Our main agenda item for the day was the Doi Tung villa and gardens. This is a property that was built by the king's mother later in her life. The region around Chiang Rai has very good soil and growing conditions, but people were mostly using it to grow opium. The king's mother made it a project of hers to redirect these efforts. Now the area is known for coffee, macadamia nuts, and beautiful flowers. It was about an hour drive to the villa from Chiang Rai, which worked out perfectly for Elena's nap. It was quite rainy for the first part of the drive, and it was still raining a bit when we got there.
Doi means mountain and tung means flag. Our guide pointed to these banners at the entrance as an example of tung.
We decided it would be best to visit the villa first since it was still a bit drizzly. It was actually chilly!
I hadn't packed warm clothes for the girls, but I had a shawl which we wrapped around Elena when she was in the stroller. We couldn't take the stroller into the villa though, so she was just walking around and enjoying it all. We also weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so all I have are pictures of the outside.
We each got an audio guide that described the architectural style as a cross between a Swiss chalet and traditional Thai architecture. The flower boxes had carvings of local images and elephants.
We came in a side door. The main doors are only used when the royal family comes to stay. In case you get any ideas, there's a guard on duty.
Vivian got really into the audio guide and listened to the full explanation at each number which was really cute. The house was interesting, and the view was beautiful, even in the rain.
By the time we were done with the villa, the rain was letting up, so we walked down to the main gardens. They were absolutely beautiful.
There were also a lot of fun features that Vivian enjoyed.
She was especially excited to find a maze.
We spent about an hour exploring the gardens, and then we were ready for lunch. There was a little restaurant there, so that's where we got our food. I tried the chicken with macadamia nuts which was yummy. Elena has definitely crossed the line from baby to toddler. She had fried rice for lunch,
and drank water right from the glass.
She's walking everywhere by herself now, but she slowed down and took a nap on the ride back to the hotel. The weather had cleared up by the time we got back to the hotel, so Jeff and Vivian went to play in the pool, Young took Elena down to the kids's club, and I did some homework. That evening we left the girls to chill with Young again,
and Jeff and I went back to the Italian restaurant.
This time we knew to pre-order our souffle for dessert. It was totally worth the extra time and went really well with a glass of port, yum!
Even with the rain, it was a great day, and we really loved the Doi Tung villa and gardens.
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