The rest of our time in Chiang Mai was great and we had fun exploring the city, and getting out on some adventures. We also feel lucky to be alive and in all one piece leaving the city, which means we navigated street crossings successfully. Ha ha. It is a much busier city from 17 years ago, and gone are the days of just crossing the road and the traffic will swerve around you. That being said, I do love being a part of the craze.
The day after playing with the elephants, we found ourselves at a very cool cooking class. The luxury of being a bit older and have a bit more money to play with this time around, is that we can sign up for a bit nicer tours/courses. We opted for a day on the farm version, and were very pleased with this decision. Kiss Kiss, our amazing instructor for the day, took us to the market first to tell us what ingredients we would need for the day, and what would go in various dishes. After that we boarded the van and took off to the outskirts of the city to a beautiful organic farm/garden. Kiss Kiss again took us on a tour of the gardens and had us picking fresh fruits/vegetables needed before the cooking began. We had a really nice group of people on the tour, and Maeve loved having her own dishes to cook, and at times, was the teacher’s helper.
We spent part of our week walking around Chiang Mai in search of rolled ice cream, massages, markets, and yummy food. We also went to the 3D museum too and now have a good portion of my phone memory allocated to those photos. Ha. It was super fun and clever how they painted and shadowed things to make them come to life when you took a picture.
Our last big adventure during our time in Chiang Mai was doing a zip line tour through the Flight of the Gibbons. Maeve had initially said, “no” to zip lining, but a couple of girls we met on our elephant day shared that they had done it, and highly recommended it. Essentially they talked Maeve into trying it, and she had a blast - and asking if we could repeat the tour. Success.
Yesterday we traveled from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai -- a 3.5 hour bus ride. I sort of forgot how busy things were now, and its the high season and assumed we could just get on a bus that left every 30 mins. Or not. Good thing travel days don’t phase Maeve and she took the delay like a champ (4 hour. Oops).
So now... here are some photos from this past week:
Cooking classes begin at the market. I've got to say, the markets smell much better this trip than I experienced in the past.
Our cooking host - Kiss Kiss. She was really fun.
Now we're out at the farm and the gardens were everywhere. It was very very pretty.
The crew out picking their fruits and veggies
Our cooking area. It was a sweet set up and open to the outside.
Maeve picking out the goods we both needed.
Our basket pre-cook.
Maeve chose to make spring rolls... her favorite.
Amazing cooks... obvi
Maeve always volunteered for the group demos.
Enjoying another course that we made (everyone got a choice of what they'd like to make -- 3 dish option for each category. That was super nice).
Post lunch nap...
Its hard work, this cooking thing.
I think I took a similar picture 17 years ago, but I love that Maeve looked up at the wires and said, "they do electricity different here". Ha.
I love capturing school work photos from where ever we happen to be... school on the road, for sure.
We spent a couple of hours at the 3D museum. It was super clever and we have so many pictures of that experience. Ha.
We ventured to the Saturday Night Market in Chiang Mai. It was crazy, but fun... traffic driving by the food carts. Don't step back as you decide. Ha.
Love a good Market night as its so good and the prices as amazing. 2 meals, 2 drinks, and 1 crepe = $5.75
Glasses booth provided lots of entertainment.
Long division. She got it... phew. Apparently I am a really mean teacher. Ha.
We ventured above Chiang Mai to Doi Suthep. We might have picked a slightly better day as we were there with the masses on Sunday, but it was nice to see.
Viewpoint showing Chiang Mai. Unfortunately what I see is the smog...
I love seeing monks everywhere. It just makes me happy.
Family photo at the base of the stairs up to Doi Suthep.
We had a bit of a love affair with taking the Red Trucks.
Sunday Night Market... it was a wee bit packed.
Flight of the Gibbon... such a fun day.
We even saw an elusive gibbon on our trip around the zip line course. We got lucky as they're hard to see from the ground/platforms most of the time, and unlike monkeys, they only travel as a family, instead of a large number. Their arm span is way bigger than I realized.
Safety first
She loved this day and asked if we could do it all over again. Love how when you challenge yourself, you figure out new things about yourself. Turns out, she loves to fly :-)
14 zip lines
2 rappels
Our Airbnb's balcony - checking out the neighborhood.
Walking around Old Town like she owns it
More math in a super cute breakfast place
A quiet moment within Old Town
She picked out a new dress at the Sunday Market.
And... more math - this time at the bus station.
Out of order - but a tuktuk to the bus station. I find these vehicles super fun too.
Mom fail. I sometimes fall back into the old travel days here and didn't really think that I should pre-plan our bus trip as there were buses leaving every 30 mins to Chiang Rai. Wrong. We had to wait 4 hours... thankfully, though Maeve looks bored here, she is really good on travel days and takes it in stride. She practically listened to audiobooks all day long.
Finally, Chiang Rai bound.
The Amazing Race moment. The bus station is right at an outdoor market and we saw these tempting snacks awaiting us... I would like to buy some and eat them for shock factor to Maeve, but I honestly don't think I can do it. Ha. Amy - since you're my Amazing Race buddy - you'd do this challenge, right??
Briefly checking out the market before heading to our homestay.
We're staying at a super sweet homestay outside of town slightly, and these are our room's view.
Our adorable room.
We're staying put today, so we enjoyed the pool and outdoor space.
Maeve has managed to keep in touch with quite a few of her friends with some morning texting, if we're around and have Wifi. Its really helped her avoid homesickness on our quiet days. Thankfully, the moments of sadness have been very few. I have been thoroughly enjoying my time with Maeve -- its so nice to have the chaos of day-to-day life removed.
Oh... way out of order, but we were able to do a couple of tandem zip lines.
Okay, that is us... tomorrow we're going on a day trek which gets us on some bamboo rafts too. Yay. We have a total of 4 nights in Chiang Rai before we venture into Laos.
