Chiang Mai

After a few busy days in Bangkok it was time to fly to Chiang Mai.

A quick flight on Thai Smile airlines.

We got into a tuk tuk straight away an went for a look around.  We went to a food market and got some fruit.

Chiang Mai has some of the old city walls still up.

We visited some of the many temples here.  Blake is giving a donation to the monks.

This temple had an impressive light show.  And if you wanted - even free wifi :) 

Then we went to the Chiang Mai Zoo.

Since Blake is so lazy so we opted to pay the 100baht each to get the bus around.

It was an ok zoo.  Most of the animals were kept in acceptable cages, bar a few out of the bus route ones we found. 

The Pandas cost an extra 100 baht extra, we guess it is to help pay for the electricity. 

Tigers.

Then off to the Aquarium, this is actually just a big picture you stand in front of for photos! 

The actual tunnel was much less impressive.  Half of it was out of order and didn't even have any lights on.

But the second half had lots of fish in it and they were feeding them.

There were some good tanks there to look at. 

We found a crappy playground to play in.  

Then to the penguin house.  I think this is the one we felt most sad for.  We didn't even get a photo of their top home as it was too bare.

:( poor penguins. Their tank was so dirty as they had sand in their top home. 

They did have a little swim down to see us though.

We had a great lunch in a little place where only a couple of dishes were written in English, just the basics fried rice, pad thai, chicken curry.  It is times like this my picky kids love rice! Two plates of steamed rice for the boys and one fried rice and one pad thai later and everyone was happy! 

The seal show was pretty old school.  It even ended with the crowd throwing $ notes into the water and here the seals are retrieving and bringing them to the trainer!!!!! 

They both said that one of their most fun parts was feeding the sheep at the end of the day! Go figure! 

I found two sign fails - here is some misspelling of the Carp fish

And not sure if that is suppose to be Tasmania or NZ!!!

The boys had lots of fun swimming in the pool.

And daddy was SO happy to find Jim Beam on the menu at this little Mexican place we went to.

I was thankful Blake hopped into the sling for the markets. Meant we could actually see the whole market. They have a great market on Sunday in the old part of Chiang Mai.

We looked at the Wat around the markets while the sun was hot. 

The next day Mum snuck off to Basil Cooking school and cooked up a storm. 

Luckily I didn't go for the closed in shoes I was thinking about, as we had to take our shoes off at the door.

We went to the local market to get the food.

I made heaps of yummy dishes and am determined to make them at home. All were easy (well when you had someone else cut it mostly up and someone stand there telling you what to do it was easy :) ).

Pad thai.  The easiest of the lot!!!

While Mum was cooking, the boys went to Tiger Kingdom.  Derryn was very impressed with how well they looked after the tigers, and were rotating the  tigers so they weren't out there too long and none were tied down. They were free to walk around the enclosure.

We went on a river cruise.

The wharf was through an awesome Wat.

 Blake really enjoyed the boat and looking at all the sights on the river.

 The water was very dirty - There is no way I would have been swimming in there !!!!

We went to a small farm and had a look at some of their foods they grow and some old ways they milled the rice.

These were far too much work for us!!

Caleb was a little light to even move this one.

We at some yummy street food. 40 baht per dish! Daddy regrets asking for spicy!

We usually get the boys one dish to share and an extra steamed rice.  They are happy with just plain rice with some chicken.

Here are the boys laying in their bed playing their Samsung Tablets.  I must point out these were the hardest beds we have ever found.  Very much like sleeping on the floor. 

We then planned a day at the fishing Park.  It was a good afternoon. And everyone had lots of fun.

It was interesting the bait they used.  They used bread crumbs compacted around a piece of bread on the hook with some green fish smelling stuff on top. Aparently when it landed in the water the bread crumbs came off into the water and attracted the fish and then the last one bit the bread attached to the hook! Great idea! 

Lots of fish to catch.

Of course my boys got their shirts off in no time!

Caleb needed a little help bringing in the big ones!

Derryn caught some huge ones.

Glad we had our guide to do the dirty work for us.

Blake did get a little bored, and was pushing the swing back and forward - that was until it came and donked him on the head.

We had a great time - bar the wooden beds.