Sunday Market Madness

Awesome shopping in the Chiang Mai Sunday market. We went to it two Sundays ago, but today we started on a different street and couldn't even see everything still. It's pretty big. My feet are tired from walking. Oh well, I guess that just means I should go in for a foot massage tomorrow. I had a great time shopping since I can pick and choose local foods from the street vendors while I walk.

Goodbye Bang Bao (April 8th)

I loved Bang Bao. Cliff cottage was awesome and the morning I left I went for a stroll along the rock trail. There's a lovely view of our hangout spot (the cliff cottage common area) from this trail.


It was such a beautiful view.



There was this cool tree I saw during my walk. It's not the first time I've seen in it in Thailand, but this is the first time I remembered to take a picture. It looks like grass growing on the trunk. And another pretty picture of stairs that head into the forests above the cliffs.

Island time over

The day after snorkeling we moved to a different beach. We took a taxi to Klong Prao beach and stayed in a super ghetto place on the beach. Having seen 3 beaches on Koh Chang Island I enjoyed Bang Bao beach the most because of our awesome stay at the cliff cottage. Klong Prao beach is definitely has the best view. Here's some pictures from our walk along the beach.

Honestly, these pictures don't do the beach view justice. It's even prettier in person.


Our hotel in Bangkok is nice. Much better than the place at Klong Prao beach. The beachside place on Klong Prao didn't have a flushing toilet. The sink water just drained onto the floor to a hole in the ground and there were so many bugs! I barely slept that night. I think I stayed up chatting with Susan until 2am and I woke up before 6am. So glad to get out of there. So the bus ride to Bangkok was good because I was able to catch up on my sleep.

We had our first dinner in Bangkok last night. We just walked along the streets and saw this place.

So they had whole fishes being grilled over charcoal. It was delicious. They serve it with a basket of unlimited lettuce, nappa, basil and parslely, rice noodles, seafood sauce and chili sauce.
To eat it, we're supposed to wrap it in the lettuce or nappa then add rice noodles, herbs, fish and sauces. It was delicious!

Island Day 7

It was a snorkeling day yesterday. We took a boat trip to four small islands nearby. The water was so clear blue at the second spot we went to and had a nice white sandy beach. It was gorgeous. I had a lot of fun snorkeling too. There were some corals, sea urchins and small fish.

Island Day 6

We had to change to another cottage yesterday because they don't have a room for us here so we're staying at cliff view bungalows next door. What a difference. There's air conditioning at this new place which is great, but more bugs. I had a hard time sleeping. Was tossing and turning and worrying about bugs. No mosquito net either. On top of all that the geckos get into the ceiling from the outside somehow and they keep making noises. I woke up several times during the night to the sound of geckos. I'd much rather the geckos be in the room to help eat the bugs.

Today we did a jungle trek. It was a 10km hike through the jungle which took about 6 and a half hours. It was quite a bit more difficult than I expected. Many times we were hopping across rocks that were slippery and climbing up and down steep rocky areas. I'm so glad I was wearing long pants and a long sleeve shirt. There were so many bugs. Saw a tarantula too!

Hiking here's quite different from what I'm used to. There no real set path so I'm constantly looking for a good footing, stepping over fallen trees, and vines, ducking under trees and even walking across a fallen tree. It was a good workout today. Pretty much what I expected it to be like. Super hot in the jungle too.

Anyways, I'm going to rest early tonight. We're heading out tomorrow on a boat to 4 different nearby islands to do some snorkeling and to relax on different beaches. Really looking forward to it.

Island Day 5

Great day. Relaxed all day. We hung out in the common area at our cottage for a big part of the day. Chatted on the computer and did some reading. Went to Bang Bao Beach after lunch. It was like a 20 minute walk from where we're staying. It was perfect after crossing the ghetto bridge. Went for a swim in the clear waters and lounged in the chairs right by the beach. I had a good time reading.

When the thunder started we decided to head back to the village. I was really hungry so we stopped at our favourite restaurant for dinner. MMMmmmmm.....seafood again. We had a baked crab on vermicelli and a veggie with oyster sauce. Delicious. The crab was so sweet! The veggies were good too. I think they use fresh oysters in the sauce.

It was pretty interesting on the way back from the restaurant. The sun had already set and it was dark out. The route back to cliff cottage is about 10 minutes. Have to walk on dirt paths in the trees, cross bridges and pass some local fishermen's houses. Both Susan and I forgot our headlamps. As we started on our little trek the thunder started again, but this time it starts to pour like crazy! We're soaked in seconds, cold and trying to find our way back to our cottage in the dark. All went well. We were just soaked. Good thing we still had our bikinis on and still smiling. Good times =)

Habitat video with Elephant song

This is a video that Malinie (the habitat coordinator from Chiang Mai) put together for us to remember our build and elephant adventures.