The Mays’ Weblog

We have had an aquatic mammal of a time over the last few weeks in the company of our dear friends the Jupps (Tim and Becca with Rosie, Harry, Millie and Poppy), the Smiths (Martin and Anna with Ellie, Noah, Indi, Levi and Ruby) and the Dunscombes (Chris and Liz with Daniel and Sam). The Jupps and Smiths arrived on Wed 20th July and straight from the airport we took them to one of our favourite spots, the Riverside Restaurant, and ate on a boat that took us down the Ping river in the dark to see the lights of Chiangmai.

It was surreal to be there with so many of our friends here in Chiangmai, so far from Rustington! I don’t know if they had ever had so many small children eating on the boat. We had the whole thing to ourselves. The other boat that we were initially moored against had plenty of couples who looked like they were on a romantic evening out. I think that they were relieved when were, and our noisy cargo, were untied and pushed off into the river. Lovely grub as usual.

Thursday 21st we went to the lake about 20K North of our house, (N 18.86876 E 98.94226 for those geeks who like that sort of thing). Very Thai, pedal boats and things, sticky rice, BBQ chicken, and beautiful fresh pineapple from the lady who came around with the basket. In the evening we went to PumPui, a great Italian place in the old city owned by a genuine Italian man called Giorgio (known as Mr PumPui to us) who walks like he has just put his back out lifting a piano but cooks great pasta. Thanks Mr PumPui……we love you.

Friday; a cultural start with a trip to Tesco, Thai style. Plenty of bargains and every checkout has a cashier so nothing like England. We took the Jupps up to the food hall above and they sneaked a pre-lunch bargain bowl of noodle soup of something similar. We spent the afternoon in the pool at the Juniper Tree, the missionary resort in town. We had great fun playing a kind of family water polo thing involving much cheating by adults and children alike.

Anna volunteered the be the net but we rejected the offer on the grounds that she was not quite big enough. An evening meal at the TabTim restaurant brought out the fishlover in us all. The best breaded fish in town for a bargain 75 Baht (quid) a go. A real favourite…..

Saturday we felt that we had earned a breakfast after all our hard work and we treated ourselves to a few hours at Pie Sabai. Run by an English lady called Audrey who used to live in Norfolk Gardens Littlehampton (small world eh?) and the only place to get a ‘British Breakfast’. This was another culinary triumph with all concerned. Many thanks Audrey. Keep it up. We then headed for the temple up Doi Suthep. An interesting experience and there were various differing opinions about how God views it including a comparison with the Mall where we go to visit the idol of materialism. Hmmmmm. Thanks Martin. Does my head in.

We picked up the Dunscombes from the airport after that and then back to the mall to get the others who were gorging on fruit shakes. We made it home in fine Thai style with 17 travelling in our car….. It is not called the Mighty X for nothing! After an afternoon in the pool we ambled to the Bell restaurant for evening meal and our new Thai cultural shirts had their debut.

Sunday; Church. Thanks for singing and playing Martin and Tim. It was a proud and special moment for us to have you share in our fellowship here and will be long remembered. We followed with ….more food… at the Empress Hotel Buffet. Adrian had warned that the holiday was really about eating…very true but nobody complained. We stopped off at the Tailors where Martin ordered a suit to be made. This is a real bargain and almost worth the trip by itself. It would have been simple if Martin did not have creative ideas about the cuffs… Down to the pool and then Sunday Tea at the Mays, accompanied by a Hymns CD. We try to recreate the ‘Songs of Praise’ ambience every week. Don’t you wish you were here too??!!

Monday. Elephant show and elephant riding at Mae Sa. One of the true highlights of the holiday. This was great. I even have some delicately filmed footage of baby Ruby being fed on the back of one of these beasts. Very impressive. Lunch found us again at a buffet. This time at the Butterfly and Orchid farm. We struck gold here as they had real chips!! We were just relaxing when some crazy plan was hatched to go to the zoo….which we did enroute home. This day really felt like one of those times when you are squeezing the last bits out of a tube of toothpaste. There is always more to be had. After that the girls diverted off to the Mall for girl stuff while we guys fed the children. We made the Rotee man’s day by ordering 17 from him when he came by on his bike. We ended with a boys evening out at the Empress Hotel after Martin tried on his suit again.

Tuesday was great fun at the Hotsprings at San Kampaeng (N 18.81443 E 99.22937). We were greeted by the eggy smell of sulphurous ejecta but soon got used to it. We dangled our feet in the hot river to kill our veruccas and bathed in the mineral pool to pamper our bodies.

Martin, Tim, Dan and I went for a massage where our limbs were abused to the delight of the masseurs who laughed throughout while we grunted and groaned. The girls followed suit and then in a frenzy of pampering, all the children got treated to a foot massage.
We then boiled eggs in the geyser and ate them with soysauce. Yuk.
In the evening we went to a cultural Kantoke Dinner. We sat on the floor and the pork curry was outstanding. Dancing followed and then bed, after a final suit trying on thing. Those cuffs nearly beat the poor tailor…..

Wednesday we waved a sad farewell at the airport (Martin’s suit finally arrived). We loved having our dear friends here. It was a privilege to be able to share something of our lives here with them. I must note that we do not always eat in this fashion otherwise we will not be able to fit on the plane to fly home in a years time. Thanks for coming. You brightened our lives!

Other pictures can be found by clicking here.

More to follow about our time with the Dunscombes who stayed another 10 days.