We Wander — Mark & Meghan’s World Travels

You may have noticed a brief lull in our posting. You could blame it on the fact that we are on Koh Tao, a tropical Thai paradise island with ample snorkel and relaxation opportunity. You could blame it on Mike and Sarah: we are having way too much fun and playing way too many hands of bridge (or not enough, no such thing as too much bridge). Or you could blame it on the fact that our computer power adapter has hit the fan. Ironically, it ceased charging our computer just days after purchasing a new battery. We have to pay exorbitant amounts of Baht to receive a new one here in Thailand. The new battery and power adapter monetarily equate to a new iPad. Oh how I wish we had one of those over my clunky old Powerbook. Our new power cord is supposed to arrive today. We are hoping they got it right and we’ll be back online with photos and fun in no time.

Our second stop en route to Laos was the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. Although the city is riddled with noisy traffic and is ridiculously westernized, it is still very charming. The central part of the city, where most of the tourists are concentrated, is islanded off by a moat/canal keeping most of the traffic to the perimeter. We spent just two nights in Chiang Mai allowing our well-trodden travel bodies to recover just slightly. We spent our time meandering along the narrow streets of the centre, visiting wats, markets and tasting the local street treats. We got our first Thai massages at the affordable price of around $3.50 Canadian. Mark had masseuse envy because mine was doing all sorts of great things, climbing up and down my back and legs, stretching and pulling me in all sorts of directions. I think Mark was envious not because of my masseuses fine skills but because she was young and cute whereas his was old and haggard. He will admit to this partially.

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We are making a couple stops on our way north. Our first stop was Sukhothai, a 700 year old ancient kingdom. Admittedly, I was partly drawn to Sukhothai because it shares the same name as my 2nd favourite Thai restaurant in Ottawa.

[unrelated discussion]
Back home I take my Thai food seriously, and Ottawa has a disproportionally high number of excellent Thai restaurants. Of all world cuisines, Thai reigns supreme in my books. In order to make just and accurate rankings, I will order the same few dishes at each restaurant. These include the staple Pad Thai (Mark’s fave), chicken or beef panang plus a wildcard dish such as beef with lemongrass, yellow curry, green curry, papaya salad or some kind of meat with cashew nuts. Incidentally, in my mind there is no such thing as bad Pad Thai, it’s all satisfyingly good especially compared to Indonesian msg-laden mie goreng (fried noodles) bleh. My number one in Ottawa, fyi, is Siam Bistro based on quality, quantity, price point and ambiance (Sukhothai is #2, Nokum Thai is #3…). The food in Sukhothai did not quite live up to it’s Ottawa namesake, but the ancient city did not disappoint. I’ve gotten carried away with food again, back to the city…
[/end unrelated discussion]

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It feels so good to be in Thailand. I can wear tank tops and shorts above knee-length, beer is cheap, and the food is delectable. We are on bit of a beeline trail up north to Laos. This morning we arrived in Bangkok after a 21 hour train ride from Georgetown, Malaysia. It was a breeze in contrast to any of our Indonesian travel terrors. As JT would say, as paid for by McDonlads: “Ba da ba ba daaaaaa! I’m lovin’ it.”