Last Updated on March 24, 2023 by PowersToTravel
When we travel, each night I download our photos to our tiny laptop. We select the best of the day and create a photo collage, and email it off to family and friends, and post it on Facebook – kind of like a newfangled postcard.
This means that I have an entire folder of our trip in a nutshell with pictures and text. All that is missing is the sounds and smells – and I often keep a log of those in addition! So, our gift to you is our 12 day Thailand adventure and itinerary, in a nutshell, complete with the text we sent home, describing our day.
Because I have written about each Thailand day in detail, I’ve embedded a link in each postcard to the detailed article, so you can read more, if you want.
One more caveat – this is 12 days of Bangkok and points north. We also spent two weeks in southern Thailand at the end of our Southeast Asia Odyssey, in the mountains and at the beaches. That section of the trip will be covered in another post because I don’t want it to take forever for you to download this article!
Day 1 – Arrival and Bangkok
Wat Arun, Orange Flag Chao Phraya River Boat trip
Hello all,
We have safely arrived in Bangkok and have our first day’s adventures to show.
We went to Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) this morning. It has just been restored and is a beautiful intricate campus of temples. So all the temple pictures you see in the collage are from Wat Arun. I was especially pleased that my hair did not look like it had been traveling for 48 hours.
We went on a commuter river boat ride up then down the river. The picture of the river shows our hotel in the background. We have a “Wat Po” view room, which doesn’t face the river. Instead it faces Wat Po, another important temple we are going to see tomorrow. You can see our evening view in another picture in the collage.
We are pooped and ready for sleep. It’s 12:22am for us now.
Hotel: Sala Rattanakosin
Day 2 – Bangkok
Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew, Khlongs Tour, Wat Pho
Hello all,
The day started with a lovely breakfast on a patio overlooking the river. We had the belgian waffles with mango compote, complete with croissants. Then off to the Grand Palace – what a mob of people! Nice blue skies and beautiful temples. Then we walked to the pier for a “Khlongs” tour (which is the Thai word for “Canals”. It was the highlight of the trip so far – the picture of the floating market and the longtail boats zipping out of a lock. The pictures do not do it justice. It lasted three hours and we also stopped at the Royal Barge Museum, no picture here because there isn’t enough space!
Then both my camera batteries were exhausted, so we went back to room to charge them and out to a rather unsatisfying lunch. Then we walked just up the road to our Wat Pho and saw the huge reclining gold Buddha.
That’s it. We’re pooped.
Day 3 – Bangkok
Wat Benchamabophit, Jim Thompson House, Chatuchak Market, Skytrain, Orange flag commuter boat ride
Hello,
We’re tucked here into our very nice hotel room with a very nice air-conditioner listening to the rumble of the thunderstorms. It’s almost time for dinner. We have reservations at the restaurant next door and plan to get PIZZA!
Here’s the pictures of the day! We took a long tuk-tuk ride to Wat Benchamabophit (the marble temple). It was beautiful but what was not so beautiful was the hot and humid weather, I think worse than yesterday, and the fact that we couldn’t find a tuk-tuk to take us to our next destination. After briefly sitting in a taxi with airconditioning which wanted to overcharge us, Greg grabbed me out, and we finally found a tuk-tuk, who tried a scam on us, but we avoided it.
Next stop was the Jim Thompson house, which was created by an American architect in the 1950s. The teak wood houses were typical Thai of the day, and he created a bunch of small houses that he linked together. It was a guided tour and really nice. Then lunch at their expensive but air-conditioned restaurant.
Last we took the Skytrain (elevated mass transit) to Mo Chit to the Weekend Market. What a huge warren of teeny shops, selling just everything. We got disoriented and then couldn’t find the Skytrain station again, and some other tourists pointed us in the wrong direction. I was so exhausted. But we finally found the Skytrain, and took it back to the river, and then took our familiar Orange flag boat home.
We then found that it had been 97 degrees today, with a real-feel of 107. No wonder I was wiped out. Tomorrow is supposed to be a little cooler, and we have only a half day of activities planned.
Day 4 – Bangkok
Orange Flag commuter boat, Chinese shrines, Wat Traimit, Chinatown
Hello all,
We are so disappointed that our Bangkok visit will be over, as we are being picked up tomorrow morning for our drive north.
Today we went to Wat Tra Mit temple, with its golden Buddha, and then walked through Chinatown. In the collage, Wendy is standing in front of Wat Tra Mit.
It was gray and then it rained on us. I had planned ahead and had plastic bags for the camera, wallet, etc, so it was not so bad. It didn’t rain for long but stayed gray. We walked a long way through Chinatown, both on the main drag Yaorawat, with its big signs, and also on the side Soi (alleys) with markets. The markets were amazing. So many people, and so many strange little stalls. In the collage, we have Greg in the market, and also his picture of the roasted pig heads. Ewwww. ; (Wendy did not notice that one, however she has an interesting picture of fish-heads that did not make the cut for the collage.)
Tucked down in the market alleys were Chinese shrines, beautifully and colorfully decorated.
It was less hot and humid today.
Then we kind of got disoriented trying to walk out of Chinatown back to our hotel; we passed two “malls” (very interesting), and were starving. Finally, we almost succombed to McDonald’s but Greg’s sharp eye saw a Noodle House!!!!! What a lovely lunch of bbq pork and noodles and clear soup.
Surprisingly Wendy was the one to navigate us back to our hotel. There was a critical moment when Greg INSISTED we take a right, and Wendy was pretty sure we needed to take the left. Greg graciously allowed us to go to the left, and it turned out to be the right decision. We are going to remember this day 🙂 The reason it is so critical is that the walking is so difficult due to the humidity. Any extra steps are exhausting. I’ve never experienced weather like this before. I had planned an ambitious day for yesterday and we had had to remove half of the stops due to the fact that we couldn’t even walk 10 minutes to the next item.
Today was better.
We just LOVE Bangkok. The temples, palaces and shrines have been so beautiful, the river has been so entertaining, and the people have been so gracious, kind and helpful. I had dreamed of seeing Bangkok after the “King and I” and it has not disappointed!
On to the north tomorrow.
Day 5 – Ayutthaya and Phitsanulok
Ayutthaya, Summer Palace, Wat Phanan Cheong, Wat Mahathat, Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat, Phitsanulok
Hello all,
Today was less tiring physically, however as I try to get the collage sent off, Greg is snoring next to me.
It was a long drive north with our new driver (Mr. Lucky) and Bom, our guide, of Chiang Mai Tour Center.
We stopped at Ayutthaya, the former capital of Thailand, to see the Summer Palace (picture of Wendy and Greg). This is a wonderful park on an island between three rivers, and was greatly enhanced by King Julalonkorn, who was the little prince in “The King and I”. Sadly his queen drowned there, falling from a boat. The customs then said that no man but the king could touch the queen, and all the guards could only look as she drowned, since only the king could touch her. It was part of what made that King start to change some of the old customs.
Then we went on to a temple with a huge sitting golden Buddha. We learned that many of the large Buddhas are made of brick and mortar, stucco over the top, and then gold paint.
Then we went to Wat Maha That park with tumbled-down temples which our guide said is not a “live” temple because no monks live there. It was hundreds of years old (pictures of the fact in the roots of the tree and brick looking stupa (pointy temple).
The last temple of the day is the one where the people are praying. We ended up there after dusk and the evening prayers were going on and it was a fantastic sight. The monks were chanting into microphones so the noise was booming out from the temple, and everyone was flocking there. The people had prayer books on the floor to follow the monk’s words. They didn’t mind us taking pictures. Greg even has a movie which includes the sound.
Then on to our hotel which is really fancy, and an excellent dinner for just $30 for the two of us. Today was MUCH cooler. We were of course in the van for much of the day, and when we weren’t it was a bit of a gray day, and heading into the hills.
Lots happening tomorrow, so I’ve got to get my beauty sleep.
Hotel: Pattara Resort and Spa
Tour: Chiang Mai Tour Center
Day 6 – Phitsanulok, Sukhothai
Phitsanulok, a Buddha Foundry, Folk Museum of Sergeant Major Thawee – Phim Buranakhate, Lampang
Hi,
We’re sitting here in our jungle lodge with some very large voiced creature chirping outside our door. At first I thought he was in here, but he’s not.
This morning started out at our Pattara Resort and Spa, which we couldn’t hardly see the night before when we arrived. What a beautiful spa with softly piped music and water features and lilly pads (Dad would go crazy here). We didn’t get to use the beautiful pool because our driver and guide picked us up at 8:30am for the day’s adventures.
First it was to a Buddha Foundry where they still hand-make the Buddhas. They make the Buddhas for the King and the really important temples. Then we went across the street to a Folk Museum (that’s the pic of Wendy with the water buffalo). Sadly we have only seen one water buffalo for real. They use tractors now.
Then we drove to the UNESCO World Heritage site Sukhothai which has somewhat ruined temples from the 14th century, That’s the pic with Greg at the bottom. We were supposed to ride bicycles through the large complex, and I had trained for the event, however the humidity has been so terribly that I told them I couldn’t do it, and they rented us a tuk-tuk instead. Definitely a good decision because it was 98 degrees today. Although it was so hot, we only really felt it at this temple area, as we were in the air-conditioned van most of the rest of the day.
Lastly they drove us a long way on a road across the mountains – not a super-highway or a Texaco-lined road, which many of them are here (it’s not as rural or or un-modern as you might imagine.) But this road took us through the heart of the agricultural area, and across some rather steep hills, down to Lampang. The picture of the tractor in the rice field is from that part.
Tonight’s hotel is very interesting – a little house on stilts that looks very traditional. However, the bed is terribly hard, the “double” is just two twins pushed together (and the config of the room doesn’t really allow it). And there are several bus loads of group trips. But it is really like a jungle lodge, with nice protective doors and A/C.
Tomorrow we see Vanessa and her family and our Chiang Mai adventure starts!
Hotel: Lampang River Lodge. Their website, and our review.
Day 7 – Lampang, Lamphun to Chiang Mai
Jungle Market, Wat Phra That Hariphunchai, Chiang Mai
Hello Mom and Dad,
Happy Thanksgiving!
For us it is 7:34pm on Thanksgiving evening and for you I believe it is 7:34 AM on Thanksgiving morning. We are a half a day ahead of you. I always remember this because I remember the millenium celebrations and how the people in the far east were celebrating that new years so long before it finally got around to us on the east coast.
We had a lovely Thanksgiving Dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, which is a great place to get good American food abroad. Greg and I were a little tired of the Thai food, after a week, and Makayla, Vanessa’s daughter was just starving so we ran into the first restaurant we saw. Our burgers did not resemble a turkey in any way but it was great.
We’ll make a collage shortly and send it out, but I hoped to get this Thanksgiving greeting to you before you run away with your pumpkin pie.
Hotel: The Imperial Mae Ping Hotel
Day 8 – Be an Elephant Mahoot for a Day near Chiang Mai, and more
Kayan Long-neck women, Elephants, Wat Baan Den, Buatong Sticky Waterfalls
Hello everyone,
Today was the most exciting day so far. It was our day to learn to be an Elephant Mahout, which is the person who cares for the elephants. It’s a good thing that they made us dress in the traditional costume because we were all in!
The elephants were so friendly and so wonderful. You would think it might have been scary to be so close to them, but they were so gentle. We got to make their food, feed them, ride them, and wash them. I (Wendy) even got the dubious pleasure of having mud sprayed on her by a rather boisterously bathing elephant. That picture isn’t included. We are waiting for the official pictures from our guide, Bom, who will be sending them to us soon.
We visited a village of “Long Necked Carons” who are a Burmese group who fled Myanmar 20 years ago and are living as refugees in small villages in Northern Thailand. The women used to wear these large and heavy rings around their necks to protect them from tigers. Obviously that purpose is obsolete but they continue to do it for the tourist dollars, which we generously supported, as always, especially since it went to the refugee group.
We visited a fantastical temple with amazing art animals and mythical creatures.
Greg climbed a waterfall; Wendy watched and sat in the waterfall.
It was a very long day.
Day 9 – Chiang Rai
Hot Springs, The White Temple, the Black Museum (Baan Dam Museum), Boon Rawd Farm (Singha Park) (Tea Plantation)
Hello!
It is now 5:17pm on Sunday and we realized this morning that we didn’t send out yesterday’s collage, so this is coming to you just a little late.
Yesterday we took a long drive into the mountains to the town of Chiang Rai, which is way up in the triangle of land between Myanmar, Thailand and Laos. There were two important sights to see: The White Temple and the Black Museum. Both were built by two separate artists who were friends.
(On the way we had a pit stop at the Hot Springs where we put our feet into the water, then on our way).
The White Temple was built by the Thai national artist, who has since past away. It is an over-the-top, and in many ways horrific mass of white frosting. The tourist starts at the end of the bridge, where hell is, complete with nasty demons and dying people, then crosses the bridge, which represents “earth”, and then finally arrives in “Paradise” which is the large white temple. As we crossed the bridge, we, along with everyone else, would stop to take a million pictures. Assistants with megaphones would be yelling at the crowd “Don’t stop in Hell!!! Keep going! Everyone leave hell and get to paradise!” They seemed to have a really good time doing it.
There was no end of strange, somewhat beautiful characters to take pictures of, including a Transformer (with Greg).
Then we were off to a Tea Plantation (picture in collage).
Then to the Black Museum which had a collection of Thai teak buildings which were similar to style to Norwegian stave churches. That artist loved to collect animal skins and horns and make furniture out of it. It also had a sort of macabre affect.
Long ride home to Chiang Mai. Our pit stop on the way home was at “Cabbage and Condoms”. This was an effective public service program created to educate the hill tribes in birth control and HIV/AIDS prevention. Quite an interesting spot. We didn’t include any of those pictures of friendly smiling condom characters, and souvenirs, in our collage, just ran out of room. 🙂
Another collage to follow later tonight!
Day 10 – Chiang Mai Temples
Chedi Luang, Wat Phan Tao, Wat Prasingh, Doi Suthep
Hello!
And here is the second collage we are sending today; this one is for Sunday’s (today’s) adventure.
We visited several awesome temples in the city of Chiang Mai. The pic in the upper right Greg took. Its the first temple which we have visited which denied women access, saying, “Men Only”. Apparently women are unclean and not allowed. Sad.
At another temple Greg got excited by the vendor’s hill tribes hats and the vendor was so accommodating as to allow us to put on the hats and get a group picture taken. I fell in love with my hat, and Greg purchased it, and now am wondering what occasion at home I will wear it to.
We went on an 11 km drive up a very windy road to a funicular to the top of a mountain to the most gold-leaved/gold-painted temple we’ve seen so far.
Last, we visited several handicrafts ‘factories’ – laquerware, silk, silver, and umbrellas.
We didn’t like the first visits as they were very commercialized and had sales people right on our heels. However the umbrella factory was very interesting, and low pressure and so very colorful. The bicycle rickshaw picture was taken on their front steps.
Vanessa, Jessie, Makayla and Donevan are about to get picked up for their flight home. We’ll miss them on our next leg, which starts on Tuesday in Myanmar. (hope the Pope is gone by then 🙂 — he’s supposed to be visiting Yangon and we don’t go to Yangon until after he leaves – too many crowds.)
Tomorrow is a much needed “free day”.
Day 11 – Free Day in Chiang Mai – more temples!
Wat Inthakin, Wat Duang Dee, Three Kings Monument, Wat Chiang Man
Hello,
Our second to last day in Thailand and it was Free. That is to say, we had to pay for it, but we were free to get up when we wanted, and go where we wanted.
We strolled around town, and it was hot today.
We met some characters that seemed to enjoy Diet Dr. Pepper. (They had a bunch of little fat monk statues doing the ‘hear-no-evil’ etc thing, and Greg thought that they should enjoy a drink.)
We bumped into more amazing temples, and went shopping again at the night market.
Tomorrow we fly to Myanmar.
Good night.
Hi Mom and Dad,
Well, it is 10:30am and we have completed our “rest”. We slept in late with no alarm set, but didn’t miss the breakfast buffet. We’ve been sitting here on the bed writing my journal of “tastes”, “sounds”, “smells” and “little things you won’t see in pictures”. We’ve been so busy I haven’t taken any notes at the end of each day.
We’re now ready to get going and take a walk around. We’ve only seen this neighborhood at night, as we’ve gone out to the night market (oh how wonderful – full of souvenir stalls, and lovely smelling local foods). We kind of got our full of Thai food, and for the last two nights we’ve gone to “Duke’s American Restaurant” for pizza and then for other food. We don’t expect an American restaurant when we go to Myanmar tomorrow.
Chiang Mai is Thai but it is a mixture of many hill tribes. We learned that over the centuries it has been invaded twice by the Burmese. They would attack and take home the people. “Land is not important, people / manpower is important”, and bring the people back to Myanmar to build temples and cities there. There were two periods of about 150 years, since 1300 that Chiang Mai was totally deserted, and then the people would find their way back and rebuild the city.
The skies have been gray since we arrived in Chiang Mai on Thursday. The weather has been cool – in fact 2 days ago I was freezing in my short sleeved shirt the whole day. I had to buy a large scarf to wrap up in. I’m so glad I didn’t get a head cold.
The food has been good and my stomach has been just fine. Thailand has met all my expectations! We’ve taken 2300 pictures so far between the two of us. Tomorrow we are flying to Myanmar and a different adventure begins.
Day 12 – Tiger Kingdom
Tiger Kingdom, Wat Pa Dara Pirom
Hello friends and family,
We decided to visit the Tiger Kingdom today! We had a morning free before our flight and our guide said we could fit it in.
So, check out the photos. We also got a CD of the professional photographer’s photos, but we have to wait until we get home to read it on our home PC.
Greg chose the Giant Tiger, and Wendy chose the smallest tiger – a white tiger 5 months old. It was funny that it cost the same for each of us. We learned that you have to approach the tiger from the back, and not approach his face, that we could and should pet him firmly on his back, and even hold his tail, but not touch him on the head. There were two tigers in each cage, so as Greg was having a good time with his Giant Tiger, there was another giant also in the cage, just hanging out. It was fascinating to see the keepers/trainers who were very comfortable with the tiger, trying to tickle him and distract him so that he would be interested and be photogenic.
Wendy also had two tigers with her, but the first one she cuddled up to just wanted to sleep. The second one was interested in the event. Wendy however was so busy looking at the tiger and petting him that she forgot to look at the camera 🙂
This has definitely been a trip of a lifetime.
On to Myanmar….
If you want to follow our itinerary through our entire 65-day Southeast Asia Odyssey, click here for the next country, Myanmar
