UPDATE (7:30 pm): I added a few more “Ting Tong” pictures, starting here.
We just took our first real family vacation up to a place called Pai. It’s a small town about 3 hours north of us that, for some reason, is a tourist destination. Pai is a laid back, one-traffic-light town nestled between the Pai River and the hills of Maehongson. The town itself is not much to look at. As is true of most tourist towns in Thailand, every shop is either a restaurant, a tourist agency, an internet cafe, a guesthouse, or, more likely, some combination of the four; most people speak English – possibly more so than in Chiang Mai; and while it’s easy to find foreign food, it’s very difficult to find Thai food at the standard 20 Baht per plate.
When we got there, after we had found a guest house and got settled, we walked around the town a little, found some place to eat, tried to plan the next day a little, then went back and played a little Mexican Train dominoes before going to bed. The next day after breakfast, we drove out to find some elephants to ride (after having determined that the bamboo rafts were too expensive, and everything was too expensive if we went with a tour package). On the road we were on it turns out there are like 10 elephant camps all next door to each other.
The kids, of course, were scared of the elephants, but had no problems once they’d been on for a little bit (except Isaac – he was fascinated the whole time). We paid for a half hour ride and split up onto three elephants. Except for Cindy, Isaac, and Sandra, who opted to stay dry, our elephants went down to the river and “played in the water”. That means they sprayed us, sat down in the river with us on, and then stood up and shook us off their backs. The best part was when our driver asked if we were ready to play in the river, and I looked down to see brown grapefruits floating away from the elephant in front of us.
Yeah, try not to think about it.
We tried to find a waterfall after that, but the road that the signs led us to was small and muddy. The third time our truck slipped, I remembered getting stuck in the mud on the way to Prang’s village, regretted not having four-wheel drive, and decided to turn around. Instead, we went back into town and found some bikes to rent. Nobody had a seat that Isaac could use, so we just rented 6 bikes for 300 Baht per day (total). Cindy took the kids on the first ride around the town while I took Isaac back to the resort and enjoyed the view while reading 1984. When she got back, I took the kids up the hills and around the valley. They got tired fast and said my way was a lot harder than Cindy’s. I said, “Mom took you on the easy route. I’m taking you on the normal route.”
As my dad mentioned, my family used to go on camping trips a lot when I was a kid (we went once a month, every month, for like 10 years – how could I forget?). Not “roughing it” trips, mind you, but we’d go out to RV parks, play horseshoes and board games, visit beaches, go hiking, and bike up and down whatever trails we found. In a lot of ways, this trip was similar to those. Except this time I got to be in front of the bike caravan, waiting at the top of each hill for my kids to catch up, and I realized something: all those years I thought my dad was super-strong and never got tired no matter how hard we biked. It turns out that he just got to rest more by getting to the hilltops first ;-)
After that, we went to visit a hot spring. We didn’t really know what to expect, so we had our bathing suits and towels with us. We followed the trail all the way up to the springs where the ground and grass was steaming and smelled like boiled eggs, and then back down, wondering if there were a place where we could get in. We finally found it – some rocks had been shored up to create a miniature “mineral bath”. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to avail myself of a hot tub, so this was fun.
That night we wanted to go some place special for dinner, but “special” means something different to each of us. We found a decent burger place that all the Americans were excited about. Next door was a fairly standard noodle shop, the kind of which there are hundreds within a few kilometers of our home. We translated the menu for the Thai kids and asked them what they wanted. Each one of them said, “Can I have noodles?” Instead we went to find a shop that sold foreign food and Thai food – which meant the foreign food wasn’t as good, but at least everyone was happy.
The next day we rode the bikes around some more before we left. Cindy and I never really knew what we were going to do at any given time, but everyone had fun and said they didn’t want to go back home (even though they’re all on break). I’d say that was a success. Maybe we’ll come back next year. In April, though, Pan mentioned that she would like to see the ocean. I think that’s exactly what we’ll do.
You can find a bunch more pictures here.
