Thailand.  There aren’t many things that I could say about Thailand to make you fully grasp how incredible it is there.  Pictures and words could do it no justice.  The Thai culture is one you must see and experience for yourself to really understand.  Its beautiful, welcoming, crazy, a texture and color overload.  The land of smiling faces definitely suits this country.

Our first stop was Bangkok. The city I was told would really give me a sense of culture shock.  A busy city that can be a little too much.  This is easily one of my favorite cities.  Its really big and easily navigated.  From the BTS system to their water ferries.  Its very easy to get around Bangkok for VERY cheap.  We split Bangkok up into two parts so we could experience it in the beginning and end of our busy trip.  We had 16 days to conquer as much as we could.

We chose an easy route, opted for just planes rather than overnight trains to save us some time. Our route looked a little something like Bangkok – Chiang Mai – Surat Thani – Koh Pha Ngan – Koh Samui – Phuket – Bangkok.   Sounds like a lot but I could have added another stop in there easily. We didn’t get to experience enough of the Gulf of Thailand.

Anyhoo,  I am rambling.  This first post is going to be our first stop in Bangkok and Chiang Mai.  Two of my favorite parts.

Bangkok is fully of life and colors.  We visited the usual tourist stops of Wat Pho.  What a beautiful temple.  We spent quite a bit of time here.  So many textures and so much life.  It was strangely empty compared to other temples in Bangkok. Chiang Mai was Taylors favorite stop of the trip.  It was our literal perfect day to the “Sticky Waterfalls” and our Thai cooking class.  Not a bad at all.  We made friends at our cooking class and went out for some drinks afterwards because Thailand.  Chiang Mai was one of my favorite stops because….. Elephants.  Something you don’t really get to experience back home.  What some dream of.  The gentle giants of Elephant Nature Park were on our minds the first day in this vibrant city.  Rescued Elephants from the depths of the Thai Elephant Tourism and Labor industry- which is a booming industry.  I will never forget this day.  Getting to feed, bath and just be in the presence of these beautiful creatures who wear all of their emotions.

The Resting Buddha was massive.  Couldn’t even fit him in the frame.

 Every little detail was beautiful.

 A serious highlight of the entire trip.  These gentle beauties.

 Taylors favorite girl.

 Some lovely little cell shots for ya.

 The infamous Sticky Waterfalls.  Where you can free scale a multi level waterfall.  Pretty cool experience.

 Seriously loved this cooking class so much.  Our food was entirely too spicy though.  Or in other words… too sexy.

 Have one killer time the first few days of our trip.  Ryan was a cool guy we met at our cooking class and went out for drinks with later.   Good times.