Chiang Mai / Northern Thailand

Mowgli

The next leg of our Journey took us to Chiang Mai, an ancient city in Northern Thailand.  Surrounded by a centuries old moat and wall Chiang Mai is a common stop for tourists traveling through SE Asia.  The city today has swelled outside of its former boundaries and is a fairly sprawling metropolis.  It is popular now for its mix of history as a former capital of a Northern Thai Kingdom filled with incredible Wats (Buddhist temples),  and culture including wonderful food.  It also serves as a gateway to the outdoors and beautiful mountains 

Highlight of Northern Thaialnd for us was a day with Patara Elephant Farm. They provided an incredible comprehensive full day of education and interaction with these incredible, gentle giants.  

We were outfitted in attire that the elephants would be more comfortable with.  We learned how to get them to come to us and helped feed them bananas and stalks of sugar cane by putting it directly in their mouths.  

We learned how to do a quick health assessment of our elephant.
1.  Do they flap there ears and flip there tail every so often
2. Are there signs that the elephant has been sleeping lying down and rotates sides.  You do this by looking for dirt or smooth spots on each side.  Apparently an elephant that is sick will not lay down to sleep as it knows it will not have the strength to get back up.  The elephant also has to get up every hour or so to lay on its other side so as not to crush any of its organs.
3. A healthy elephant will produce sweat.  Any idea what part of an elephant sweats?
Only on the cuticles or base of their toenails.  We felt for moisture on their toes to ensure health.
4.  Most important in evaluating the health of the elephant is the poo inspection.  Each motion should provide at least six large turds.  It should be moist and you should be able to squeeze water out of it.  You must also break it apart to make sure the elephant has healthy teeth and there are not any large food particles.  You also need to give it a good sniff.  Healthy elephant poo is not at all offensive in smell.  Yes we all participated in all steps. 

Baby elephants were very possessive of their mothers.  

We learned commands to make them follow us.  We were also taught to firmly pull their ear in the direction we wanted them to go.

Several different ways to mount.  Owen demonstrating the method where the elephant lowers its head  and  lifts you up with its trunk

We rode them up and down some pretty steep muddy tracts and they are incredibly sure footed

Excellent lunch provided.  Wrapped up in banana leaves is sticky rice.  

Best part of taking care of the elephants was a complete scrubbing of their hides.   Takes a little longer than washing your average dog.

"thats my mommy"

Welcoming lemongrass tea.  Banyan tree behind Keira and Skyler

I find that whatever country I am in, the local beer tastes the best.  This may taste like urine back home but here it is the nectar of the gods.

Night market Chiang Mai

A few more elephant shots

Keira holding an elephant turd.  No big deal.  

Poo collector.  Floating turds in background.  Took a little getting used to swimming in elephant toilet.

Day two in Chiang Mai was village to visit hill tribes.  They continue to live today much as they have for centuries

making mush

Rice paddy

The long neck people.  1 ring per year and they are quite heavy

Owen really enjoys the guitar lessons he has been taking.  Nice to be able to get in a little practice in rural Thailand

They had lots of home done textiles for sale

Orchid farm.  Roots do not need soil they absorb water and nutrients right out of the air.

 Noodle shop Chiang Mai

The girls getting foot massages from little fish that nibble all the dead skin off your feet.  Weird

Bangkok

On July 6th, Lindsey's 14th birthday, we made our way from New Zealand to Southeast asia for a 3 week trip many months in the making.  We felt like a trip to this part of the world would be stimulating for all of our senses and another great experience we could share together as a family.  So far it has not disappointed.  We spent the first 3 days getting acclimated in Bangkok, a great city complete with sights, sounds, smells, and tastes that none of has ever encountered.  The kids loved the tuktuks (above) and the long tail boats with which we pretty much got around on.

Bangkok is an interesting mix of new, European and modern blended with old traditional Asian culture.
You can eat traditional Thai noodles served by any one of thousands of street vendors or at restaurants representative of the finest European cuisine.  You can travel in a new air conditioned Toyota taxi, elevated super modern sky train or by open air unmuffled motorized tuktuks (we suggest the Tuktuks, though they do drive like mad).  There are open air markets packed to the gills with merchants and there are some the fanciest looking shopping malls I have ever seen.  Truly a vibrant place.

We are joined on this trip by our dear friends Brian and Daryl and their kiddos Jasper and Kiera.  We met 2 years ago after arriving in NZ.  Brian and I worked together in the ED and though they returned to their home in Canada 1 year ago we remain good friends and they kept their vow to join us on a trip a year after leaving NZ.

What follows is mainly a photo log of our travels thus far.

Chinese style pagoda

typical Thai Wat or temple

Khmer, or Cambodian influenced Wat

Spent a lot of time traveling on the Chao Phraya (river through central Bangkok)

Street Vendors are everywhere.  Many urbanites so not have kitchens so this is where they get their meals.
Very cheap often a meal for less than $1.  We stuck to restaurants as we felt our stomachs not quite ready for  Thai street food.  

Fruit everywhere also.  Fruits I have never seen before.  Interestingly I noticed apples from NZ and oranges from Florida for sale on the streets..

 Outside the temple of the Emerald Buddha next to the Grand Palace.   Allegedly over 2,000 years old the Emerald Buddha, though he only stands about 2.5 feet high is one of the most revered in all of Buddhism.  He has been moved over the centuries around SE asia depending on who was in power.  Four times a year, depending on the season, they have a special ceremony presided over by the king in which they change the Buddha's attire to make sure he is appropriately dressed.

On the grounds of the Grand Palace.  Though never fully colonized by a European power, Thailand early on adopted many western traditions including architecture.  I find this place interesting in that the building itself has a very European look to it but the roof is very Thai.  

Elephants are very important in Thai culture and images of them are everywhere

Our preferred mode of travel

The Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho

Owen enjoying his Thai massage

The Flower Market in the Old City.  Incredible colors and smells

Long tail boat, powered by old car engines with long propeller shaft that also functions as a rudder 

Who would have thought?
Bangkok has everything

Lindsey and Kiera

"Floating Market"

Cold Beer while on Long tail boat ride through canals of Bangkok, priceless

Cold cokes equally priceless

Very friendly people where ever we have been in Thailand

Morning exercise in Lumphini Park close to our hotel.  Old folks out as groups all wearing same colored shirts doing Tai-chi early every morning.

Two years

•   June 23rd will mark our two year anniversary of our move from the suburbs of bustling Kansas City to an island on the other side of the world called New Zealand. Over the course of this time we have visited many parts of this world, parts that I thought we would never get to explore. We have seen, ate and experienced things that would of never crossed my mind two years ago. We have swam with dolphins in the Tasman Sea, traveled a road untraveled by many locals, slept in a boat in the Fiordlands, jumped off a perfectly good bridge, hand fed eels, walked on silicone sand, and saw wild dingos. We have had an exciting and wild ride these past two years and we are not ready to call it quits yet ( not to mention there happen to be no jobs in any of the towns that we would consider moving back to). There are still many items on our list that we want to check out before we close this chapter of our lives.  

• Yes, there are days that we contemplate just staying, packing up our storage unit in the states, shipping our belongings over, buying a house and settling in for the long haul. And yes, there are days all I think about are moving back to the states. Settling down, and establishing some roots somewhere. The pros and cons to either argument are long, complicated, and emotional. And just when I think I've got it sorted out in my head, homesickness will hit me. It happens at the most unexpected times and places. Today it was the home furnishing store. I know what your thinking, "really, the homes accessories got to her, she must really have issues!" SO sappy, I know but it is the truth. The store gave me a glimpse of my old life, when we owned a home and enjoyed decorating it and putting our own touches on the place. Damn you New Zealand! Why do you have to be so breath taking beautiful at every turn? Why do you have to be soooooo good at providing the work life balance to your employees that expats are flocking here from all over the world to enjoy this slower paced lifestyle?  Work is still work, but in NZ work is not life. Why do you have to be such a safe country that my kids can roam about freely without me sitting at home anxiously waiting for them to walk in the door safely?  And why....oh why do you have to be so far away from our loved ones? I am learning that living life as an expat is not for the faint of heart even during the best of times. Honestly it would be easier to commit to one way or the other than to continue to live with one foot in the US and one foot in NZ, which is what we are doing now.

• Our two year work visa's expire in a week so Brad applied for our Resident Visa's. We were approved after providing our original birth certificates, finger prints, mountains of paper work, and a large sum of money. It basically means we can stay in NZ indefinitely, but don't worry mom it doesn't mean we will, it just gives us better health benefits and the ability to come and go easier.          

•  The kids are 100% customized to the Kiwi lifestyle, and we all find ourselves using Kiwi-ism everyday.  We are in the middle of winter and they are still wearing shorts and no shoes to school. Owen uses the term "sweet as" on a regular basis and I do not even internally acknowledge it any more, but I do have to explain it to family members when they come to visit. "No, Aunt Maggie he is not telling you that you have a sweet ass, he is  saying sweet AS." We now wear jandals, and togs and eat lollies. I frequently get puffed, buggered, stuffed and or knackered after my long runs. When we get cold, we put on extra jumpers or jerseys. I find myself having a few cups of tea throughout the day with a wee bit of sugar, and heaps of milk. I now know that Brad is also called my partner, and not just husband (I use to think everyone here was gay because they rarely say husband/wife). My heart does not skip a beat any more when Owen asks to borrow a rubber (eraser) from his Dad. And "fanny pack", is  a term one should never, ever use while visiting or living in NZ. "Fanny" refers to female genitalia. SO imagine my horror, after referring to my "fanny pack" at a party last year. 

•   So I guess what I am trying to get across is that we like where we live. We like it a lot.  And instead of trying to constantly think about what is next or where we are going to be in 5 years, we are just living every day to the fullest, because we are just not sure when this journey will end. We are here now, so we are going to enjoy the now.

•   To celebrate our two years we plan on going to the same restaurant we ate at on the day we arrived, The Tree House. On June 25th 2011, we were all exhausted from our trip over and just needed to eat before going to bed. We were all craving some American type food, so we all ordered hamburgers and french fries. The hamburgers arrived with large slices of beetroot on them. Beets on hamburgers?? Who does that and why? So I quickly removed all the bright purple vegetables from the hamburgers, and we quietly pushed on. After biting into my hamburger, I quickly realized that it was more like a meatloaf burger. It had onions, and breadcrumbs and was held together with an egg.  It was good, but not what we were all hoping for. I just knew that Owen, who was 5 was going to have a total melt down after trying his food, and it was going to head south very fast. He takes a bit of his food and gets all teary eyed. I told him just to eat his french fries and ketchup (kiwis refer to it as tomato sauce), and not to worry about the burger.  The ketchup here tastes a lot different than Hines. It is not as sweet, and has a distinct flavor to it. Owen tries the ketchup and wham-o, he is out for the count.   He was so heart broken, all he could do was cry. He just wanted something that tasted like home. So after two years of eating meatloaf burgers and kiwi tomato sauce, we don't mind it anymore. We actually kinda like it.  So we are all going to go back to The Tree House and order hamburgers for dinner with extra beetroot.  Have you ever had a hamburger with beetroot on it? It is delicious, you should try it sometime. 

• Oddly enough I do not have any pictures for this post. I am in the middle of taking a really cool photography class at the local University. So I should have some great photos to show off all my new photography skills. But I don't, at least not yet.