled into the back of the rafting company's songtaew and headed for the river. At the river, our guides pumped up the three zodiac style boats, loaded in our gear and with four "wild women" and one guide per boat we headed down the river for our two day, 60 km rafting expedition.

                      

Since I know very little about white water rafting, I have no idea what number the water was, but I do know that we saw and experienced white water rapids. The scenery along the way was stunning with thick, lush green jungle dominating the landscape. Creature spotting included numerous gorgeous butterflies, dragonflies, several dark blue kingfishers, a tiny dear and a python.  Unfortunately, we didn't spot any monkeys.

                               

Our guides were excellent. They had us well trained to obey commands like, "go forward", "paddle backwards" and "stop". Taking pictures while on the river was not an option as there was never a time when cameras were guaranteed to stay dry.  

The guides were also our cooks.  Using a very large wok over open flames they prepared a delicious Thai dinner at our riverside camp. The riverside camp was very rustic. We slept on very thin mattresses under mosquito nets in a three sided hut. The toilet, of the squat variety was down a slope which made for challenging trips during the night. 

          

     

         

      

The sun shone brightly for both of the rafting days. It was very hot and yet we managed to get cool when we were deep in a gorge as the sun seemed to hide behind the mountains. It was a wonderful experience; exhilarating and at the same time, very peaceful.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014. Goodbye Sunflower Lodge, Hello Pai.

After another delicious Thai breakfast prepared by Noi and her staff at the Sunflower Lodge, we boarded air conditioned, comfortable vans and headed for our next destination, Pai - Mae Hong Son.

Our first stop was a market to pick up some food for the road trip. The most exotic thing I saw at this market was fried snake. I purchased some mini coconut pancakes and banana chips for the next leg of the journey. We entered a national park and stopped at a viewpoint where the scenery included beautiful trees, flowers and mountains. Many pictures were taken in the brilliant sunshine.

      

       

Our last stop before reaching Pai was at a natural hot spring in the national park. The water temperature rises as you get closer to the source and ranged from about 30 C to 80 C. Needless to say, our group chose one away from the source with a temperature of about 34 C.

At the village of Pai we enjoyed a very late lunch, roamed around for a short while and then boarded our vans and drove to the Phu Pai Resort. It is luxurious here. 

         

We will all rest up tonight for our next adventure: two days of rafting on the Pai River. 

Off the grid we go again. Yippee!

Monday, November 10, 2014. Another Busy Day in Thailand.

The day started with a combination session of yoga and qigong on the deck overlooking the beautiful grounds of The Sunflower Homestay. After breakfast, Noi, our gracious host at the Homestay took a few of us to the village to visit the elementary school. The children are beginning to learn the English alphabet and I felt quite privileged to sit with them and read an alphabet book with them.

        

The school visit was followed by a one hour aromatherapy thai massage which was nothing short of incredible and truly relaxing. Our songtaew picked us up after the massage and drove us to a village where we had a typical Thai lunch of fried rice wrapped in banana leaves, followed by lots of fresh fruit. 

Bike helmets were then handed out and we chose a bike for our four hour bike ride through the beautiful countryside. We pedaled past rice fields, fruit trees, a large reservoir and stopped to take pictures, most notably of a baby water buffalo hanging out with her mom. Frequent stops were necessary as it was a very hot day and a lot of water was necessary.

       

   

On the way back to the Homestay we stopped at a hot spring and bathed under the stars, watching fireflies dance around as we poured the mineral rich water over our weary bodied. Back at the Homestay we had another delicious Thai meal and headed off to bed. It was just another day in paradise.

Saturday and Sunday, November 8 & 9, 2014. Two Days in the Jungle.

Wow! awesome! amazing! fantastic! I couldn't possibly count the number of times those words were used over the past couple of days. Any words I write will not do justice to the wonderful time we are having on this trip, so I will merely give a bit of information along with a few pictures.

                          

Our day started on Saturday morning with a songtaew drive to the start of our two day trek through the jungle north of Chiang Mai. We were told that the terrain would be hilly and indeed there were a lot of "ups"; way more than downs. After all we were hiking on this day to a hillside tribe village where we would spend the night and so up seemed very logical.

           

        

       

We stopped for lunch at a small waterfall where some of us put our feet in the water, while others swam. Lunch was fried rice with vegetables wrapped in banana leaves. Yummy.

We kept on climbing through the jungle led by two Thai guides, Pad and Thai...no kidding that is their names! Pad carried a machete which he used often to cut bamboo out of our path. He also said he had for any wild animals, including snakes. He also used it to get some leaves to make us hats.

The trek through the jungle was about four hours long. We arrived at our location as it got dark. We chose our sleeping spots in the shared, raised enclosed platform. The toilet was in an outhouseAfter a delicious meal cooked by our guides, some went to bed while others sat around a campfire listening to songs sung by one of the villagers.

Breakfast was served at around 7:30 followed by a sale of crafts made by the villagers, beautiful hand woven fabric as well as some carvings and bracelets. We bought a couple of things, took some pictures with the villagers and headed out for our second day of trekking.

Much to our surprise we spotted a couple of elephants coming down the path, guided by their mahouts. Unfortunately, one young elephant did not want to obey his mahout and she headed straight for us. Our tour leader shouted "run" and that is exactly what we did. A couple of people had difficulty getting out of the elephant's way and ended up in the rice field. No one wanted to be in the way of that elephant.

After the elephant episode we continued on our way. After about 4 hours we reached our destination, were picked up by a songtaew and driven to our lunch spot. Lunch was followed by an exciting rid down the river on bamboo rafts. It was exhilarating and refreshing to get wet after the hot hike.

We are now at a beautiful home stay where it felt do good to shower off the trekking grime and get into some clean clothes. Then dinner and bed.

What an amazing two days.

Friday, November 7, 2014. A Very Full Day in Chiang Mai.

Day 2 of our Wild Women Adventure was a full one. We started by spending three hours at Fa Lana Spa, where we had three full hours of spa treatments. The foot massage, Thai massage and aromatherapy massage were the treatments I chose with each treatment lasting one hour. The treatments were far superior than anything I ever experienced elsewhere. It was an extremely rejuvenating experience.

        

We dined at a local vegetarian restaurant before getting in a songtaew (Thai taxi...looks like a small truck) which took us to a hiking trail.

          

        

      

A 30 minute hike up a hill led us to a beautiful temple. Here, our Thai guide told us a bit about Buddhism and monastic life. We then piled in our songtaew again and drove further up the hill to visit another temple where we listened to monks chanting. Fortunately we were able to take pictures and explore the premises. 

                 

The city was extremely busy and so it took us much longer than it normally would to get to our restaurant for dinner. We were served a delicious vegetarian meal and even though everyone was exhausted our stomach's were definitely full as we again boarded the songtaew and headed for the hotel.

We will be hiking in the jungle for the next couple of days and will be without power. Therefore it will be a couple of days before I post again. 

Thursday, November 6, 2014. Rainy Day in Chiang Mai.

We arrived in Chiang Mai after an uneventful day of travel on Wednesday. After a good night's sleep we met some of our fellow adventurers, all here for a 12 day Wild Women Adventure Tour. Among other things we will be hiking, biking rafting, and visiting elephants. Since our adventure doesn't officially start until this evening we joined five others for a walk through part of the city today.

         

Chiang Mai is one of the largest cities in Thailand with a population of over 900,000 in the metropolitan area. It is a charming city, surrounded by mountains and lush countryside. Today's rain no doubt contributed to the lushness. 

Our walk took us through several market areas, across busy streets and along the Ping River. We browsed, stopped for coffee, shopped, stopped for pad Thai at a roadside cart and eventually made our way to the other side of the river. One more stop for drinks to stay out of the rain for a bit and then it was back to the EcoLodge.

                       

      

    

We met our tour leader and the other group members at 6. After introductions and information about the next few days of our tour we went for dinner at a local thai restaurant. The food was delicious.

The festival of Loy Krathong is being celebrated across Thailand for the next couple of days. People put  floating krathong - decorated baskets on rivers and launch lanterns. In fact tonight we can see thousands of lanterns floating high above us. They look like a sea of brilliant stars. Apparently when you let a lantern go you let go of all your troubles. The number up there tells me that there will be nothing but carefree living in Chiang Mai for the foreseeable future!

        

Tuesday, November 4, 2014. Watching the World Go By in Siem Reap.

On this, our last day in Siem Reap we decided to have a rather lazy day in order to get some laundry done and prepare for the Thailand leg of our trip which begins tomorrow. 

Since tomorrow is the beginning of the Water Festival (Bom Om Touk) in Cambodia there is lots to see. I started my day at 6:30 by having coffee on the balcony and watching Siem Reap start its day. However, I think that the day for most people in this town began a little earlier than that. The street outside the hotel was very busy with a steady stream of motorcycles, bicycles, Tuk tuks, cars, trucks and buses going by. Some motorcycles had as many as four people on them. I watched one man go by on a motorcycle holding a baby, with a small child on the back and another in front of him. No one was wearing a helmet.

After breakfast we dropped our laundry at the laundry shop and walked to the river. We found a bench and enjoyed watching the boats go up and down the river, practicing for the races tomorrow. These very colorful, long boats are rowed by 24 people. The streets were crowded, especially with vendors setting up shop for the big day.

     

   

After watching the boats we walked on until we came to Dr. Fish, a tank of fish that you put your feet in so that they can nibble on them and give you a foot massage. Michelle decided to give it a try. A 30 minute fish massage was $3. Since the fish tickle a lot I decided not to embarrass myself by laughing for 30 minutes while people passed by. Michelle's feet enjoyed their time in the tank.

        

  

Cappuccino, a cold chocolate drink and fresh passion fruit cheesecake provided the perfect snack before heading back to the hotel. I couldn't resist taking a picture of this sign:

     

   

Monday, November 3, 2014. Last Day at Temples.

We started out at 9 to visit the temples on the Grand Tour Circuit: Preah Khan,  Neak Pean, Ta Som, East Mebon and Pre Rup. These are some of the smaller temples and therefore less crowded. However, they are no less spectacular than Angkor Wat, Banyon and Ta Prom which we toured with a guide. 

         

        

Of particular interest on today's tour was East Mabon, a large, three-story temple-mountain crowned by five towers. Although many of its structures are in poor shape the temple appears to be guarded by massive elephant statues on all corners and on each level. 

                             

      

The other thing on our to visit list today was to visit New Hope Cambodia. New Hope, an NGO, is located in one of the poorest slums in Siem Reap. The village is home to some 500 families made up of army personnel, karaoke/sex workers and displaced women, men and children. The focus of New Hope is free education and health care. It also provides food, mosquito nets, bicycles and counseling for victims of domestic violence. 

The education component consists of regular schooling plus vocational training. There is a training restaurant on site where we stopped for a cold drink. The coconut shake was excellent as was the information about New Hope provided by a young man who has come through the New Hope program. 

After our visit to New Hope we asked our Tuk Tuk driver, John to recommend a restaurant for us. He dropped us at what he said was a good one and we had some Cambodian food for dinner. John was right, it was a good one. 

Walking home from the restaurant was quite an adventure as the power went out in Siem Reap. There was chaos at the one stop light in the city...an extremely busy intersection, which we had to cross. Since I am writing this, you can assume that we made it, but I have to say that it wasn't easy.

Tomorrow we will take care of laundry and spend some time by the river watching boat races. 

Sunday, November 2, 2014. Daily life through the eyes of two Cambodians, past and present.

This morning we visited the Cambodian War Museum, an outdoor display of tanks, fighter aircraft and lots of guns, munitions and land mines. The unique thing about this museum is that you are guided around by a war veteran. 

    

Our guide told us about his life. He watched the Khmer Rouge kill his parents. They then took him and at 13 he became a soldier. He was stationed along the border of Cambodia and Thailand and was forced to kill many people, even Cambodians trying to escape the horrific conditions in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. He lost a leg due to a land mine. When the war ended he was rejected by his village because he fought for the Khmer Rouge. He still suffers today from what we would call PTSD. He has had counseling but he still has nightmares and daily he relives the murder of his parents. His life today revolves around the museum as he guides tourists through the site and tells his story.

We had asked John about his family and to our surprise, today after the War Museum he invited us to meet them. On the way to his home we stopped at a roadside stand where we met his wife. She works seven days a week selling sugar cane juice and fruit. Either John or his son go to the market with her every morning at 6 am to buy the sugar cane and fruit for her stand. She works until 6 pm.

                       

John is very proud of his house. Three years ago he borrowed money from the bank to build it. The total cost of the house was around $10,000 US. The family's old house can be seen next to their lovely new green home.He must pay the bank $230 per month. Like his wife, he works seven days a week. Some days he makes very little money as competition is stiff for the tourist dollars. There are approximately 2,000 tuk tuks in Siem Reap.

        

   

His three children are delightful. We talked to them about their school and the subjects they like. Each of their classes (grades 4, 8 and 9) has over 45 students. They go to school six days a week so today was their only day off. The son and one daughter want to be doctors, while the second daughter wants to be a teacher. Whether or not their education continues beyond high school is difficult to say as getting a post secondary education might just be too costly.

           

We felt very privileged to get these personal glimpses into Cambodian life, past and present.