We recently went on a school trip to Chiang Mai taking in some Hot Springs and the Zoo. This involved leaving Li at 6am on a Thursday morning so i was a bit cranky when meeting up with everyone at the school gates. Anyway we managed to round up the students and bundle them onto the buses in order to drive them to the hot springs. These are just north of the city of Chiang Mai and it took us the guts of 3 hours to get there from our little town. The kids were fairly quiet at this hour so it was a fairly easy trip. Once we got there we surprised the kids with a worksheet they had to fill in during the stay at the springs. Basically it was a series of science based questions linked to one of my previous classes (we had done geothermal energy). They were thrilled with this of course ("TEACHER! Answers....?" "Yeah i want the answers, well done on working that out"). So we stay at this place for the next 2 hours which consists of some geysers, a park with a canal (of hot spring water)running through it and a place to boil some eggs. There were a few places selling these eggs so the kids thought this was great, dunked their baskets in the water left them there for a while and then ate the eggs after they took them out. I spent some of the time wandering around and some of the time soaking my feet in the canal. the kids were doing the same nearby and when i took my feet out of the water to cool them a bit (the water was bloody hot!)they were amazed that my pasty white skin had now turned pink. Hilarious im sure you'll agree :).
Anyway after this we hopped back on our bus and went to the zoo and had a few hours here. The kids had all been here before so it wasnt that new to them but its a big place and there are a good variety of attractions and activities, some of which the kids hadnt done...... like the snowdome. Now this isnt quite as wonderful as it sounds. It was a pretty small room with an ice slide and artificial snow. It was good fun but i was expecting something a bit bigger if im honest. But the kids loved it, asking me was it like home to which i said yes, sure dont we have -7 all the time and snow blowing about the place. They nearly died in this cold but i just laughed and said it wasnt all that chilly. We had all gotten big ski jackets going into the room so i was actually kind of warm. We got a group photo at the end which consists of 20 odd thai kids, 2 Filipinos and me. I look like a ghost at the side of the pic. After this we walk back outside into the 20+ heat and head for the aquarium. This was ok, they had some pretty coral fish there but nothing too big so it was also not as good as i thought it might be. Next we hit the pandas who are sleeping away the day. I should explain that the thais are nuts about these pandas. They are on a loan from China and had a baby panda here in Chiang Mai recently which is a big deal so its now the emblem of Chiang Mai really. Anyway they were asleep and the baby was in the back so we didnt get to see it but it was cool to see an animal like that up close that could go extinct in my lifetime.
After the zoo we head for Big C (the highlight of the day for the kids) which is a big department store where the kids buy a heap of junk food. I was slightly more boring and did a bit of grocery shopping, picking up a few things they dont have in my local shop. Now its late in the evening when we depart for home so i guess everyone is pretty knackered and will pass out on the bus right? Wrong! Having spent most of the day on their feet walking around but replenished now by sugar the kids start singing and dancing to thai/korean pop music that the driver is blaring out for them. Fricking nutters the lot of them. This carried on for about two hours accompanied by lots of cameras flashing. I took the attitude that if you cant beat them join them so i went down the bus and tried to talk to some of them and getting caught in a million pictures. It was a good laugh and the kids were having fun so it wasnt doing any harm. Anyway as we got closer to home a few of the kids got dropped off and the party calmed down. We got back to Li around 8pm with everyone pretty tired at this stage. I devoured a bowl of noodles and collapsed into bed, knowing i had work the next day.
Pictures: 1. A sign warning not to touch the 100 degree water.
2. Googig, Namwan, Joy and Bam-Bam.
3. A ray hanging from the ceiling in festive mood.
4. Panda!
5. Some of the kids partying on the bus.
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