We gave up on the kids and decided that we would travel regardless of whether they want to or if they are free. That gave us so much more flexibility and we no longer had to constrain our vacations to school holidays and fight with other parents over expensive air tickets and hotels.
After looking at SEA map, we decided on Chiang Mai.We visited Chiang Mai, as part of our Bangkok trip with my brother’s family years ago. Zaky was running a viral fever during the trip then. It was really a 2 days didn’t do much trip. After googling what Chiang Mai can offer, beyond Yoga and meditation, we booked our tickets. Bcos we have no teenagers, we skipped the adrenaline pumping activities like zipling and water rafting. I had wanted to do hiking and cave exploration but Daddy Lim’s old bones don’t agree. Hoho.
Our flight was at 8.30am and we left the house at 6am. The kids have to find their way to and back from school for the next 3 days. Everything went smoothly, we had time to shop, bfast and made our way to the gate.
There was a system held up at the gate and it took a long time and Q before we were finally cleared. Then boarding was slightly delayed as it was a round around flight and the plane was slightly late to Sgp. We took Scoot; we can tolerate a 3.5 hours flight on budget. I was very nice to us and bought us the exit row seats with extra leg space. Daddy Lim had downloaded an entire Korean series to watch on the flight. I was trying to catch up on sleep.
See how seriously he was taking his exit row duties.
Bye Singapore!
I was very happy to finally land. My bones were aching.
The Chiang Mai airport is really tiny. There was fortunately no Q at immigration and we only had backpacks with us. We will worry about lugging back shopping later.
Once out, we took a cab at a flat fee of THB150 to One Nimman, which is a popular shopping area. The airport is quite near to the main Chiang Mai town.
There was a lot of rave about One Nimman, but I didn’t know what quite to see actually. The main thing that we really wanted to do was lunch and I wanted Thai food. We stumbled upon One Market.
This is the very 1st item we bought - HP holder and it is super useful, I used it the same afternoon.
We found something like a food court and there was Thai food! I got Pad Thai with crispy pork and Daddy Lim got boat noodles. Yums.
We roamed somemore. Level 2 was full of local crafts. There were a lot of aroma products but they are heavy and difficult to bring home.
Then, we went to the nearby mall.
I had 2 calls to take at 2pm and 3pm. We took a Grab to our hotel and were comfortably in the room for my calls. Daddy Lim continues with his Netflix while waiting for me. The just bought HP holder was put to good use. Our hotel - De Sripoom, was tucked in one corner of the Old Town.
We had about 2 hours before the main kayaking activity for the day. We decided to walk to the nearby Warurot market. It was hot! We had interesting sights on the way.
We didn’t buy much. There were delicious looking cashew nuts but every purchase had to have thoughtful weight limit consideration.
The tour would be picking us at 5.30pm from the hotel. On the way back to the hotel, Daddy Lim had an early dinner with old school orange soda.
The pad thai was so tiny. The plate is smaller than his hand. He finished everything in 3 bites. Hoho.
We were picked up on time and there were 3 other people doing the kayaking with us. It was another 20 mins drive from the shop to the river. This was our ride.
We then have to wait for the kayaks to be set up, including fairy lights so that we would be visible in the night. We were the only ones in a double kayak. It was already drizzling when we were on the way, and while we waited, the storm started, accompanied by lighting and thunder.
Was I worried? Of course! I was reminded of the recent rower who was struck by lightning in Pasir Ris and died. It wasn’t even raining then; the sky was clear and the lightning came from nowhere. Here we were, opting to jump into the river when the lightning was flashing. The tour guide wasn’t at all worried and made light of the situation. Zzzzz.
Did we continue the activity? Yay, and I said a prayer before hopping into the kayak, hoping that God would still protect us despite our stupid choice. We were then “launched” into the river while seated in the kayak. We were the last ones and it looked simple enough. Apparently not, bcos we capsized, putting to good test our watches and the water proof hp pouch. The water was above waist. What was more gross was the muddy river bed and bank. Eeeewwwwkkkk. We got in properly the 2nd time but we were all wet and cold. Why did we capsized? The tour lead said that bcos we didn’t lean forward but he didn’t tell us to lean forward too. I think we were just too fat and heavy. Hoho.
It was supposed to be a leisure kayak down the river and the current was already carrying us. The ride was so leisure and slow. It would have been very enjoyable in normal circumstances but I was wet and cold, it was still raining and the frequent lightning scares me. I was shielding Daddy Lim from the wind and the many insects. I lost count of the number of insects that flew into my face. I kept feeling that something was biting me too. Sob. I was so grumpy.
It was only when the rain and lightning stopped that I started feeling better and enjoying the ride. We kayaked into Chang Mai old town and saw beautiful lights.
We also had to go under a few bridges and in between the columns. Other than the initial launching incident, we made it safely for the rest of the trip. There were so many bats living on the underside of the bridge. Better to keep my mouth close.
I duno how long we kayaked but I am sure that we could have done it in a much shorter time. I duno why we had to do it so leisurely.
We ended at about 9pm and got out of the kayak safely. At one point, I thought too highly of myself and offered to pull Daddy Lim out of the kayak while on the muddy bank. He almost pulled me back onto the muddy water.
The staff clear up and tied the kayaks back onto the cars while we waited. This was us, hungry and cold. The fortunate thing was that we had rowed ourselves back into old town and our hotel was only 5 mins drive away. While waiting, Daddy Lim suggested that we walk back. Nooooo… that would be a 25 mins walk.
Back at the hotel, we washed off all the mud and the brown river water soaked clothes. Then head out to find dinner. We were told that the night markets are only from Fridays to Sundays. It was already 10pm and we were happy to settle with whatever we could find.
Daddy Lim ordered the crispy pork wanton noodles soup. I was clever, I had the crispy pork noodles and added on wanton soup to share. I had the best of both worlds. The crispy pork was nice.
We headed back to the hotel after dinner and spent the rest of the night watching Netflix and munching chips. I was so tired by 11ish and turned in. I was already dozing off in front of the tablet.
Good night!
Mummy Lim
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