June 24 - Off to Chiang Mai

Before we check out and get out Geoff takes this picture of Lake Phayao from our hotel.


I've gotten up VERY early to get things packed before we need to deal with the kids. I also intend on getting a HOT shower before the rest of the hotel wakes up :o) We get downstairs to try and rush through the hotel breakfast... turns out that Nui and their van of 5 plus driver are running late. Cool.

First, drive through town and by the beautiful lake. Next, we go see Nui's family's property. HUGE! They're having a house built. Next time we visit we'll stay at the house instead of Thaksin's room.



Next we check out a beautiful waterfall.


After stopping for lunch at a great restaurant(also featuring a waterfall) we go for elephant rides! Geoff's elephant spends lots of time eating... which leads to other elephant activity. The kids were amused. It wasn't long before Cam would be squeeling, "e-fant POOP! e-fant POOP!". The waterfall of pee just stunned everyone into silence...



The elephant ride rocks both Cam and Ronan to sleep...


Next we got to the hot springs for a mineral bath.


Then the icing on the cake... Nui's parents treat us to a show at Khum Kantoke. It was a sort of cultural dinner theater on steroids. Outside the theater are beautiful young ladies in traditional costume playing traditional instruments, making garlands of jasmine, and carving fruit into ornate shapes. Inside we sit down to an all-u-can-eat, northern style, kantoke meal (which again was not good for my waistline). Then the show! It featured daces from all the different regions of Thailand. Cam was entranced by the whole thing.










After the indoor show we all head over to the shoe racks to get our shoes and go out front of the theater to watch the "balloon" release. Nui tells us that with prayer, the balloons will take our problems away as they float away. We ask Nui if they can get more balloons.

So we have a LATE night check in at BaanKlangDoi. It's dark so we can't see the outside. But inside it's a beautiful traditional Thai house. All wood, high ceilings... 3 bedrooms and a main center room. The bedrooms are air conditioned! But, we notice that the showers utilize the same water heater units we encountered at Tita Oyen's place in Sorsogon. We hope that once morning comes, we have better luck figuring out how to work the water heaters at this house. :o)