Wat Rong Khun – White Temple Chiang Rai

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           TEMPLE SLIDESHOW

Here is the magnificent white temple Wat Rong Khun on the outskirts of Chiang Rai.  We got there about sundown and took these shots – the painted finger in the photo to the left is real – someone did it , it is not a Photoshop trick.  They don’t allow photos inside.

Ciao

 

Fires in Chiang Rai to Mae Ping River Swimming.

On our trip last week we were trying to see what area had the least problem with the smog and smoke that has been plaguing Chiang Mai.  We heard it was coming from Burma – but all we saw was Thailand on fire.CRW_0107CRW_0093

 

 

 

 

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Here are some shots out the window – sparks flying everywhere.  I was amazed, almost everything was either burnt or burning – the view above of the river is the same view I showed of Thaton in a earlier post – if was beautiful – now you can barely see the river.

 THATON SLIDESHOW

As we headed back to Chiang Mai, we spotted a field with many elephants and their keepers and families.  This Tribal woman, with black teeth from beetle nut chewing, sold us one of the purses she had made.

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Now there’s a smile that would turn you on.

Here’s the   SWIMMING SLIDESHOW

 

Ciao

 

 

Mike’s Burgers – Kad Suan Kaew

Sawadee Khrap

On last Saturday we went to the new Mike’s Burgers in the Shopping Center at Kad Suan Kaew right down the street from our Condo.  Our friends Pong and Brian ( Brian used to own the full franchise but sold and Pong’s bought this site.)

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 Brian and Pong sponsor the up to 13 year-old soccer team for the Vieng Ping Orphanage in Chiang Mai —— many of the boys have HIV or came from families destroyed by HIV when their parents died from it.   They are in their new uniforms and being treated to burgers, fries and cokes — They love it, most asked for seconds  and we had a great time.  Maybe I’ll get to go to one of their matches and get some shots later – or Brian can give me some shots and I’ll post them. 

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Ciao

 

Nu’s brother, Smoke in Chiang Mai

Sawadee Khrap

It’s been a busy 2 weeks, Nu’s brother in town and the now normal smoke in Chiang Mai.

First the smoke, It’s been terrible – here is a shot out our window last Saturday when they were having a wedding celebration and Balloon show.  The bride and groom were in the last large red balloon – but you can barely see it.CRW_9297 in the lower left corner just taking off.  Or for that matter even tell that it is RED.

We’ve had this smoke for the last couple of weeks and this seems the worse so far. Going to take a trip next week to get away from this and maybe see if we can find a smoke-free area.

 

IMG_9612Next is Nu’s brother – we took him to see the Chiang Mai Zoo.  Just finished making a SVCD of all the pictures so he can take it home with him.  He had a lot of fun and we got some good images  – I’ll post them soon.  Here is Nu and his brother.

 

So I’ll be working on the Zoo images, maybe a trip to Chiang Rai (checking out the smoke – does it come from Burma ??? )  and getting ready for Songkran (Thai New Year)  and Nu’s new school class #3.  By the way he just finished class #2  and was the leader in it too – now on to 3

Ciao

 

 

 

Life’s lessons

Hi  Sawadee Khrap

Normally I find horoscopes a real dead end – they are so vaguely written that they can apply to everyone.  But, this months “Pattaya Mail  Weekly Horoscope” is unique.

“If one relationship has drained you, is it because you’ve been obsessing with the areas that makes you different?  If so, this weeks healing and diplomatic moves of Mercury and Venus can see an improvement.  If you shift a little and the other person does too, you can both soon close the gap.”

Maybe it’s unique because it is exactly what I needed to read and apply to Nu and my relationship.  Trying to bridge the culture and language gap has been trying – on both of us – English classes are helping but the tradition and culture are some thing else.  Thank God  Nu is young and changeable – I find  I’m very hard to change – old age I hope , not just bull-headed.  Yet I’m trying and we are making headway.

Saturday we went to Brian’s new franchise Mike’s Burgers at the Kad Suan Kaew Shopping Center – Brian sponsors a soccer team for the 13 and under Vieng Ping Orphanage in Chiang Mai and the whole team was there for burgers, pictures and a great afternoon.   Pictures to follow, just processing them now.

Ciao

Thai Eyes and ThaiPop Blog

Just had a request to swap links – Klaus & Anuparp’s Site and Blog.  I’ll have more information about their site in the future but for now just enjoy.

Thaieyes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really liked the video clip on how to make any chore or job or for that matter just making life fun – if you enjoy your work then it’s not work but fun. Sanuk

Check it out

Ciao

 

Old photos – Revised

Sawadee Khrap

I’ve been trying out two new programs:  PhotoMatix HDR & NoiseWare.  Using Lightroom and creating 2 virtual copies, ( one -1 exposure stop and +1 exposure stop ) then High Dynamic Range PhotoMatix to process.  After this I open them in PhotoShop CS3 using the NoiseWare plug-in and with additional tonal control, I created these images.  All have been optimized for the web

(but they are still relatively large, so if you have a slow Internet connection it may take some time for the full size images to load.)

From my trip to China and Philippines in 2003, I got these shots.

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From the States, I tried the same techniques on some images from Petaluma, California 2005 – I really like the results, All these shots were taken with the Olympus 2.3 MP camera – Not much to work with, but a definite improvement

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And here is one we just took at last Wednesday the local Mok Fa Waterfall — It was created from 17 wide-angle shots of the area – swtiched and blended by PhotoShop CS3 to deliver this amazing image – If you look closely in the lower left you can our friend Brian and his camera – I left him there to show the size of the place – what do you think, comments ?????

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Sorry, when I corrected the image links I lost all comments, thanks

 

 

 Ciao