Bangkok to Chiang Mai

Today we had a short flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, flying up to the north of Thailand, so it's supposed to be cooler up here. Personally, I don't see much difference.

There are a couple other differences and similarities between here and Bangkok.

Pictured here is the Chao Phraya river. It looks rather nice from this vantage point, but it is actually filthy. It has brown water with floating islands of natural and unnatural waste. We recently saw this small stream here in Chiang Mai:

Not too clean. There's one similarity.

Another similarity is that the city is not particularly clean.

I don''t know if this is a difference or a similarity, but in Chiang Mai, there seems to be no algorithm to when cars pass at roads and crosswalks. I would call it organized chaos, if it were at all organized. But I know for a fact that in Bangkok, no one tried to run me over. That's right- today, as we were on our way out of the old city (more on that later), we encountered a crosswalk. Demonstrating the aforementioned apathy for road travel organization, one person completely ignored the fact that the green walking man was showing and drove straight across. Another person just kept going a bit too far, with the end of their car protruding about halfway across the faded white lines. When I walked in front the car jutting out across the crosswalk, it suddenly accelerated for a brief second. It was as if it was lying in wait- the person driving waited until I was right in front of the car!

On a more positive note, we visited another wat- Wat Sup. Okay, I'm just kidding about that. The real name was Wat Phra Sing. It is located inside the old city, an older section of the city surrounded by old, red walls and a moat with fountains. While we were there, we saw three adorable young cats. There was a gray tortoiseshell cat, an orange tabby, and a jet-black cat. I could have stayed there forever if my parents hadn't dragged me away. Here I am petting the tortoiseshell.

On the return trip, we purchased 3 pairs of baggy pants with elephants on them- one for each of us. We also bought a small elephant made of stiff fabric.

                          

One Night in Bangkok

Welcome to cyberspace Thailand, the Wandering Aidan blog! Today we explored the city of Bangkok, and it was the last full day that we will have here.

We visited two wats, or temples- Wat Po and Wat Phra Kaew. The wats that we visited were comprised of not just one building each, but confusing labyrinths of them.

We checked out Wat Po first, the home of the reclining buddha. The reclining buddha is a golden statue of a buddha in a peaceful reclining pose, as the name suggests. There is one thing that we realized when we saw it that wasn't implied by the name: the statue is immense. I would say that I am about the size of one of its eyes.

There were other fun surprises too. It's nearly impossible to tell from the pictures, but the buddha's hair protrudes in ornate, drill-like spikes. Also, the feet are graced with designs of shimmering, pale gray mother-of-pearl.

After we left, we headed to the renowned Wat Phra Kaew (I have no idea how to pronounce that). It used to be the grounds of the royal family, its intricate buildings once acting as a palace, a church, and evidently much more. But the road there was fraught with peril. Luckily, the concierge at the hotel had warned us about the danger that awaited us. We were ambushed three times by people trying to sell tours of Bangkok to us. They did this by telling us that the palace grounds didn't open until noon- this was wrong, because they had been open since 8:30- so we might as well take a tour as an alternative, to pass the time. Luckily, we made it through in the end.

When we finally did arrive, we were amazed at what we saw. On the fancier architecture, almost every surface was adorned with kite-shaped gems and flowing, carved gold. There were gems of emerald green, watery turquoise, royal blue, and velvet red.

This area was also the home of the emerald buddha. When I heard about that, I was hoping for a glittering, jewel buddha statue, or one adorned with green emeralds. What I saw was a mostly golden statue with only its face being green. Even then, it looked more like a dull jade- we later read that it actually is jade. However, the mountain of gold that it sat upon was quite impressive, adorned with immaculately positioned buddha statues.

I was pretty burned out from all the sightseeing by then, so we started the trek home.

The rest of the day was fairly laid back- we relaxed in our hotel room and visited the mall, then had dinner.

BONUS PHOTO!:

Odd outback facts

We haven't completed the journey home yet. We're stuck in L.A. airport, with a 3-hour layover on our hands. *sigh*. More on this post's topic, there are some odd things about Australia that I'd like to share with you.

Fake Money

Australians seem to use fake board game money as currency. Not only is it colorful, it also has a plastic feel to it. See for yourself:

Mashed-up Greeting

Australians will often use the phrase, "How're you going?", seemingly a combination of "How are you doing" and "How's it going".

Two Seconds

The phrase "two seconds" doesn't mean the same thing in Australia as it does in the U.S.A. It simply means a short amount of time, like "just a minute".

Time difference

We have experienced a 30-minute time difference twice. In case you didn't know, most of the world goes by hours only.

Everything there can kill you

An assortment of facts here:

1. The primary language is screaming in terror.

2. If something looks cute and cuddly, it probably evolved that way to lure you close.

3. There are over 100 species of poisonous snake in Australia.

4. Of the 25 most venomous snakes in the world, 20 are in Australia.

The interesting thing is, the last two are actually true. And the second one is likely.

Outback Outtakes

Fast fact- I'm blogging from 33,000 feet, flying through the sky at 628 mph, more or less. Anyway, there were a few funny photos that never made it on the blog... until now. Here they are in all their glory...

I blast dad with my patented InvisibleRayInYourHand Deluxe.

The pilot gets some help from his passengers.
We really did push the plane.

We found out that our favorite restaurant
from England was also in Sydney. Less than
a block away from our hotel.

All they served the dugongs at the aquarium was lettuce.
The staff had set up a fake restaurant for the dugongs, complete
with a charming little menu.

Instead of fruit juice, I received a potion.

This was my kid's menu at a restaurant that we went to. You
pulled the lever to change the picture.

That's all for now!

Back in Sydney- last Australia day

We arrived back in Sydney late at night yesterday, and ended up going to bed at midnight. Needless to say, I woke up something less than completely rested. Despite this, I managed to drag myself over to the Executive Lounge for another free breakfast.

After we had filled up, we headed out into the big city. We decided to revisit all of our favorite things about Sydney. This included the playground and our favorite restaurant and smoothie bar.

Later, we went for a walk in the Botanic Gardens. There was an overwhelming amount of plant life, including cacti and bamboo. On the way to the Gardens, we saw a man making huge bubbles.

While we were headed back to the hotel, something caught our eye. A giant chessboard! My dad and I decided to have a match. Before we finished, the museum that owned the chessboard decided to go ahead and close. We played some turbo chess until we really had to leave, then my dad declared me the winner and fled.

Thanks again for following my blog! There will be more, I assure you. I intend to publish a couple more posts about Australia, which could pop up at any time. 

Final Australian wildlife report:

Captive koala (sleepy & cute)

Aidan, Lisa and Brian

"Thank you, everybody!"

Aboriginal Adventures

We started off the day by relaxing at the beach and pool. Not very exciting, I know, but we made up for it later in the day.

After we finished relaxing in the pool area, we headed to a place called Tjapukai (jah-puh-kiy). Here, you can learn about Aboriginals, the native people of Australia. You can paint stones, learn to throw boomerangs and spears, and take a didgeridoo lesson. We tried all of these activities. I was pretty surprised that the boomerangs worked as well as they did. They would often come back to within ten feet of you.

Wildlife report:

Orange and green ant

Two turtles

Lizard Island

Today we flew out to Lizard Island,another island within the Great Barrier Reef. Unfortunately, we flew there on a plane, which is a lot less exiting than wings. At least we didn't have to steer, and there were amazing views of the Great Barrier Reef.

Once we arrived on Lizard Island, we were quick to get in the water and snorkel. The water was warm enough to don a shorty wetsuit, a kind of wetsuit without full arms and legs. We saw a great number of fabulous fish, from hordes of tiny blue fish rushing past to large, coral-munching purple fish. On our second trip out, after a break for lunch, we saw a turtle and a stingray. My mom broke off from the group partway in, and of course saw another turtle.

Survival on the island was hard.

Liquid was scarce. Here I am

trying to break open a coconut.

Our pilot worried me. I'm

pretty sure that's an iPhone in

the picture. Do texting & driving

rules apply to planes?

Wildlife report:

Monitor lizard

Australian leaping clam

Note: hoax.

Not photographed:

Seagulls

Note: these should have been in

several previous reports. I apologize.

Two sea turtles

Stingray

Fish. Many, many, many fish.

Small but courageous lizard

Note: ran across my mom's foot!