Sawadee Khrap
We began this trip early in the morning at Chiang Rai – 
On 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.
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.
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.
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
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