After spending time in Bangkok it was nice to jump on a plane and a short 50 minutes later be in the smaller town (~300,000 people) of Chaing Mai. Chaing Mai is in the northwest part of Thailand and is a more mountainous region. The original city was surrounded by a thick wall made of brick but after many years the city expanded. The old city wall is still visible.
We of course made it to many Buddhist temples.
Here we were trying to keep our heads lower than the statues of Buddha
There is a spirit in this one that cannot be explained or controlled. We love her.
This was my kind of site seeing. Here is the oldest temple in the region, dating several hundreds of years old. It was taller at one point but fell in an earthquake
If you look on the ground level just to my left, you may note a small archway door. Our tour guide told us that at some point during WWII many people ran under here to seek protection from air bombing.
Here is the zodiac once again. Pictured is the traditional oriental pig/bore. I don't mean to brag but in Thailand, they substitute the pig with the Elephant. Remember that they hold the Elephant in the highest regard.
Here is our tour guide Mr. Paul (I cannot say his Thai name and I think most Americans cannot either which is why he made up an American name).
We found this kind of ice cream (Mochi) which is found throughout Asia. It is a serving of ice cream with a starchy sweet coating. We did not love it but it was fun to try.
For dinner, we had a meal that was followed by a performance of dancing. The food was endless and we were stuffed to the gills. Very delicious.
The next day we traveled to see a temple and a village. The village is a 45 min drive up a winding road where the temple is on the side of the hills. We were going to walk the stairs to the temple when our tour guide pointed out the tram. Yes please and thank you.
Here are the girls running and giggling. I guess there was only so much we could do to keep them quiet and respectful. While it was very difficult to keep them in line, I am proud of how well they did overall.
Hazel and Charlotte discovering the prayer bells
The story behind these fruits is that of the orange robes the monks wear. We were told that when Buddha was alive another monk came to him and told him he had no clothes to which Buddha responded he should use the clothes of those who had just died as they had no further need of them. Then to make them less unsightly, they took this fruit and used it to dye the robes an orange color. From this time forward the orange robe was a symbol of humility and lack of worldly possessions
Statues of Buddha, one for every month
For only ~$1 you can purchase a tile for the new roof going over the temple and write a message. Charlotte and Hazel just wrote their names. Look in the middle near the bottom.
Before the temple, we went to the village at the top of the mountain which was beautiful.
A small museum of the cultural history of the region
Now, this is bamboo. Before this trip, I had no idea how big this stuff could grow
Here was a nice tourist trap, a chance to shoot a native spring bow. Both girls did pretty well. I wanted to buy one but was not sure when if ever I would have the chance to shoot it again so I passed :(
Random toilet at lunch. This was a good experience for the girls.
On to the umbrella making factory:
This lady is stirring up the pulp water. The mesh screens are then used to filter the pulp out and are then put in the sun for drying
The paper is then placed in pieces over the skeleton that forms the umbrella.
Here are some finished products once painted. We bought some ... less expensive ones, that the girls got to sit and paint.
The next stop was a wood carving factory. Amazing work. We found a few bookshelves and things we wanted. How much, only $4000 but they ship for "free" to the US... I did not ask how much they charged for the table. Wood carving used to be much cheaper but laws have been made against cutting down trees so all their wood is now imported.
Thailand is famous for many things, among them silk. Here are some nice ladies making silk fabric
This is a plate of silk worm cocoons and the ladle is spinning the silk off of them.
A long day indeed as evident by children's behavior. Here we are at a local market. I was in no mood to fight small children so we had smoothies (cheap and delicious) and french fries.
This was the first night of the Lantern Festival though no lanterns were launched this night. Rather we stumbled across a parade on the way back to the car.
My one regret was not having this done. A fish pedicure. Jari was grossed out and I was absolutely intrigued.
There is a fantastic elephant camp/sanctuary in Chiang Mai. They have a show here where
you get to watch them play soccer, paint, and do tricks.
Bathing the elephants
Doing tricks
Painting
The final paintings. They do sell these at one of the gift shops. Not cheap.
The show got a little boring for some...
But Hazel is usually quick to smile when we redirect her.
Our tour guide has been there a few times so he talked to the people in charge and got me selected to play darts against the elephant! Really fun.
Even though we had already ridden elephants we could not pass the opportunity to do so again
Zachary was awake this time and really seemed to enjoy it.
The girls' elephant stopped for a quick snack. The keepers said each elephant eats nearly 1 ton of food daily.
The drivers and the ride were much more classy than the ones in Bangkok. Highly recommend this over Bangkok for anyone who cares or takes such a trip.
We wandered down the road a bit and found some elephants that we got to feed. This is the nursery where the baby elephants are kept.
A baby elephant had just arrived about a week before our trip. She was so timid. Any time the mother elephant moved she would scamper to be right underneath her, always in maximal contact.
After the elephants, we caught a quick monkey show. Really random but thanks to Mr. Paul for including this side show.
Lunch was at an Orchid farm (very pricey but delicious). There was much to see here but the kids were in need of a break so we snapped some photos and headed back for some unstructured fun.
Our Hotel was built in the 60's I think, remodeled probably once. Breakfast was great, the pools were OK but a bit chilly though I think this was just due to the season. The girls had a great time! Poor Hazel would freeze as soon as she was in the water but had so much fun she would go between the warm sun and cooler water over and over.
A Sunset view from our Hotel
Zachary and Jari also had a good time.
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