Thailand Trip

The Night Market


The ruins of a past Civilization


The oldest Lana Temple


Nine tons of pure gold Buddha.




Riding the elephant It is hard to hang on to the howda, specially when you are there all by yourself


Elephants taking a bath prior to their performance


Mae Sa Valley resort



I am way behind on my blogs, so I am going to do some catching up. I was able to go to Thailand the 15th of January till 7 Feb. the Quan family, who are now living in Bangkok invited me to come and spend some time. Alice was alone with the girls while Steve was in Kabul. I was able to use some of my miles for a very long trip. 14 hours to Tokyo and then another 5 hours to Bangkok. I had been asked to bring growth hormone for Sarah and violin bows. The bows were $1000 a piece so I was a little concerned that everything went well with that. Just as we were pulling back from the gate in Dulles it started snowing and it was pretty cold at home the whole time I was gone so it was good timing on my part. Alice met me in Bangkok where I arrived around midnight. She kept complaining about her old apartment, but I thought it was very nice. The next morning we got up relatively early. I say relatively because they get up about 5 am to practice their music before going to school. Alice also had a language lesson. Ii had thought I would just stay home and rest but Alice had other plans. She gave me a train pass, a cell phone and a card with instructions on how to get to Jim Thompson's house. It was just a little scary, but I found my way and it was fun. Jim Thompson was an American who helped reestablish the silk industry in Thailand, and he built a very unique Thai house made up of 6 original Thai-houses. It was a very interesting tour. Alice had to go to the dentist and she met me at the restaurant about noon. In the afternoon we went to a shopping mall, and after Alice left to pick up the girls from school I went to another mall by myself, and then found my way home. I also tried to learn a few phrases in Thai. On the week- end we went swimming in the pool at the apartment, and then out to lunch. On sunday we went to the english speaking ward not too far from their house. We also had single members over for lunch after Church. Most of the singles live in small apartments with no facilities for cooking so it is good for them to come in to a real home.
Alice helped me book the plane ticket for Ching Mai and I went up to Ching Mai on Monday. I spent the first 3 days at a little resort called Mae Sa Valley. it was a beautiful setting on a mountain road. Small cabins set up like a mountain village surrounded by a beautiful garden. the only thing was I was the only guest the whole time I was there. the first day I just went to the botanical Gardens and explored the surroundings. The next day I rented a car with driver from the resort, and we went to the elephant camp which was a lot of fun. We saw a show put on by the elephants, and then had an hour elephant ride through the forrest. It was very mountanous and a lot of water falls and very pretty. It was the dry season so it was not as green as I had immagined. We then went to an orchid garden and butterfly hatchery. The rest of the afternoon we spent going to a village where the government had assembled different tribes. the most interesting was the long neck people. They wear many rings around their necks and legs. When we got back to the resort the driver stopped at the bottom of the hill and went out to feed the buffalos. there was a mom and an pap buffalo and their baby buffalo. He fed then old bananas. The food at the resort was very good, and the staff was very helpful. It got cold at night as soon as the sun went down. I found I had trouble breathing when going up hills and just the short walk from m y cabin to the restaurant would make me start coughing. the waitress was very concerned about my health and every day she would give me home remedies to cure my cough. It was lime and ginger in honey water. she even gave a thermus of hot water to take to my cabin. The third day I had the driver take me to the shopping places. I thought the shops were in a certain village but it turned out they were on the road to the village, so I was surprised when he asked me if I wanted to stop at a jewelry factory. thailand is famous for colored stones. I ended up buying a pearl necklace from Puckett. WE also went to the place where they make the pretty Thai umbrellas, and we saw a hot spring, and on the way back stopped at a ceramics factory, where they had some very nice things. The driver drove me in through Ching Mai and showed me the flower market a as much as he could. He was a very nice man and very helpful. After my drives I liked to sit on the front porch of my cabin and read and enjoy the view till the sun set. there was no entertainment other than going to dinner and then back to the cabin. The next day my driver drove me in to
Ching Mai, where I stayed at a hotel near the midnight market. it was a nice hotel. They had a good restaurant and breakfast was included in the room rate. I tried to see the town on my own, and saw some interesting shops, but I never found the temple I went looking for. It was hot and dusty and very polluted. So the next day I took a tour in the morning. We saw all the important sights. I asked to be dropped off at a shopping center I had read about. It turned out the shopping center had all but closed down, and it was difficult to get a taxi, but some nice people at a car dealership helped me get one. I met up with Buela's brother at the hotel and gave him the money Buela had given me. he and his wife were very nice but we couldn't talk to each other, and I was very tired so we just met for a short time. I also went to the night-market, and it was mostly junky stuff, but there were some nice shops as well. they also had entertainment and showed Thai dancing. It was very interesting to see ruins and temples of another civilization, but I wished I had had better information on where to go and what to do. there was no public transportation to speak of and I am sure I missed a lot.
Saturday I flew back to Bangkok, and was able to get back to the apartment on my own. alice an I did a lot of shopping and we went out with some embassy women to the Oriental Hotel to have "English tea" I had lemon grass tea and it was very good. It was a fun thing to do. another day we went back to the hotel for lunch. the hotel lobby is absolutely beautiful, and they have the most marvelous flower arrangements.
I found a silk shop near the Oriental and got some beautiful plum colored silk. I also looked at stones. The whole street was full of shops where they sold semi precious stones. I bought a Mozambiquen turmaline. It is a rare stone they have just found deposits of in Mozambique. The shop was owned by a guy from New Jersey.
At the Jim Thompson outlet i bought several pieces of material. I took a trip to the old capital of Ayyutia. It was a nice trip. We went first by bus up to a summer palace the royal family has. It was very well kept , and all the buildings were in different architectural styles. there was even a temple that looked like a gothic church.
After seeing the palace we went on to the ruins at Ayyutia where we looked a several of the sites. It is amazing what that place must have looked at. It was also interesting to note that the ground was very soft and many of the walls were going up and down like waves. there had also been a lot of vandalism by people who took art objects and sold them. After we had had our fill of ruins we drove down to the rive and boarded a riverboat back to Bangkok. We had dinner on Board. it was a very nice day. I enjoyed hearing the girls practice and it is wonderful to hear how proficient they are. I went home and bought Mendelsohn's violin Concerto , I liked that much. I had a really good time with Alice and the girls. she spends a lot of time by her self, as Steve travels a lot. I would like to go back again. I flew home via Beijing. The new airport is beautiful, but I hope the Chinese learn what to do before the olympics start. They didn't seem to know what they were doing. I really enjoyed my trip and being out of the cold. I have a lot of pictures from my trip, and alice made a nice video out of them with music. No one seems to have much interest in it, so I am not going to trouble myself with illustrating this blog anymore than I already have.



The Night market


The longneck people

The second day I had the car and driver again and we went to Bor sang village where they make the Painted umbrellas. i also bought some other object made of wood. We went by a hot spring and a garden made up of interesting stone formations and bushes shaped into different animal shapes. I was under the understanding that the shops were in this particular village, but turned out the shops were on the road to the village, so that caused a little confusion. My driver took me to a jewelry factory, which I had not planned on, but I did find a beautiful pearl necklace in light pink pearls from Puckett. i also bought some stone ware at another factory and the prices were very good. My driver was the husband of the head waitress at the resort and he was a very kind person. He did not speak much English but he was able to communicate anyway, and he really went out of his way to give me a good tour. On our way home from shopping he drove me in through Ching Mai and through the flower market and China town and showed me as much as he could. He also gave me bananas for the elephants and showed me how to feed bananas to the buffalos at the farm. all the people at the resort were very kind. they were so concerned about my cough and kept giving me concoctions to help my cough. My room was a little primitive, but all in all it was a nice experience. the next day my driver took me to Ching Mai Where I stayed at a hotel close to the Night Market. I was sad to say good buy to my driver he had been so nice. After settling in to my hotel, I walked down the street in front of my hotel heading for the old part of town. There were a lot of interesting shops along the way so it took me along time to get to the old town. i finally found one temple, but realized that I really didn't know what I was looking at, so the next day I took a tour of the city ande we saw the most important sights. the first evening I met with Boulas brother and his wife. boula had given me $200 to give to him. I also went to the night market by myself. It is a large enclosed area with all sorts of things for sale and some entertainment going on as well and also there are restaurants where you can eat. The enclosed musty smell began to bother me so I didn't stay very long. I was exhausted from the long walk. Ching Mai is the center of the old Lana Kingdom wjich was joined with the thai kingdom when one of their princesses married a thai king. their temples are different than those in the south. they are made out of wood and painted. the old ones are very nice. there were also ruins from a much older kingdom. It all reminded me very much of Indian ruins.