Honeymoon part 4 - the enjoyments of life... =D
Enough of the rough-it-out adventures... it was time for the darlings to pamper ourselves! At Pai, we decided to find a nice lodge to stay and have a good time chilling out. 7km from the city center, there was a place which had personal hot tubs for the guests as they channeled the thermal hot spring water directly into each of the huts. oooohhh... that sounds GREAT!
but 7km away... the solution: scooter rental! this time though, we each had our backpacks... so we decided to each rent one scooter. no more pillion rider for me this time... but time for some vrooommm-vroooommm!!!! (i did try a little the last time, but just the few hundred meter play-play kind... haha)
daring with his green bike (matches his bag eh?)
and my adorable pink bike!!! so coincidental that we were given a pink one! haha. it would be funny if a guy rents, and realizes that he got a pink bike. LOL.
Our night's stay was at Spa Exotic Home. this was really a nice rustic place... the paths leading to our little bungalows, and a stream running down alongside... ah, so peaceful, so relaxing...
our home for the night. =D
ta-da! the pretty room inside...
and the highlight of all.. the tub for the hot sulfur thermal water! soak-time!!
and time for some nice restaurant food too! (the food at cave lodge was pretty gd, decent too! but just nice to be back into the city, having dinner with more class? heh)
thai pineapple fried rice, tom yum and some stirfried pork
WOAH! guess what??!!!? our 4 good buddies had told us that they were heading to Pai too, and we were just saying back then at Cave Lodge that we may get the chance to meet up again in Pai! Pai is a small place... and we were walking down the street when we caught sight of them at a restaurant! after chilling out at the bar, we crashed over at their hotel and started playing bridge.
what i din mention previously was that we started teaching the 4 of them how to play bridge back in Cave Lodge, and they had gotten addicted to it! and so since then, when they had the chance to sit down and play (like during our meals at cave lodge) it would be 'bridge time'!!! haha
it ended up that we played till 3am... lol. and we finally parted goodbye and took our scooters back to our hotel. that was almost certainly our final goodbye - we were going back to chiangmai the next day, while they had made plans to go kayaking in Pai itself... a little sadness when we parted, but truly real great frens they were, and maybe we'll see one another sometime in the future!!
lonely planet mentioned a night market that is famous for its wide variety of fresh seafood... a tourist trap in a way, but definitely good food!!! nearing the end of our trip, a big meal certainly sounded like a plan!
a simple padthai to start... the good stuff is coming!!!
oooh... black pepper crab!! too bad this was kinda disappointing, cos the crab meat kept on getting stuck to the side of the shell...
now THIS was the amazing one for the dinner... costs a massive 3/4 of our total dinner bill. *gasp* we din realize that is woud be SO expensive initially. but oh well, a splurge here and there doesn't matter, esp for some gd lobster!!!
cant wait to dive into our curry baked lobster!
so good, my darling's lickin' his fingers clean... =)
our last 2 night's stay at Thapae Boutique Hotel- budget, but definitely classy and modern boutique hotel! great value =)
simple but well-chosen designs/furnishing, makes the entire room have a great feel to it. =) i fondly remember the little pillows (the little green on next to fm) stuffed with green tea leaves... hmm, so fragrant!
our last day in chiangmai, we arranged to go on a day trip to the elephant nature park. it's listed as a no 2 highlight in thailand to visit, so we were interested to see what this place had to offer. instead of the usual elephant trekking and riding that many places offer, this is a conservation park, where visitors only feed, bathe and watch the elephant and there was no riding activities.
fm offering the elephant food - pumpkin, bananas or melons, and the elephant reaches out with its trunk, wraps around the food and shoves it into its mouth. the elephants are pretty picky about their food though, definitely showing preferences for some rather than others. Bananas were always welcomed, but pumpkins and melons were sometimes dropped from the trunk deliberately, before picking the pieces again after the feeding basket is empty and they decide that they should probably rummage the stuff on the ground... haha.
me bathing the elephant...
the park also has their own babies - 2 of them in fact, a 2 month old boy (in picture) and a 4 month old girl... awww... babies are always sooo cute!
all in all, the elephant nature park was... well, so-so. there was nothing much to do throughout the whole day actually, with a lot of down time and chilling out. especially considering that we paid quite a hefty sum for the day tour. it's marketed as working for a great cause for these abused elephants... so hopefully the money is put into good use, and really benefitting these animals as promised. =)
came back from the nature park, and spent the night roaming around... chilling out...
view of Singapore as our plane descended down to Changi Airport...
as with any amazing enjoyable vacation with darling, there was definitely longing for the trip to never ever end... but it was time to go home. the 9 days simply passed sooo fast it was unbelievable. nevertheless, it was a super fun honeymoon trip in northern Thailand!
but 7km away... the solution: scooter rental! this time though, we each had our backpacks... so we decided to each rent one scooter. no more pillion rider for me this time... but time for some vrooommm-vroooommm!!!! (i did try a little the last time, but just the few hundred meter play-play kind... haha)
daring with his green bike (matches his bag eh?)
and my adorable pink bike!!! so coincidental that we were given a pink one! haha. it would be funny if a guy rents, and realizes that he got a pink bike. LOL.
Our night's stay was at Spa Exotic Home. this was really a nice rustic place... the paths leading to our little bungalows, and a stream running down alongside... ah, so peaceful, so relaxing...
our home for the night. =D
ta-da! the pretty room inside...
and the highlight of all.. the tub for the hot sulfur thermal water! soak-time!!
and time for some nice restaurant food too! (the food at cave lodge was pretty gd, decent too! but just nice to be back into the city, having dinner with more class? heh)
thai pineapple fried rice, tom yum and some stirfried pork
WOAH! guess what??!!!? our 4 good buddies had told us that they were heading to Pai too, and we were just saying back then at Cave Lodge that we may get the chance to meet up again in Pai! Pai is a small place... and we were walking down the street when we caught sight of them at a restaurant! after chilling out at the bar, we crashed over at their hotel and started playing bridge.
what i din mention previously was that we started teaching the 4 of them how to play bridge back in Cave Lodge, and they had gotten addicted to it! and so since then, when they had the chance to sit down and play (like during our meals at cave lodge) it would be 'bridge time'!!! haha
it ended up that we played till 3am... lol. and we finally parted goodbye and took our scooters back to our hotel. that was almost certainly our final goodbye - we were going back to chiangmai the next day, while they had made plans to go kayaking in Pai itself... a little sadness when we parted, but truly real great frens they were, and maybe we'll see one another sometime in the future!!
lonely planet mentioned a night market that is famous for its wide variety of fresh seafood... a tourist trap in a way, but definitely good food!!! nearing the end of our trip, a big meal certainly sounded like a plan!
a simple padthai to start... the good stuff is coming!!!
oooh... black pepper crab!! too bad this was kinda disappointing, cos the crab meat kept on getting stuck to the side of the shell...
now THIS was the amazing one for the dinner... costs a massive 3/4 of our total dinner bill. *gasp* we din realize that is woud be SO expensive initially. but oh well, a splurge here and there doesn't matter, esp for some gd lobster!!!
cant wait to dive into our curry baked lobster!
so good, my darling's lickin' his fingers clean... =)
our last 2 night's stay at Thapae Boutique Hotel- budget, but definitely classy and modern boutique hotel! great value =)
simple but well-chosen designs/furnishing, makes the entire room have a great feel to it. =) i fondly remember the little pillows (the little green on next to fm) stuffed with green tea leaves... hmm, so fragrant!
our last day in chiangmai, we arranged to go on a day trip to the elephant nature park. it's listed as a no 2 highlight in thailand to visit, so we were interested to see what this place had to offer. instead of the usual elephant trekking and riding that many places offer, this is a conservation park, where visitors only feed, bathe and watch the elephant and there was no riding activities.
fm offering the elephant food - pumpkin, bananas or melons, and the elephant reaches out with its trunk, wraps around the food and shoves it into its mouth. the elephants are pretty picky about their food though, definitely showing preferences for some rather than others. Bananas were always welcomed, but pumpkins and melons were sometimes dropped from the trunk deliberately, before picking the pieces again after the feeding basket is empty and they decide that they should probably rummage the stuff on the ground... haha.
me bathing the elephant...
the park also has their own babies - 2 of them in fact, a 2 month old boy (in picture) and a 4 month old girl... awww... babies are always sooo cute!
all in all, the elephant nature park was... well, so-so. there was nothing much to do throughout the whole day actually, with a lot of down time and chilling out. especially considering that we paid quite a hefty sum for the day tour. it's marketed as working for a great cause for these abused elephants... so hopefully the money is put into good use, and really benefitting these animals as promised. =)
came back from the nature park, and spent the night roaming around... chilling out...
view of Singapore as our plane descended down to Changi Airport...
as with any amazing enjoyable vacation with darling, there was definitely longing for the trip to never ever end... but it was time to go home. the 9 days simply passed sooo fast it was unbelievable. nevertheless, it was a super fun honeymoon trip in northern Thailand!
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