Fall Break Part 2 - Chiang Mai, Thailand

After a fabulous five days in the Philippines, our family was ready to trek out to part 2 of our adventure...Chiang Mai.  Wednesday started off with packing up, saying goodbye to our friends, and preparing ourselves for a long day of travel.  We left in plenty of time, got to the tiny Dumaguete airport, and left without delay.  We arrived in Manila, with the most difficult and tiresome part was moving from the domestic terminal to the international terminal.  Once we figured all that out, found our gate, Andy bought us a nutritious lunch of french fries and hot dogs (the only thing we could find). Sarah pretty much fell asleep on my back and stayed that way our entire time in Manila.  We finally took off for our three hour plane ride to Bangkok...moved from the international terminal to the domestic terminal...got a bite to eat, and finally got on the plane to Chiang Mai.  The kids, by then, were tired, so it was a pretty quiet and short flight there.  It was also gorgeous to land with such a beautiful moon allowing us to see the city below.

We were able to get all our luggage pretty quickly, and our friend, Ryan, was there to pick us up and take us to the hotel where we were all staying.  Ryan, and his wife Melanie, are friends from our church family in PA.  They are missionaries and drove for two days to see us in Chiang Mai, a place they are very familiar with since they lived there for the first three years.  We were able to say hello to Melanie (who stayed back with a sleeping 2 year old), take showers, and get to bed.

The next day was so exciting because we really had nothing planned. We got up at a leisurely pace, ate a nice breakfast, and took off for "animal road," a road with many different animal attractions. Our friends had a great car that all of us fit in comfortably...it was a truck with a full-sized covered bed that was air conditioned, included a cushion and was sound proof:) All the older kids piled in the back, Ryan and Andy in the front, and Melanie and I had the two toddlers in the back seat.  We missed our turn for our first animal stop, but found an amazing waterfall that we took a short hike to find.  The weather was fabulous, and the kids loved playing in the water.

Some one's excited:)

Because she got to get wet!

After getting our fill of the water fall, we got back in the car and the boys decided that it would be fun to stop at a snake charmer.  Melanie and I weren't too keen on the idea, so we took their son and Sarah to a tea garden while the rest of them enjoyed a snake show.  After hearing about it and seeing the pictures, it was confirmed that us parting was a great decision.

Not sure who is crazier???

Melanie and I took the toddlers to the Tea Garden instead:)

We got back together, and finally made it to our original destination...Tiger Kingdom.  This place has tigers of all sizes, but we were only interested in playing with the smallest ones.  We left Sarah with Ryan and Melanie, and the rest of us enjoyed about 15-20 minutes playing with 4 month old and 2 month old tiger cubs.  It still made me nervous, and I was glad Sarah wasn't with us, but the kids thoroughly enjoyed it...they were really cute!!

Sweet two month old cubs

After Tiger Kingdom, we went to a great local place for lunch (delicious!!), then back to the hotel for a short rest before we went to our next stop...The Big C!!! (Thailand's version of Walmart...and this one was extra big:) We wanted to get a few more gifts for the next day, and they  had a great food court for dinner...PLUS...Dairy Queen...woohoo!!!  It was a pretty inexpensive night out...but very entertaining!!

Love that their workers wore roller blades...efficient!!!

Sarah and Miles enjoyed their Thai dinner

The next day was a day we had been waiting for since we heard we might be moving to Asia.  We have been sponsoring a boy through Compassion for the last 7 years.  This day we were finally going to meet in person!! God opened many doors for this meeting to take place, and we were all so excited to finally spend the day with Tanawat.  Tanawat was joining us with his father, a Compassion representative, a church worker, and a translator.  They all came to the hotel at 9am.  We had just finished breakfast and were awkwardly waiting for the entourage to come.  And yes, that original encounter was very awkward.  We met the translator, Pay, first, and she was wonderful and made the whole experience as enjoyable and communicative as possible. Then we went out to the taxi where the rest of the group was waiting.  The other gentlemen were very kind.  Tanawat and his father were very quiet, but respectful and answered all the questions my children had for them.

Chiang Mai Zoo

Yes, they are feeding fish with a baby bottle!!

We spent most of the day at the zoo...watching a few shows, feeding animals and having lunch.  All in all it was a great day. When we got back to our hotel, we were so excited to give Tanawat and his father our gifts.  What we didn't expect was that they would have gifts for us.  It was overwhelming.  His mother had prepared a collage of pictures of their family, as well as a picture of our family that we had sent him. She had also hand woven a purse-like gift for each of us.  They were beautiful and the most I had seen Tanawat laugh was when he draped Sarah's over her while she was sleeping.  It was so sweet...it melted my heart.

Abby with Pay, our sweet translator

Even the elephant like to pose for pics

Sweet:)

It was such an incredible gift to meet the boy, who has grown into a young man, that we have been in touch with for the last seven years.  It nearly broke me, knowing he was going back to a lifestyle that we can hardly comprehend.  The lesson I took away, as I usually do when I meet those "less fortunate" than myself, is that they bless me more than I ever expect.

Our final day in Chiang Mai was another laid back day.  Melanie took us to the market in the morning, than we got back to the hotel in time for Ryan, Andy and Grace to go to the movies.  The rest of us took naps than swam in the pool.  We went out to dinner at a great restaurant on the canal and ended our evening at the Night Bazaar and ice cream at McD's.  It was such a great day and wonderful few days in Chiang Mai.  We love it there and wouldn't mind going back...hmmmm...

Last meal together...and she is still life of the party!!!  Love the Gehrmann Family!!!

 Of course, it wouldn't be a fun ending to our trip if we didn't have a 6am flight, which means we needed to leave the hotel at 4am.  Our taxi didn't show, so we had to wake up Melanie who graciously drove us to the airport.  We finally got on our plane...all the kids slept, and we landed in typhoon-like winds.  We like to keep it interesting:)