Tag Archives: Thailand

Thailand: Wildest Dreams

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Nightly symphonies of cicadas, picnics by thirteenth-century Lanna ruins, jaunts to Myanmar, hours exploring the Hall of Opium, dinners in the jungle accompanied by two-ton elephants – I had the fortune to experience it all during a recent stay at Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort. Though elephant-based tourism is a contested and hugely complex issue – and, sadly, so often done wrong (read: good for profits, bad for animals) – Anantara provides one sound prescription for caring for Thailand’s captive pachyderms while also employing their mahout partners and working to preserve wild populations. Learn more about the camp and its efforts in my article, “Wildest Dreams,” written for December Virtuoso Traveler magazine.

Bangkok: Blessed and Buddha-ful

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The best travels teach us something, and today my lesson is this: It’s an absolute shame that I scheduled only a single day in Bangkok to conclude my week in Thailand. “Bangkok is no longer a bookend destination,” asserts Jason Friedman, GM of The Siam hotel where I’m staying, as I concede my misstep and hear his suggestions for exploring the surrounding Old Town. “It is the destination.”

So true, I’m quickly finding. Today, all before dinner, I’ve stepped into The Siam’s professional ring for an authentic Muay Thai lesson; wandered secret (read: tourist free, aside from me) alleys, temples, and street food markets in the historic Dusit district; and streamed up and down the Chao Phraya river in the hotel’s water shuttle en route to Bangkok’s night flower market and Wat Pho, or the Temple of the Reclining Buddha.

At roughly 150 feet long and 50 feet high, Wat Pho’s immense, gold plated statue portrays the passing of the Buddha into nirvana, or his release from suffering and the cycle of rebirth. The state sounds perfectly blissful, I confess, but not before I have the chance to return to this city – something I now hope to do as many times as I can.

For more photos of the Reclining Buddha, Bangkok’s Old Town, and my stay in the Golden Triangle, visit my Thailand gallery.

120 Minutes in Myanmar

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If achieving longstanding goals is truly good for the soul, then today I’m pleased to have realized two: 1) visiting Myanmar, and 2) arriving in a country by walking across its border – rather than simply “parachuting” in via its airport (see numerous criticisms in the Paul Theroux canon).

Thanks to a guided tour provided by the Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort in northern Thailand, I had the fortune – all in a single day – to visit thirteenth-century ruins in the surrounding town of Chiang Saen, take a long-tail boat ride along the Mekong for a stop on the Laos island of Don Sao, and cross a bridge spanning the Ruak River from Mae Sai on the Thai border to Tachileik for an exceptional – albeit brief – two-hour glimpse of eastern Myanmar.

So much bustle, chaos, and dust stirred from tuk-tuks and motorbikes in both border towns eventually led to some stillness and peace at Phra Jow La Keng (shown above), a 90-year-old Buddhist temple that doubles as an orphanage. I’ve posted a few more photos of the chaos and peace I experienced today – mostly as a reminder that I need to return for a more thorough stay – in my Myanmar gallery.