This is a long one folks, so pop your popcorn, brew a cup of tea, and settle in for a nice read. So while we were in Chiang Mai, we noticed a lot of advertisements for elephant sanctuaries which peaked our interest. After doing some research we stumbled across a glowing review for Burm & Emily’s Elephant Sanctuary (BEES) and decided to reach out to them about the possibly of volunteering. Within 30 minutes we had already received an enthusiastic response from Emily, the co-founder. Seeing as it’s low-season for tourism in Thailand right now Emily surprised us with a discounted offer and just like that we were their newest recruits!

BEES was the elephant sanctuary of our choosing because of their hands-off approach to elephant tourism. There is no riding or bathing of elephants at BEES, just observing elephants being elephants. Although not a strange concept, it is still a fresh idea for elephant tourism in Thailand, where other companies advertise riding, hand-feeding, bathing and grooming as the main activities.

Our adventure began when BEES arranged to pick us up directly from our hostel in Old Town Chiang Mai. Their sanctuary is located in the Mae Cham district, found in the heart of Doi Inthanon National Park. It was about a 4 hour drive away! Our driver’s name was Tan and he was great to chat with as he answered a lot of questions we had about the area. We spent most of our drive singling along to his homemade mixtape of early 2000s BANGERS including Kelly Clarkson and James Blunt; he uses American music to help improve his English. He also told us Thai’s like really spicy food as they believe it builds strength. Tan’s hospitality and friendly demeanour made for a great start to our excursion. Early on, we noticed a giant billboard with a rhinoceros beetle, and Tan (to our surprise) said that Thailand engages in ‘beetle fighting’ and it is actually a hobbby of his! More on this later 👀. Soon after, we were aware that we were headed for Doi Inthanon National Park, the park we had gone to the day before however, although this time we didn’t have to pay the admission fee 😅 Once we got through the gates Tan took us to a beautiful waterfall for a picnic and a swim. It was so refreshing!

Upon arrival to BEES we were greeted by a what felt like hundreds of cats and dogs!! Okay, okay, it was more like 20, but still, it was a little overwhelming (but in a good way, it was actually HEAVEN).

We had about 40 mins to settle into our jungle bungalow before we were put to work. Our first task was to help prepare treats for the elephants! These treats are used as incentive for the elephants to return to their paddocks at the end of every day, as they are given all day to graze as they please throughout the jungle. First, we peeled and mushed (with our hands) about 80 bananas and ran long sticks of sugarcane through a shredder. While Kylie was shredding sugarcane, Matt was expertly wielding a machete to finely peel and chop pumpkin. This snack was for Thong Dee, the oldest elephant at bees, a whopping 74 years young. She is on her last set of teeth (elephants have 6 sets of teeth in their lives), and elephants can develop serious gastrointestinal blockages if they can not chew and/or digest their food properly. So Thong Dee was fed this delicious slurry, which she slurped up with her trunk and blasted into the back of her mouth!

For the other 2 elephants, we made an assortment of unpeeled bananas and large pumpkin slices into baskets. And then, we got to deliver the elephant snacks! We got to feed the 2 younger (middle-aged) elephants the first day, Mae Kam and Mae Dok. We quickly shoved their respective bins into their paddocks and backed away a few feet to watch them eat. This also gave us a chance to get to know Emily. She moved to Thailand from Australia when she was 18, married Burm when she was 21, gave birth to their son at 23 and now, at the age of 26, her and Burm now have 3 elephants in their care at BEES.

Then we ate dinner, and there was a German-Russian couple there who did a day trip at BEES and they joined us for the meal. Also joining us was the animal behaviourist Chrissy from Montana. We had a great dinner with discussions surrounding politics in each country, environmentalism, and insects as food (obviously).

After dinner, we headed upstairs to the Kitty Cafe and played cards with Tee and Got, 2 of the employees at BEES, who were actually each of our respective ages. We taught them how to play crazy 8’s, and they taught us a Thai card game. Afterwards, we headed off to our first sleep without AC!! But it was actually ok, and we slept like babies.

FIRST FULL DAY

We woke up to fresh breakfast awaiting us. We ate and drank coffee outside with the dogs until our new friend Got (aka our jungle guide) arrived.

Chrissy the behaviourist also joined us. Got lead us along a river, following the elephants tracks into the jungle.We were essentially tracking them so we could see them just being elephants in the jungle.

On the way, Matt was furiously taking pictures of every insect in sight. He was transported right back to his field course in India. We were greeted with an incredible find not even 5 minutes into the hike – a vinegaroon! Super cool. Along the river, we encountered a pair of women foraging river crabs. Got exchanged pleasantries with them and we were on our way.

Eventually, we encountered Thong Dee and her mahout (the elephants guide/trainer).

A rule at BEES is that tourists must remain 4 meters away at all times. We were keeping our distances, and Got motioned for Matt to get closer. While he was admiring Thong Dee, she suddenly picked up on a scent. She turned around, and began using her trunk to feel around Matt, eventually landing her trunk on his backpack. He was frozen and nervously laughing. She began to pull on his backpack with her trunk, as she knew there were some tasty banana treats in there. Got quickly intervened with a soft pat on her trunk and instructed Matt to swiftly dip underneath her trunk and back away. Although this seemed a little scary, the mahout did not even react and we were in no immediate danger. What a really cool experience and encounter. She was incredibly strong with her trunk – if she wanted to, she could have ripped my bag off my back but she used some restraint and went back to grazing after I moved out of the way.

Each elephant at BEES has as assigned mahout, although mahouts are a controversial topic… Ky wrote a small blurb on this at the end of Day 1.

After our close encounter with Thong Dee, we decided to move on to find the other 2 elephants. When we found Mae Dok and Mae Kam along a stream (who by the way are BEST friends and are just absolutely in love with each other), they were grazing while their mahouts smoked banana leaf cigars. We followed the elephants up stream, and eventually stopped for lunch while the elephants stopped for a mud bath. It was interesting to watch the elephants make the consistency of mud they desired; they would stir up the mud with their trunks until it was a perfect blend.

After lunch, we followed closely behind Mae Kam, who started to drift away a little from Mae Dok. Just as Chrissy was explaining to us how elephants communicate through rumbling vibrations and moaning, we heard Mae Kam let out a very low rumbling bellow. We did not think much of it, but Got immediately recognized that she was calling for her BFF Mae Dok. The following events took place in what felt like a split second. Got quickly moved us out of the paths of the 2 elephants because he sensed something was going to happen. Just as we ducked under the cover of some bamboo, Mae Kam let out the MOST powerful trumpet we have ever heard. We are both getting goosebumps just writing about it. It was INCREDIBLE – the jungle floor shook, and Mae Dok came galloping up the hill towards her friend Mae Kam. Within 4 elephant strides, she was the top of a 50-60m hill. They embraced each other with their trunks, and went back to grazing. Chrissy and Got informed us that Mae Kam just thought she had lost Mae Dok as she couldn’t see her and wanted to know where she was. After this exhilarating moment, Got decided it was time to head home. We had been hiking for over 6 hours so we figured it was time too.

That evening, we again prepared elephant treats and fed them. We were expecting to head back to dinner when we received an invitation from Burm, Emily’s husband and Mae Cham local, to go and pick up some banana trees from the temple. We obliged and hopped in the back of the truck, eager to see more of the village and lend a helping hand. We picked up 6 juvenile banana trees that had been dug up, and headed back to BEES to replant them on the property. On the way back, Burm stopped at a local hot spring. It was very small, but very beautiful, and it was here that Burm opened up about the legacy he has developed in Mae Cham and his journey to where he is now. He grew up as a novice monk in Mae Chaem, but moved to Chiang Mai as a young adult to work as tour guide to improve his English and make some money. Upon his return to Mae Chaem, he used his earnings to help develop the local temple for his community because the temple they had been using was much too far and many of the elderly people could not make the trip. Burm struck us as an incredibly humble man who was passionate about his village and preserving culture and the environment.

After we had returned to BEES and planted the trees, Burm and his 19 year old cousin Em (who also works at BEES) invited us to go play soccer with some of the local kids. We agreed, and he suggested we jog there! It was about 2 km, but because of the crazy humidity we were both drenched by the time we got there. Once we got to the temple, about 15 teennage boys arrived on their motorbikes. We played BEES sanctuary vs everyone else, which was about 5 vs 15. Kylie was the only girl! And she definitely surprised some of the guys by just showing up. We played until sundown, and then ran home to a delicious dinner. We passed out by 8:30 pm shortly afterwards. Hands down the best day of our trip so far.

A quick note from Ky on the elephant-mahout relationship: Traditionally, elephants were put to work in the logging industry. However in 1989 logging was banned forcing approximately 3,000 elephants to work in the tourism industry. Since then, there has been a growing demand for elephant entertainment in the tourism industry. Many mahouts lack proper training and become a mahout as they believe it can be a relatively easy way to pay the bills – give commands, give punishment if the commands are followed, train the elephant to fear the consequences if they don’t listen to a command. Common training tools are the use of bullhooks, whips, metal rods and machetes. Much of this ‘training’ happens when tourists aren’t around so when they are, just the mere presence of the mahout is terrifying enough for the elephant to listen to the command. If an elephant doesn’t listen and the mahout doesn’t follow through with a punishment, it jeapordizes the future safety of the mahout and tourists. Currently in the tourism industry, mahouts are experiencing low pay for a high-risk job with many suffering injuries and having little financial security. Unfortunately the death toll of mahout’s is higher than we care to share. Even with this knowledge, many companies still advertise riding, brushing, hand-feeding and bathing which all require a lot of training. These are not intuitive activities for the elephants to preform, especially with tourists being involved. Elephants are much safer and happier when they’re not in direct contact with tourists. This also makes life safer for mahouts who do not have to resort to cruel methods to control them. Alternatively at BEES, mahouts do not even carry training tools and tourists are strictly prohibited from touching the elephants. The mahout’s are only using voice commands and positive reinforcement (i.e. high reward treats) to guide the elephants home from the jungle at the end of each day. At BEEs the elephants are are actually given a choice. They can choose whether they want to listen or not which can make for some funny arguments between the mahout and elephant.

SECOND FULL DAY

On our second day, we were put to work. We woke up at 7am, pet some of the pups, and sipped our coffee with the kitties in the cafe.

Instead of following the elephants, we worked on some odd jobs. We started by shovelling elephant poop into wheelbarrows and filling up pee-spots (which were mini lakes) with fresh sand. Then, we started collected big rocks in the river and stacking them across a section of the river. The past rainy season caused excessive flooding like BEES has not seen before, and knocked down their water barrier which helps to control flow so the elephant paddocks do not flood. We worked for a few hours just moving rocks, until bags of cement mix showed up. We mixed cement with sand and water from the river and created an assembly line to pass buckets of cement to pour over the rock wall we had built. Everyone at BEES (except for the mahouts) was helping. This wall has been rebuilt 2-3 times a year, but Burm thinks that the wall we assisted in building should last at least 8 months!

During the wall building, the employees took urns scavenging for river goodies, I.e. Fish, crab, and eel. Kylie, much to her chagrin, turned out to be an excellent river harvester and found multiple crabs and one palm sized eel! All catches were placed into bamboo baskets and cooked into a stew for lunch.

While we were taking a short break and waiting for more cement, Matt noticed out of the corner of his eye a 4.5 ft long snake slithering along the riverbank! We think we had taken a rock that was covering its den and had disturbed it. Matt pointed it out, all of the women (except for Kylie) ran screaming their heads off and got as far away as possible. Matt grabbed his camera and got closer. Burm and Em grabbed sticks of bamboo, and expertly pinned it against the sandbank just below its head. Once it was immbolized, Burm grabbed it with his bare hands and Em proceed to try and trigge the snake to bite the bamboo to see if it was venomous. The snake did not try to strike and its teeth were fairly small and slow to come out, leading us to believe it was not very dangerous but no one wanted to take that chance! Burm put it into a plastic bag, and we drove it 20 minutes away from BEES and released it.

Upon return, we feasted on lunch. The staff ate lunch with us that day, and it felt special; it felt like we were part of their community. It was also CRAZY spicy, even Got was sweating while eating. But spicy = strong, and that’s what needed for a day of hard work.

After lunch, we had about an hour of free time. Most of the staff took naps, Matt looked for bugs, and Kylie pet the cats. We returned after lunch and were told to prepare elephant treats, which we were professionals at by now.

Before dinner, Burm toured us around the village – he took us to some of his favourite spots, including a look out of Mae Chaem, a pond, a natural spring, and finally, to get some delicious street roti! It was completely different from the roti we are used to back home – it is essentially a crepe with egg, super sweet and oily, and melt in your mouth delicious!

That evening, we had our last dinner with Chrissy and retired to the kitty cafe. Just when we thought the fun was over… Tan emerged with his bin of rhinoceros beetles!

The next hour proceed to be one of the coolest experiences of the trip. Tan and Em demonstrated a beetle fighting tournament. Tan uses a large piece of bamboo specifically carved for beetle fighting. In the middle, there is an enclosure for a female beetle to sit. There is a small window on the outside of the bamboo where the males can detect her. Each ‘fighter’ palaces their beetle on the bamboo, and the fight is initiated. Each fighter has a small wooden cycliinder they use to rub along the bamboo and along the beetles to stimulate them to ‘fight.’ The beetles then attempt to throw each other off of the bamboo to try and ‘win’ rights to the female beetle. No beetles are really injured in these fights, as their strong exoskeletons protect them as they fall off the log. As the night progressed, local boys showed up to come watch.

After the beetle excitement, Kylie returned to our sleeping quarters while Matt scoured the grounds for some night collecting of bugs. He was called over by Got, who asked if he wanted to try something special… Thai whiskey! Aka not whiskey at all, but moonshine! Got invited Matt to Tan’s property, where he sat down with Tan’s wife and Got to participate in what can only be described as a Thai drinking challenge. After a couple of drinks, Tan appeared with another special treat for Matt – it was a wasps nest he had harvested earlier that day and had smoked for Matt to eat. (Matt here) – I immediately thought that Kylie would be upset if she missed this opportunity to drink Thai whiskey and eat wasp larvae under the stars, so I ran and got her out of bed to come and join us. As we peeled away the wasp nest to get at the larvae, our eyes widened and we were SO surprised at the delicious, savoury hickey flavour that filled our mouths upon consuming the larvae. SO GOOD, like actually incredibly tasty.

The more we drank and ate, the more we got to know Got and Tan’s wife (whose name eludes us). Even though she could not speak English, we were all able to communicate (especially with some translating from Got), and it felt like we were able to really get to know Got and a friendship was actuallly developed. By the end of the night, Kylie had been offered handfuls of fresh garlic after the moonshine was finished and Tan’s wife noticed her garlic tattoo. We then stumbled off to bed.

LAST DAY AT BEES

Feeling a little bit hungover, we woke up early to watch the elephant training done by Chrissy and Emily. Chrissy runs a non-profit organization to provide positive reinforcement training for captive and retired elephants in an attempt to move away from the traditional abusive methods of training. Chrissy was currently working on having the elephant ladies lift their front foot up one at a time to prop onto the bars of their paddock, exposing the entire bottom of their foot. This is a very important behaviour for elephants to learn because it allows veterinarians access to their feet in a relatively stress-free manner. Foot infection and disease is a leading cause of death for captive elephants. Infections can quickly spread up the leg and reduce mobility, and if elephants can not graze, they will likely die. Elephants require 300 – 400 pounds of food a day, so an injured foot is literally life or death for an elephant.

After training, we packed up our gear, said our goodbyes (Kylie cried), and Burm and Emily drove us to the bus station in China Mai. We were JUST on time to catch the next bus to Chiang Rai.

It is hard to put into words how much of an impact our time at BEES had on us! It not only taught us so much about elephants, but it taught us a lot about the way of life for a small village in Thailand. We were very fortunate to have such accommodating hosts, and were extremely lucky that we were the only tourists there for this week, which definitely personalized our experience a bit. We hope to return here one day, and would strongly recommend anyone travelling through Chiang Mai to spend a few days at BEES. This may have been the most genuine and enriching experience we’ll get on this trip. The money we paid ($300 each) went directly towards paying the staff who are responsible for us and the elephants. It felt like a home away from home, and we wish BEES luck in the future.

-M+K

Since Kylie posted such a fantastic recap of our time in Chiang Mai, I’ll be posting a condensed version with some of my photos.

We arrived zombie-eyed from our night bus in Chiang Mai early in the morning. We grouped together with a band of other backpackers from the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, and England, and shared a taxi into the old town part of Chiang Mai where all the hostels are located.

We got a sweet deal on Expedia for a hotel with a pool, so we didn’t do much on the first day except swim and chill by the pool. We relaxed, blogged, and searched what to do! Luckily we had arrived on a Sunday and were able to catch the Sunday Night Market, our favourite market yet! So many different food options for a great price. I stuffed myself for under 100 baht (less than $5).

The next day, we did a trip to Doi Suthep, where we did the Monks Hike and received some gorgeous views of Chiang Mai. We continued on to the second part of the hike (through a construction area! Shhhh)… and it was gruelling! Both of us were drenched in sweat and sucking for air. We finished the hike, even though the end was not the summit. We hiked back down and made it back to the hotel in time for a swim and to check out. We ate a delicious lunch at ‘Taste from Heaven’ a vegetarian and vegan restaurant. I had Khao Soi, a classic Thai dish of noodles in a coconut curry with crispy fried noodles on top. So good!!!

We then went back up to Doi Suthep to the summit, where there was a gorgeous temple and even better views of Chiang Mai. Here are a bunch of photos of the temple.

Next day, we sought out Doi Inthanon, the highest peak in Thailand. We eventually made it to the top, and hiked a small nature trail at the summit. We were in a cloud forest, a very unique ecosystem, which made for some cool insect finds, which will be posted in a separate post.

There was a really beautiful temple up top, but we decided not to go in because 1. We already paid a steep entrance fee of 300 baht each, and 2. We were short for time since it took us so long to get there!!! So we admired from a far, but on the way down we stopped at the second largest waterfall in Chiang Mai, Wachirithran Falls. Stunning views!

We missed the biggest waterfall in Chiang Mai, Mae Kon (wrong) falls, but little did we know was that we would be able to experience it on our journey to the elephant sanctuary the next day. 

Later that night, I ate a meal to remember. I ordered the seafood dish, and was very surprised to receive an almost entirely intact squid in the bowl. Although I made a huge mess trying to eat it, it was super tasty.

That’s it for my recap of Chiang Mai. Our elephant sanctuary post will be up soon!

– M

What a breath of fresh air! Seriously though. The air quality was noticeably much better than in Bangkok. We arrived into Chiang Mai at 6am after a 10hr night bus from Bangkok. My first night bus experience wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be! We got a few little snacks, a neck pillow and a blanket which was a pleasant surprise. For me, the hardest part of the night bus experience was trying to get comfy enough to sleep, the chairs hardly reclined and leg room was non-existent. Not an easy task.  Eventually though, I did manage to drift off and when I woke the sun was beginning to peak over the mountain tops and we were close.

We check into the Eurana Hotel for our first night. Yes, that’s right, we finally splurged on our first hotel stay of the trip for a whopping $22 a night. They let us check-in early and we immediately b-lined it straight for the rooftop pool. We swam and lounged by the pool for most of the day, trying to recover from the overnight bus trip. Then, we spent our first evening in Old Town Chiang Mai walking around their famous Sunday night market. Every Sunday night the main roads are shut down and local vendors take to the streets selling handmade trinkets, clothing, jewlery, and (my personal favourite) homemade local food.

Over the course of the evening, I spent about 65Bhat (approx. $3) on food and tried a handful of mouth watering dishes. Sushi, deep-fried banana and vegetarian dumplings were a few of my favs 😋. Mmm I’m salivating just thinking about it! Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of the street food but I DID remember to snap a pic of an amazing lunch Matt and I had while in Old Town. We went to a local vegetarian restaurant called ‘Taste From Heaven’. It was unreal…

On our second day in Chiang Mai we woke up early and went for a hike. I had heard of a few great hikes around the city and really wanted to do one. We settled on the Monk’s Trail, a moderate 8km hike up Doi Suthep (doi translates to mountain). Within the first few minutes of the hike, both Matt and I were drenched in sweat and breathing heavy. Hiking in the jungle is definitely different from hiking at home which I wasn’t expecting. The trail was quite steep and we gained elevation quickly.

About 4km into the hike we came to the first point of interest, Wat Pha Lat (Wat translates to temple).

A noteworthy point about the hike: As we trekked along, I kept noticing orange pieces of fabric tied to a lot of the trees beside the trail. This sparked my interest because at first I thought they were just trail markers but as we went along, there were just too many of them for that to be the case. I knew they must mean something and it became my mission for the day to find out why. Later I was informed that the Monk’s were the ones tieing them to the trees! Orange bands meant that the trees were off limits so to speak. It’s thought that if a tree has an orange band, it will bring bad luck to whoever dares to cut it down. He then went on to explain that there are few people who would cut down a marked tree because if they did, they would be cursed by evil spirits. As a result, the orange bands have become a tool for forest conservation. I found the whole ritual intriguing and beautiful. Since the hike, I’ve noticed these sacred trees all over the place! Good work Monks 🧡

We nearly made it to the top of the hike when we started running low on water and snacks. Not ideal, so we ended up making the call to turn back around at the 7.5km marker. We didn’t want to run the risk of getting caught without food or water as we were quickly feeling the effects of the heat and the elevation. Overall it took us about 4.5hrs round trip. We also had to make it back to the Eurana Hotel for check-out at noon.

We stayed in a more affordable accommodation for the next 2 nights – the Smile Robotist hostel. After some much needed chilling in our air-conditioned, 6-person dormitory, we decided to mission up Doi Suthep again, but this time by car. We made it to the top in just under 20 minutes. Driving is definitely the more popular option and now I can see why. We explored the top of the Monks trial which is home to Doi Suithep Temple. It was definitely worth a second go around as it had great view of Chiang Mai.

It was neat to explore the temple however one thing that bothered me was how our fellow travellers weren’t abiding by the standard dress code of temples. Temples require knees and shoulders to be covered yet to my dismay, there were thighs and shoulders everywhere!! I found it ignorant on the part of my fellow travellers, especially since there were local vendors everywhere outside of the temple selling sarongs and long pants. I left feeling a little discouraged. The temple really wasn’t asking for alot and as visitors, I strongly feel we should make an effort to be respectful. It’s not hard. Anyhow, I guess the take away is that it’s important to learn about and in turn, respect the local culture of the places we travel. Live and learn…

On our final full day in Old Town Chiang Mai we visited Doi Inthanon National Park which is home to the tallest mountain in Thailand. The park is 2hrs from Chiang Mai but well worth the trek, and the 300Baht per person entrance fee. We picked a sunny and clear day so the views were unreal.

Doi Inthanon is home to a variety of ecosystems, the top being a cloud forest. We stopped quite a bit along the 36km road to the top. 

We also stopped at a waterfall

Our 3 days and 3 nights in Old Town Chiang Mai were absolutely amazing. I know it may be too soon to say but…this has been my favourite city of the trip so far ☺️

Also, Matt and I have been working hard on a collaborative post about our experience volunteering with elephants in rural Chiang Mai. Check back soon for more adventures!

-K🌙

Alright so here is my own take on our Bangkok experience (a week overdue!). I think we really made the most out of our time there. Although it was a very busy city and not quite our vibe, we still found ways to really enjoy ourselves.

Our very first mission was to get our first plate of pad Thai. There was a small mom and pop shop around the corner from our hostel, and made a beeline for it as soon as we had checked in. It did NOT disappoint and 2 weeks into the trip it still stands as one of our favourite meals so far!

Khaosan Rd
The fabled tourist paradise, Khaosan Rd. Where you can eat fried insects (including scorpions and tarantulas), drink at a number of different bars, get a tattoo or a Thai massage, and purchase a multitude of knick knacks from market vendors. It felt like an Asian NYC, all on a single street. I did try a stick of friend insects – it had crickets, grasshoppers, bamboo worms, bigger crickets, and even a frog at the end (didn’t eat the frog). My first entomophagy experience in Thailand was a disappointing one – everything was so deep friend they all tasted exactly the same, like a below average oil. I think I was sucked into the tourist trap, and should have held out for more authentic snack insects in the North. Oh well! Still fun to try.

Still on Khaosan Rd we met a friendly middle aged Australian couple and sat down for a beer with them. During this time, a street vendor approached us to try and sell Jack Daniels themed tasers – yes TASERS. He gave a quick zap-zap, and we said no and he was on his way. What a city.

Of course we also did some sightseeing. We went and saw Bangkok’s iconic giant swing. We also took a trip to the National Museum, where we learned of the Terra Cotta. It was a fun and interesting way to cool down.

Our hostel was located along a canal, and we were able to walk up and down the canal to get to some of the more main streets for food and transit access.

During breakfast one morning, Kylie spotted a couple monitor lizards climbing up the wall of the canal! The bigger one was at least 3 ft in length. Monitor lizards are either good or bad luck in Thailand; calling someone a monitor lizard can be the ultimate insult!

On our last day in Bangkok, we took the city bus to the Jatujak market, where there are hundreds of street vendors selling clothing, trinkets, and food. Nearby was a free butterfly conservatory that we had a lot of fun in.

Our time in Bangkok ended with a 14hr night bus trip to Chiang Mai. City transit in Bangkok was surprisingly very easy to use and also pretty cheap. We spent 3 days in Bangkok, but that was more than enough city time for us.

Stay tuned for updates on our time spent in Chiang Mai, and for a special post about our 4 day trip to an elephant sanctuary!

– M

I’m not much of a city gal so I was quite nervous when we first arrived. My first full day in the city is one I don’t think I’ll soon forget. Having woken up at 4:30am to that slightly panicked feeling of ‘where am I?’ I was feeling very aware of how new my surroundings were. My head space going into the first day in Bangkok was a concoction of emotions ranging from pretty overwhelmed, very jetlagged, excited and slightly claustrophobic. Everything was new and it was really starting to set in…I’m not in Kansas (or rather Guelph) anymore. It was then that I experienced my first pain of homesickness. Funny, I couldn’t quite place what the feeling was at first; the last time that I felt homesick was first year university (and I’ve tried desperately for years to bury that phase in my life). Fortunately, I’m traveling with one of the most compassionate and caring people I know and once I opened up to him about my apprehensions he listened to me and reminded me that we’re in this together. With that in mind and a much needed cup of coffee in my belly I began to loosen up.

My first impression of the Bangkok was that it was quite chaotic and after spending 3 nights and 3 days in the city, I stand firm on that. To my surprise, getting around the city was fairly simple. Bangkok has a SkyTrain which we used to travel from our first hostel (near the airport) into downtown. We took our first tuk tuk ride to our hostel near Khaosan Rd and payed 200bhat (about 10$) for a 8km ride…we would later find out that there were much cheaper modes of transportation, such as the good ol’ city bus for between 8-20 baht!

We really enjoyed our second hostel called ‘Baan Nampetch’ as it was quiet, in close proximity to Khaosan Rd and the host (Jay) was delightful. He gave us very useful tips to navigate the city such as how to get around using the buses and how to avoid local scams. For example, he mention that locals may try and scam tourists by telling them that major temples (such as the Grand Palace) are closed. This piece of advice came in handy we were able to avoid being swept away by an overly friendly local who wanted be our tour guide and his buddy our own personal Tuk Tuk driver for only 40 Bhat. We quickly learned that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably IS (good advice mom)! Good thing Matt was on his game, saw right through this scam and politely yet firmly declined.

We spent most of our days walking around and getting to know our neighbourhood, stopping at local convenience stores and restaurants and petting any and all street cats (well that last one was mostly just me 😏).

Other highlights from Bangkok include:

All in all, Bangkok was beautiful and we had a lot of fun however we both agree that it’s time to move on. We’re both looking forward to some much needed fresh air and getting closer to nature. Check back soon for more updates on our latest adventures!

– K 🌙