Bored in Mae Sai so Chiang Mai Trip

Well, we're a little bored here in Mae Sai.  It's the old get up at five or six o'clock, shower, dress, answer emails and go to the morning market for breakfast.  The Ban Pa Mueat Morning Market usually is in full swing by 5:00 AM.

After breakfast it is stop at the exercise equipment beside the road by our house and work out a little.





We then watched the monks do their morning walk collecting food.  Many folks come out of their homes and businesses and give food to the monks.

Home and work on quilt or if it's raining, clean the third floor tile roof. Our third floor roof is ceramic tile but does need to be cleaned every once in a while, especially after the jungle being on fire.  There was a lot of ash on our roof.

Daeng's quilt is looking good.  She put it on the bed today, as well.  She starting making it almost a year ago.  It is a patchwork quilt, double sided with a soft filling inside.

Because we are bored, we decided we would make a little trip to Chiang Mai for a little holiday.  Chiang Mai is about 250 kilometers, by road, from us.  It is up through the mountains so it takes about three and a half hours without stops. 

We started off pretty early, about 6:15 AM.  We stopped at our local market and had a little breakfast.  We drove to Jan's coffee shop in 60 km south in Chiang Rai.  We talked a little with Jan to be sure she was doing okay.  Our friend Charlie is her boyfriend.  He is in Canada for a few months.

Then we drove a little more down route number one and made the Chiang Mai turn off onto route 118.  About 19 km after the turn off, we stopped for sweets at the Charin Gardens.  They have great cheese cake and pies.  They are so good you want to lick the plate.

We also watch a man net fishing in the river by the restaurant.  We hope he got some fish as he laid out a lot of net.

We drove to the hot springs and stopped to use the rest room.  Here they charge five Thai Baht to use the facilities.  Many public places in Thailand charge three Baht so it is not that much more. 

Onward to Pooie's home.  Pooie is one of Daeng's four older brothers. It was easy to find him again as I marked our GPS locator.  When we got to the house, Kat, Pooie's daughter said her Dad was coming home for lunch in about a half hour, around noon.  We hung out.  Daeng took a little bicycle ride with Gla, Pooie's son.

As for me, I just hung around hugging trees.  These teak trees grow right in the middle of the road.

Pooie and his wife, "Ley", came home around noon and we spent some time together.  They both had to go back to work.  We said: "Good-bye" and headed down the road ourselves.

Then onward to the Royal Lanna Hotel in the Night Bazaar section of Chiang Mai.  We have a friend, Jay, that lives in the hotel on a monthly basis.  It is a big hotel, 22 stories tall in a great location. 

We booked the room from their old website for a nice discount.  The discounted rate was 1050 THB, about $35.00 USD, a night including a buffet breakfast for two.  This picture is a view of part of the night bazaar from the hotel window.  The hotel sits in the middle of this Night Bazaar.

Eat, sleep, eat, sleep and a few meetings with friends for the next few days.  I took Daeng to stay a few nights with her brother Pooie.  I hung out with my friends Brian & Jay.  It was pretty relaxing. 

While driving across a single lane bridge that crosses the river we saw a small, new hotel with a sign "650 THB" on it.  Daeng said lets stop to see it.  We liked it and made the decision to change hotels.  It was only two blocks from the Royal Lanna Hotel. 

The name of the hotel is Mawin Hotel. You can see the Royal Lanna Hotel across the bridge and down the street.  It is the large building on the left of the picture.

After seven nights in Chiang Mai we made the trip back to Mae Sai.  It was May Day, May 1st and a holiday in Thailand.  It is like Labor Day in America.  The nice part is almost everything was closed, banks, schools and businesses so the traffic was very light.  That was a nice change. 

We're Bored, Bingo & Fishing

We're been pretty bored over the last few days. Nothing is happening here in Mae Sai, Thailand. It's pretty quiet at this small border town.

Many folks are getting ready for the upcoming holiday, Loy Krathong.

Loy Krathong is a religious event which happens every year on the full moon of the 12th lunar month (This year it's the first full moon of November). Most Thai people buy or make a "KRATHONG". It is made of styrofoam surrounded by banana leaves, with flowers and a candle in the middle. Then in the evening, Thai people go to places where there is a river or a pond to launch their "KRATHONG".

They also have a BIG parade so everyone works to make floats for the parade.

This year the full moon is Monday, November 2nd. Many folks in Thailand go to the family homes to celebrate, much like the folks in America do at Thanksgiving. We'll tell you more about Loy Krathong in the next few days.

In the mean time, we have been hanging out eating and playing BINGO. Yep, BINGO right here on the Myanmar (Burma) border. They play for a Thai Baht or two a board. (1 Thai Baht = 3 US cents).

When Daeng is lucky she will win 20 to 30 TB an afternoon, big money!

Fishing is also something that many folks do here.

Yesterday, I went with the girls to fish at a "pay as you go" fishing place.

You rent poles for 10 TB (30 cents) and buy a pail of bait for 15 TB. Then everyone hangs out eating and drinking, soda and potato chips for us kids. Oh, we fished, too.

We spent about four hours and everyone caught fish, some big and some small.

We kept 3.8 kg (8 1/2 pounds) of fish which we had to pay 40 TB a Kg. Like I said, it's a "pay as you go" place.

We did have a good time at a total cost with pole, soda, chips, 2 pails of bait and over eight pounds of fish was 279 TB ($8.45 USD).

The six of us hopped on two motorbikes and drove back to the house for a fish fry.

Hlong, Daeng's sister, cleaned the fish.

Daeng started the charcoal fire.

I hung out to eat the fish. The fish were delicious!

Happy Halloween to everyone in America! Save us some candy as we'll be back to the USA in a month.