travel with toddlers – Under 6 Overseas

344 Days Abroad

Published on July 26, 2019January 29, 2020 by karaLeave a comment

We have been abroad for 11 months and during that time we have travelled to 13 countries (14 if you count an afternoon killing time and dodging vendors at the border in Myanmar for a visa run.) We have been on more flights that I care to count and probably triple that in hotel rooms. We have dipped our toes in the Andaman Sea, the Gulf of Thailand, the South China Sea, the Java Sea and the Mediterranean. We have hired Ubers, GoJeks and Grabs, and ridden bicycles with kids in ergos, kids in seats, kids in tag-a-longs, and kids holding on for dear life. We have been in a horse-drawn cart and several bicycle rickshaws. We have chartered a helicopter, a flight and several boats. We’ve ridden in tuk-tuks, in songthaews and on the back of scooter-taxis. We’ve been on underground boats and open-ocean ferries, taken light-rail or subways, a diesel train through the countryside and a kiddie train around the mall. We’ve travelled by water buffalo, double-decker bus, gondola and longtail boat. We have rented cars and driven on both the right and the left-sides of the road and we have walked hundreds of miles.

The vast majority of the 344 days we’ve been away from home were spent just living a regular life, you know, grocery shopping, going to work or school or running errands, exercising and playing at parks. But strings of normal days have been punctuated with special events–the bucket list items–where we found ourselves awestruck, or dumbstruck, or starstruck, or physically struck (by cars, which actually happened twice.) We climbed the ancient Mesoamerican pyramids of Teotihuacan and stared into the blank eyes of the mummies of Guanajuato while in Mexico. We have kissed the Blarney Stone in Ireland, visited Stonehenge in England and participated in the Highland Games in Scotland. We searched for the Loch Ness monster, saw the Mona Lisa and stood in the front row of a Mumford and Sons concert. We bungee jumped. We hand fed elephants in Thailand and were blessed by a monk for safe travels. We visited the Angkor Wat temples and donated blood at a local hospital in Cambodia. We watched the light and sound show featuring over 42 buildings in Hong Kong from a sky bar patio. We released a lantern at the Loy Krathong festival and took a cable car over waterfalls and jungles before crossing the Golden Bridge in Vietnam. In Indonesia, we swam with sea turtles and snorkeled over a sunken statue. We saw both the Himalayan mountains of Annapurna and Everest. We witnessed the washing of a body with holy water from a Hindu temple and the cremation of the remains on the river bank in Nepal. Of course, Ben trekked to Everest base camp where he stared with his bare eyes at the tallest mountain in the world in all of its glorious wonder. We stood in Catherine de Medici’s bedroom and saw the collapsed roof of the Notre Dame Cathedral. On a brief layover in the United Arab Emirates, the kids and I visited the Burj Khalifa-the tallest building in the world. We have swung over the rice terraces in Bali, visited the Hanoi Hilton and broke into an abandoned women’s prison in Chiang Mai. We have seen the Liberty Bell, the White House and the Discovery space shuttle. And thanks to that monk’s blessing, we have managed to do with only one visit to ER and one minor bout of food poisoning.

Visiting the elephant sanctuary in Thailand

We have also grown a lot as individuals on our journey. The kids have been forced to travel for nearly a year without a stroller, making them confident road crossers and traffic minders. They have learned how to step off of escalators without help and how to buckle their own seatbelts. They have learned to drink out of water bottles in a moving car, to hold their own umbrellas upright, to get by with only a handful of toys and to go to bed by themselves without constant cuddling. We are impressed by both kids’ resilience with which they accept that they have no home, can’t speak regularly to their old friends, have to constantly leave new friends and have no control over their environment. And they have become more resourceful and patient than I could imagine. We have also travelled for 11 months without losing Falcon’s beloved Monkey Man which I consider a straight up miracle. We have kept our special, plastic, color-changing Chewbacca spoon that Falcon uses daily for his cereal, as well as more important items such as our wallets, ID cards, and cell phones.

Personally, I have gone a year without really wearing any make-up. I haven’t curled or blow dried my hair once. I occasionally pluck rogue eyebrows (although I don’t think that they ever really recovered from the over-plucking look of the 90’s.) My clothes are tattered from months of wear and line drying, and they have weathered the loss of 15 pounds in Nepal and gain of 10ish pounds in France. Grey hairs and sunspots have popped up like left and right, despite lasering the crap out of them in Thailand. Overall, one could say that I have succumbed to a low maintenance, somewhat cavewoman-like appearance. And to compound any stress that I have about returning home, I have agreed to attend my 20-year high school reunion on the way back. In fact, I will fly straight from Mexico into the heart of that madness, stretched out clothes, frazzled hair and all.

We have missed celebrating holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter. Mother’s and Father’s days fell on different days in Europe than America so we felt a little disconnected from those holidays as well. Several of our friends have moved away from our hometown and my sister welcomed a new baby in our absence. I never thought that I would say this but we miss having a routine. We struggle not being productive, having time to ourselves and exercising. Although we have thankfully avoided some of this bizarre American presidency, we have been completely out of the loop of American politics, including the ability of vote. And…we have spent our entire savings and then some. We have cycled through a bazillion pairs of sunglasses, umbrellas, chapsticks and jars of peanut butter. We left with about 220 pounds of stuff for our move to Thailand and we will be returning with 120 pounds of bare essentials.

Overall, it’s hard to put into words all that we have seen and done without sounding vain or crazy. This year abroad may not have had resulted in a spiritual awakening or significantly altered the course of our lives but we will be returning mentally renewed and more confident. Our goal was to learn things and to have fun, and I think that we achieved that. We have checked off a lot of the items on our initial bucket list. But over the course of the past year, our bucket list has probably doubled in size, as there are many places that we would like to revisit when the kids get older and new places that we have heard about but didn’t have time to visit. For now though, we look forward to settling down a bit, planning our next adventures and binge watching some good ole American reality TV.

If Women in Nepal Prefer Dogs, What Can a Kathmandu?

Published on May 24, 2019January 25, 2020 by karaLeave a comment

I had to take a few days after arriving in Kathmandu to process all of the fascinating and mind-bending sights. After some initial culture shock, I have found that I kind of like how rugged this city is. In 2015, Nepal was devastated by a series of earthquakes registering around 8ish on the Richter scale. The earthquakes killed nearly 9,000 people and toppled thousands of buildings. It also caused an avalanche on Mt. Everest that killed 21 people making it the deadliest day on the mountain—ever. While walking around, you can still clearly see the impact the earthquakes had, as many buildings are propped up with poles, others have massive cracks and many still lie in rubble piles of concrete, bricks and stone. In fact, after the earthquakes the city sent a team of engineers around to label buildings according to safety level and placed stickers with red, yellow and green to indicate, well, how likely the building is to crush the inhabitants. Further adding to the chaos of the place, the streets are only half-paved so cars and bicycle rickshaws kick up an insane amount of dust, blanketing virtually everything both indoors and out. On a walk around town, it is not uncommon to see slabs of raw meat for sale on tables outside, vendors pushing bicycles overladen with fruit, and groups of taxi drivers chit-chatting as they wait around for passengers. But in direct contrast to the grit, one can find beautiful women wearing stunning, intricate saris of red or pink. (In fact, Falcon offered to wake up early every morning to paint my clothes to make them prettier and brighter if I wanted.) The women put a red powder dot on their foreheads for good luck, and another smudge in their hairline to indicate that they are married. Men often hold hands or touch each other’s backs in a display of refreshing platonic affection that would send homophobic folks into fits. Combine all this with honking traffic, burning incense, people hawking yak wool blankets and trekking gear, delectable but bowel-melting Indian curries, obscenely grimy squat toilets and shredded prayer flags flapping in the wind, and you get a small idea of what this town is like.

One day, as we were walking around the toppled buildings of Durbar Square, a sun-beaten and weathered man thrust a crumpled postcard of a child dressed up for a festival at me and whispered harshly, “I can take you to see the Living Goddess.” As a rule, I always say no to whatever it is. A split second of hesitation as you process whatever is said, allows a vendor/tour guide/hawker to pounce and you will spend the next 10 minutes or more trying to rid yourself of the hanger-on. But my interest had been piqued so I went home and googled it. I seriously doubted that I had heard correctly or that it was as dramatic as I imagined, but low and behold, there was truly a living, breathing God holed up in a palace 10 minutes from my hotel.

The Royal Kumari, as she is called, is girl of 5 years old (as of 2019). Although her life began as a mere mortal baby, she was selected to serve as the living deity at the ripe age of 3 by exhibiting a number of important qualities and skills. The reason for which I’m not even going to try to explain. The Cliff Notes version of the selection process goes something like this: In order to be considered as a potential Kumari, one must have a neck like a conch shell, the body of a banyan tree and eyelashes like a cow, among many other attributes. She must also have not lost any teeth, be unblemished in physical appearance and health, and be from the Shakya caste. Once a child of the perfect aesthetic is found, she must then endure tests of her bravery by spending the night with the decapitated heads of sacrificial animals in a candle lit temple. The final test of the Kumari is to select the previous child-God’s belongs from an array of objects. If she fails this test, a new candidate is brought in for examination. Once the tests are complete and a series of cleansing rituals are performed on her body and soul, the deity enters her body and she remains divine until her first menstruation or until she bleeds heavily due to illness or wound.

She is confined to her palace in Kathmandu. The Kumari leaves only for ceremonies and is paraded through the streets on a palanquin, never wearing shoes or walking in public again. She is dressed only in red and always has a “fire eye” painted on her forehead. Yearly, the King seeks her out and kisses her feet in exchange for her blessing. She presides over a selected handful of gift-baring devotees that have come to her palace hoping that her power will heal their illnesses or predict their futures. The intriguing bit of all this is that once she is divine, she has very little contact with her family. She has caretakers and a refined group of playmates that are well-aware of the strict rules regarding her holiness. While the Living Goddess cannot be ordered to do anything, she must still be guided through life, bathed, educated and instructed on how to behave.

I can’t help but think about my own two children as I read all this. One of my children is 3 and the other is 5, and generally speaking, I find them to be pretty clumsy, emotional, loud things, with infrequent bouts of incitefullness, mediocre tact and adorable naivte. I love them because they are my little snuggle muffins, but I can’t even imagine what it would be like if they ruled with unrestricted abandon as the Kumari does. I can barely get my kids dressed to go out in the morning, let alone force them to wear formal garb and allow strangers to kiss their feet day in and day out. Although, they would be delighted to receive presents and be carried around all day.

That’s when I read the best part of the entire Wikipedia article: how to interpret the Kumari’s actions during a visit with her holiness. Typically, the Living Goddess will receive her guests in silence and this is considered the best outcome. However, if she cries or laughs during a visit, it can be a sign of impending illness. If she rubs her eyes, one can expect imminent death. If she claps, one should fear the King, and if she picks at the food offered to her, one can expect financial woes. Essentially, she acts just like a regular kid.

The Kumari Ghar (her palace) was too close not to go see for myself. I headed back to the square where I first heard about the Living Goddess. I wandered around looking for a red palace in all the broken-down rubble buildings, maybe one with surrounded by people hoping to catch a glimpse of the elusive child. I walked and walked, and finally found what I was looking for. It was much smaller than I expected. It was said to be a sign of her omnipotence that her palace remained relatively intact following the earthquakes, given the fact that many of the surrounding buildings had been flattened. Ornately carved window boxes surrounded the 3-story building, but other than that, it really didn’t look like the home of a divine being. I passed the threshold and cautiously entered the internal courtyard of the building, expecting that I was going to be escorted out for trespassing or not being Hindu. But alas, my expedition went unchallenged. I walked around the small courtyard hoping that she might make an unscheduled appearance at the window. Tourists came in, posed for Instagram selfies, got bored and left. Unsanctioned tour guides popped in, attempted to gain employment, gave up and left. And at no point during my visit, did I hear a peep from the open-air windows of the palace that would indicate that there may be a child or children present. Eventually, I too lost interest and left while the Living Goddess of Kathmandu remained just as elusive and mysterious as she started.

Taking pictures of the Kumari is strictly prohibited, but a glimpse of her is supposed to bring great luck.

Let’s Go Where the WiFi is Weak

Published on April 28, 2019January 25, 2020 by karaLeave a comment

We left a balmy 85 degree Bali, Indonesia in the morning and found ourselves 4,600 feet up in Kathmandu by nightfall. We pulled sweaters out of our bags as we ran across the tarmac and felt instantly vindicated for carrying unused warm clothes around for so long. It goes against my penny-pinching instincts but we have learned from experience that it alleviates a lot of marital strife to pay extra for someone to meet us at the airport. Thankfully, a stout Nepali fellow from our hotel greeted us as we exited. Our trolley cart got caught in the potholes, a kid tantrum-ed and fell asleep which basically incapacitated one adult, there were what seemed to be a million taxi drivers yelling at the same time, clouds of dirt were illuminated by the headlights of many freakishly small minivans, and it smelled primal. Welcome to Nepal. Namaste dammit, namaste.

Of all the Western-mind blowing things in Nepal, there are a few completely bonkers places that I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you about. The first of which is Pashupatinath Temple. We have seen a lot of temples in the past 8 months, but this one was our first active Hindu temple. Without passing any judgement, Hinduism to an ignorant outsider is really intimidating with its pantheon of multi-armed, half-animal, half-human deities and kinda sexual overtones. Also intimidating are the 300ish very aggressive monkeys that live on the temple grounds. So, we hired a guide to better understand the temple’s significance AND to offer another line of defense against the straight-up rabid primates. I kid you not, he told us not to even look at the monkeys as you pass them because they would attack. We carried the kids on our backs, and Falcon spent the next hour with his face buried in my hair as he channeled his inner “happy place” far from Kathmandu.

I was blessed by a Sadhu, but of course I smeared the red powder and it looks like I killed someone.

Dating back to 400 B.C., Pashupatinath Temple is one of the most sacred temples in the world and (to make a long story short) is said to be the built on the site of where Shiva somehow lost a horn, which I think we can all agree is a pleasantry for “penis.” The inner sanctum of the temple is rightfully reserved for practicing Hindus and is a pilgrimage site for people nearing death, as it is believed that those who die in the temple will be reincarnated as a human, regardless of their actions during life. Because of this, elderly Hindus who are not likely to recover, are housed in a section of the temple as they await death. When a person does finally pass away, a ceremony is conducted on the banks of the Bagmati River or “Mini-Ganges” as our guide called it. The glorified, trash strewn stream runs through the center of the temple, and bodies are hauled down the water’s edge, washed with water running down from the temple, and then carried by family members to platforms for cremation. As you can imagine, we were totally fascinated. Funeral pyres burned in the background, and troops of the rage-screaming monkeys leapt from building to building, as our poor guide waited for us to finish peppering him with questions that were just utterly and completely mundane for him. Like, “Duh, of course the bodies and wood ashes from the cremation are just pushed into the river afterwards.” And, “No, it doesn’t bother anyone that there is a concert happening directly across the river from where someone’s mother is crying hysterically as a fire is lit in her husband’s mouth.”

Three funeral pyres on the banks of the Bagmati River.

Male relatives preparing a family member’s body for cremation by placing it on the concrete slab by the river and then pouring holy water from the temple over it.

Like this place isn’t wild enough, there is a shrine to Kali, the destroyer Goddess, where human sacrifices used to be made. Today, the Gods are appeased on holidays with animal sacrifices of cattle, ducks, goats and rabbits inside the walls of small stone temple adorned with an array of sexual acts. The temple is also home a handful of sadhus, or wandering holy men, that live in caves on the property. It is said that they have renounced worldly life and hope through meditation and contemplation to improve their karma and that of the community at large. The few that we saw sat together asking for exorbitant amounts of money in exchange for a small blessing and photo with their insanely long dreadlocks over your shoulder. Finally, as I mentioned earlier, after the cremation the remains are swept into a heaping, smoking pile in the Bagmati river-stream. Over the course of the 1-2 hours that we were there, we saw four cremations and it struck me how much debris was entering the water just from this temple. When I asked the guide about it, he mentioned that it was part of the cycle of life. Women do their washing downstream as the ashes and fat from the fires act like soap and help to clean clothes, and further down, the muck from the river bed is harvested to make bricks. All I could think was that although one’s soul maybe coming back as human, it seemed a little disheartening to know that one’s body is coming back as someone else’s tidy undies.

Traveling with Toddlers: Practical Gear for the Family on the Go

Published on March 11, 2019January 25, 2020 by kara1 Comment

One of the biggest challenges we face while traveling is what to pack to keep the kids (and therefore ourselves) happy. Long gone are the years of slinging a backpack over a shoulder with just a couple of outfits, a Lonely Planet guide and a camera. Oh no, packing has become a straight up science in this family. We study it, we practice it, we test it, we tweak it and then test it again. Sometimes we fail miserably, like the time that we tried to take the Tube in London with two umbrella strollers, two kids, two backpacks and three rolling bags. As you could imagine, it was a cluster****. Anyway, the point here is not that we have failed, but that we have learned about what works and what doesn’t from years of trying.

Traveling can be stressful but it’s so much easier if you start out your journey with the right kit for your crew. Also, a combo of gear that works for one group may not be the right set-up for another family, or the same family but several years later. This what we have found to be the most helpful and long-lived equipment for our traveling family.

Carseats and Luggage Straps

CAfter hauling our full-sized carseats across the country once, I vowed never to do it again. If you have a baby it’s probably easier to bring a reclining carseat, especially if it clicks into your stroller, but for older kids with huge strap-in carseats the Ride Safer Travel Vest is a lifesaver (both literally and figuratively). Since my son was on the smaller side for his age (like 30 lbs and 4 years old) and couldn’t safely ride on a booster, I had to search all over the internets to find a safe, smaller alternative to the massive standard seats. This vest may look like he is going parachuting, but it meets the safety standards for the USA and is rated for kids weighing 30-60 lbs. It is a little pricey at $150-ish dollars (a bit more for all the straps and pillows) but it only weighs 2 pounds and fits into a tiny backpack which, in my opinion, might as well be priceless.

Even more mind-blowing is the Mifold Grab and Go Booster Seat. We have friends that swear by this and have jettisoned their regular boosters and carseats at home in favor of these. This booster is the size of a large wallet and weighs under 2 lbs, meaning that a kid could carry it in their backpack or it can fit in a glove compartment. It’s perfect for traveling and at $35, it won’t break the bank! It also meets the safety standards in the USA and children must meet size/weight requirements- 40 lbs, 40 inches tall and 4 years old. Our kids aren’t quite that big yet so we haven’t tried it yet but I’m counting down the days.

Don’t despair if you have a toddler that doesn’t meet the weight requirements for the boosters mentioned above. Carseat Travel Belts may be the way to go if you absolutely must bring an unwieldy carseat. Strap that sucker to your rolling luggage with your kid in the carseat and roll the whole thing around. Carseats can be checked at airport counters or at the gate if you want to keep it to haul your kid around the airport. It may be the best $15 you could spend.

As a last resort, most car rental companies can provide carseats for a fee. I’m not advocating this but if you are traveling abroad, some countries don’t require carseats for children at all, but that is a risk/reward decision that only a parent can make.

Baby and Toddler Earmuffs

Earmuffs for the win!

If you have a child, then you need Baby Banz Headphones. They are a life-saving piece of equipment, and not just for the traveling family. The adjustable, padded, noise-dampening headphones are perfect for newborns through toddlerhood. I can’t even count the number of times that we used them in restaurants, at concerts, for fireworks, parades, mowing the lawn, vacuuming, and running the blender. Not only do they protect sensitive little eardrums from loud noise, but I also credit the headphones with reducing some of the anxiety that my kids have when facing new environments. Granted, this is anecdotal and may be specific to my children, but I have found that reducing a small bit of sensory simulation allows my kids to keep their cool in situations when other families are frantically scrambling to leave. While there are many brands to choose from, some seem tight enough to permanently misshapen a baby’s head, other headbands just can’t physically withstand the force of a toddler on a destructive streak, so do yourself a solid and just get this go-to brand.

Baby Carriers

4-year old Falcon sleeping off the jetlag in the Ergo 360

Strollers have their utility but if you are traveling frequently, or find yourself on cobblestone streets or facing massive potholes, a baby carrier is an absolute must-have. There is a virtually unlimited number of baby carrying devices but my personal favorite is the Ergo 360, well because as the name suggests, we find it the most ergonomic and comfortable kid hauler around. The 360 degree feature allows a baby to be held on the front, the back, on the side, as well as facing in or facing out, and so many options make it perfect for kids as they get older and heavier. Granted, our children are still on the small side but we will still carry our 5-year old when he gets tired and needs a break. We don’t travel around the world just to stay within a toddler’s walk of the hotel so virtually any piece of equipment that allows us to stay out longer, later and go further is worth the price. The Ergo 360 is roughly $160 and has lots of color and fabric choices.

Sleeping and Eating Gear

Avoid extra charges at hotels for cots, AND more importantly keep all those gains made in sleep training by bringing your own portable baby crib. I consider this a luxury item not worth hauling around; however, other parents swear that it is an absolute requirement. If you fall into the later group, I have done some research and the UniPlay Portable Playard is highly recommended. It weighs only 8 pounds, folds up to the size of a briefcase and for $75 you can have the peace of mind that your baby won’t roll off the bed, that a toddler won’t get out of bed and flush all their toys down the toilet, and that your nearly potty-trained kid won’t pee on an AirBnB mattress. Plus, you can throw a fitted sheet on top to provide shade at the beach, etc. Ok, I have just convinced myself that I need this.

I have noticed in our travels that some countries are more baby travel-friendly than others. One small example is the lack of availability of highchairs. The Inglesina Portable Highchair attaches quickly to tables and can be used anywhere from picnic benches, restaurant tables, hotel desks, etc. It can hold a child up to 37 pounds and collapses down to 4.2 pounds making it easy to carry in a backpack or diaper bag. Our friends just traveled for 5 months straight with their 1-year old and swore that a portable highchair was their most highly recommended kid-travel accessory.

I have to admit that we get a little kickback from Amazon if you buy from the links in this article, so go ahead and DO IT! This stuff is really great, but if you disagree, leave me a comment and tell me why.

Two Toddlers Take On…Chiang Mai

Published on January 28, 2019 by kara1 Comment

We have lived in Chiang Mai with our two toddlers for half a year and have explored this city from top to bottom. Many articles recommend popular activities like the Night Safari and visiting elephant sanctuaries, and while these places are great fun and should definitely be explored, they are not always ideal for families with small children. Believe me, we tried to take our littles to the night bazaar and between navigating the tourist hordes with kids below hip height and the approaching meltdown period before bedtime, we nearly quit Chiang Mai altogether. So, we made it our mission to search out the most family-friendly places in Chiang Mai and this is what we found:

Ginger Farm

This lush garden restaurant is the epitome of Thailand, and it’s in the middle of the city. The restaurant features artistically presented fresh, organic, local food. It is a working farm and daycare, with a hay mountain for kids to climb, an art area, a sandbox, swings and a bevy of animals to look at. There is a bamboo bridge over rice paddies and water buffalos. If you are ok with your kids getting absolutely filthy, there is also a mud slide into a water pit. Luckily, I have never been there when it has been open so I have never had this particular debate with my children.

They don’t appear to have their own website but you can click on the headline for a link to their facebook page.

This sounds lame but go to the malls.

Every single mall has an indoor play area dedicated to the entertainment of children, and unless you grew up at a carnival, they are bound to blow your mind. For 150 baht (equivalent to $5.50), your child can play in a contained area with a blow-up bouncy slide, ball pit, trampoline, build a house with life-sized Duplo blocks, go shopping with kid-sized carts and fake food, play with balloons, swing and climb for an hour or two. Let your kids burn off some extra energy, rain or shine, while you sip on your Thai iced tea from the sidelines. Or, you can play too for an extra 30 baht. Furthermore, some places have a stamp card where you pay for 5, and get one free.

http://www.promenadachiangmai.com/

http://www.mayashoppingcenter.com/

http://www.centralfestival.co.th/index.php

http://www.centralplaza.co.th/index.php

http://www.kadsuankaew.co.th/en/

Rent a golf cart at the Chiang Mai Zoo

This is different than the Night Safari, which is on the opposite side of town. The zoo is a hilly, car-centric place but is a great for little kids to see a variety of animals at a fraction of the price of the Night Safari. You can feed hippos and giraffes, see penguins and pandas, and get up close and personal with porcupines and tortoises. You can walk, or ride the tram for a small fee, or best yet, rent a golf cart to explore the park at your own pace. There is a small kid’s playground and library which is so-so. The real bizarre but awesome part is that there is an amazing water park right in the middle of the zoo. Kids and adults alike can play on the splash pad-tunnel-water playground for an additional nominal fee. This blessed oasis is a welcome break from heat and humidity and is virtually guaranteed to tucker out even the most rambunctious of kids. The zoo is open 8am-5pm every day.

Eat lunch at Nic’s or Triplets

Both of these restaurants cater to families and are located a little bit out of town. If you don’t mind paying an obscene amount of money for totally average food and phenomenal playgrounds, these places are for you. Trampolines, sand pits, massive climbing structures, slides and swings are surrounded by tables from which parents can supervise their offspring. Parents can relax a bit and let kids scream, run and play without fear of upsetting other patrons. Good luck taking your kids to a regular restaurant after this.

http://nics.asia/en/homepage/

https://www.tripletseatandplay.com/

Siam Insect Zoo

I had very low expectations for this place. I expected to find butterflies and grasshoppers pinned to bulletin boards and maybe a couple of fish tanks with spiders, so I was pleasantly surprised by how interactive the exhibits were. Yes, there were lots of dead bugs displayed on the walls, but there were also hundreds of tarantulas, a butterfly garden, lizards, and centipedes. Kids could spray stick bugs with water bottles, touch lizards, find millipedes in loose soil and even hold a scorpion. There were several large iguanas and a few tortoises for good measure. The only downside is that it is located in Mae Rim, which is about 20 minutes outside of Chiang Mai. Songthaews will take you there, but if you have your own car, you could make a day of it and also go to the Mae Sa waterfall, snake farm, monkey show, extreme sport center and/or strawberry fields.

Are you visiting Chiang Mai with your kids?

Stay tuned!! Comprehensive 3, 5 and 7-day itineraries for family-friendly activities in Chiang Mai coming soon.

Traveling with Toddlers: Practical Advice for the Flight

Published on September 21, 2018January 29, 2020 by kara1 Comment

Navigating the strict rules of the airport while carrying all of my belongings AND toting cranky or sleeping little ones sends me into a panic attack just thinking about it. However, I have traveled with my two toddlers enough to know that we will make it and the trouble will be worth it. The following are a few of our tried and true methods for dealing with the chaos of the airport and flights.

1. Bring the kid gear.

No matter how cheap the airline is they always allow a car seat and a stroller to be checked FOR FREE. So, if your big-ass double stroller will make your trip more bearable, then bring it. Typically, you can leave it at the departure gate when you get on the flight and either pick it up at the arrival gate or at the baggage claim. Just remember that if it is not checked at the front counter, you have to get that beast through security so empty it out in advance and save your sanity for the flight.

2. DON’T pay extra to book seats together on budget airlines.

I can’t even fathom that a child would ever have to sit alone on a flight. If the airline doesn’t automatically move your child to sit with you, then the passengers will because no one in their right mind that wants to sit next to a kid. It’s also highly unlikely that another passenger wants to sit next to a single parent and a child when the rest of their party is nearby. We took this gamble on a few budget European airlines, never once was it an issue. The airline put all of us together and we saved big bucks by not paying for seat selection. This may not be true, however, if the seats are booked separately. Although I still maintain that any person who has ever encountered a child would make sure that they are united with their parents for a flight.

3. DON’T get stuck holding your wiggly child for the entire flight.

If you have a lap infant on a long-haul flight, ask the check-in counter or flight attendants for seats with a bassinet. They are often located at the front of the rows and a small child can sleep the flight away, freeing you up to do normal things like eat with both hands or go to the bathroom. LIFESAVER! For toddlers and other small children, we bring small blankets to make nests on the floor for them to stretch out on. I suspect that this is frowned upon by most airlines since they are not strapped in but it is one of those risk/benefit situations that each parent must weigh for themselves.

4. Reuse water bottles.

Of course, security does not allow you to bring liquids through, but nothing says that you can’t fill a water bottle up at a drinking fountain afterwards. My family drinks an insane amount of water and the airlines never seem to supply enough to keep everyone hydrated. The real pro tip here is bringing mix-in powders to make other drinks. We bring emergen-C for a quick boost of vitamins, Gatorade powder for electrolytes, Starbucks Via for our caffeine habit, kool-aid, hot chocolate, even dry soups. The powders take very little space in a carry-on, yet make a huge difference. This can also be taken a step further by bringing instant oatmeal or macaroni and cheese cups that only require hot water. The one caveat is that some bottles can erupt under pressure and spew water many feet in the air if they remain closed during take-off. My children have both been blasted by shower-force water to the face and on one rare occasion the passenger sitting directly behind us was the unlucky recipient of our mini-geyser.

5. Let your roller luggage do all the work

You have your luggage, your giant stroller, probably your toddler’s entire bedroom packed up into some kind of bag, maybe a car seat. How do you carry it all? The real answer is, “you probably don’t.” We take multiple trips, we ask strangers for help, and we use the expensive airport carts. However, there are a few gadgets that can provide a limited amount of assistance. Try attaching a bulky car seat to your rolling luggage with a strap, some even allow a child to remain in the seat. https://www.amazon.com/Traveling-Accessories-suitcase-ultra-portable-solution/dp/B0772VL93G If you McGyver it just right, you might also be able to get a folding umbrella stroller strapped onto your roller as well. Use an extra large, rolling duffle and cram as much as you can fit in it. We’ve transported kid’s bicycles, car seats, small strollers, and the kid’s luggage within a larger duffle and then paid to check only one bag. Bonus points if toddlers can ride on the duffle as you roll it.

Stay tuned for more pro travel tips and practical advice. If you too have any helpful hints, please let us know. We want to hear it!