Our third stop on our honeymoon is a hotel in the village of Tanggayuda, near a tourist/artist community known as Ubud:  the Komaneka at Tanggayuda.  Chiang Mai is a big city.  Kata Noi (on Phuket) was the beach, and now we were clearly in the jungle.

This was made clear a few ways.  One was obvious.  The view just off our plunge pool is a lush jungle with distant rice terraces.  Another was the sounds.  In most ways, the Tanggayuda was much quieter than the prior hotels, as the designers were smart to put in ultra-quiet air conditioning units.  But the hotel was alive with the sounds of the jungle, particularly at night.  Both Janine and I enjoy falling asleep to the sound of waves crashing on the beach.  But it turns out we actual prefer the sounds of the jungle creatures.

There are some negative side effects though.  We are really worried about what our baby is learning.  We understand he now hears us and begins learning things.  We are concerned about his preschool days.  Picture the classroom.. “the horse goes?”  baby Smith says “Naaaaay”  “and the pig goes” “oink” says baby Jones.  “And the frog says..” baby Dillman responds: “Quack”  Blasphemy!  He may as well have run with scissors.

But those are the noises of the jungle here.  Quack goes the frog (the local ducks also say quack).  Both the house lizard and the geckos compete with the birds.  Clearly they know who is who though, as our quacking frogs in our bathroom frog bog only responded to their particular quacks (as opposed to the quacks of the frogs we did not get to see).

We will leave you with some photos of the beautiful facilities.  But we will have to leave the quacking, chirping, peeping, and hoot of the jungle to your imagination.  That is, of course, until you make the time to visit and experience it yourself.