The Night Market

After our culinary success in the afternoon, we decided to plan our evening according to the meal. The kids voted for Hamburgers, so we found the highest rated place on TripAdvisor and off we went.

After exhausting Yuval's and my navigating skills, we came to the conclusion that the place was not here. We stepped into the Hotel which was where the restaurant was supposed to be and they confirmed that the 'restaurant' was a van and he hadn’t arrived today. We had 6 hungry children and TripAdvisor showed nothing within walking distance. We were on our own. Yuval and I left the moms with the kids and each one ran in a different direction to try and find food. We returned after a few minutes with our findings. There was a bustling market across the road with a food area in it. That were we went. Food first, market later. The food was not bad at all + a banana lotti for desert (and one for Yuval when all the kids had gone).
After that we continued to buy a 'Sharwal' for all of us (pronounced 'Shual' by Yael which is 'fox' in Hebrew) And while the girls were busy buying, the boys were busy investigating and found a break dance show!

After the buying, we all rushed to the break dance show only to find out it had finished. But there was hope, they were performing again a little later.

We found a safe place for the kids to run around. Yael and Roi played mother and baby, and Yael put her baby to sleep. The rest of the gang were a little more energetic and were racing around the market at lightning speed!

And then the show began, At first there was a drag show. It was very amusing, followed by the long anticipated breakdance show. 

We were all hypnotized! These guys were amazing! Who would think that there'd be such a break dance seen here in Chiang Mai.

The Best Vegetarian restaurant in Chiang Mai

The next day we woke up, had breakfast and a swim at the hotel pool. Yuval and Rona came to pick us up and we went for a walk through the old town. The old city is surrounded by a wall and it is full of charming little alleys. It took me a while (well, more like a few days - After Bangkok I was sure that in Thailand pedestrians are a disposable nuisance) to loosen up about walking in the road. We walked through the alleys, occasionally stopping at a temple.

Trip Advisor has become our compass as far as food goes. Sometimes we are spontaneous and just turn it on when we get hungry and go to the closest recommended place, other times is we want to be more specific, we find the restaurant we want and navigate to it.

This time we were semi spontaneous, we looked for the closest vegetarian restaurant in the area. We found that the closest option was one of the most highly recommended Thai restaurants in Chiang Mai (Morning Glory) . Full of expectations we found the place, which turned out to be a little family business which was completely empty, looked a little run down. We stepped inside and found a man watching something on his laptop. The place looked dead and the man looked like he was really hoping that if he kept his eyes inside the screen we would disappear. But hungry kids don’t disappear quickly, and the noise made the place feel full. We made ourselves comfortable, rearranging the tables and helping ourselves to drinks. By the time our waiter arrived, some were ready to order and others were ready to leave the restaurant…. This was extremely bad service in any ones book. But moving a herd of 10 people is not a trivial operation, especially if some of them are hungry children – so we ignored the bad service and ordered. Slowly the restaurant came to life, a few women appeared in the kitchen and slowly the dishes started to arrive.

The food was out of this world! Every dish was better than the previous. By far the best Thai food I have had and by far the cheapest – What a surprise! The TripAdvisor proved itself!

Off to Chiang Mai

It was a short flight to Chiang Mai. We stepped out of the airport, and were thrilled to breathe the northern air. It was hot and humid, but nothing like Bangkok and most important – it was clean!

We took a taxi to our Hotel. It was wonderful, Chiang mai is a small city, no high rises, no traffic jams, the cars and people seem less stressed and most important – the air is breathable. "There is Yuval" – Alma shouted, but before we had time to understand what she was talking about, we had already passed him. The girls started screaming from excitement. "We will soon see them all" we calmed them down.

The taxi came to a stop outside of a very fancy hotel. "There must be a mistake" I said, but the name of the hotel was the same as our order. I went in to check and low and behold there was a reservation in our name. The bell boy came to take our bags and took us up to our rooms. We explained to the girls that this hotel has nothing to do with our trip, it was a mistake that won't repeat itself. The rooms were much fancier than I had expected. We took the lift down to the pool. – This place was too good to be true!

After an hour in the pool, we got ready and went to meet Rona and Yuval for an early dinner. The girls were beyond themselves with excitement. Rona and Yuval were already locals here. They had been here for 8 days and had already a list of favorite restaurants, ice cream parlors, park, etc...
After the Mexican dinner we went for a walk to have ice cream and then stopped over at their hotel for some a grown up drink and movie for the kids. - What a day!

I am sure we wouldn't have enjoyed this day as much had it not been for Bangkok. So I stand corrected. The best thing about Bangkok is Chiang Mai.