Planning next trip

Sawadee Khrap

Here is the area map and the location of photos I have taken so far  – Issan Thailand map visits(Eastern Thailand)  not covered yet and the west boundary of Thailand has some real large  gaps.  Add in the festivals I have missed and there is still a lot to see.  Rest assured that when it’s time to retire the Vitara it will have plenty of mileage on it.  Paramount to see now is the Phi Ta Khon festival, Surin Elephant roundup, Mekong river boat trip, the 12 temples on the way to Siem Reap Cambodia, and the heartland of Issan. 

I would also like to take a trip into southern China through Lao – you can see a lot of Chinese vehicles here in Chiang Mai – so if I can get the necessary paperwork – that would be a fun trip too.  I also have monk and ex-monk friends from Monk Chat in Wat Suan Dok that have returned to their villages in Lao, Cambodia, and Myanmar (Burma)  and have asked me to visit – do I have time ???    I hope so.  God willing.   Ohhh Well,  it’s massage time – Gotta go

Ciao

Keep your Mimsy clean

Sawadee Khrap

Here’s a cute old ad Kevin sent to me – cannot find the 12705375_10102241398052403_1205102247032055031_nauthor or date published – but I do remember, from my past straight life,  LUX soap and the dislike I had with “old kipper mimsys”.   Just get past the smell, you got it licked – wasn’t just a  funny statement but actually helped me realize my true orientation.  Ohhhh Well – thank God that battle is over.

Ciao

Day 4 Nong Khai Trip– on the way back

Sawadee Khrap

Now the last leg of the trip – leaving Loei we were very tired and took the faster side roads back to Uttaradit  – First about half-way from Loei along Highway 21 in Phu Ruea District IMG_4301IMG_4300is Wat Pa Non At and a interesting structure there. The “Monkey temple”.  Further down the road at the small town of Dan Sai , is home to the Phi Ta Khon (ghost mask) festival – held, I think, sometime in late June – that’s one IMG_4308festival and parade that I plan to go back and see.  Costumes and masks are beautiful. 

Approaching Den Chai is Wat Phra That Suthon Mongkol Kiree IMG_2875IMG_4316and across the highway a great place where they make wooden horse statues.   Coming into Lampang we stopped at Duo Mo Restaurant for a quick lunchIMG_4323IMG_4317.  Good food – seemed to be the local gay female hangout judging from the people there and the staff.

Back home at 2:30 PM and ready for a nap – Great trip, good images – but next time need to spend more time at each location – at least a day in each major city is needed to have time to take in more sites.  4 days and 3 nights did not allow sufficient time to visit all the attractions – but then there’s always another trip on the horizon.

Ciao

Day 3 Nong Kai Trip 2/23

Sawadee Khrap

IMG_4152Before we left the Paradise – Kay wanted to get some shots at the pool.IMG_3032   Next we headed for Nong Khai and  made our first stop at Sala Keoku – Wow – huge statues and displays – quite impressive – and then on to the crocodile farm, next door, for a quick visit.   It wasn’t open but Kay was invited in and took some photos of the tanks –   Then on to the IMG_3026Friendship Bridge – Nong Khai , I think there are 3 such bridges to Lao along the Mekong River boundary.  Here the river looked quite wide but further up the way, going to our next destination, Chiang Khan, we were shocked to see how low it actually was.IMG_4254-PanoIMG_3105IMG_4257  I’ve been reading about the furor over the Chinese blocking the river with their dams and causing many problems down stream.  The sign above, not too far out of Nong Khai,  is one of the places where Mekong Naga Fireballs can be seen.  Next we visited Chiang Khan, a historic little town that the Thai’s love.  Lots of Teak buildings – nice, quiet, rustic and friendly place – IMG_4276IMG_3109and then on to Loei where we stayed at the Loei Palace Hotel for the night –  I stayed here 8 years ago on my first trip to Nong Khai – nothing changed but they did replace the carpet with tile – much better.


P.S.  Couldn’t do anything because I was with Kay –  But on my phone I have Grinder and Hornet, the 2 most popular gay chat sites, from Khon Kaen to Loei, I received calls from more than 28 local guys – maybe next trip I’ll go alone – meet some new friends.  Devil 

Ciao

Day 2 Nong Kai Trip 2/22

Sawadee Khrap

Great breakfast at Anothai Hotel, on the road at 7AM – first stop – The IMG_2926 IMG_3792 Ancient City at Chum Phae – Interesting but leaves a lot to your imagination – they really don’t look like real bones,  I thought they looked IMG_3811-Panomore like reproductions but you can’t get close enough to really find out. The local area has no indication that any thing exist here and it’s hard to figure out how they knew how where to dig. –  you decide for yourself.

From here we headed to the King Cobra Village of Thailand past Khon Kaen on the way to Udon Thani.  Here’s where the Google Maps really helped – IMG_4111asked several locals for directions to the place and each sent us on a wild goose chase – they just didn’t know their own neighborhood.  They had IMG_4002IMG_4016boas and cobras and put on a hour free show, just asking for donations – nice.  Finally we stopped at the Paradise Hotel in Udon Thani.  We have been IMG_2998covering a lot of territory and so only stopped at a couple of venues – going off the main highways to get to these places takes a lot of time and I didn’t  want to drive at night but still make it fully around in the 4 days allotted.


Ciao

Day 1 Nong Kai Trip 2/21

Sawadee Khrap

We started out at 7 AM passing  Lampang, Den Chai, Uttaradit, Si Satchanalai on the way to Sukhotai.   Didn’t stop for any photos until we IMG_2882got into the Sukhotai area –  Had lunch at The Legendha Resort – Great place , good food.   This is also a nice shot of Kay at the resort.

Before we left on the trip I had bought over 700 Baht of Atlas, and road maps and we also stopped at a TAT office ( Tourism Authority of Thailand) and got their maps.  They all were terrible – The only safe way to travel in Thailand is with GOOGLE IMG_3164MAPS running on your cell phone, here is my setup in the car, a LIFESAVER.  I also run a APP called TRACKS, it keeps a record of our path marked as the blue dot at the lead of the red line  – center right.  This photo was taken much later in our trip but It does shows the program working.   This also let me GPS the photos as my cameras don’t have GPS capabilities – Lightroom and Track’s GPX tracklogs did the trick, synchronizing with the camera’s date stamps when I get back home.       Side note:   They wanted 25,000 Baht to install an auto Garmin GPS system and it was SLOW – I mean slow – my 16,000 Baht Samsung Galaxy A5 was at least 5 times faster and I can take it from the car when I leave.  With DTAC I have full internet and phone capabilities.         Several times the maps showed road or highway numbers that were completely wrong and many times there were no roadside markers or signs to indicate what road you were on – leaving the main highways and trying to use shortcuts on lesser side roads would be impossible using the maps or looking for signs and at night – forget it.  With Google maps we drove right to each location – No Problem . 

Here are shots taken during the day – not in actual order as we were using 2 cameras I didn’t take the time to sort them out.  We did visit the Sukhotai Historical Park, Phara Buddha Chinaraj National Museum, and a small Wat next door with boys honoring  – Muay Thai.


That evening we stayed at the Anothai Hotel  in Phitsanulok  –  small but actually the best place we stayed for the entire trip – Amazing 600 Baht for IMG_3747IMG_3743the room, including breakfast – quite, clean and everyone very friendly   – I highly recommend it.

Ciao

Issan Trip

Sawadee Khrap

Khon-Kaen-Trip-webJust got back from my Issan trip with Kay, getting photos and testing the new car.  Total mileage  1,685 KM,     4days-3 nights  Best place we stayed was at the Anothai Hotel – Phitsanulok – our 1st night  – 600 Baht/night, included breakfast, and the food and hotel was excellent.  I am working on all the trip photos and will post them soon – Vitara preformed excellently.  Roads were great and little traffic. 

The most unexpected, and we were amazed, was the low level of the “Mekong River”, the boundary between Lao and Thailand,  which we drove along from Nong Kai to Chiang Khan before we headed inland to Loei.  Also all of upper Thailand is covered in smoke, but not as bad as the Chiang Mai area.  Main cities we visited were  Lampang, Den Chai, Uttaradit, Si Satchanalai, Sukhotai, Phitsanulok, Khon Kaen, Udon Thani, Nong Kai, Chiang Khan, Loei, then back to Uttaradit and  Chiang Mai.       Took about 1000 photos in all.

Ciao

Hmong Village–Doi Pui

Sawadee Khrap

Just took a short trip to Doi Pui Hmong Village, farther up the road from Doi Suthep, to get some photos of the area .  When you get there ask for “Tony” – great guide and can tell you the history of the village.

IMG_3626IMG_3629   IMG_3562 IMG_3597 IMG_3576-2

IMG_3561The last shot is of a great marijuana plant growing in the garden – they also have samples of poppy growing there too – that used to be the village’s main crop – now tea and tourist  Angry smile.


 

Next week I am planning on a trip, with a friend, to Uttaradit, Sukhotai, Phitsanulok and maybe on to Khon Kaen, Udon Thani and Nong Kai if we have sufficient time left.  Should have some great photos –

Ciao

Past shots

Sawadee Khrap

I haven’t posted or for that matter done any Photoshop work for a long time  –   so today I started editing some old shots I have in Lightroom. DSCF1835-Edit-2 I particularly liked this one of Nut.   I don’t have any more of him but am hoping that he will model for more in the future.   We’ll see.   Anyway this is a start and it’s amazing how I’ve really gotten rusty in editing – or maybe it’s the old age and memory settling in – Hope he and all like it.  Hopefully post more in the near future.

Ciao

Charlie’s new music video

Sawadee Khrap

Charlie just sent me the link to his new music video , he and 3 friends just completed for a assignment job for the band “Superbaker”  – Great work.  He tells me the song is about the guy wanting to know if the girl likes him superbakertoo – since its in Thai I don’t understand a word but the tune is catchy and cool animations.   He tells me the band accepted the first submission.  Congratulations Charlie.   Be sure and click “LIKE” – they need the support.

Ciao