Chiang Mai, Thailand - Part 2

While in Chiang Mai Christmas week, we were able to do some traditional holiday things - not!  First up, fishing for the mighty Giant Mekong Catfish.

Here's Reid ready to land the big one.

OK, so it was more than he bargained for.  This was better, brace strapped on and seated.

Booyah!

Booyah #2!

"Daddy, can I have another cookie pleeeeeeease?"

Ro's turn.

Yes, it was bigger than him and weighed more!

Riley's was too.

Afternoon spent walking around, love the "Merry Christmas", now let's watch people pummel each other.

We decided to hit a night market, which ended up being too crowded, and a bit overwhelming, for our crew after a long day.

Waffles for dinner though.

These ornaments were yarn wrapped tennis balls, pretty cool!

Christmas Eve morning, we "unwrapped" the big present.

Kick the tires (or basket) and light the fires!

Almost ready...

Dawn over Chiang Mai.

Another balloon being blown up below us.

Merry Christmas!

Bec snuck this one on me, I didn't see it until I downloaded pictures.

They let the boys help pack up the balloons.

For the second balloon, they let the boys guide it on to the tarp as they let the air out.

Jumping right in there!

The drive from the rice field back to the launch site.

Receiving our certificates!

Off to play with tigers.  Ro refused to touch the cub, and I couldn't bear the thought of him not getting the most of the experience.  So here I am shielding his hand in case of an attack.

Merry Christmas!

These were actually some of the favorite parts of the whole trip for the kids.  About $1.5 per 10 minutes.  Wish I'd have know that before the balloon ride.

Massage #2 of the trip.

Someone fell asleep.

Ready for our Thai cooking lesson.

Prepping the steamed fish.  The boys have hours of video to put together, maybe at some point we will have it all edited into one movie...

Christmas Day was a smelly one: on an elephant.  Overall, we were surprised at how hard they were hitting the animals to get them to obey.  It wasn't terrible, but we did feel uncomfortable.  I'm guessing it was because the elephants were bored, walking the same route every day, so the handlers were using discipline to encourage them.

Trying to sneak a bit of sugar cane, which we had for motivation.  One thing I noted was that they didn't have sores or anything like that under the chain, hopefully indicating treatment was OK.

How can I sneak her through customs?  Rebecca trying to bargain for souvenirs in a hill tribe village.

Interesting foot bridge.

Now this is a real bridge!  Right out of Indiana Jones!

During the day we stopped by a waterfall to relax.  I love the interaction between Reid and Ro in this picture.

Picture taken from a raft.  Hopefully these are pump houses, sucking water instead of depositing something else...

I thought it interesting that they disassembled the rafts to get them back upriver.

Upon arriving back to the guest house, our sweet hosts presented us with a Thai lantern.  Basic premise is to send your wishes to heaven.  We were amazed at how fast it rose in the cool night air.

The next day I wanted to get another data point on the elephant treatment.  So, we headed out to an elephant rescue camp.  Let me just say the place was awesome.  Even the monks agreed and pulled out their electronics for pictures.  I don't get the "Milk" on the car behind them...

We all got to "hand" feed the elephants.

A baby trying to escape.  It was pretty cool seeing the mom grab him, pull him out of the fence, and then boot him away.  Cute stuff!  Overall, the jury is still out on the treatment issue.  I will say that these elephants did everything by voice command with gentle prods here and there.  My conclusion is that the elephants enjoyed the interactions and were highly engaged in this camp and that they were bored out of their minds in the other one.

At the umbrella factory.  I'm so proud.

Rowan thought it was cool, oh the power of big brother influence.

The boys were all bitten by the "must buy something everywhere we go" bug.  They tried and tried to get me to buy them an umbrella.  Almost got me on this one.

Here's a shot of the process.  Everything was done by hand.

We then went to a wood carving shop.  Here is a column where you can see the chalk outlines being converted into the sculpture.

An elephant of elephants.

Yeah, shame on me for A) not noticing the elephant had something other than a photo op on its mind, and B) zooming out to catch the full scene.  The subsequent pictures of Reid and Rowan are zoomed in, I can assure you.

Not wanting to leave you with that, here is a "surprise" from Riley's camera:

Seriously, I couldn't end with that!  Here's Reid with his thank you note to our new friends at Baanbooloo Guest House.  He drew our little house and Google translated a thank you note in Thai.  Yes, he is still available for marriage contract for those of you who have daughters.  The price is going up though!

Chiang Mai, Thailand - Part 1

The second leg of the megacation (as our friend called it) took place in the Northern part of Thailand, Chiang  Mai.  I decided to go for Baanbooloo, billed as a "Traditional Teakwood Thai Guesthouse" and ranked #2 in Trip Advisor for bed and breakfasts.  Overall, the place was awesome!

Picked up in a red taxi, a converted pickup truck with bench seating across each side of the bed.  These are unique to Chiang Mai and each was was it's own little special experience!

Oh yeah, and the doors were strapped open and yes we were going about 45 mph.

This was the main courtyard / reception / hang out.  At this point I was thinking it was a little rustic and secretly feared Rebecca would say "Enjoy it with the boys, I'm off to the Marriott".  She hung in there though.  The boys were really excited about the whole thing, mainly because of the wireless internet.  We openly coveted their furniture though.  The bar in the middle was from a converted ox car and was unbelievably cool.  Breakfast was cooked to order and was a mix of Thai and Western favorites.

Here was our little slice of heaven.  Two floors (boys in bunk beds on the ground floor), external staircase, our own patio for relaxing.

OK, so these guys were a minor surprise.  Over the bed and I'm assuming they are some sort of protection.

Bathroom for Rebecca and I.  Teakwood, very clean, open air (which was different).  Yes, we could hear people eating while we were showing.

Here is one of the rooms in the back of the property.  The bedroom there is totally open air.

That night we headed out on the town to scope things out and feed our faces.  This was the boys first tuk tuk.  Very cool.

Day one, snake show!  Yes, that's right, Rambo seal of approval on this one.  Supposedly Rambo IV was filmed in part here...

King cobra kissing.  I had no idea how big these things can get.  Over 12 feet long.  Form a circle by touching your thumb tips and middle fingers together and it was about that big around.

Here's a few little ones.  Apparently they have a blind spot between there eyes.  I still think he's crazy too.

How often do you get to pet a monocle cobra?  Yep, never.

About 5 feet away.

So when this dude catches the three mambas (one for each hand, third with his mouth), I'm thinking that this is one of those horrible places that defang their snakes.

Nope.  They're crazy.

Snake charmer!

Next, a little croc wrestling.

Here he is pulling on its tongue.  Apparently they train them by putting a balloon in their mouth and the popping noise scares it.

Still has to get the heart rate up though.

Last stop of the day was one of the long neck hill tribes.  Rowan's obsession with the royal family continues.

This precious woman was working away and when I pointed to the camera, she insisted the boys come over and sit next to her for the picture.

You want a piece of me?  I broke this over the head of the last chump.

Pretty good sales guy.  Let the kid fire the crossbow.  Thankfully I pulled the "we'll never get these through China customs".  Close one though.  I wanted one myself.

Hand painting some stripes on a table runner.

Chillin'.

Sporting a new elephant tusk (fake and proud of it) necklace.  Behind him are the typical products that were for sale along the walkway.

Those are really cute hats for girls.  Don't tell them.

Riley pilfered Bec's old point and shoot camera (stay tuned for some surprise pictures).  I heard him say "man, I've got to get this shot" as he was taking this picture.  I don't know why other than he saw me taking it...

At the top of the hill we were surprised to encounter St. Nicolas church.  We happened to be walking through as the church was handing out Christmas presents to all the kids.  Amazing.

Some of the young ladies of the tribe.

OK, so this may be the most precious girl in all of Thailand and maybe Southeast Asia.  If this sweet face with the kids waiting in the background for their presents doesn't make you want to run out and donate something to someone, then you likely have no soul and if you do it will probably rot in hell for all eternity.  Just kidding.  Not really.

I really should stop with the last picture, so profound and precious.  Instead, I leave you this little gem I discovered when downloading the camera Riley was messing with: