Thailand has been on our bucket list forever and we finally made it! Thailand did not disappoint and will likely go down as the most memorable portion of our trip for both good and bad reasons. To say our time here was eventful would be an understatement.
Our Thai adventures began with a quick flight from Vientiane, Laos to Chiang Mai. We immediately headed to the bus station for a 3 hour trip to the beautiful Chiang Rai. This area had been recommend to us by several people. Quickly becoming known for it’s unique temples, Chiang Rai was very nice and we would highly recommend the trip. We stayed 3 nights at the lovely Nak Nakara hotel and in between temple hopping we managed some rest and relaxation by the pool. Temperatures and humidity remained as high in Thailand as in our previous stops in Asia – a balmy 34-36 °C with that sticky, humidity that pushed the “feels like” upwards of 40.
Our first day we visited the unique Wat Rong Suea Ten, also known as the Blue Temple. Built in 2016, Wat Rong Suea Ten is a beautiful and intricate temple with everything predominantly painted a striking blue; very unique and impressive.

That evening we took a Tuk Tuk ride to town to enjoy some famously delicious Thai food in front of the clock tower, which sits in the centre of town. The tower has a 2 times nightly light show that was a little lack lustre but still worthwhile and a good excuse to head out and explore.
The following day we took a tour to both the Wat Rong Khun, better known as the White Temple and the Baan Dam, also known as the Black House.
We have seriously never seen anything quite like the White Temple. While it’s not a temple in traditional sense, it was designed and constructed in 1997 as a private enterprise from the imagination and talents of a remarkable artist, Chalermchai Kositpipat, who happens to be a devote Buddhist. This temple is stunning and incredibly ornate with many odd and eclectic features.
The Black House, while not nearly as awe inspiring as the White Temple, was unique and interesting in its own subdued and quirky way. The grounds have many buildings, carvings, and paintings by artist Thawan Duchanee, all predominately in black.

Next we made our way by bus back to Chiang Mai. We had a day on our own where we explored and treated ourself to an amazing meal at David’s Kitchen while we anxiously awaited the arrival of some familiar faces from Victoria. It’s hard to describe the feeling of being away from Canada and our Victoria peeps for 8 months and then suddenly being with great friends in such a new and exciting place. The boys we so happy to see their friends (as were the adults!) and we really just picked up where we left off and set out exploring (& melting) together. We are so grateful to have such great friends who would actually want to travel so far to meet up with the likes of us – and they even delivered contact lenses and goldfish crackers!

Our guest house in Chiang Mai was just what we needed. Awana House was family friendly, centrally located in the quaint old town and had great tasting, freshly prepared and inexpensive food.
Day one included piling all 9 of us into a somewhat sketchy van and heading out to see the sites. We started the day’s adventure with a stop at an alligator farm where the kids delighted in feeding alligators chunks of chicken dangling from string tied to short makeshift fishing pole sticks. In hindsight, this was the typical tourist trap you would find in Orlando, which was overcrowded with pens of alligators, but still unique and interesting for the kids to experience. We did leave with a feeling of pity for all the animals, and a sunken bit of morality for ethical treatment of these beings. The locals justify such shows as jobs for people, but surely there must be a way to create a healthy ethical hybrid more in tune with nature?

Next we stopped off at the village of the long neck Karen people. There are only 500 long neck Karen left in Thailand and an additional 500 near the Myanmar border. This group starts placing heavy coils of brass rings on the females at age 6, and increases the ring coil numbers as well as the length of the neck over time. The brass rings are exceptionally heavy weighing in at 8 kilos in adulthood. There were samples of the actual rings for us to pick up and it was heavier than a human head. Imagine the weight of that around your elongated neck for life. It was difficult to think if the effects of this custom on the development of not only the neck but the entire spine. The original intent was to enhance beauty; more rings equals more beauty. Today, however, the husbands are typically only around for a few short years and then move on, leaving a village of woman with children. To survive they rely on sales of hand craft items. Each family had a kiosk of sorts where they displayed their beautiful hand crafted scarves, etc. We watched a young gal about 8 years of age harness into a hand made weaving apparatus sitting up with the weight of several rings on her neck. The Karen are very friendly and willing to chat about the rings and their customs. You can even pose for a picture with a set of ring coils which has been cut in half to fit onto the front part of your neck while the Karen ladies hold it in place with attached strings from behind your back – quite clever. There is a juxtaposition of century old tradition when a Karen walks by with a cell phone held to the ear above a set of 33 rings (the most rings we were able to count).
Despite seeing our fair share of temples while in Laos and Cambodia and Chiang Rai, we couldn’t leave without seeing at least one in Chiang Mai. So our last stop was a visit to Wat Doi Suthep. The temple sits atop Doi Suthep Mountain in a national park overlooking Chiang Mai. It is an important pilgrimage site and one of the holiest places of worship in all of Thailand.

By the time we were finished we were hot, tired and hungry so the day finished with a hunt for a restaurant our dear friend Gulnar had heard of. She was seeking the behind the scenes local food and the must have Khoa Soi dish. She had watched a YouTube video which highly recommend a local restaurant. We set off – with no defined address given in the video we were just looking for a green triangle roof, next to a yellow sign, somewhere near the locale of a “Blue Diamond” establishment.
Finally after several trips back and forth down 2-3 streets and finding a Blue Diamond hotel and restaurant we determined the place of the video was closed (& a bit sketchy looking) and settled for eating at the actual Blue Diamond. The food was amazing with many healthy choices! We were very impressed.

The next morning we had a prearranged all day cooking class for the whole group. An early 8am pick up, followed by a visit to the local market and we were off to the Zabbelee Cooking school, located at an organic farm about 35 minutes from the city. The farm was wonderful and the cooking facility modern, organized and spacious.
We all thoroughly enjoyed the full day of gathering ingredients, preparing and cooking many, many delicious Thai foods including spring rolls, cashew chicken, pad Thai, coconut soup, and several curries. We left with lots of great memories and recipes and hope to be able to reproduce these dishes when we get back to Canada. With full bellies we left the class heading back to our guest house for what was to be a relaxing evening by the pool….However….
Reece, our middle son, had been complaining of stomach aches off and on for about 3 weeks. This was accompanied by occasional nausea and vomiting. The symptoms would be short lived and inconsistent; feeling well one day then off the next and they seemed to coincide with when we started taking the anti malaria meds back in Vietnam in prep for our Cambodia and Laos rural adventures. We did some research and learned that it is not uncommon for these meds to cause stomach issues so we figured a bit of stomach upset is better than the risk of malaria and he would feel better once we were off the meds. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case. A few hours after the cooking class Reece’s stomach pains grew increasingly worse and became more localized to his lower right abdomen. A bit of googling and investigating with a rebound test told us it was likely his appendix and we were quickly off to the Chiang Mai RAM hospital. Thankfully our friends were still with us and we were able to leave the two other boys with them while we took Reece to emergency. We can’t speak highly enough about how wonderful the care was at this hospital. Ram hospital was a top notch, modern facility which was super clean, well staffed, and organized. We were seen almost immediately, assessed and tests ordered. Within one hour of our arrival we were speaking with a surgeon who thoroughly checked Reece out, ordered a CT scan and advised us an appendectomy was needed ASAP, just awaiting confirmation from CT results to make certain. Within 3 hours of our arrival Reece was in the OR and we were outside pacing and waiting. People have asked if we were scared and freaked out and, … yes of course we were! But because it all happened so fast – the tests, discussions, surgery prep – we didn’t have time to really let it all sink in until he was in the OR. Thankfully the surgery was completed in just over an hour and the surgeon greeted us, all smiles like a proud papa after delivery, and informed us all went well and even showed us the diseased appendix in a jar ?.

Reece was out of recovery by 2am and we were given a very nice, private room at the hospital where we took turns staying with him for his 5 night stay. We are so grateful for the care he received and the help from our friends. Considering the many places we have been on this trip we were extremely lucky the problem appendix went acute at this time and location.Recovering!
Throughout the entire hospital stay Reece was very brave and we are happy to report he is doing well more than 3 weeks later. Aside from now having a small scar and a good story to tell and having to rely on someone else to carry his backpack for 2 months, he is on the mend! Phew!!
Our original plan was to head to the beach in Phuket sooner but we (& our friends) changed plans and extended our stay in Chiang Mai by several days to allow time for Reece to rest and recoup. We rented a very nice Airbnb where we hung out by the pool and cooked some meals in. We also explored the city some more and discovered some more good eats! A great restaurant to check out in the Chiang Mai old quarter is Dash – amazing food, reasonable prices, live music and a great atmosphere. The boys were glad to have a few bonus days with their friends for sure!!
Months prior to arriving in Thailand we had prebooked tickets for both families to spend a day at an elephant encounter at a sanctuary in town. Unfortunately this was booked for the morning after Reece’s surgery so Reece and Steph stayed behind at the hospital for the first recovery day while David dragged himself off the parent floor mattress to get back to the hotel to accompany the others to the elephant encounter.
Soon we were surrounded by 500 dogs, 401 cats, 68 horses, loads of buffalo, and a bunch of elephants at the Elephant Nature Park. There were even 4 elephants who had stepped on land mines and were handicapped on one leg. We got to watch the elephants bathe, feed them and just spend time in their relaxing presence.

To escape the heat we also spent an afternoon Art in Paradise, an interactive 3D museum. We had lots of fun posing for silly and clever pics.
All good things must come to an end so we bid farewell to our friends and, with Reece given the ok to fly, headed to Phuket for phase 2 of our Thailand adventure.
Shortly after arrival we were joined by a second group of friends from Vancouver (this time delivering mascara and bit n bites among other things!) After stocking up on provisions we were ready to head out on a 2 week sailing adventure along the coast of Thailand. The original plan was to sail from Phuket to Langkawi, Malaysia but after issues with our first scheduled charter boat we were frantically scrambling to find a new boat to save the holiday. Somehow after 48 hours of emailing and messaging every online charter business in Phuket David managed to secure a 52 Harmony with 5 cabins and off we went. Unfortunately, this second boat also encountered mechanical issues (ahhh our boating friends – you will appreciate this) and after having sailed 8 hours away from Phuket, and spending the day waiting for the repair guys to arrive only to be able to pinpoint the problem but not fix anything, we had to turn back for yet another boat. In hindsight all things happen for a reason. Third time was a charm and then new boat – the 40 foot catamaran Jimmy Blue – was ideal for us and made up for all the hiccups in the beginning.

The following 10 days were truly wonderful. We had Captain Sam McCracken at the helm to keep us on course. Everyone pitched in making meals and drinks when on board and we spent many a memorable evening eating at various beach bars, feet in the sand, watching the sunset while the kids played with the local kids or built sand castle arenas for their hermit crabs. Highlights of our time on Jimmy Blue included night time movies projected on a big screen on the deck under the stars, rope swinging off the boom swung out to port, diving and snorkelling at various locations along the coast with some of the clearest waters and abundance of sea life we have seen in ages, and cave swimming.
Areas visited included:
Koh Yao Noi – amazing dinner and swim in the pool at the aptly named Paradise Resort
Phi Phi – diving and snorkeling near Maya Bay where the Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Beach was filmed
Koh Nok – fort building, hermit crab arenas and lots of relaxation
Koh Lanta – evening fun, dancing, eating, drinking and even a fire show at the famous Why Not Bar.
Koh Haa – more amazing diving, snorkeling and sunsets!
Koh Muk – visit the very cool Emerald Cave. We had to swim in 300 m in a partially lit tunnel, with one section of complete darkness. We got up extra early to be the first people to make footprints in this very special place. It was so worth it!
Koh Lipé – several days of more diving, snorkeling, beach bars and the epic Songkran Festival. Songkran is Thailand’s most famous festival and an important event in the Buddhist calendar that marks the beginning of the traditional Thai new year. It takes place every April and is dubbed the world’s best water fight. Captain Sam said it was not to be missed so he went ashore to arm our group with huge water guns while we did some more fantastic snorkeling at Koh Asun, an island just off the beach.
Armed with our monster water guns and adorning our team outfit of matching Babin World Tour shirts, (compliments of PF) we hit the party. What a blast! The kids said it was like being in a live action interactive video game. People all through town are painting each other and soaking passerby’s with buckets of water, hoses, guns, and the die hards even add ice to their water buckets for that extra special shock surprise. We were so lucky to be here at this special time where the Thai people celebrate the new year. We had loads of laughs and came back to the boat thoroughly soaked!

Thailand was full of highs and lows and memories to last a lifetime. We hope to be back someday.
Thanks again to all who came to join us. It wouldn’t have been the same without you!
Next stop….Malaysia!
With Love,
The Travelling Babins
Life is a great adventure or nothing – Helen Keller
