Planning Part Two - Throw Out The Rule Book

un·con·ven·tion·al

not based on or conforming to what is generally done or believed.

1. "her unconventional approach to life"

The older I get the more unconventional I become. My favourite comeback is "who wrote that rule book?". Believe me, we do need some rules or expectations to follow as members of society....like, it might not be the wisest thing to do your grocery shopping in the nude or not show up to work because you decide a Big Bang Theory marathon is a better way to spend your day. My favourite college course was called "Deviant Behaviour in Society". It taught me to question the norms that we follow, including everyday stuff. I remember one classmate decided to go shirtless at a restaurant that did not advertise "no shirt, no service". The reactions of the owner and patrons were pretty much what you guessed. Now how does this all tie into my trip planning?


I am now past the age of fifty and a nana. When you are over fifty, society has certain expectations of how you must act. I ask you.....who wrote that book?! When I think of what I want to do when I go traveling, my age is the last thing I think of. I want to do what all the young backpackers are doing.....okay maybe not everything but they are the ones I turn to when wanting to find the unconventional. Don't worry.....you won't find pictures of this old dame at a Full Moon Party!!!

After leaving San Francisco, we will arrive in Bangkok.....ok, ok.....feel free to sing the song, I'll wait

One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster

    The bars are temples but their pearls ain't free

We are actually spending three nights in Bangkok at a pretty nice hotel that costs $25/night. Arriving by Saturday was very important to us. Why you ask? To experience the madness of the Chatuchak Weekend Market. Take a moment and check out this link ,http://www.chatuchak.org/ and imagine yourself in the world's largest weekend market with 200 000 other people!!! 

We will spend the rest of our time in Bangkok eating where the locals eat and placing our footsteps on the sacred ground of temples such as What Phra Kaew, home to the Emerald Buddha.

From Bangkok we will be traveling to Chiang Mia in Northern Thailand. Now, we could travel by bus like so many backpackers do, but after hearing many, many horror stories of eighteen to twenty-four hour rides from hell, we decided to take the overnight train.....a trip of 12 hours or so. I found a great website created by an English bloke who use to work for the railway in the United Kingdom. The Man in Seat 61 made booking our tickets easy peasy. A berth is now booked with me on the top bunk and my six foot four husband sleeping diagonally on the bottom bunk!!! 

A few things are booked, using Chiang Mia as our base.....no hostel booked yet. The next few days will be filled with questionable modes of transportation as we make our way to our farm homestay......that's right.....a farm, and not just any farm, a farm run by a monk who became an abbot and is the son of the local medicine man! We will be volunteering on his farm for a few days, learning how to cook and tend to the animals and crops....maybe even build a straw hut! Check out this excerpt from their welcome page and tell me that this isn't the coolest thing for a couple of Canadian homesteaders to do. 

The Happy Healing Home.....found by reading a post a backpacker wrote on one of the Facebook 

groups I am in.

"BAAN RAKSA means Healing Home in Thai. We aim to teach the world about sustainable living and meditation!
Here you can learn about sustainable agriculture, organic farming, forest survival, meditation, medicinal plants, Lanna cooking and so much more. And the best bit is that, WE ACCEPT VOLUNTEERS ALL YEAR LONG!
Our organic farm is a Sustainable Living Project initiated by a small group of people in Thailand. It is run by Jim (who was a Buddhist Monk for 16 years) and his wife Tea Kumsrisom who own the 10 acres where the project take place. This is a relaxed and caring environment where we invite enthusiastic volunteers of all ages to stay on the farm, living together as family to work toward a common goal - where we can all learn together and from each other.
Happy Healing Home is 2-3 hours ride into the ever-green mountains of Chiang Mai, just past the small town of Samoeng. The farm is surrounded by constellations of small villages and fields of peanuts, garlic and marigolds. There are flowing rivers near by, and in the rainy season waterfalls cascade into the river on the property. The land in which we grow our crops, has been split into several sections -  the majority of our vegetable crops are planted in the front gardens, including Mustard, Coriander, Papaya, Bananas, Peppers, Sweet Potatoes, Eggplants and more. There are sticky rice fields and coffee slopes planted towards the back of the property, and we now have additional crops in the back fields which can be reached through beautiful hiking trails".

Back to Chiang Mai.....not sure what hostel or guesthouse yet, there are so many to choose from....but we will spend a few days roaming around eating and being in total awe of the beauty that surrounds us. A massage might be in order since Chiang Mai has many, many Thai massage schools!!

Time to jump on a bus and head to an experience that I did a lot of research about before finding exactly what I was looking for.... The Elephant Nature Park.

It was important to me to find a place that did not offer "for the tourists" type of elephant tours that promoted such things as riding. I searched for "ethical elephant tourism in asia" and read many articles such as this one featured on Backpackers Travel Magazine. From there I found The Elephant Nature Park. Rick and I will be spending two days helping out at the sanctuary. Mind you....it is not a budget type of activity, but one that I am sure will live in my heart and soul for ever. 

Back to Chaing Mai for a couple more days of eating and exploring including the famous Night Bazaar.....a great opportunity to join in the national Thai sport of bargaining!

"As the sun sets over Chiang Mai all the street vendors turn up and load their goods for sale into their stalls. The Lights, fans and portable TVs (Thais love their TV soapies) are plugged in and turned on and the tourists start arriving in numbers."

The city is also well known for it's cooking classes. You can pick from hundreds of cooking classes priced from budget to "you want me to pay how much?!!". Being the type of foodies where the experience is half the fun, we went searching for a unique adventure at a reasonable price, that would satisfy all our senses. 

Welcome to Thai Farm Cooking.....found by searching for "cooking classes on a farm in Chiang Mai". 

"LEARN TO COOK THAI FOOD AT OUR ORGANIC FARM PICK FRESH INGREDIENTS AND COOK HEALTHY FOOD EVERY DAY!"

We will be spending one glorious day in foodie utopia....harvesting, cooking, and eating organic food. Give me a minute....I am dreaming of mangoes and lemongrass...ahhhhhhhhhhhh.

And that folks is as far as we have planned. 

map found at: http://www.cartographik.com/thailand-39-work-1.html