for the love of doughnuts

Between our Hua Hin beach time and Chiang Mai time, we had to travel through the Bangkok airport. As we were walking around wasting time waiting for our plane to take off,  we began to notice people carrying Krispy Kreme bags. You can imagine our surprise and excitement. If you know us or have read our blog for a while, you know about our love for doughnuts. I tried to chase down one person to ask where they got them, but they vanished into the crowd too quickly. We searched the list of restaurants in our terminal and alas, no mention of Krispy Kreme. 

When we got to Chiang Mai, we googled it. We found that a Krispy Kreme had opened in Bangkok in September of 2010. It opened at a large mall in the center of the city. We checked our tickets for the way home and realized we had a pretty decent sized layover in Bangkok on our way out. Was it worth leaving the airport (in crazy Bangkok traffic) and risk missing our connecting flight to Delhi?? Yes, we believed it was. 

We researched all about travel in Bangkok and found we could take the metro from the airport and with only one train change, we could get to KK. We had it all planned out. When we arrived in Bangkok we had to collect our checked bags. We tried to go ahead and check in for our next flight but they said they couldn't check us in until later. Bummer! We weren't going to lug our big bags on the metro. We saw a sign for left baggage and checked with them and they said they would store our bags for a small fee. Score!

 such a nice metro system!

Bangkok

 

 yayyy! success!

 We got to walk around several nice malls and eat a yummy Italian lunch- what a treat!

 We grabbed some doughnuts to share with the Gainors in Delhi and then headed back to the airport... 

AND we made it with plenty of time to spare :) 

Sticky Waterfall

We went looking for Sticky Waterfall (or Bua Tong as it it actually called) on Saturday. We thought we knew right where we were going, but after about 3 hours of driving in the mountains looking for it, we gave up. We were super bummed that we hadn't found it. We had heard that is was so cool. We had kind of reserved Monday for a hang out, do whatever last day, but we decided to try again on Monday. After about 1.5 hours of driving, we found it! So glad we did, it was such a neat, unique waterfall. 

 There are high amounts of calcium carbonate in the spring that flows over the falls and the calcium sticks on the rocks as the water flows down. It creates a very non-slick or "sticky" surface and you can walk straight up the falls. 

 We hiked down to the very bottom on a path and then we climbed up the falls. Here is Chad at the very bottom...

 so, so pretty! It's crazy that we could walk straight up that with no problem.

 This was a log that stretched across the river at one point. Look at the difference in where the river runs over it and where it doesn't. So neat!

at the top of the waterfall

Chiang Mai: the last days

Here are some random pictures of our last few days in Chiang Mai...

One day we were driving around in the mountains and we were so low on gas. We couldn't find a gas station anywhere. Finally we came upon this little gas stand. Different, but it got the job done! 

Chad got a fish pedicure on Saturday. This is where the fish eat the dead skin off of your feet. He said it was the strangest thing. At least he got to be near some fish, he's been missing fishing. You couldn't pay me to do this... yuck!

We shopped at a fun pottery place. It was huge! Mom, you would've loved this!

A new favorite... mango sticky rice

Sunday market... it just kept going and going and going

(can you spot Chad in the crowd?)

We decided on our last day to go to Starbucks for the morning. We found a great little spot overlooking the Thapae Gate. 

Then we headed off to try to find Sticky Waterfall (which we had already tried and failed). We were able to find it and we loved it! Pictures from that coming soon...

flight of the gibbon

We got home last night after being gone for exactly four weeks. It is hard to believe all that happened in those four weeks. In some ways it seems like the accident and when my family was here was forever ago when we really just said goodbye to them three weeks ago. It was a lot of mixed emotions coming home, that we are still sorting through and processing. We are taking it one day at a time and just trying to move forward after such a long, strange break. 

I still have a couple Thailand posts to catch up on, so here we go....

On Sunday (January 8) we signed up to do Flight of the Gibbon. This is a ziplining adventure through the rain forest. We had heard good things about it and discussed it with my family and we all decided it would be a fun thing to do. Once we cancelled all of the original plans, Chad and I debated whether or not to sign up for it again as we re-planned our trip. We waited for a little while to see how I was feeling. Head injuries/bruising/swelling + ziplining = a little risky.... but thankfully (praise God!) by the time we got to Chiang Mai I was feeling really good and knew it wouldn't be an issue. SO GLAD we decided to do it. It was so much fun and a great adventure.  

According to the website, it is "the largest and highest rainforest canopy adventure in the world". It is 3 hours, 39 stations and skybridges and so much fun!

There were Arabica coffee bean trees along one of the hikes. Chad picked some berries and ate the raw coffee beans. He loves all things coffee :)

gibbons around station 7

tree house

ziplining "honeymoon style" 

It was so beautiful being up in the canopy! 

After ziplining we had a delicious lunch and visited Kompong Falls before they dropped us off at our hotel. 

If you're ever in Chiang Mai, we would totally recommend doing Flight of the Gibbon! 

Maesa Elephant Camp

We went to visit the elephants at Maesa Elephant Camp on Thursday. After getting quite turned around for about 30 minutes, we made it there just in time to see the elephant show and then hop on our elephant for our 1 hour ride through the mountains.

waiting for the show to begin

playing soccer

painting

Here is a little clip from the show. The elephants were playing the harmonicas with their trunks. 

When we were getting on our elephant ride (from up on a platform) this other elephant thought he was missing out on the action and kept sniffing around us as we waited.

our view

On our elephant, Mae Moon. She was 36 years old. 

We loved being in the mountains so much. The weather has been absolutely perfect. 

There were elephants everywhere!