E Loves Coco

As the title of the post states, I do love fresh coconuts. For those of you who are into such things as adorable babies drinking from coconuts and eating fruit, enjoy as you stay warm/dry during Winter Storm Saturn.

Dao the Taxi Driver

Here's my father with his new friend/taxi driver, Dao.  When we were in Chiang Mai, the hotel set up a driver to take us to Tiger Kingdom & the Maesa Elephant Camp.

He was very friendly and spoke pretty good English. Like many drivers in Thailand, they love finding repeat customers who will use them for multiple trips.

Luckily for him (and us), we were going to a few different places and would be in need of his services for the next few days we were in Chiang Mai.

The hotel set up the first trip to the Tigers & Elephants for 1,200 THB (~$40 USD).  Personally, I think $40 for 9 hours is an amazing deal (but I'm a New York City baby, so my sense of value is warped by Manhattan).  My father got offers from random guys on the street for only 500 THB (~$17 USD), but I reminded him, "If you don't want your daughter going off with random guys on the street, then you shouldn't either."

So we paid up and got a hotel-sanctioned driver.  While only scheduled to take us to Tiger Kingdom and Maesa Elephant Camp, he also suggested we go to the Monkey Center and the Long Neck Village since they were on the same road.  And also, on the ride back from our Animal excursion, my father asked if we could stop by the bus station to buy tickets for Chiang Rai the next morning.  "No problem."

He even went inside with my father to help make sure my father didn't f- things up due to his lack of Thai language skills.  The bus station had a lot of English signs but it was very helpful having someone translate and explain anyway.  We got our tickets for the 10:15AM Green Bus and then agreed that Dao would pick us up from the hotel the next morning at 9:30AM.

On the drive back to the hotel, however, he offered to take us to the REAL Chiang Mai Night Market, the Wua Lai Road (aka Walking Street) for the Saturday Night Market.  This bazaar was more for locals and didn't have as much of the fake touristy trinkets that the other Kalare Night Market had.  Since part of traveling is avoiding all things touristy (ironic, no?), we agreed and asked if Dao could drop us off at the hotel now and to come back at 7PM.  "No problem."

Walking Street was also more open because they didn't have all those stalls along the sidewalk making you feel like you were walking through a tunnel.  This weekend market (only open on Saturday and Sunday nights) was on the actual street that they closed off to cars and tuk tuks.  We didn't end up buying anything that night, but my parents did get some local street food for about 15 THB ($0.50 USD).

The next morning (Sunday), Dao showed up at our hotel right on time and helped us with our luggage.  He took us to the bus station and then even went inside with us to make sure we got onto the right bus.  My father asked, "Are you sure?" and of course, Dao responded, "No problem."

We watched him stand there waving as the bus pulled out like a proud parent watching his child go off to college.  Now, I'm not old enough to talk to NYC cab drivers, but I'm pretty sure Tariq or Emeka wouldn't park on 8th Ave and wait for us inside Port Authority.

And when we returned to Chiang Mai at Monday 6:30PM, Dao was waiting for us at the bus station as agreed and took us back to our original hotel (Le Meridien) to get the luggage we left there and then drove us to the Holiday Inn where we were staying our final night in Chiang Mai.

And finally, Dao picked us up the following afternoon (Tuesday 2PM) to drive us to the airport.  Since we were early for our 4:40PM flight to Bangkok, he offered to stop by the nearby shopping mall so my mother could shop look around while Dao waited in the parking lot, but we said we were fine just going to the airport.

As he dropped us off at BKK Airport and unloaded our luggage, my father asked him how much for everything after the 1,200 THB Animal Tour on Saturday (since they had not agreed on a price before).

1. Stop at the Bus Station on the way home
2. Drive to the Walking Street Saturday Night Market
3. Drive to the Bus Station
4. Pickup from the Bus Station to Le Meridien
5. Le Meridien to Holiday Inn
6. Drive to the Airport

Now most 1-way taxi trips are about 150 THB each.  So for the list of trips, Dao would have been fair to charge my parents 750-900 THB ($25-30 USD) in addition to the 1,200 THB for the Animal Tour.  But Dao said simply, "200 THB" which is just under $7 USD!

Shocked, my father gave him 2,400 THB ($80 USD) for everything.  Dao's eyes revealed his surprise and asked "It's OK?" and my father replied, "No problem."

If you're ever in Chiang Mai and want to use Dao, his contact information is below:

Dao - Taxi Centre
088-4345234 or 085-0373330
taxicentre.cm@hotmail.com

More Baby Tiger Photos

Since the image of me playing with a real baby tiger is too cute to pass up.

Tuk Tuks and Thai Taxis

Little known fact. In New York City, the yellow taxis are exempt from requiring young children to be in car seats.  I'm not sure why that is, but it does save my mother from having to lug around a car seat every time she takes me somewhere.

I mean, think about if they required taxis to only drive children secured in car seats. You take your adorable baby for a walk in the park, then decide to walk further and get some lunch, then even further still to do some window shopping for your dear child, then you realize that you're pretty far from home and want to jump in a cab as it starts to drizzle. Nope, no car seat, no service. You're SOL.

While many New Yorker parents have acclimated to this reality where their child's safety is potentially compromised for pragmatic convenience, many other yuppies parents American's can't imagine not strapping their children into the overpriced Britax car seats, if anything, just to justify the $200+ they spent at Buy Buy Baby.

But as I sit here in Thailand with my poor parents pushing me around in my stroller all over the city in 90 degree heat, sometimes, I'd like to give them a break and let them take a taxi to get back home and find some conditioned air.  But of course, my lazy father left the 20 lb car seat at the hotel instead of carrying it around with him just in case this exact situation arose...

Oh well, let's go for it anyway, Mom & Dad.  I mean, we do it all the time in Manhattan, so Thailand should be the same, right?  But where are all the taxis? Oh, these are taxis?

Le Meridien Chiang Mai

Hotel Stay Details
Hotel: Le Méridien Chiang Mai
Dates: February 6-10, 2013
Rate Paid: 1,600 SPG Points + $30 / night*
Regular Rate: $200 / night (incl. taxes)
Total $ Savings: $540*
Point Redemption Value: 8.7* cents/pt

As you probably guessed, we stayed at a Starwoods Hotel while in Chiang Rai, Thailand. They have a lot of hotels all over the country and excellent SPG point redemption opportunities that can really save a family a lot of money.

Last time my father was in Thailand in 2008, he did the whole backpacker thing:  sweaty t-shirts, long bus rides, Lonely Planet and guesthouses.

Guesthouses in Southeast Asia function like bed & breakfasts, but are are more visually comparable to motels in the United States, but without the ugly stigma of being a rendezvous place for cheap inter-marital affairs nor the cheap carpeting and antiquated CRT television sets.

They're pretty well maintained (seen here) as they offer a very affordable way for many travelers to have a safe, clean place to sleep at night.  They're very similar to hostels, except you can get a private room for about $30/person (note:  they charge by the person and not by the room).

So we could have stayed at a guesthouse for about $50-60 / night (for 2 adults), but because of my father's stash of SPG Points, we were able to stay at a nice 4 star full service hotel for even less cash out of pocket at only $30 night!

For those who are unfamiliar with Starwood Hotels SPG program, you can basically use SPG points to book rooms in 2 ways.  First, you can use points for a Free Night Award (ranging from 2,000-20,000 SPG points per night).  If the hotel has a standard room available for cash, then you can book it for SPG Points.  No blackouts dates.

Second, you can use Cash & Points to book for about half the SPG points plus a reasonable cash co-pay.  However, unlike Free Night Awards, not all dates are available for Starwood Cash & Points redemptions.  Just the nights that the hotel thinks it will have a lot of room availability and won't be able to get a cash reservation.

My father booked this back in November right after he found out he'd have free time away from work. But even 3 months out, they only had  2 nights available (Feb 6-8) for Cash & Points and no standard room availability for Feb 8-10 (so no Free Night Awards).

So for Feb 8-10, he had to book a cash rate of about $200 USD / night for a Club Room (higher than a standard room, but it gave access to the Club Lounge for free evening drinks/apps and breakfasts).  Note:  Later we realized that because it was Chinese New Year, the hotel was going to be completely booked this weekend and most of next week full of tourists from mainland China.  Hordes of old Asians wearing neon and wide brimmed sum hats.  Just great...

Unable to book the entire 4 night stay on Cash & Points, he got creative.

Reservation 1

• Feb 6:  1,600 SPG Points + $30
• Feb 7:  1,600 SPG Points + $30

Reservation 2

• Feb 8:  $200
• Feb 9:  $200

But then later on, availability opened up to use all SPG Points for a standard room on Feb 8, so he booked a room for 3,000 SPG points, saving himself $200.  Then he just called the hotel to adjust his check-in date for Reservation 2.

Reservation 1

• Feb 6:  1,600 SPG Points + $30
• Feb 7:  1,600 SPG Points + $30

Reservation 3 (NEW)

• Feb 8:  3,000 SPG Points

Reservation 2

• Feb 9:  $200

* So to recap, for 4 nights, my parents paid roughly $260 USD or about $65 / night to stay at Le Meridien Chiang Mai.  This would have been about the same cash price for a modest guest house. Those 6,200 SPG points redeemed saved him about $540 ($600 for 3 free nights less $60 of co-pays), implying 8.7 cents/pt of redemption value.  Remember anything above 3.0 cents/pt is good value, especially considering you can earn SPG points for free just by signing up to the program.

Animal Saturday

As I mentioned yesterday, my parents really started to impress me with their adventurous activities after having some Thai spa treatments.  But today really took the blue ribbon.

We ordered a private car to pick us from the hotel at 8:30AM.  The car would cost 1,200 Thai Baht or about $40USD for all day.

First stop, Tiger Kingdom.  Getting there early was great since it gets pretty crowded by 10AM.  You purchase tickets based on the number and size of the tigers you want to "see."

My parents picked the package of 3 for each of them for about 1,300 THB per person ($44 USD).  For that package, you got a newborn (2-3 months old), a small (4-8 months old) and a big (13-30 months old).  Since I was a baby, I was only allowed to see the newborn.

It's set up like a zoo, but it's so much better than whatever they have in the US.  In America, you'd go look at the tigers in a fake habitat across from a large moat.  In Thailand, however, you get up close and personal.

This is my father with the big cat.  You'd be surprised how gentle these tigers can be.  And contrary to what many people suggest, these tigers are not drugged.  Instead, they're raised and trained from birth in captivity and have been taught to be very comfortable with people.

Now many Americans would freak out if they saw me near a live tiger, but my parents were cool enough to let me get a hold of one.

The next stop on our tour was the Monkey Center where baboons were trained to put on a little show and pose for pictures.  Prices were 200 THB per adult (or about $6.67 USD).

And to finish off the day, we visited Measa Elephant Camp where we fed them bananas and sugar cane, watched them perform tricks (including soccer, basketball and even painting) and finally rode them.  Price for the show and an hour ride was 800 THB per person ($27 USD).

Of course, since I am my father's daughter, it was after lunch so I passed out.

Thai Spa Treatments

Good morning from Chiang Mai, Thailand - home of pad thai, Singha beer and ladyboys.  My family's been here 2 nights now but today was the first day my parents and I did some actual fun things.

The first day we just checked into the hotel (Le Meridien Chiang Mai) and walked around the neighborhood looking for a late afternoon Thai lunch before passing out from jet lag at 5PM.

The second day, my mother wanted to walk around the Old City and see some Buddhist monks and temples and then check out the local night markets.  Perhaps that's fun for adults, but for a 15 month old, it's BORING!

But the third day (this afternoon) was pretty interesting.  After waking up my parents up at 7am by crawling all over them like (should I say it?) white on rice, we got ready and head out.

After about 20 minutes of dodging tuk tuks and rolling my eyes at the hordes of smelly Euro backpackers, we came across an interesting looking shop called Dr. Fish.  My parents started to talk to one another while I sat there in the 90 degree heat waiting for them to get me inside with the A/C.

Upon entering, I saw several large tanks of water with tiny fish inside. Then my mother started to take her flip flops off as my father sat down on the large bench on top of the fish tank. I'm surprised the water didn't turn brown after my father put his dirty feet inside, but instead the fish got all crazy and started to eat his dead skin.

Apparently, these little fish love to bite people's feet and toes even more than Rex Ryan. They say the fish don't have any teeth so they can't bite that hard, but I remember when I didn't have my 8 teeth and I could still bite the crap out of my steamed organic green beans (ugh, I'm such a stereotypical New York baby).

For 100 Thai Baht ($3.36 USD), your feet got 20 minutes in the fish tank.  My parents had never done this before, but they do recall seeing the prices of $30-40 USD in New York and Israel. The fish took down enough dead skin from my parents' feet that my mother remarked how soft her feet were afterwards.  I just liked watching the feeding frenzy.

Later on, we passed one of the thousand massage places that line the streets all over Thailand.  My mother had been complaining about her lower back after holding a lap child for 30+ hours of plane rides in the past week, so we went inside for a traditional Thai massage.

You always hear how cheap things are in Southeast Asia, but it really doesn't hit you until you pay $6 USD for an hour long Thai massage.

In New York, $6 won't even get you a cab ride across midtown Manhattan or get you anything in the overpriced store Buy Buy Baby, but here in Thailand, you'll get a tiny Asian woman stretching your body and hitting all your pressure points for 60 minutes (yes, I'm talking about massages).

Apparently, being 15 months old is still too young to get my own massage, but I refused to let my age or lack of fine motor skills get in the way of participating.  So when my father turned his back on me for a second, I jumped out of my stroller and ran to my mother to help a sister out.

2nd Asian Adventure

Flight #32 - Asiana 741 
Seoul (ICN) – Bangkok (BKK)
Tuesday, Feb 5, 2013
Depart: 6:20PM / Arrive: 10:10PM
Duration: 5hr 50min
Aircraft: Boeing 777
Seat: 23J and 23K (Economy)
Mileage: 2,821 miles
Lifetime Miles: 70,677

So as you may know, my father's currently taking time away from work.  He went into the details of his situation, but all I understood is that he wanted to spend more quality time with me.  That works for me.

The downside is that the past week has been tough on my schedule.

1.  Last Tuesday Jan 29, my parents took me from Tel Aviv (TLV) via Istanbul (IST) to New York (JFK) on a back to back 2 hour flight and an 11 hour flight. I'm still pretty jet lagged from that trip.

2.  After spending a 3 days with my grandmother and my aunt, on Friday Feb 1, we flew 6 hours from Newark (EWR) to San Francisco (SFO) and got even further jet lagged.

3.  And on Mon Feb 4, we checked into our Seoul hotel after a 12 hour flight from San Francisco (SFO) to Seoul, South Korea (ICN).  So yes, 3 continents in 1 week!

4.  And then, on Tues Feb 5, we went another 6 hours to Bangkok (BKK) for an overnight before heading on a 1.5 hour flight to Chiang Mai (CNX) the next morning.  Is it me or are all parents this crazy???

So as you can see, while I should have been blogging, I've been sleeping.  I'll resume web-logging later on this week.  But now that we're finally settled in and starting out adventure, here's the plan for the next 4 weeks in Thailand:

Feb 6-12:  Chiang Mai
Feb 12-17:  Bangkok
Feb 17-22:  Koh Phangan
Feb 22-24:  Koh Samui
Feb 24-Mar 7:  Krabi

Over the next few blog posts, I'll start with our time in San Francisco and try to catch up to real time so my 2 fans can keep up with my current adventure.