Participants: Curtis, Martha, Maya (age 13) and Sojourn (age 8) from Maine, United States

Foreword

We have been fortunate enough to travel many parts of the world including Namibia, Costa Rica and Belize with our children and have never felt the need to hire a guide.  However, as we planned our trip to Thailand, we came across a number of positive references to Tu and Jan while searching the internet for places to visit and stay.  We found their website and contacted them via email for advice.  We soon decided that we would trust them to not only help us plan our trip, but actually be a part of it by guiding us for the first two-thirds of our vacation.  We couldn’t be more pleased with this decision.    

During the planning phase of our trip I had mentioned to Jan that we really wanted to avoid overly touristy spots and experience as much of the various cultures that make up Thailand as possible.  Jan and Tu did an excellent job of showing us the sights we wanted to see while exposing us to the local foods and cultures at the same time.

Tu and Jan were really incredible during the whole trip – they anticipated needs, accommodated requests, took gobs of photos, allowed Sojourn to use their photography equipment, gave us each a headlamp to keep and kept unnecessary luggage for us while we were in Southern Thailand, with plans to bring it to the Bangkok airport for us when we departed Thailand.  I think we probably tried their patience once or twice, but you’d never know it.

We enjoyed Jan and Tu’s company very much.  It was fun getting to know them and become more comfortable with them over the course of the trip.  They were amazing in anticipating our every need and whim and while we surely tested their patience, they were never anything but courteous, respectful and quick with a famous Thai smile. 

They made our visit to Thailand a much richer experience than we would have had going it alone.  Both were wonderful with our children, patient and attentive to their wants and needs.  Both of our girls really enjoyed their company, and learned so much from them.

And now the trip report.

We arrived in Bangkok around midnight and went through a sort of catwalk of drivers, tour group leaders and others waiting for passengers and met Jan and Tu.  They were both wearing khaki pants and white golf shirts and hiking boots.  We took awhile to get to our hotel, but finally settled in around 1:30 AM.  The hotel is small, tucked away in the older part of the city – a peaceful, open feel with brightly painted murals on most walls.  We all fell into bed and a deep sleep.

We went to two more museums within same complex.  The Abhisek Dusit Throne Hall features samples of traditional Thai crafts and the other featured an exhibit, “Art of the Kingdom,” the finest examples of traditional crafts made in honor of the King and Queen at different times (mostly King’s 80th birthday and 60th anniversary on the throne).  The artisans are from the SUPPORT Foundation, established by the Queen to save vanishing arts and employ poor rural Thai.  The art works were amazing, elaborate works of wood, gold leaf, beetle wings of iridescent green, and enameling.  The building housing the museum is made of Italian marble in Italianate-style – Thailand’s kings traveled extensively and brought back “exotic” things and ideas from other countries – particularly European countries.

The Royal Family is so important to the Thai people.  It is so obvious, as alters, photos and displays honoring them are absolutely everywhere in the country.  Coming from American, it was refreshing to be in a country that holds such reverence for its rulers. After the museums we had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the river. 

Nov. 9, 2008  Bangkok to Huai Kha Khaeng (HKK)

We got up, showered, and re-packed to visit the Grand Palace and then on to HKK, a World Heritage Site. Breakfast was an interesting rice salad with a fruit dish in coconut milk.  The girls just had pancakes.  We went to the Grand Palace – an incredible complex and grounds.  It was extremely hot and packed with people.  The Royal Temple is on these grounds.  We toured around the incredibly ornate buildings that included 72 panels of morality story and a model of Ankor Wat.  Everything is incredibly elaborate and ornate – tons of gold tiles – shiny, shiny, shiny!  We went into temple of the Emerald Buddha – it is believed that he will grant what you pray.

During a stop at a service station, I discovered that toilets outside of Bangkok are non-western style – meaning stand and squat and then rinse water down toilet from a bucket next to the toilet. 

It took me a little while to figure it all out!  We drove for a couple more hours to a town where we picked up a few of Tu and Jan’s friends who are researchers in HKK (Phairote, Taoi, and La) who would escort us into HKK because the refuge is only open to researchers, and not the general public.   Near dusk we ventured down a dirt road to a temple nestled in the forest next to a massive limestone cliff wall to watch bats swarm from a cave located in limestone cliff.  Our vantage point was at the steps of a temple.  While we waited for the bats we looked through binoculars at the cliff wall and noticed huge honeycombs hanging from the walls and tucked into crevices.  It was almost dark when the first few bats emerged from the cave, but soon millions of bats forming a thin black cloud low along the cliff wall poured into the night, flowing down into the valley in search of airborne insects.  It was an eerie and fascinating sight and while it only lasted 15 minutes, it was well worth the wait.  After the cave we stopped for a Thai-style dinner, before heading on to HKK. 

Our kids were not very adventurous when it came to Thai food and they ate a lot of Thai style fried chicken, rice and a few noodle dishes at this point in the trip but became more adventuresome as the trip wore on.

We arrived in HKK in the dark and we moved to the back of the pickup to animal spot with the aid of a search light as we drove to the research bungalows.  We spotted several Samba deer and Siamese hares on the way.  The researcher bungalows are spare, but very clean.  Enough room for all. 

November 10, 2008 HKK

After a full night of rain we awoke to a nice day.  Sunny, breezy and warm, but not really uncomfortably so.  Jan and Tu fixed us a breakfast on our front porch stoop including toast with a gas powered toaster. Afterwards, we headed out in the forest in the back of Phairote and Tao’s black pick up truck to look for wildlife.  Both Phairote and Tao seem to have extensive experience at HKK, and have trained in wildlife conservation.  They were an excellent source of information about the refuge’s wildlife and history.

We had a good morning of birdwatching but the highlight was spotting the highly endangered White-rumped Falcon.  Tu and Jan are clearly very talented at spotting wildlife as well as setting up their scopes so we could get the best view possible.   They have great equipment, including Swarvoski spotting scopes and binoculars and are very proficient at digiscope photography.  Both Jan and Tu are award-winning photographers and got much of their gear as awards for their digiscope photographs.  

After shirt painting, we all took a little siesta and then headed back down to the restaurant area (which is open air with long picnic tables) and spotted many, many birds along the river; Rufous Treepie, White-throated Kingfisher, Black-headed Woodpecker, and many others.   This was my favorite part of the day – it was beautiful, our Thai guides were so enthusiastic and interesting, the birds interesting and plentiful. 

Around 4 PM we went to a new place within the park to look around.  It included a memorial to the past supervisor of the park who was responsible for it getting UNESCO World Heritage Site designation and who killed himself to bring attention to the poaching problem in the park at the time.  Tao with us had made the exhibit in the monument when she first worked in the park.  She clearly revered this man and Tu also said he revered him when studying at the university.  Great reverence for people admired seems to be a real Thai trait.

After going through the monument/memorial, we did a little more birdwatching and headed back for dinner.  It was a nice dinner with laughter and funny tricks – we are getting more used to each other – Jan and Tu were less reserved, and also are obviously in their element “in the forest,” as they say.  After dinner we went into the forest to see camera traps to hopefully see tigers and leopards!  It was a beautiful moonlit night and setting and testing the cameras was interesting and good for a few laughs as we kept setting the camera off,  blinding us all with the flash.  The cameras have to be put into iron boxes because the flash (if triggered by an elephant) makes the elephant angry and subsequently the elephant destroys the camera, and often the tree it is on. HKK has one of the few herds of wild elephants left in Thailand.  We tried dragonfruit and pomelo today, both were yummy.  Tomorrow we’ll try to get an earlier start before it gets hot and critters lie low.  To me, today was our best day so far.  HKK is a neat place, and great with lack of tourists and people in general.

After lunch we stopped by the bank to conduct a bit of financial business, meanwhile Jan and Tu entertained our children outside and Phairote and Tao bought us all a box of yeast rolls filled with different coconut milk-based fillings that are a speciality of the area.  A welcome treat!

After about a three hour drive (again, many drivers in Thailand appear to be fearless) we arrived at River Kwai Village Resort.  Tu and Jan booked us into a room that actually floats on the river.  There are a long series of rooms on the river anchored to the shore by cables and iron rods.  The resort is a 200 acre complex – geared towards western tourists.  There are three pools – one with a slide, which the girls loved and enjoyed immensely until some large French tourists started sliding too.  We had hot showers and joined Tu and Jan for a buffet dinner with Thai and western food that the girls loved, of course.  Who doesn’t love a buffet?  The European and Australian tourists are here in force, but it is a lovely and luxurious spot.

Nov. 12, 2008 River Kwai to Phorn Pharin Hotel

We had a full day today!  I got up early (around 7) and sat on porch watching the river.  Sojourn joined me and we watched the tourist go by in long boats.  After that we headed up to the main resort area for breakfast.  It was a breakfast buffet – popular with all.  Sojourn, Maya and Curtis swam in the “slider pool” and I took photos.  We packed up and headed for Sai Yok National Park to go in a cave to look for Kitti Hog-nosed bats, the smallest known bats in the world.  Tu knows of a place deep in a cave where we have a good chance of spotting these deminutive bats.  The park was lovely – huge teakwood trees and vines, plus streams and small waterfalls.  We climbed up to the mouth of the cave, past the remains of a Japanese military camp kitchen from WWII, and donned our headlamps, courtesy of Jan and Tu. 

Nov. 16, 2008  Chiang Mai to Thailand Elephant Conservation Center, Lampang

Today was awesome, incredible, so fun!  I feel so priviledged!  We got up early and headed to Elephant Conservation Center in Lampang for a three day homestay.  We arrived, filled out forms and changed into our mahout clothing – a dark blue linen/denimish get up that is durable and pretty quick drying.  We all looked pretty silly, but all looked equally silly so there was only minor embarrassment for our teenage daughter.

We are in a group of 10 people doing the three day homestay – a British couple, two French men, a man from Hong Kong, and a young woman from Belarus.  With very little fanfare and a cheat sheet of elephant commands, we were introduced to our elephants.  Each of us has one for three days – mine is named Wanalee and is apparently pretty famous.  She is gentle, and a bit of a scamp, and LOVES treats of bananas.  Everyone was up on his or her elephant in a matter of moments and then spent about 45 minutes learning work commands and how to get on and off – from the side, the front and when elephant lies down how to exit before being squished flat. 

After we had spent a little time getting to know our elephants, it was time to be a part of the show for other tourists that come to the Center for the day. Before the official show we rode our elephants down to a pond and went right into the water with us on top!  My elephant completely submerged her head in the water and kept blowing up bubbles.  My elephant’s mahout kept laughing uproariously as I got soaked, saying “Oh, Wanalee, oh, Wanalee!” like he had never seen anything so funny!  Other people’s elephants were spraying people with water from their trunks. 

After we were done giving baths, we lined up to go into the show area that had stands in a semi-circle around the show area.  Two elephants held a drum on a stick between them and my elephant slowly beat the drum as we paraded into the show area.  It was really fun being a part of the show, especially when the elephants were marching in by drum. 

I got to be a part of the show, where Wanalee put a hat on my head.  We had practiced it in the morning, but they didn’t tell me they would have one of the other elephants (JoJo) spray me with water just before Wanalee put the hat on my head.  I was completely soaked but it was good fun.  After the show we went to our rooms – traditional woven bamboo with sleeping mats on the floor – with a small bathroom.  We had lunch at the canteen, which happened to be right by our homestay “hut,” after changing into our normal clothes.  After lunch we did another show, then rode the elephants into the forest.  In the forest the elephants are chained to a tree by a very long chain for the night so they can get enough to eat.  It was interesting to see how the elephants move through the brush and up steep hills. 

Once we got the elephants settled, we walked all the way back to the elephant center.  Dinner was delicious and we were all hungry and physically tired.  We went to bed after journal-writing. 

We then brought them back to the camp for breakfast.  If Wanalee could have galloped back for breakfast, she would have.  She was moving very quickly once we got out of the woods! We returned to the homestay for breakfast where we found new dry clothes left out for us – yeay!  Then it was breakfast and then the morning show routine again. 

Elephants have thick, dry skin with individual hairs with large spaces between each bristly hair.  The perspective from sitting on an elephant is like looking at a large fly’s head.

After the morning show, we toured the baby elephant nursery and elephant hospital.  We saw an elephant being treated for a chronic foot problem from stepping on a landmine along the Burmese border, and a few being treated for abcesses.  There are three babies in the nursery ranging from one less than a month old to one a year and seven months old.

After lunch was the afternoon show and then returning them to the forest again, but this time up in a hillier area, which was a really beautiful area. 

We learned at the animal hospital that Wanalee was adopted by the King’s sister, who was just cremated, along with two others.  Six of the royal elephants live at the conservation center.

After we were done with the elephants, our family got some ice cream and bought a couple t-shirts at the gift shop.  We then saw Jan and Tu again.  They were in and out most of the day taking photos and video of us.  With the help of Tu, we bought an elephant painting – one done by one of the two 4-yr-old elephants. 

General Observations:
~The blue uniforms run blue – I had blue-dyed legs and we all have multiple pairs of blue underwear;
~Lots of communal dogs, cats and chickens around the homestay;
~Being with the elephants is amazing and fun.  They are such interesting animals –strong and gentle at the same time.  I felt like a queen when parading in with drum beat.
~Curtis and I liken this place to a dude ranch with elephants instead of cows; and
~The elephants make all sorts of deep rumbling noises that you can feel, as well as the trumpeting

At the end we were all sad to leave and I cried a little bit saying goodbye to Wanalee.  I couldn’t explain the sadness – just tough knowing I was finished with an experience that I loved and may never experience again.
 
From the elephant center we headed to a huge local northern market – it used to be more of a market of products from the forest – bush meat, etc, but now has some of that, but mostly domesticated foods.  Curtis and I both tried fried grubs but he tried crickets as well as grubs.  Not bad tasting but left Curtis with pretty gross breath!  We then visited the Wat in Lamphun; Wat Phrathat Hariphunchai – one of the oldest in Northern Thailand – about 1,000 years old.  It has one of the first pagoda style temples in Thailand, which was done by the queen of Lamphun at the time.  It was very interesting but also very hot.  From there we headed back to Chiang Mai – we stopped along another temple’s grounds to see the silver plating being made – part of it was a silvermaking school – filled with young monks learning, as well as some adults.  It takes about 800 hrs. to learn the art, but the school is free.  Within the complex they are building a completely “silver” temple – it was a beautiful work in progress.

Fried insects shop

Nov. 19, 2008  Doi Inthanon

Because we got in so late last night, Tu and Jan let us sleep in- breakfast at 8 AM.  The place we are staying is nice – we have a 4 bedroom bungalow for us, Tu/Jan and our driver (Mr. Sombat).  We had a nice breakfast and headed to Doi Inthanon National Park.  The park has the highest mountain in Thailand, Doi Inthanon, and waterfalls, hill tribe villages and various other things.  We first went to the summit where we found mist, fog, cold and lots of tourists (Thai and a few western).  We loaded up with clothes and walked the 50 meters to the actual summit (highest point in Thailand).  We also saw the chedi (burial shrine) there that contains the ashes of Princess Damais father, one of the last Kings of Chiang Mai.  People were paying respects.  The forest was magical, damp, dark, misty and mossy.  The chedi was filled with different sized elephant statues left as offerings.  We stopped and looked for birds – seeing several species only found in Doi Inthanon, including the sunbird – a beautiful multi-colored little bird.  We also hiked the nature trail, much of which was along mossy boardwalk – very mystical and beautiful. 
As usual, Tu and Jan had thought of everything and we had a little tailgate coffee/snack break at the back of the van in folding chairs.  We headed back for photos at the highest point, and then headed down the mountain slightly to a roadside restaurant – more “northern-style” food!  It was freezing at the restaurant, as it was outside and the wind was cold.  We enjoyed BBQ/grilled chicken from outside grill, sticky rice and two salads – papaya, whose Thai name is for the huge mortar/pestle-type bowl it is prepared in, and a yummy cucumber salad.  From there we went to a two-tiered waterfall and saw another new species only found in that area.