14-16.02 Day 30-32 Chiang Mai
Day 30-32 - Wednesday 14th - Friday 16th February - Chiang Mai
My sickness suffers a bit of a relapse and I spend most of the day on Sienna’s bed in the smaller of the two connecting rooms. Kate incentivises some school work with dips in the pool and treasure hunts in the ambiguously named Gallery. The main highlight of this small room for the kids are the free Mentos on offer.
For lunch I point them to a little old lady who does boiled chicken or fried chicken with rice. Not extensive, but it is tasty and their recommendation sends me there for dinner takeaway.
End of Wednesday, still no Vietnam visa in our Inbox.
Thursday, Kate and I switch roles. Kate is now really suffering from whatever it is we’ve caught. Even though I feel better my stomach is uncertain so we’ve not even eaten properly. The kids though are very happy at the buffet breakfast, gorging for four mornings on cornflakes.
The morning is again spent on schoolwork, which for Seb especially requires enough attention from an adult that multitasking is off the cards. Not helped by the fact that Seb feels hard done by because most of his work is pen and paper based, whilst Sienna can do large elements on the iPad.
All that’s forgotten though, larking about in the pool for the afternoon making up games using our one ball (thanks Arlo), some Lego men and flip flops as rafts. No one else is using the pool. Lunch and dinner are both under 100 metres away from the complex, the lack of distance reflective of the abundance of single person street carts or kitchens at the front of their house.
Seb is always hot. And that’s not helped when his thick hair grows, so I take him to a local barber, where he sits in nervous silence as he receives an 80 baht trim ($3.40). I also go under the trimmer, having him also trim my out of control beard.
Checking the website late Thursday and we breathe a sigh of relief as all the Vietnam visas have come through. That draws to a closure all the “What If’ scenarios we’d been musing and makes for a better Friday with that looming shadow removed.
Friday morning is spent almost finishing the week's schoolwork with Kate still bedridden. The kids and I go back to ‘the chicken lady’ for lunch after she was closed yesterday - many places close on a, to us, random day of the week. Which means on the plus side there’s lots open everyday, but check ahead if you want to go to a specific place on a specific day. A bakery round the corner, built in the outhouse of a smart looking residence turns up some beautiful sourdough rolls and apple pastries along with our favoured Singha Lemon Soda. First crunchy bread in a month.
After a few more hours in the pool, the kids and I venture more than 100 metres and have cheap rice and noodles at a small roadside cafe. This road has a continued hum of young scooter drivers zipping up and down, as one of the faculties of Chiang Mai University is located nearby. Which also means we’re surrounded by students as we order a filled sweet pancake for the kids dessert. This is topped off by a mango yoghurt ice cream from Penguin Knight for me on the way home. Kate is unmoved in bed throughout.
