Mixed Feelings, Thailand

Hi everyone! We are just wrapping our nearly three-week stay in Thailand. For the most part it has been wonderful. Some parts, however, were so awful that I don't want to write about them. So, I will stress eat this bag of granola, dredge up the bad with the good memories, and be honest.

We started with the very, very good in Chiang Mai. The city is a comfortable mix of old and new. So, for example, I was able to get a new charger for my Garmin watch and eat dinner at a traditional night market an hour later. Best of all, the other world-traveling family we met in back in Calafate, Argentina, just so happened to be staying in Chiang Mai at the same hotel. We overlapped with them for one day, and it was great to be with friends. Here's Baker and their youngest cruising the night market.

We also took a day trip to Sri Lanna National Park to climb Buatong Waterfall (aka "Sticky Waterfall"). The waterfall is fed by underground streams with high concentrations of calcium carbonate that collects on the rocks and makes them sticky.

The guide continually told us to "follow the water" as we climbed to ensure we stayed on the calcium-covered parts of the rocks. (DMM - I thought of you and KW every time he said it.) It was a very cool experience, and the kids were happy and proud of themselves. (I love it when Baker makes this face.)

Then things took a turn when we left Chiang Mai. We had an overnight stay at Chai Lai Orchid, a "sanctuary" where you can have very close contact with 90 "rescued" elephants. On the one hand, it was very cool to interact with the elephants, and to see that they were not being ridden. We all enjoyed being so close to them (even though we know it's not great for the elephants).

But at the day went on I saw that this was no sanctuary. The elephants have no freedom to be elephants. They spend their days endlessly serving tourists like us. They also breed the elephants with no intent to release the babies into the wild (they keep the female babies, no one was willing to tell us where the male elephants went). Our guide told us that the elephants roam free in the jungle at night, which gave me some peace. But we woke up to see the elephants chained, anxiously swaying back and forth waiting to be able to move. It absolutely crushed my heart. I hate how humans exploit such magnificent animals. I hate that we actively participated in it. We left as soon as possible.

From there we went into the jungle of Khao Sok National Park. We stayed in a simple cabin with just fans to cool us in the 100 degree heat. The scenery was spectacular, and long-tailed macaques were everywhere.

Can you see the macaques swimming across the river? They fully submerge in the water!

We were excited to hike in the national park, but that's where things got worse. Our guide drove us to the park entrance and was unfriendly from the start. His strange behavior escalated to the point that he pushed and yelled at Baker, all while holding a small machete in his hand. Ryan told the guide our tour was done, so he left. We walked out of the forest and all the way back to our lodge. It was awful. My heart just aches for Baker, our gentle giant. This is not the kind of thing you just forget, and I know this will be with him for a long time.

Thankfully, Baker loved our next stay. We left the jungle of Khao Sok and journeyed to Cheow Lan Lake, which is also a part of the national park. We stayed at floating cabins on the lake, and the kids loved jumping off the balcony directly into the warm water.

The lake was formed in 1982 when the country build the massive Rajaprabha dam that flooded an entire valley. It was wild to think about all the villages and temples corroding at the bottom of the lake. We spent a lot of time on the wooden long-tail boats (Baker even got to drive one!), exploring the limestone formations surging upward from the water.

The following day we returned to the mainland, drove a few hours, hopped on another long-tail boat, and landed in paradise. Koh Jum is a small island in the Andaman Sea off the southwestern coast of Thailand. It is quiet, secluded, and the perfect way to end our experience in Thailand. We've been living a happy low-key beach life. The kids loved a tuk-tuk ride (with Ryan driving!) to a beach on the northern part of the island.

They even learned the joy of pushing a vehicle stuck in the dirt.

We also met a lovely family from Vancouver, B.C., who have two kids that our kids just loved. The gaggle of kids frolicked around the resort, playing for hours in the pool. Our kids were just so happy to have friends, and Ryan and I were delighted to get to know such cool people.

We have one more day here before flying to Kuala Lumpur, and we're enjoying the mellow life as much as possible before hitting the road again.

(I promise Lu has clothes; she just doesn't like to wear them.)

Miss you guys.

All my love,

Madeline