Finding beauty in umbrellas and worms- Day 4 Chiang Mai

I love seeing how things are made.  When we go on a holiday, I am usually searching for some kind of tour or cultural experience that will teach us something new.  I'd like to believe I do this because of my love of learning, but most likely it is the homeschool mom in me. I really feel the need to teach my boys something new on every trip we take.  This has been one of the most rewarding parts of living abroad and homeschooling.  We have been able to give the boys experiences I never thought imaginable.  It also helps when the stars just seem to align and we are able to take a "field trip" that would line up perfectly with our upcoming lessons.

Borsang-Umbrella Village

Day 4 in Chiang Mai was our teaching day.  We headed out that morning to Borsang, Umbrella Village. When you are up in Chiang Mai, you will see a rainbow of paper & silk umbrellas.  They are beautiful and even more stunning because they are hand made.  We didn't have a tour scheduled at the factory, so we just walked around on our own.  Each station has a sign that explained the process of making the umbrellas. After you make it through all the stations, you end up at the painting station.  There are local artists that will paint anything for you..hats, cameras, phone cases, sunglasses...anything you want.  This was our favorite part.  We didn't know that they did this, so we didn't bring anything along with us.  The boys ended up getting paintings on the back of their ball hats, I had the front of my camera painted, and Ben went into the gift shop and had a couple wooden games painted.  We were all amazed at how quickly the artists painted. It was so fun to watch.  The paintings were all done on donation.   I love that we have these keepsakes for the future.

Thai Silk Factory

After leaving the umbrella factory, we headed over to the Thai silk factory.  They are not too far apart.  I was excited about heading there because I knew the boys were going to be learning about Ancient China and how silk was discovered in the upcoming weeks.  Honestly, I had never really thought about how silk was made.  I knew silk worms made it, but what I didn't realized was that it was from the cocoon, not the worm itself.  The factory had little stations set up showing each phase the silk worm goes through, how they pull the silk thread off the cocoon, dying the thread, and then finally using the loom to make the fabric.  The boys were very interested in the process and thought it was pretty cool that a little worm could play a huge part in making beautiful fabrics.  I love when we plan a field trip and it turns out so much better than we had imagined. It was great to learn a little about the history of silk in Asia.   The factory had a beautiful gift shop, but most of the items were very expensive.  We now have a much better understanding and appreciation of how silk is made.  

We had a full 3 1/2 days in Chiang Mai city and were ready to get to our relaxing part of our holiday.  We were heading up to Mae Rim, which is about 45 minutes outside the city, to enjoy the peaceful surroundings of the mountains, waterfalls, and nature.  Chiang Mai city did not disappoint at all.