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.
 

Mae Sai -The Last Ten Days

We have been pretty busy having fun, fun, fun the last ten days.  We are going to take a little week long rode trip tomorrow so we thought we should bring our blog up to date.

About a week ago, Daeng went with her friends, Tan and Peg, to see the White Temple in Chiang Rai and meet the artist Chaloemchai Khositphiphat.

I personally think it is the most beautiful and interesting temple in Thailand.

They had a great time together.  Peg, Daeng's friend from Japan was thrilled to get his autograph and have her picture taken with him.

For a video of the White Temple just CLICK HERE.

Just a note, you can see in the picture above the girls are dressed up like it is freezing out; all but Daeng.  They don't want their skin to darken so they dress up so no sun can get to their skin.  They think men like "white" skin.  I guess that is true of Japaneses men.  Both Peg and Tan live in Japan now.  Daeng says she doesn't have to worry as she already has a husband. 

I stayed home that day and figured out how we could, Daeng and I, take down the metal canopy that was in front of part of our home.

We wanted to take it down as it just did not make the place look good and really had no purpose to us.  The last owner, an older single lady, was very concerned about security.  That section of our home is built like a bank vault.

You can see the red and white canopy with the gray metal fencing in the left of the picture.

Well, the next day we got up early, about 5:00 AM, had breakfast at the morning market.  It is always nice to see the young Monks pray for people.

Well, we did it all in one day without getting hurt.  We saved the bottom fencing and gates for her brother Tun's home. 

Daeng sold the metal frame work and red and white coated aluminium at the scrap dealer down the street for 360 Thai Baht (about $11.77 USD). 

She was not happy with that amount.  I explained that it was about the same amount she would have gotten in America for the 34 kilograms of steel and the 6 kilograms of painted aluminum.

The next part is to paint the walls and fix the rain gutter, the blue pipe, coming off the forth floor roof.

The next day we hopped on the new motorbike and rode the 50 kilometer to the Chiang Rai Airport and rented a Nisson March for a month.  Daeng always gives me a hard time about renting a car as she feels it is money down the drain.

I try to explain that for the 16,050 Thai Baht (about $524.00 USD) a month it would take us about 30 months to make up for the cost of a new one.  We only use it about 5 months a year so that would be six years without any registration, insurance or repair costs. 

And, the big thing, we don't have to worry about it while we are in California during the summer and winter.

We'll, the car they gave us was due for service so I told the rental manage that I would take it to the garage the next time in town.  That was day before yesterday.  I dropped it off and went for a coffee in the "Big C" Shopping Plaza next door to the "ACT" garage.

It only took and hour and I was back on the road to Ban AYO.  I have been putting off visiting the children's shelter as I felt I would get depressed when I saw it.

To read more about this children's shelter project just CLICK HERE. 

By the way, I was correct as not much has been done and Chom-nom has been working at Doi Chaang Coffee up in the mountains. 

It was funny because Chom-nom called me on the the phone while I was in route to Ban AYO.  I told him I would come see him next Sunday, November 11th.

Well, yesterday I started sanding the wall and fixing the wires to get the outside ready to paint.  I want to be loving here but things like ladders as not made very well in Thailand. 

Even though I bought the most expensive step ladder, two years ago, while I was working up in the air about five feet it broke.  The aluminum just gave way and down I came.  The lucky part is I just bruised my left elbow a little when I hit the concrete.

When I spoke to the place I bought it the owner just smiled and said I was to big for the ladder.  I think he used the Thai word for "Fat Boy".  I am a little sore today but that is about all.

Road trip for about a week to Chiang Mai tomorrow!

Last Day in Mae Sai, Thailand 05-21-09 (2552)

It was a sunshiny morning here in Mae Sai, Thailand. Today we are getting ready to leave the northern most part of Thailand and fly to Bangkok tomorrow. We got up early and went to the morning market and had breakfast. We had a big breakfast of fired pork, soup, rice and pineapple.

On the way out of the market Daeng stopped and bought a bag of Lychee's. This time of year they are very inexpensive, less than ten cents US a pound.

As we were headed to the Internet shop to finish some of the work I needed to do we also passed the "Ladder Men". They go up and down the streets selling ladders. That way you don't have to worry about how you will get your ladder home. They bring them to you.

We are packing up our things today. We are storing everything we are not traveling with, including her motorbike at Daeng's Mothers. Things are pretty safe there except her Mother has been noted to give things away to needy people. 

Two years ago she gave away a pair of my rubber boots, a pair of pants and a shirt to someone from Burma that needed some clothes. We will have a little heart to heart talk before we leave this year. 

Tomorrow morning at 6:00 AM we drive about 60 km south to the Chiang Rai Airport, turn in our rental car at Avis and fly at 8:35 AM to Bangkok. 

We will stay in Bangkok until Monday as I need to visit the American Embassy and have more pages put in my passport.  

Then it is on to Pattaya Beach and see if we can get a tan before we return to California on June 3rd.