Chiang Mai

Oh the places….

Chiang Mai, Nov 4-13

I had read about so many activities in this area and settled on just one absolute must. The Patara Elephant Farm which we already wrote about. It was a glorious experience. The rest we would decide over breakfast each day I thought – we had a car, we had flexibility so no problem. The logistics hitch meant that we didn’t make the drive up to the Golden Triangle and Chiang Rai so that meant ten days without packing bags. The staff and the pool at Ping Nakara were so nice that we hardly wanted to leave and the town of Chiang Mai offered up plenty to do.

One day we explored the walled city and the wats and chedi located there. The girls are getting tired of temples and have estimated their total Buddha sightings at 30,000+

One day we drove around looking for the arts and crafts villages. We went to the celadon pottery place where Rose quickly threw a pot together. We went looking for the silk worm factory – we got lost, found some umbrella shops, and then finally found the silk worms and watched them for 2 minutes, back to the pool. Perfect. The girls were getting caught up on schoolwork (yes, their online school has assignments and grades – they are both doing well, thank you) and Andy and I were exploring the town.

One day we went to Tiger Kingdom. It is wrong on so many levels but, hey, let’s put that aside for a photo op. Completely against all that we learned from Patara. Because we had read that tigers had attacked people here (one Utube video was outright false but still), we didn’t allow the girls to go in with the big tigers for safety and they agreed they would just go in with the little ones. We all went in, Andy to take photos and the three of us because we were curious to touch and pet a tiger!

The little cubs were cute and playful. They seemed happy enough even when the “trainer” pulled their tails to get them into position for photos. We got our 10 minutes and our photos and walked around to see the rest of the place. The larger tigers were in small cages. All of them seemed to be sleeping. The ones that were out were being poked and toyed with just enough to keep the animal from noticing the people laying on their backsides. Some of the sleeping tigers were also lain on and photographed. These were massive tigers. We hear that they are likely drugged. The whole thing was sad.

Just outside the gates though the girls went Zorking – is that even how one refers to such a thing? I’ll have to check with Utubers Jack and Finn, or One Direction. Anyway, it’s like a hamster ball but it’s larger and you put your kids inside. There is air for 10 minutes and they run inside like hamsters while the ball floats on the pond or lake. It was hilarious. We have video which we will blackmail them with when they are older.

One day, my kind family, rose at 5am to accompany me on a birding trip. Since the second grade birding study, I have been interested in birds. It’s not even that I want to become that knowledgeable, I just like the activity of the early morning and the different colors and calls. And I hadn’t really planned to go birding here at all; didn’t even bring binoculars. Andy found a tour company, driver, and local birding guide and so we were off! Randy, Jackie and Boon. Randy was hilarious – a former missionary to remote northern Thailand villages in the 70s he now runs a tour company. He takes you places the tourists haven’t spoiled yet and has lots of stories about everything from opium smuggling in the 70s-80s to wealthy monks (the kind with G4s) to local customs. Jackie made origami stars, frogs and birds out of leaves when he wasn’t driving and gave them to the girls. Boon would find and identify the birds and if we hadn’t cried “uncle” after several hours, we would have continued until dark! We stopped at 47 species.

One day, Rose and I went to cooking school. We spent a morning exploring a small local market and then cooking on a well designed veranda with several cooktops. Pan showed us how to make the best Thai BBQ chicken and next summer when we invade the beach homes of friends and family we will make it for you! Rose was excellent in the kitchen and made the same four courses that I did. Thai BBQ chicken, green papaya salad, clear soup with pork, spicy pork salad. (I guess most of you knew already that we don’t keep kosher.)

Almost every day we swam laps in the pool. The girls are up to $144 in lap earnings. It started in Carmel Valley where mom and Doug have a full 25 meter pool – it’s brisk but it’s perfect. For each lap, single length, I award 50cents spending money. As the pools are smaller in most hotels, they have to do a full lap, double length. As for me, I am trying to get back in shape after two years without my water aerobics or yoga classes. Two years of sitting on my butt really. And, gosh, I don’t know why but I can’t see any progress. Shouldn’t ten days of daily swimming be enough to morph back into my former fit self?

p.s. If you comment truthfully on this topic, anything like “I told you to come with me to Soul Cycle/bikrum/bootcamp/barre/asphalt”, I will turn off the wordpress Comments function 🙂