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If you like to alternate woo-ing at the top of your lungs with gulping alcohol from a plastic cup on the street, you might think that the open container laws on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street were written for your convenience. A more likely scenario stems from the fact that this famous street was once the very pulse of the city itself, and lively celebration a nightly occurrence.

Of course Bourbon Street was on our radar on our big trip to New Orleans, but after our overpriced Hurricanes from Pat O’Briens and a few minutes watching booze-thirsty tourists falling out of tacky ‘dance’ (read: strip) clubs, we kept right on walking…and walking…and cycling…and riding…

What we discovered were neighborhoods as distinct and unique as the city itself, brimming over with culture, class and a style which ignited a passion for New Orleans inside us we could never have expected. Read on for our tips on going beyond Bourbon Street for an unforgettable New Orleans experience.

Wander the French Quarter

In New Orleans, the most unique city in the U.S., we were constantly reminded of places we have been around the world. Most predictably, this happened first in the French Quarter – but not exactly why you might think.

Bourbon Street is located in the French Quarter, which means wandering just a few blocks brings you to sleepy side streets lined with with gorgeous colonial architecture. What we didn’t expect was that the Spanish influenced this quarter as much as the French, having been in power here from 1762-1803. The ‘Rues’ (French for streets) were also marked in Spanish with decorative tiles typically seen in Spanish cities like Madrid even today, and because two major fires ravished the quarter in the late 1700s, Spanish design like wrought iron balconies and central courtyards replaced much of the previous French construction. In reality, however, most of the 2,900 buildings in the quarter are either Creole, Greek revival style or, post-Louisiana Purchase of 1803, in the traditional Victorian style of the day. We were actually reminded of another city colonized by the Spanish here. A walk through the French Quarter reminded us of Casco Viejo, in Panama City.

Eat and shop at the French Market

Popular with tourists and locals alike, the French Market is also located in the French Quarter, just off famous Jackson Square, and stretching down to the Mississippi from there.

A popular trading post since 1791 when the Native Americans traded herbs and spices to French, Spanish, Italian, German and Caribbean immigrants, today the most well-known eatery has got to be Café du Monde. In this French-influenced café, we washed down beignets with chicory coffee served by an entirely Chinese staff. Only in New Orleans.

The sprawling market is also home to a European-style food market (where we had delicious salads), and a flea market packed with tourist kitsch and musical masterpieces. Digging through albums and CDs reveals music by New Orleans locals – those who made it big, and those who plow through life proudly playing small stages seven nights a week. The lesson we took home is that New Orleans pride goes beyond anything felt in other cities (save for New Yorkers). The people know their history, their roots, they love their local musicians and their place in the music world. Transplants to New Orleans don’t just end up here, they come here on purpose, and at times, have more knowledge and pride than even the locals.

Faubourg Marigny

One late afternoon we cycled through the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood, just as the blazing New Orleans sun had admitted defeat and begun its descent.

The golden glow colored the classic Creole cottages, which reminded us of the clap-houses of Belize, each reflecting the love invested by its residents. Some of these colorful one-story houses are falling apart while others keep neatly manicured gardens and watch the world go by from rocking chairs on their front stoops.

Years ago, the French Quarter claimed fame with its Dixieland jazz, but today, Marigny’s Frenchman Street is ground zero for live music in New Orleans. The locals don’t want you to know that, though, and are more than content with you staying over on Bourbon Street.

But I’ll never forget what was sadly our only night out on Frenchman Street. It was the experience that signified the culmination and purpose in our 30-day road trip from New York to New Orleans. Live music flowed out of every tiny joint. People poured out onto the sidewalks. A mix of vintage bombshells and bikers covered in leather and tattoos were back-slapping and laughing so genuinely together. The kind of friendliness you see in films from the 40s or 50s and wonder if strangers were ever that friendly to each other. We hopped from bar to bar, each with their own live band spitting jazz, blues and funk, and ended the night watching a dozen or so guys pound out a two-hour, never-ending jam on five trombones, a sizzling electric guitar, three screaming trumpets and two booming tubas. The players were a mix of black and white dressed in hipster skinny jeans and baggy hip hop pants, teens and a couple with salt and pepper in their hair. It may have been the booze, but more likely the beats that made my heart swell at bearing witness to this entirely unique scene happening nowhere else in the world like it does on Frenchman Street.

Outdoor Art at the Sculpture Park

Although we had already achieved that happy ending of our road trip, the access to creativity didn’t end. For a combination of art and a cool breeze, we cycled up to the Sydney Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, a park with meandering footpaths to view the over 60 sculptures by artists from around the world. We spent over an hour relaxing and admiring world-class art for free. The sculpture garden is open seven days a week, so perfect for whenever a peaceful escape is needed.

Magazine Street

Before we visited here, I imagined Magazine Street to be similar to London’s Fleet Street, which was historically home to the newspaper and media industry through the 20th century.  Quite the opposite, in fact, Magazine refers to the French world for shopping ‘magasin’. Mainly window shoppers these days, we managed to walk for miles and miles, peeking into the hundreds of charming, unique shops and restaurants that give this part of New Orleans a local, small town feel.

Cemeteries and Voodoo

It seems like we are always talking about cemeteries, but the ones in New Orleans are legitimately distinct. Because the city is built on swampland, all white above-ground tombs form “cities of the dead,” more similar to cemeteries in Latin America than anywhere else in the US. The easiest to reach on foot from the French Quarter is the St Louis Cemetery #1 on Basin Street.

This cemetery is the burial place for legendary Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau. We easily spotted her tomb. The dozens of X’s scrawled across it gave it away, but the offerings that believers leave are what’s truly interesting: alcohol bottles, cigarette packs, but mostly, and strangely, lip balm. Chap-stick. Why, we don’t know.

Laveau was famous as an oracle, performing private rituals behind her cottage in St Ann Street in the French Quarter. A devout catholic, her influence on Louisiana Voodoo affected many aspects of the practice first brought over by West Africans before mixing with French, Spanish and Creole customs and beliefs.

Today, the offerings are made in return for favors believers ask of Marie Laveau even in death and even gamblers shout her name for good luck. It is rumored, though entirely unofficial, that her grave has more visitors than Elvis Presley’s grave at Graceland.

How to Go Beyond

Streetcar: New Orleans runs several streetcar lines, used as a major mode of public transportation for the city. These antique vehicles run for long distances. In fact we would recommend riding at least one from end to end.

Bicycle: New Orleans is an easy cycling city (avoid summer midday heat) We rented two groovy bikes from the American Bike Rental Company in the French Quarter. The enthusiastic owner provided helpful maps with areas to visit and others which are better to avoid.

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After almost two weeks in the oppressive heat of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s booming capital city, we were ready for cooler air and a calmer vibe. We hopped a bus to the Cameron Highlands in central Malaysia, which 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) above sea level, offers consistently cool temperatures around 25 °C (77 °F), with some exciting heavy rain showers in the afternoon.

We spent the last few days doing some hiking in the rain forest, visiting a strawberry farm (strawberry sundaes included), exploring a mossy forest and learning all about how tea is made at the BOH tea plantation, Malayasia’s favorite tea. Black tea is grown here, but the bushes that cover over 600 acres of steep slopes high in the mountains appear as puffy green puzzle pieces literally rolling down across the landscape.

It was a British gentleman who first suggested that the Cameron Highlands were the perfect climate for a tea plantation in the late 19th century, and workers from India and later Sri Lanka were brought in to harvest the leaves.

Sitting on the beautiful glass terrace at the BOH factory and restaurant this misty afternoon drinking tea just recently picked from the hills below was a truly refreshing experience.

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We were recently invited for a sneak peek of the brand new Bangkok Tree House hotel on the banks of the Chao Phraya River, just beyond Bangkok’s city limit. What we found was an eco-masterpiece in the works, conceived by the son of a Bangkok hotelier now very much a world-class hotelier himself!

After a 30 minute ride on the Skytrain from central Bangkok and a 15 minute cab ride, we arrive to the pier next to the Bangna Nok temple and followed the instructions to call the manager of the Bangkok Tree House and he and the captain of the tiny speedboat arrive in two minutes. The manager is dressed to impress in all black, bringing the aura of luxury with him to this otherwise grubby pier.  We load into the boat and are whisked across the river, and in three minutes pull up at simple bamboo pier overlooked by the hotel’s organic restaurant. As we carefully, perhaps clumsily, disembark, an older local man observes us from the comfort of his wooden fishing boat.

His boat is just a few feet from the one of the twelve modern tree house suites behind him, and the contrast between his leathery, wrinkled skin and well-worn fishing boat to the gleaming glass of this modern abode strikes me as relevant. This is the first hotel built on the river in this area of Bang Nampheung, which feels like an entirely different world to the jam-packed chaos, consumption and capitalism just over the river in Bangkok.

We meet the owner Joey Tulyanond in the restaurant, which is temporarily serving as the hotel reception. Joey’s impeccable English reveals time spent abroad working in Washington, DC.  This was before returning to Thailand to open the Bangkok Tree House, an extreme departure from the traditional Thai style of his family’s Old Bangkok Inn in central Bangkok (click the link to see our review of the hotel).

What the two hotels do have in common is a strong adherence to a green policy, but Joey has taken this to an entirely different level. First, the hotel is entirely carbon neutral, and promises to collect a kilo of trash in the area for every booking to the hotel.  As we tour the property, we see the space where the pool will go in. The plan is to create a natural pool, which uses plant life to clean and regulate water quality, without using chemicals like chlorine. The pool, along with the entirely organic restaurant, should be up and running by late February, Joey explains as he escorts us to our bungalow. There will be three set menus available – one Thai option, one seafood and one vegan, all set at 490 baht. For now, only the delicious breakfast (included in room rate) is served here, he apologizes, sliding the door open to the tree house.

The bungalows are set over three levels. We enter on the ground level which is essentially a large bathroom with a toilet nook (complete with glass floor looking down onto the river) and a gorgeous outdoor rain shower (and a second shower) on the bamboo deck, made private by an unrolled, heavy bamboo curtain.  Upstairs, we see why our room is called the Ant room: there are giant 8-inch ants traipsing across the wall and the strikingly familiar wooden IKEA furniture inside. Each room is equipped with 32 inch computer monitor stocked up with hundreds of movies, documentaries and music to watch and play during our stay. The outdoor patio on this floor overlooks miles of mango trees, which are fun to look at from the comfort of the bed.

Upstairs on the roof are two sun beds perfect for sunbathing. On hot days there might be nothing better than going down to the communal refrigerator (rather than one in every room, this communal fridge saves energy) on the ground floor and grabbing some of that bottomless ice-cream – one of Joey’s more creative (and tasty!) hotel policies. Running up and down the stairs to get that ice cream, however, requires full concentration, thanks to the architectural style that keeps the treehouse feel at the forefront of our awareness.

We start the morning by watching the waves of the river lap at the bank below our hut, thanks to the glass floor beneath the toilet in the bedroom. At the top of a set of staggered steps, there is a second pane of glass in the floor through which we see the river as well. Ascending to the roof requires stepping safely onto a piece of tarp that covers the shower space and below, and then swinging up onto a ladder and climbing that up to the roof.  The warm rain shower requires us to even undertake some of our very personal business outdoors – and we love this as much as we did on the island of Koh Lanta. In fact, all of this in no way inhibits the relaxing effect or luxurious feel of the hotel, and it is actually quite satisfying to ‘climb’ up to the safety of our nest for the night.

As for filling the days, the Bangkok Tree House is not ideal for power shoppers focused on deals in central Bangkok.  Guests are better off staying out here, renting (for free) the fashionably rusty bikes to explore. In fact, if you do not do cycle here, you are wasting your stay at the Bangkok Tree House.

The area surrounding the hotel, where the river meets the land, forms miles of lush green swampland, conquered by the locals by creating raised cement sidewalks that snake in and around amphibious neighborhoods of houses on very low land. The pathways all eventually connect up to larger roads with plenty of roadside restaurants (keep your eyes open for a fantastic coffee shop called Coffee Professionals on one of the main roads).

We lost ourselves in here for an hour or so, stumbling upon the Herbal Joss Stick house, privately run by an adorable husband-wife duo who immediately welcomed us and gave us a tour of the center. Also their family house, the wife hand makes herbal joss sticks, which are like incense to ward off mosquitos, and runs Thai cooking classes, while the husband does cycling tours through the area in his down time from teaching at a Bangkok university. You won’t find them online anywhere, however, (our limited language skills kept us from understanding how they host all these tourists), and the entire Bang Nampheung area feels almost completely undiscovered, save for the newly created Bang Nampheung floating market.

Stand Out Feature: Location

Initially, we thought that the location of the Bangkok Tree House would be an inconvenience, and too far from central Bangkok to attract enough guests. On the contrary, the location of the hotel is by far one of its most attractive features. At night, we felt safe all tucked up in our tree house watching movies looking out into the jungle on the river, and during the day we were some of the very few foreigners riding around typically Thai streets, quite a feat in Thailand, a country where almost everywhere panders to tourism. We felt entirely local, and yet good and pampered back at the hotel – the perfect combination for a relaxing escape anywhere.

Stand Out Feature: The Architecture

Inside our treehouse at night, the lights bounce off the glass and mirrors in a way that create those endless tunnels of reflected scenes, leaving us feeling in a sort of dreamworld, and then climbing up the staggered steps and watching the ebb and flow of the water below creates an atmosphere that make this an entirely unique Bangkok hotel.

Although the local architect Nuntapong Yindeekhun is nearly as off the grid as this hotel is (he is looking to leave architecture and get more serious about eco-farming!) his design is intelligent and modern, using natural and recycled materials wherever possible and creating a perfect balance of an awareness of nature with luxury.

Room for Improvement

As of this review, the hotel was still entirely under construction, so we can’t go naming something to improve upon. We did develop a laundry list of concerns, however. This might include a bit more training for the staff, who are very friendly but still a bit awkward dealing with guests. The ‘ground’ floor of the bungalow gets extremely hot as there are no windows, just sliding glass doors, which, due to mosquitoes won’t be opened after dusk. A fan would be a welcome touch.  Joey plans on selling green products in the new reception area, and we hope this includes the joss sticks from the Herbal Joss Stick house, both for the mosquitos and to support local businesses. We  hope that the wi-fi reaches the bungalows, as promised on the website. Wi-fi was only available in the restaurant (and minimally at that) during our visit. Finally, not because of any extra large fish in the river, but for the flocks of new guests, this hotel is gonna need a bigger boat than its current little four-seater speedboat.

Overall

Bangkok is home to over 800 hotels – the budget cheapies of Khao San Road, comfortable mid-range hotels and uber-luxurious five-star properties reserved for the world’s elite…and then there is the Bangkok Tree House in a category and class of its own. There is enough luxury to deserve the $150 minimum price tag, but enough peace and quiet to marvel at its actual proximity to the buzz of central Bangkok.

Location: Moo 1, Bang Nampheung, Samut Prakan Province; 66-8/1453-1100
Price: Doubles from 4,690 Baht / $150
LGBT Friendly: Not outwardly, but they did invite us…
Digital Nomad Friendly: without in-room wi-fi, unfortunately not (yet)
Amenities: Complimentary breakfast, free wi-fi in the restaurant area, complimentary bicycle rentals, an entire digital library on an in-room media center, daily drinking water, pool, restaurant, free ice cream bar
Website: www.bangkoktreehouse.com

If you enjoyed this, you might find these reviews from our Hotel Tip of the Week series helpful:

We loved the Chaw-ka-Cher Tropicana Lanta Resort on Koh Lanta island, Thailand.
The Hotel Elysee treated us like family in French style in Manhattan.
Try the Little Corn Beach and Bungalow on Little Corn Island off the coast of Nicaragua for an eco-friendly adventure.

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After a few days, we come to a point that we just have to get out of Savannah.

Not because we hate it…on the contrary, we consider pulling the emergency brake on this nomadic life to stop for 91 days in Savannah like our friends Juergen and Mike. After all, there is so much to see in dreamy Savannah. We just want to explore two places we kept hearing about, so we just hop in our rental car and headed to two popular places outside of the city center – a graveyard and an island.

Bonaventure Cemetery

As one of the stars of the film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, the Bonaventure Cemetery outside of Savannah is one of the most beautiful we have ever visited, easily on par with our favorite Gothic cemeteries in London, the colorful cemeteries of Latin America or the famous Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

Entering through the main gates, we find ourselves on a tree-lined road, a slight breeze blowing through Spanish moss draping down from the centuries-old trees causing an eeriness among the calm. We lock up the car and wander aimlessly between the graves for hours, reading inscriptions on the tombstones that tell succinct life stories of German settlers, Jewish merchants and Southern generals buried here.

The cemetery is quiet and peaceful, and somehow traipsing over grounds filled with dead bodies takes on a romantic feeling. Bonaventure is set along the Wilmington River, and is home to unusual flowers, plants and trees, which add to its unique atmosphere as do the incredible obelisks, statues and tombstones which are as much works of art as tributes to the dead.
Tybee Island

Relaxed after exploring the serene cemetery, we are curious to see tiny Tybee Island, just outside of Savannah. A short 30-minute ride through the marshes, and suddenly we are in an entirely different environment. The ocean comes into view, and along the quaint main street colorful one-story buildings house surf shops, souvenir stores and seaside restaurants.

A wide sandy beach stretches around most of the island, inviting us to lay like lizards and recharge in the late afternoon sun. We could have rented a kayak or cycled around the island, but we are feeling lazy. Later on, we do make our way to the Tybee Island Lighthouse, which is Georgia’s oldest and tallest, and one of the few lighthouses from the 18^th century that are still in use.

Like many places we hit on the road trip, we wish we would have planned in more time here on the beach, to laze around, maybe rent a cottage and take in the gorgeous sunsets at night…how could we know just how many places throughout the south would appeal to us so much. Instead, this is just a day trip, and we are back in town by nightfall.

Getting away

Take the Island Expressway to Tybee Island, or take the detour that passes Bonaventure Cemetery: follow the Truman Parkway and then turn east on the 80, get off at Bonaventure Cemetery, and then get back onto the 80, which will meet the Island Expressway again.

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As we found out this week, the Batu Caves serve as a triple attraction for visitors.  On their own, they are actually a series of beautiful limestone caves just outside of Kuala Lumpur which double as one of the biggest Hindu shrines outside of India. The caves have been used for various religious purposes since the 17th century, but were dedicated to the Hindu religion in 1890, when the first Hindu shrine was constructed inside of the cave. Now, Hindu pilgrims from all over Malaysia, South East Asia and as far as Australia make their way to the Batu Caves and this is the main location for the Thaipusam Festival in January/February, during which 1 million Indians flock to the caves in a 13 km pilgrimage from central Kuala Lumpur, showing their devotion to Lord Muruga by piercing their skin with metal hooks, spikes, even skewers.

The golden statue towering in front of the cave is the largest representation of  the Hindu Deity Lord Muruga in the world, standing 42.7 m (140 ft) tall. All year round, Hindus dressed in traditional Indian saris come to the caves to worship the Hindu deities, carrying silver containers of milk on their heads as offerings for Lord Muruga, climbing the 272 stairs to the mouth of the caves.

The most spectacular Temple Cave has 100 meter high ceilings, houses several Hindu shrines, and is home to dozens of long-tailed Macaque monkeys who delight visitors by scurrying up and down the open side of the cave.  On our visit we spotted at least 30 different monkeys of all ages, including adorable babies clinging to mama’s belly and small springy toddlers getting their tiny hands on some huge bananas.

]]> http://globetrottergirls.com/2012/01/polaroid-of-the-week-the-entrance-to-the-batu-caves-near-kuala-lumpur-malaysia/feed/ 0 http://globetrottergirls.com/2012/01/animal-lovers-on-the-road/ http://globetrottergirls.com/2012/01/animal-lovers-on-the-road/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:29:07 +0000 jess http://globetrottergirls.com/?p=6689

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I never expected that, at 32, traveling would make my legs look like a little girl recovering from a serious case of the chicken pox, but it has. Some marks are from my ultimate enemy, the mosquito, but most are from serious fleabites. You see, since we started traveling, if that dog’s awaggin’ his tail, or that cat’s meowin’, we just can’t help but stop and play.

Just a few weeks ago, I found myself alone with a beautiful gray kitten. Dani had just run off to get some meat from a nearby market stall because he wouldn’t stop meowing. So I sat down on the curb of a quiet side street to wait. The sound of a lone, slow, sad sitar rolled out of a large temple shrouded in darkness, visible only when light glinted off the golden roof tiles. The cat curled up and made his own song out of his meowing and purring, meowing and purring.

But you’re a Buddhist...

Lost in the relaxing sounds of his airy rhythm mixing with the music, I wondered about what kind of animals were inside the temple (we would actually find out the next day when we got hijacked by a monk). Temples are safe havens for many stray animals here in Thailand, or at least that had been our experience until the previous morning when Dani returned very upset from photographing the town’s temples in the soft morning light. Inside one of the temples, she had discovered two large, seemingly healthy adult monkeys trapped in tiny cages. We couldn’t make sense of this, as the practice of Buddhism shuns animal cruelty in every way.

There is an equally frustrating belief here in Thailand that setting certain animals free brings luck, as well. When at a Buddhist temple, you can purchase a basket of two birds and set them free. When a temple is near to water, ladies sell plastic bags with toads, fish, turtles, crabs and eels that you are to release into the water, also to bring luck…for you. These poor animals will inevitably be caught again by the ladies themselves who wade shoulder deep in the water to catch them each morning and forced to endure the same fate the next day.

Absolutely nothing frustrates us both more than the treatment of elephants here in Thailand, however. The animal is a religious symbol, revered above all others. However, just ten minutes before we had met our feline friend, we had ordered dinner at the night market and had just been served our meal when a man with a bag of bananas and sugar cane made his way over to our table. He wanted us to buy them…and we knew why.

We immediately braced ourselves for an elephant spotting. This man was a mahout, or elephant trainer, and just a few meters behind him a second mahout pulled a baby elephant on a rope past the tables. Those who purchased the fruits were feeding the baby, as it rocked, back and forth, back and forth on the road. Most tourists don’t know what the rocking means, but we do, and it made us sick.

In December we had gone to the Elephant Nature Park near Chiang Mai with two friends, and met Lek, the tiny Thai woman who has made it her life’s work to save elephants and give them the freedom to roam free for the rest of their very long lives (elephants live to be 70-100 years old!).

We learned about the nightmare that the trained or circus elephants or the logging elephants go through when the mahouts, or the elephant trainers, literally break the spirit of the animals through unbelievable bouts of abuse, and then also what torture the elephants go through working for humans. The logging breaks their backs and legs and if they fail to carry the loads or attempt to fight back, they are punished by being stabbed in the eye, or worse.

The Elephant Nature Park also does its best to spread the word to stop these mahouts from using elephants as tourist attractions, such as what we were witnessing that day in Sukhothai. Elephants ‘hear’ or feel almost entirely through their feet, which have hundreds of thousands of nerve endings in order to sense approaching herds of animals in nature. When out on the street, the elephants are feeling the vibrations of cars, motorcycles, hundreds of people walking by, creating a torture as terrible as if a human were placed in a room with music blasting, babies crying and lights flashing on and off for hours at a time, seven days a week.

Sure enough, the baby elephant is crying, tears streaming down his face as he munches on the bananas. Whether or not he even had an appetite, we can’t know, but we pushed our plates away and left without taking a single bite. It is so hard to witness what you know to be cruelty, masked as something that brings joy to others.

So there I sat, thinking of the elephant, and the cat, and the monkeys in the temple, awash with a mix of anger and pity, rocking to the sound of the instrument making the sound that tears would make if they could sing.

So, this elephant walks into a bar…

Wallowing this way for a while, I turned my gaze back down to the main road, wondering where Dani was, and as I scan the scene for her trademark blonde hair I hear a giddy yelp or two from the lively Westerner bar down the road. Though the bar is still blasting music upstairs, a group of foreigners have gathered downstairs and I can’t figure out why. That is, until I see the yellow from the bananas. What had seemed like a big gray obstruction to my not-so-good night vision now clearly takes shape as that same baby elephant, now on an even bigger, busier road and suddenly I feel like I can’t take it any more – the squealing delighted foreigners, the honking traffic, the mahouts with their whips and ropes and pockets full of cash.

The music in the temple had stopped and it was just me staring at the cat, hoping that the next time I look, the elephant has moved on, out of sight. When I gathered the courage to look again, Dani came bounding down the street with some sort of meatballs in her hand for our special little cat. It turned out, he was not even very hungry and preferred to cuddle after all.

It’s a dog’s life…

Eventually extracting ourselves from the grip of the cat, we take most of the meatballs with us and as we round the corner to our hotel, the ‘hotel dog’ runs up to greet us. Not exactly a stray, his ribs pop out and he has a few scars and marks on his skin, evidence of a life much harder than his current job of laying out in front of this hotel. We feed him every last meatball before going inside.

We have been witness to so much cruelty, and hatred, against animals in the past two years. In one Guatemalan town, a pair of older Mayans were literally throwing shoes at stray dogs’ faces to get them to go away while everyone else looked on. The treatment of dogs here in Thailand is particularly perplexing. While stray dogs are flea bitten and often severely injured or mutilated, dogs that are actual house pets can be spotted wearing little doggie sweaters, even sets of four little doggie shoes. They ride on the front or back of their owner’s motorbike, or sometimes in a baby carrier on the driver’s front. While a stray dog will be automatically and angrily shoo-ed away, pets are coddled and carried as if they are babies.

The treatment of strays breaks our dog-loving hearts and we spent quite a bit of our time caring for them however we can. We buy bags of dog food from pet stores and carry it around despite not owning an animal ourselves and often don’t mind if served ham or bacon by accident with our breakfast, as Dani just wraps it up and saves it for the next dog we come across that day. It is hard to be an animal lover anywhere, but we find it is becoming increasingly difficult for us emotionally the longer we are on the road.

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Welcome to our Hotel Tip of The Week series. Being on the road every day of the year means we stay in countless hotels, and at over 600 days as nomads, we have stayed some of the best (and worst) accommodation the world has to offer. We cover everything from budget to luxury accommodation, and believe that any hotel worth recommending must be comfortable and clean, offer good value for money and treat people as guests, not clients. We have personally stayed in every hotel we recommend to you here on Globetrottergirls.com.

I haven’t even taken my bag from the trunk of the taxi yet, and already there is a woman behind me who wants to take it for me.

‘You stay at this hotel, here, with us?’ she asks. ‘Yes, yes we are staying here,’ I say with a surprised smile. I want to continue by saying… but my bag weighs more than you do, you adorably tiny Thai lady, but instead I just say ‘Don’t worry, I’ll bring the bag inside’.

Dani does the same, and we pass under Spanish moss and hanging plants that decorate this small part of an otherwise busy side street on our way inside the Old Bangkok Inn.

As the name suggests, we are staying at a small, cozy typically Thai Inn (just getting our big western bodies and backpacks through the two slim dark wooden front doors is a challenge) and from the minute we walk in, I am sure we are going to love the place.

There is no lobby, just six or seven round wooden tables, antique sofas and an eclectic mix of traditional Thai knick knacks and paintings. The room is bright, thanks to two picture windows on either side of the door, and we sit down while we check in, sipping the cool glass of sweet tea customary at most quality Thai hotels.

Outside, motorcycles buzz by like bees, buses with squealing brakes stop just out front and the bright pink or yellow taxis whiz by on their way to drop off or pick up a fare. Almost entirely silent, just enough noise comes through to remind us how quiet it actually is, just a few feet from Bangkok’s constant chaos outside, forming the undertones below comfortable classical music pumped in nonchalantly at a level high enough to enjoy, and easy enough to ignore.

Our room is through another set of slim wooden doors and up the stairs, and there are three similar rooms upstairs and four on the ground floor. Immediately I am struck by the fact that the room has two single beds (an issue we are constantly going through as most hotels see us as two friends, not as a couple), the typical Thai decor and the low hanging antique-looking candelabra chandeliers, one between the bed, the other hanging over a third mattress/couch on the floor, which is right below a set of large double windows. A computer monitor on an antique desk unit at the head of the beds serves as a TV and computer – there is broadband internet on the computer, but no wi-fi. The weekly weather forecast is tucked in right by the three remote controls (TV, DVD and Air-Con), so that it can’t be missed.

The bathroom is lovely, with a pedestal sink, the shower has organic body soap and shampoo in gorgeous ceramic containers, and there is also an adorable pillow with thread and needles, an original spin on the standard hotel room sewing kit that makes us want to have an excuse to sew something.

The reason we were interested in the Old Bangkok Inn initially was for the hotel’s eco-friendly policies, which were plain to see throughout the room. As part of the Texas based Green Hotels scheme, the hotel has put eco-friendly policies into place. For example, water comes in a large glass serving vase with a note explaining just how many gallons of oil are used to produce plastic water bottles each year. Toiletries are in re-usable bottles, and towels are requested to be hung up unless we want to have them washed.

Warning: this next part is nitpicky, but there are two tiny details in the room I really appreciate. First, there are hooks everywhere: five in the bathroom and a few on the walls throughout the room. Second, there are light switches everywhere, so that I don’t have to shut off the lights and night and stumble back into bed, or wake up entirely in the dark. Both of these things might seem small, but it means that thought has actually been given to the guest experience – not just the decor, the design, and the end profit.

On the downside, the regular rooms feel a bit small. For a higher nightly rate, there are two incredible suites at the Old Bangkok Inn which afford guests a much more regal experience. We are able to peek into the Lotus suite the next morning – the Honeymoon suite was booked. The suites have large double beds set in the middle of spacious, intricately decorated room. A walkway through to the huge, tiled outdoor bathtub also serves as a luxurious indoor/outdoor shower experience. Up a small flight of stairs is a lofted second ‘bedroom’ of sorts, making this suite perfect for families with children.

Stand Out Feature: Thai traditional theme

The Old Bangkok Inn has plenty of great features that stand out, but overall it was the execution of the theme from start to finish. The look and feel, with wooden paneling, antique furniture, beautiful Thai paintings, allows guests to really soak up a traditional side of Thailand that is hard to come by in the metropolis that is Bangkok, in addition to providing a truly peaceful escape from the noise outside.

Stand Out Feature: Breakfast

One specific Stand Out feature of the hotel is the breakfast, which was simple and truly delightful. In addition to the choice of egg/meat/bread breakfasts, there is practically a buffet of exotic fruits – from small bananas and juicy mandarins to mangoes, pomegranate, mangosteens, Chinese pears, dragon fruit, and plenty of others we have seen but can’t name. One of the hotel owners, a polite older gentleman, even has a book with all the Thai fruits in order to show foreign guests just what they are eating and what it is called. As a side note, the eggs I order with my brown bread are also scrambled to perfection.

Room For Improvement:  Wi-Fi throughout the hotel

Regardless as to whether guests are here for business or pleasure, free in-room wi-fi is simply a must in a capital city like Bangkok, especially considering there was perfectly good quality wi-fi in the main lobby. Why not just extend it to the whole hotel? There were at least four guests in addition to us forced to bring laptops down to sit at the tables and use the wi-fi. While the in-room internet connection on the computer was a nice touch, our computers and smartphones are packed with personal information not available on a generic hotel computer – from work-related materials for business travelers, to travel info, tour guides and personal emails for holidaymakers.

Room for Improvement: Bed Quality

For some reason, mattresses in Thailand tend to be rock hard, but my bed was more unforgiving than most. On the other hand, Dani had a great night’s sleep in her single bed.

Overall

There are hundreds of hotels in this middle price range in Bangkok and the quality varies extremely between the best and the worst rip-offs. What we enjoyed so much about the Old Bangkok Inn is the value for money: clean, well-decorated rooms, traditional Thai atmosphere, impeccable service and delicious breakfast – along with the total peace and quiet in the center of Bangkok’s busiest area.

Location: 607 Pra Sumen Road, Pra Nakhon, Bangkok 10200, Thailand
Price: Starting at 3,190BHT/$100 per double room
LGBT Friendly: Not outwardly
Digital Nomad Friendly: without in-room wi-fi, unfortunately not
Amenities: Complimentary breakfast, free wi-fi in the restaurant area, DVD library, daily drinking water, guide book library
Website: http://www.oldbangkokinn.com

]]> http://globetrottergirls.com/2012/01/hotel-tip-of-the-week-old-bangkok-inn-bangkok-thailand/feed/ 7 http://globetrottergirls.com/2012/01/thailand-first-impressions-and-observations/ http://globetrottergirls.com/2012/01/thailand-first-impressions-and-observations/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:11:36 +0000 Dany http://globetrottergirls.com/?p=6581

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Expectations are such a pain to travel with. Giving in to them means spending time categorizing experiences into two columns: what you expected to see, and what comes as a surprise in each country you visit. The two of us have built up countless expectations about Asia in our lives – having waited until late 2011 to get here! But let’s say we ditch the expectations for a while and just talk about our first impressions of Thailand, without revealing into which category each of the following observations fall. We hope you enjoy (or are at least slightly amused by) our newbie impressions of Thailand…

Like living in a buzzing bee hive, there are more motor scooters here than we’ve ever seen in our lives…

…and they transport entire families…

…and even pets!

Poodles seem to be the most popular pets by far.

But there are also cats everywhere! (Just like in Italy)

Forget Paris! Thai teens and tweens make perfect hipsters, and fashion is a huge part of daily life.

Seeing monks everywhere is normal, regular, every day life in Thailand. Not just in temples, either. It’s quite normal to chat with them on the bus, see them buying iPods, carrying laptops or on their Blackberries in traffic on their motor scooters.

Though they do get special treatment, with their own sitting areas in bus stations and airports and on the bus, the seats in the last row are usually reserved for monks.

Buddhas are everywhere, too -  standing, sitting, reclining.

Each of the 40,000+ temples that house the Buddhas are striking and unique.

Thais revere elephants. They are religious symbols found especially in temples.

Real ones, however, are rare.

In Thailand, public transport can vary from Bangkok’s ultra-modern sky train to traditional cycle rickshaws.

Songthaws (covered pick-up trucks) seem to be the most common means of public transport…

…followed by tuktuks.

Thais love Foursquare! There is always at least one person checked-in at restaurants, bars, coffee shops, even temples or bus stations – they love it so much, we’ve even seen Foursquare t-shirts at markets. When tips are in English, we get great local tips this way.

From modern social media to rustic gas stations on islands and in remote villages… There are plenty of ‘real’ gas stations, too.

Feel like dropping out of school? Can’t be fussed to go for your driving test? Pick up any type of ID or Diploma you need on Khao San Road in Bangkok – some of these look seriously legit.

We’ve all heard of Thai massage, but had no idea how seriously Thais are about any kind of massage. Foot, back, shoulders, neck, Thais love to get a massage on a trip through the market. Fish spas are a freaky but fabulous Thai institution.

Many big, fat, old, white Western men manage to date young, sometimes gorgeous, Thai women. (It’s gross.)

Thailand is 95% Buddhist and monks are everywhere, but there are many Muslims and mosques to see, and Islam is widespread throughout the South.

Distracted by beaches or sightseeing, tourists in most countries might not even know the name of the country’s leader, let alone be able to pick him/her out of a line-up. Not in Thailand, where His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej waves down from posters and billboards literally all over the place. In fact, there is also a film of scenes from throughout the King’s life played to a standing audience before every movie shown in Thailand cinemas, too. 

‘The Beach’ is not the deserted dream destination that it was when the movie was filmed there.

Morning, noon and night, Thais either eat or pick up nearly all their meals at markets. Wouldn’t you, if all your take out food was guaranteed to be healthy and cheap as chips?

If you pick up your dinner at the market, you get the hot food (or salads, or fruit) in little plastic bags.

Whether at the market or in a restaurant, Thai food is so delicious, we order it three times a day. Who needs cereal, when you have this?How donuts found their way into Thai cuisine is a mystery, but there is not a single mall without a (Mister Donut, Dunkin Donuts) donut shop.

We are still not sure why, but birds in cages hang in front of Thai homes, stores and in temples.

Thais love energy drinks in tiny brown bottles. 

Thais also love their coffee! From coffee shops to road-side stands, the coffee is excellent and there is almost always free wi-fi (and that is enough to make us want to live here).

This Thai mannequin, used in stores everywhere, really creeps us out – unlike the ones in Mexico!

Thais live in the future. Seriously – 543 years to be exact. According to the Buddhist calendar, while we ringing in 2012, Thailand was celebrating the year 2555. 

Most towns in Thailand have unique, golden street signs and traffic lights with interesting statues.

Our language skills have been seriously tested – how to learn to speak Thai, when written it looks like this?

We can wholeheartedly conclude that a Thai girl wearing a traditional Bavarian dress is just wrong – especially because she worked at an all you can eat Bavarian beergarden in Phuket, which is also just wrong. 

Thais refer to foreigners (white Caucasians) as farang. It might sound offensive (like being called ‘cracker’ or hillbilly) but the term is a fairly neutral term for a westerner. 

Fancy eating bugs? You’ll find fried insects in many of the markets.

You could play it safe, though, and eat at Mickey D’s, where even Ronald McDonald greets you with the traditional Thai Wai. 

Like in Latin America, the electrical wiring leaves much to be desired.

Also like Latin America, soda drinks often come in plastic bags, but here in Thailand, the bags are branded.

Thailand’s reverse osmosis water filtration system makes hundreds of these re-fill stations available with fresh, filtered water for as little as 1 Baht ($0.02) for two liters.

Selling pirated DVDs of brand new blockbusters or unlocking iPhones is not just reserved for the streets, this is also commonplace in major malls. 

So far we are loving finding out these great quirks about Thailand – a place that used to feel so far away, but has come to feel so familiar. Please share your observations of Thailand in the comments below, or let us know if you have any questions about planning a trip here one day – we would love to share a few tips about traveling in Thailand.

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Sukhothai is mainly known for its old city – ancient ruins of the capital of the former Sukhothai kingdom. The new town, 10 miles east of the site, does not have much to offer visitors other than hotels, but turned out to be a great place to observe daily Thai life. There is a morning and a night market, monks building new temples or repairing others damaged in last year’s heavy floods. We shuffled through the markets, made small talk with vendors and found fruits we had never tried before.

It was a very relaxed affair – no one shouting or haggling to sell anything. From the looks of this guy, there was no need to worry. His goods will sell, whether he gets up out of that chair or not!
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When people meet know Dani and I, they are often surprised to find out that we are both huge fans of rap music. But I can remember way back in 1993, being 13 and rapping to Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle CD in the mirror with my best friend. At that time, suburban white girls were probably not who Snoop had imagined his demographic would be, but he hooked us and millions of people just like us around the globe onto rap- including Dani, all the way over in Germany.

So when the two of us put our heads together on places we wanted to see on the southern part of our NYC2NOLA road trip this year, we were thinking as much about the Dirty South as we were about Southern Charm and Georgia Peaches.For us, Atlanta is a music Mecca: smooth R&B artists like Usher, Monica, Keri Hilson and TLC and some of our favorite rappers like T.I., Ludacris, Ciara, Soulja Boy and above all, Outkast. As we planned our trip, however, we just couldn’t figure out to make the Atlanta music a tangible part of our trip. I am still not entirely sure what we expected, but there seems to be no way for an average visitor to interact with the music scene in the way that is possible in New York with its made-for-tourists hip hop music tours or the ease of hanging out in the blues bars of Chicago, country bars in Nashville and the live indie rock scene in Austin. Instead, we opted to hope for the best and find it when we got there.

After all, music wasn’t the only reason we wanted to visit Atlanta – in fact one things we love about Atlanta’s main attractions is that they are truly unique to the city: the Behind the Studio tour at the CNN center, the World of Coca Cola and the Olympic Park area. We accomplished all of these only-in-Altanta attractions and fit in a visit to the famous aquarium and Mary Mac’s Tea Room, which you can read about here.

Dani and I looked high and low, but found no signs of a visitor-friendly connection with the city’s music scene. There are hip-hop and R&B concerts, but none on the days we were in town (during the week in early September). When we were recommended Lov’n It Live, a raw vegan restaurant in East Point, an alarm sounded in my mind. East Point? Andre 3000 from OutKast is from East Point – let’s go! (Rap is not an omnivore-only thing – vegetarians and vegans love rap too!)

After a half hour drive from downtown Atlanta, it turned out that Lov’n It Live was closed and East Point is a pretty bleak, lower-income yet ‘up-and-coming’ area similar to where we lived in Deptford, London. What did I imagine? Rappers on every corner or that OutKast would be holding a free concert in the park? Of course not…but still…

We discussed our rap city reality check on our last night in town with a friend who really wanted to help. Very much a Southern Belle, however, she could only reveal that Usher used to live on the same road as the governor’s mansion. At first light, before heading out of town for the long drive to New Orleans, we attempted to find Usher’s mansion and though we didn’t know exactly which on it was, the size of these incredible southern homes could only confirm that Usher has done very well for himself since his ’97 hit ‘You Make Me Wanna’.

Ah well, the road trip must go on. We left Usher’s ritzy Buckhead area of the city, rolled down our windows, blasted a mix of OutKast, T.I. and Ludacris and rapped our way right out of Atlanta. We were headed west to New Orleans, our final stop on the NYC2NOLA 2011 road trip, and home to the most authentic (and easy to find) music scene in all of America.

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