Holiday with Mum - Chiang Mai

When I was first planning my trip, I suggested to Mum that at some point we could meet up. She chose a holiday through Thailand, Malaysia, finishing in Singapore. Mum has travelled extensively, but had never managed to get to that part of the world, even though she had tried several times. On one occasion there were fires in Malaysia and the smog in Kuala Lumpur caused the cancellation of the holiday. Another time she was due to do a cruise and the ship sank before the holiday began and again she had to stay at home.  For several weeks we were unsure whether this holiday would go ahead because of the floods covering much of the land north of Bangkok and threatening to flood Bangkok itself and we thought this holiday might also be doomed. We watched the news, kept an eye on the Foreign Office website and kept in touch with the travel company. The Foreign Office was advising against all but essential travel to Bangkok and one holiday was cancelled. Then as the floods began to recede, the group departing the week before our holiday departed, with some changes to their itinerary. On the day before Mum’s departure the Foreign Office changed its advice and the trip was confirmed.

The group left from Heathrow on Tuesday 15 November and was due to arrive at the hotel starting point in Chiang Mai on the evening of Wednesday 16^th. I moved from my guest house to the posh hotel and checked in to take advantage of the hotel facilities during the afternoon. I washed my clothes in the bath and had a swim in the hotel pool and a relax on a sunbed.

Hotel pool

Mum and the other 24 members of the group arrived by coach at the hotel right on time and we had a big hug.

Mum  is with me as I write this and wants to say, ‘After 24 hours travelling I finally met up with Helen, looking very glamorous – not a bit like a scruffy backpacker. It was lovely to see her.’

Mum had brought out some messages and small gifts from the family which was lovely and a few extra clothes and jewellery so that I had some suitable things for the holiday. It was really nice to have some different clothes to wear and I realised that some of my travelling clothes had become quite grey from hand washing.

Mum and me at the hotel entrance

The next morning we go sightseeing in the tour bus with the group. We visit Wat Doi Suthep, the most famous Buddhist temple in Chiang Mai area, which is built on a mountain overlooking the city. The stupa is coated in gold leaf and gleams brightly in the sunshine.

Wat Doi Suthep

We walk around the main temple area mingling with other tourists, temple visitors and monks. Here are some other pictures from the temple:

Mum with view over Ching Mai

Workman applying gold leaf

At one point there is a stand of small post boxes, for people to put in donations for different things connected with the temple. We like this one:

Donate for oldster

Temple steps

Chiang Mai is famous for its arts and crafts and in the afternoon we are taken to various craft factories and showrooms. We see jewellery, silk, silverware, and for me the most interesting was the paper umbrella and fan factory. The umbrellas are made from bamboo and were made originally for the monks. Local women sit on raised platforms and painstakingly shape pieces of bamboo using a sharp blade to make the small pieces needed to make the skeleton and mechanism for the umbrellas.

Making umbrellas

The paper for the cover is also made from bamboo and covered in glue made from tapioca to make it waterproof.

Gluing the paper cover

Artists paint traditional designs on the umbrellas and fans and will also paint a design onto your own item. I choose  a small blue elephant for my camera case.

Painting my camera case

The next day the group goes off early in the tour bus to visit an elephant camp, but Mum and I decide to take it easy and have the day to ourselves to do some local sightseeing. We get up late and after breakfast take a tuk tuk into the old town.

We visit another temple and inside young boy monks are having a meal, watched by an old monk who sits motionless at the end of the hall between statues of monks.

Boy monks

Old monk presiding over the meal

Wat Phra Singh temple

We sit and rest in the shade in the grounds of the temple and then we notice an old car parked near us. It is maintained in pristine condition and Mum says it looks very like the first car her father had when she was about 12 years old – a Vauxhall. She recognises the silver metal band on the side of the bonnet. We go over to have a closer look and it is a Vauxhall!

Mum and vauxhall

She remembers her dad going to the garage and driving it home. There were no driving lessons and tests in those days. After the family got the car they would drive 64 miles from Newcastle-under-Lyme on a Saturday night, after the family jewellers shop closed, and stay in their caravan in Prestatyn in north wales and then drive home again on Sunday night. The family sold the car and caravan when war broke out in 1939 because her two older brothers went into the merchant navy and the army and the family couldn’t go away for weekends any more.