Chiang Dao

We made a journey to Chiang Dao and stayed in the very nice Chiang Dao Nest.  With mountains all around, it is quite the picturesque setting.  The first evening, we made a little afternoon hike to a nearby monastery.  The kids did quite well at adhering to the silence expected in such a place, and we went up the hundreds of steps to the temple at the top of the mountain -- and the spectacular view that followed.

The grounds were meticulously kept and there were many monks sweeping away leaves from the path.  Add in the labels of all the trees and it was quite a nice hike.  There were lots of questions about Buddhism, so telling the story of Siddharta Guatama kept the kids' interest for quite some time.

After we left the kids decided to make snow angels.  Quite appropriate for the first week in January -- though since there was no snow anywhere around, the gravel had to suffice.  The hilarious comment of the trip was something like , "I wish we had rocks like this back home.  This is so fun."

 . . .yea, until you get rocks and dust in your eyes.  YUCK!