Just back from Expat meeting & ACIM plug

Sawadee Khrap

I really hope you enjoyed the photos and sideshows – I’ll have a lot more in the future.

Just got back from the Saturday Expat meeting.  Dr. Saneh could not join us but several other monks came to see what the meeting was like.  Khun Boon and Jira where there to see how it went so they could prepare for the presentation that will given in October.  We are working on a presentation to raise donations, clothes, blankets, school supplies, medicine, etc, etc for Wat Fa Wiang Inn Temple.  (I posted the photos on this).

And at the meeting I meet a very lovely young lady, Stefanie Boolmann, who had just arrived 2 months ago from India.  Space was very limited so she joined us at our table.  Stefanie is a Physical Therapist – Specialist for individual rehabilitation and is planning on staying in Chiang Mai and opening her business.  Sorry I didn’t get a picture, what a wonderful smile.  If you need some personal assistance or know of anyone in the Chiang Mai area who does, please give her a call 0873–026–873. We’ll be wishing her the best of success.  I believe she is planning on attending our ACIM meetings at 9:00AM Wednesdays in the lobby of HillSide4. So you can also stop by and meet her there.

Thats a good opening —–

  • Yes, we will have a “A Course In Miracles” meeting every Wednesday morning at 9:00AM in the front lobby area of HillSide4.  Several have expressed a interest and we will be using the same format that I used in the Pacifica meetings.  Please come and join us.

Well, today is school day for Tasanai, and I need to figure out what is slowing down the computer – a Trojan or some some other nasty shit got into the system – really slowed down and right when I am adding more images to Lightroom.  So far we have 11,000 images logged with 20,000 more to enter – can’t afford to have a slow system now.

Ciao

 

Chiang Rai River Park – Dancing Shrimp

IMG_5929The last hurray for this trip – Dancing Shrimp at the Chiang Rai River Park.   Tasanai had to stop by and order this dish – he says it the best he has had, fresh and very tasty.  I wouldn’t know – the idea of eating live flopping shrimp doesn’t appeal to me. 

If you look closely you can several shrimp that have jumped out of the bowl – they just put them back in or eat them as they jump out.   They are baby shrimp, transparent and without hard shells but just the thought of eating them live truns me off.

 

Here are some shots of the local area and one of the staff children.

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Ciao    Until next trip     Hope you enjoyed the photos, Please leave your comments.

Oub Kham Buddhist Museum – Chiang Rai

Just out of town is the Oub Kham Museum.  Khun Julasak Suroyachai, a teacher and art lover, realized that soon the heritage of northern Thailand would only be able to be seen abroad – so he started to collect antiques and relics affiliated with the Lanna Kingdoms, objects from  northwest Laos, Burma, China and the area around Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam. First he founded the “Lanna Heritage Conservation Center” which late became the present museum.

It’s impossible to mention all the masterpieces here, the “Oub Kham”, a golden bowl used by the Royal, the golden throne of the Royal Palace of Chieng Tung for the Prince( the present Keng Tung is the easternmost Shan State of Burma), and mannequins fitted with the Tribal dress of each cultures that have migrated here.  

We were not allowed to take any picture inside the exhibits (Our guide did smile and turn away so I could snap off a few) but I hope you find the Slide show exciting enough to visit and see the splender.

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And to our sunrise they had several African items in the collection

Very nice museum, almost 1 hour to tour, and then they served tea and opened to question.

We were the only two there so we got royal treatment – try it  – I am sure you will too.

IMG_6015  The rest of the photos are on the

   Slide Show

 

enjoy

Mae Fah Luang Gardens

Sawadee KhrapIMG_5778

Leaving Mae Salong we headed back to Chiang Rai by the back roads and came to the “Mae Fah Luang Garden”  – one of several of the Royal Sponsored Doi Tung Development Projects for that area.  Here they cultivate local and International species of orchids, dahlia, and created this magnificent garden.  We stayed here for about 2 hours, taking photos, eating ice cream, and just walking through the displays.

Show the beauty of the place – I hope you enjoy the Slide show  – leave a comment and I will try to answer any questions.

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This I though was a very interesting statue –

It was very hot out this afternoon so after ice cream we headed back to Chiang Rai — we had seen a museum on the way out of town that Tasanai wanted to stop and see – They had the largest collection of Buddha statues  (very old originals) in Thailand  – so we had to stop.

Next stop  – Oub Kham Museum.

 

Ciao

Chiang Rai – Doi Mae Salong Trip

Sawadee Khrap

We began this trip early in the morning at Chiang Rai – IMG_5467On leaving our hotel we passed by a regular morning event – local monks going out with their bowls for merit donations from the residents.  I’m not sure what Wat these monks were from but we gave them a small offering as they passed by.  More pictures are in the slide show.  After breakfast we headed for Doi Mae Salong. Not too far out from Chiang Rai we came across a Hot Springs area – there seemed to be 2 capped springs there, but no pools to bath in.  Both were venting steam.

IMG_5481IMG_5527 I got a great shot (or so I think of a metal bridge across a small stream to a back field – looks like a old railway bridge) and here is a shot of the surrounding countryside.

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The above shot is the inside area of a Chinese Warrior Monument to the fallen warriors escaping from the war and persecution in China – they moved first to Burma and then were forced out to settle here and built this monument and created Mae Salong Village  – Opium poppies were the main crop until a few years ago when the Thai Gov’t began to teach them how to grow tea and stop the drug trade.  The little figure is really neat – we bought 3, each a different doll – first soaked in cold water to load them up – and then hot water poured over the head of the doll  – well you can see what happens — and quite a distance.      It was about lunch time now so we stopped at the Doi Salong Villa in town.

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Here is several shots from the Villa – more are in the slide show, including a great shot of the young lady who waited on us, and more shots of the view.  If you look very closely at the first picture you will see the temple in the background – after lunch we drove up the mountain to the temple.

Here is a image of the Temple, but I think there are much better shots in the Slide Show – check it out

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IMG_5747 And here is a photo of some of the local tribal people you can find working in the jungle and surrounding fields, collecting mushrooms, tending to the tea plantations.

When I stopped to take these pictures of the old ladies, this shot and several in the slide show, all of them only knew “10 Baht, 10 Baht, 10 Baht” of English – they love to get their photos taken, but only if they get their 10 Baht – that’s about 25 cents US.

Ciao