Thailand becomes the 3rd country on Our Big Family Adventure. Given the likelihood of visiting during future vacations we’ve skipped the popular beach resorts. Instead Thailand is the ‘bookends’ of our South East Asia leg. First exploring northern Thailand with a week in Chiang Mai, and before Christmas we head back to Thailand to experience Bangkok for 5 nights. After the relative cold of Yunnan, Chiang Mai offered relaxation and a welcome return to heat and humidity. 

So what can we say about Chiang Mai? First off, if conversation runs dry either at end of this trip, or as an ‘Empty Nester’ in 15 years time…after a week in Chiang Mai, it seems to be the place to visit. It may have been a coincidence, but we spent our first dinner people watching, as the clientele consisted of a conveyor belt of elderly white expats and their younger female Thai spouses. Not sure what’s in the water 😉

Finding a Doctor in Chiang Mai

We’ve got the first sickness of the trip. After 6 weeks in China and Taiwan eating street food, Molly picked up gastroenteritis (most likely) from the dodgy Kunming airport food. After a couple of days feeling sorry for herself. We took a quick trip to a local doctor. After a short wait in the nearby Le Meridien lobby (why sit with other sick people in the heat), we received the drugs for this bout (and a future bout). If anyone needs an English speaking doctor with drop in appointments in Chiang Mai, I can recommend Loi Kroh Medical Clinic. It is far from private health care, only €20, but it did the job and we’re back solid again!

The sickness resulted in an enforced slow down, so we’ve spent a week relaxing in Chiang Mai. With the heavy competition for the tourist dollar, the budget extended much further than China and Taiwan. We upgraded, and the kids once again enjoyed access to a swimming pool, a western breakfast and Netflix! There has been no half term holiday in this family, so we’ve caught up on home schooling. The only thing the kids haven’t found yet are holiday friends. We’ll need to plan stops in more touristy places around the school holidays in the future. 

Rediscovering Alcohol

While the kids haven’t found friends, Jennie and I rediscovered alcohol. Not in an alcoholic, wake up in the morning and need a drink way, but instead a cold beer watching the Rugby World Cup Final and over a few meals have proved a welcome treat.

That said, not all establishments were quite as expected. I hastily jumped into a bar after returning from an excursion to watch England (lose) in the rugby. I settled in with a good position near the TV at the bar. While England were getting a lesson from South Africa in ball control, I realised upstairs there was a different type of ball control taking place! Stuck with the dilemma of a good viewing spot but in a front for a brothel, I did what any prude would do…fixed my gaze at the TV for the next 60 minutes and didn’t make eye contact with anyone until the moment I left. Perhaps sobriety has advantages?!

Poo is the nearest we’ve got to an Elephant

On the days the sickness subsided we’ve explored Chiang Mai and surroundings. We’ve skipped the elephant sanctuaries and zip lines. Can you imagine the noise a 3 year old would make on a zipline…no thanks! As for elephants, the kids had the good fortune to see them in the wild in Sri Lanka last year. We’re taking our chances and hoping to observe them as we travel down the Mekong into Laos next week. But we did spend an enjoyable few hours making paper from dung at the Elephant PooPooPaper Park. The kids loved it. While perhaps not your average holiday attraction, the short tour was engaging for the children and the opportunity to get hands-on with the poo was a lot of fun! For once the kids weren’t giving us s$%t!

After a quick bite we took another Grab taxi to Siam Insect Zoo. Again a small place you could race around, but somewhere we spent about 2 hours looking at the spiders, butterflies and handling huge insects. Not for the squeamish. Our kids enjoyed everything. And as an added bonus, no insects were harmed, and no venomous spiders were accidentally released.

One final recommendation for kids in Chiang Mai is Art in Paradise. A fantastic 3D exhibition, further brought to life through their iPhone app and augmented reality. It was one of the more expensive attractions we’ve visited, but well worth the money for the couple of hours enjoyment. The kids were stalked by giant cats, walked with dinosaurs and even appeared in a snow globe with Olof from Disney’s Frozen. The exhibition is also inside, so makes a good break from the humidity.

Wats, Wats and more Wats

We love a good temple. Back in Europe, every Sunday you’ll religiously find the Price Family at a place of worship. Asia has been no different. It’s been temples, wats, churches, shrines…it’s been a religious odyssey. We’ve kept the run going in Chiang Mai visiting Wats (temples) in the city, jungle and mountain. The kids can’t wait for Siem Reap and Angkor Wat! 😉 In particular, Wat Chedi Lat was educational, offering the kids the opportunity to ask monks about their practice. And, Wat Pha Lat nestled in the jungle afforded great views of the city after a long sticky walk up the hills. The walk up the hills came with the encouragement of searching for geocaches. That said, none were discovered. Our willingness to dig behind trees was greatly reduced having seen Thailand’s native insects earlier in the week.

Fun at Bua Thong Waterfalls (Sticky Waterfalls)

Molly’s sickness improved and we ventured 90 minutes north of Chiang Mai to Bua Thong Waterfalls, also known as Sticky Waterfalls. A natural attraction somewhat off the beaten track. While not impressive on first sight, the waterfalls are unique for the mineral deposits they leave on the rocks giving complete grip in the water.

With bags and shoes left in the locker at the top of the waterfall, we enjoyed a picnic and spent a couple of hours clambering up and down the 3 levels of Bua Thong Waterfalls. Clearly the waterfalls would fail any type of health and safety check in the UK. Fortunately we departed with only a minor head bump for Rory, it could have been much worse if he landed on his bum. The day proved particularly good on the budget, with the Red Songthaews the only expense (1200 bhat). It would be much cheaper on a motorcycle. But we’ve not yet reached the Thai and Chinese confidence of squeezing 5 people on 2 wheels.

24 hours in Chiang Rai – buses, bikes and temples

Originally we decided to stop for 2 days in Chiang Rai. But a combination of no bus tickets and the allure of the Sunday market in Chiang Mai, meant we opted to squeeze Chiang Rai into 24 hours. On reflection, 24 hours was ample time for us to explore Chiang Rai.

We took the Green Bus VIP (not the Express), having bought tickets at the Chiang Mai station the day before we departed. Online you can only buy adult tickets, and we’d seen on 12go.asia that buses were selling out for Monday. The bus was a relatively refined experience with reclining seats and a toilet! Access to a toilet is great for kids on a 3 hour journey, but imagine a cubicle at the back of a bus a third of the size of an airplane toilet. Then you will understand that taking the kids to ‘spend a penny’ required us to be contortionists while the bus navigated the bends on the mountains. 

The main attractions in Chiang Rai are the White and Blue Temples. Having being inspired by an Earth Trekkers blog post, we decided to use the bikes at our hotel. Rory was strapped into a baby carrier (he’s getting too big) and Elsie clang for dear life sat on a pannier rack. Unfortunately Jennie and I couldn’t bear Molly’s whinging as her bike was too heavy, and after 3km we turned back and reverted to Grab taxis. On the plus side, the cheap taxis proved a good mode of transport as we quickly ticked off the impressive temples. 

Dave…stop using your iPhone!

What did we do 15 years ago without the mobile internet? Before our trip I promised Jennie my phone usage would change. Apparently my phone comes 1st or 2nd in our family (alternating for top position with work). Good news…my usage has changed. Bad news…as an invaluable tool for a traveller, it’s a change in apps rather than a reduction in usage!

As you’ve read, in Thailand, Grab has become our go-to-app for transportation. We’re also using it for food delivery while sat around the hotel pool. For planning I’m using Booking.com, Airbnb, Google Flights and Rome2Rio (just acquired by Omio, my old company). In addition:

• I’ve rediscovered Pocket, which we’re using for saving / reading stuff offline.
• Brushed off the dust from Duolingo. Fingers crossed my refreshed high school Spanish will be passable for negotiating and ordering in South America in the new year.
• After a receiving recommendations while walking Tiger Leaping Gorge, we have a navigation fallback, and now use Maps.Me for offline maps.
• We are enjoying making a video mashup of our trip using One Second Everyday. And let’s face it, at the end of this trip, I think our extended family will be grateful for a 5-6 minute video of our travels. Rather than the millions of photos.

Slow Boat down the Mekong River

After our most authentic bus ride to date (read, it was British ‘interesting’), we are now in Chiang Khong. On the Thai border with Laos. Ready to start a 2 day slow boat down the Mekong River. For 2 days there will be no escape from 3 kids for us or the other passengers on the Nagi of Mekong. Fingers crossed.