Friday 19 August 2016

Thailand 2016 part 1

I feel like I start too many blog posts with these words but...

Cleggy was offered some more work in Thailand so we all went with him! This time the work was in Chiang Mai in the north which was an area we were really keen to visit so it worked out perfectly.
On the way there we had a six hour wait in Hong Kong so jumped on to the fast train in to the city for a wander around. 

a pear as an offering to the Gods
I had spent a ridiculous amount of time researching what we could do...but hadn't accounted for the fact that most of our time there was on a Sunday morning. 
So most of the restaurants and markets were closed. 
Curses!
But it's fair to say we managed to fit quite a lot in and definitely want to go back one day. 
We managed to fit in some noodles and warm tea in the strangest cafe...
...and took a trip on the star ferry but it was so foggy we could hardly see anything. Sometimes things just don't go to plan!!!
Then jumped back on the train to the airport. 
 The boys are such good travellers these days - largely because they will (literally) sleep anywhere!


including (heavily) on my shoulder
We arrived in Chiang Mai at evening time and the heat was as oppressive as the guide books had promised!

We had decided to stay at the venue where Cleggy was running 2 days of conferences. It was about 30 minutes out of the city so was a bit calmer and crucially it had a breeze!
We just managed to see the beauty of the resort before the sun dropped.

 This place is special. 
The minute you walk in there is a feeling of calm and peace. Helped by the fact that it was a very quiet time of year for them! 



Because we were working there we were upgraded to an apartment rather than 2 bedrooms. Perfect since both teens had lots of GCSE revision to do inbetween the fun stuff. 


For the first couple of days we just hung out. 
And developed a taste for Chang beer. 



 bit of swimming


 bit of reading
 bit more Chang
 sunset watching
 jasmine smelling


 cocktail drinking
bit of chess


breakfast was overlooking the mountains- and everything from french pastries to delicious curries.
getting up in the morning...the struggle is real!


 It was a beautiful place to walk around - loads of quiet spaces and a mixture of wood, slate, glass, concrete, bamboo, brick, wood and stone.










Dinner was served in a small restaurant in the middle of the grounds. Or up in the (air conditioned) treehouses. 



Every evening the staff leave a message on a card in your room, along with a small offering. Sometimes it was cookies, sometimes a little bag of rice grown in the grounds and one day this little elephant.


 It was lovely to have somewhere calm to relax - the city was busy and hot. More about that next post!
Fee x