ELEPHANT SANCTUARY AT KOH SAMUI ISLAND, THAILAND, Guest Post by Tom Scheaffer

Samui Elephant Kingdom, Thailand

My brother Tom Scheaffer loves to travel and has previously written about his trips for The Intrepid Tourist. In early February he went to Thailand. Here is his report.

Koh Samui Island, Thailand

I recently took a two week trip to Koh Samui Island in Thailand. After a long, transpacific flight, I was rewarded with a very peaceful and restful hotel right on the water. Swimming in the sea twice a day was a real highlight. The ocean is calm and the water is the perfect temperature. I was there with many friends from the Sri Chinmoy meditation center.

Sunset at the Celes Samui Resort and Spa

This is the view from where we ate in the hotel, the Celes Samui Resort and Spa. It was perfect weather--warm, but not too hot and no rain.

Elephant at Samui Elephant Kingdom

We visited the Samui Elephant Kingdom, which is a sanctuary for elephants that have been mistreated or needed a home. They come from all parts of Thailand. It was really fun and the elephants are so gentle and nice. The founder, Chokchai Rueangsri, has developed a beautiful and very extensive natural area where elephants can roam freely and be treated in the most humane way possible.

Feeding the elephants.

The most exciting thing was feeding them! We made large cookies, the size of a tennis ball, using bananas and other protein powders, and then held them out, and they would gently take them with their trunks, and then place them in their mouths. The elephants were amazingly gentle and we had a chance to even approach them and pet them. 

For a complete report on Tom's group's visit to the Samui Elephant Kingdom, with dozens of wonderful photos, go to Live From the Road, on the Sri Chimnoy Peace Run site.

(Note that Koh Samui is sometimes spelled Ko Samui. It is the same place.)

Tom Scheaffer

FLOATING MARKETS OF THAILAND from Aunt Carolyn's Memoir

Floating Market, Thailand

I have never been to Thailand, but I learned about the traditional floating markets when doing a research project. I would love to see them someday.  My husband’s Aunt Carolyn was luckier. She visited Thailand in the 1960's and '70's and wrote about the floating markets in her memoir.

Ready for launch trip to floating markets

Every visitor to Bangkok visits the floating markets. One takes a motor launch on the Chao Phyra River for some distance down stream, then turns off into a small canal or klong, for a close-up view of the klong people. Luxuriant vegetation and overhanging trees lining the klong show that the jungle is near.

Canal with boats

Soon the market appears with many sampans jockeying for position in the crowded market for the day’s trading. The sampans are filled with exotic fruits: mangoes, papaya, rambutan (a small red prickly fruit whose succulent pulp belied its outer appearance.)  I tried a “love apple” but found it loveless. Bargaining is done from boat to boat. There are also platforms built at the canal’s edge where more traditional trading is done.

Bargaining for Batiks

I first visited Thailand when there were no buses from the airport to the city.  The road had recently been graded, but not paved.  My tour group rode in a procession of cars.  In front of our hotel, the Erawan, the wide canal was being filled in and the street is now a wide boulevard. 
Excerpted from Up and Down and Around the World With Carrie by Carolyn T. Arnold

More about the floating markets:
Damnoen Saduak is a group of canals about fifty miles from the capital city of Bangkok.  It is the biggest floating market in Thailand. Its canals were built around 1866 when Thailand was called Siam and was ruled by King Rama the Fourth. (Siam began to be called Thailand in 1939.  The name means “free nation.”)

Every morning the canals are filled with long boats piled high with fruit, vegetables, rice and other crops grown on country farms.  Thousands of people, including many tourists, shop at this colorful and noisy floating market. The main canal at Damnoen Saduak, which connects the Mae Klong river and the Tacheen River, is 32 km long. About 200 smaller canals branch off the main canal and within this complex are three market areas--Ton Khem, Kia Kui and Khum Phitak.

Floating Market

Most of the goods at the floating market are sold by women wearing bright blue shirts and blue pants.  Wide-brimmed hats made of bamboo and palm leaves shade them from the hot sun. Expertly steering their boats, they paddle up and down the canals.  Some sell mangoes, grapes, coconuts.  Some cook noodles or fried bananas on small stoves on their boats.  Others sell fish, meat and other goods.

Most of Thailand’s food is grown in the rich soil on its broad central plain.  Water comes to the fields from the river through thousands of small canals, a system of water highways that connects farms to towns and cities. Canals used to be common in most towns and cities as well.   People used the water for washing and drinking and boats were the main form of transportation. In recent years, however, most of the canals have been filled in and made into streets. (See comment by Aunt Carolyn above.)  Now taxis, cars, and bicycles go where boats once traveled. People get the water they need from faucets connected to pipes underground and buy what they need from markets along the street. Just a few canal systems and floating markets remain in the towns of Thailand.

More about Caroline T. Arnold:
Perhaps the original intrepid tourist was Carolyn T. Arnold, my husband’s aunt.  A single school teacher in Des Moines, Iowa, she began traveling abroad when she was in her forties, beginning with a bicycling trip through Ireland in 1950.  She went on from there to spend a year as a Fulbright Exchange Teacher in Wales, to more trips to Europe and beyond, and eventually became a tour leader, taking all her nieces and nephews (including Art) on her travels.  When she retired from teaching, she wrote of her experiences in a memoir called Up and Down and Around the World with Carrie.  Today, as I read of her travels, I marvel at her spirit of adventure at a time when women did not have the independence they do today.  You can read of some of her other adventures in these posts on this blog:  October 21, 2013; October 7, 2013; July 29, 2013.

(All photos are by Carolyn T. Arnold)  

BANGKOK, THAILAND: Buddhist Temples, the Flower Market and More, Guest Post by Cynthia Watters

Bangkok, Thailand.  Temple.

In April, my friend Cynthia Watters and her husband Chris took a trip to China and Thailand.  While their visit to Bangkok turned out not to be exactly what they planned, it ended up being a good end to a full and exciting trip.  Here is Cynthia's report:

Ariyasom Villa Hotel, Bangkok

Following a great 17-day Viking River Cruises trip to China, we were to spend a week in Thailand and Cambodia with a guide plus car and driver through Kensington Tours.  By the time we flew into Bangkok, I was feeling under the weather with cough and sniffles and regretting the decision to see more of Asia while we had the opportunity.  We were met by our lovely guide Pukki and driven to the Ariyasom Villa Hotel in Bangkok.  The hotel was delightful—24 rooms in villas situated in lush palm tree gardens with a lovely pool and an excellent indoor/outdoor restaurant with a charming, attentive staff. 

Bangkok.  Temple.

The next morning we embarked on a full-day tour of Bangkok with Pukki and the driver.  We saw Buddhist temples, the flower market, had lunch in a boat on the river followed by a river tour in a smaller boat, and ended with a massage.  In the evening we attended a dinner theater with traditional Thai dance.  All lovely, but I was tired. 

When Pukki arrived the following morning, she recommended a trip to the hospital rather than the day’s tour.  It seemed our hotel was one block from what she said was the best hospital in southeast Asia, the Bumrungrad International Hospital.  Add medical tourism to our itinerary.  The clinic at Bumrungrad was fantastic: excellent, courteous care and relatively inexpensive fees, all from very competent Thai staff: a little over $400 for two sets of visits, involving a generalist and a kidney specialist (I had low sodium), chest x-rays and two rounds of blood tests (I had bronchitis).  The waiting rooms were filled with international patients.

Our guide, Pukki.

To reach the hospital we walked the short distance along a narrow street with vendors or driveways along both sides, which reduced navigation to one lane, with autos and motor scooter or motorcycle taxis weaving in and out.  Along the way, our route took a shortcut through the parking area for an overhead hospital dormitory, in which an outdoor “restaurant” was preparing and serving noodle meals for staff for about $1. The aromas were wonderful!

Pool and outdoor restaurant, Arivasom Villa Hotel

Since the doctor wanted to see me back in two days, we cancelled our scheduled flight to Cambodia, where we had intended to spend two nights and visit Angkor Wat, the extensive temple complex.  Instead, we relaxed at our wonderful hotel, with staff asking solicitously how ‘Madam’ was feeling and the owner recommending what I might eat (a lovely vegetable soup—on the third night I actually had the version with prawns added!)

Dining room, Ariyasom Villa Hotel

It was a lovely time despite my illness.  Now we need to go back to see Angkor Wat and more of Thailand as well as to luxuriate again (in good health) at the Ariyasom Villa Hotel!