Laurie's World

So not too much to report today–has a leisurely morning, then went for a walk down to the river and then back up through where they had already started setting up for the night market.

River pix:

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Setting up for night market:

We stopped in at Burger king for 9 baht soft serve icecream (cuz how could you not??)

Here is the McDonalds across the street…

When we were on our way back from the river, we went down a lane that is the only place i have ever seen graffiti here…really it was more like art…

Then lucky me–a trip to Sopa. Had some work done on the hair  : ) and a massage. Here is a picture of Sopa, me and Durran (I am guessing on the spelling). Yes, I really am that much taller than them (I was NOT standing on a box)

This Troy waiting for his foot massage  : )

Good afternoon…just got “home” from a day with Riam and Jaron. I know his English name is Pat–but I like Jaron better and I can remember it so why not??

We went up to Chiang Dao Caves today…it was the coolest thing we have done on this trip so far I would say. It will be fun to see what pictures Troy got on his camera—it is difficult to capture these types of things with a camera. I also did have my video, but the light was very low (to say the least) pitch dark! So unless the lantern was right on something–no way to see it.  When we got there, we first fed the big BIG fish–mostly catfish but some huge goldfish. There is a lucky fish in there with three tail fins, but we could not find it…so while we were in the caves, Riam looked for it. It is a very good luck omen to find this fish–so we appreciate her doing that–we can use all the luck we can get in this life eh?

So we paid 40 baht and then went inside and right away walking up the steps we can smell the musty moist cave smell. I am thinking “OK–keep an open mind Laurie!” We go in and then see a few ladies waiting for US it seems. They explain that it is 100 baht for a lantern and then maybe a 100 baht “tip” for the guide to take you around–as they are “volunteers”. This seems like a reasonable investment given what we have heard about the adventure we are about to embark on. So off we go—climbing up first and then into the first cave. UH…can you say BATS? I made the mistake at this early juncture, of using the hand rail to help myself up the flight of rock carved steps. I knew right away this was a BAD idea. Clearly bats have nothing but time on their hands to poop. There seemed like a lot of bats and even more poop–but as we got further into the caves (the series of caves went on for quite a while), the bats were even more plentiful–like millions i am sure–and with all those bats–there is poop.  So anyway–you get the idea. Aside from the bat poop part–it was WAY COOL! I would highly recommend these caves to anyone who can go see them. Last year we went to see a big cave(s) on Railay Beach…at the time–we thought it was great–and there was lots of bats there too–but this made that cave seem like a baby cave–small fish (small bats?)

So as we meandered along–carefully as it was very dark and slippery–the moist hot air was dripping from everything (we choose to believe it was condensation!) we had to crawl through some very small openings between caves. There were various places where worship occurs along the way as a monk or buddha or someone like that used to live in these caves hundreds of years ago. Anyways–as we got further in, the air got thinner and thinner and hotter–we were really not working that hard–but sweating like pigs and panting like dogs trying to get our air- Pretty pathetic I suppose, but the guide was very nice and went slow for us. Here is a picture of us with our guide at the end…

What a great breathe of fresh air we had when we came out though!!

After that we fish watched a bit, while we got our sweat on, then headed back to the car (oh yeah after some water and ice cream!)

We stopped at a fruit and vegetable stand and I got an avocado (YUM) and Riam got a fruit that looks like a watermelon on the outside but is more like a grapefruit on the inside but NOT sour. Anyway–VERY good–we cleaned that up fast. Then we stopped at another stand and Riam got steamed corn. This was also very good. It tasted different than our corn…she called it Chiang Mai corn…hahaha. It was almost meaty tasting–it did not taste like “meat”, but it was chewy sort of. Hard to explain–we polished that off too. Then we stopped at another local market (where Riam goes to shop for supper food every night) and we got ice cream (Hmmm–I see a pattern here), but it was the homemade 10 baht ice cream. Wowzer! Riam also got us this other treat that looked like tacos, but was some sort of sweet dessert thing made out of meringue with coconut and cheese or something inside. Sounds weird I know–but very VERY tasty–so we polished off that too!

We also asked her to take us to a Rice Paddy, so we could see how that goes. Yup–now I know for sure that that seems like a tough way to make a living!!

So we are back now and doing our regular late afternoon relax thing. Not sure what tomorrow holds–still postulating a trip to the hot springs for jewelry. Teehee…

Prolly going to go to the night market tonight…

Hard to keep track of the days!Time has no meaning…I have to count it out on my fingers from the number of nights I know we have been (4) here from the day of the week I know we arrived (Saturday)–alas it must be Wednesday evening!!

We spent the day with Riam and “Pat” (really Jaron) up on Doi Inthanon. The tallest mountain Thailand, elevation 2,565 meters. OK–so still no Rocky Mountain or anything. Riam asked me if I had been on a mountain like this before–and I had to tell her about the Rockies. She was very sweetly impressed. Anyway–on the top of their mountain there are 2 monuments for the King and Queen. They are called Napamaytanidol Chedi. These temples were built to honour the 60th birthdays of the King and Queen in 1987 and 1992. Very beautiful. Here is Troy and Riam (being silly) when we were there…

This is a picture of the King’s monument taken from the Queen’s monument…the fog was rolling in and out, the gardens were gorgeous. This is the only picture I snapped as I was busy taking video. I forgot to take much (if any) video last year–so I am trying to remember this year!!

We are one of only 2 rooms that are occupied at the hotel we are at. It is a small place with only 18 rooms, but still weird to only ever see one other couple here.The staff are very nice–young but sweet. They ask us to leave our key when we leave the hotel-not sure why, but when we return they leap out of the chair and are standing there with the key when we walk through the lobby. Makes me feel like they have been waiting for me to return : )

We thought we would eat at the night market tonight–so we took a walk down there and wandered through. The only thing that caught our eye was ice cream. So we sat and enjoyed some BEFORE our supper. Since it highly likely that our children are being spoiled with no rules–we thought it would be OK to have our dessert first too.

I took a couple of shots of the night market eating area–normally this area is PACKED with people–but you can see how quiet it is! If you googled night bazaar chaing mai you would see photos with hundreds of people all packed into this space…but not right now.

Jackie–we went back to Noi’s Place tonight–Daddy has Pad Thai and i had Tom Kha Gai–look how they brought my steamed rice! We just love it there and will probably go again before we leave Chaing Mai.

Riam came to see us at 9 this morning just as we were finishing breakfast. She did remember us  : )

We quickly packed up our stuff–jammed it in her trunk and hit the road! First to see a silk factory, then a jewelry/gem place (hoping to find the magic matching ring and earrings for my bracelet). I think it would be cheaper for me to pay Riam to drive me up to the hot springs to go back to the place where I got the bracelet, than pay what they want in a jewelry store…we will see…

We went to an orchid/butterfly farm also. Beautiful orchids–bought some jewelry there and had lunch–amazing buffet. Cost us 520 baht ($16.25–so major clip–that is about what we have spent in food total since we got here!) Oh well…live and learn  : )

Then we headed up through Mae Rim and to the Mae Sa waterfalls we had heard about. There are 10 levels or stopping points–WOW–I do not think I have sweat this much in…well…in EVER! Well worth the hike I must say though!

Riam offered to take us to her garden to show us what she is growing. How exciting! It was a very quiet and peaceful place. She said she bought the land for 8,000 baht about 8 or 9 years ago. That is $250. That sounds like cheap cheap price…but I believe that is what she said. It is 2.5 rai (that is about 1 acre). At any rate–this was a very good investment for her as I believe that someone just bought land across from her for about 120,000 baht ($3,750 USD) Still a VERY good deal by my estimation…

One quick stop at a cashmere store (so that Riam can get gas money) and we were on our way back to Chiang Mai to check into our new hotel. All she charged us was 500 baht ($15 USD) for 6 hours of touring around. WOW eh? She said she has not had a customer in 1 and 1/2 months. So sad what all that trouble in Bangkok has done to tourism in other parts of the country. Riam is going to come back and get us at 8:30am tomorrow and we are going to go to Doi Inthanon. That is the highest mountain in Thailand. I believe it will not be nearly as hot there–and I am looking forward to that!!

Here is the new resting place for the bears…at the Na Thapae

Good Morning!!!

We are slowly moving towards some real tourist activity–we finally just called Riam on the phone after trying to find her on foot yesterday. I know that sounds crazy to say we thought we could find one person in a big city on foot….but we thought she might be hanging out in the same place we met her before (a temple in the old city). Anyway–she was not–so we went with the old tried and true cell phone : )

She was very sweet on the phone and told me she “would have to see me maybe to remember me”. I totally understand that!! So she is coming by at 9am this morning so we can make plans–maybe we can do something today even?? Not sure!

So we are also set to move hotels today–just down the lane (literally a 20 second walk). We spent a great deal of time on the pool  yesterday–and it did occur to me that i might miss that at the new place. But if we stay busy with activities, then I won’t miss it. We will have our fill of pools once we get to Phuket anyway…

We walked around the second half of the old city yesterday (the part we did not do last year), and then we sat street side and drank frothy drink (‘cuz we just might be becoming those kids of people–hahah!!)

I had the MOST amazing back shoulder and head massage yesterday. Troy went back to Thai massage…we ate an amazing meal–had some garlic and pepper chicken (just for you Ruby!) and these little chicken wonton things and Panang Curry for supper. We were just down the street from our hotel and on our way back we passed another Rotee stand. Once again phenomenal banana pancake (or Rotee as they call it up here n the north). Amazingly good–better than I even remember!

The bears are ready to move on–here is their last morning at the Raming Lodge…

Talk to you soon…

I booked our flights to Phuket this morning…we are flying AirAsia July 3rd 1:10pm from Chaing Mai to Phuket. No idea where we are staying yet  : )

We are also moving hotels on the 29th…so this is where we will be from June 29th-July 3rd

http://www.nathapae.com

We are enjoying Chiang Mai!! We did a bunch of walking around yesterday and as the day wore on we were worried it looked like rain. As we sat at a street vendor and ate our Panang Curry, Pad Thai and Tom Ka Gai and a coke (all for 170 baht $5.30 USD), even we could see the locals were worried about rain as they were putting up tarps and umbrellas. I decided to go to the Sunday Market anyways and while it tried to sprinkle for about 5 minutes–absolutely nothing came of it. I saw something I did not see the last time we were in Chiang Mai. 2 different street vendors selling crickets and bugs as snacks. We saw a cart in Bangkok last year–but not here and I guess somehow I thought that I would NOT see it here–but alas…I did…To be honest there were several types of bugs on the table–but I looked away so quickly, I did not note the other types. I am much happier with all the other types of food I can get here–no need for that craziness!!! There were lots of tourists standing there taking pictures–so maybe they do even eat them at all, it is just for show. I can hope!!!!

We both had foot massage yesterday–we had a chance to visit with Sopa and get re-aquainted. Very nice! It is so quiet here in Chiang mai, she is one of only 2 massage places left open on her street and she is down to one staff. She says some days–she has no customers and she now can only make enough money to eat and pay for the one girl to work for her, so no savings at all. She has a daughter in University and her first term was 50,000 baht ($1560 USD). Now while this seems like a steal to us–this is a lifetime of savings to the thai people! She says the second term will be about half this much. SO much more manageable. But she is worried! Her daughter has a job working 4 hours a day, 6 days a week at the University working with books. Not sure what this means, but she makes 25 baht an hour (That is 75 cents!). Seems like a whole different world to me still!!

We were unable to find Riam earlier in the day–so I guess we will have to call her. Hope she remembers us!! We did have some amazing mango sticky rice and these packets of sticky rice with banana in them and wrapped in banana leaf while we were wandering around looking for her. We also found the ice cream cart!! The ladies that wander around with homemade ice-cream and they scoop it out for you in a little cup for 10 baht. Hoped for coconut nut she only had vanilla–still very good! When I look back at this–it seems like we do nothing but eat…but really—it is not like that at all!! The food is just very good  : ) and we walk so much it is needed for energy–see how i make it all OK.

Ruby–I am keeping all the black tea for you BTW–should have a nice collection for you when i get home  : )

With all the Europeans here–the World Cup for soccer is quite a big deal–Congrats to to the Mischkes–your guys came out on top last night eh?? I guess it was morning to you?? Anyways–very good job!!

PS–Jay–try to leave comments again–Daddy said he fixed it  : )

just got back from breakfast–they have that yummy guava juice that you girls liked so much last summer–not sure if it was Rachael or BK?? Mmmmmm!!!

Good morning Jackie–I know it s not your birthday yet for you…but it is the 27th here–so I am thinking about you! Happy birthday!!! I will talk to you soon! I know you are having FUN on Granny’s boat!!!

We went to the Saturday market last night–determined to stay up and not nap…although I must confess Troy claims to have heard small snores coming from me during my foot massage yesterday..hard to imagine! But the hour did seem to go by quickly.Hmmm… I will have to be more diligent about staying awake to fully enjoy the experience today–hahaha!

Anyway–at the market last night, we managed to see what kind of crafts etc are available this year. Glad to say lots of new stuff than we saw last year–found a few things for the girls–wahoo! let the fun begin…

We ate street food! We had papaya salad, a chocolate cashew nut waffle, panang curry and rice (SO GOOD!!) and a banana pancake and a water. All for less than $3 total. So we are on budget  : )

This is Troy with our panang curry…

and the banana pancake stand…and Troy with our banana pancake…

We managed to stay awake until 8m last night, so I was wide awake at 5am this morning…not too bad though. Lollygagged around for a bit, made some coffee (Thai coffee is terrible BTW–but what is a girl to do??) Gonna go down for breakfast soon I suppose.

Stay tuned…

We left Seattle on Thursday June 24th–and just got here to Chiang Mai at 9am Saturday June 26th their time. The hotel we are staying at picked us up from airport and brought us to the hotel and we were able to check in right away–Thank you lord for this small miracle. The travel time was just over 30 hours in all–with 19 of that being in the air–the rest in airport connections and layovers. The time zone is 14 hours ahead of Seattle time (13 hours ahead of Edmonton/Calgary).

Aside from a few weird hiccups along the way–the travel was uneventful. The line was not long in Seattle to check into the first leg of our journey, but with 20 minutes spent waiting with only one person moving up in the line–I gave up and stomped over to economy–where we were helped immediately. The n in LA an elderly man threw up on the shuttle we had to ride from the domestic terminal to the international terminal–so we all had to evacuate the shuttle and wait for another one to come along. No worries about this delay as we got to the Thai check in counter and they still were over an hour away form opening to check anyone in for our flight to Bangkok. SO we waited in that line until 8:15, when we got through quickly and into a nice lounge where we ate and rested and i was able to talk to the kids on pidgin. The flight from LA to Bangkok was 16 hours and 10 minutes. We had to ride ANOTHER shuttle out to the boonies where our plane was parked. Seriously–we crossed a freeway to get to it. Then when we were taxi’ing back in the plane, we crossed over that same freeway to get back the runway.

Anyway–that flight was good, and then we ran across the entire Bangkok airport to get to our flight up to Chiang Mai–one more hour and were here in our Northern Thailand paradise.

Had to work the front desk over a little for a second internet code so Troy and I can both be connected–but that is OK…I was very sweet  : ) and it all worked out. We chatted with the kids and my Dad and then decided to go for a walk. MAN is it HOT out there. It was 86 degrees when we landed at 8:50 this morning…not sure how warm it is right now–but it is supposed to be mid 90s. I swear the humidity is 100%. That is an exaggeration I know–but it has got to be darn close. I needed to go to a baggage shop to get an over the shoulder day pack. The price seemed very reasonable (199 baht–$6.25 USD). But I know troy was annoyed with me I did not haggler her. But it just already seemed like a good deal…Oops–I am totally out of practice–I need Rachael the master haggler!!!

We came back to the room–had a shower and planned to go over to Sopha’s for a massage. They could not see us until 3pm, so we decided to go for lunch. Jackie–we went to the place you picked for us last year–down that side alley that has the awesome HUGE cheap shakes. I had a banana shake and Daddy had watermelon shake. Then Daddy had Tom Yum soup and i had chicken and cashew nut and pepper (BOTH were very yummy) The 2 meals, 2 shakes and rice was 205 baht ($6.40) Great lunch!! and we thought of you the whole time since you found that restaurant last year!

We came back to room so i could blog and we are headed over to Sopa’s in about 20 minutes for our massage–she still has the 120 baht 1 hour massages!! WAHOO! Yes that is $3.75!!

We think it is much MUCH quieter here this year than last year–but I am sure all the people will come out tonight–we are going to go up to the Saturday market!! The road in front of the Raming lodge has barely any traffic–maybe that is because it is the weekend…not sure!

We went for a little walk and saw a temple that had a donald duck statue in the front–kinda out of place…

Oh yeah–Did I mention how TIRED I am ?????