Date:  Jan 14, 2018

This is a 3 parts blogs about my last vacation in Bangkok/Khao Yai.  It was a very fun trip for the kids and everyone loves it.  Here are the previous link for the other 2 parts.

Part 1:  https://miniliew.org/2018/01/04/khao-yai-vacation-2017-part-1-bangkok-itinerary/

Part 2: https://miniliew.org/2018/01/06/khao-yai-vacation-2017-part-2-khao-yai-itinerary/

On our day 3 in Khao Yai, it is time to say good bye to Treehouse @ Lala Mukha.  All luggages are following us in the van.  And today, we are going to visit Jim Thompson Farm which is about 1.5-2 hours drive from Khao Yai.

Pisa Tower @ Toscana Golf Resort

On the way to Jim Thompson Farm, we passed by Toscana Golf Resort.  It is a village or hotel resorts modelled against Toscana Italy.

And guess what we found there?

Yeap!  Pisa tower duplicate.

opposite this Pisa tower, suppose to be a very big Sunflowers field.  But this year, because of the rain, the sunflowers seeding comes 1-month late.  So, we can’t see the sunflowers here.

Yeah, I have seen Pisa tower!!! hahahaha But in Khao Yai Thailand.

 

Must take good picture with it.

The kids learned about Pisa tower during their kindergarten days.  Now, they see the duplicates they nearly thought Pisa tower is in Thailand.  hahaha

Toscana area is called a Ozone place.  As it has one of the highest Ozone concentration in the world.  It is near to Wang Nam Kheo’s ozone-rich valleys.

Jim Thompson Farm

Every year, the Jim Thompson Farm will open its farm tour for about 1 month.  And so lucky that we happened to be there on it’s opening day.  That is why we change our entire itinerary sequence to visit Jim Thompson Farm on its first day.

It is not in Khao Yai.  It is about 100km from Khao Yai.  About 1.5hours to 2 hours ride for the scenic drive.

After a long ride, we finally arrived.

Jim Thompson Farm.  The farmers will present all their hardworking products here for about 1 month.

Let’s see what we can see here.

There are 5 zones here.  You can see flowers, pumpkin field, visit Isan Village, The Jim Village and its Market.  Seems fun.  Got flowers to see.

Spotted a Gag fruit.  This suppose to be one of the most richest anti-oxidant fruit.

In the village, you not only need to know how to plant, but you need to know how to fish.

Jay, now you know fishing (using net) is not easy ya.  hahaha

Because it is a huge place.  So, we need to take the tour bus to the first destination.  And we passed by the lovely sunflower patch.  Somehow they managed to grow it here.

Keep working Jay!  It was a fun experience for him.

The tour bus.

Kay just lie down on the hammock.

Or you can play the swing.

Huge place with lots of different flower beds.

The tour guide – Mr. Thomas Kum, who brought us here.  I think it is important to have a personal tour guide whom you can talk to, chat with about anything, and he make sure take good care of you and family.  Thanks Thomas for arranging this trip.  (see Part 1 & 2 for his contact).  May need to pay a little bit more for such service, but I think at the end of the day, it is all worth it.  The stay is nice, the food is great, the tour is flexible, and the transportation is comfortable.

This Jim Thompson tour is mainly for the mommies.  hahaha

They can take picture with the flowers.

Make sure you do that.  Make your wife happy.  By going to a flower place.

Mommy with flowers.

Experiment with all kind of shots.

Some flowers are really nice.

Pretty.

Pink and Orange.

Oh, caterpillar.

The flower bed is big enough to take good wife and flowers photos.

At the centre, there is a huge place where they placed a lot of pumpkins decors.

Make sure you take a photo of your kid running own the pumpkin patch.

Very cool!

So many pumpkins on the ground.

Not so easy too.  So many people walking around.  hahaha

Lots of butterflies.

Kay and the flowers.

The kids and the flower.

Not a small place to walk.

 

 

Isan Village

Isan is in Northeast of Thailand.  Main activity here is growing rice.  There is a lot of exhibits here to show off Isan Village.

After the walk in the huge huge flower bed area.  We are now entering Isan Village.

Wow… this is how they irrigate the water to the padi rice field.

荷花

Nice.

Lilipad and flowers.

The rice field.

Oh-Chu-bee field.

Eating pop corns.

Isan villagers getting married.. singing and dancing along the road.

Don’t forget the Sky Jump photos.

This is where we going to learn about other culture.

Learn about their habits.  Their stay.

Making threads.

Silk worm cocoon.

Cook it.

Eeewwww.

extract the silk.

extracting the silk.

OK, not easy to be a farmer.

What are you guys harvesting?

Rice.

Let’s try it.  Sticky rice.

OK.  Everyone is hungry.  Let’s buy some Isan food and eat.

Ikan Bakar.

I am eating this.

Nice!  A bit spicy though…

Go Kart @ Khao Yai

OK.  After Jim Thompson Farm, we head back to Khao Yai.

It’s Go Kart time!

The kids are pretty excited.

This is probably the first time all kids taking go-kart.  Every one is excited.

The Go Kart karts are very decent too.  The course is decent too.

Jay scratching his head.  Trying to figure out what is the strategy to over take the other cars.

Stylo.

Seems like they are ready to go.

For hygiene purpose, must wear this.

And all of them are ready!

What a happy face.

Since they are first timer, so, the instructors sat on their car for a while to teach them how to drive.

Yeah, and here he go…

Every time Kay Kay passed by me, he will raise his victory fingers…

It was close match.

What?  You are catching up?

Because it was so much fun, so, they go for 2nd round.  Each round not cheap, but since the kids have so much fun, we let them play for another round.

Happy face again.

This time, mommies also play.

Dab…

Here comes dangerous driver #1.

Here comes dangerous driver #2.

Still a very tight race.

And you know who win lah…

The hao-lian mommy laugh because she won.  hahaha

This is the first time the

Rancho Charnvee Golf Resort

Due to late decisions during booking and unforeseen Thailand holiday long weekend, I was not able to book some of the hotel I would like to stay.  So, I was sort of no-choice and chosen to stay 2 nights in Rancho Charnvee Golf Resort.

Strongly recommended by Thomas, so, we arrived at Rancho Charnvee.  And with his good relationship with the golf manager, we got to stay in this hotel-house.

And the hotel house is behind a small river.

 

Of course, there is a nice balcony for you to enjoy that small river.

This is the dining area.

The master bed room.

The kids room.

Living room area.  Every room has TV and even in the Living room.

Toilet is nice too.

Nice little study area.

Dinner At Rancho Charnvee

We were a bit tired when we arrived at the hotel.

So, we decided to eat at the restaurant at the Golf Club house.

Not too bad, they have live band.

Its full moon tonight.  Not likely I am going to get some good photographs tonight either.

But the food is nice!

Kay Kay will eat this huge pizza.

And he likes it.

Wow, looks really delicious.

My french onion soup.

Nice but spicy.

Pork Knuckles again.

Let’s take a photo before we eat.

Thomas seems found a new guitar teacher.  And he just went up singing.

Night Photography

I think the sky might be clear the next day early morning.  So, I might catch the sun rise.

So, I have prepared my camera, set up the tripod.

Prepare the cloth I am wearing during 4am.

Most importantly, insects repellant.

And my after bitten rescue cream.

And my lenses.

Looks like I am all set.

Let’s capture the lights.

Not many stars in the sky, because the moon is too bright behind.  Its full moon.

Early morning 4:30am, I have only 15 min time interval for the full moon to set and before the sun rise.  But still I managed to shoot only very few sky with stars.

The other side of the river bank.

The bright moon is still there, and I shot it to become a star.  haha

I tried again next morning.

Managed to catch a bit of sunrise.

Still learning how to catch it.

He wanted to take star photo also, but eventually, he did not wake up.  haha

Breakfast

The hotel breakfast is nice.  And they have a special Thai section.

Wow, looks very sinful.

This is nice.

Beef tendons.

This is thai style scramble eggs.

Look at my second day breakfast… mee sua.

Mee Goreng.

He is very happy lor.  Because nice food mah.

Chok Chai Farm

This is the forth day of our Khao Yai trip.

Today we going to visit Chok Chai Farm.

They have a farm tour, teaching you how they make their milk products.

Wow, there are a lot of tourists.  Not only from overseas but locals.

Look at the cloudless blue sky.

Let’s take more selfies.

This is the super cow.  They buy from US, and then mate the super cow with local female cow.

Because they need the US cow’s super gene.

“Bad cow!” urinate in front of the audience.

Oh ya… Parental guidance is needed.  They explained how they mate the cows.

The milk factory.

The milk cows.

Quite high tech.

Ummh Milk! packaging..

The workers working with machines.

After the factory tour, it is the farm tour follow by cowboy shows.

Let’s relax a bit.

Check out the worms.

Cow boy show.

Cow boy playing lasso.

Cow boy who playing with his guns.

Cow boy who plays with his whip.

Horse.

Horse ride.

We spent lots of time here too.

Learning how to aim and shoot.

Hahahaha.  rifles shooting.

After the farm tour, we are hungry.  So, we had steak burger.

Which is very very tasty and good.

Swimming at Rancho Charnvee

We told Thomas to cancel some of the planned trip.

Because we wanted to enjoy the hotel facilities.

Daddy mommy is tired, so need massage.  So, we arrange Thai massage in our hotel room.

And we let the kids playing in the pool.

The pool water is quite cold.  But the kids can tahan la.  hahaha

Quite a nice pool.  They are waiting for Lukas and Louis to come out and join them.

Also deep pool too.

We took some quite nice photos here.

After the swim, the kids gets to fly their airplane.

Thomas trying to teach them aerodynamics.

They learned what its he best way to throw the plane.

Wow, feels like taking a flying lesson.

Uh-ha… this is how Louis fly the plane over the fence.

And they lost the plane there.

Pete’s Maze

After kids’ water play, and after parent’s massage session… it is time to go to the next attraction.

Everyone says if you come to Khao Yai, must visit the Pete’s Maze.  So, it is a Maze.  Like Harry Potter’s Maze like that.

The aim of the maze is to locate all these funny funny little statues and find the way out.

The maze is not small.  It is big.

So for us, the kids is responsible to find the statue, the parents is to take photos of kids finding those statue as a proof.

A lot of walking.

A lot of laughter.

I know it is just a maze.  But it is fun for us.

Look, they are building a monk statues behind.

Ooi, why you guys blocking Elsa?

He was a famous monk in Thailand, so they building a statues to remember him.

Cool, I can stick my head in it.

The poker cards kids.

Chess player.

The big jeans.

The colour pencil.

The dragon.

Even got Daeramon.

The scooter.

Yeah, the exit!

Night Market

There are night market here in Khao Yai.

It usually attracted a lot of locals.

The street food looks interesting.

But not sure we want to eat it.

As it is close to Isan, so, a lot of Isan food.

Some really looks nice.

But since we are going to a proper restaurant.  So, better not eat here.

Banmai Chaynam Restaurant

On our final in Khao Yai, we visited Banmai Chaynam Restaurant.  Or is it a museum of the past?

Let’s drive.

Old toys.  Wooden rocking horse.

It has a lot of toys figures, past items, etc.

Ya, the kids try to strangle Captain America.

What an old Ultraman.

Oh.. Another Ultraman.

Every one is hungry by now.  Let’s play Uno before the food comes.

Let’s check out the nice background.

Food is here.

Yeah.

Crispy fish.

Salad.

Kang Kong.

Kor Moo Yang (Pork Neck).

Omellette.

Another fish.

Clams.

Green curry.

Kay was tired.  And he is having a power nap.

After the meal, we take stroll.  Wow, the restaurant is just beside a small river.

Banmai signboard.

The bridge looks scary.  close my eyes and walk.

Museum of old toys collections.

All kinds of irons.

Pinball machines.

Horse racing game.

They found an old soccer gaming machine.

I am glad they are expose to what we played back in the 70’s.

Thomas teach the kids how to play it the right way.

Where we bring tingkat home and eat our tabao food.

Teapots.

And cups.

Introduce Lara Croft to the kids.

The toys from the 70’s.

When the era does not have any smart devices, anything in our hand become smart.

Betty.

Trains.

More ultraman.

Arcade machine.

Music band.

KFC.

Hi Mr. Bean.

Candy toys.

Mini liquor.

Another retro gaming.

They enjoyed it!

Last Day in Khao Yai

Enjoying the hotel.  Watch TV on the bed.

Selfie of the swimming pool.

This is the other type of hotel rooms.

My breakfast.

He also likes the mee sua.

I also ate this. Nice.

Kids playing.

The golf course.

Too bad this trip did not play golf.

Say bye bye to Rancho Charnvee.

And here we go.  2.5 hours journey back to Bangkok.

We stopped at Megamall @ Bangna.  Just beside the Airport.

We eat roasted Peking Duck again.

The grand meal become going home.

The big big leg.

And of course arcade.  While the mothers all go shopping and do their hair and nails.

And that concludes our short vacation to Khao Yai.

Cheers!

Khao Yai suppose to be quite cooling.  But unfortunately, this time round is still hot when we were there.  I think spending 3 nights or 4 nights there should be enough.  There are things for kids to do.  And it all depends how you plan.  For us, of course, we rely on our tour guide Thomas on everything.  And we enjoyed our stay very much.  Kids are happy!