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Author: Mel

Lovely creature: the downside of sending your child to a Buddhist school

Lovely creature: the downside of sending your child to a Buddhist school

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While living in Chiang Mai, Thailand, we’ve been sending our son to a Thai school. Like many schools in Thailand, this one works on Buddhist values with the children. Our son’s been learning mindfulness and love of creatures. This love of animals is something we try to do at home as well. A lifelong arachnophobe, I’ve had to get over my initial reaction to spiders (“KILL THEM, KILL THEM. AND IF YOU CAN’T KILL THEM BURN THE HOUSE TO THE…

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Snake in the garden!

Snake in the garden!

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I’ve been in Thailand for nearly 6 months now, and am starting to feel very comfortable here. However, the feeling of being very far from home never quite goes away. Sometimes it’s distant, other times it hits me without notice. Coming back from Vietnam and finding a 2m long snake in our garden was one of those times. Karl was out of the house and the kids were asleep, so I was alone. I saw a cat coming into our…

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Suoi Tien theme park Entrance
Suoi Tien Theme Park – day trip from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Saigon)

Suoi Tien Theme Park – day trip from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Saigon)

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We love theme parks, so couldn’t resist visiting Ho Chi Minh City’s Buddhist themed Suoi Tien Theme Park. Suoi Tien gets mixed reviews on Trip Advisor – some love it and others say it’s old and uninteresting. In the end our curiosity won out. Suoi Tien Theme Park As soon as you arrive you’re met with dragons, Buddha, huge frogs with lucky coins in their mouths, tusks (models), lotus flowers and more. You’re immersed in Eastern design and artwork. Walkways…

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Tiny hole in the ground with a man standing in it
Cu Chi tunnels with kids (near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)

Cu Chi tunnels with kids (near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)

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The Cu Chi tunnels are a network of underground tunnels that the Viet Cong used during the Vietnam war with America. There are over 200,000km of underground tunnels and the Vietnamese lived in them for 19 years during the war. The tunnels were on 3 levels – around 1m underground, 4m underground and 8 m underground. We visited the Cu Chi tunnels with kids (1 and 3). Its definitely doable with little ones, although actually going into the tunnels with…

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Row boat on Mekong river
Mekong Delta tour with kids (near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)

Mekong Delta tour with kids (near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)

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Today we visited the Mekong Delta. The Mekong Delta is absolutely massive – look it up on Google maps and you’ll see what I mean. It spans most of South Vietnam. It’s around 1.5 hour drive from Ho Chi Minh city to the closest part of the Delta, which is where most day trips from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) go. We went with Candy Travel on a private tour. There were cheaper group tours, but with 2 little ones who…

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Sticky Waterfall, Chiang Mai
Sticky Waterfalls, Chiang Mai (Bua Thong Waterfalls)

Sticky Waterfalls, Chiang Mai (Bua Thong Waterfalls)

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Today we visited the Bua Thong Sticky Waterfall (Nam Phu Chet Si). We visited the Mae Sa waterfall a couple of weeks ago, which was a big hit with Jack. He turned 3 today. What better birthday present than a family trip to another Chiang Mai waterfall? The Bua Tong waterfalls are called ‘Sticky’ because you can walk up them. And yes, when I say ‘walk up them’ I do mean like Tom Cruise climbing up the wall in Ghost…

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Chiang Rai Balloon Festival 2018

Chiang Rai Balloon Festival 2018

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We decided last minute to go to the Chiang Rai balloon festival, held in the Singha park. Chiang Rai is about a 3 hour drive North of Chiang Mai, through several national parks (Si Lanna, Doi Luang, Khun Chae). It’s a lovely drive through rural, wild, green vegetation interspersed with little Thai towns and markets. Getting to the balloon festival The festival started at 4pm. We arrived early and there wasn’t much open, which we should’ve known – nothing happens…

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Hidden Village Chiang Mai
Hidden Village Dinosaur Park, Chiang Mai

Hidden Village Dinosaur Park, Chiang Mai

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We found out from our Thai nanny about the new Hidden Village dinosaur park in Chiang Mai. With a 3 year old boy there was really no question of whether or not we’d go. There’s a pretty spacious car park in front, with cows grazing in the field opposite. After a few minutes of convincing Jack that the park would also be as fun as watching the cows, we entered. Admission fee for Hidden Village was 200 baht per adult…

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Elephant Jungle Sanctuary Chiang Mai
Elephant Jungle Sanctuary

Elephant Jungle Sanctuary

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Our nearly 3 year old, Jack, loves animals so it was a no brainer to go to an Elephant sanctuary. There are many ways to see Elephants in Thailand, but some are less ethical than others. It’s common to people riding elephants in Thailand (we saw some on our drive out), but thankfully now Thai tourism is turning away from such practices. I’ll go into detail a little later about the history of elephants in Thailand. We opted for a…

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Giant Buddha statue at the 9 tier temple
9 Tier temple and Giant Buddha Chiang Rai (Wat Huai Pla Kung)

9 Tier temple and Giant Buddha Chiang Rai (Wat Huai Pla Kung)

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 This temple’s a little off the beaten path, so it’s not as common a tourist destination. However, it’s worth going to see both for the temple itself and the beautiful drive through scenic Thailand. It’s located North East of Chiang Rai city centre, around a half hour drive. There’s a few things to see within the temple complex – the temple itself, a white temple that’s currently under construction and the most enormous Buddha statue I’ve ever seen. Seriously, you…

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