Hiking Chiang Mai: Chapter 2; (with a little Night Safari thrown in for fun)

When Conrad heard me telling Heinz about my hiking adventure with Ginger, he decided that he really wanted to go hiking too. I was really excited that he seemed to be taking such an interest. There are various hiking groups around town that post their weekend itineraries online and anyone is free to join them. Heinz and I are interested in attending some but the hikes posted for this weekend looked a bit long for some newbies with short legs. As this is Heinz's 2 weeks abroad and I am the lone parent on duty, I felt confident that we could at least do the trail that I had done earlier with Jamie and his dogs. Luckily for Ginger we are currently renting a small station wagon so we could put her in the back and bring her with us. Luckily for me too, as then she also got the much needed exercise that she often doesn't get when I am alone with the kids in a house with a very small yard.

We started out a little later than I had planned so admittedly the day had was getting warm. We were about 5 minutes on the trail when Vivienne decided that she did not like hiking at all and wanted to just go home! I hadn't really noticed the first time around how steep the beginning of the trail is and Conrad's "I want to go hiking, too!" quickly started fading into "I want to go home, too!" Oy! He kept saying "I don't like going up hills." We discussed that perhaps what he really likes, then, is walking, not hiking. But we kept talking and we kept going, we sang some hiking songs and eventually we had made it more than halfway up to the Wat.

  We saw some interesting trees as we walked .

We took a number of water breaks, made the very popular Oreo stop and eventually smiles and happy attitudes returned.

With a renewed burst of energy, Vivienne took charge and forged ahead of everyone.

My fellow hikers decided that they really wanted to make it to the Wat so they could tell Daddy "We did it!" It didn't take us long to get there. I had forgotten that just below the Wat is a log bridge that Ginger had struggled with. Last time Jamie had to carry her back across, on the way down. It's not very deep but the downhill side is too steep for her to climb back out if she goes into the little valley instead of across. But my trekkers had come this far, they wanted to see it all, even if they had to do the last few meters alone. I stayed with Ginger and they went on up the trail.

My good little Hansel helped his sweet sister Gretel back and forth across the bridge and they were so excited to have made it all the way. As promised, the walk back was much easier. In the end I think the positives outweighed the negatives. They are so excited to tell Daddy all about it and they are looking forward to going hiking again soon.
It was quite a busy weekend for my kiddos. Friday night we went to the Night Safari. We had gone in December, when we made our first visit to Chiang Mai, but it is good enough to warrant multiple visits.

Feeding elephants in the guest reception area.

Deer roam freely in the grounds near the entrance area. We had some grasses left over from feeding the elephant and wanted to feed them to the deer but apparently the deer have had enough of people. Every time  Conrad tried to give his grass to one of them, it tried to headbutt him!

My little Thai cowpokes go for a pony ride.

Playing in the Kids' Zone while we wait for night to fall.

Riding the pink dolphin and the green tiger on the two-story Carousel.

Stopping for a snack between trams.

Playing with the turtles.

I apologize that we don't have pictures of the animals but my camera does not take nice night photos and flash is not allowed. My favorite part of the evening was when the giraffe stuck his big head into Conrad's lap as we rode through on the tram and stole all of his carrots and bananas! We had a great time. I highly recommend you experience the Safari when you come visit us. Shall we make a date for it?