Wir gehen auf Reise!

It’s a bit weird reflecting now on Chiang Mai- a place we expected to be somewhere we might be able to stay for an extended period- and writing the two most extensive pieces on places we visited that were a fair way outside its city limits. This details a trip we took when we hired a car and headed south- towards Thailand’s biggest mountain, Doi Inthanon. Firstly, the drive itself was fairly relaxing- we seemed to get out of Chiang Mai’s infamous traffic fairly quickly- after first taking a wrong turn and ending up driving into a “restricted” area (so restricted that half of Chiang Mai was using it as a shortcut) much to Ilka’s disbelief. We ended up following a ring road alongside the mountains that border the west of Chiang Mai- with picturesque rice fields sitting before them. We followed the turn-off towards the mountain, which was dotted with various other attractions- which given that we had precious little idea of exactly how attractive they were- we basically had...

In certain areas of Thailand you can't avoid the tour-hype: there are apparently certain things that you "have" to do when you visit certain places. Normally, without being too cynical, it isn't easy to judge which of these "must-see" things are really worth it, or at all suitable, depending on what sort of tourist you are, and which are simply hype. This is normally made harder by the fact that you are only in said place for a limited amount of time, and are not likely to be back there again (and so have the opportunity to do it again) soon. So it was (is) for us and attractions in Chiang Mai- one of which is the elephants. Now I figure that there must be other places to see elephants- we saw them on Ko Samui, for crying out loud- but Chiang Mai has more elephant reserves/farms/home/camp/condos than you can poke a stick at. And there are enough reviews on the web to convince you pretty quickly that visiting one is THE BEST EXPERIENCE I HAD WHILE I WAS IN ...

Ursprünglich hatten wir geplant einen oder anderthalb  Monate im Süden an den Stränden zu verbringen und uns dann in den Norden zu begeben, wo wir für die restliche Zeit ein Haus suchen, damit es für die Kinder nicht zu viel wird. Wir dachten Chiang Mai sei der richtige Ort, da es als Stadt so viel zu bieten hat, landschaftlich schön gelegen ist und man nur Gutes über diese Stadt hört und liest. Außerdem soll es dort Häuser wie Sand am Meer geben und diese auch dazu noch günstig. Nachdem unsere Haussuche auf Koh Phangan so easy verlaufen ist: Tom hat sich ein Auto gemietet und ist damit 3 Stunden durch die Gegend gefahren und hatte danach vier Häuser am Start, die alle zwar nicht perfekt waren, aber gut genug um einen Monat auf der Insel zu verbringen. Den nächsten Tag haben die Kinder und ich dann eins der vier Häuser ausgewählt und wir sind zwei Tage später eingezogen. Mit dieser Erfahrung sind wir nach Chiang Mai und haben uns über diverse Facebook-Gruppen beraten...