Grubbs n Critters

July 16, 2014

A Weekend in Chaam: Day 3

The ruckus started as early as 6.30 am and with a long weekend such as this, I can testify that there is no such a thing as vacation for us parents. We tried our luck again to sleep in and let the kids entertained themselves. As predicted, it didn’t last that long.

The moment they opened their eyes, their feet wouldn’t stand still and their mouths wouldn’t stop rattling. They went all out of their way to create havoc, find every little means to up the ante of their mischiefs and for Spud, a full-blown show of deliberate defiance to push her boundaries in trying to exert her authority.

It was going to be a long, long day and an excruciating drive back to Bangkok.

At least breakfast went quite well for a solid 10-15 minute where both kids managed to focus on their food and fed themselves as we watched on.

It sort of went downhill from there as they each decided to use their feet to better use by roaming about in separate directions…

Spud decided to throw a tantrum when we got back to the room to pack the remaining stuff, refusing to put back on her shoes as we got ready to check-out. She even made a big fuss on which bathroom she wanted to go to and even though there were 2 bathrooms in our chalet, she insisted on using that very bathroom I was in! It got into a full-blown temper tantrum and a few screaming sessions from her father, while Squirt, in the meantime, decided to run around like a mad monkey and moved some furniture from their original positions, almost breaking the glass table in the living room. What I heard whilst I was in the bathroom sounded like utter chaos.

I got out of the bathroom ready to go, with Spud still refusing to put on her shoes. I decided that we all would walk ahead and told her that she can choose to walk without her shoes if she preferred so, and that we weren’t waiting for her. With that, I had effectively made her walked out of the door without her shoes on as all of us walked ahead. She wasn’t too happy and started screaming her typical screams, yet it took her less than 30 seconds to put both shoes on by herself and ran after us! I had to smirk. Although her screaming continued, it worked. Her shoes were back on in a jiffy and she was walking in them.

Suggesting a family shot after checking out seemed to calm her down. However, not 5 minutes of driving later, she started whining and howling again because she could.not.get.her.bear.to.sit.next.to.her.properly.

Urrghh!

How I exploded! If there is one thing that gets to me, it would have to be a kid whining and screaming just because she could not get her way while we are trying to navigate our way in the car which was going at a speed of 80 km/hr on a road that is known for its fair share of accidents. We had to stop the car.

Spud finally calmed down after my extreme outburst and the rest of the journey went by without much of a hitch. We made several pit-stops, got caught in a little bit of traffic as we were nearing home and finally arrived in our very own safe haven slightly after 3.30 pm.

I think I feel more exhausted after the “weekend break” as opposed to spending my day working at the office and feeling all stressed out. The term vacation really has no meaning for parents with no extra helping hand to two little rambunctious tots.

That being said, while exhausting, it has been a fun weekend. We had a pretty nice resort and being able to spend some precious time as well as dedicate 100% attention to the kids is priceless. To see them smile, laugh and be genuinely happy is worth every pain.

As insane as it may sound, we just might do it again sometime.

Coming up:Review on The Regent Chalet Chaam

A Weekend in Chaam: Day 2

Category: Travels

The day started early. With both kids having a rather fitful night sleeping in a strange place (Spud woke up wailing away at midnight from being startled by some noise which the AC had made and Squirt got out of bed crying at 3 am in the morning; probably confused), our night felt really short when both kids decided to storm into our bed at the ungodly hour of 6 a.m.

Our attempts to send them back to bed was futile; they were up, can’t wait to start their day and ready to play! We managed to stave them off for another hour or so by ignoring them as they entertained themselves hiding in the cupboards while we tried to continue our zzzs amidst the noise created by 2 toddlers high on the adrenalin of water and milk. The whining, swatting and screaming started soon enough and the kids made sure that they made our sleep impossible by interrupting us every 2 other minutes with random stuff. Before I knew it, Squirt climbed next to me and emptied the contents of a bottled water, giving me a huge wet spot on the side of my bed. Clearly the kids were bored out of their minds and we were hauled out of bed soon after.

We decided to head out to a recreational area called the Swiss Sheep Farm located no more than a 15-minute drive from our resort after the kids had their breakfast. I thought that it was kind of a weird concept to have such a theme in blisteringly hot Bangkok – so frigging hot that I had to buy myself a hat there and then (only 120 baht!) as I could feel a migraine coming – but , fortunately for the kids, it turned out to be a rather interesting place for them.

The highlight of the place was sheep feeding. Carrots, grass and milk are being sold to visitors so that we could feed the sheep. Both kids had tons of fun doing that and it was such a joy watching them interacting with a bunch of sheep – either trying to feed them and at the same time, running away from them when the walking-bag-of-wool got too close for comfort.

Apart from that, I am not really sure what the place is all about besides trying to replicate the scenes of being in some farm in Switzerland. From makeshift barns to replicas of old automobiles and lawn mowers, to Spiderman and pony/bull rides, to a garden filled with heart-shaped artifacts and a few more automobiles from the past, I struggle to find some sort of educational meaning to the whole set-up.

Given how the place was named, I was hoping that we would be able to at least see how sheep milk is being processed or how sheep cheese is being made, and eventually having the opportunity to purchase them. I would have thought that it would be a rather interesting sufficiency concept adapted to Thailand now, wouldn’t it? I mean, who wouldn’t find freshly-made sheep milk and sheep cheese super-cool? I know I would!

But perhaps, I am just over-thinking this whole thing and that the fancy place is just being set up in the most simplistic way for families and couples to get together and allowing more photo opportunities and plenty more selfies.

The Swiss Sheep Farm is, in my opinion, an interesting but a little odd. It seems almost out of place in the scheme of things. The space is good for running around and tumbling about if it wasn’t too hot and humid for such activities. We did not stay too long not only because the kids are turning pink as if they were roasting away like suckling pigs in the unbearable heat, but also because there wasn’t much we could do after feeding the sheep to keep them occupied as the rest of the activities did not seem to offer much educational value for the kids. Entrance fees to The Swiss Sheep Farm with dual pricing applies:

Thai: Adults – 50 Baht, Kids 30 Baht
Non-Thai: Adults – 120 Baht, Kids – 80 Baht

If you are residing in Thailand, though, they will accord you with local rates when you present your work permit or Thai Driving License – as we did.

We got back to the resort just in time for the kids to have their lunch and Squirt, his nap soon after. We then spent the early evening with the kids in the pool, hoping that we could tire them out. They had a blast mucking about in the water while alternating the choice of the pool every 5 minutes…which tired US parents out instead.

It’s amazing how kids can be so happy with just the pleasures of simple play. There were no toys, no phones, no tablets, yet we all were having fun and were utterly enjoying each other’s company that was accompanied by lots of laughter and silly antics. It was just us parents being our kids’ playmates playing together with them and going along with whatever they wanted that deemed permissible.

The day ended with dinner being served in our resort and as a reward for their good behavior, they each scored themselves a cone of ice-cream. I guess we had been successful in tiring them out with the events of the day and by 7 pm (under our watchful supervision by lying next to them to minimize the fun they could be having), both kids went out like a light.

The evening was quiet. We had a pretty darn good day.

A weekend in Chaam: Day 1

Category: In and around Thailand

The long weekend last week provided us with an opportunity to venture out of Bangkok for a short family weekend getaway from Bangkok by booking ourselves a 3-day, 2 night stay at a resort in Chaam. It was a rather last minute decision and given the long weekend where Bangkok residents would have booked all of the hotels in advance, we were indeed quite lucky to be able to find ourselves a reasonably-priced accommodation at quite a short notice.

Chaam is about 200 km away, south of Bangkok and pretty easy to get to. Under normal circumstances, it should be a straight-forward place to get to and driving can be done in under 3 hours. However, as last Friday happened to be a long weekend, it also means that most of Bangkok residents would also take the opportunity to get out of town. As a result, traffic was heavy and very unfortunately for us, we got caught in really, really slow-moving traffic.

10500353_10154315082995322_7530787546967125649_n — Really slow moving traffic out of BKK

We should have left home earlier, but because I had to be activated for urgent work that needed to be done, we were delayed for about half an hour. We left home closer to 10 am and it didn’t take long before we had to join in the crawling traffic almost all the way to Chaam. We weren’t even halfway there even after spending more than 3 hours in the car, making me feel really anxious that the kids would get impatient and would start wailing their guts out soon enough. To their credit, both fell asleep during the drive. Although the nap did not last very long, I thanked my lucky stars that Spud did not wake up from her nap wailing her guts off like she always does after a nap.

2 rambunctious kids,2 rest-stops, 3 U-Turns, 2 exhausted parents and 5 hours later, we finally arrived at our destination, The Regent Chalet Chaam. We had a nice place to house ourselves for the weekend and the kids were again excited at the prospect of being able to create absolute mayhem as they found out that they will be sleeping in the same room.

20140711_160120 — Rejoicing after a 5-hour drive

We spent the rest of the afternoon after checking ourselves in the room by walking on the beach collecting seashells before setting ourselves at a nearby restaurant for dinner. While Spud enjoyed her little walks on the sand scouring seashells, Squirt refused to step on the sand under any circumstances and was scared of the waves from the sea. He was not too happy walking anywhere on the sand or near the water, and was adamant about not wanting to move an inch when he had his feet on the sandy beach. He refused to do anything with the sand saying that it’s “dirty” and “itchy” and only wanted to be carried.

With so much excitement happening during the day, the kids were clearly over-stimulated and over-tired. Bedtime was a mad-house with both kids bouncing off the walls, climbing in and out of bed for the hundredth time, laughing, screaming, screeching with each other, and us losing our heads trying to get both to stay IN bed and stay quiet.

It took us 2 hours to finally be able to settle them down and we did so by not leaving their room. By the time the last kid closed his eyes, it was 9.30 pm – way, way, way past their usual 6.30 pm bedtime.

We both were knackered we could hardly move.

It was only Day 1.