Fat Boy - 20 feet in the Air

Well, it's been pretty quiet around home, here in Mae Sai.  We, well I should say "I", wanted to straighten the down spout from the rain gutters on the four floor roof.  Daeng said it was okay but as a professional plumber, I wanted it straight.

As I wrote in the stories last week, my aluminium ladder broke while I was working about half way up the ladder.  I did bruise my left elbow in the fall.  That is feeling a lot better.

Working on the new, 6 meter (about 20 foot) bamboo ladder took some getting used to.  First, the rungs are round as compared to flat on a ladder made in America.  Next, the rungs are not spaced exactly the same distance apart so I had to learn to be very careful in climbing and coming back down.

I think the biggest part I had to get used to was the ladder really bends when you get close to the top.  Once I got some confidence it was okay.

Daeng and I did get the piping rehung straight with the correct size pipe clamps.  I think it looks pretty good.  We only had to move the three clamps over about 2-3 inches.  That sounds easy but 20-40 foot in the air, supporting the pipe while we used a rotor hammer to drill holes in concrete walls, inserting anchors, pipe clamps and screws was a challenge for this 70 year old, fat boy.

While we were working we also had to watch our for the little kid that I call "Bum".  His real name is "Bun".  He is a cute little kid and I tought him to say: "Oh-Oh".  His first English word.

We also took a little side trip to say "Good-Bye" to Daeng's friend, Peg, who is returning to Japan.  She and her husband own a chain of massage parlor in Tokyo.  She says Japanese folks love massages.  Her husband stayed in Japan while she visited her family here.

Nay, Daeng's neice, has been making neck scarfs and hanging out a little with us, as well.  We have been getting the front ready to put the final color of paint to match the other two parts of the shop houses.  We have patched, primed with contact primer, primed with white primer and tomorrow we will put on the first coat of color.

I took this picture at the Ban Pa Mueat morning market while we were having our usual breakfast.  What came to mind was: "Kids praying for kids."

A day or two more of painting and we are going to take an over night trip to see Chom-nom at Doi Chaang Coffee Company, way up in the mountains.

Chiang Mai - Birthday Trip

Our friend from Canada, Brian, was having a birthday so we though we would make a little trip to Chiang Mai and surprise him.

Daeng had set up a little used clothing sales booth in front of her brother's laundry operation.  She turned that over to her niece, Nay pronounced "Newie", while we were gone.  Check out the helper in the bottom right of the picture.  His name is Bun but I call him Bum.

Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand with a city population of around 160,000.  The greater Chiang Mai area is around a million folks.  It is about 250 kilometers from us and takes about three and a half hours to drive over the mountains.

In the posting below, I mentioned my aluminium ladder broke. We stopped at a bamboo ladder maker south of the check point about 20 kilometer from our home.  The ladder maker said he would build a 6 meter (19+ feet) ladder that would hold this fat boy for 300 Thai Baht and deliver it to our home in Mae Sai for 200 Thai Baht.  That makes to total price of around $16.00 US dollars.  We gave him a 200 TB deposit and told him we would stop on the way back from Chiang Mai.

The trip to Chiang Mai we uneventful, which is good.  Road crews were working on part of the road so tar that they had sprayed the road with ended up splashed all over the bottom part of our car.  I am sure that will be tough to get off when we wash the car.

We check into the Top North Hotel because Daeng likes to swim and the Top North has a big swimming pool.  After we check in I noticed that the swimming pool was very green in color.  I was taught not to swim in a green pool so I explained to Daeng that the green water was not good for her.  She understood that it could make her sick and said: "Okay, I won't go swimming." 

The orchids in Thailand are always beautiful!

Chiang Mai is the only tourist destination in Thailand to have made it in to the 2012 list of "25 Best Destinations in the World" of the popular travel website TripAdvisor, standing in place 24.

Chiang Mai has a very large moat and a huge wall at the openings around the inter city that was used to protect the city hundreds of years ago.

There were four openings in this wall, called gates.  Each gate was in the center of each side of the moats.

The Top North Hotel is close to the eastern gate named "The Phae Gate".
Here is more information on the Historic Monuments from Chiang Mai City Sites.

We were happy to say we think Brian was very surprised to see us.  We did have cake to celebrate at Duke's, a great place for steaks and sea food that really has the American taste!

I did meet Dave, the owner, who talked to me about being the plumbing advisor for his new water park in Chiang Mai.  I told him I was having to much fun retired but would think about it. 

Well, it's Friday and time to go back home to Mae Sai.  I do miss our own bed with independent pocket spring mattress.  

Our only stop on the way home is for bar-be-que chicken lunch and to tell the ladder maker we will be home later today.  It was a good trip.

P. S. The ladder was delivered around 5:00 PM and it looks and feels like it will hold me.  We will try it out in the next few days.  That will be scary, the old fat boy 20 feet in the air.