Spring Break in Thailand

For those of you following our blog you know as a family we have gone to Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand since arriving in Singapore about 1.5 years ago. For Spring Break, we decided it was time to see more of the "real" Asia, so we booked a trip to Thailand. This is not always an easy prospect - because while the Thai people tend to be peaceful there have been many government protests in and around Bangkok since we have been in Singapore. As a result, we decided to set our sights on Chiang Mai in the North and Phuket in the South. You can see from the map at left the location of both cities in Thailand and its proximity to Singapore.

We started in Chiang Mai which is the largest and most culturally significant city in Northern Thailand. The city was founded in 1296 and is home to many temples and has a vibrant art community. We stayed in a quaint hotel near the river in a residential neighborhood and spent the three days doning a number of things we had not done before. The first day we took a tour guide and went to see a number of temples. The first one was called Wat Phrathat Doi Sutep which is the city's most famous temple, was built in 1383 and sits atop a hill overlooking the city. It was a very pretty temple with more Buddha's than could be counted. Below are some pictures taken in and around the temple ...

After a long day seeing temples (with only a minor amount of complaining from the kids) we decided to go out to grab a bite to eat. We hired a cab on the way to the restaurant, but on the way back we got adventurous and hailed a tuk-tuk. For those of you who are unfamiliar with a tuk-tuk, it is a common mode of transportation in Asia. See picture below...

As you can imagine, it is not the safest mode of transportation in the world and I beleive at one point Jo Ann said we were bad parents for taking our kids in one of these, but you know what they say about When in Rome...