Day 21 and 22 - Chiang Mai to Surat Thani to Koh Phi Phi

Terrible Travel Day of Nov 13th and 14th!
After a quick breakfast/lunch of Tom Ka Gai soup and fried rice at the Riverside restaurant we chilled by the pool for awhile before our flight.  After cabbing to the airport we caught our flight to Bangkok which was thankfully painless and included a croissant snackwich!

We bumbled our way through transferring to the Airport Express and Light rail train to get to Bangkok's main train station to catch our reserved 6:30pm overnight train to Surat Thani.  We found the train station, but were too late for our train so we had to get tickets for the 10:50pm night train, and not even sleeper bunks...only the AC recline-able seats were left.

Very VERY disappointed, we tried to salvage the evening by exploring Bangkok's Chinatown for some noodles!  Except we had to drag our bags and were sweating in the 95 degree weather, despite it being almost 9pm.  We grabbed some beers after our dinner and chilled by the train station like rock stars...thanking God that at least we were able to get AC seats on the train!

Lucky Platform 5

After watching five Modern Family Episodes and probably disturbing the other sleepers with my giggling, I was able to sleep for most of the night, thanks to Night-time Tylenol Cold medicine. Poor Ty kept getting awakened by a seat slamming into his knees (totally inconsiderate night train behavior) from the gal in front of us...

November 14th found me at 6:30 a.m. when we pulled into Phunphin, a tiny station outside of Surat Thani.  Because of our train f-up we were told we wouldn't make our reserved ferry from Phuket to Koh Phi Phi but were able to book a bus to Krabi and ferry transfer to Phi Phi instead.

Waiting for our ferry...

Local doing some fishing

Our ferry boat, full of happy, tanned folk returning from the island...a good sign

The view from the ferry...Koh Phi Phi is gorgeous

  

                              

                              

                                    

         

                                               

                              

                             

We pulled into Koh Phi Phi's main pier, Tonsai Beach and found out our hotel was on the secluded, expensive side of the island, which was great but when we were quoted 1200 baht (40 USD) for a boat ride we decided to have something to eat and drink and see if this price was for real.  After some pasta, beer and pizza we found out that our hotel did provide a shuttle boat for cheaper but we had just missed it (the last domino falls)...

So we did end up paying the steep price but it was a beautiful night and we saw the gorgeous lights of each beach up on the way up close...We were welcomed with a glass of delicious fruit juice and a moist  towel then taken via golf cart to our sweet little hut! Zzzzzzzzzz...

Day 16 - Bangkok to Chiang Mai

Checked out of Diamond House in the pouring rain!
We grabbed a cab to the Airport instead of taking the Express train, we were just running too far behind and on the plus side our cab driver was super giggly and had little English but a great sense of humor.  We got there with tons of time to spare thanks to the toll roads and checked in for our flight to Chiang Mai.

The airline served us a little snack (hotdog in a roll) and some wine with our movie and once we arrived we got a 150 baht ride to the Riverside House B&B.  It is right next to the river and has a great, relaxed vibe to it.

After unpacking a little we strolled down the street for dinner at the Riverside Bar & Restaurant, which had live acoustic music and a very buzzy atmosphere.  It started to pour rain after dinner so we ran to the supermarket down the street, got 2 Magnum chocolate bar's, 4 Tiger beers, 4 Apples and a box of tea all for $10 USD!

Watched some Sex in the City (yes I brought a little of home with me!) and then bed time!

Day 14 Seeing the Bangkok Sights

This morning we slept through our 8:00am alarm and rushed to get ready for the Temples/Palace before it was too hot.  We tried to catch a Tuk Tuk down the road and encountered our first Bangkok scam artist; a driver who enthusiastically (and convincingly) told us that the monks were using the Palace until 11am so he recommended taking us to some other attractions for only 10 baht until the palace re-opened to the public.  

Upon further inquiry he told us that he would have to stop at the tourist info so he could get reimbursed for gasoline as well as stop at a gem shop for us to have a look.  My brain finally woke up and I whispered to Ty that we either had to get out of the Tuk Tuk or haggle harder, that is exactly what "Lonely Planet Thailand" had warned of.  Ty managed to get us a ride to the palace for 80 baht ($3.50USD) and when we got there the Palace was definitely NOT closed to the public.

We paid our entrance fee and melted around the grounds in our "temple outfits", for me black jeans and a sweater over my tanktop and for Ty jeans and a T-shirt.  

Phimanchaisri Gate is the entrance to the Grand Palace...which has been the residence of Kings in Thailand since 1782! 

Sweaty.

Me and Phra Si Ratana Chedi, a 19th-century stupa built in Sri Lankan style enshrining ashes of the Buddha

Replica of Angkor Wat

the back side of the Temple of Emerald Buddha

Ornate detail on the walls of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha

Five-headed dragon foot at the entrance!

Confucius Statue

Palace Guard Procession

I can only imagine these are the shoes of Palace workers...but why only two colors?

Hidden garden that's under construction

We were dying in the 95 degree weather and so were thrilled to get into the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles, which had air-conditioning and a very interesting visual display on how to make silk from worms! 

Ministry of Defense 

Patrol

After getting lost trying to get to another set of temples (or Wat's) we got hot-hungry grouchy and grabbed a snack at 7-11 so we could start the walk back towards our hotel in better spirits.  We found lunch at a place called Mango and were surprised to find it was only noon...we had to have beer with our Thai food/breakfast/lunch, we were that drained!

Back at the hotel we showered and pumped the air conditioning, promising ourselves we would have to find better temple outfits at the market later!

Instead of going the market we decided we hadn't quite got enough of the Wat's...we walked down to the river and hopped on a series of ferry boats to get across to Wat Arun, all light up but closed for the night.  There were at least 12 cats wandering the premises and there was a big school of fish chumming right beside the dock.

Wat Arun, named after the Indian god of dawn (Aruna)