Coke promo

This was a random coke promotion (we think) that we came across just outside of chatachuk market area when Haylie's Dad was visiting us. It's a huge market, and this promo was probably more effective than TV.

Blending in...

After 3 short months of living in Thailand, we still find our Thai language skills wanting. So, we have made other attempts at blending in with the locals...





This is Stu perfecting his Wai with Ronald.








It looked like so much fun Haylie gave it a try.












If you can blend in enough at the markets you get a WAY better price! Can you even tell which one is Haylie and which are the mannequins???


But of all the things we've done to try to fit in nothing compares to the amount of white rice that Stu has eaten. People tried to tell him it was a lot of carbs for one farang boy to eat!

Trekin'

This is Stu in one of his happiest places on Earth. Hiking through the jungle... rain or shine. We were on our way to a water fall (have no idea what it was called). It was part of a one day package to do a bit of jungle seein'.






This is what it looks like to feed a muddy elephant a banana when you're sitting on her back :)




Our elephants went on a trek around an agricultural stretch. These are some of the many rice patties found in the area. They look amazing, but I'm sure the novelty wears off after doing just a little bit of the very demanding work they require.


This is the part of the day package that they failed to tell us about until we were standing at it. Wonder what the cage was used for before shipping tourists across the river???


An early lesson in our lives is that ANYTHING can taste great after hiking around in the rain all day! But we were very happy to find out it was Pad Thai waiting for us in the banana leaves at the pit stop :)
We are hoping to get a few more days like this one in before leaving Asia.

Chiang Mai Panda

Here's the promised panda bear video! So cute :) Even cuter in real life, if you can believe it!

Biking Northern Thailand

We rented bikes for a day to do some sight seeing of the area around Chiang Mai beyond the tours that were available. This picture is to the North East of the city. Lots of rice fields and, as you can see, fields of water lilies. You can tell that this was earlier in the day 'cause we don't quite look like lobsters...yet.


We cut over to this lake, Huay Tung Thao, in the area North West of Chiang Mai. It's a nice little park area with a loop around the lake and tons of strategically placed statues of Buddahs and what we assumed were water gods. The small thatched roof huts are little dining areas that you can order food and eat over the lake.






This is the snail that fell from the ceiling and hit Haylie in the "WC" ! Enough said.










Gas station we ran into in one of our many accidental off route turns :)











Our final destination! South West of the city, Wiang Kum Kam is some ridiculously old temple, but we were too tired and sun burned to look up much information about it by the time we found it :P

By the end we put in over 40 Kilometers. No kidding!

Chiang Mai Zoo

The Chiang Mai Zoo is known for large mammals from Africa and Asia, but mostly for its newborn Panda. (don't worry, the Panda blog's coming next! :)


This is a White Siberian Tiger. He looks large and in charge. There weren't any actual bars between us and this huge cat, just a really deep trench and steep rock looking concrete to deter him from leaving...but we're pretty sure he could have jumped across if he REALLY wanted to.




Here's Haylie and Mufasa. He mostly just chilled out, but he did let out some very lionlike growls that could be heard from miles away. We were not shaken.







No, this is not a miniature zebra or a dwarfed donkey, they're just normal sized giraffes.



This is our Chiang Mai Zoo souvenier. We had to check him under the plane, he was too big for carry on.

Good Morning Bangkok!

If you dare, journey with us through the suburbs of Bangkok as we navigate treacherous paths and master local cuisine on our way to Lertlah, all in the name of educating the next Thai generation. This will give you a small taste of the first hour of Stu and Haylie's day. Enjoy!