Feastin' on fried insects

When in Thailand do as the Thais do. You know what that means?! It means you may have to feast on some fried insects. Never, ever in my life would I think that I would eat bugs! I avoid camping because I am not one to commune with nature. I appreciate nature's beauty, but I don't see any reason to sleep on the ground, pee in the woods, and heaven forbid, eat bugs! But, put me in a foreign country, eager for an experience and all of my "I would never do that in my life proclamations" go out the window!

It all happened in the city of Ayutthaya at the night market. We were on a VIP-police escorted rickshaw tour of the city and we made a stop.

If you can't quite tell what that is, it's the fried insect vendor. Our tour guide went to the counter, got a plate, and dared us to try.

 I have no idea what it is on that plate. I didn't want to know. Ignorance is bliss in this case.

Here I am, making a choice. That's my dad in the background. That's his "Who is this daughter that I call mine and is she cra-zy?" face.  Yes, Dad, I really did give it a whirl!
I don't know what I ate. Again, I didn't want to know. My tour guide tells me later that it was a wing of some sort.

This is my face after eating the bug. Can you tell what I thought of it? It was crunchy. Super salty. And, I will never eat one again! But, when in Thailand do as the Thais do.

Elephants!

My family's favorite part of our adventures in Thailand was our visit to the elephant camp. Let me tell you, the Thais are serious about elephants and take very good care of them. At the age of 3, most elephants go to "Elephant University" (yes, it's real!). At school, they learn how to build things, (They are sometimes used to life sandstone for construction projects), play musical instruments, dunk a basketball, kick a soccer ball, dance, and paint. Below are some pictures to prove it, but you have to see it for yourself to really soak it all in and comprehend the wonder of it all.

Soccer

The elephant is painting

The finished products painted by three elephants. I bought the one on the right!

As if the show wasn't entertaining enough, there was more in store for us on that day. A ride on the elephants! We rode 2 to an elephant through the river and up the bank and around for an hour and a half. It was quite a bumpy, but amazing experience!

 The guy sitting on the front of our elephant is a mahut. Every elephant is required to have an identification card and a mahut. The mahut stays with the elephant until one of them dies. It is likely that the mahut will die before the elephant because elephants can live until their nineties. However, they are allowed to "retire" at 65 years old and can just enjoy life instead of having to perform in front of people. Essentially, these animals work from age 3 to 65, and we thought we had it hard!

If you ever find yourself in Thailand, don't miss out on this experience! It's memorable, for sure.

Trunk up = Good luck!

Damnoen Saduak Floating Market

The floating market was a colorful and interesting glimpse into local life.

We took a longtail boat through the canals filled with small flat boats paddled by mature ladies who were ready to bargain at a moment's notice. You floated along and admired all of the goods.

It was fascinating to watch the exchanges. The photo above shows a man purchasing fried bananas. The lady merchant has a little bucket attached to the pole. She fulfills the man's order and places it in the bucket, using the pole to hand it to him. He then removes the purchase and exchanges the contents of the bucket from the fried banana to the money he owes. The merchant pulls the bucket back towards her and the transaction is complete.

The Damneon Saduak floating market is one of the only floating markets in Thailand that caters specifically to the local Thai people and not to the tourists. The visit to this market provided a unique glimpse into Thai life and their beautiful goods.

Cabbage and Condoms

Sadly, prostitution, particularly child prostitution, is a huge issue in Thailand. One of my colleagues at work just returned from spending a year ministering to child prostitutes and attempting to transition them from their plight into a normal childhood. She recalls many of the prostitutes she worked with were just tweens, but their dress and makeup transformed them into women far beyond their years. We witnessed this first hand. Sit in the lobby of our hotel at night and you'd see the prostitutes enter the lobby, leave their ID at the desk, and meet creepy men at the elevator who'd escort them up to their rooms. It was a sad sight to watch.

A restaurant called "Cabbage and Condoms" devotes a portion of its profits to help keep the young girls off the streets. I wasn't all that impressed with the food, but that's not the reason you dine at this establishment. 

Never seen pad thai wrapped in an egg!

In addition to being drawn there for a good cause, the "statues" outside the restaurant are creative and entertaining. All of the statues are made out of condoms.

This is "Condom Claus". Isn't that incredible?!  And, the funniest one is this:

Do you know who that is? It's Tiger Woods. And, the sign next to him says, "Hey, Tiger, Did you use these?"

The food is bland, but the cause is important. At the very least, if you find yourself in Bangkok, you should pay a visit to this restaurant just to check out the creative condom art and to do your part to help out those young girls who deserve a childhood instead of the life they are living.

Buddha

Ninety-two percent of people in Thailand are Buddhist. As such, there are Buddha statues and temples everywhere! Here are some of the most beautiful Buddhas and temples we came across during our two week adventure.

The detail put into constructing these Buddhas is amazing and the devotion of the Thai people to Buddha and his teachings is admirable.

Ahka Tribe

As we cruised around northern Thailand, we stopped to visit the hill tribe village of the Ahka. Carved wooden gates with guarding spirits presiding over them distinguish the Akha village.  The Akha tribe is known for their gorgeous silver headdresses.

The headdress this woman is wearing has been passed down in her family for generations. Her family heirloom was made out of real silver. This is not always the case nowadays as many are silver plated.  Ahka tribal members also wear distinct outfits.

 It makes no difference if you are the matriarch of the family or are one of the youngest/newest members of the tribe, you follow the customs. This little guy doesn't have a silver headdress just yet, but I bet he will trade in his cloth cap for a heavier adornment soon!

The Akha tribe style of house is supported on low stilts with a square living area and a stove in the back.

Fifteen people live in this one house. I would probably feel extremely cramped and disgruntled, but the Ahka people were very happy and hospitable to us. They did a little dance for us and presented their handicrafts for us to purchase.

I don't know about you, but one of the things I enjoy most when I travel is getting a taste of how the locals experience life. The Ahka tribe couldn't be happy to let me into their piece of the world and I am pleased to learn from them.

A little ride down the river

Bangkok is dubbed "The Venice of the East", so suffice it to say, I took more than just one little ride down the river during my trip to Thailand. Thank goodness Dad brought his seasick patches with him because it seemed as if we were always on a boat. Not a problem for me. I love the water.

Our first taste of a ride on the Thai waterways was a boat ride through the klongs, Bangkok's canals. We floated along to see family homes, temples, and the way of life in Bangkok.

At first, I was shocked to see such run down homes in the capital city! In the States, properties along the river would be the best, sitting on prime real estate. This did not seem to be the case in Bangkok. Houses were leaning, sinking, and falling down. Louis, our tour guide, explained that the appearance of the house did not necessarily indicate that the family did not have enough money to purchase something more stable and beautiful. It is just not as important to them. In Thailand, education, healthcare, public transportation, and electricity are all free. Because of this, even the poorest people have televisions! You cannot judge the income of the family on the structure in which they live.

As we cruised along the Praya Chao river, we stopped to visit this:

This is Wat Arun, Temple of the Dawn.  Its 260 foot spire has been identified with Bangkok. This temple is steep so nobody attempted to climb the stairs to the top!

After leaving "Venice of the East", the boat rides continued. One of the highlights of the trip was taking a 3 hour ride down the Kok River from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai. We boarded our longtail boat early in the morning and began our journey from one city to the other.

We were freezing,  our butts were sore (no real cushions on those seats), but by the end, we had arrived in a new city with more to explore.

PS: There is a little challenge in the blog world called the A-Z challenge. The idea is to write everyday except Sunday using a letter of the alphabet. I probably won't be able to keep up with daily updates and my readers might get blog fatigue, but I am going to try my best to meet the challenge. Stay tuned.