The first few days in Thailand - Bangkok and Chiang Mai!

Hello from Thailand!  The past five days here have been action packed.  First, I did 24 hours in Bangkok because I had to get my visa for Myanmar. Because it was a quick stop over solely for the purpose of going to the embassy, I decided to treat myself by using some Starwood points and staying at the W in Bangkok for a night (a convenient 5 minute walk to the embassy!)  Wow, was that a nice refresher...I had a huge suite with golden sequins boxing gloves that you apparently could wear in various places all over the room.  After I took care of my visa, I spent the rest of the day finding good street food, hoarding free W bath products, laying by the pool and missing the good old days of consulting.  Later that night, I flew to Chiang Mai, a great town in northern Thailand where I was back to my backpacker budget - a $5 / night hostel (but it was the highest rated hostel in town!)

My room at the hostel!

I used my first day in Chiang Mai to explore some of the local temples since they are on almost every block.  Using lonely planet as a guide, I walked around with a few girls I met and we hit the main ones and had a delicious, cheap lunch at a local spot. Two of the girls were also Buddhist which was great because they happily answered all of my questions about Buddhism and its history. To top off the day, we treated ourselves to a massage - $9 for an hour oil massage - and it was really really good! Here are some of the great scenes from the temples...

Midday meditation in the heat

Lunch!!

The next day, I hung out with elephants at an elephant conservation farm where they rescue abused elephants and give them a better life while letting people come to visit them and ride them bareback.  I debated the whole "should I or should I not ride an elephant" question many times and finally settled on being okay with it if I did my homework and you were riding the elephants bareback.  It was incredible and tons of fun.  They are amazing animals that are absolutely huge....here are some of my favorite pictures from the day:

So cute :)

Eating some sugar cane

Getting on!

My elephant, Mai and I :)

Thanks, Mai! 

Feeding the elephants sugar cane and bananas

 

My elephant, Mai, decided to go eat a banana tree on her break....

Mai with some of her tree snack

Just scratching the itch...

Mmmm that feels good!

This elephant gives kisses - it felt so weird and tickled a ton

Later that night, a bunch of us from the hostel went to the Saturday night "Ladyboy Cabaret," which is essentially like a gay Vegas show on steroids.  For some reason that I haven't been able to figure out (even after many questions to the locals), lady boys, aka cross dressing men are a huge part of the Thai culture.  They even have competitions similar to our miss America pageants!  Apparently they also make decent money and the more successful they are, the more they are able to further their transformation....if you get what I mean.  Anyway, the show was hysterical - for most, you can tell they're dudes, but there are a few that would fool you if you didn't see them in the cabaret.

Some of the lady boys post show

On day three, I went to a 6 hour Thai cooking class, which ended up being one of my top experiences of the trip so far.  We each made an appetizer, soup, papaya or mango salad, an entree and a dessert.  We also took a trip to a market where the locals shop and sampled some of the unique fruit!  Basically, the food was incredible and I ate very slowly (a big change for me) to try to savor all of the flavors.  Some of you may not get this reference, but I basically felt like it was a day from the book "Eat, pray, love."

@kosherkauffman - look out - I'm coming for you!

Panang curry

Just a man napping behind his fish stand at the local market

And on my final day in Chiang Mai, I slept in and relaxed...after all, this is supposed to be vacation!  I did some accidental exploring though, because I rented a bike and ended up getting lost several times on my way to buy tickets at the train station.  I also got another massage and added a facial to it (for a whopping total of $15) and explored the big Sunday night markets with some friends from the hostel.

Today I'm heading even further up north to Pai with 4 of the friends I met at the hostel for some nature and relaxing.  Stayed tuned for more in a few days!

Another treat for those that make it to the end -  an early evening at the hostel - no lady boys allowed :)