Kate's Thoughts

Airports

I know we fly economy and I know it was with no frills Scoot, but could they not have a better system for checking in? Having just packed up and left our home for 12 months, leaving Dexter and Pickles behind (that was planned, but still) we are all a little on edge arriving at the airport. We walk into the departure lounge and almost bump into our queue which is basically winding back to the doorway. A mere 90 mins later and we are checked in. The young and fit are thinking that's nothing. Now imagine doing it with two kids that are very aware we are in a queue, yet still have to ask how much longer and state how tired / hungry / bored they are approximately every minute.

I know I should count my lucky stars, I have two of the best behaved kids (some of the time) and they are just sharing their feelings. I could have easily got my phone out and distracted them, but with 12 months ahead of us I had to look like I was going to try at least to start with.

Finally at the front of the queue and the guessing game can start of which desk we will get to go to and hurrah someone wins and we are so excited to make it we all high five the check in assistant, me going first.

The rest of the hanging around at the airport seems a breeze in comparison. Perhaps it’s the Brit in me….I don’t mind queuing. Australian born kids not so much.

Flight

Ha, we’ve beat the system we think smiling to ourselves. Why doesn’t everyone always do this? We saved a night's accommodation by having an overnight flight. Brilliant. What could go wrong? Oh yeah the kids.

Flight seats were 3, 3, 3. Somehow I ended up with the kids and Matt solo on the other side of the aisle. I think he was snoring before they’d even closed the doors on the plane. With no distractions (TV, food, drinks, seats - no wait we did have a seat with Scoot) I thought sleep would find us all easily. I forgot how the kids can actually work together when it suits them tag teaming when to fidget, disturb me or ask me something.

But who needs sleep, we are on holiday for a year and we can catch up anytime we want.

Tourist Police

I’ll be honest, I thought they were there to arrest me for being so white in a foreign country and still not being able to pronounce thank you in Thai after 6 days here. But they were actually there to prevent us tourists being hassled by locals.

So far though it’s actually been fine. Yes of course locals are trying to drum up business off tourists slowing down and asking us if we need tuk tuk / ride somewhere, do I want to buy some flowers etc. But with a decisive ‘we’re ok thanks’ they accept that and move on.

Seb somehow has ‘superstar’ status. Before coming I honestly thought Sienna would be the main attraction. Tall, curly blonde hair and big blue eyes. But alas the sweaty, energetic squawking Seb always in a football top is far more the spectacle. Most locals like to touch his shoulder, get a thumbs up or wave and it brings them the biggest smile across their faces. At the bus station he even did a short secret handshake routine with a taxi driver as if he’d met him a few times. Thankfully Seb is open to this kind of attention and doesn’t mind playing to the crowds. It’s harmless fun, clearly bringing joy to some locals. So I’m grateful he feels comfortable to engage.

I rub his shoulder occasionally to see if it brings me luck, but he must be saving it for the locals.

Flowers

What surprised me about Thailand is the copious amounts of flowers and well maintained plants / gardens everywhere. Even in the small street alleys, there are plants galore. And such beautiful colours that really stand out. Every morning we see people watering their plants with such pride.

I keep wanting to take photos, thinking I could replicate that back home. Then I remember I am just shy of a year before being home and I kill most plants just by sitting near them. It wouldn’t be kind to nature if I tried.

7/11

Such a saver to the common tourist. My ‘Travelling Thailand’ FB group often mentions ‘you can get that at a 7/11 and they are everywhere’. And well it’s true. What they didn’t mention was how amazing the aircon was in 7/11’s. It’s on par with Lilyfield IGA. When in Bangkok you can almost see the next 7/11 before leaving the last one.

We made good use of the aircon numerous times, each time grabbing a small snack or cold drink to keep us going. I’d highly recommend the wafer cream biscuits at 6 Baht for 6 biscuits. Or the chocolate milk in a carton for 12 Bahts for the kids.

We are currently trying out the infamous ‘pink bottle’ mozzie repellent. FB tells me it’s the only one that works. Generally we have found our Aerogaurd from Sydney to work when we remember to put it on. Annoyingly we remember when we start itching after the first bite, which is inevitably too late.

7/11 staff also saved me when Matt was sleeping off a migraine and I had to feed the kids. We managed to find some pot noodles which google translate told me they were minced pork flavour. Then Sienna told me it had English on the back of the tub (doh!). Anyway I then buy the pots and with my biggest smile and clueless face I ask about hot water and perhaps it was because lucky Seb was with me looking particularly neglected, but the shop assistant took us off to the back of the shop next to the ice machines to help us open and fill our pots with hot water. She even professionally stabbed the fork in the side of the lid to keep it shut, whilst it ‘cooked’. And gave us special thin tall bags to carry pot noodles (and I later found out ice drinks) so you don’t get hot hands.

The only thing missing was somewhere to perch, so like true homeless lost tourists we sat outside on the curb, where a young boy found us and kept asking for high fives (the Seb effect is strong).

Food

It’s almost easier for me to eat when travelling with the kids as I can just share their ‘non spicy’ food and Matt can experiment to his heart’s content. I mean 9 days in and I’m basically living off fried rice and pork, but I’ve given up wine (OK it’s really hard to find here) and drinking plenty of water so I feel like I’m winning.

Seb is game to try most things and will generally eat most things. However he does play off of Sienna. So it’s almost easier if he goes first to get his honest opinion before he is reciting Sienna’s sentiments towards the latest dish word for word.

We found some crisps that Sienna likes (from your trusted local 7/11) that literally taste like McDonalds tomato sauce. That has one of her five a day covered right? There is a picture of a tomato on the front of the packet, so it must.

So far we’ve not had any major mishaps with the food, the majority of menus have English and most people know what we are after - the plain white people food. And do you know what, I’m OK with that label. I mean I didn’t even eat rice until I was in my twenties. I’m catching up on missed rice years.

First world problems - pillows

I may turn into one of those annoying travellers that always carries a pillow with them. In my defence I do have a bad neck and in the luxury of my own home I have a memory foam chiropractor recommended pillow. It’s heaven, and it’s not something I thought I’d ever say but I currently miss it more than the dogs.

Perhaps with time on a different pillow I could get used to a different type, but when you only have 2-3 nights I feel like I am speed dating pillows and not finding the right one. I mean the pillow I had for the last two nights must have weighed about 5kgs. It was firm and bursting out of the case. My ear still hurts from being squashed against it. And now tonight my pillow looks like a pancake. I can feel my neck groaning at the thought.

I can only think of a few solutions…..buy a pillow and be that person, keep using towels to prop my neck up, get a neck massage daily for 200 baht instead of eating dinner (money is tight with travelling for a year) or the speed dating solution get blindly drunk and just suck it up. I am assuming that’s how speed dating works, I’ve never tried nor hope to.

Ants

We have bins in our rooms and I am meticulous about getting all food scraps and crumbs into the bin. Why is it that ants don’t find the bin, but find the one crumb I missed? Surely they could save themselves some hunting time by just hanging out near the bin, knowing that at some point it will be filled with some leftover food. Instead they walk tirelessly around the entire room and somehow stumble across the one crumb that didn’t make it into the bin. Then within minutes they’ve invited all their friends and they are having a party over this one crumb. Where were the friends hanging out whilst waiting for the hunter to haphazardly find some food? Clearly nowhere near the bin filled with leftover crumbs.

I know they are harmless, but you see more than 10 and suddenly you feel outnumbered and over taken by an ant army. You start questioning if you can win the battle or do you need to get reinforcements.

In one place they were addicted to our toothpaste, especially the kids, which makes me think they have sugar toothpaste - slightly counter intuitive. And ants didn’t strike me as being big on dental hygiene. Guess you learn something new everyday.

Eating habits

Something I have said more than I thought I would these travels so far is ‘stop eating like a squirrel’ - you know that famous saying. I’m likely insulting every squirrel ever born (sorry squirrel world), but I imagine they eat like my kids. I give them a simple Jatz crack (my kids not the squirrels) and OK, probably too big for a kid to eat in one go, but one bite then finished should be the usual drill. Somehow the kids manage to take 15 bites of this cracker, by which time half of it is being devoured by an ant party at their feet. They deliberately try to take as many ‘squirrel’ type bites as they can as if it’s a competition and they are training for the Guiness Book of World Records - entering under either most number of bites to eat a cracker or biggest mess made whilst eating a cracker.

I’m also amazed they still have fingers (again the kids not the squirrels) as the kids love touching their food with as much of their fingers and hands as possible. A simple cracker you would think would take just a finger and thumb to hold securely whilst taking that first bite before putting the rest in your mouth. Sienna somehow manages to hold one cracker with all fingers and thumbs on it and still take 15 bites of it. Seb goes caveman style and holds his food in his fist and bites off the top like a real man.

Blog writing

So people have been asking why I am lazy and not writing anything. Well let me tell you it takes a village to raise a child and a family to write a blog. Whilst it seems Matt and the kids are doing all the work I squirrel away in the background staying out of the limelight. Seb needs one-on-one undivided attention to write his one page. Sienna can do hers independently, but only if Seb doesn’t realise she is on a screen, else then Seb wants to be on a screen. Matt writes in a notebook first so he can do it in bed, on the train / bus or even with a beer sitting on a verandah or rooftop depending on the hostel (at this point I am entertaining the kids). He or I then types it up onto the computer, usually in the evening once the kids are in bed (Seb asleep and Sienna reading). And then Matt adds photos and finally it gets posted.

So although I am not actually stringing words together I contribute to all the blogs in different (but as important) ways.

Chiang Mai Flower Festival

Wow wow wow wow wow. Utterly amazing. I don’t tend to read travel guides, I’ve joined a few FB groups for Thailand  / Vietnam and Family Travellers which gives me some tips, but I generally rely on Matt picking out things to do. When he mentioned we’d book Chiang Mai for some flower festival I thought well that would be nice I’m sure to see a few flowers. Little did I know (another reason I claim for not reading guide books is it’s all a complete surprise and usually a good surprise) this was a huge event. Just the park alone was amazing with so many flowers. They had grouped them so there was a seabed (I know I should say flowerbed, but it was such a big area of just one plant seabed fits better) of Tulips, a seabed of Lily's, a seabed of Sunflowers etc etc. And these seabeds were in immaculate condition, nothing wilting, nothing dead, no brown leaves in sight, just beautiful seabeds of colour. The orchids were spectacular. All I remember of orchids is my nan asking us grand kids not to get her one as she struggles to grow them. I figured that means they are super tricky to look after. But here it seems they grow like weeds! So many everywhere and in a wide variety of colours. Flowers were not only growing in flower beds in the park, but arrangements had been brought in, archways, smoking water features, pergolas, flowers in pots etc. There were also light arrangements set up, but not on when I first walked through the park. So after thinking all the flowers in Thailand had been shipped into this park for this one festival we headed out to find the parade.

The parade consisted of ~20 floats, which were meticulously decorated with individual flowers. To be fair it wasn’t until after the floats had parked up for people to walk around closely did I fully appreciate the detail and effort involved. Each flower head had been pinned to a polystyrene board either with a dressmaking pin or a wooden toothpick. I also noticed a fair amount of glue gun usage. Some sections of the floats had sesamee seeds and or rice stuck on and painted, or dried sweetcorn as a decorative trim. I’d say 95% of the flowers were fresh (some had cheated with some fake additions) but that was rare. All were in perfect bloom, none brown or wilting. The manpower to decorate the floats ready for the parade must have been huge. The floats were part of a competition and then off to the side there were other competitions for best bonzai tree and best orchid display all set out beautifully ready for the judges.

Anyway, all I want to say is wow, and if you happen to be going to Chiang Mai, try to time it with the flower festival.