Asiancoop.com

Sawasdee Khrap

We have been staying at home lately, or at least I have been, Tasanai had been in Lampang twice so far this month to video record several events. His business is really taking off, getting more and more requests. I think I mentioned before, his new business is providing a Portfolio of 2 Kodak paper 8×10 prints, 15 ink-jet proof sheets with 4 ea images and a 2 hour DVD of each project. He gets 2000 Baht or $50 for each project and then gets orders for enlargements and Kodak prints. So far a nice side business. He’s done 4–5 so far.

So he’s in Lampang now and I decided to take a short walk from the condo and get some shots of Wat Monthain. It’s just down the street at the moat. Let’s see, I’d say that’s about in the left half of the inside of the north side of the moat – Better yet – here is a Google Map: It’s a big file so it will take time to see the expanded view.

I hope you can see everything ; We presently live at HillSide4 at the top left of the map and used to live at the Lotus Hotel (bottom left next to the big shopping center Kad Suan Kaew). You can also see Simon’s (upper right area) – that’s the best “Ladyboy” show in Thailand and the YMCA – that’s a hotel actually, not bad, I stayed there last year when I visited Chiang Mai.

Oh Ya – Wat Monthain, look for it in the lower right area – here are some shots of it.

You have to be here to really see the colors – I’ll have some more later – Ciao

We just got back from the hospital, went there to make sure we were all right.  We took a trip to Lampang and on the way back started to get a very bad headache, having trouble with blurry vision and very hight-headed.  We just made it to the house and parked the car when I realized we were poisoned with carbon monoxide.  Checking the car, I find it didn’t have a tail pipe extending out the rear – it had broken off at the muffler and fumes were coming in the back area.  What a close call – Tasanai was very sick – almost vomiting – I wasn’t that bad but very dizzy – felt like I was drunk. But we had made it home – sick but safe.

It has taken till today for us to feel better, and we are still not fully recovered.  I took the car into the shop and they added a back tail-pipe  – but it’s amazing that a $10 US – 450 Baht repair could have costs us our lives.   I don’t know if the pipe was on the car when we bought it – I didn’t really check, so I can’t say.  But that simple pipe could have killed us.  It wouldn’t have been much longer before we passed out and got into a accident.

Thank God that’s over, cars fixed and hopefully tomorrow we will both feel back to normal.

Ciao – more adventures to come.

Frank

Boy did we go on the wrong day. Here’s a shot of Mok Fah Waterfall, slightly north of Chiang Mai. We went to test the car and check this place out for possible future photo sessions. We got there about 3:00 in the afternoon and it was sweltering back in the canyon. I was dripping wet in about one half hour of walking and shooting here. Not a place to take a model unless you expect to get wet shots – however, I am sure that we will try that later. Should have waited another day as it gets really hot and muggy just before it starts to rain – and it sure was at that stage then. Last night it started raining and the temperature cooled down – today, actually in the morning, would be the best time to shoot the falls – next time we go we will check the weather forecast and and try to pick a cooler time. I have more shots I am working on that we took and will post them in the future. This was just a tease – please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Ciao

Frank

Sawasdee Khrap

Just took some quick shots of the condo – no checking for perspective – just to show what it looks like. First the living room and kitchen areas

I had to use the wide angle lens to try to show the best view of the place and it tends to add a lot of distortion – anyway you get the idea. I really like the metal carving art pictures on the wall – we got it at Bann Ta Wai – a small district south of Chiang Mai known for its handicraftsman. You can also see the view we have from the living room – see the panoramic I took earlier. The kitchen is quite large and so far has really been nice for our entertainment of guests, Tasanai loves to cook and has prepared some really great Thai dishes – he’s learning farang cooking now. Now here is the remaining shots:

The bedroom and office — for you who saw my San Francisco apt – I cut and hung the Chinese 4 Seasons murals on the headboard, really fits the decor. The office is just my usual computer stuff

but I did get several insect displays from the Chiang Mai Night Bazzar. And finally here is a shot of the waterfall we have on the balcony – fish and all – really nice to have breakfast out there with the view and the sound of the waterfall. Hope you enjoy –

NOTE; I still need your comments –

Ciao

Frank

Here is a picture of our little Mira. Just got back from a trip to Lampang for Ed’s (Tasanai’s cousin) Spirit Ceremony. 200 Km trip. I have to admit that if we are going to go on long trips I will need to rent a larger car. This one is really too small for me for anything over a 200–300 Km trip. It got about 45 M/Gal – converted – we use only metric over here, but it really sucked up the water – must be a leak in the cooling system somewhere – although I can’t see it. It’s a real pain to make sure to check it after every 150 Km or so, just to make sure it doesn’t over-heat. I have to take it back to the shop and see if they can stop it from leaking. But, so far that’s all the problems we have had with the little beauty. Besides the SHORT leg-room. Definitely wasn’t made for farangs, most Thais, when I pass them, just smile when they see me in such a little car. – haha –

We went to Lampang for Ed’s yearly changing of the Lana Culture Spirit Altars. Each year he has to replace the khantokes (special bowels), flowers and altar setups he has at his house. Tasanai’s house has a similar setup for the Spirits for their family. Ed is one of the special people ( Yok Khan Kru ) who the ancient spirits use to speak in this world. This custom is part of the old Lana Culture and not in Buddhism or Hindu beliefs. In Thailand all three beliefs are intertwined – Buddha, Brahman, and Spirit – in that order.

Tasanai, because he is a relative, was invited to participate in the service and was also hired to take video and digital photos. As one of the services offered by AsianCoOp.com, Tasanai will record special events and then supply a DVD and photos in a portfolio form. I think I mentioned this before – so he was really busy the whole time we were there.

I have more pictures of the car and trip later.

Ciao for now

Frank

Here is the first pictures from our new HillSide 4 Condo. This panoramic view is from the front room balcony – (we face the city and not Doi Suthep as in the other place). If you look closely , the brown building at the right of the picture is the Lotus where we had a room before. You can see some of the flowers on the balcony but you will have to wait to see the waterfall we have there too. We have just about finished with the main decorating of the place – just need some mirrors on the living room wall to make the room look bigger and we should be done. – I’ll have the shots for you to see then. Sometime next week.

I’ll also have some shots of the new car we bought. – Small, everyone smiles and sometimes laughs to see a large “farang” behind the wheel. Driving on the left side of the road is getting easier each day. Tasanai has his license but now needs to get some practice before really taking the car out on his own. I got my Thai license so now I’m set. My California license doesn’t expire till 2010 so I’ve got both countries covered. — The cost of gas, or actually benzene here, is about 29 Baht per liter. Our little car gets about 14 Km per liter. That’s with the air conditioning on – but without it I think we will get about 20 Km/L. Let’s see, putting that into US $ would be approx. $2.86 per Gal and we get almost 23.6 miles/gal with air – 38 with no air con on the flat. Not that bad. Thank God Thailand is not that big – so our auto costs won’t be all that high even though we do travel across the country.
Tasanai’s video business is really taking off – 2 more venues this month. Another spirit-dancing event and a ceremony of a new monk “taking his bowl and robe”. Both in Lampang – I’ll probably go and get some shots myself to show you.

Anyway this is just a update – see you next week

Oh Ya, Now with the car, I plan to be on the road again shortly – starting to rain here, at least once a day but the showers only last about 2 hrs. Pours like hell but is over soon and most people don’t even use a umbrella (used more for the sun), they just get wet and it will dry soon when it stops. It is humid though. One large cloud raining like hell and the rest of the sky and area sunny — haha

Ciao

Frank

Sawasdee Khrap

We just bought a new car   – or actually a used car, a Dihatsu Mira – 3 cylinder, heavily customized purple 2 door mini car.  Really cute, I’ll have some photos next week.   Not made for very long trips but should do nicely for our travels.  The paperwork is being done now and sun reflective film is being applied to the windows so we won’t really have it till next Monday afternoon.  But then we will test it out with some local trips and photos.

As for the status of the Web-site – the shopping cart software will not be ready for at least another 3 weeks – what a bummer.  Delays, delays, delays.

Over the weekend I will try to add some new pictures –

Ciao

Frank

Sawasdee Khrap

Moving into our new digs, or actually a condo (11th floor – 1brm, 2 bath, lg kitchen, living room, 2 balcony’s)  – renting for now just to see how we like it.  I am using “WE” as Tasanai and I have reconciled our differences.  Thanks God that’s over.  But between senility, trying to get the web thing going, travel and culture differences I swear I work harder now in retirement than I did before.

We should be moving in next week, but I won’t consider it accomplished till we actually do – you know how things can rapidly change – I’ll wait till we are in to give the address out – but, it will really be nice to have a separate bedroom to escape to either of our entertaining goes on late.  In addition there are several great advantages:

• 1.  There are empty studios still in the complex that can be used by visiting guests for about 800 Baht or so – that’s $20 a night – complete privacy and spectacular views.
• 2.  On the 15th floor is a private pool , actually for the penthouse area but we will be included – very seldom used,  so it is almost like having our own.

Cable TV and ADSL for the internet.  Right now we have very limited TV, everything in Thai – so I don’t understand anything – except BBC World and that gets very boring ,very fast.   Getting off the dial-up for the internet will be heaven, right now it takes forever to do anything on the web and forget trying to down-load any files —— for that alone I really look forward to the new place.

Well I have to buy another TV (we gotta have a home entertainment center) , dishes, bathroom and housewares so I don’t plan on taking any trips in the near future, but I have a lot of pictures and tales from our excursions so far this year to tide me over.  I’ll try to show you some of the “Unseen” places we’ve seen so far – I am sure your will like them.

And If I am peaking your interest about coming to Thailand, we are adding a new section – “Bird’s Tours”  to the products we offer — he has some great tour packages in addition to specially designed private tours – please check them out.  They should be listed in about a week.

Gotta ge ready to move

Ciao

Frank

Hi  Sawasdee Khrap

Just playing around with Photoshop and made a attempt at a photo-merge.  This is a view from our apt – facing Northwest, looking at Doi Suthep Temple – made from a spread of 4 photos to capture the whole scene.  I am sorry that the Temple is hidden in the clouds, but the rest of the scene looked so pretty this morning I had to shoot it.  I hope you enjoy and the enlargement shows how beautiful it is here.   Temp is about 76F, and what a lovely day.  I plan on going to get a massage this afternoon and then come back to work on the other pictures and videos we have made in the past few months. 

I will be posting here regularly, I hope, at least I’ll try.   All my post will be kept in the “Frank’s Blog” Category.   Looking forward to your comments and suggestions.   Please give me some ideas about what you would like to see or visit.  I will really try to show you “Unseen” Thailand in my travels – cultural and historical sites that the normal tours do not visit, articles on village life and customs, exciting and beautiful places around Thailand that you could plan your next vacation to see.

We are really looking forward to having the Storefront Shopping Cart working too – having a terrible time getting one that will integrate into this site and offer the options needed to properly present our artist’s products.  The makers of the new software have told us that the next version of the program will be available in about two weeks and has just what we are looking for – so we will just have to wait.  I hope the wait is not wasted time – the lite version seems to work OK so lets pray it does what they say it will.

Ciao

Frank