All in a day's travel

Yesterday Xavier had decided he didn't like being in Thailand, and was feeling homesick. But as it turns out, he was probably just a bit over all the travelling that we did in twenty four hours - seven different types of transportation to be exact!

This morning he was in awe of the beauty of the beachside heaven that we've found ourselves in, and back to being a happy traveller.

Boarding the train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok.

 Xavier is snuggled up to sleep on the train.

Arriving in Chiang Mai with our mountain of luggage.

We couldn't take an ordinary taxi or tuk-tuk from the train station due to our huge amount of luggage, so we had to hire our own song-teow. We put most of our luggage in storage in Bangkok so we could travel lighter to the beach.

Remy charms all the Thais with his 'Sawadikarp'.

Disembarking our yellow Nok Air flight at Surat Thani.

An easy transition to a one and a half hour bus trip to the Surat Thani port.

A scenic 45 minute trip in a high-speed catamaran brought us to Nathom Pier on Koh Samui.

A final song-teow trip brought us to Lamai Beach and now we are ready for 6 relaxing nights by the beach.

All that travelling was worth it!

Our biggest dilemma today - beach or pool??!!

And at all times, Remy is cool!

A week in Chiang Mai with kids

I had no idea when I booked us in for a week in Chiang Mai that we would enjoy our time in this city so much. There is a lot on offer to entertain families with young children, and I highly recommend it as a great place to give your children a taste of Asia.
 

Xavier at Wat Doi Sutep.

Before we came I sought out suggestions online from families who had spent some time here and came across two interesting blogs that I've been following for a while now: Worldschool Adventures and The Dropout Diaries. Between them, they've documented many excellent activities to do with kids, and planning our week was as simple as making a list of the ideas that appealed to me and working through them!

In the interest of sharing ideas I'll write up the highlights of our week - many of which are inspired by the writers above, and some other ideas that might be useful to short-term visitors to the city.

Accomodation: We have stayed at Lanna Boutique Village, a relaxed, comfortable and family friendly resort about 20 mins outside Chiang Mai. I chose this place based on the very favourable reviews it had received on Trip Advisor, and it seemed to offer a refuge from the hustle and bustle of the city. We have had a lovely stay here - the Canadian owners have been helpful and friendly, the 2 bedroom villas are spacious and immaculate, the breakfasts are filling, tasty and fresh, and the grounds are perfect for children to run around in - and play with the hoops/balls/frisbees provided. The only downside is the distance from the city and the complete lack of any food outlets nearby or other drawcard to this area. At first this seemed difficult, but we've used a taxi service that has comfortable cars to drive us where we need to go and can be called to arrange pick up wherever we end up in the evening. The cost per trip is about $8 - $10 so fairly small and the good value of the accomodation makes up for it. All in all, we have been more than happy with our choice.

At night time, the trees are lit up with lights, and little laterns add ambience.

Highlights: The Elephant Nature Park that I wrote about in my previous blog post is the absolute highlight of the week (and potentially the whole three weeks in Thailand!). 

Up close with the elephants at Elephant Nature Park.

Exploring Wat Doi Sutep and a small number of the 300+ temples in central Chiang Mai has been very special - we haven't had a guide book, but have just wandered and found what was around the next corner.

Bob and Remy at Wat Doi Sutep.

Ringing bells at Wat Pan-On.

Wat Phant Ao

Chiang Mai Zoo was a nice way to spend half a day. It was a vast area to cover and getting around with a stroller at times was difficult as there are many stairs and steep paths. In the end we took the bus to complete the circuit and we probably should have done this from the start. All in all, they have an interesting collection of animals from around the world, including a number of species that I'd never heard of or seen before.

Flamingoes close enough to touch!

Our day at Sammy's Organic Cooking School was also very memorable and is highly recommended (see below).

Food: Food is one of the greatest highlights of travelling for me - I love to try new foods and get inspiration for my own cooking. We have eaten great meals at Pun Pun restaurant in the grounds of Wat Suan Dok and lots of delicious street snacks at the Sunday Walking Market.

Rozelle Tea at Pun Pun cafe.

Roasted Veg salad at Pun Pun cafe.

 Remy is enjoying a banana spring roll with chocolate sauce on a stick at the Sunday Night Walking Market.

Variety of grilled meats on skewers.

 

Vegetarian street food.

I tried Milk Tea flavour icecream.

 

The boys have enjoyed trying sausages on sticks, fruit shakes and a variety of fresh ready chopped fruit. Banana spring rolls and local icecreams in flavours like milk tea, pandanus and taro also enticed them to try something new.

The standout highlight for food is our day spent at Sammy's Organic Cooking School. The day began with a guided trip to a local market where we were shown the different types of rice - especially the difference between jasmine rice and sticky rice.

I loved how the vegetables were presented in these little bowls - for 10 Baht (30c each).

Freshly cooked, these smelled delicious!

The method of extracting fresh coconut cream from the flesh of the coconut was also demonstrated. Then we were taken to Sammy's family farm where we learned to cook our favourite Thai dishes including green and yellow curry,Pad Thai, Tom Young Goong, spring rolls, green papaya salad, mango sticky rice and sweet pumpkin custard dessert.

Tasting and smelling the herbs in Sammy's garden.

The first of many photos of Bob in the kitchen this year!

Xavier had a turn at pounding the green curry paste.

I am so excited to know the secrets to cooking Pad Thai!

 

My finished feast!

 

Bob's three dishes.

 

Amazingly, the food was the best Thai I've ever eaten, due to the talented chefs sharing their secrets, and the fresh produce from the market and garden. The boys were fascinated by the cooking and eating experience and joined in when they wanted or played around the garden at other times.

Getting Around: As we've been staying out of town we have used a variety of transport services. We have used taxis to get from our accomodation into town and back which cost about 250-300 Baht. Shorter trips around town have been in Song Teows, which are shared taxis, for around 20 Baht per person.

A red song-teow

A fun way to travel!

Also, it has worked out well for us to organise tours/day trips that include a pickup and drop off to accomodation in the package. Finally, we hired a taxi and driver for a whole day of sightseeing for 1800 Baht ($60), which is expensive, but makes travelling with children easy. 

Play: In amongst the sightseeing, the kids have seized on opportunities for play. As mentioned, our accomodation is perfect for little explorers with bridges and wooden steps to jump on, a wide open space for kicking a ball and a pool.

The grounds at Lanna Boutique Village.

We visited a playground within the walls of Chiang Mai city at Nong Buak Hard Park, a pleasant place to watch locals enjoy the late afternoon and feed the birds and fish. 

Fun discovering a new playground!

This structure added a local flavour to the playground.

Also, Chiang Mai Zoo has a fun playground and an airconditioned Children's Exhibition room with skeletons and preserved snakes etc that were fascinating to Xavier. He also enjoyed having some quiet time there doing some colouring in of animal pictures provided at low tables. It was a very pleasant space for children to enjoy.
Our first day we were dropped at Big C shopping centre near our accomodation and it had a small children's playground inside with a 'time zone' games area - each ride/game cost only 10 Baht (30 cents) so it was a lot cheaper to indulge the kids than at home!

Temples: It has been a pleasant surprise to see how much the kids have enjoyed visiting the temples around town. 

We were mesmerised watching these young monks take down the colourful lanterns from the tree.

They are appealing in their shiny gold sparkliness and difference to anything we see at home. Most have a line of bells to ring and some have a very large deep sounding gong to bang with your fist.

I've never seen so much gold!

The boys have understood the need to take off their shoes to enter each Wat, and do so with no trouble. They also are able to show some quiet and reverence inside. At one temple yesterday we met a little Australian toddler who they played with for a long while, and ended up all holding hands and walking around together - seemingly absorbed in the serenity of the Wat.

Toilets: It may be a bit strange to report on toilets, but if you have young kids you'll probably understand! Public toilets have been available around every corner (most Wats have one) in our travels around town - how I know this is that I have two little boys who seem to need to go all the time! They are still at an age that the need to go is 'urgent'. The amenities are sometimes Western, sometimes Asian (which hasn't been a problem) and are almost always clean and well maintained. In most cases you need to bring your own toilet paper. 

Remy will kill me when he's older for posting this photo, but what an amazing toilet at Sammy's place!

I hope these ideas are useful to anyone planning their own trip to Chiang Mai - a really fun place to stay with your family for a week or more. Thanks again to the bloggers who gave me so many great inside tips.

Tomorrow we board the overnight train to Bangkok, then take a flight to Surat Thani, a bus to the port, a highspeed Catamaran to Koh Samui and then finally a Song-Teow to our accomodation - 5 types of transport in one day - I must have been a bit crazy when I booked that!!! I'll let you know how it goes!!!!!

Elephant Nature Park

Just three days in to our year away, is it too early to talk of highlights of the trip? Probably, but I am pretty sure at the end of this year, we'll still have vivid memories of today - an opportunity to get up close with an inspiring herd of elephants and their dedicated carers.

We are in Chiang Mai to start off our three week holiday in Thailand enroute to Bhutan. Travellers flock to Thailand's northern city and there are a wide variety of cultural and adventure experiences on offer.

Bob and Remy at Doi Sutep Temple, Chiang Mai.
 

 

Many of these are outside our reach with little children (ziplining, white water rafting etc), but for me, as soon as I planned our stay here, seeing elephants was top of the list.

I did a bit of research at home and found out about the Elephant Nature Park, and once I had read about this place there was no turning back. Around Chiang Mai there are many many opportunities for tourists to interact with elephants. Some of these places offer elephant rides, others have shows where elephants perform tricks like playing soccer or painting. For me, seeing elephants in a natural environment doing what elephants are meant to be doing is a much more desirable experience and one that I want my children to see.


Today, from the moment we boarded the mini-bus for the one and a half hour trip we knew we were in for something special. There is no doubt that we paid many more times the cost of other elephant parks, but the entrance fee goes towards the upkeep and welfare of the thirty four elephants that pint-sized Lek has rescued. Apparently it costs $250, 000 a year to run the park, and entrance fees from tourists is how the park is funded.

Sitting with Lek and the elephants.
 

Lek buys sad and broken elephants, many with despicable injuries and emotional trauma from work in the logging and/or tourist industries and brings them into her sanctuary to recover. They are not expected to perform or do anything other than do what elephants do best - spend twenty hours a day eating and pooing and just four hours sleeping!

As soon as we arrived we were shown the 'pantry' where food is stored for the elephants to eat.

Pumpkins!
 

We were each given a big bunch of bananas and taken to feed our first group of elephants by hand. Each one was introduced to us by name and a little of their personal history told. Each elephant here is loved and known and cared for with reverence. Xavier plucked up the courage to feed the elephants their favourite fruit - pineapple, watermelon and bananas, and then we got to the bottom of the basket to the whole pumpkins that they crush in their mouths, but only once all the tastier fruit is gone!




The elephants enjoy watermelon.
 

We were next taken to see Navann, a two month old baby elephant who was so cute. His mother had an awfully injured foot and is kept for the moment in an enclosure. Navann was full of mischief and playfully kicked a variety of balls around. He is drinking milk from mum (no solids yet) and will continue to do so until he is four years old.

Navann with his injured mum.
 

The pace of the day was leisurely with plenty of time to enjoy the surroundings, chat with the other tourists, and ask questions of our bright and friendly guide, Bee. She took special care of us, and made sure the little boys enjoyed their experience, including going to the buffet lunch first and filling a plate with hot chips for them in case they wouldn't like all the other food on offer!

After lunch we watched part of a documentary about how the park originated, but it didn't hold the boys' attention so we were able to walk along a covered viewing platform and watch the elephants at play. A particularly 'naughty' male called Hope wears a bell around his neck to alert people to his presence as he can be dangerous. We watched him running here and there from the safety of the platform.

Hope on the move.
 

The part of the day we had been waiting for was the afternoon splash with the elephants in the river. A group of eight elephants came down to the river and we waded in, no deeper than our calves and filled buckets of water to splash on them. They loved it! It is a special way to show the elephants some love and get very close to them. We were encouraged to pat them and touch their rough, wrinkly, hairy skin, offering healing through a loving approach.

Finally we followed them out of the water to where they enjoy a mud bath, spraying mud through their trunks up and over themselves to provide a protective layer of mud that acts like sunscreen.

Getting pretty close to the mud-spraying action!
 

We enjoyed afternoon tea of iced Butterfly Pea tea (blue) and rosehip tea (pink) with Thai style biscuits and then went for a final walk across the valley floor to another bend in the river where a group of elephants were enjoying a swim by themselves. It was all action stations when they decided they'd had enough and started to move very quickly and forcefully our way!

The elephant's skin is surprisingly rough and hairy!

The day was full, and yet not rushed in any way. We enjoyed some long and friendly conversations with the other travellers and our guide and soaked up the ambience of this retreat far from the bustling city. I give it five stars and would love it if you'd consider coming here if you ever come to Thailand.

From Down Under

I'm very proud to be an Aussie, and the larrikin, fun-loving, adventurous Australian spirit is summed up for me in the song 'Down Under', which inspired the name of my blog. 

I have memories of hearing this song in Goa, Germany and Saigon, and it always fills me with emotion and nostalgia. Just like the singer in the song who was famously comforted by a vegemite sandwich, I've got four tubes of vegemite tucked in our luggage for those moments when we need a familiar taste of home. We Aussies mightn't have much of a cuisine to speak of, but at least it is portable!

I have spent five years of my life living overseas already, and as I embark on a sixth, it's with a real sense of pride in our culture that encourages us to see the world, enjoy different cultures and open our minds, while still calling  Australia home - which brings me to my other favourite Aussie song!

 

What songs help you think of home when you are travelling?