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Perched up on a hill above Chiang Mai, Doi Suthep overlooks the vast plains below. The temple has been there since the 14th century, after a Buddha relic was strapped to a white elephant, which was allowed to wander until it died at this spot, determining the location to build the Wat.

We climbed 306 steps to get to it, the balustrade comprised of gorgeously ornate tiles, which is supposed to be a meditative process before entering the Wat. For us, it was an aerobic exercise in the humid heat!

The chedi (Thai stupa)  is amazing. Gold everywhere……dazzlingly maintained.

There are examples of the Lanna-styled three tiered roof, wooden carvings, and colorfully patterned gables.

The numerous Buddha statues that adorn each alcove, cornice and cranny are equally interesting and beautiful.

Ilona found the biggest gong ever!

There were beautiful spaces interspersed between the buildings, with tree, flower and places to sit.

We have seen umpteen Wats in Chiang Mai, as they are on every street in the old city (which was formerly walled and moated). The city was abandoned and in ruins. Wat Suthep is memorable as it elevated on the hills, and we have been looking up to it for the last 10 days, and with the changing light and thin blankets of long cloud, it looked all the more enchanting and alluring.

We spent an action packed day, mainly doing water activities on the Mae Taeng river – white water rafting and bamboo rafting…..and what the kids got most enjoyment out of, was a natural slide on a waterfall at Huay Satan!

They even cajoled myself and Daniel to go down it. Yikes! I don’t particularly like heights or going over edges.

Daredevil Ilona went down about 5 times…..and even showed some French girls what to do, and how to approach the “drop”.

The rocks were slippery and formed a perfect water slide. Ilona and Tadhg relished in bathing in the natural pools.

I also overcame another fear of heights, by doing a zip line across the river…..well I wouldn’t have done it only the guy running the show pushed me off on my merry way…..after a little procrastination!

Bamboo rafting was a little more relaxing, and less strenuous than the white water rafting…..which was a very low grade of rapid (which was good as health and safety precautions is not a scratch on NZ standards), and given we had the two kids with us, I was glad we weren’t dicing with higher grades.

Youse will all want to be coming to ours over Christmas, as we have done a Thai cookery class: all four of us (the kids helped chop, crush and make paste).

What a fabulous experience, and the course was taken in a family house in the city, which had a compact but completely utilised veggie and herb garden. They have an organic farm 20km from the city, and have a philosophy of sustainable and gentle cooking/eating.

We first got taken to a market to see how to buy the ingredients, the difference between all the forms of rices, spices and chilies, and to appreciate the colourful array of fruit and vegetables.

Food markets are makeshift, chaotic, rudimentary stalls, with rickety tables of different sizes and heights, often stabilised by bricks, tiles, string or anything that is fit for purpose.


Food markets are a hive of activity and have a fug of smells that change from stand to stand…..the sweet aroma of limes and kafir leaves, the hint of the nasal tickle when passing sacks of dried red chilies, the more pungent meat and fish smells, the charcoaly searing of whole fish amongst other undefinable but typically Thai smells.

A delight to all the senses, as you are offered a piece of soft mango or to sample a peanut and sesame biscuit or other unknown surprise.

We had a tour around the urban garden, packed with herbs and spices, some which I had never seen before, and others which I had only seen in dry form.

We then returned and had a most delicious welcoming snack called Meang Kum, which was eaten by forming a betel leaf into a cup/cone, and placing a pinch of toasted coconut, roasted peanut a tiny cube of lime and ginger, along with a shallot and chilli. Then a spoonful of palm sugar syrup is placed over the contents of the betel leaf, the leaf was closed over, and the whole betel parcel is popped into the mouth and chewed slowly. It has all the flavours/tastes of Thai cooking: spicy, sour, sweet, salty and bitter. A taste explosion, which made us appreciate the attention to detail in Thai cooking, the intricacy and balance that Thai cooks obtain.

We spent the day cooking pad Thai, stir fried chicken and cashew, papaya salad, glass noodle salad, spring rolls, crushing curry pastes with mortar and pestle, green curry and khao soi, tom yum , tom kha kai and deserts of sticky coconut rice with mango and banana in coconut cream.

Yum and Delish!

We really couldn’t finish all we cooked, despite it all being so divine! (I got to practice my one word that I have never forgotten since Aberdeen days, when Waw taught me how to say “I’m full” – which is the same word for butter in Irish!). Our only problem is that I don’t think we are cooking on this trip to South East Asia, as the food is so good and readily affordable, with vendors literally everywhere you look. It is one of the nice things about this trip – I haven’t cooked for ages, and am enjoying my break from cooking. This introduction to Thai cooking has reignited an urge to get creative with my culinary skills, which had become somewhat mundane and run of the mill over the last while, largely because I couldn’t find the proper time to prepare food, that good food requires.

So watch out y’all. Next dinner party is going to be spectacular!

Thursday 24th Sept, 2015

One thing on our bucket list was to ride an elephant. It’s tricky to know which elephant centre you are visiting, and we were at the mercy of the booking agent we used in Chiang Mai. Daniel didn’t like the use of the thotti (stick with the metal hook on the end) that some of the Mahouts used.
All this passed over the heads of the kids, and they thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

So off we went on an elephant ride – pretty scary at first being so high up and unsure how secure the seat is. Rules and regulation are pretty relaxed here, so health and safety is a personal responsibility……and how can we be responsible for something we know so little about?!

Ilona and I rode together. Our mahout was young, and proudly from high in the cooler Burmese mountains. He told us he came to Thailand 2 years ago with his uncle, who is working in a bigger elephant park. He boasted that his grandfather is a great elephant handler, skilled and adept. The Burmese elephants are bigger, and only his uncle handles the 5 largest elephants, using the skills of his grandfather.
Our mahout was very gentle with the elephant, had a thotti but didn’t use it, had respect for the elephants (excitedly telling us about a newborn calf, born the previous day, and showed us photos from his phone).
Only downside was that he carried a little mobile music player, playing Katie Perry!

Daniel and Tadhg travelled together. They fed their elephant some bananas. It was amazing to watch the pincer movement of the trunk as it deftly picked the banana from their hand, without seeing.

We went into the river with them.

Up close and personal with these beautifully mottled elephants:






(All African elephants have tusks, whereas only some Asian elephants have tusks).

Then began a visit to another section of Chockchai elephant park, which was not so nice as it was more circus oriented. However, the kids loved it, and were oblivious to any issues of animal cruelty for these fabulously intelligent animals. I was reminded a bit of the book “You’re an animal Viskovitz”, which is a series of short stories, with a different animal as central character in each, explaining their particular unique trait (e.g. The praying mantis biting the head off the male, after mating) from a human perspective, in a sort of attempt to describe the human condition with faults and blunders. My friend Su had given me the book, and thought if anyone would like this book, it would be me…..which after reading it I found somewhat perplexing……as I had gone through three or four years of reading kid’s bedtime story books repeatedly, which strongly feature animals behaving like humans.

Anyhow, they got the elephants riding a bike, playing golf, playing 3 pin bowling, kicking a soccer ball, painting a picture, collecting a tip from a person in trunk, and stomping off to a stall to exchange it for bananas…..ad nauseum.

The kids were enchanted by it all, and full of awe. They got to ride one of the elephants while it went up on two legs and got lifted up by the elephant using their trunk, and put sitting on the elephant’s head. Despite being heaps of fun for the kids, the ethics don’t sit comfortably with me, but I realise I am part of the problem, so will leave it at that.

We got picked up in Chiang Mai by Son Chai, our guide to go on a big trekking adventure in the Mae Taeng area, north of Chiang Mai!

It’s the low tourist season at the moment, so we were the only people travelling in this group, which we thought would be disappointing (as what we heard was that much of the enjoyment of the treks in Thailand was dependent on the company of fellow travellers you shared the experience with). However, having Son Chai exclusively to ourselves on the trek meant that we learned SO much from him. He was good fun, and patient with all the questions we had for him……asking the name of this, trying to understand that, or getting a deeper understanding of the other. Once he learned that Daniel had farmed in New Zealand, he was generous in his explanations of the farming and crop systems, in as much as our mutual understanding allows, and with a language barrier. His parents came from Burma thirty years ago, and were allowed to clear bush and start farming in the hills, hence effectively taking ownership of land – a practice which is not allowed now, nor granted to migrants/refugees from Burma/Myanmar.

We had a perfunctory stop at an orchid and butterfly farm – orchids were amazing in that they all grew while hanging down and not in the soil….butterflies were beautiful, but we spied plenty more in the open, while trekking.

Before setting off on our trek, we had a fried rice lunch in the shelter below, bought in the market we had stopped at to get water for the trek.

Ilona, as ever meticulous to detail, entered her own little world while inspecting this or that. She likes to compare the size of ants in different countries!

Tadhg as soccer mad as ever wanted to play football with a pomelo (large citrus fruit – similar in taste to a grapefruit, but less tart – delicious!). It was my first time seeing or tasting them.

What made the trek special for me was Son Chai’s foraging! He shared many fruits along the way, scaling trees and knowing exactly what is ripe now. Also delicious was a type of strawberry (but not a strawberry as we know it….as you eat the fleshy fruit inside), which grows at the base of a tree. There were plenty of rambutan fruiting (hairier version of lychee). We also saw coffee trees – below – (some beans ripening red or brown now), lots of maize, banana trees, guava and mountain rice (which needs less water).

Before we set off on the trek after lunch, we had to wait for the driver who disappeared (while we were having lunch). He had skidaddled into the bush to get some bamboo grubs (actually a moth caterpillar – omphisa fuscidentalis), as he was going fishing in the afternoon!

We set off, and this time Son Chai disappeared to cut us some bamboo walking sticks. That became a very welcome and useful tool, as we walked in the full heat and humidity! He carried a machete, and cleared the path in places. With the low tourism season at present meaning fewer travellers through, the current wet season (although they have low rainfall this year), the verdant hills are in full growth.

The rock in these hills is limestone, so our first adventure was to go on a bat hunt! Talk about exciting for me, and you can’t imagine the sense of trepidation, excitement and mystery of Ilona and Tadhg!
Finding the cave entrance….scoping the surrounds….locating torch….switching it on…..walking single file…..the gradual crescendo of the whirring and flapping from the bats wings….the freaky swish of air near my face as our entrance displaced some of the bats…..exhilaration of spot lighting them with torches, and seeing the cloud of bats in the semi darkness….

I took a few photos with a flash (I know, they are very sensitive to light – sorry Colm and other bat people who read this), and only afterwards did I see them in detail. Truly amazing!

The rock formations at the entrance to the cave were also spectacular, and home to spiders, and an amazing bluish reptile that I am trying to find the name of (perhaps red spotted tokay gecko).



Such an adventure.

We pressed on, and slipped-slopped in the mud in places. Ilona counted 30 slips on her trek, I had two good ones (landing on my backside!), Tadhg and Daniel both half fell once.
Ilona wins the prize for falling, as she took the arse out of her trousers…..quite literally! She was a good enough sport to laugh about it!

The soil here is amazingly fertile. We walked down a ridge line, until we met a road, which led into a village. Sonchai found a rhino-beetle, which caused wonder and awe (and minor panic).


It doesn’t move quickly, so makes it tolerable to hold! Son Chai identified a bat’s wing end, which feels like a strong nail, but which is an amazing iridescent green. I was then able to spot a couple on the trek.
We also saw bees, which have created this weird funnel sticking out from the tree, within which their hive is located. An elaborate porch, which no doubt has some very efficient function. Very little wasteful structures emerge from the state of nature – wasteful structures are fabricated

Son Chai scaled a guava tree in about 5 seconds flat, gave it a shake and we feasted on guavas.


We were truly lucky to have him showing us this beautiful environment. He comes from the area, just about 1km from where we set off from, and his parents still live there.  So this was his stomping ground as a kid.

A few motorbikes passed us as we walked up the road to the village, which was a collection of houses and a school (closed as we passed through). We stopped off in someone’s house, where we were offered to buy water from an ancient lady, and an ancient man with an extra thumb on one hand. The cool iced water was a welcome refreshment, and they kindly offered us some deliciously sweet small bananas.




I also used my first traditional Thai toilet. The novelty wore off, as more such were to come.

After that break, we set off again through maize fields, on the path that the villagers take to get to their farms, which can be kilometres away from the village. When it’s dry, they can take a bike through these paths, but not when wet.

Eking out a living, with no tractors or easy access to market. It is a hard slog, and labour intensive. These are mainly Lahu people.
This area was the golden triangle of opium growing, in former times. In recent times they have encouraged farmers to to grow coffee instead (I understand Úna worked on this project with FAO in the late 90s?).
It was a tough slog climbing up in the searing heat and high humidity. We had lots of breaks, lots of goading coaxing and encouraging the kids. They did really well though, trekking for five and a half hours.



The view when we reached the ridge line was spectacular. Another refreshing bonus was Son Chai’s gift of a cucumber he found growing (I’m sure he has an eye on all the plants on that route).

We started our descent through foresty bush, the terrain changing magically again. By this stage we were quite tired  (hence no photos!). We arrived into a village in late afternoon, comprising of three families. Our kids played with three girls – elastics and trying to high jump it. Their parents work with elephants in one of the elephant camps, and also run the camp for trekkers. The bamboo house we were staying in was constructed for tourists/treks. It was a bit wobbly. You could see the dogs roaming underneath (built on stilts to ensure against snakes), which was quite cool, and the gaps in the walls meant full view out. It felt like camping…..but slightly more adventurous! A cold shower under a tap and a meal cooked by our guide on open fire inside one of the huts replenished us. We sat looking at the fireflies, and nearly didn’t need a torch because of the crisp light of the half-moon.
We slept (letting myself forget about the concept of hygiene and the state of the bed linen we were given!) inside mossie nets, lullabied by strange and enchanting sounds of intermittent frogs croaking, crickets, the odd dog barking and other peculiar to our ears but ever so exotic unidentifiable noises.

our accommodation:from the inside:
Eating area and cooking house:

We walked out of the bush in the morning, about an hour to pick-up. Two motorbikes had left before us, with five people on….as they went their respective ways to work and wherever the kids went to.

What an absolute privilege to have had an insight, albeit from a complete tourist perspective, into Chao Khao.

 Really interesting to see how these rural communities adapt in the face of growing tourism. I read a few TripAdvisor reviews on some of these treks, where they say that the Chao Khao (people of the mountain) are fake, because they EVEN saw a person from the village using a smart phone (the sheer audacity of it! /sarc). That makes me laugh out loud (or 55555 as they abbreviate in Thai!) and cringe at the same time. The fact that privileged travellers/tourists feel cheated that their money doesn’t buy them a glimpse of underdevelopment as they traverse and try to pay admission into a human zoo is just mind boggling!

After the hecticness, heat and humidity of Bangkok, we flew up to the more relaxed Chiang Mai, in the North of Thailand. Rightly or wrongly, we decided to stay in the one location for longer periods of time, than we did in Australia, as too much daily travel is too much for the kids.

Thus begins our two weeks in Chiang Mai, where we will radiate out of, and explore from. We are new to AirB’nB on this trip, but booked an apartment for the duration of our stay.

The view down from our 14th floor apartment. The Rincome night bazaar is under the roofs of the collection of buildings on the mid left of the picture:

The regal view out from our apartment, up to one of the most sacred temples Wat Suthep. The light changes by the hour, and it is pretty and spectacular:

The apartment is comfortable and spacious, especially after the restrictiveness and feeling of being caged or cramped in our last accommodation in a hotel (a throw back to my student days when I worked in many hotels  during Summer break, on various continents and so I never forget how they all uniformly operate and how staff are treated and self organise into their own pecking order!).

In Bangkok we defaulted back to eating inside……..we were not shy of trying different Thai food, but did so indoors! As we become more comfortable in figuring out how things roll here, how society functions, we have embraced street food. What a feast we are having. There is a night market next to where we are staying – Rincome – which has excellent food. We have tried the food at each of the gates to old Chiang Mai city, feeling more comfortable each day (there was a bit of trepidation at first, and resistance especially from Ilona, when she refused to eat on the street, proclaiming that the seats and tables were “disgusting”. It didn’t help that it was pouring rain, and the build up of water in the clothes-pegged together umbrellas and awnings intermittently dumped down on our table!). Hunger is a good sauce though, so the next time/day she just ate! She hasn’t declined food since, although with the heat, I think all our appetites are diminished slightly.  

The food is so tasty though! Tadhg is loving Pad Thai, so that is his staple at the moment. Daniel has befriended one of the street cooks in Rincome, and adventurously asks for different dishes each time we return to her, despite complete loss of (verbal) translation, he manages to buy all manner of different curries, soups, and pork specialities that are characteristic of the region.

We get around the city using the red sorngtaaou, which are shared taxis. You flag them down, state your destination (or in our case, point to it on a map!), to determine whether the driver is going that general direction (with other passengers), or whether (s)he won’t take you.


At night, we have had to negotiate from the standard 20baht per person, and have been flatly refused to have a lift! Economics 101, price adjusting relative to demand. There are two bench seats facing eachother in the back; open back to hop on and off; ne’er sight of a safety belt, which initially challenged my sense of protection, protection for kids (in booster seats etc!). Anyhow, very exhilarating initially to travel around in.

We have had a lot of quiet downtime. The kids have a preference for staying out of the tropical heat, and a tendency to object to any proposed new adventure or exploratory trip. I hope they become acclimatised soon! That has given us the opportunity to relax and read though. I read “A year of runaways” by Sunjeev Sahota, which again is apt given our trek across the world, but more so given that the plight of refugees has been in the news, with the washing up of Aylan, the 3 year old Syrian boy, on a Turkish beach.
In light of this, a quote from Sahota, with two of the migrants/refugees in England talking to eachother: “he said it’s not work that makes us leave home and come here. It’s love. Love for our families”….. To which the curt retort came: “that’s sentimental crap….it’s duty, we’re doing our duty (to family). And it’s shit.”
Sahota describes the “bold dreams, daily struggles” throughout the book, which resonates with me on a different level, when facing the challenges of parenting the kids when there are changing routines and structures.
For us, I think this journey is about satiation of curiosity, while also realising how we all share basic needs (Maslow’s hierarchy of needs or Ignatieff’s needs of strangers), in our daily adventure (for us) of finding accommodation and food as we travel. We also get to enjoy and experience new culture, a luxury afforded to being a tourist.

Next up on my Booker prize nominations downloaded to Kindle is James Marlon’s “A brief history of seven killings”.

We landed with a crash and a bang into a chaotic city…..our introduction to Thailand:
Chaos, noise, heat, stickiness, movement, madness, mayhem, busyness and bluster, hawkishness, yet a strange politeness.

Bangkok is a great example of using and reusing every inch of urban space for many different functions, mostly selling things and services! People, bikes, tuk-tuks and stalls fill empty spaces with an ultra-fast osmosis process. Not a Cartesian 2-dimensional process, but viaducts in the sky, multi-layered and I think you can go to the n-the dimension in Bangkok, where anything is possible.

We ventured out to Chatuchak market via the cool (in all meanings of the term) BST or sky train, and feasted on the smells, colour, madness, mayhem, diversity, eclectic narrow lanes and passages between stalls. It is reportedly (thanks to our Lonely Planet guide!) one of the biggest markets in the world. Bizarre bazaar!

Tadhg was pleased to get a Barcelona football rig. Our bartering skills were put into action! At first, the vendor wanted 1,000 baht for the rig. We thought that a bit pricey, so said so, and were about to walk away. He could see Tadhg’s disappointment, and asked how much we would be willing to pay. After a whispering ceann comhairle amongst ourselves, we said 500baht. The rig was sold. Happy Tadhg, happy vendor, happy parents…..until we found the same rig in a different stall for 280baht. Vendor won 1-0, with no extra time.
Ilona invested in a fan. She found the market cramped, sticky and smelly!

Tuk-tuk or meter taxi? Now that is the question! Hawks soliciting business, negotiating price. Everyone in Thailand works or earns their own living, however meagre. There is no social safety net, besides family which leads to a certain industriousness.

We met up with Waw, my old flatmate and good friend from Aberdeen days. Last time we met was in 2005, when I was travelling through Bangkok with a babe in arms (Ilona). This time, roles are reversed, and we got to meet Waw’s baby Alexander (or Sandie). I also finally met Andy, Waw’s Scottish husband. Waw introduced us to Thai food – she knew what she was ordering! Ilona loved the sweet sticky rice dessert with mango and coconut cream. We also found space for some cake! Great to catch up again, and the last of our friends we have planned to meet up with on our travels. Meeting old friends has really made the last 7 weeks really special, and a great way to get under the surface of a place. People are what make places in my estimation!

 
We experienced our first monsoon…..the rains came down at 7pm sharp, accompanied by thunder and lightening. About ten or fifteen men appeared and erected a tunnel like shelter between the (newly opened and exclusive EmQuartier) shopping centre and the BST station, to keep shoppers dry. I wonder what they work at when it’s not raining?
……we saw lots of service people and labour intensive business: from sellers of food on street corners to hotel staff, concierges, tuk-tuk drivers….

We took a boat trip up the Chao Phraya river, stopping off at the flower market, Wat Pho (reclining Buddah) and onto Khao San Road. By that point the kids were in heat overdrive and not really coping.

The most satisfying part of the day (for the kids) was jumping into the roof pool at our hotel, where they cooled off.

We spent another less adventurous day in and around the hotel – getting the kids to do some homework, letting them spend hours cooling off in the pool, while either Daniel or myself ducked out on our own to enjoy wonderful foot massages, or traditional Thai massages. Bliss! All not milk and honey though, as it is difficult to keep Ilona and Tadhg on track! Ilona doth protest much…..in the form of a sit down when she feels too tired, has sore feet or is too hot! Inexplicably, I ended up giving her a sticky piggyback in the searing heat and almost total humidity (much to the amusement of all whom we passed by), a strange sight no doubt, given that she is nearly as tall as me…..and in the prevailing heat seemed to weigh a tonne!

I am becoming an expert in goading, coaxing and downright bribing, to keep the show in motion!

By contrast, our first visit to a Wat (temple) was the impressive Wat Pho. There is such serenity in these spiritual oases in the city. Beauty built on a generosity and sacrifice given by Thai people to their Buddhist religion. On every street corner, in front of every building and boat there are offerings given to Buddah, in the form of flowers, fruit, drink. Such reverence and respect, adding to the beauty and wonder of this country.