Valentine's Day, the longest day of 2015

Early flight means an early check in at our guesthouse, but first a swim before breakfast

Friday the 13th we left for Taoyuan airport, but not to fly. We stayed at a nearby motel, a love motel recommended from a friend of a friend as a cheaper alternative than the airport transit hotel, or sleeping in the airport. We might as well have, I didn't get much sleep with planes thundering over us, but my daughter was able to catch a few Zzz, which was important as we had to wake at 3:30 am.

Our first Song Thaew ride

We arrived in Chiang Mai around 9 am, took a taxi to Natlen Boutique Guesthouse outside the old center and having to wait for our room, had a swim and breakfast. After a shower power rest in our room, it was off exploring temples. We hailed down a local songthaews, red pick up trucks converted to taxis, which are surprisingly cheaper than tuk-tuks.

12 zodiac animal offering, Tiger in the center

Our first temple was the Wat Phra Singh which had several chedis and smaller temples and shrines on  its grounds, including the main attraction Whuan Lai Kham built in 1345 and a small reclining Buddha that was empty. There was a copy of the Jade Buddha in the teak Ubosot built in 1806.  It was a beautiful introduction to Chiang Mai. The grounds were peaceful, the weather was neither hot or cold, with sunshine and a gentle breeze rustling the leaves.

I saw a small restaurant on the way that looked packed and had as many locals as foreigners, so we walked back there, downed a few coconuts and feasted. I had an amazing spicy tuna salad and a (?) soup.  Oh the world for heaps of tamarind and lemongrass!

Feeling tired we returned to our guesthouse and instead of sleeping, lounged by the pool for a read, my daughter was in the water the rest of the day. I had to beg her to take a late nap around 5, so we could go see some kickboxing that started at 9:30. When I tried to wake her for dinner at 7:30 pm, she did not want to get up and was quite the grouch potato during dinner and didn't perk up until the kickboxing started.

The audience was mostly western tourists, so I'm not sure how authentic the whole set up was, but it definitely was an exciting introduction for us. We had nice seats near the ring, but as the seats filled in, my daughter couldn't see over the melon heads in front of us. We moved back near the bar which was raised and actually it was a better view, not just of the matches, but the Thai family members that came to support their fighter. It also became the "box seats" of the team of the final match (a Swiss guy against a local).

                          (Watch my video of that night and my daughter's opinion here).

We were pleasantly surprised to see a female match and an entertaining interlude of several fatty, blindfolded fighters swinging blindly at each other for comic relief. My first impression was that the fighters seemed to have a lot of respect for their opponents, obviously they are are friends outside the ring. We saw several hair raising KO's which was unexpected-of course when I put my camera down.

Natlen Guesthouse at night

We returned around 11 pm, and hit the pillow hard, having been up since 3:30 am. A long, voltaic Valentine's Day indeed .

Burmese New Year of the Horse Holy Daze Pt 1: Stuck in Singapore

South Bridge Road, China Town, Singapore

Its been a while since I posted. I was crazy busy with Christmas, teaching, wrapping up the semester and then Chinese New Year holiday was upon me. I had to pinch and save every penny since October 2013 to buy 2 tickets to Yangon via Singapore. If I was backpacking and had more time, I would of got our visas for Myanmar in Singapore for a much cheaper price (30USD) than doing it via an online service (100 USD each), but for convenience's sake. I didn't want to take my chances with a kid and pre- booked flights. This year my CNY holiday break was 3 days longer than my usual 2 weeks and I intended to capitalize on every moment.

Our arrival at Boat Quay.

We flew into Singapore and stayed in Boat Quay. We checked in around 930pm after leaving Tainan that morning. Around the corner and away from the riverfront, overpriced restaurants, was a more modest row of street noodles. The locals got a kick out of her ordering our handmade fishball noodles in impeccable Mandarin. I had a cold, refreshing, long deserved Tiger beer that I was too tired to finish. Eventually we made it to bed at midnight- my daughter meltdown free.

Breakfast overlooking the river, Boat Quay. The upstairs gallery at our guesthouse.

Our modern guesthouse was little more than a windowless, closet sandwiched between overpriced seafood restaurants along the river bank,but for a night it was ok. I didn't get any sleep of course, I could hear the BEEPing of neighbors' electronic doors. Needless to say I was dazed and confused the next morning.

Boat Quay

I usually stay in Little India, but wanted to try some new part of Singapore. (Here are photos of our July 2011 trip and our Jan/Feb 2014 Singapore album)

Don't mess with Tiger Mom! Boat Quay

I missed our flight to Yangon the next day, I was confused on times. I was about to check in when my gate closed and my plane was taking off. Needless to say I was gutted. I had to pay for another pair of tickets and I had budgeted my trip down to the last kyat, this was definitely not in my budget. The tears were welling up as I stood in line for new tickets. My cell phone was dead, my laptop wasn't connecting to airport wifi, I couldnt contact my only friend Rogenie in Singapore. I just had to wait it out, bite the bullet of my own carelessness and make the most of it. Z was not pleased with me.

I was besides myself on the inside. There was fear of not having enough $ for the rest of our trip, fear our visas would be rejected because the info on the paperwork was now a different date and flight. It was stress time for me, I was thirsty, had to pee, pushing Z and our luggage around the airport (she cant physically walk in airports. Her feet refuse to function as she prefers I push her on the luggage trolley that clearly states kids mustn't ride on them. I don't mind as its faster anyways, and sometimes we have a bit of fun, 360's). So we're running around Changi, here for wifi password, there for charging my laptop, mostly we were parked at the help desk in the other terminal (Michael wherever you are in Changi, you're a really sympathetic, helpful, competent dude). I had to find the free computers at McD's before I finally felt I couldn't wait any longer to go urinate. Basically I ended up with a self induced kidney infection a few days later as a consequence from my imploding stress fest . I thought I knew Changi Airport pretty well from previous transit flights, but ya, I basically was on a first name basis with staff by the end of the day. (Seriously Michael at Changi Help Desk, you were a Guardian Angel, I hope you get a raise and employee of the year.)  He used his own personal phone to call the Visa dude in Yangon, my Hotel in Yangon, Rogenie in Singapore while charging my phone with his own personal portable charger and had one of his female assistants escort Z to the bathroom while I chatted with Yangon on his phone.

View from our Guesthouse across the river, Boat Quay.

Of course it turned out alright. I had to use my emergency credit card for a nice 3 star hotel in Lavender mrt, somehow Rogenie and I missed each other there. Our hotel was nice though, with a pool, weight room. We took the cheapest, noisiest, room by the elevators. The man at check in must of pitied me and my situation because he gave us free breakfast tickets which cost 25$ Sing each. It was a pretty decent buffet. I was grateful.

On those 2 days, I went to some sites I hadn't made it to before. We went to the oldest Hindu temple. Sri Mariamman, a Dravidian style temple in Chinatown. then and a few small parks where Z could just be a kid and run barefoot on the green grass (while unknown to me we missed our check-in for the flight to Yangon).