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Published: June 24th 2013
Today we had a slower start, thank goodness, and enjoyed a lazy breakfast in the villa gardens which was great. They have this amazing home cooked cinnamon french toast with grilled banana .. it is to die for! It has also been my standard order since arrival! Dylan and Scott have enjoyed the Pancakes ... which are also fantastic, but I have converted Dylan to the french toast after he tried mine yesterday!
Anyway, we told our taxi man (same one from Saturday) that we wanted him again today ... but planeed to call him when we were ready to be picked up. BUT when we had finished breakfast he was here waiting for us already! KEEN! So we quickly got organised and left soon after ... headed for the famous Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep (translation = Temple at Doi Suthep).
It ws a long windy drive up a mountain to the temple that was built to overlook the city of Chiang Mai. The view was magic! We took a cable car ride up from where we were dropped off ... even though the stair climb was not too bad (the exercise would have been good for us!) but
it was hot hot hot so we saved our sweat glands and took the air conditioned option instead!
The temple was quite special ... as far as temples are concerned. Look, to be honest there are so many temples in Thailand that one can lose interest very quickly ... but the boys seem to be obsessed by sitting in front of the gold buddist statues, on their knees, praying and bowing!!! It is the only place that they sit silently ... not fighting with each other ... and Scott and I sit behind them and take a long break!!! BLISS! It really is so funny.
Blake and Dylan are also obsessed by Monks. If we see a Monk they are instantly transfixed ... Today our family were all blessed with holy water by a Monk inside Wat Phrathat Dio Suthep. Felt not much different after to be honest 😊
We also walked three times around the Pagoda (the large central gold dome in the Temple)... the boys did it with hands in praying position because that's what others did. Scott and I perhaps were not doing it correctly as we had the cameras and took a few
photos ... trying not to giggle at how serious the boys took it all.
We took the stairway down ... that was easy to do and didn't make us too hot. Then we headed back towards town with our driver who was patiently waiting.
Our aim at that time was to find the coffee shop in town that has won many awards for coffee and also coffee art. It was a bit of a mission to find the place ... in our rush to leave I forget to write down the name OR the address. Our driver had NO IDEA what we were talking about and in the end ... Scott got out of the vehicle and spoke to a few locals who eventuallly steered us in the right direction. Our driver, Singha, was SO PATIENT with us (and so were the boys!).
Well we found it ... and it was SO WORTH IT!!! It was a little place called Ristr8to ... it has ween awarded "World Champion" for their coffee bean and "6th in the World" for latte art.
Well we were a little early for the "custom" latte art design ... where they actually
reproduct a phono in your coffee!!! If we visited after 6pm this would have been our order for sure ... but instead I had a standard pour and Scott opted for the cartoon character ... check out the photo - it was brilliant!
The boys were not forgotten here ... they had the best ever iced chocolate ... it even had little choc pieces throughout it!
We then asked our driver to drop us into the "old city" for an afternoon of lazy walking through the streets to check out the city centre. The old city was once surrounded by a brick wall, so there are areas where the wall and the old Gate entrances are still in place. This made it easy for us to follow a map ... the old city is a square zone so if we saw the wall (which now also has a moat type of water couIrse as well) we knew where we were again.
'm surprised Dylan made it through the day ... he was quite difficult today as he was so tired! We thought he might fall asleep if we did something quiet ... so we found a lovely
little massage place in the old city and arranged for the 3 boys to have a Thai foot massage. Well they all LOVED it! Scott and I were giggling as we watched ... we just don't know how Dylan stayed awake! He was fighting his eyes the whole time and determined not to fall asleep. The rat bag ... he didn't sleep ... but the down time was enought to see him through!
We saw a number of temples .. both grand and gold as well as old and crumbling. Blake wanted to stop at them all (probably in search of the Monks) ... but we went inside a couple then mostly looked as we walked by. We stopped for icecreams then, for the first time with the boys, we did it .... we took a ride in a Tuk Tuk!!!! Of course the boys absolutely LOVED it. Scott and I felt like squashed sardines ... as we each had one of the boys on our laps. 5 people in a Tuk Tuk is very squishy!
The Tuk Tuk dropped us off in the Night Bazaar area of town ... this area is very touristy and full of
cheap stalls selling all the usual Thailand goods to travellers. Given that we are heading to Bangkok next, we didn't really look through any markets ... but instead found a nice spot to eat an early dinner before heading back to the Villa. And of course ... the boys wanted the trip to be in a Tuk Tuk .... so that's how we travelled home tonight! Fun times.
The boys all crashed very quickly ... it has really been a massive three days here in Chiang Mai. I think we do forget the boys are still young and yet we want to show them so much (and of course see things for ourselves). Anyway ... tomorrow we will be heading off around lunch time to Bangkok for the final part of our trip. We have decided to spend a quiet morning here at the villa ... packing our bags and letting the boys swim and relax for a few hours.
We are feeling a bit sad that our trip is coming to an end so fast ... where have the previous 12 days gone??? Why does time go so fast when you are travelling and enjoying life so
much???? Reality is not far away for us again ... very sad thought 😞
Next update ... Bangkok!!! I think the boys are looking forward to their luxury accommodation again! Actually Scott and I are too 😊 Our villa is comfortable and homely ... but the showers are a bit hit and miss ... and I do love a good shower! The breakfasts are brilliant and the yard is set up for kids. Only the bedrooms are air conditioned ... so we have avoided being here in the middle of the day. Mind you ... the service here is better than 5 star. Last night I asked for some milk to make a cup of tea .... and the manager sent someone on a motorbike to the 7-11 up the road to buy some for me! Then ... Scott wanted a beer ... so he got a double on the same motorbike to buy his beer to bring back. We also had all our washing done today for a cheap "local" price (rather than the typical hotel price) and returned for us tonight. Brilliant!
OK ... bye for now ... more from Bangkok! xxx
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Lex
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Bangkok
You will be glad for luxury in Bangkok! I wonder what boys will think of the chaos there! Xxx