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Chiang Mai Trip - February 2015

Things take a while to get set up here.  One of the things that we needed is a work permit even if we are only working as volunteers.  If you are working within Thailand with people within Thailand, you need a work permit.  As a result, we found ourselves this last month spending about 10 days in the city of Chiang Mai waiting for it all to come through.

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Riding in a Songteauw

Unfortunately, as is the case with any big move, one of our kids was sick suffering from the heat, air pollution, and new foods.  We spent a lot of our time hanging out in our hotel trying to keep a low profile for Z.  After a few days, he was finally feeling well enough for us to do a bit of exploring.

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Z got sick even before we left.

Our most exciting day trip was going to the Chiang Mai Zoo.  They let you feed the animals here!  And the walls into the enclosures were definitely not up to American standards, but it just made it more fun.

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The boys loved the seal show
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We rode elephants at the zoo
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Z took a picture of us at the bird sanctuary
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Feeding hippos.

For most of the trip, we stayed at a very, very cheap hotel so for the last couple of days, we headed out of town for a bit of a retreat.  Our new hotel was really comfortable with a nice pool, free bike rental, and even a trampoline.  It was a nice rest before making the 6 hour drive back over the mountains to home.

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Our balcony
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Playing in the pool
Little Village pool
At the restaurant beside the pool
Crater view
A crater near our hotel that we biked to

We realized that we made a good decision moving the Maesot instead of Chiang Mai. We really struggled with the terrible air pollution, how far everything was, and just the insane traffic.  Phil was incredible with this amazing driving skills and managed to get us where we needed to go without an accident.

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A view from our first hotel.  The smog was terrible.
Below is a migrant village in juxtaposition to some nice condos.

And we got what we came for. Phil is now in possession of his own work permit.  This will hopefully allow us to obtain a visa that lasts longer than 3 months without leaving the country.

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Doesn't he look good?
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