Today we visited one of Chiang Mai’s fantastic Saturday Markets – Nana Jungle Market. Nestled into trees on the edge of Chang Phueak, it’s a beautiful, secluded spot for a market. As you drive up, you pass lakes, streams and rice paddies. The mountains of the Doi Suthep National Park can be seen in the distance. The market itself is nestled into a wood. There’s a great variety of interesting, high quality stalls there – clothes, bread, food, crafts, coffee….
Yesterday we went into Chiang Mai old town and happened across ‘Vegan Heaven’. Although we’re not Vegan, we do like the food, so thought we’d try it. Vegan Heaven restaraunt, Chiang Mai old town The restaraunt was nice, although it was definitely aimed at proper vegans, not wannabes like us. It had lots of quotes from famous vegans on the walls. I’m sure they would have been very inspiring for actual vegans, but they just served to make us feel…
Since Jack turned 2 he’s been really interested in videos on my phone. Little narcissist that he is, his favourite videos are always of himself playing. If we’re out and about then we can often forestall the grizzles by watching videos of old trips. It works out quite well – it’s an incentive for me to video interesting things because I know that they’ll be useful for him later on. However, it seems to have created a problem that he…
We seem to be doing a lot of lunches out this week! This one wasn’t planned, but turned out pretty well – the Black Canyon Coffee shop near the Tesco Lotus (San Sai district, Chiang Mai). It started as a bit of bad parenting on our parts (!). We decided to go out at snack time. I promised Jack that I’d bring some rice cakes for him in the car, and then promptly forgot in all the hustle and bustle…
We’ve been a bit lazy with our lunches recently (the restaurant in our complex is good, cheap and they speak English). We decided to be a bit more adventurous and take the boys out to a Korean BBQ. Korean BBQ For those who don’t know, Korean BBQ invoves buying your meat raw. You then BBQ it yourself on a hot plate in front of you. When you arrive they come and take the cover off the centre of the table….
Yesterday we went to the Waterpark in the Grand Canyon Chiang Mai. I can honestly say that it was one of the most fun places I’ve visited in a long time! Awesomeness for kids rating: Gold Top tips Go in the afternoon if you want some shade in the kids pools (you won’t be able to get any shade in the main pool at any time of day) Don’t bring food and drink – you can’t take it into the…
We’ve been in Chiang Mai for nearly 3 weeks now. We’ve rented a house and a car, hired a nanny and figured out where to buy the basics. It feels like we’re in a strange phase between complete newbie and cool, collected resident. We thought we’d share our musings on weird and wonderful Chiang Mai before it all feels like the norm. 1. Strange utensils Thai’s seem to love their gadgets and utensils. There seem to be whole aisles devoted…
After the millionth time Jack begged me to read him ‘the crocodile book’ (aka Roald Dahl’s ‘The Enormous Crocodile’) I gave in. He was probably just under 2 at the time. I quickly realised that the storytelling power of this book shines through…even when you have to miss out sections because your impatient toddler wants to get to the ‘BANG’. So here it is, The Enormous Crocodile: abridged. Roald Dahl’s ‘The Enormous Crocodile’ abridged for 2 year olds Spread 1…
We’ve now been in Thailand for around 10 days and what a whirlwind it’s been! It’s tough enough for the adults, but living abroad will always pose challenges for children too. Here’s how my boys have coped with the move and what we’ve done to help them. Flying with children We did a 12 hour flight to Bangkok, leaving at 12.30. We generally find flying with children to be completely fine (it’s mostly a case of entertaining them and helping…
Initially we booked an airbnb for 10 days near the MAYA shopping mall (pronounced may-ah) and Chiang Mai old town. We used this time to find a house. If you’re planning to visit Chiang Mai, I’d definitely recommend this area – it’s loads of fun. The shopping centre itself is great. My favourite shop is ‘Moshi Moshi’. Full of quirky, fun, well designed housewares at Thai prices – you can’t really go wrong. You can get your bubble tea or…