Chiang Mai

Holy moly, we've been busy! The last two weeks have included a trip to visit friends George and Heather in Chiang Mai, Jonathan and I both getting 'the crud' just in time for loads of company events and the arrival of our shipment. I also had another appointment to check in on 'baby no name' who is looking great and growing up a storm. I want to tell you all about all of those things but let's start with our wonderful visit Chiang Mai!

Chiang Mai was super high on our list of places we wanted to visit in Southeast Asia, made even a higher priority when Jonathan's childhood friend George moved there a few months ago with his wife, Heather. They are both in the missions field and doing some pretty important work up in Northern Thailand. Plus, they make hospitable and knowledgeable tour guides. Follow their blog and learn more about what they do here.   

Chiang Mai is known for it's mountainous scenery, good food, great hiking and hordes of elephants. Unfortunately, the air quality was in the danger zone the whole time we were there which changed our hiking plans, but we were still able to pack a lot of unforgettable adventures into our long weekend. 

We left Bangkok on a Saturday morning and took a quick 45 minute fight to get there. 

Starbucks, Krispy Kreme, Subway and Burger King- Bangkok airports have an awesome selection of western food! 

Chiang Mai is so much easier to get around than Bangkok! George and Heather even drive themselves! It was nice to be in a smaller, more manageable city for a bit. 

On the first day we headed Huay Tung Tao Lake which had salas on the water with an adjacent restaurant serving us in our chosen hut. It was quite peaceful and relaxing (well as relaxing as anything with an energetic 5 year old can be). 

We rewarded Forest for his good behavior with a water paddle bike ride on the lake. 

Huay Tung Tao also had a display of animals made from straw which was absolutely incredible and so much fun to explore. 

I also learned the important lesson that day of 'always bring your own toilet paper' and had a very awkward and not-what-I-would-call-successful first attempt at using a squatty potty (not easy to do when pregnant!). So yea, adventures all around! 

The next day we had planned to hike monk trail which is was on my Thailand bucket list after seeing Becca and Garrett hike this trail to a hidden hillside monastery on the last season of The Bachelorette. (PS. Everything I know about Thailand I learned from watching The Bachelor/Bachelorette.) 
But the air quality was no bueno so we hit up a local trampoline park instead and then headed to see the elephants at Chai Lai Orchid, another destination Garrett and Becca visited on their date in Thailand (just sayin'). 

So yea, this experience was totally magical. Though it started with me sliding down a hill while trying to take a selfie with an elephant, which promptly made me put my foot in my mouth about all those times I'd made fun of people for selfie related injuries. 

And the thing was, the selfie was unnecessary since the mahouts (elephant handlers) took my camera and played photographer for the whole group, documenting our day with countless priceless images.

Forest was excited about the elephants but even more excited about 1) the soi dogs (street/stray dogs) and 2) getting to play in a river. 

Me: Wow cool, Forest, do you see that Elephant behind you? Forest: Yea, whatever mom. Can you take my picture with this stray dog?

For him, feeding the elephants bananas and giving them a bath was really just secondary to splashing around in a river. For the rest of us, the elephants were the main attractions and it was incredible to have such a prolonged and upclose encounter with them. 

One of the funniest things was when we kept getting sprayed by the elephants during bath time. I  was so focused on bathing the animals that I had no clue that the handlers were actually using the elephant's trunk as a water gun to blast us with. I cracked up when I saw the photos and videos. 

After our time with the elephants, we rode in the back of a truck down to a short waterfall hike. 

At this time, it had started raining and dropped in temperature. I actually had goosebumps for the first time in Thailand! George wasn't deterred and still swam at the waterfall and Forest so badly wanted to join him, but settled for rock climbing instead (because neither me or Jonathan was volunteering to swim with him). 

A yummy dinner was included after our excursion and I discovered that Forest really really really likes fried rice which is convenient because it's pretty much the Asian kid's meal equivalent of Mac n cheese. 

Y'all. The pineapples in Thailand. So good.  

That evening, George and Heather showed us an episode of 'Somebody Feed Phil' that took place in Thailand, mostly Bangkok and Chiang Mai. The next day Heather had to work, but George took us for lunch at one of the featured places to have some delicious 'Khoa Soi'. 

The 90s style banner is my favorite.

It was my first authentic Thai food experience since moving here (with morning sickness and tummy troubles I'd been playing things pretty safe) and it was soooooooooo good. Thai food is so complex. Sweet and spicy and sour and rich all at the same time. And chicken cooked in coconut milk is just about the best thing I've ever had. Forest enjoyed his kid-friendly chicken and rice but wasn't keen to try our spicy dishes. 

Ha!

That afternoon we all napped (well, except for the preschooler- he watched Wall-E) and headed out to dinner at the Thailand equivalent of Rainforest Cafe (but so much cooler), Khaomao-Khaofang. We had a feast of food capped off by traditional coconut ice cream. 

The next morning Heather made us a pancake breakfast before we headed back to Bangkok. Forest said his favorite parts of the trip were: the trampoline park, George and Heather's cat, and the pancakes. I love that he gets to travel the world at such a young age and yet he really just loves the simple things in life. 

Getting on the plane was a bit of an ordeal. Apparently, my baby bump had quite the growth spurt while we were in Chiang Mai (I blame the food) and the flight attendants weren't sure if I should fly (at 17 weeks pregnant!). They took my passport and boarding pass and held the plane until it was decided that I could sign a waiver absolving them of all responsibility if I was allowed to fly. 

I flew up to my 3rd trimester with Forest and was never asked for so much as a doctor's note. I was definitely caught off guard by the all the hubaloo, but sure enough, it's Air Asia's policy that all pregnant women notify them before flying and sign a waiver and at 27 weeks have a doctor's note to fly. I'll be more prepared for our upcoming trip to Cambodia on the same airline, because no telling how enormous my bump will be by then! 

It's just funny because even though I'm showing, I was clearly not about to pop or anything. And even so, the flight was seriously 40 minutes. Even if I did go into labor mid-flight, there still would have been time to get to the hospital in Bangkok once we landed. They are very cautious with pregnancy and children here in general. It's been a culture shock for me and Forest both with how over-protective everyone is, and how many rules there are on playgrounds. 

He's a total wildling and I learned early on to choose my battles and let him have room to explore within certain boundaries. At school he is constantly redirected by the teachers and I just see the other parents constantly wince when they watch him playing. Ha! 

I wonder what the preschool parents and teachers would say if that saw this...

I'll post on our shipment soon! Have a great week.