Thailand - Week 2

Okay... I managed enough WiFi strength to upload some photos.  I won’t bother with the disclaimer this time warning you about the number of photos, as it will just be the reality for the trip.  But this is a long post.  ha.

We left off in Koh Lanta and we spent our last couple of days playing and spending time with our new friends.  We did a snorkel tour to Koh Rok and Koh Ha and saw some beautiful fish, sea life, and a coral reef.  The currents were a bit strong, which made us wishing we had flippers, but at the end of the day, we managed.  Maeve was initially very hesitant about the whole thing and nervous about fish being so close to her, but she found her comfort zone as we swam around arm in arm.  The snorkeling off Koh Ha was the best that I have ever done, though I don’t have an extensive history of snorkeling.

After we said goodbye to our friends in Koh Lanta, we made our way to Railay Beach for 3 nights.  Wow, has Railay Beach changed.  It is so busy now.  I guess I’m not terribly surprised as I had heard that, but it was something to see.  It was a bit much for us at times, and the prices were a bit steep (for Thailand), but we managed to explore, take a tour, and relax at our posh hotel.   I told Maeve not to expect this level of accommodation for the remainder of our trip.  Ha.  

In all seriousness though, I was saddened to see the pollution and the seemingly lack of protection of such a beautiful part of the world.  Tourists have provided so much, but have also taken so much.  It's not lost that I suppose I'm part of the problem too.  We try and do our part by bringing our own metal straws, limiting our water bottle purchases by using a steri pen -- but by no means are we perfect.

Following Railay Beach, we caught a night flight from Krabi to Chiang Mai, which is where we are currently and are planting ourselves for 8 nights.  Chiang Mai has also changed a ton too — so much more busy as well, but it is a launching pad to so many cool adventures, that we’re perfectly happy with making this our home base for a bit. We’re staying in a cozy little Airbnb that is owned by a Canadian and Thai couple.  We feel right at home.

Today we played with elephants through the Elephant Nature Park - Karen Elephant Experience.  It was unbelievably fantastic, and I have to do its own blog post as I have so many pics and videos.  So, standby on that...  

Here are the latest pics from the past week:

Can you see the reef amongst clear blue/green water?  This was off of Koh Ha.

Ready, set, explore...

Our lunch spot was pretty sweet and provided some fun floating opportunities

One happy little floater

We stayed in the bungalow on the right.  We scored as the standard bungalow that we reserved was not a beach/pool view - but they had none available so we had to sacrifice and stay in one of these instead ;-)

Maeve and Maria.  A sweet lil friendship between these two over a 4 day period.

Our balcony view.  I managed a couple of painful, yet good, Thai massages in that innocent looking tent.  I may have grunted my way through parts of it.  Ha.

Breakfast and the best chocoloate croissants ever at Shanti I - we had breakfast with our Italian friends,  Georgiano (I probably butchered his name), Maddalena (not pictured), Maria, and Cecelia.

The girls wanted to spend all their time together, so we happily joined them for dinner at Shanti Shanti II.  Omg.  I wish we had known about this restaurant as we would have eaten there every night.  So good.

Back on a ferry heading to Railay Beach.  Maeve has done lots of reading on this trip, so I'm super happy about that.  And, I finally managed to pack a charged Kindle for her on travel day.  Oops.

And, we have arrived at Railay here.  I remember the beautiful rocks vividly.

Well, this is out of order, but here we are on a longtail approaching shore.

From the ferry you have to transfer onto to longtail boats, which is fun, but can be tricky when its wavey and you're carrying a backpack.  Everyone is very helpful in Thailand, and especially to kids.

Another tricky exit is to get off the longtail without falling into the water.  Maeve may not have found it tricky, but my pack is a wee bit more heavy than hers, and lets just say, it was close.  ha.

Longtails = Railay Beach

We wandered around in search of the rock climbers and found a bunch, even some little kids.

More exploration and a chance to take in the scenery and beautiful rocks.

And, this... is our very posh hotel.  Neither of us were complaining, but I do feel like a bit of a hypocrite as I've been spouting off about how I traveled budget style before and I don't really like resorts.  Turns out... they're not all bad.  ha ha.  Originally I had booked a cabin up on the hillside that has a fantastic view.  And then I came to my senses -- my kid is not going to appreciate the hillside cabin without a pool and beach close by.  So, I changed my reservation a couple of months ago to this... and hallelujah because the pool was amazing and the cabin on the hillside didn't have AC, and we need AC in south Thailand.  I must have been tougher 17 years ago.  Its not a luxury, its neccesity.  ha. 

Our balcony view

And, our lovely room, which we wished we could have at home, we decided.

Maeve is going to be mad that I included this, but come on.  These are the looks I get when I try to encourage her in a very nice way, without nagging, with positive input, and with appropriate suggestions to help her get her school work done.  Its like watching paint dry.... in not a good way.  I love her teachers so much.

Railay Beach - town centre

Sometimes the biggest choices that need to be made are what fruit smoothie will I pick this time.

We took a 4 island tour from Railay, and one of our tour guides offered to take a picture of us, and he said, 'jump'.  So we did.  

Its like a post card - the water and islands are stunning.

Another family photo.

Back to jumping with joy.

Here we are at Chicken Island. 

I'm not sure if you're picking up on this, but I really love longtails

Just a last shot of the pretty beaches/island on our tour.

Monkey's on Railay

This craked me up.  We came across all these beach backdrops, while on a very beautiful beach.  So, obviously we posed for photos.

Back to poolside.  I think Maeve has really embraced the R&R portion.  But, she's reading and that makes me happy.

Requisite coconut drink.  Maeve likes most things coconut -- she does not like coconut water.  Well, you have to try one to know.

Sunset on Railay.  I didn't bring my phone to the other one we saw, which was more impressive, but who am I to diss a sunset on the beach?

Splash Math.  I decided it was best to give the child some space :-).

So long Railay.  I opted to not pay our hotel's transfer fee to get to Krabi airport and figure it out on our own.  I saved us 1200 baht, thank you.

View?  What view?

Boarding our flight to Chiang Mai.  You can't really tell, but the moon was super cool that night... 

Here is our little balcony here in Chiang Mai.

Its a cute little studio apartment just outside of Old Town

And, yet another view so you can visualize everthing.  Ha.

We hopped on a Red Truck to get to where we wanted to go.

So... we stumbled across the dead skin eating fish tanks... and when in Chiang Mai.  Maeve was a solid, 'no.  I sat there for about 15 minutes and figured that was good.  Check.

Yeah, it felt a bit weird.  Not exactly the same as getting a pedi.

Rolled ice cream is where its at.

It was as good as it looks.

Wat Suan Dok

We participated in the "Monk Chat" program through Wat Suan Dok -- its supposed to be a positive experience for people who choose to participate, but it is also meant to be an opportunity for the monks to practice their english.  It was a very cool experience that both Maeve and I enjoyed.  Maeve let me do most of the talking, but during lunch prior to going, we came up with a bunch of questions.  Anil was our Monk and we started off discussing Buddishm, as that is something neither Maeve nor I know a lot about.  It was very informative.  We chatted with Anil for about an hour and by the end of our time together he was just giving us tips to navigate the city and places to see.  He was also very kind to Maeve and gave her an amulet -- he said it was a very special one.  I almost did a major faux pas at the end when I asked if we could take a picture together and I went into autopilot and started to put my arm around him.  You've never seen a monk move so fast... touching women is a definite no no.  I felt so bad.  He was very gracious though.  I definitely recommend participating in this program if you ever get the chance.  

Wat Suan Dok at dusk.

I'll try and post the elephant photos soon... it was such an amazing day.  We have an all day cooking class tomorrow out on a farm.  So many fun things to see and do here, and I truly do believe that Maeve is experiencing Life School right now (which is good, because we are seriously finding it hard to keep up on our academic goals with how busy we've been).  She is having a great time and I am thoroughly enjoying spending my days with her, and just hearing everything that she wants to tell me.  I was guilty of not hearing everything before with the busyness of life, and I know this is a special time for us to not have those distractions.