Travel with kids – You Can With Kids

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

08/03/2018 Mel Comments 0 Comment

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…

Read More Read More

Tiny hole in the ground with a man standing in it

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

07/03/2018 Mel Comments 0 Comment

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…

Read More Read More

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

06/03/2018 Mel Comments 0 Comment

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…

Read More Read More

Sticky Waterfalls, Chiang Mai (Bua Thong Waterfalls)

28/02/2018 Mel Comments 2 Comments

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…

Read More Read More

Chiang Rai Balloon Festival 2018

20/02/2018 Mel Comments 0 Comment

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…

Read More Read More

Hidden Village Dinosaur Park, Chiang Mai

02/02/2018 Mel Comments 0 Comment

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…

Read More Read More

Elephant Jungle Sanctuary

08/12/2017 Mel Comments 0 Comment

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…

Read More Read More

Giant Buddha statue at the 9 tier temple

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

06/12/2017 Mel Comments 0 Comment

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…

Read More Read More

The Blue Temple Chiang Rai (Wat Rong Sear Tean)

01/12/2017 Mel Comments 0 Comment

The Blue Temple Chiang Rai is beautiful. It’s also quick and easy to visit – you can drive straight up to the temple, pop in and pop out. I’d definitely recommend adding it to your itinerary. Blue temple history This temple was built by the villagers. Construction began in 2005 and was completed in 2016. Prior to this, there had been a ruin of an older temple on the site for 80-100 years. The Blue Temple is named after the…

Read More Read More

Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Chiang Rai (Wat Phra Kaeo)

28/11/2017 Mel Comments 0 Comment

Next stop on our tour of Chiang Rai was the original Temple of the Emerald Buddha. History of the Emerald Buddha The first references to the Emerald Buddha come from 1434. The story goes that when lightening struck a building in the Wat Pa Yia monastary in Chiang Rai, they found a Buddha covered in stucco. The abbot realised that the stucco was peeling off, revealing a green stone beneath. When the stucco was removed, they found a Buddha carved…

Read More Read More