Chiang Mai, Thailand

Prior to moving back to the states, we decided to take a little detour through SE Asia. Chiang Mai was our first stop.

We departed London Friday at noon and arrived in Thailand early Saturday morning. After a quick layover in Bangkok, we were off to Chiang Mai. We arrived at our hotel early afternoon and then headed out to explore.

Once we were settled, we decided that a Thai massage would be our number one priority and we booked ourselves in for a one hour massage that afternoon. While the massage was nice, it was a bit intense - the ladies cracked Shane's neck and popped my entire back  - I guess we were both a bit stiff after the flight.

After the massage, we explored the Phra Singh Temple. Starting to feel a bit of jet lag, we decided to  grab am early dinner at a local spot recommended by our hotel, opting for their 'taste of northern thailand menu,' before making our way to the Saturday Night Market. The Saturday Night Market was chaos and we quickly came to recognize that order and personal space are not common concepts here. We meandered around for a bit before deciding we had enough and turned in early for the evening.

The next morning we were up early for our Thai cooking class. Our cooking class started with a trip to the local market to purchase our ingredients. There were a total of six of us in the group and two instructors.  We each got to pick an individual soup, appetizer, noodle and main to cook. Shane and I both choose Tom Yum soup, spring rolls and green curry but differed on our noodle dish - I went with pad thai and Shane had a sweet & sour seafood. The food was delicious and we hope we can use the skills we learned to make some of the dishes back state-side. Full from all of our food, and still recovering from the jet lag, we headed back to the hotel for a quick power nap. As it was raining, when we woke up, we headed to the spa. Shane got another Thai massage while I, still recovering from the trauma of the noise my back made the day prior, opted for a pedicure.

That evening we explored the Sunday Night Market. The Sunday Market is significantly bigger than the Saturday Night Market and streets close such that vendors can set-up their tents. You can find everything at the Sunday Night Market - street food, clothes, electronics, performers, etc. We explored the market for about an hour before it started to drizzle. In fear of more rain, we hopped in a tuk-tuk and headed off to dinner.

The next morning, we were up early again to visit an Elephant Sanctuary, Elephant Nature Park, which has a number of outreach programs that it does with nearby mountain villages. The outreach programs work to teach the village not to use the elephants the village owns for tourist riding camps or use the elephants as work animals. The outreach program allows tourists to come and help the village care for the elephants for the day by feeding, trekking with and bathing the elephants. Our experience with the elephants in Mae Win district was amazing and our favorite activity in Chiang Mai.

We drove about an hour and half drive from Chiang Mai before we reached the elephants. When we arrived, we collected the elephants morning snack - bananas and sugar cane - before heading over to the feed the elephants. We fed the elephants the bananas in their gates as certain elephants needed to be separated for the morning snack feeding. After their snack, we trekked with the elephants a bit into the jungle. We had bags of sugar cane with us that we used to move the elephants along. After the jungle trek, we made our way back for a quick lunch before trekking with the elephants to a mud and river bath. The baby elephant was the only one who enjoyed the mud bath whereas the older elephants preferred the river. Throughout the whole day, we couldn't believe how much close interaction there was between us and the elephants.

Once we were back in Chiang Mai, we refreshed a bit before heading for some street food, a drink along the river and a foot massage.

The next morning we were off to the airport to catch our flight to Koh Tao. 

Martha Says Good-Bye to London!

Martha said good-bye to her London life this past Friday and is safely back stateside. Before she left, we took Martha to see all the sites. Here are some pictures from Martha's day out in the city.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

For our last bank holiday as U.K. residents, we took the train to Amsterdam with our friends Eric & Angie who recently moved to London.

We set-off for Amsterdam early Friday morning and arrived in Amsterdam early afternoon. We took the Eurostar train to Brussels and changed for our connecting train to Amsterdam.

When we arrived, we checked into the hotel and then set-out for lunch - we were starving! We wandered our way into Foodhallen which was a remodeled warehouse with various food stalls and bars inside. After getting a full variety of food, we set out to explore the city. We wandered our way through the Jordaan district until we came upon the Anne Frank house. Noting that the line wasn't too bad, we hopped in and were able to tour the house.

After touring the Anne Frank house, we were hungry again and found a gastropub to grab dinner. The gastropub was a local spot with a menu that changes based on availability and freshness of food. We all enjoyed our meal.

The next morning, we grabbed breakfast in the hotel and then were off to a bike tour. On our bike tour we quickly learned that biking in Amsterdam is serious business. Everyone bikes in the city and if you are new biker to the Amsterdam scene, it's noticeable. We all may have had a couple of mishaps here and there. Our bike tour took us all over the city - Old City, Museum Square, Vondelpark, Jordaan District, Red Light District and more - it was great way to see all of Amsterdam!

After our bike tour finished, we grabbed lunch and set out towards the 9 streets for some shopping. After getting our fill of the shops, we headed back to the hotel to drop off our things and refresh before dinner. Later that evening we grabbed dinner at a restaurant along the canal and had an excellent tasting menu. Our meal included four dishes and I think we all had a different favorite - mine was dessert but it's most always dessert.

The next morning we slept in before heading out for brunch. The weather in Amsterdam was beautiful on Saturday and we agreed that the sun must of taken it out of us. We don't get much in London. After brunch, we rented a boat so we could explore Amsterdam from the canal. Shane & Eric navigated the canals, and the other boats, quite well. After our boat tour, Shane & Eric were on the hunt for a pub to watch the Liverpool match. When they sat down to watch the match, Angie & I opted to peruse a nearby art market and both found pieces to purchase. When the match concluded, we grabbed a sushi dinner and then headed back to the hotel.

The next morning we fit in the Rijksmuseum before making our way to the station to catch our train.

We were so happy to be able to spend our last U.K. bank holiday traveling with friends!

Keswick, Lake District, England

For Martha's last holiday in England (she's flying back to the U.S. a couple of weeks before we leave) we took her to the Lake District. The Lake District is northwest of London near the Scotland border.

I met Shane and Martha at the train station mid-day Friday. Shane travelled to the train station from our flat on the tube with Martha and his backpack and weekend bag. When he arrived at the train station he was greeted by an escalator - which with luggage would be considered convenient; however, with luggage and a dog, not so convenient as dogs must be carried. Picking up Martha whilst also managing his bags had Shane completely worn out before our trekking holiday had even begun!

The mid-day Friday train from London up North was packed. Luckily, we had seat reservations but poor Martha didn't have much room to roam as people were constantly in the aisle looking for seats. After a cramped train journey, we arrived in Keswick early evening. We settled into our hotel and set out to explore the town. We took Martha along with us and felt like celebrities - everyone in the village was obsessed with Martha!

The next morning we woke up early for breakfast in the hotel before setting out on our trek - Walla Crag. The summit provided wonderful views of the Derwentwater and Keswick. While the trek up to the summit was relatively easy, the trek down from the summit significantly increased in level of difficulty. We think we got off the main path at some point as we no longer were passing people on the route and when we reached the bottom, there was a sign warning of the steepness of the climb and recommending another route.

We ended our trek is a small town on the other side of the lake and opted to the take the ferry back to Keswick.

After a quick power nap and refresh, we headed out for dinner with Martha in tow. Some of Martha's admirers from the previous evening were out and about on Saturday and stopped in at the pub where we were grabbing dinner to say hello to Martha again. She was a hit in Keswick!

On Sunday we woke up early to get in a walk by the lake before departing.

Due to rain forecasted in the afternoon, we switched our train to an earlier one. Martha, exhausted from Saturday's trek, didn't have the energy to roam around on the train - she slept under our seats the whole time! When we arrived in London, people were shocked that there was a dog in the carriage as she didn't make a sound. It was the first time that Martha had appeared as well-trained as the British dogs!

We loved the Lake District and were so happy to be able to fit in one more holiday for Martha in England!