Part 2 - Chiang Mai

The Family Watts holiday continues as we fly up to Chiang Mai to explore the north of Thailand. We settled in to our hotel, which to start with seemed nice but the next day was a very different story. Poor Mum and Dad had been kept up by noisy neighbours having a party, so we attempted breakfast to make up for it which was a total disappointment, as everything didn't quite taste how it should. The beds were also like sleeping on the floor, rock hard!! Going back to the night before we looked up an amazing street food restaurant called Lert Ros in the Lonely Planet guide book, which turned out to be delicious Thai food. The family were starting to realise the best meals we had had so far were from cheaper street food places rather than the restaurants. We shared various tasty dishes before heading off to find a place for pancakes!

Our first full day in Chiang Mai was a chance for me to return to the Elephant Nature Park and show everyone the beautiful friendly giants. It was great to go back and see them all again. There was one elephant that at New Year was in the elephant hospital because she had hurt her shoulder, but she is all fit and well again now. That's her below with Mum and Dad!

Mum, Dad, Bexs and Mel loved the day feeding, stroking, washing and getting to know more about each elephants story. Mel even got washed in river too (see picture below and right) as some one threw water on her. The baby elephant was adorable playing in the mud right after he'd been washed in the river!

That evening we went out to explore the night market and buy lots of souvenirs!! We also found another cute street food place to eat just off a side street from the busy market. There was a stall selling locally made lychee wine for 190 Baht a bottle so we took full advantage of this and had a few.

The next day we had planned to visit Chiang Rai and the White temple, but unfortunately it was too far away for us to get back in time for the briefing we had scheduled with the trekking company we were going with the following day. Instead we woke up after a bit of a lie in (skipped the awful breakfast) and rented bicycles for the day to explore the city. We stopped at an adorable Colonial tea room for brunch, also found in the Lonely Planet book (I sound like I'm advertising for them, but they are a great and a very accurate source of information) I don't often drink tea out here as it's too hot and they don't make it quite right, but this tea was perfect accompanied by waffles and fresh fruit, Yum Yum!!

We then cycled down by the river and round the city walls, until it was beer o'clock. The next stop after was a beautiful temple, Wat Phra Singh. Here we got a blessing from one of the monks for good luck, something which was a first experience for me too.

The plan next was to go and get a massage at the Women's Prison where the prisoners are training to be masseuses as part of there rehabilitation programs. However it is a very popular spot and was fully booked for the rest of the day so we found a place near by to have one instead.

That evening we went to the briefing for our trek at the Pooh Trekking office (Pooh is the name of the man who owns the company) We met the rest of our group (Greg from America and Verona from Austria) and our guide for the 3 days, Pot. We collected our backpacks to pack that night and headed off in preparation for an early start the next day. Of course not before we had a little bit of street food in the form of noodle soup.


With Love from Thailand xxx