Can’t resist using this photo as my post opener. One look and you’ll know we were in, where else but Thailand.

It’s Thailand’s famous tuk tuk!

The boys went absolutely berserk. “Tuk tuk! Tuk tuk! Tuk tuk! We want tuk tuk!” That sort of summed up our entire trip whenever we saw one but not on one, yet. Fortunately, the 5 of us could fit into one! It’s really more fun like that, squeezing and jamming ourselves at the back, laughing and squealing (the boys of course) almost on all the rides!

We went to Chiangmai a day earlier than expected. It was good that way otherwise we won’t have time to explore the city had we flew in on Thursday because the tour we were on was packed with activities outside Chiangmai.

After shortlisting a number of hotels, i decided on Shangri-La in the end. Reason being was they allowed 2 kids in a room unlike the rest — only one child per room. The mother is a scaredy cat like me. That was why we needed to squeeze ourselves (again) in one room and not 2. Heh!

Yes i heard you. 2 kids?? but you’ve got 3!

Usually, in my humble opinion, international chains are more flexible this way? When they say 2, you can take in 3.. and very likely, they’ll be okay with it. If i were to pick a local boutique hotel, i don’t think i am able to do that. In my opinion lah. Luckily, i was right. The staff at Shangri-La weren’t that anal and if anything, they were most accommodating and i’ve to say, our stay at the hotel was downright enjoyable and comfy too!

Pssstt : we weren’t even charged for the extra bed. Kudos to Shangri-La Hotel, Chiangmai!

One of the first things that i wanted to do was to check out the temples.

First stop : Wat Phra Singh
(where we got conned)

To be honest, Wat Phra Singh is too new for me. Beautifully maintained, gorgeously restored and that was it.

One of my happy finds at Wat Phra Singh was the trees. Actually, make that my only find. Grin. It was a tiny rest area for the students and monks located behind the temple. All the trees had this metal signage on it. As i went closer, i saw quotes, many meaningful, beautiful quotes on them. There, i took time to do some tree hopping, reading each and every one of the quotes while the boys ran amok chasing after the poor chickens. Haha!

So the rather pleasant conman. He looked like any regular Thai but more roundish, jolly, nice and friendly. We managed to brush off a few touts earlier but this man, seemed so sincere. The scorching hot sun didn’t help either. The mother simply wanted to ride in the air conditioned van and not wander around without any guide anymore.

3 temples and 2 other stops, he said and he points out at the flung temples that looked pretty gorgeous on the map. What stops, i asked. Honey making factory, he replied. So i thought, ooh, educational for the boys! Needless to say, we said OKAY and we made him a very happy man, at that moment of time that is.

Second stop : a temple on the West side of Chiangmai City

Let’s put it this way, we only stopped here for 5 minutes. Period.

Last temple stop : another no-name temple on the North-East side of Chiangmai City.

This one i like.

Mainly because it was ancient, raw and had certain feel to it. Strangely, these temples that we were brought to, had no other visitors except for a couple of locals? We stayed here the longest, probably for a good 20 minutes or so. The boys spotted a friendly English speaking monk and hurriedly followed him around after gaining permission from me. One thing about the boys that i am pretty proud of is that they make friends very easily. They’re chatty and forever curious. I overheard many of their questions shot to the monk and i couldn’t help but giggle silly to myself. Heheeee!

Having a couple of same gender children also means i’m pretty free most of the time. They sure know how to keep themselves occupied, giving this lucky mama some time to wander around by herself. :) (but the poor grandma was following and eyeing them like an eagle cos she was a lot more paranoid than me. Hohohoho!)

What’s inside the bell, mama?

No really, i love my boys all the same. But beep, his actions are always a little more child-like and adorable hence, he gets photographed a tiny weeny bit more than the other two. :P

So, did we really visit honey making factory?

Nope.

Where we went to was just a small shop selling products made from honey that’s all. Before that, we were brought to jewelery wholesaler. Zzzzz…. After the honey stop, it was carpet shop. Sigh. We spent an hour or more at these places. After the honey shop, i was fuming mad inside. We were tired and we had only one day to roam around in Chiangmai City. I didn’t wanna waste anymore time on these shops! We were on the way to carpet shop when i told the uncle politely that we were tired and we didn’t want to visit anymore shops — he had 2 more scheduled for us for Pete’s sake!

Fortunately, he agreed, albeit unhappy.

Back at the hotel, the swimming pool looked too gorgeous to resist!

We had a small pocket of free time before moving to the Night market so why not a swim for the boys? :)

The boys had a fun soccer session with the staff before jumping into the pool. Again, i have to say this, the staff were incredible! They helped to entertain the boys on their own free will (i reckon they were bored to bits as well that’s why! :P) while i buried my nose in a book in one of the comfy lounge chairs. Nice.

Not sure about you but sometimes, i like to skip hotel’s breakfast to go explore the local morning scene whenever i’m traveling.

On this particular morning, with zero plans and read ups, we just walked out from the hotel empty handed, no maps etc and explored. But whaddaya know, we weren’t that adventurous after all, not when we’ve got 3 hungry kids tagging along. The first person we met on the street was the security guard/traffic control guard just outside our hotel. We speak no Thai. He spoke no English. But with our hand gestures – noodle slurping and rubbing tummies *grin*, he understood. He (almost) shouted excitedly, Kway teow!

My mouth went :o

He knew what was Kway teow?!

So yeah, Day 2′s breakfast was Beef Horfun Soup, which was too sweet for me. Still, no regrets. ;)

And then, the fun begun.

Our guides picked us up from the hotel right after breakfast and the first thing some of our tour mates requested was, Coffee please! Hurhurhur.

So, coffee it was.

What a lovely quaint coffee place isn’t it?

Please say yes. HEE!

It was located out of nowhere, right next to the main road from the city to the village.. and it did make me wonder, who’d go? The villagers? Pit stop for tourists who are on road? But it didn’t matter really, because what mattered was it was there and we went!

Really, it was the cutest coffee place ever!

left : we plucked a ripe banana flower along the way which will be our dinner that night
right : beep getting blessed

Next up, to the village which we called home for the following 2 nights.

Before we can do anything else, a short trip to visit the village’s oldest person is a must, to get her blessing. Coincidentally, this said person happened to be our local guide’s grandmama!

What happened there was, the grandma will mutter some blessings in Thai, before she proceeded to tying some thread/string onto both our hands. We were advised not to take it out until the 3rd day in order for the blessing to come true.

After settling down at our home for a tiny bit, we were on the road again. Nope, not going off to biking yet! ;)

It was 1 o’clock. Stomach filling time!

Lunch was laksa-like-noodle. Personally i enjoyed it a lot. And there was this chendol-like-dessert too, which wasn’t too photogenic unfortunately but still pretty tasty. I quite dig the chendol (here in Singapore, it’s greenish jelly thing but there, it’s white) because of its texture. The jelly, was definitely handmade, which i don’t think you can’t find it anymore in Singapore.

left : mother cycling like a champion already, shouting, excuse me excuse me, when she wanted to overtake. Haha!
right : beep may be slow, but he sure was steady. here came beep, and Tsalina during one of the stops that we took before we moved on as a group again

When mother first saw the bike, she shook a little. Well ok, not a little, but a lot. She can’t quite cycle, she professed.

And then, she tried the bike, she shook some more. A lot more, literally! (read : can’t brake, didn’t know how to stop and get off, going left, right, left, right, tripped over)

OH NO!

But she has to come. We can’t possible leave her out. So i told her to try her very best.. go a few rounds before we hit the road, get used to the bike and she’ll be o-k. I know, because she’s a fast learner when it comes to stuff like this. ;)

Every time i recall this biking experience, i’ll get all emo. *sniffs*

Because.

The boys were really really impressive. And i’m not saying this because they’re my kids really. Thing is, we don’t cycle that often (only i do). Not even once a month methinks. So, for the boys to accomplish what they had accomplished was amazeballs. I simply couldn’t believe they could pull this off. Of course, mother too, totally unbelievable!

I mean, 2 hours under the scorching hot sun, biking along the rugged terrain, peddling up slopes and hills.. boy, even i had problem. What more them?

Thankfully we had an awesome (Singapore) guide — now friend who never stop encouraging beep. Yeah, i am a bad mommy like that. Hurhur. Instead of staying behind with beep, i cycled with the other 2 boys together with another local guide. The faster group (3 other Caucasians) went to the valley which we weren’t encourage to go because of our lack of experience and skills. They were pros, you see. So yeah, the very friendly and super nice Tsalina (Singapore guide) stayed behind beep, psyching him up all the way with her sweet nothings. Haha!

Really, thank lawwwdd for her, otherwise i gotta do the dirty mommy’s job. LOL!
(in many ways, she took care of the kiddos way better than i and get this, she is younger than me and has no children of her own, yet! *now if you will excuse me, lemme just go dig a hole and bury my face*)

ma favourite photo – Go beep go!

For a 5 years old city boy, he rocks.

Truly.

Below (photo) :

Our only obstacle during this 2 hour biking trip – steep slope on a bumpy and rocky road.

The slope was steeper than it looked. Must be my lousy photography skill! Really can’t capture the steep gradient, as usual.

Truth be told, i was contemplating on asking beep to get off from his bike and push it all the way to the other safe side. My main concern was that beep doesn’t really know how to brake, yet, which can be very dangerous, especially high speed + big stones, hmmm. In the end, i didn’t. But that doesn’t make him any less precious to me.

Well, it was because he himself didn’t appear to be fearful so why should i? I know what most parents (read : Darcy) will say.. kids, they don’t know the danger. Well, i say, if they don’t know, don’t instil it in them. Let them explore. Let them experience. Let them try. The worst scenario that could happen is he falls down, cuts and blood, and (maybe) a little crying or broken hands or legs.. which isn’t all that bad in my humble opinion. He’ll survive. He’s got the safety helmet on. We were all well covered under some insurance premiums, and in any case, if a helicopter was needed, we’ll get the helicopter.

All i know is he was not scared, he was game enough for the challenge and i should let him try. But if he managed to tackle this obstacle successfully, that kinda pride he’d feel will be priceless. You know, punching his little fist in the air and cry, YES! that sort. (something which i do hope he will remember for the rest of his life)

Nevertheless, guess what?

He didn’t fall.

In fact, i slowed him down. HAHA! He could have cycled all the way up to the other side but you see, i couldn’t — legs tired lahh. So midway, i stopped and pushed. Because he was right behind me, he had no choice but to stop and push too. LOL!

left : my champion :)
right : local guide + boy1 + reservoir

After 2 hours of great fun, we reached our destination – the reservoir. PHEW!

Seriously, you have no idea how proud i was of them, beep particularly because he’s such a baby at other times. Whenever i see that tiny figure appearing from the bends or at the end of the roads, my heart swell up so big i swear i thought i’d burst like a balloon. Really. Only parents can understand this sorta feeling. It was so overwhelming that all i wanted to do was to hug all of them and cry. I was so proud.

But i didn’t lah. Instead, i promised them an ice cream each, an ice cream of their choice. I know they knew how happy i was because such treats from me are very rare. ;)

Stay tuned for more fun adventures. A lot more to come!

————————

For more information on the tour, do visit WanGoDo!
Alternatively, contact the friendly Tsalina at 9459 8764.

* Disclaimer : this trip was NOT sponsored in any way