Off On Our Next Adventure

A Smooth Journey

Clare kindly offered to drop us off at Phuket airport for our flight to Chiang Mai. The gods must’ve been smiling on us, because Clare sent us this photo after she got home, saying that on her way back the highway to the airport was backed up for miles because a truck had broken down…lucky we got through beforehand!

We made our way to the gate and couldn’t believe it when they began boarding on time. I think it’s the first time that one of our Air Asia flights has departed on time, if not a few minutes early!

When we landed in Chiang Mai, it was all very straightforward getting a taxi to Hotel De Khuvieng, where the staff were incredibly kind and welcoming, and our interconnecting rooms with enormous TVs on the wall were perfect.

The Night Bazaar

After settling into our hotel, we were off in a Bolt for the short drive to the Night Bazaar on the other side of the Old City.

We arrived as stall holders were setting up, and wandered along checking out the offerings. Leo and Anna were stoked to finally find the rechargeable portable fans they’d been keen to buy for a while and eagerly parted with their 150 baht after bargaining the price down from 250…the ‘”I’ll have a think and come back later” works a treat to get another 20 percent knocked off the price, if it’s reasonable for the vendor. At other times, when they don’t drop down after walking away, you know they’ve reached the lowest they’ll go.

After browsing the market, we found the food vendors with a large, well-lit seating area. We took turns choosing various dishes to share, including crispy roti, meat skewers, gyoza, pork ribs, and fruit shakes.

Leo considered trying a scorpion, but thankfully, he didn’t follow through with that one.

Self-guided Temple Tour

On the Saturday, I had planned out a route to explore the city, including the National Museum and some of the main temples, or Wats. Shaun was keen too, however, we needed to provide motivation in the form of regular cold drinks to keep the kids motivated at times.

Chang Mai National Museum

The Museum was presented in a very traditional format, with glass cases surrounding artefacts and roped-off areas, so there was none of that interactive, tactile experience that kids can get at museums like Te Papa in NZ.

Saying that, Leo and Anna were absolutely fascinated by some of the items on display, including the stunning Lanna art; elephant saddles that had been used by Thai kings (which had ivory decorations); intricately detailed swords, the evolution display and a human skeleton from an early burial site (again, something you would not definitely not see in a Museum in Aotearoa).

Wat Phra Singh Woramahawihan

Once we had had a good look around at the Musuem, we called a Grab to take us back to the city centre. Here we visited the stunning Wat Phra Singh Woramahawihan with its magnificent golden stupa.

When we went inside the main temple, there were lots of wax figures of monks meditating, which we thought were real! They were honestly so lifelike…it wasn’t until we went around the back of them that we could see they were made from wax.

The Illusive 7-Eleven Slurpee

After our temple visit, it was time for a cold drink, so we visited the 7-Eleven nearby. After six weeks of scouring 7-Eleven stores all over Thailand, these two had finally found one with a working Slurpee machine in Chiang Mai. This was honestly one of the highlights of Thailand for these two!

Wat Phantao

The ancient Wat Chedi Luang was meant to be our next temple visit, but when we arrived to find an entry fee for foreigners and the fact that women were forbidden in the main ancient temple at all times due to the fact that they menstruate, we walked on past. While this is a remarkable temple by all accounts, it irked me that this was the first time in Thailand that we have visited a temple that excludes women. I get that Hindu and Muslim places of worship have this rule, but it only applies when a women is actually menstruating, not all the time. To me, it seemed rather out of place within the context of Buddhism.

Interestingly, a few doors down the road, we found the monastery Wat Phantao had no rules excluding women, and we were welcome to enter the beautiful old teakwood temple. Outside, the monks and young novices were busy working to dismantle an old bamboo structure.

Wat Inthakhin Sadue Muang

Around the corner, we came across yet another beautiful temple, in front of the Lanna Folklife Museum.

At this point, it was very hot, and the kids had reached their capacity for temple viewing for the day (they are very patient with my obsession with temples!), so we hopped in a tuktuk to our hotel for a couple of air-conditioned hours’ rest. Our hotel had huge 50 inch Smart TVs in each room, so we loved catching some movies on Netflix. Leo is currently watching Tom Hanks classics, and I enjoyed watching The Terminal with him.

Wua Lai Walking Street

That evening, we went out for dinner at the Saturday Walking Street. This adjoins the regular nightly street food stalls that line the road and goes on for miles!

After eating our fill of deliciously cheap sushi, gyoza, beef skewers, and delicious fried bread made by the couple in the photo above, we set out to browse the market.

The kids were pleased to find a rolled ice cream stall and stopped to purchase some, enjoying watching the process of making it.

Anna’s pocket money was burning a hole in her pocket, so she purchased a cute little nightlight. One of the biggest challenges of browsing markets is holding back on purchases, since whatever we buy, we need to carry with us. This has been particularly hard for Anna and I, so I’ve made Shaun promise that we can spend an entire day shopping at Chatchuchak Market in Bangkok, just before we fly home!

Mum’s Magical Mystery Tour

The following day, we decided to rent a car through our hotel for the day for about $60. It turned out to be such a great move because we had the freedom to explore the surrounding areas of Chiang Mai without being on a time limit. I put together some places of interest, added them as stops on Google Maps, and off we went in our tidy little Honda.

The Elephant Poo Poo Paper Park

The first stop was the Elephant Poo Poo Paper Park, an educational, crafty little place where you could literally learn how to make paper from Elephant Poo. We started by getting crafty with paper, making bookmarks and a card while we waited for the tour to start.

The tour was brilliant, punctuated by lots of poo jokes and hands-on activities, it proved to be a total hit with the kids.

First up, they got to inspect the dried out elephant poo. We found out that the reason why it can be used for making paper is because there is lots of fiber left in it still, unlike cow poo, which has gone through four stomachs’ worth of digestion and has very little fibre left in it.

To clean all the dirt off the fibres, the poo is ‘cooked’ for about four hours, after which the fibres are removed and it ends up as a fluffy, wool-like material.

These fibres are then combined with lots of old paper, such as shredded newspapers, and mixed together in water using a special machine. Dye is added to give it the desired colour.

Once the mixture is smooth, it is collected in little balls, put on top of frames with a sieve, and gently immersed in a shallow water bath until the pulp spreads out. When the sieve is evenly covered, you lift it out and dry the sheet of paper in the sun.

This highly entertaining and educational experience was so worth the visit. Leo and Anna paid such close attention to our guide and were so engaged in the activities that it reminded me how important structured learning is. It also made me feel a little bit bad for taking them out of their schools for these seven months because they’re really missing their friends and home routines at times. While I set them homeschool projects and activities, try and do regular maths and do reading every day with Anna, as well as finding educational tours for them, our kids really do love the daily rhythm that school provides. Hopefully, in years to come, they will look back on this trip as a valuable educational experience as well!

Bai Orchid and Butterfly Farm

Our next stop was this sweet little orchid and butterfly farm attached to a huge cafe.

We stopped in here for a quick look around before continuing on our way. The butterflies took quite a liking to Shaun!

Mon Jam

After a quick stop at a roadside place for a pork noodle soup lunch, we drove up into the mountains to Mon Jam.

The scenery was gorgeous, with lush green jungle foliage lining the roads, and every once in a while, we caught a glimpse of elephants at the many sanctuaries along the way. Mon Jam is a hill tribe farming community, and it’s a really beautiful place with magnificent views.

Anna loves a good swing and made the most of the mountainside opportunities here! We didn’t plan for her outfit to match the flowers, but it sure made some lovely photos.

She was actually very brave posing amongst these flowers because they were teeming with bees (as they should be!) although we all emerged unscathed.

After a good walk around, we stopped to buy some delicious peaches from one of the locals before setting off in the car again.

On the drive back down, we visited a very picturesque stream with a fun swing bridge.

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep

It was an hour’s drive back towards Chiang Mai to the famous hillside temple that overlooks the city. The drive up to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep was incredibly windy and steep, however the road was very well maintained, and we arrived at sunset.

To reach the temple, you need to first climb the 309 steps (Anna and I counted them) lined by beautiful seven-headed serpent statues that serve as the stair rails the whole way up. At the top, we paid our 30 baht entry fee for three of us (the baby was free), removed our shoes, and entered the courtyard. As we walked into the main temple, we could hear monks chanting their evening prayers. Anna and I sat quietly at the back for a while, taking in the peaceful ritual.

This gold plated chedi is the most sacred part of the temple grounds and is beautifully maintained. It really is a sight to behold!

The chedi is surrounded by numerous Buddhas in different shapes and sizes.

The effect of the setting sun made all the gold shine brilliantly against the dusky sky.

After looking around the courtyard, and admiring the view, we were ready to descend. Leo and Anna were not so keen on all the stairs, but at least it was easier going down than up!

Ethical Elephant Sanctuaries

One of the things we have all been looking forward to is seeing and interacting with elephants on this trip. Up until only a few years ago, it was fairly common to find places where you could ride elephants, as well as feed and bathe them. These days, most sanctuaries in the Chiang Mai region have stopped the practice of elephant riding, because many of the elephants have already served humans for many years, whether in circuses, riding parks, or in logging.

The impact of humans on elephants is being examined more closely, and even though there are hundreds of years of cultural history of riding elephants and domesticating them in Thailand, people are realizing that this has severely diminished the wild elephant population. In addition to this, training elephants by using bullhooks, chains, and deprivation is very cruel. When deciding which park to visit, we wanted to support the work of rescuing elephants from service and allowing them to live in freedom, so we chose Elephant Nature Park, which is a very hands-off experience, yet you are able to walk right next to the elephants when accompanied by a guide.

Elephant Nature Park by Leo

When we drove into the elephant sanctuary, we saw tons of elephants and buffaloes. We then walked in and saw many dogs as well. I read the signs and saw that the dogs had been saved from abusive owners and the dog meat trade, which is when people illegally sell dogs as food. They also saved buffalo and ox from being killed.

I also saw a poster about Lek Chailert,  the founder of the park’s documentary called ‘Elephant Mother’ which is showing in New Zealand and Australia with commentary. Here are the details.

We walked in and saw a few elephants; all the ones we saw at the beginning were rescued from circuses, riding camps, and the illegal logging industry.

One was a grandmother called Jenny. She was about 70 years old, which you could tell from the depth of her temples, and she had a flatter back than the others because of the saddles from riding. Another one was called Lucky and was completely white in the eyes because she was permanently blinded from the spotlights in the circus.

They were getting well-fed and eating piles of leaves and bananas. The older elephants without teeth were given softer things like cucumbers. They need to supply a lot of food because elephants require 300 – 400 kgs (about 881.85 lbs.) of food every day. We walked along a bit more and saw a whole family of elephants with four toddlers, one grandmother and one mother.

The reason the males are kept in a separate area of the park is when they let one in it tried to mate with a grandmother and killed her. We did not see the males, but we did see the family have a bath in the river.

We walked a bit more and saw more elephants bathing. Some came out of the river, and one had a massive fleshy wound on her foot from standing on a landmine in Myanmar. The other elephants ran to the trees and walked into the forest. When they heard the whistle of the staff calling them for lunch, they all charged back across the river.

Once we got back, we had lunch and visited the cat kingdom, which is where they rescue cats and treat ones with illnesses like chronic kidney disease and cancer. Some of the cats looked pretty unwell. After that we went back and drove to our hotel.

Overall, I think the Elephant Nature Park is very caring towards animals, and you should show it support if you are ever in Chiang Mai 10/10.

A Few Quiet Days

After a whirlwind three days of sightseeing with early starts and late nights, we had a quiet couple of days, relaxing at the hotel, enjoying the pool and checking in with family, as well as researching our onward travel arrangements.

Both of our big kids enjoyed the little kids ball pit in our hotel!

We had a few yummy dinners out as well, enjoying eating at Kat’s Kitchen, which was recommended by our friend Oliver. They served delicious, comforting Thai food, filled with veges.

After a week of eating local food and lots of street food, Leo was very keen for a burger night, so we went to a tiny little burger place down the road from our hotel called Primary, where the owner lovingly made burgers from scratch. They were absolutely delicious, authentic burgers, so he got a 5 star Google review from us to match the others.

As you can see from the photos, both kids were very happy!

Speaking of happy, I was also pleased to finally find some decent moisturizer in this Chiang Mai Direct import shop, as I’d had a hard time finding one I recognized and I was worried about ending up with one that had whitening products in it, as so many skin products in Southeast Asia do.

We also stocked up on a few snacks and other imported products while we were there.

Anna’s Chiang Mai Highlights

The Hunt for US Dollars

During our research on Laos, where we were headed in a few days’ time, we learnt that we needed US dollars to pay for our visas. It was also a good idea to get enough US dollars to pay for our Cambodian visas in a few weeks’ time. Apparently, these needed to be crisp, new, unfolded notes, with no marks or tears. We visited several banks in Chiang Mai during our last few days there, and while we could get  hold of larger notes, such as one hundred dollar bills, smaller denominations were harder to come by. By the time we left, we had gathered together about 400usd.

Final Thoughts on Chiang Mai

We had originally planned to stay four nights in Chiang Mai but ended up extending our stay for another’s two nights, partly because our hotel was so comfortable with very kind staff, and partly because we all really liked Chiang Mai. It had such a calm, relaxed vibe, was easy to navigate, and we really enjoyed our interactions with the local people there. The temples and the stone walls surrounding the old city added to its colourful, historic character. In addition to this, the food there was amazing!