Traveling & Backpacking with a Baby or Infant: Opening New Doors – The Mong New Year!

Recently I posted about how backpacking or traveling with a baby or infant can open new doors for you as you travel.  Last week we discovered that firsthand!

We went to the famous Chiang Mai Sunday Market and decided to buy Akiva a special outfit for us to dress him up in on Purim.  We hunted around and eventually chose one, a traditional outfit worn by the Hmong (or Mong) hill tribe of Northern Thailand.

Ben with Akiva and his Mong Hat. If we hadn't stopped to buy Akiva a Mong outfit, we would never have learned about the Mong New Year. Traveling with a baby is a great conversation starter!

While I was busy with Akiva, Rabbi Ben got to chatting with the seller and her friends, all from a nearby Mong village in the hills.  They told him that Tuesday was the Mong New Year and there would be a big celebration.  Rabbi Ben spent the next few days finding out more and on Tuesday morning at 5 AM we left for the Mong village to celebrate the Mong New Year!

It was a fantastic experience and I plan to post more about it this week, but the most amazing thing was that we would not even have been there if it weren’t for Akiva. We would never even have heard about it!  The only other foreigners there were members of a tiny private tour group whose guide was a Mong villager.  Otherwise, there were NO tourists at all! Amazing!

By traveling and backpacking around with a baby, we had an opening for conversation and an opportunity to learn about this once-in-a-lifetime travel experience. So, if there are any parents out there wondering if backpacking with a baby will slow you down, think again! Backpacking with a baby may actually open more doors for you… Enjoy!