*sigh*
Many people told us that we were brave to attempt this trip with two kids so young. We brushed this off… Our kids are well behaved, we thought. They sleep well, food is usually not an issue, and they have no stranger anxiety. What could possibly go wrong?
This evening, we got the first taste of the miserable side of traveling with toddlers.
Every Sunday evening, Walking Streets Chiang Mai closes a portion of the small and windy roads of the Old City to traffic. Don’t be fooled that this is a leisurely walk. Tuk tuks and motorbikes are replaced by hoards of visitors and vendors. The only way I could track Sandeep was to keep and eye out for his clean head, which is about a half foot higher that the general crowds here. Ava was kept in sight after we tied a balloon to her (at $2, it was the most expensive thing we bought all day). And Kayan…well, Kayan needed no visual identification because he made his whereabouts clear by being in a rage the entire evening.
We are trying to wean him off his pacifier. He was so upset by our determination that when we finally caved in and plugged it into his blaring mouth, he ripped it off and flung it on the street. That resulted in even more elaborate verbal and physical rage.
Walking Streets is an opportunity to sample hundreds of street stalls from around the city, to peruse many handicraft vendors, and to get a $5 an hour foot or body massage on the lounge chairs than line the sidewalks. Sadly we couldn’t enjoy any of this.
Sorry I have don’t many pictures to share. I snapped this during Kayan only minute of calmness, when we convinced him that rice on a stick is a lollipop. Notice despite all of this, the pacifier still made it into the picture.
Let’s hope Kayan has nightmares about his pacifier tonight so that we can put this chapter behind us.
Hey D!
Just got around to reading your blog, really enjoyed it…. didn’t realize you had such a talent for writing! If reading about the journey is so much fun I can only imagine how much fun it must be for you guys to experience it!
The pictures are beautiful, specially the first one from “Letting go of misfortunes….” with the lanterns and Kayan in your lap…. I guess the photography classes are working, but wait, did you take the classes or Sandeep or both?
Looking forward to more:)
Take care!
Thanks for the compliment! We both took the photography classes… Sandeep does the composition and I do the execution, most times.
We have two of his paci’s at the house that we found after you guys left. We were planning on bringing them to Goa…
miss and love you all!
I hope we are beyond the paci stage by then, but will keep you updated!
We weaned our little one off her dummy (Australian word for pacifier) when we got to Chiang Mai. At the time we also thought we were insane, but after about four days/nights, she forgot all about them. You just have to be tough, which I’m not.
And you are SO LUCKY to have a tall bald husband. Finding mine in a crowd anywhere in Asia is a nightmare. And he’s so shortsighted he can’t see me.
Looking forward to catching up with you soon to share more war stories. 🙂
Thanks for the encouragement. We’re 24 hours in and we’re finding it hard to stay the course!
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