Resting Place

When Tom and I travel on our sabbatical we are the first to say that this is not really a vacation. We have always enjoyed taking the roads less travelled and visiting the places that are off the beaten path. Places that most people haven't even heard of let alone travel too.  And, they are not always the easiest places to reach either. We live in the moment, meander as our heart desires and then move on as we feel led. We usually stay in the more remote areas and enjoy living life differently than we usually do. We love learning about the history of the places we are in and then getting immersed in the culture and everyday life. We live life intentionally and find we learn a lot, mostly  about ourselves during these travels.  We are now in Chiang Mai and have decided to stay a few extra days. We are taking a vacation from our sabbatical.  We are resting.

We have have an intense year of travel. Our month in the DRCongo, although incredibly beautiful was intensely hard. We lived in the villages and worked very hard during our six weeks of travel through the Fijian and  Solomon Islands.  We have found  Chiang Mai to be an easy place.  And right now easy is just what we need. This place reminds us of Chiana, Crete and has the feel of a small coastal town. It is off season so life moves pretty easy around here. We have had the opportunity to stay in a four star hotel for a mere $38.00 a night. Here we have every  amenity and luxury  we could imagine.  The air conditioning even stays on even when we  leave the room! We are within a few blocks of the old city and the night bazaar is at our front door. We find we want for nothing.

We decided to take a Thai cooking class and it was awesome. It was held out in the countryside on a  farm where the most beautiful gardens grew.  Our teacher was a young man who was passionate about cooking. He picked us up from our hotel and along with our class mates took us to the local farmers market. Here he explained all the different fruits, vegetables, tofu, rice, eggs, and accouterments to us. We learned to cook a variety of things over the course of the day and then we had the most delicious meal ever. We are excited to try this at home for a Sunday lunch.

 We have grown accustom to a massage nearly every day. Tom enjoys a hot oil massage and I choose the hot herb Thai massage. I wish I could explain their technics to you but I find I am so relaxed that I can not even open my eyes to save my life. I just know that it is lovely and for a few dollars a day we are the recipient of this lovely luxury.

At the recommendation of family and friends we are trying new foods each day. Our daughter Crystal told us about one of her favorite Thai dishes. It is Soo Koi and absolutely delicious. It is a Chaing Mai speciality and the best is from this region. It is a noodle soup with chicken in a yellow curry and coconut milk base. We have ours with a cold Chang beer. It always hits the spot.

We also indulged in a rafting expedition. And, not on any raft, but a traditional Thai bamboo raft. A Thai bamboo raft is made up of several pieces of large bamboo strapped together with a rubber strap. There are no sides or seats on it and you find yourself sitting on the bamboo planks leaning from side to side to maneuver your raft. There is a guide who uses a smaller bamboo shaft to push us off the sides of the riverbank if need be. The rivers are moving fast so this was quite an experience. There is no staying dry on this ride. We loved it and found it very refreshing.

One day we decided to visit an elephant kraal and then trek through the mountains on the backs of these huge animals. Our mahout was very agile and could climb up to his spot on the elephants head by standing on the animals tusks and then being lifted to the elephants head by his trunk.  I loved watching him with his elephant. A nudge, a sound, a pat behind the ear could direct this animal in any direction.  He could also spot sugar cane  and bananas and would often jump off the animal to acquire some of these for him. We found ourselves thinking of a bygone mode of travel and while we found our expedition thrilling, we realize it was probably a long hard ride.

Another time we opted  to have a Mexican holiday. For those of you in the know, you will recall that this is our code name for sitting out by the pool and relaxing. Sipping cool drinks. Reading. We enjoyed the hotels brunch and then took our books outside and just enjoyed some leisurely time doing…well, nothing really. We are breathing and catching up on some long needed rest. No plans or decisions have to be made today.

We extended our stay a few days and then plan to travel to Cambodia where we will visit the Temples of Angkor. We are planning on taking the train to Bangkok and then a bust to Siem Reap. We hear there is a boat that cruises on the Mekong Delta so we are hoping to take that to Viet Nam. We will let you know...