THE [UN]LUXURIOUS JOURNEY

There is something about Phuket

2010-02-17T22:34:00.000-08:00

yes, yes, yes ... there is something about Phuket - SALA Phuket- a paradise on earth. This one is not to miss.

Just to give a quick preview, Phuket is the largest island in Thailand, a historical crossover between east and west. Today it attracts most of his tourists to the Patong beach-the center of its nightlife, never ending parties, tolerated prostitution, strong drinks and rest of activities of any kind. Fun, fun, fun for out of army Israelis :), backpackers from all over, party animals and men in their fifties hoping for a second Renaissance.

SALA entrance

However if you long for more of a romantic and quite setting your place is on the other side at SALA Phuket. This is one of a kind resort on a Mai Khao beach(part of a national parkland), north of Patong, designed by Department of Architecture, Bangkok.


Mai-Khao Beach

SALA was designed as a modern resort influenced by Sino-Portugese heritage of the Phuket province. The modest and highly thought out spaces give way to the experiential rather then visual sensations, yet no, it is very pleasant to the eye..

Entrance Loby

If you are lucky as we were, you will be upgraded to a private pool vila, with stunning outdoor bathroom and shower, freestanding bathtub, bottle of shampane and a box of chocolates. Later you will discover the public area of the resort grouped around two large swimming pools at the beachfront, restaurants and bars... Ahhh... I want back!!! Now price-wise, forget about Ritz Carlton standarts, here it is much more down to earth and worth!

the room

Villa outdoors


By the pool in the Villa

Sunsets to die for!

One of the restaurants

Breakfast ! The Healthiest meal of the day!

Public


oh God!! life is good!!

No football and still smiling

Public Bathroom Facilities

The real deal!

2010-02-16T21:06:00.000-08:00

Hold on! Hold on! I almost forgot! If you are in Chiang Mai, and your pockets burst with green, please stay in Dahara Dhevi (from Mandarin Oriental). Here is...
It was an early early morning... cloudy in my head. We woke up to go to an organized excursion in Chiang Rai- the north most part of Thailand. We were promised amazing trails, live water and smelly springs, beautiful views and fun fun fun..My body was refusing everything, we were incredibly tired and cranky.. all this was planned because of my ~~lovely curiousity~~ hungry stubbornness to see the whole world in two days and obviously kill yourself.. My hubby's wish just to go to spa and relax was somehow denied earlier a day before, so you can figure how ~~exited~~ he was!
So here we were in a stuffy bus with another 10 co-trippers. Our wondering eyes browsed around , when we suddenly understood that our guide doesn't speak much English.. at this point we were half an hour into the trip. The further the better, the co-trippers, as we notice were of a golden age. One of them coughed into my back.. The other one snored..loudly.. Some talked even louder..
"Stop the bus!!" I yelled, "my husband doesn't feel well!!" or was it me that didn't feel well? (we informed everybody it was upset stomach and minor poisoning)- everybody looked pitifully and somewhat scared for us. 10 minutes later 1 hour into the ride we found our self's out of the bus on a thin road in the midst of green mountains. No one life creature around.
Oh I wish i still had the photos! what a beauty was it around us!! Maybe i will still find them somewhere..
Finally about 20 min into our hopeless waiting there was a van.. it stopped ...
How would I make it the most clear... tit was about 6 ft wide.. there was 3 long benches, along the sides and in the middle...it was full with people, 50% of which were high school girls about 11 -13 years old.
They looked at us, as at the most exotic animals.. I think the girls really liked Donny..
So these really really good people (God bless them!) , rearranged themselves to give us 2 seats!! I don't even know right now how all that happened , but there was no space to flatten our feet on the floor of the van.
As it turned out, all the girls were educated and spoke a good English, they explained to us where are we going and where we should get out. They were very shy and timid at the same time, looked at Donny, smiled, laughed an in the end made tons of pictures of him!! We did as well and again I need to find them somewhere...
So to make this long story short, after getting out of this cramped situation, we hurried up to Dahara Dhevi. We didn't care about anything besides getting to paradise and spoiling ourselves. WELL, WE GOT IT!

Dheva Spa-entrance

Dheva spa reception -waiting for thai massage

one of this can be your bungalow, and you will also learn to cultivate rice..

It was starting to get dark, but we refused leave and decided to stay for a dinner! Who will ban us from a fabulous living?

in a meanwhile we saw a traditional dance at Le Grand Lanna and had few appetizers (but look at the carpet!!!)

TIP: street food tastes exactly the same -costs less..

up to the restaurant!

Farang Ses - a French restaurant, which is located in a magnificent Lanna style building overlooking paddy fields and tall coconut palms. Its vaulted wooden interior is resplendent with sculpted chandeliers and enormous teak pillars clad in sheets of beaten copper relief.


Finaly! a good piece of meet and lobster bisque. This is probably the best restaurant in Northern Thailand.

Dhara Dhevi-Mandarin Oriental
51/4 Chiang Mai - Sankampaeng Road Moo 1 T. Tasala A. Muang
Chiang Mai 50000, Thailand
+66 (53) 888 929 mocnx-reservations@mohg.com

A night of light...

2010-02-14T22:30:00.000-08:00

As mentioned in the previous post, our occasion was so special that our resort couldn't help it but give us a night of light. We had 3 lanterns to send out to the world and to make our wishes.. It felt so special and magic...Hope it all comes true... thanks Ratilanna..

TRIBAL MARKETING

2010-02-14T18:44:00.000-08:00

Traveling to the northern tribes of Thailand was another unusual experience. Most of them come from Tibetan-Burmese-Chinese origin. Each one has their own culture, language, dress code :) and traditions. Extremely colorful. Rich with goods, poor with teeth...All the different tribes live in small villages, each about 15-20 households( their houses built on stilts, underneath which domestic animals are usually kept). Most of the tribes believe in nature, guardian spirits, soul and supreme substance. Agriculture practice (especially paddy fields) and hand crafting are the main sources for the tribes income. Oh yeah.. and the tourists of course...

Rice field cultivation:
The Karen:
The Karen tribe is believed to originate in southeast Tibet, though the majority live today in Mayanmar(Burma). Long Necks are famous for wearing golden rings around their necks, elbows and knees. The story tells , that once when living in the woods,while the men of the tribe were working in the fields, women used to get attacked by the tigers. With time women learned to cover sensitive parts of their body with rings and to add up more and more so there will be no exposed area for a tiger to grab on.
Since then, the tribe has migrated, the tigers are gone, but the rings still stay as a dominant part of Karen tradition.

Observation:
Walking through the village and browsing through their goods resonated with visiting a human zoo.. Yes this is sad.. As much as I longed to dip into ancient culture, I had this strong feeling that they are not doing it from choice. Many sad girls were sitting at their stalls and weaving, which took away our curiosity of photographing them. We just wanted to give respect. Some pictures still took place... only to show the world what is going on.. you decide... However on the other side of the coin, I was quite impressed by the products the tribes offered on display of their life. Blankets, table cloth, scarves, skirts, blouses, all hand made and embroidered in variety of colors, stitches,threads etc. Metal and silver necklaces, headpieces and rings engraved with tribal signs and other decorations. All this was unique and inspiring. I swore to get back to the sawing machine as soon as we get back home!!

Unmarried girl will wear a white tunic with a V neck. Married women will wear blouses and skirts with bold colors (usually blue and red).Not married yet....is it why so sad?? :(

Married and happy :

Lahu Tribe: Usually dressed in black clothes with embroidered patterns. Different decoration colors follow on pockets and sleeves trim. In this case though, she forgot to dress up....

But she was prompt to run to her stall to show us her handcrafts. We couldn't resist and we bought a bracelet :)

Here we said good bye Chiang Mai, chiang long mai...

Chiang long mai

2010-02-14T17:03:00.000-08:00

Reading the NYTimes, while backlogging about the trip, I can not help but think that it was a great timing. However I'm truly worried about this amazing and beautiful country and pray for its quick recovery from the conflict and for its future well being.

So we stayed at Ratilanna resort, a cute little place on the river Ping Mae, 10 min away from the city noise. Upon the arrival, we were welcomed with cold towels and cool lemon grass drinks accompanied with these nice eclairs you saw in the beginning.
http://www.ratilannachiangmai.com3hotel greetings in chiang mai:

buddas everywhere :)

angklan Road, Muang,
Chiang Mai Thailand 50100
Tel.+66(0) 53 999 333 Fax. +66(0) 53 999 33

aerial view

Our fabulous room, should have taken the rug home!!

First night of our stay, the resort hosted a lantern lighting celebration, an old Thai tradition. Lanterns are massively lit on the Lanna festival of lights which happens once a year, however many people use lanterns during the year as well on celebrations or special occasions. Releasing a sky lantern is considered good luck and many Thais believe they are symbolic of problems and worries floating away. Our occasion was definitely special and later on we decided to try it by ourselves :)

infinity...

and of course breakfast to die for :)

as sleepy as I'm, dragged by my feet out of bed!!- never missed one breakfast!!

The road to the silk

2010-02-13T22:46:00.000-08:00

Though the most famous silk producers in the world considered to be China and Japan, Thailand has a big part in the industry as well, mainly due to the early efforts (back in the 60s) of Jim Thompson, American businessman, who was the first one to introduce Thai silk to the international market. Jim Thompson silk industry still stays the leading silk trademark in Thailand, but along with it you can frequently see independent silk villages spread around the country producing the silk on the macro and micro level and delivering its processing secrets to us.
So here we were at the silk village in Chiang Mai watching and learning the fascinating stuff from the women dressed in traditional sarongs like back in a days....
Silk production turned to be a very scrupulous and complex task, evolving multiple stages of growing and breeding the worms, preparing and extracting fibers, washing, drying, twisting and finally creating.. Most of it is a human hand work, excluding technology or electric machinery.

So here it is, the SILK WORM, which after being emerged from the egg, feeds from the mulberry tree leaves:

over time it spins a protective cocoon around itself so it can transform into chrysalis:
at this stage the chrysalis emerges from the cocoon as a moth:
the moths mate, and the female moth lays about 300-400 eggs. Few days later the moths die, but the life cycle continues. then the cocoons are being placed to boil in a hot water to release the sericin (the gum that practically glues the fiber into a cocoon) from the fibers.

then the threads are being extracted from the cocoon and reeled to a wheel,whereas one cocoon can produce about 1500-2000F of silk filament.
after the silk is washed and dried with soap it is being twisted to create a thread, the twist pattern and the quality determines the quality of the fabric.

after the thread is ready the fabric can be made:

usually, about 3000 cocoons will be used to produce 1 yard of fabric.

and this is what u get in the end:

this was a fascinating and exiting process to see and now we definitely appreciate Thai Silk!!

Doi Suthep or Know what you eat!

2010-02-11T00:33:00.000-08:00

Our next day in Chiang Mai was a cultural journey to Doi Suthep, one of the most important temples in the North, meaning when you tell a monk that you went to Doi Suthep, they all get super excited and look at you with a lot of appreciation. So the temple is located on the hill and opens up to beautiful views of Chiang Mai. Getting there was a little work out-306 steps up ,but the effort was well paid off by the beauty of the temple and its tranquil atmosphere.

On the way up, we have noticed multiple food stalls with fries, fried bananas, strawberrys and lots of other local food. Hunger was approaching, and going all the steps up on empty stomach didn't feel right...Hmm smells good, we said and decided to have some snacks. Strawberrys with sugar, salt and chilis looked interesting and some fries with chilis nearby. These were not regular fries, but they looked plain enough and nothing to worry about. Eating and wondering around a little more, we met a thai man, who happened to work in the states long time ago. Chatting a little about Thailand and New York, out of curiosity I asked what is the name of the thing that i'm eating? The answer was:"Ohh,, this is really good! It is fried pork skin!!!"""....
The following picture was taken right at that moment- my reaction was predictable...sh..t..what the hell??? as i was almost puking out all this fries i just ate. The lesson learned the hard way-Know what you eat!!
and never ever I ate without knowing what it is.....

Ready to go up:
On the last breath:
the light in the end of the steps:

proud of getting there...and discovering that the temple is under construction....
but still beautifull:

getting a blessing :

gold:

the monks: mostly all the men in Thailand join a monkhood in their lifes called Sangha. Becoming a monk is equal making a merit for yourself and for your family, while merit and goodness is considered to be something that determains person's Karma.
The service in the monkhood might be 3 month and more, and is usualy initiated by a man above 20 years old ,before a major parts of life like marriage etc. While every monk needs to observe 227 rules, the main ones are: refrain from destroying living beings;refrain from taking what is not given;refrain from sexual misconduct;refrain from false speech; and refrain from taking intoxicants. With all that, monks are highly respected in Thailand and represent a very valuable layer of society, a subject of pride to every parent.

the view from above:

now can we go to the waterfalls??? pleeeaaase??

Mo Chiang Mai

2010-02-06T01:15:00.000-08:00

We were completely caught in between adventure and relaxation, so we had no time for the blog. But here we are again. So our next stop after Bangkok was the Northern part of Thailand, city of Chiang Mai, where we spent our next 4 days.We were looking for a combination of culture and adventure at one, and we started from the elephant training camp. Northen Thailand is considered to be the center of elephant farms and we couldn't resist. During our day with elephant we learned to be the "mahouts"-ones who take care of elephants, were feeding them, washing them, learning to ride them etc. The bonding was strong! hope the camp takes good care of them. Note: thai elephants are significantly smaller than African ones, their life lengths is similar to humans, they are very smart and have an excellent memory, so when feeding them don't favor anyone, and give everyone equally, otherwise beware of being boxed!! :) Don't worry it didn't happen to us :)

Some vocabulary:
Pai=go How=stop Qwe=turn Nolong=get down Dee=Good job Feeding Manoy:

Good girl Manoy!
Katanchik!
Elephants are attacking! Donny give them all the banana!!
In Training:

Ready to go!
Proffesionals:
And did we mention that in the process you get dirty and wet??:)

All in all was a great trip and amazing experience!! highly reccomended!

Leaving Mandarin Oriental never easy...

2010-02-02T05:40:00.000-08:00

So the day has come to leave Mandarin Oriental Bangkok to Chiang Mai-Northen part of Thailand. This wasn't easy.. and even painful...Our stay was flawless...it was amazing...it was a paradise. Thank u Mandarin for amazing accommodations, incredible service and amenities, but why why why to charge 20$ for internet per day???!!! :)

New wing Lobby:

A little bit of background:
Originally Mandarin Oriental Bangkok was built as a sailors accommodation on the shore in 1879 and was called the Oriental. In 1881 the property was bought by a danish business man and redesigned into a a first luxury hotel in Siam. Very soon it became a legendary property and acknowledged as one of the world's great hotels. It became Mandarin Oriental in 1976. Literary legends such as Somerset Maugham, Joseph Conrad, James Michener and Noel Coward have all visited the hotel, which dedicated its historic suites to their names, All suites, are individually decorated. No two suites are alike. Even the flower arrangements, decorative items and Thai silk bath robes are all unique to each suite. Usually hotel has a ration of 3 staff member per room.

The Oriental Hotel
Charoenkrung Road Soi 40
Bangkok
Tel: 02 659 9000
the historic wing lobby:

King Rama V and Nicolai II at (Mandarin) Oriental 1910:

Breakfast:

Feeding the fish in the river, u will be surprised but they eat everything, bread, muffins,cakes, pancakes, maple syrup, butter, fruit, french toast ,noodles etc.
Living a dream:am i crazy or the water is cold?? probably i'm crazy cs mandarin is flawless...

chilling in the infinity poolthai dinner:
Can we just never check out and stay forever??

Eat whatever floats....or all the roads lead to falafel

2010-02-02T04:19:00.000-08:00

Our next day was well spent at the Damnoen Saduak -floating market outside Bangkok. The market operates on the weekends only and accumulates the most delicious thai food you could possibly crave. All the food is being cooked on the boats by locals and sold to the wondering tourists and thais as well.
Observation:
it is really hard to express the colors and the vibe with an amateur camera, Nikon d90 would be more then appropriate here.

Mini coconut pancakes and a noodle soup were to die for and were eaten too fast before we could even take a picture of it.
variety of curries and soups:

Mango with sticky rise in variety of colors:

and if you would like to have a steak, it is there as well...but thank you, next time...

Delicious, delicious spring rolls, but really delicious....

frankly we were pleasantly surprised by the food- it proved to be the best! should we take some cooking classes?
in the evening after spending some quality time by the pool, we went out for a few drinks and Bangkok scenery. According to few suggestions we chose a Sirocco Sky Bar at Lebua state tower located on the 54 floor and indeed were pretty impressed.

View on the Chao Praya river:

After getting back down to earth and having an hour foot massage, we stumbled upon this:

and then there was this:

and then we called it a day!

Bangkok continued...

2010-02-01T10:00:00.000-08:00

After visiting the grand palace we proceeded to Wat Pho-The reclining Buddha or the "Chilling Buddha" (Donny's invention). Gold Plated Buddha is 46 meters long and 15 meters high, and is designed to illustrate the passing of the Buddha into nirvana.
So here it is- pretty cool:

An Observation: Thais love their king, no matter what they do or how they live, everybody talks about their king with a great appreciation and love, phenomenal.

Fried banana stall-we love the king:

Wat Arun-the Temple of Dawn, a representative of Cambodian style architecture was the next stop:

the view from the temple:

after visiting the temple, we got nicely accommodated at the Deck cafe on the other side of the river, sipping cold drink and enjoying the view.
The Deck,
Arun Residence,
36-38 Soi Pratunokyung Maharat Rd tel: 02 221 9158

in btw the temples we have passed by the amulet market where u can find an amulet for any occasion in life!!! they are sold in different sizes, colors,shapes and supposedly will protect u from anything u need. We didn't buy any as we are an amulets of each other :)

exhausted after a long day, we headed to a local spa place and got an amazing one hour massage for literary 15$ each.

An Observation:

after all these and another temples to come, we were amazed by the level of detail and ornamentation they include! Dear fellow designers and architects, it is incredible! Today we are in a new age of design when minimalism and simplicity ,technology and systematical approaches prevail everywhere, but this ones are unbeatable! And sadly or not, no technology can beat a cheap labor. this elaborated designs represent an enormous,incomprehensible,tedious work that is done by human hands, and it proves again, THE GOD IS IN THE DETAILS!

Buddah exhaustion or the God is in the details

2010-01-30T00:20:00.000-08:00

Four days in Bangkok passed momentarily, we came out to conquer the temples and visited floating markets. Exhausted from the extensive day wonderings, evenings were spent in between high class bars for drinks and street markets for food. Occasionally passing by Patpong market-the red light district of Bangkok, we got to know about all the possible tricks one can do with his male/female distingwishers................................We escaped right away!

taking boat express to the temples:
A fabulous couple!

The Grand palace and the Emerald Buddah .

Emerald Buddah is the most valued temple in Bangkok located on the grounds of the grand Palace which history dates back to 17th-18th -the fall of Ayuthaia kingdom and the rise of a new one by Rama I at the location of a nowdays Bangkok . The Emerald Buddah temple was purposely build by king Rama I to house a Buddha image carved from a large solid piece of green jadite (jasper). Too small to see on the pic ,but this is what it is about.

Indian Style Stupa, all gold!

oh yeah...by the way it is all bare foot

were caught by the rain , which can also be very romantic!!!

there is so much more to show, but have to escape to the silk factory, to be continued....

The land of smiles makes you smile

2010-01-29T10:34:00.001-08:00

On the first day of our arrival to the "City of Angels" the Fabulous Journey decided to do nothing but indulge in a nice spa and rest. And since honeymooners usually get all the possible upgrades, treats and amenities, indeed, everything was fabulous.

few observations:

It is winter and it is 85F- how do u people, live through summer??
Everybody is smiling at us -is that because we are so white and tall? :)
Fruits are delicious, kinds are endless, we don't know them all - our pick: Passion fruit
We start to see our friend Jintana in every second thai person we look at ..!

Sawadeeka!

Historic lobby of our hotel :

Spa like no other:

In the evening we decided to see a traditional dance show and enjoy a Thai deserts menu:

some thai jelly sweets: delicious!!

Fly Nippon if u can

2010-01-29T09:45:00.000-08:00

While boarding on ANA airplane we didn't expect anything, but a horrible 25 hour flight to Bangkok. And we were pleasantly surprised-this was the best flight of our lives. Space-huge, Food-awesome! Technology-Japanese!!Chairs-the Most Comfortable! Staff couldn't be better!!! The stewardesses were so sweet that we couldn't help but smile and even laugh back at them for the whole flight-they also changed outfits while serving food!!
This wasn't the end of our Japanese adoration- the Narita airport in Tokio with 3 hour flight connection, was a trip in itself. Super clean, super polite, super efficient, super tasty. From this moment on , we can't wait to go back there for a longer trip!Origato, Irashimaya!!

So far the best Japanese food we've ever ate. The Non-Kosher Salad.
Sushi Kyotatsu-No.3 Satelite,Terminal 1,Narita International Airport,Narita-City,Japan.

I wish we could read Japanese: