Buathong Waterfalls

Two days after My Man got hit by a truck (resulting in a sprained knee, broken foot, and lots of gross road rash, but thankfully nothing more), we were scheduled to check out Buathong Waterfalls with a few other consulate families. The kids were super excited and My Man gallantly encouraged us to go without him while he had a boring day stuck in bed, with no one around to help him out. We felt bad leaving, but were excited to check out this place we'd heard so much about.

The falls don't look like much from the top, in fact you can't really see them at all, but there is a trail to take you down to the bottom so you can climb up.

The falls are a unique formation. The hardness of the water has caused layers of calcium deposits to build up on the rocks so that they aren't very slippery and you can actually climb right up the waterfall!  It's hard to believe until you experience it yourself, but it is super fun. I didn't get many good pictures because the lighting was weird and I didn't keep my phone with me very much (too wet!).

The kids absolutely loved it. Young Man headed up the group of older kids and after climbing up the falls a few times, they decided to follow the creek downstream as far as they could to see if there were more falls down below (there are several tiers). Darling Daughter and Funny Guy, of course, were not to be left behind, so we sludged through calf-deep mud through dense overgrowth (all I could think of were all the many kinds of venomous snakes native to Thailand, until I started wondering if there are leaches here?). But the kids loved it. Young Man even got a big bamboo stick and was using it like a machete to cut down vines. Really, we were only about 50 yards downstream from the main area, but it felt like an adventure. Finally, the way got a bit too tricky and, hiding a sigh of relief, they decided to turn around and head back to the falls.

It was a tricky balance between letting the kids go and making sure they were safe. One wrong step could send you bouncing 50 or more feet back down the waterfall. In fact, one little boy in the group tripped early on and got a little banged up (luckily not serious) and a friend had warned me that she had seen a little girl slip near the top and fall all the way down. So I knew it was kind of dangerous--on the other hand, I think experiences like this are a great way to make fun memories. I compromised by making the kids promise to not get carried away and step carefully and then followed Funny Guy everywhere, just in case. It was a great workout! There are also a few ropes for the more slippery sections near the top of each section, which is very nice.

Finally after a few trips up the waterfall, we stopped for a picnic at the top, which was a great chance to get to know some of the other consulate families a little better. One of the great things about this place was that there was a great picnic area at the top near the parking so we didn't have to lug our stuff too far. There was also a tiny little convenience store and café. The kids all joked that the place even had a free "Dr. Fish spa" because when they sat in the little pool, hundreds of little fish came over and started nibbling their toes.

After lunch, the kids each got a popsicle for 10 baht (about 30 cents) and then played in the creek or played soccer.

I thought it was hilarious watching all the older kids running around playing soccer while eating their popsicles (I ran over to get a picture, but by then they had finished their popsicles). After lunch, most of the other families were done and headed home, but our kids begged for more time. So we stayed, climbing the waterfall another dozen times or so. Best waterpark I've ever been to. :-)  I can't wait to go back after the smoky season is over.

Hit by a Truck

We knew when we bought a motorcycle and My Man started using it to commute to work that it was a gamble. Chiang Mai does, after all, have one of the highest rates of motorcycle fatalities in the world. Still, most of those have to do with reckless and/or inexperienced drivers, intoxicated tourists, and not wearing a helmet. My Man has been riding a motorcycle on and off since he was 16 and is a great driver. Plus, it really makes the most sense economically, shaving off more than 30 minutes from his commute some days and costing much less in gas, insurance, and initial investment than a second car. Reluctantly, we decided that the positives outweighed the negatives (I say "reluctantly," but My Man absolutely LOVES riding his motorcycle. The reluctance is definitely one-sided).

Then, My Man got hit by a truck.

We had planned on a fun family evening at the market near our house. It's a blast (I will post about it soon). Tons of street food, miscellaneous vendors selling everything from flowers to shoes to makeup and electronics, and music (often live). There is also a huge bouncy house slide that Funny Guy would live in if we let him. So we were looking forward to the evening. (We try to go at least once a week.) Then, after My Man was already late getting home, I got a text from him saying he had met up with friends and to go ahead and go without him because he would be home late. Slightly bugged, we set off without him. We had a great time, but I felt bad My Man wasn't with us and kept checking my phone for an update. Finally, he called and asked when his last tetanus shot was. Huh? It took a few probing questions for him to admit that he was actually in the ER, that he hadn't been hanging out with friends, but had been hit by a truck on his commute home. WHAT?!?!??!?! He hadn't wanted us to miss our fun night out so had waited as long as possible to call me.

Apparently, police had already been on the scene, directing traffic, saw the accident (and that the truck driver was completely at fault), called an ambulance for My Man and got the driver to take care of the motorcycle and hospital bills, so he hadn't felt the need to alarm me. My heart melted and I had to repent my earlier annoyance. I hurried the kids home to get ready for bed, grabbed copies of passports, immunization records, and insurance cards, and headed over to the hospital.

By then they were just about done and My Man grinned, clearly pleased with how well he'd timed everything so that I wouldn't have to wait or be inconvenienced at the hospital. Here's his side of the story:

While lying in the Emergency Room after the x-rays as the nurse digs road out of my body, I receive my first ever call from the duty officer: “Sir, a hospital called and said there is an injured American there at the hospital.”  “This is ironic,” I think to myself, about to tell him I am OK, the truck didn’t completely run me over, and it looks like the only thing really wrong is my broken foot, but then the young airman continues, “the doctor told me he was acting wild and saying he didn’t want to live anymore.”  Now I am worried; I never said that, did I? Either the hospital is making up a story to kill me and hide the body or there is another American in a different hospital emergency room.  After getting the number to the hospital, I call, relieved that it wasn’t in fact my hospital.  As the nurse moves to my hand, scrubbing, scraping, and cutting pavement out, I talk to a doctor at another hospital across town about another American.  When I ask to speak to the Amcit, the doctor tells me to wait a second and comes back after what seems like an hour (time seems to pass more slowly while rocks are being picked out of the most sensitive part of your hand), she tells me he has run away and they don’t know where he is.  Just another day in the life of a consular officer.  Now, can you hand me those crutches?

After we checked out of the hospital, we headed over to the police station where we negotiated everything with the other driver before finally heading home where I figured he'd be able to rest.

The next day, in spite of the pain, however, My Man was back at work. He was the only consular officer in town and didn't want to cancel appointments.

In fact, he was out doing hospital visits, business as usual. His staff were so impressed that they took pictures and sent them out to the whole consulate (including his boss who was out of town).

We were extremely grateful that he came out from the experience with only a broken foot, sprained/bruised knee, and deep road rash. As bad as that was, it could have been a lot worse. And now he has first-hand knowledge of the Chiang Mai hospital system.

Mork Fa Waterfall

One of our first adventures out of Chiang Mai was an excursion to Mork Fa waterfall, about an hour’s drive away in the Doi Suthep National Forest.  Young Man had a scout campout up there (he went up on Friday right after school) and My Man wanted to join them for the day Saturday, so the rest of us decided to head up to enjoy the day up there as well. The trip up was beautiful and at the turnoff to the waterfall, there was a cute little café where we stopped for an early lunch. We ate outside overlooking a little farm and beautiful gardens. The food was great and the smoothies were even better!

After dropping My Man off with the scouts, Darling Daughter, Funny Guy, and I headed up to the waterfall. There are two ways to get there: the nature trail (which winds up through the mountain and is a bit longer) and the waterfall path. We opted to make it a loop, so we took the nature trail to the waterfall and the other trail on the way back. It was a great way to do it.

The nature trail wound through groves of bamboo and other trees and went past a little cave (known around here as the bat cave, though we didn’t see any bats).

 We explored the cave for awhile (it doesn't go too far back), then headed down to the waterfall.

First, we enjoyed a nice view of the waterfall from above. Then we followed the trail down to the creek and back up to the waterfall so we could actually get in and swim.

There were also a few bridges we had to go across that Funny Guy eyed very suspiciously. I had to go ahead to prove they were safe, and even then he clung to the railing the whole way!

Mork Fa waterfall is pretty, falling into a nice pool where you can swim (which Funny Guy did). It was pretty cold water though, and most of us didn't have a change of clothes, so we just waded in. 

While we were there, the scouts hiked up, so it was fun to see them. Some of the scouts braved the water for a real swim.

Others (I won’t point fingers here, but let me just say that Young Man  is definitely more worried about water temps than I was at his age!) were content to wade in and explore the rocks. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon picnicking and playing in the creek (Darling Daughter and Funny Guy worked hard on a dam and were very disappointed when we had to leave before it was completed!).

The park closed at 5pm though, so we hiked back to the car and headed out to check out the Buddhist temple we had seen on the way in.

It was one of my favorites (I think I say that every time!). The meditation rooms had beautiful paintings and statues. 

Funny Guy and Darling Daughter surprised me by wanting to stay for almost half an hour in one, sitting quietly, thinking and considering the art.

We were the only ones there (though we did see one monk as we were leaving) and it was undeniably peaceful.

In the middle was a huge staircase lined with three-headed dragons.

The view from the top was fantastic and we drank in the gorgeous sunset before heading back to the camp to pick up My Man and Young Man to head home.

Meanwhile, My Man and Young Man were having a great time at the campout and weren't ready to leave when we got there. I'm so excited that there is a great Boy Scouting program here. I read with the younger kids until the older boys were finished playing ultimate Frisbee and at last we headed home. Even though we had all done different things, it was a great day for us all.



Samoeng Strawberry Festival

What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than with a celebration of strawberries?! February 14, we set out for Samoeng, a little village up in the mountains a couple hours from our house, determined not to let sickness stand in our way of finally getting out and exploring (even though I was still not fully recovered from my bout of pneumonia and My Man wasn't feeling well himself). We got ready early and were in the car by 8:30, ready to hit the road. It was a very, very windy, narrow road, but it was beautiful and in spite of the dramatic ups and downs and twists and turns of the road, we made it safely to Samoeng a couple hours later. The place was hopping!  In fact the main road into town was completely blocked off and all visitors were ushered straight into the parking area (I didn't need to worry about how to find the festival! I did, however, have to worry about how to get gas since the road was completely blocked off and we drove in just above empty. . . ).

Not sure exactly what to expect, we followed the crowds. There were vendors selling food, so of course we had to sample some.  The boys especially loved the crepe-wrapped hotdogs on a stick.

There were a few places to pose for corny pictures.  The kids were good sports and humored me.

And of course, no Thai celebration is complete without a giant picture of the king and queen!

There was a stage full of musicians emitting a raucous cacophony of sound (aka traditional Thai music).

And then there was the parade! There was a marching band, lots of groups marching in traditional costume, huge floats, and more.

Apparently they don't throw candy in Thai parades, but I think the costumes make up for it--they were beautiful! And of course, there is always someone carrying an honorary portrait of the king.

After the parade, we walked the gauntlet of strawberry vendors, sampling a few things as we went along.

The chocolate dipped strawberries were our absolute favorite (the actual strawberries themselves, unfortunately, are disappointing. I think after Korea, no other strawberries will ever compare)! A few stalls down from the chocolate strawberries was a vendor selling lots of varieties of fried bugs.

There were piles of fried larva, grasshoppers, crickets, and giant water beetles. I've actually always wanted to try fried grasshoppers, so I bought a few and popped them in my mouth, reveling in the oohs and yucks from the kids. I cajoled them into trying them too. They weren't great, but they weren't too bad. Kind of a satisfying crunch to them. :-) My Man was not interested. He will eat almost anything and is one of the most adventurous eaters I know, but for some reason bugs seem to cross his line. He, in fact, was fixated on the giant water beetles.

They were huge! Each one was bigger than my thumb! As we were standing there staring and grimacing at the large bugs, another lady came up and bought a large bag full. "Very delicious," she said in Thai. Then in English to reinforce her point, "chop, chop, put in food, very good." But in spite of her assurances, we weren't convinced. She was so enthusiastic about the bugs that I gave her the rest of my bag of grasshoppers (two for me and one for each of the kids was more than plenty--that left almost a full bag full for her). She was delighted. She tried to return the favor by offering us some fried larva, but I'd met my quota for the day so we politely declined. Then My Man turned back to the kids and declared, "$10 bucks if one of you will eat a giant water beetle." The kids stared blankly. No response. "$25?" Nothing. "Seriously? No one wants to eat it for $25? What's your price, $50?" Nope. I mean, they were seriously big. But My Man had his heart set on seeing one of his offspring eat a water beetle and had to find out their price. At $75 there was a bit of wavering but no one agreed. At $100, Darling Daughter bravely stepped forward. "OK, I'll do it." Mind you, this is our very pickiest eater. She won't eat chocolate icecream if it happens to touch the cake you serve it with, because, you know, they touched. So we were curious to see if she could do it. She also happens to be our most determined child, though, so once she set her mind to it, there was no going back. She ripped off the wings and legs (choking hazard), then bit off the head.

Her brothers' eyes bulged. Pure admiration filled Funny Guy's visage. My Man kept egging her on, "come on, just spit it out!" and "how does it feel to be chewing up beetle guts?" but she kept on and finished every last bit. Seriously, sign this girl up for Fear Factor! Funny Guy was so impressed that he wanted to try. After all, if his sister could do it, how bad could it be?

He took a huge bite, swallowed, and said, "Not too bad!" took another bite, then promptly puked. I'll save you the visual except to remind you that most of what he had eaten before that was strawberries and milk . . .

And that was the finale of our outing. Happy Valentine's Day!

Big C Extra Night Market (Not for Farang!)

When My Man and I stumbled upon a little night market near our house (evenings Thurs-Sun), we didn't realize how awesome it would be. It's just a mile or so from our house (although driving is a bit complicated with how we are situated on a one-way highway) and it is fun!

Chiang Mai is famous for its night markets, crammed with farang (Westerners), cheap trinkets & souvenirs, and street food, but there are lots of smaller night markets that cater to the Thais themselves. This is one of those (we are usually the only farang in sight).  That doesn't mean it isn't crowded though!  There are tons of people and an overall carnival atmosphere.

The street food is authentic and cheap. There is music. Most nights there are live performers. One night, this little girl was singing her heart out, accompanied on the guitar by her grandfather. She was adorable and had a great voice. We bought a rose from a vendor and had Funny Guy give it to her. Everyone thought it was so cute that they had her stop singing, and had them re-enact the scene for pictures. Funny Guy was mortified, but it was great.

There are venders selling cheap electronics, socks, hats, clothes, toys, flowers, and more. And, usually there is a crepe vendor.

The crepes are made with rice flour instead of wheat and topped with various toppings, including Nutella, chocolate, bananas, and peanut butter. Yum!

Definitely one of our favorite discoveries here so far.