temple Archives · Bon Voyage on a Big Adventure!

November 10, 2018

Days 120 – 123: Yogyakarta, Indonesia: A Tale of Two Temples

Our first stop in Indonesia was the city of Yogyakarta on the island of Java. We made Yogyakarta our “home base” to explore the Hindu temple of Prambanan and the Buddhist temple of Borobudur before heading to Bali.

We ended up spending fourteen total days in Indonesia: four in Yogyakarta, followed by ten in Bali. Stay tuned for the Bali post, but spoiler alert: Bali was Bali. Still, Rich and I would not have traded our time in Yogyakarta with more time in Bali because visiting the island of Java gave us a lot of context and insight into Indonesia that we would not have had if we had flown straight from Singapore to Bali.

Day 120: Travel from Singapore to Yogyakarta

We spent our last few hours in the totally amazing country of Singapore in the most incredible airport I have ever seen, enjoying a very big breakfast at a luxurious airport lounge.

A Bumpy Flight

We came about as close to missing our flight out of Singapore as we have come to missing one of the many, many flights we have taken. The display board in the lounge did not update to indicate that our flight was boarding until the very last minute, and we walked up to our gate just as it was about to close! We received a very stern look from the airline employee and were the second-to-last couple to board. Sorry! It won’t happen again!

Our flight into Indonesia was bumpy, and our landing (Mom, skip ahead a couple of paragraphs) was terrifying. Flying feels really routine to us now, and this landing was anything but. We came in so fast. The European woman next to me said that in her experience flying into Indonesia, Indonesian pilots really enjoy landing at full speed and then jamming on the breaks. Awesome.

We were really sad to hear about the plane that crashed in Indonesia a few days later and felt that much more grateful that we ultimately landed safely.

A Hot Walk to the Hotel

While in Yogyakarta, we stayed at Hotel Satoria, a hotel by the airport in order to split the difference between the two temples we were there to visit. When we landed and Google maps showed us that our hotel was less than a mile from the airport, we decided we would just walk. How hard could a mile be? We are on an adventure!

Hard enough that this incident qualified as Rich’s least favorite moment in the past 30 days.

Basically, Google maps told us that we could walk along a path that went through an airfield, and security put the kibosh on that. Turning around added a good ten minutes to a very hot, very sweaty walk with no sidewalks. Plus, we had just left Singapore, one of the most luxurious countries in the world, and we were back in a smaller, developing city so the re-adjustment was a bit of a shock to our system.

Now, it’s Rich’s turn to skip a paragraph because I’m about to tell you that he was sweating like an animal! In three years of marriage and one hundred and twenty days of traveling– including walking a mile in Hanoi, Vietnam with all of our luggage after 24+ straight hours of travel— I had not seen him sweat like that. It was bizarre and icky. Maybe stress sweating? He was NOT a happy camper.

(Rich did not skip ahead and would like for me to add that my t-shirt was still drenched with sweat the next day. I’ll neither confirm nor deny.)

So we got to the hotel, checked in, showered, and ordered room service for dinner. All is well that ends well.

Day 121: Visiting the Prambanan

Rich read online that the best time to visit the temples at the Prambanan was at sunset while the best time to visit Borobudur was early in the morning. This advice proved really helpful.

We woke up, enjoyed hotel breakfast (winning!), did some blogging/planning work, then hit the hotel gym– basically, we took advantage of all of the things that make staying in a hotel so relaxing. Then we got ready to tour.

Prambanan Background

Transportation costs were really reasonable in Yogyakarta– adding insult to injury to our decision to walk from the airport– so we took a $4 Grab 45 minutes from our hotel to Prambanan. Upon arrival, we bought a joint ticket for Prambanan and Borobudur for $79 total for both of us. While a little pricier than some of the other temples we have visited, it was substantially less than what we paid for entry to Angkor Wat.

Prambanan is a ninth century Hindu temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia. The temple was abandoned around 930 BC after a volcanic eruption. While the local Javanese people knew the temples were there, the complex was rediscovered by the British in 1811. The Dutch began reconstruction in 1930, and UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 1991. Almost a million people visit each year.

Our Visit to Prambanan

Prambanan was one of our very favorite temples we visited in all of Southeast Asia. First, the complex is huge, but when we visited, it was not overrun with other visitors. It was possible to get a picture without anyone else in it or to walk into a room in the temple and be the only one there.

Second, the time of day and temperature were so comfortable. We arrived about an hour before sunset, and the light on these ancient buildings was just so nice.

Finally, vendors were not allowed to sell anything within the temple complex so it was quiet and felt like an important, sacred space.

I am glad that we have visited all of the many, many temples we have visited throughout Southeast Asia, but I would not call most of these visits relaxing. There was something really calm and peaceful about our visit to Prambanan that makes it stand out.

Day 122: Visiting Borobudur

We had grand intentions of making it to Borobudur for sunrise, but that would have involved us actually getting out of bed at 4:00 AM, and, well, that didn’t happen.

We did arrive before 6:30 AM, and the temple was an hour away, so it isn’t like we exactly slept in.

Borobudur, also built in the 9th century, is the world’s largest Buddhist temple. It was abandoned in the 14th century when the Javanese people converted to Islam and then rediscovered by the British in 1911. Like Prambanan, it was also named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991. Borobudur is Indonesia’s most visited tourist attraction.

Practicing English

When we arrived at this massive structure, we heard the sound of singing. We quickly saw multiple school groups huddled around their teachers singing bright and cheery morning songs.

We continued walking and were approached by a group of young students. “Miss, Sir, can we practice our English with you?”

Charmed, we readily agreed. The Indonesian children had a whole routine where they told us their names, then asked our names, then asked us a series of questions, “Where are you from? What brings you to Borobudur? Do you think Borobudur is very beautiful? Will you sing us a song?” We declined to sing, but we asked and answered questions with them for at least ten minutes before signing off on a piece of paper to give them a grade (A’s, obviously).

We walked around for another 20 minutes when we were approached by a smaller and older group of students. “Can we practice our English with you?” I agreed, and we spent another ten minutes with this group.

Rich: “We have practiced English twice. I think it’s okay if we say no to the next group that asks.”

The next group approaches, and a young student says, “You look like Tom Cruise!”

Guess who did not say no to these students! You got it: Tom Cruise.

One last note on the students practicing English: remember, it was 6:30 AM in the morning. These students were up, dressed in their uniforms, and at a historical site to practice a foreign language with native speakers. It was pretty remarkable.

Thoughts on Borobudur

We liked Borobudur too, but it didn’t have quite the magic for us that Prambanan had the evening before. On the way out, we had to walk through what felt like a million stalls of people selling things without clear directions on the way out.

We made it back to the hotel in time to eat breakfast and then go back to sleep! We enjoyed an afternoon of getting some work done and reading at the pool.

Day 123: We Didn’t Leave the Hotel

Seriously. I do not have a single picture from this day. We woke up, we went to breakfast, we did some work, we went to the gym, we spent time at the pool, and we ate at the hotel restaurant for dinner.

And it was glorious.

The end.

If it isn’t evident, our stamina for touring started wearing thin. Our hotel was really comfortable, the staff was friendly, and the hotel food was tasty. Spending a day not seeing anything felt luxurious.

I am sure there are many lovely areas and restaurants in Yogyakarta we could have experienced. We loved Prambanan and enjoyed Borobudur too, and for this trip and this leg of our journey that was about all we could muster.

Onward to Bali!

October 27, 2018

Days 110 – 112: Pretty Penang, Malaysia

After a nice, long twenty day stretch in Thailand, we packed our bags and headed to pretty Penang, Malaysia!

Day 110: Travel from Koh Samui, Thailand to Penang, Malaysia

I do not know if this will be as shocking to you as it was to us, but the airport in Koh Samui was OUTDOORS. As in the area where the ticket counters were was covered, but it was not fully enclosed. Additionally, to get to the terminals, you walk down a street, not a hallway.

On our way to Penang — The outdoor terminal in Koh Samui

My mom shared that the airport in Hawaii is like this so maybe this fact does not surprise you, but it sure surprised us, in the very best way. We thought the airport was beautiful.

Maybe our excitement about this reflects that we have been traveling for more than 100 days. We spend a lot of time in airports.

So on day 110, we flew from Koh Samui to Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur to Penang. Whew!

Rich and I had an amazing airport lounge in Bangkok, which was a treat. We thought we would get an airport lounge in Kuala Lumpur. We did not, which was disappointing. BUT we learned that we could visit airport lounges upon arrival into a country which meant that we were able to eat a free dinner in a lounge when we landed in Penang. This was a win for day 110 AND for many days moving forward– food is a major cost for us, and we will take all the free meals we can get.

Upon checking in to the AirBNB, this time in another high rise condo, we went almost immediately to bed…

Day 111: Football, Food, and Street Art

Because the University of Georgia took on the LSU Tigers in the biggest football game of the season so far at 3:30 PM in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and 3:30 AM in Penang, Malaysia. Previously undefeated UGA lost and looked terrible doing it.

Once the game ended at 7:30 AM, we went back to sleep.

Eating Malaysian Food in Penang

When we woke up a few hours later, we were hungry. Rich has a favorite Malaysian restaurant back in Philly, named Penang Restaurant because of course, and one of his favorite items on the menu is the roti canai. For the uninitiated (which I was before meeting Rich), roti canai is an Indian pancake that is doughy and melts in your mouth and comes with a delicious red sauce. I should be a food critic.

We got showered and ready, found the top rated restaurant for roti canai, hopped in our Grab, and found out the restaurant is closed. Apparently in Malaysia, you can only get roti canai for breakfast. In America, we always ate it for dinner!

No worries though. If there is one thing people in Malaysia appreciate, it is food. Our AirBNB was pretty sparse (only one roll of toilet paper was provided), but it came with a thick binder of recommended restaurants. When we arrived at the roti canai restaurant 30 minutes before closing time to discover that it had already closed, our driver made a recommendation of where we should eat and what we should order. Then he drove us the extra ten minutes there for no additional charge.

He nailed it! The food was delicious, and the restaurant was filled with travelers from all over the world.

Lunch in Penang — Eating is serious business in Penang.

Street Art in Penang

In 2008, UNESCO named George Town in Penang a world heritage site. In 1786, the East India Company had founded Penang as a trading center. Because Penang was a hub of economic activity, settlers from India and China as well as across Europe landed in Penang bringing their rich cultures with them. Today, a mosque stands on one block and a Hindu temple stands on the next, and the food is one big mashup of the best flavors from India, China, Thailand, and Malaysia. The neighborhood is incredibly diverse.

In 2012, the George Town Festival commissioned artist Ernest Zacharevic to create an open air gallery for visitors to the UNESCO heritage site. Zacharevic created eight murals which incorporate paintings with actual objects such as chairs, bicycles, and motorbikes. Since 2012, other artists have added their own murals to walls throughout the area.

After our big lunch, we headed out to find as many murals as we could. They really blend in to the surroundings, and typing in “children on bicycle” in GoogleMaps didn’t work too well for us. Locating all of the murals turned into a sort of hunt for buried treasure!

We did pretty well though and enjoyed walking around the neighborhood. The art is awesome, the tourists who were lined up to take pictures were patient with each other, and we had a fun time figuring out the shots we wanted to take.

Enjoy the gallery below!

Day 112: Visiting the Kek Lok Si and More Food in Penang

I’m sad to report that we still did not make it out of the house in time to enjoy roti canai for breakfast! Rich and I both got a bit of a cold upon arriving in Penang, and we needed some extra sleep.

Kek Lok Si

Kek Lok Si is the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia, and it sits high on a hill overlooking Penang. The threat of heavy rain loomed for the duration of our visit, but thankfully, it held off, and we were able to wander through the pretty gardens and temples.

The large, prominent pagoda at Kek Lok Si features Chinese, Burmese, and Thai architectural designs, which really captures the spirit of Penang quite nicely.

The Pagoda with Chinese, Thai, and Burmese design

We took a funicular (!!!) to the top of the hill, where a giant bronze statue of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, stands overlooking the city. Near her statue are small statues representing each Chinese birth year so we took pictures with our respective animals: a horse for Rich (fine) and a rat for Amanda (terrible).

One small thing I really appreciated at Kek Lok Si that I had not seen at any others were the wishing trees. The temple sold “wishes” on small ribbons that included things like successful career and being together forever. I was struck by how universal all of our wishes are! Across the globe, people wish for joy and peace and health for themselves and the people they love.

Lunch Time!

Rich picked out a place for lunch back in George Town, but when we got in the Grab, our very talkative Chinese Grab driver insisted that we go somewhere “better” instead. So she took us to her favorite Malay restaurant and talked the whole 25 minutes on the ride there.

Things we learned from/opinions of the driver:

Malaysia has had a very corrupt government for several generations but major changes have been made in the past two years that should lead to less state corruption and more regulation.
Malays are very confused by American politics (“The loud rich man and the wife lady were the two very best people you have to interview for your prime minister?”)
According to our driver, the Chinese do not like the Muslims in Malaysia (remember: Malaysia is a Muslim country) but they are fine with the Indians.

Let’s be kind, and say she was a character. I’ll also say she picked out a great restaurant for lunch, and we ate well!

Final Thoughts on Penang, Malaysia

We loved the street art in Penang, we got incredible, flavorful meals in Georgetown, and it was great to be in a large city with modern conveniences.

We were a bit run down during our time here so we didn’t get in quite as much as we had hoped (read: roti canai). That wasn’t Penang’s fault, and at the same time, it wasn’t really ours either– sometimes you just have to play the hand you’re dealt, and we can’t feel great every day of this marathon journey.

Penang was an incredibly easy city to navigate though, and the people were friendly and welcoming. If you are visiting Southeast Asia, we would definitely encourage you to keep Malaysia on your list.

On to Kuala Lumpur…

October 9, 2018

Days 90 – 93: Chiang Mai, Thailand (Our Favorite, Our Favorite, Our Favorite)

So, of course, we loved Budapest and Korcula and Heraklion and Hoi An and the list goes on. But when I say we LOVED being in Chiang Mai, Thailand– we LOVED it. We stayed in the Nimman neighborhood, and it was just. so. hip.

I’m excited to write about it, and I hope you are excited to read. Come explore Chiang Mai with us!

Day 90: Travel from Luang Prabang, Laos to Chiang Mai, Thailand

At this point, we pretty much have airplane travel down, and this was an easy one direct flight trip. We took a tuk tuk from our AirBNB to the Luang Prabang airport, and then our host arranged for us to be picked up from the Chiang Mai airport when we arrived.

Our AirBNB in Chiang Mai was in a pretty new apartment complex that wasn’t that different from any apartment building we had lived in DC over the past ten years. There was a pool and a gym– perfect!

We are taking a new approach to travel days, especially in Thailand where we have pools everywhere we stay: Get to the AirBNB/hotel. Go to the pool. Relax. Make a plan for how to spend the next few days.

This plan was on point. First, I arrived in Chiang Mai having read all of the books we had with us, but in the apartment, there was a copy of Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood. A free, great book to read at pool? Hallelujah! Chiang Mai is already winning. Second, the pool was an infinity pool with spectacular views of the hills of Chiang Mai. Does it get better?

Reading at the pool. Does it get better?

Pool in Chiang Mai — Rich also “reading” at the pool.

The Nimman Neighborhood and Nimman Social

So our neighborhood is named Nimman for Nimmanhaemin Road which runs through the center of the area. In Nimman, you will find cafes, bars, and boutiques that all look like they jumped off the pages of Instagram’s top accounts. The food is delicious and healthy, the shops are adorable, and everything is right next to everything else.

For my American readers, you may be thinking, well, is Chiang Mai as hip as Brooklyn or as Twelve South in Nashville or Fishtown in Philly? IT IS HIPPER. Seriously. We thought Nimman might be like our favorite neighborhoods in America, and instead, we may have even liked it better.

The first night in Chiang Mai, Rich walked the seven minutes to dinner repeating, “I love Chiang Mai. I love Chiang Mai.” He was giddy.

We went to dinner at Nimman Social, a part indoor, part outdoor bar/cafe attached to a nearby hostel. We drank a beer and ate two noodle dishes and the most incredible french fries, sitting under white bistro lights, for less than $10. Can’t beat it.

Nimman Social in Chiang Mai — Enjoying dinner at Nimman Social.

Day 91: Umm, We Enjoyed Nimman Some More

If you are reading this thinking you want to travel to Chiang Mai for a few days, umm, this may not be the itinerary you want to follow. If you are traveling the world for a year, I highly recommend a day EXACTLY like this.

How we spent our day:

Slept in.
Worked out in the apartment gym.
Walked to breakfast at Overstand Coffee. Ate avocado toast.
Found a bookstore that didn’t sell any fiction in English. Were directed to a bookstore in the mall.
Walked to the wrong mall, explored it.
Found the right mall, the MAYA Lifestyle Shopping Center, which happened to be unbelievably fabulous. Bought two books and a dress at H&M (on sale!).
Went home and went to the pool.
Got ready and ate dinner at the mall food court.

Perhaps you are wondering about this mall food court eating. That’s because you are imagining an American mall food court. This food court had every kind of Thai street food prepared fresh in clean booths for cheap. Remember: In Southeast Asia, we are eating the majority of our meals out. Being able to grab quick, casual, delicious, inexpensive dinner may have been one of our favorite parts of staying in Chiang Mai.

The outside of the Maya Lifestyle Shopping Center.

The INSIDE of the Maya Shopping Center. All of the games of mall madness I played as a young girl led to this…

Umm, this is pad thai BAKED INTO AN EGG. Genius, mall food court, genius.

Day 92: Temple Time in Chiang Mai

Rich and I woke up, hit the gym, and then enjoyed a yummy bowl of cheap chocolate cereal in our apartment. We decided we should probably check out some of the famous temples of Chiang Mai.

Wat Phra Singh

We walked from Nimman to Old City to reach Wat Phra Singh. Wat Phra Singh was one large, beautiful temple, surrounded by several smaller temples. Every year, during the Buddhist Songkran festival, the statue of Buddha that is housed here is paraded through Chiang Mai.

Not unlike what we witnessed in Sicily with the statue of Mary arriving on a boat to celebrate the Assumption!

Rich outside of one of the temples at Wat Phra Singh

Wat Chedi Luang

I had a bit of beef with Wat Chedi Luang because my new H&M dress was deemed to be too short, and so in order to enter the area, I had to borrow a big piece of cloth to wrap around my waist. I will eat that I knew that my dress didn’t come quite down to my knees and that I did some risk analysis on whether I would be able to skate through on temple entry (also similar to Catholicism– figuring out how to pull your school uniform skirt down to pass skirt checks-ha!).

What I did not bank on was receiving the longest piece of cloth ever when my skirt didn’t pass inspection and having said cloth reach my ankles. I was tied up pretty tight which made walking, well, pretty miserable.

But the temple was huge and old and really stately. So it was probably worth it. We just didn’t stay too long.

One of the smaller temples at Wat Chedi Luang

Rich Gets a Haircut!

After we left the temple, we got lunch in Old Town. The restaurant had a good TripAdvisor rating, but didn’t hold a candle to the mall food court.

We then walked back to Nimman for Rich to get his haircut. He did a lot of research and landed on 56 Barber Shop. Rich has very thick, curly hair, and as any of his family members reading this can attest to, is very particular about his appearance (I type this hearing his voice in my head say, “Isn’t it worth it in order to look this good?”).

Chan at 56 Barber Shop did a phenomenal job. He played old school hip hop (read: Biggie, Eve, J-Lo) the whole time and took close to an hour to get everything perfect. This was a big haircut a few days before Rich turned the big 4-0, and Chan came through. It also further fueled our belief that Chiang Mai is A-MAI-ZING (get it?).

After! This almost-40 year old walked out feeling great!

Dinner at the Mall Food Court

We couldn’t resist.

food court dinner in chiang mai — Pad thai meets nachos in this mall food court crispy pad thai dish. This was Rich’s VERY FAVORITE dish in the past 30 days and cost less than $2.

Day 93: Work Day in Chiang Mai

But First, Coffee

As I mentioned (over and over), Nimman had a ton of cute cafes. We wanted to try Ristr8to, a coffee shop that had won international latte art competitions. Our plan was to get a coffee and work on blogging/planning from there. However, while they had great lattes, they did NOT have air conditioning. That dog won’t hunt.

Nothing says good morning like this guy…

We spent at least an hour trying to figure out where to go to work with aircon (as they say over here) and WiFi and finally landed on Healthy B Cafe. I finished our Siem Reap blog post while Rich booked all of our lodging for Australia. Productivity win!

Healthy B in Chiang Mai — We enjoyed working from Healthy B!

Pool Time

We headed back to our glorious apartment pool. I had already finished Born a Crime, and Rich needed to finish it so we could leave it behind in the apartment. We both really loved it. Trevor Noah is of course hilarious, and he is also raw and direct about real systemic and familial challenges he faced during his childhood in South Africa at the end of apartheid. If you enjoy a good memoir about perseverance and chasing the life you believe you can have, pick this one up.

There was another American couple at the pool while we were. The young man was on sabbatical for a year from his job in Baltimore and was traveling long-term like us, and his girlfriend had flown in from New York to meet him for a two week vacation. He was a fellow Teach For America alum (go figure), and it was pretty interesting to share thoughts on places we had visited and exchange reflections.

Dinner at the Food Court

I’m telling you: so cheap and so good. We had already eaten at real restaurants twice that day! Don’t knock it until you try it.

Final Thoughts on Chiang Mai

I re-read this post, and I’m not sure I am capturing well what we loved so much about Chiang Mai, and perhaps that is because what we loved so much is that Chiang Mai felt like home. The apartment building felt like our apartment building in DC, and the cafes felt like our favorite coffee shops in Philly. Nimman was super walkable– we didn’t need Google maps to get around. We went to the gym, we read great books by the pool, we drank coffee slowly, we liked every bite of food we ate.

See, when you go on vacation, you want to see new things and explore different ways of life. Visit the temples; eat the fancy food; go, go, go.

But after 90 days on the road, in ten different countries, the escape we needed was to pretend we were home. Beautiful Chiang Mai gave us that from the minute our plane landed. That sense of home made Chiang Mai one of our most favorite destinations of all.

100%, we will make it back to Chiang Mai again.

September 18, 2018

Days 70 – 73: A Quick Detour to Chiang Rai, Thailand

As I shared in my last post, Rich and I had originally planned to travel from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to the beaches of Sihanoukville, Cambodia. However, when Rich wasn’t feeling well, we made the executive decision that a 13 hour bus ride was not in the cards for us. We decided to fly to Chiang Rai, Thailand for a few nights instead.

Let me tell you: this was a fabulous decision.

Day 70: Travel from Ho Chi Minh City to Chiang Rai, Thailand

Super easy. We took a flight from Ho Chi Ming City to Bangkok, and then flew from Bangkok to Chiang Rai. We flew into the Don Meung International Airport which, while the lesser of the two busy Bangkok international airports, still has six Priority Pass lounges.

on the way to Chiang Rai — Lounge life in Bangkok

The moral of the story being that we ate all of our meals for the day in airport lounges and only spent money on a cab once we reached Chiang Rai. Beautiful. (Also, beats a 13 hour bus ride).

Day 71: Calm and Lovely Chiang Rai

So we loved our time in Vietnam, but there is definitely an intensity about it: intense smells and loud noises, busy, crowded streets, and motorbikes everywhere.

Our most immediate impression of Chiang Rai was how much calmer and quieter it was.

Rich and I both worked in American high schools. Going from Vietnam to Chiang Rai was like chaperoning a high school dance for 3-4 hours and then stepping out into a quiet evening when the kids have all made their way home. The dance was a happy event, you are glad the school has dances, but it is also loud and sweaty and a bit hyped up. Oh how you appreciate the quiet night when it is over.

Wat Rong Seur Ten, The Blue Temple

Our lovely hotel provided bicycles to explore the town. Let me emphasize how much easier it was for me, a rather inexperienced bike rider, to ride on streets not filled with motorbikes. After breakfast, we enjoyed a leisurely bike ride to Wat Rong Seur Ten, commonly known as the Blue Temple.

biking in Chiang Rai — Biking in Chiang Rai was amazing, and I admittedly am not the best biker. I am also wearing this outfit.

The locals began construction on the temple in 2005 and concluded in 2016. It is beautiful. Rich felt like it was as magnificent as any cathedral in Europe, and it is hard to argue with him. The deep blues and golds are brilliant, and the statue of Buddha mesmerizing. A must see in Chiang Rai.

I’m not sure I had ever visited a Buddhist temple before, and I have since learned a few basic principles:

Knees and shoulders should be covered. Having a big scarf that fits in my purse has been clutch, even if I can’t ever quite figure out how to tie it right.
Your bottoms of your feet should not face the Buddha. It seems like most people sit on their feet while praying.
Don’t turn your back on the Buddha. I learned this one after we left. Rich and I both wanted pictures facing the camera with Buddha behind us, but it would have been more respectful to have a picture taken facing Buddha. Sorry.

amanda at blue temple in chiang rai — So I watched this young woman take this same shot, and she looked so glamorous taking it. When Rich and I looked at my version, we couldn’t stop laughing.

The amazing Buddha inside the Blue Temple

The exterior of the Blue Temple– it was pretty crowded, and that was BEFORE the tour bus pulled up just as we were leaving.

Wat Phra Kaew (More Temples)

From the Blue Temple, we biked over to Wat Phra Kaew. Wat means temple, so saying the Wat Phra Kaew temples is wrong (like saying St. Paul’s Cathedral Church). I’ll do my best to avoid the redundancy.

Wat Phra Kaew was an older complex with a series of temples as well as a museum. The space was green and quite serene, with hardly any tourists compared to the Blue Temple. I could understand how it would be an ideal place to pray and reflect, tucked away a bit from the more popular temples.

Apparently, tattoos of the Buddha, while popular, are super disrespectful. #themoreyouknow

sweaty in Chiang Rai — When you are wearing a scarf to be modest and show respect, but your husband thinks it is for him to wipe his gross, sweaty face on.

Time at the Pool

While Rich and I spent an inordinate amount of time at beaches in Europe (my mom called this year of travel our “beach trip”), Le Patta was the first spot we stayed with a pool.

Rich and I both had great books (Commonwealth by Ann Patchett for me and Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng for Rich), and spending a relaxing afternoon reading by the pool was just what the doctor ordered to cure Rich fully of his lingering sore throat.

pool in Chiang Rai — The pool at Le Patta

After one day in Chiang Rai, we felt fantastic.

Day 72: The White Temple

Gym Time!

I should also mention that our hotel had a gym. I haven’t talked much about our health journey over the past year, but when we even started talking about even thinking about doing this trip, it was over the holidays, and we were not in the best shape. We had moved cities and changed jobs, and the weight had just sort of crept up on us. How does that happen so easily once you turn 30?

When we committed to the trip, we also committed to getting in better shape. We ran a half marathon. I convinced Rich to try hot yoga, and we went 10 times (at 90 minutes a pop, that’s not nothing). Rich and I started making it to the gym before work and going for walks and runs after.

We knew we needed to be in better shape to face all of the physical challenges in our travels. Rich and I were also just so excited, and the idea of looking better in pictures got us to the gym on the days we didn’t want to go until we really did want to go every day.

And it all paid off! Since January, nine months ago, Rich has lost 40 pounds, and I have lost almost 20. We feel great. Which is the longest way of saying, we had a gym at our hotel in Chiang Rai, and we were glad.

Wat Rong Khun, The White Temple

Local Chiang Rai artist Chalermchai Kositpipat created the Wat Rong Khun as an artistic masterpiece to honor the Buddha. There is a small entry fee for foreigners, but Kositpipat has largely funded the project himself so that he can retain artistic license over his work. He started work on the temple in 1997, and it is not scheduled to be complete until 2070.

While photography is not allowed inside the temple, the exterior provides beautiful views in almost every direction. We had a great time wandering the grounds.

White Temple in Chiang Rai — The White Temple is pretty unbelievable

There is also a golden temple on the same site.

This was one of our favorite sites on our whole trip.

The scarf comes in handy again, this time making my skirt a bit longer.

Quick fun story about transportation: We took a bus to the White Temple (20 baht, ~$0.60/person), which while a bit eclectic in decoration, was a pretty normal city bus.

On the way back, however, the “bus” was basically a pickup truck with benches on the sides and a roof, and the bus also doubled as a package delivery service. Several times we stopped for the driver to grab boxes from local businesses which he then tucked under our feet. When the back got too full, the boxes were tied on top! Can’t make it up.

Chiang Rai bus — One of the packages that rode next to me on the “bus”

Day 73: We Say Goodbye to Chiang Rai at the Cat Cafe

Our hotel checkout time was noon, and our flight wasn’t until 4:45 PM, so natch I insisted that we pass the time at THE LOCAL CAT CAFE.

Quick backstory: My dear friend Tom had been insisting that he was going to open a pop up cat cafe in DC since we were in graduate school in 2009. Our friend group thought this was a hilarious but completely ridiculous and outlandish idea, and we made fun of ^^eow~ (get it? So clever.) for years.

Dear Tom, I’m sorry. You were right and totally ahead of the curve. The cat cafe was everything.

It was my first visit to a cat cafe, but it’s pretty straight forward: you order a coffee or some food, take off your shoes, and go sit on the floor in a room with at least 20 cats. You aren’t allowed to pick them up or grab them– they have to come to you– and you aren’t supposed to feed them human food. If you want to buy their love with food (which you will definitely want to do), you can buy a cat treat for about a dollar. Which Rich may have argued was a bit expensive since we only spent ~$0.60 on an actual bus ticket the day before. Love is buying the cat treat for your over excited wife anyway.

So we spent about two hours playing with cats and taking pictures of ourselves playing with cats. It was really fun, even if I did sneeze and have a runny nose for the next two days.

Rich: You didn’t tell me you were allergic to cats.

Amanda: I have never been in a room with twenty cats before!

He agreed to look at the camera but smiling was too much for grumpy cat.

Memorializing our time at the cat cafe

Rich’s best friend, named Skinny Cat by Rich, crawled up in his lap.

Love is my husband buying me the expensive cat treat so I can care for my kitty friends properly.

My new best friend. We watched this cat pretty viciously attack another cat to take food a fellow customer had given it. Also, why do I look creepier than the cat does.

I mean, Rich didn’t hate the cat cafe.

And then we headed to the airport. Next stop: Phnom Penh, Cambodia!