Thailand: Suansuwan Resort Chiang Mai

The first time I visited Thailand was in the fall of 2000 with a group of friends. We hit the ground running, staying in a bustling guesthouse on Khao San Road and running around Bangkok for a few days before taking an overnight bus north to Chiang Mai. Traveling with four children is a bit of a different story, and I knew that our first order of business upon arrival needed to be rest. I also knew that if we were in the city, I would want to go out and explore! Two days of travel and a fifteen hour time difference is hard on anyone, and I wanted to ensure we had a few days where our main focus was to rest and relax. I found Suansawan Resort online and booked three nights. It was about  a half hour out of Chiang Mai in the beautiful, quiet Mae Rim District, and ended up being exactly what we needed. 

This was our villa, with two bedrooms and room for all. 

The grounds were lush and beautiful, full of flowering trees, orchids, a fish pond, and a little lake. 

This was the path from our room to the restaurant. Being out of town meant I want tempted to go exploring and looking for food! The food was not spectacular, but enjoyable enough. 

Peregrine enjoyed taking the little boat out on the lake.

There were many beautiful seating areas throughout the grounds.

Pearl was happily finding snails! 

Hibiscus in bloom.

There was a fun playground for the little ones.

Ice cream on a hot afternoon is a special treat. We have a tradition of buying Magnum ice cream bars when we travel. I don't think we've ever bought them in the US, but they've been enjoyed in Panama and Mexico. 

Swimming! 

Raphael is always on the lookout and notices many interesting things that others may miss. Here is a cicada! We also saw the biggest geckos we've ever seen, and the kids were quite excited about that. The largest one was at least a foot long! 

Even the housekeeping signs are pretty! 

Part of Suansawan's facilities are a Care Resort assisted living community. We got to spend time with a few of the residents and especially enjoyed getting to know Joyce. She's from America's east coast, and reminded me so very much of my Italian great aunt and grandma. Peregrine also really enjoyed visiting with Marianne, a lovely woman from England. (He used his best British accent the entire time, and was excited afterward because he felt that by listening to her he had improved his pronunciation!)

We went out for a walk in the surrounding countryside one day and the children wanted to have their picture taken on the steps leading up to the wat (temple). 

Rice fields!
 

Beautiful, delicate flowers. 

Starfruit! It's always fun to see tropical fruits growing. 

Papaya.

Pink dragonfly over the fishpond. 

Night swimming.

Our time at Suansawan was exactly what we hoped it would be. We left feeling refreshed and ready to take on new adventures and explore this beautiful country!