Last Friday, Tim and I took the family up to Chiang Mai for a six day (five nights) vacation. We flew out in the afternoon, so we had to leave almost immediately after the kids were let out of school.
The Thai Air flight was pretty uneventful. The driver we hired met us at the Chiang Mai airport in an SVU taxi. We hired him and his car for 6 days for a total cost of less than $300, including gas.
Our hotel was located in the Chiang Mai Night Safari, a government run park that specializes in nocturnal safari tours. When we made the reservation, we were thinking that it would be a really nice setting where we could see the wildlife from our room.
Our expectations and reality, however, were quite different. While the room itself was well decorated, the surroundings were hardly inspiring. The four room unit was located at the end of a small paved road. It was surrounded by woods, but did not present a particularly pleasing view. There were no animals in the area, nor was there anywhere close by to get something to eat or drink.
The hotel delivered breakfast in the morning, but it was truly disappointing. The first day's was a fried egg and some sausages (more accurately described as hot dogs). It sounds a lot better than it was, and the fact that it was cold when it arrived hardly increased the appeal. The second day's breakfast was luke warm friend fish and chopped raw cabbage with salad dressing that arrived forty-five minutes late. Thai people often think that salads are made with chopped cabbage instead of chopped lettuce.
I won't do into all the details, but the highlights of the trip included:
- Visiting temples and the King's winter palace;
- Going to the highest point in Thailand. Unfortunately, the view was not very spectacular.
- Visiting the Night Safari. There were two tours where guests rode on a tram to view animals. Somehow we ended up on the Thai speaking tour for the first one.
- Going on an elephant ride, ox cart ride, a river raft and viewing an elephant show;
- Shopping at the night market. This gem included Nalin vomiting in the street and me cleaning it up;
- Attending the monkey and snake shows;
- Visiting a mountain village where the kids dressed up in traditional Northern garb. The best part of it was that after we were finished taking pictures, some other tourists asked to take pictures of the kids.
- Visited other local tribe people, including the long necks. These are the women who put the metal rings on their neck. We bought candy before we entered, and the kids passed it out to the children we met.
- Jacob and I saw the dreadful movie Transporter 3 while the girls shopped again at another night market. He loved the movie, except for the parts when they kissed, at which time he covered his eyes.
No comments:
Post a Comment