Exploring Paradise: Chiang Dao

A picture from our daily commute.

Sometimes when you live in a place, and the daily grind keeps you busy day in and day out, waking up early, getting the kids off to school, commuting to and from work, grocery shopping, meetings, and more, it is easy to forget you live in paradise. Sometimes, in fact, paradise can seem dirty and hot and crowded and hectic.  That's when it's time for an adventure--it just takes a day of exploring outside of the city for all of the dust and monotony to fall away.

Driving to Chiang Dao, I had to keep interrupting my read-aloud of Harry Potter, book 7 (much to our kids' dismay--I always seemed to manage to get distracted at crucial points) to gawk and exclaim about the incredible jungle or rice fields or mountains or temples or water buffalo or bird-sized butterfly flitting past the window.

The hillside in northern Thailand is just so beautiful these days, freshly out of the rainy season as we are.

When we arrived to our first destination, the Chiang Dao caves, My Man and the kids were convinced we'd somehow ended up at one of our earlier destinations--it looked so much like the strange temple we visited in the country near Chiang Rai earlier this year. But it was not.

There was a beautiful spring-fed koi pond with gigantic fish and crystal clear water.

There were women weaving grass baskets. There were dogs, including a rowdy group of new puppies (oh so tempting . . . ). 

There was a beautiful old stupa, where we were amazed to see a sign claiming an origin of 191AD (turns out it was a mistranslation, My Man, our resident Thai-reading expert, found out it was actually build in 1910--still old, but much more believable!).

Finally we made our way to the cave where we paid a small admission fee to go in. We opted for the lit path way (once inside the cave you can pay for a guide with a lantern to take you deeper into the cave. We have heard it takes 1-2 hours for that trip and gets dirty with some crawling and tight spaces).

The cave was wonderful and cool, though it is not as well preserved as we'd have liked, there were still some active stalactite formations.

After the cave, we went on a jungle hike. It was awesome until we started being attacked mercilessly by giant mosquitoes. Somehow I'd forgot our repellent in the car, so we hurried back, slapping ourselves silly along the way.

The temple structures were also interesting. We especially liked the three-headed snake.

Finally, hot and dusty, we returned to the sanctuary of our car and cool, sweet air conditioning. We snacked on cucumbers and granola bars as we wound our way further up the mountain and through the national forest. It was beautiful and as we climbed the views just got more and more breath taking.  The best part about trips like this though?  Check out My Man and Young Man in the pics below (I can't even remember the joke, but this is what it is all about, making memories and laughing together):

We didn't have a specific destination in mind--we were just driving and drinking it all in (and reading whenever I could tear my eyes from the verdant vistas and wasn't too carsick from all the switchbacks). 

After a few hours of driving, we consulted our dear friend Google to see if we could loop our way home or would have to turn around. It looked iffy, but we decided to go for it. Unfortunately, our one-way trail eventually dead-ended in a construction site and we had to turn around. It had started to rain so there were some interesting sections of mud and creeks running over the "road" that we had to ford. We definitely put the 4-wheel drive to the test and got out of there covered in glorious war paint mud splatters, proof of our incredible adventure outside the city.

To top it all off, as we headed home, starving after that adrenaline-filled episode, we spied a roadside vendor grilling what looked like ribs. I hopped out and bought a couple for our meat-loving boys. Turns out they weren't ribs. Or rather they were, but not beef or pork. Each skewer comprised three or four sets of little ribs. We decided they must be some version of rodent, squirrel maybe? Or ROUS (rodents of unusual size)?  Either way, the boys all agreed, they were delicious. Turns out they were field rats. Yum. 

Young Man wouldn't let us eat this little guy though.

And that, my friends, is what a northern Thai adventure looks like, local-style.

Exploring Paradise: Huai Kaeo Waterfall

I kept hearing about a waterfall just above the zoo that the kids would like, but each time I planned a trip, something came up or we decided to do something else. Once we finally got there, though, we liked it so much we were back just one week later. :-)

It really is easy to get to (relatively, since with traffic the last time took almost an hour since it's on the other side of town)--there is a pretty big sign and it's just the first left turn after the Chiang Mai Zoo. There is parking, lots of little food stalls, and a path (no fee!) to the river and waterfall. After just a short walk, you get to the creek.

There are lots of shallow pools perfect for wading, dam building, and bug hunting. On our second trip out, the kids played here for hours, making friends with two cute little Thai kids.  There are little fish that nibble your toes, freshwater crabs hiding among the rocks, and a plethora of gorgeous giant butterflies and speedy iridescent dragonflies (including neon green and pink!). 

There are flowers, laughing children, picnickers, and rocks to climb. It's hard to believe it's only about 2 minutes outside the city!

Our first trip out, we hiked right up to the waterfall (probably about 100 m to the base).  The trail to the top of the waterfall is easy to miss and some people were trying to climb up the slippery, treacherous route right next to the falls (I won't name any names, but My Man and Young Man almost gave me a heart attack!  See My Man in the picture above?  That is not the correct trail!).  Luckily, our guys made it to the top alive.

There is a pretty easy trail off the right down below that Funny Guy, Darling Daughter and I opted for instead.

At the top of the falls there is a pool of cold water deep enough to swim and other pools further up the stream to explore.

On our second trip, Young Man discovered a trail up to the top of the bluff with an incredible view of Chiang Mai.

As we were swimming at the top of the waterfall on our first trip, the clouds darkened and within minutes the rain was pouring down. Darling Daughter had been avoiding the water, but that plan didn't last. ;-)  Luckily I had brought a mini drybag so our phones were safe.  My Man's travel guitar fared less well . . . though it seems to have dried out ok now.

The amazing thing about rain in Thailand is that it's just another fun adventure. It's not cold, so as long as electronics are protected, it kind of just adds to the fun (and chases the heat away for a few minutes at least).  We swam, splashed, and laughed through the entire storm, watched the clouds rage away and the sun come back out, then scrambled (carefully) back down the now-slippery trail to head back home.

Slices of Life: Summer in Paradise

Funny Guy's final field trip was to Sun Center waterpark in Lamphun, a quarky waterpark/amusement park that is still partly under construction. But these first graders didn't care about the semi-disarray. They jumped right in and splashed and laughed the morning away. 

After lunch, they got to try out several of the rides. Funny Guy's favorite was the mechanical bull. Though it threw him both times, Funny Guy "yeehawed" and whooped and even held on with just one hand as it lurched around. Definitely a great way to end the year.

On the last day of school, there weren't any sad faces on these three!  We celebrated with icecream on the way home.

One of our first summer outings was a bike ride over to the soccer field at Payap University. We played soccer, watched clouds, read, and rode bikes until we were completely drenched in sweat. Then we rode home to shower off and go swimming. Definitely a great first day of summer break.

Another fun outing was lunch with friends at Nic's Restaurant across town. It's the world's greatest restaurant where you can get great food, gluten free cake, and smoothies and the kids can play for hours on the bamboo boat, climbing tower, swings, or trampoline.  Definitely a great place to meet up for a play date!

Darling Daughter missed friends already, so invited them over for swim parties and sleep overs right away. I knew I'd be starting work soon, so we crammed in as many as we could that first week of summer.

I also spent lots of time outside with Funny Guy, walking Mochi, biking around the neighborhood, or walking to the pond to feed the fish. Sometimes when it's so hot, it's easy to get lazy and stay inside all day, but we always love it when we get outside.

Our first Friday Fun Day was supposed to be a trip to Sticky Falls, but I was over-confident with my navigational skills and didn't look up directions. We'd been there once before and I was sure I'd be able to drive there again. I took a wrong turn, though, and by the time we realized it, correcting it would have taken almost 2 hours. Luckily, the kids were good sports and decided we could try out this place instead. 

It was great. We rented tubes (though the creek was too shallow to do much more than float lazily), hunted for crawdads, caught fish, and built a rock dam. We picnicked and read. It was an idyllic summer afternoon, and by the time we headed for home, the kids were thanking me for my mistake.

My Man hasn't been able to do much paragliding here, but there was one day of magic in June. He invited his whole section from work to come up and the wind cooperated perfectly.

He took off and flew, eliciting oohs and aahs and gasps and applause from the large audience below.

We could see a great storm in the distance, but it never got too close and the wind was enough to keep My Man flying until sunset forced him to land.

My Man took the boys to the archery range a few times across town. Since they already have the bows and arrows, it's only a few bucks each time.

There aren't many places that we can walk or bike to safely from our house, but there is one icecream shop that isn't too treacherous a bike trip and the kids absolutely love to go. They have some of the best icecream in town and the bike trip makes you almost feel like you've earned it.

The Consulate hosted a concert by a symphony quartet from Stanford University that My Man had to emcee. We brought the kids for the cultural experience and everyone enjoyed it. Unfortunately, however, no one was inspired to start practicing the abandoned violin at home.

One of our next fun outings was to Huay Tung Taow lake for a picnic lunch and swimming. About halfway through we were joined by a friendly bird who begged chips and fruit for the rest of the morning.  Young Man and Funny Guy also caught a couple crabs and pipe fish for their aquatic habitat.

And then it was time for me to start work!  I was bummed to be starting just a week after the kids got out of school, but so excited to be starting work at my first "real" job--not quite fair considering I worked at our business for years and also as a copyeditor and proofreader, but I'd never worked at an office or with a face-to-face boss! 

I get to commute to and from work with My Man and most days we get to eat lunch together. I love what I do as the Consulate's Management Assistant, helping with a large variety of projects. I organize events, help out with grants, work on environmental issues, organize English classes, and more. It's definitely busy, but it has been working out well and I am so happy I made the choice to start working.

Just a typical grocery shopping trip. Luau anyone?

Happy Father's Day My Man!  The kids made breakfast in bed, awesomely creative cards, and very cool presents, including this awesome rope dragon we got at the walking street market. 

 

I already wrote about our awesome 4th of July weekend and some of our other Friday Fun outings, but here are some more of our highlights from July:

Since I didn't work Fridays over the summer, we continued to have fun outings every Friday. For one, Darling Daughter and I attended a Consulate community activity to an interesting temple and lunch. It was a rainy day, but it was a fun outing and the hot chocolate was amazing. 

Another Friday Fun Day was a trip to the umbrella factory where we got to watch how they make the traditional fans and umbrellas here, from making the paper to the bamboo skeleton. They also have several artisans there who paint the umbrellas and fans, or anything else you have, including the clothes you are wearing!  Darling Daughter had her shorts painted, Funny Guy got a sword, and Young Man and I had our phone cases painted. It was great.

When Minions came to town, we decided to organize a big outing to go and had almost 50 people show up!  It was seriously one of the stupidest shows ever, but it was fun to get together with friends.

We discovered an airsoft place not far from our house and have gone a few times, including this time for one of Young Man's friend's birthday parties. Seriously can't think of a better place for an airsoft battle than a jungle full of abandoned cars, well, unless it is a place without mosquitoes and 90% humidity. . . .

 

And then it was already the end of July and practically the end of summer (well, the end of summer vacation anyway, since it's really always summer).  Even though the kids didn't want it to end, they all admitted that it was a great summer, full of fun and adventures and just enough relaxing. They had swim lessons twice a week at our pool, Friday Fun Days and weekend adventures, and lots of books, movies, bike rides, bug hunts, board games, and Studio C the rest of the time. Darling Daughter dabbled with baking and produced some stellar desserts. Funny Guy started a YouTube channel teaching kids how to duplicate his awesome Lego creations, Young Man invested in a soccer goal for our front yard, and they all enjoyed walking and playing with Mochi (our adopted dog for the summer). 

All in all, I'd have to say the Thai summer of 2015 was a resounding success.