Year end vacation in Thailand 2017 - Part 4

We flew to Bangkok after 4 lovely days in Chiangmai.

Bangkok was a lot of shopping, eating and city stuff. But we packed in a teeny bit of "wildlife" too on the 1st evening - went to Little Zoo Cafe - a cafe where you we have a meal and play with the roaming dogs and pet some exotic animals. Nadine and the Gan boys loved it, while Aaron was freaking out the whole time we were there!

Aaron was only happier when we left the cafe. He even asked to take a photo with this panda mascot outside a dental clinic!

2nd day in Bangkok - we ventured out to Chatuchak Market - shopping heaven for all of us except Aaron. It was a really hot day, and the place, as usual, was very crowded. So we just tried to walk through as many of the alleys as possible (as I bought as many Christmas presents as I could). But it's really impossible to cover the entire place. Didn't take any photos as we were just focused on shopping! After that, the 2 fathers brought the kids to watch Lego Movie, while the 2 mothers and Gong Gong KK went shopping.

3rd day - the Gans went fishing and Gong Gong KK went shopping, while we went to Kidzania and SEA Life Bangkok Ocean World. 

We're now at a stage where it's a bit difficult to please everyone. Nadine's old enough to enjoy shopping with me, and wouldn't mind tagging along to wherever we go. But Aaron is still too young, and needs to be entertained all the time - doing things he like. So Bangkok wasn't too enjoyable for him. Can't wait for both of them to grow up a bit more, so that we can do more exploration when we go on vacation, instead of just visiting theme parks.

Year end vacation in Thailand 2017 - Part 3

Our 3rd day of adventure in Chiangmai - cooking class!

And for our first cooking class together, Nadine and I wore matching tie-dye shirts that we both bought from the night market.

We started the class with a trip to the market, to look at the fresh produce and ingredients that are typically used in Thai food.

 

 

There were so many other cooking schools doing the same thing. Thankfully, our school did not make us wear ridiculous aprons or hats to the market!

It was interesting that within the old-fashioned wet market, there were a few hip and happening stalls selling Italian coffee and milkshakes. So entrepreneurial of these young people to set up stalls in the market!

After the market, it's off to the cooking school for our lessons!

Nadine was the most excited of all the kids about the cooking class. She cut, pounded and cooked enthusiastically, and was so proud of her dishes, even though she enjoyed cooking them more than eating them.

 

Aaron was totally not into the class at all. He stood with Daddy for the first 10 min, and then got bored, and had to be entertained by Minecraft/Pixelgun.

The teachers were all young undergrads or recent university grads. They love cooking, and were working in the school to early extra bucks. So clever of the school to employ these young and energetic girls!

Cooking was made easy because all the ingredients were prepared, and potions were allocated to each student. So it was very fail-safe, and certainly made us feel like we really can cook very nice Thai food! Even Daddy felt so!

We ate what we cooked for lunch, and were absolutely satisfied, and stuffed. So much so that come dinner time, we were still not hungry.

For our last night in Chiangmai, we visited the Ploen Rudee Night Market, a food park with different international cuisines cum night bazaar that even had henna art and tarot card reading.

Aaron's favourite food at the night market - fancy ice-cream.

All in all, Chiangmai was very pleasant and enjoyable. Weather wasn't as cool as we'd expected, but the people and places were nice and not as crowded as Bangkok. Most importantly, there were a good mix of activities for adults and kids. Massages were cheap and good, and we had 1 everyday, even the kids!

Might come back again!

Year end vacation in Thailand 2017 - Part 2

For our 2nd day of adventure in Chiangmai, we went to the Maetaeng Elephant Park & Clinic, where we got up close and personal with elephants.

We saw the elephants play soccer, do tricks, and paint! Boy, they were good painters!

And we rode on elephants too! Not just any ride, we trekked over a river, up a steep slope, and down the slope but onto the river to cross back to where we started. Quite an experience!

After that, we went on a ride on an ox-cart. Another new experience for all of us!

Last of the adventure rides - a cruise on a bamboo raft. It was so idyllic that most of us dozed off for a bit during the cruise!

To top our Chiangmai mountain experience, our tour guide brought us to a Long Neck Karen Village. It was a settlement for the Karen tribe who escaped war into Thailand from Burma. The Thai government accepted them, provided them areas to settle in, and allowed the men to work in many of the elephant parks, while the women could set up stalls and sell craft in their villages, which are tourist attractions. 

I felt like I was in a human zoo while walking in the village. All the huts and stalls had a karen woman sitting in front, either weaving or tending to their stalls, and all the stalls were selling more or less the same touristy craft and souvenir. I'm not sure how much souvenir they could sell a day, but certainly wish that the Thai government provided them with enough allowance or that tourists like us paid enough (actually, I don't remember paying, but I've read that tourists have to pay an entrance fee into such villages) for these families to survive. I deliberately refrained from taking photos in the village because I just didn't think it was respectful, and also didn't Nadine and Aaron to think it was an ok thing to take photos of these people, without their permission.

The adults did take a nice photo at the bottom of the village, where there's a nice waterfall. The kids were too hot and sweaty, and just wanted to get back to the van. :-/

For dinner, we went to a nice restaurant by the river. Can't remember the name of the restaurant. But the food was fabulous, and cheap, compared to what we'd have to pay in Singapore! Another lovely day in Chiangmai.

Year end vacation in Thailand 2017 - Part 1

We went on our year end vacation much earlier than usual this year - end November. This time, we covered Chiangmai and Bangkok - places that provide pretty good variety of experiences for adults and kids.

Chiangmai was supposed to be a little cold, but during the few days that we were there, the temperature was similar as Singapore, perhaps just a wee-bit less humid. The kids really enjoyed Chiangmai because of the variety of activities we had there.

On our first full day in Chiangmai, we visited the Tiger Kingdom, a place which aims to increase tiger population through captive breeding.

Aaron and Nadine were extremely interested in learning about the tigers. Even Aaron diligently read many of the signboards. His ready ability really surprised us.

In fact, they were both more interested in reading the signboards than taking photos with us.

But their favorite part is playing with the cubs in the nursery.

Nadine was much more gungho than Aaron. She started playing with and teasing the cubs almost as soon as we entered the nursery.

Aaron took a while to warm up, although he was equally fascinated.

The kids liked the Tiger Kingdom so much that throughout the rest of the trip, they kept saying that they want to go back.

Next, our driver brought us to the a place that we weren't sure if we wanted to go, but it turned out to be really interesting - Elephant Poopoopaper Park - a eco-friendly park that recycles elephant poo into paper! 

The kids were initially quite grossed out, but it was really educational and fascinating learning about the poo-to-paper process.

After making the paper, they had fun creating cards, bookmarks and a passport holder with the poo poo paper.

 

Next, we went to Mae Sa Waterfall, a multi-tier waterfall that has 10 levels. But we only managed to climb 7. Too tired! In any case, due to the rain the previous day, it was too slippery and the waters were too murky. Not a clear and photogenic waterfall that we had hoped for.

Last activity of the day before dinner - strawberry picking. The kids had looked forward to that the whole day long.

The strawberries were quite small, but they were juicy! More importantly, the kids had a lot of fun finding the biggest and juiciest strawberries. 

We went back to our hotel, Banthai Village (the kids called it their little village), happy but really bushed.

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