Jill & Sada

If Only

2011-11-04T23:25:00.005-08:00

Well, it's November in Fairbanks, and winter is here. We have snow on the ground & have already had below zero temperatures. The plan is to stay home this winter & we're starting to focus on our indoor projects.

I thought - how about a blog? - and here I am! As I was going thru some photos from Thailand, I came across these three. After a few minutes of feeling sad about missing these friends & feeling sorry for myself about not going away from winter this year, & missing Thailand, I got a grip & decided they would make a sweet blog entry - a lovely afternoon of lunching with the ladies.

So here we are. Eva, on the left originally from Germany, now lives in Chiang Mai. Aase from Denmark, and Beverly from Michigan like to winter in a warmer place & find CM to their liking, and me, the newcomer - I'm learning! We went to a nice little Japanese restaurant, ordered a variety of dishes & had a lovely meal.

Here's a close-up of my meal - it was fabulous! Each little bite was a masterpiece of flavor & texture, and completely different from the previous bite.

It was a lovely afternoon and just a short walk along the moat back home.

I plan to continue posting about our 2010/11 visit to Thailand, and then about our short visit to Australia, too. It was good to get home in the spring, and we had a busy summer working on our cabin as well as lots of other summertime projects. I'll post about that too. Check back!

Thai Wedding

2011-02-19T06:23:00.026-09:00

Early in December we went to a birthday party for our friend Eva, and there we met Mam & Joe and her parents. They invited us to share their little table & we had fun getting to know each other. Her parents speak very little English, but Mam's is great - she used to work for Korean Air, and now she & Joe have an import/export business in Bangkok. The next thing we knew, we were being invited to their wedding in late January! What a thrill & an honor to be invited to this fancy yet traditional Lanna style Thai wedding.

Here's the entrance to the grounds where the ceremonies & the banquet were held. It all started at 9:00 am!

We signed the guestbook, were offered a silk scarf by these lovely ladies,

and placed our gift/envelope inside this beautifully decorated container,

and had our picture taken!

Here we are with our friend Chiarit, whose wedding we attended on our last visit!

This great flowery peacock couple were a part of the photo-op area.

Here are Mam's parents with some other family members. At this point, Joe greeted us and told us what to expect - he made us feel very welcome!

While Mam waited, Joe along with his family & friends arrived in a noisy procession to bring the dowry to Mam's parents, and to claim his wife. All along the way, he was halted by these little gates held across his path by Mam's friends & family - he had to joke & bribe his way past each one.

And, every step of the way, this lovely lady danced in his path: Temptation!

Here's a short video of the dancer and the procession:

Behind Joe & his parents came his aunt & uncle carrying... cash!

Other family members carried the flowers Mam & Joe would wear all day, and the rings! There were many other items brought in the procession, including food, other jewelry and plants.

The small, noisy band for the procession.

The family members flowed into a large room where Mam & her parents waited, and watched the presentation of the dowry.

Then the photos were taken. Be sure to notice Mam's spectacular outfit - the first of three for the day!

We think this girl was part of the family, but she missed it while she sat putting on make-up the entire time!

Next came a formal ceremony in another large room. The man in white sang a long solemn song with many guests watching. The large flower arrangement was truly amazing!

Next came the string tying ceremony - a ritual that binds the couple together. The lovely white flower arrangement was in fact made up of buds of cotton string instead of flowers! The buds were unwound for each guest as they participated in the ritual.

The guests were encouraged to offer their blessings and advise while tying strings around wrists of the bride & groom. Sada, Beverly & I gave Joe and Mam our best wishes!

Next came the feast! The food was wonderful & our group found a table that turned out to be in the perfect spot - right in front of the entertainment! The couple made the rounds & had photos taken at every table. Top: Ming, Mam, Joe & me. Seated: Eva, Beverly, Sada & Om.

Isn't Mam's second outfit gorgeous?

Here's a short video of some of the dancers.

And another group of lovely dancers!

The band played wonderful music & the British singer was adorable! When she sang Thai songs, the crowd would sing along.

Joe & Mam reappeared during the music. The paparazzi went mad seeing her in this fabulous taupe/brown/gold gown, her third amazing outfit of the day.

Joe looks pretty fabulous too.

I had to add another picture showing the back of the dress as well as the awesome orange orchids in her hair. During this time Joe & Mam posed for photos with many people, including the singer. They surrounded her for the shot while she was singing & it so surprised her that she dissolved into giggles, it was adorable!

Here's a pic with a close-up of the wonderful flower garlands that were part of the dowry and the make-up girl who finally got her look just right!

As we were leaving we wandered through the restaurant connected to the wedding event area. It was filled with very interesting seating areas unique tables & chairs... and this gigantic basket lounge under the golden bamboo! It was heavenly to kick off our shoes & relax inside for a little bit.

It was a wonderful day, and we were so thrilled to be a part of a traditional Thai wedding.

Congratulations to Mam and Joe!

Watch out: THAI FOOD ahead!

2011-02-11T06:13:00.015-09:00

It's the FOOD blog! Are you hungry? Feel like cooking? Or ready to run out to your favorite Thai restaurant? These are some of our favorite or memorable dishes of the past few months.

Liz always asks me to email her some food, so I take pictures of the beautiful things we eat. At least twice a day at meals, Sada says, "I can't imagine eating anything more delicious!" Now here's some for you to enjoy.

It's all so delicious - in Thai you say 'Aloy, aloy!'

This is our lunch from a small vegetarian place we found. We had a spicy noodle soup with lots of mushrooms and different pieces of veggie protein, they are crunchy, stringy or chewy - and some look a little uncomfortably close to actual meat. The spring rolls are great, and the little banana leaf boat is a luscious concoction of soft tofu and mushroom topped with coconut cream and basil.

Our latest restaurant discovery is called Burmese Cuisine. Here we have a hot spicy soup and a plate of 'Tofu Meatballs' - crispy on the outside, tender & delicious inside, served with an incredible ginger & garlic sauce.

From another favorite place called 'May Kai-dee' we ordered this warm salad called 'Lemon Eggplant Salad Cashew Nut Spicy Juice'. That about sums it up, delicious! Also fresh rolls with peanut sauce at the top of the pic.

Around Christmas we went out to dinner with friends and this fish dish was ordered - a great presentation!

That same meal we all shared an order of crispy bananas with whiskey (in the glass). Yes, you pour it on & enjoy! (and then slurp the leftover booze off the plate!)

This was my meal at lunch out with the ladies at a Japanese place called 'Gigantea'. Each morsel was a different texture, crunch or flavor. Lots of fun - and delicious!

OK - this is a serious dish. A deeply warm, full flavored curry called 'Kao Soi'. It's the signature dish of northern Thailand & one of our top favorites. It's a yellow noodle soup with crispy noodles on top and chunks of potato, mushrooms & grilled tofu inside. Served on the side is a little dish of lime, scallots & pickled cabbage. So, so good & very satisfying. Aloy aloy.

Aren't these little spring rolls pretty?

Here's more seriously good eating. Khun Churn has a daily lunchtime vegetarian buffet! They have many hot & cold dishes, soups & curries. This first plateful has a lot of salad items including long strands of beet and pumpkin. At the bottom is a clump of crispy green papaya pieces, and baby eggplant. You can seriously over-eat at this place.

They also offer unsweetened teas beautifully served in large glass jugs with flavors like: lemongrass, chrysanthemum, bale, bluebird flower, and roselle.

And there's dessert too. Always a large bowl full of flavored coconut milk with various inclusions (this is hard to describe). One of my favorites was coconut milk with soft chunks of cooked pumpkin. The contrast of textures and flavors was fantastic. The bowl in the picture is large tapioca and little chunks of slightly crunchy Jackfruit (which has a flavor something like banana) in lemony coconut milk.

This was from tonight's dinner. On the left is a little Eggplant salad with tofu, garlic, egg, tomato & mint in lime juice. On the right is crispy morning glory greens and an utterly scrumptious dipping sauce. (a couple of the ingredients in the secret sauce are coconut milk & tom yum paste, mmm....)

A warm mushroom salad.

This is one of our favorite meals: Pad See Yew. Wide rice noodles quickly fried with veggies, squeeze on some lime, add hot peppers & ground peanuts. This nearby street cart does a roaring business every night. They set up a dozen small tables on the sidewalk and in the street, and when we sit down, they look over at us and ask 'Same, same?' Yes, is the answer. It's about $1 a plate. We eat here more than anywhere. Seriously good - aloy, aloy.

Every Sunday evening we go to the Walking Street market. The street is closed to traffic & is lined with vendors selling all kinds of stuff, and the place is packed with people out to shop or just look. The Wats (Buddhist temples) turn into food courts - here are some of the delights we find there. Pretty sushi, and a crunchy rice, peanut, ginger, mint & chili dish, yum.

This is a 'Salim' bar. You choose 4 or 5 items from the colorful bowls, then it's topped with coconut milk, syrup and crushed ice. Some of the things in the bowls are: fruit, beans, tapioca (in various forms), corn, little chunks of bread like croutons, and black herbal jello.

You know, stuff like that.

Our friend Beverly & I had some - it was very tasty & refreshing!

So here we are after nearly 3 months in Chiang Mai - happy, healthy, and somewhat tan. But not any thinner.

The food is just too good, and so delicious - aloy, aloy!!

Are you hungry now?

Signs!

2011-02-02T07:03:00.012-09:00

I love taking pictures of signs.

Some are so sweet, or silly, or just odd & a bit confused.

Like the one I saw today outside a restaurant -

we were driving by too fast to capture it, but it said

'Life up your LOVE'.

I'm pretty sure it was advertising for a Valentine's Day dinner,

but I'm not quite sure what they really meant to say...

Anyway, here are some of my photos of signs

from around Chiang Mai.

Stickers on the bumper of a Tuk-tuk.

This vehicle was covered in all sorts of bumper stickers.

The Alaskans were puzzled by the sentiment on this dress shop window!

Can you read this key tag? 'Snow & Feelings Travel' :)

Let's all meet at the 'Moisture' for a cold one.

Need one?

Outside one of our favorite vegetarian restaurants:

This one had me confused until we realized we were near the University agricultural gardens.

Lots of curbs were recently tagged with this:

There is a big recycling movement to get away from

foam takeout containers - a good sign!

Any idea why these sinks are numbered?

A wall of fun sticky note messages.

This should be a good place to change some money.

This is a very confusing shirt - it says 'FOLLOW... 'something, something... um, I don't know. And the fine print underneath says 'Sesame Street Makery, always ftlled with fun. Feel happy makery pira it. Always Sesame street with fun and because it girl fun with pira street makery and.'

Phew.

Cute shirt for a cutie!

100%

A restaurant name -

And another - my kind of place!

This one hangs over an empty stall, so we couldn't check out the merchandise, but now we can all wonder about it!

Cheers!

Chiang Rai: Part Dos

2011-01-27T02:17:00.030-09:00

In Thailand, very house, hotel, office or business has a bit of garden, whether large or small, they are always beautiful. This is part of the garden at Jay's house.

On our second day in Chiang Rai, we headed to the border to do our 'visa run'. As we were waiting for a long traffic light we met these guys. The one waving to us said he was on his way to ask his girlfriend to marry him! I think we counted 18 guys in the back of the truck.

As we drove thru the countryside we saw lots of crops growing - corn, tobacco, sunflowers, grapes for wine, lots of veggies and rice paddies, lots of them! Most paddies were empty, but some like these had just been planted with tender green sprouts.

Here we are at the Thai side of the border - I'm a little nervous & very glad we're with Beverly who has done this a few times.

When we reached the Burma/Myanmar side we had to surrender our passports & pay a 500 bhat entry fee ($16). We were given temporary travel permit cards with our photo on them for our visit.

I guess most border towns are known for their shopping opportunities and this one was no exception. Down some steep steps, it felt a little like going into a sinister Diagon Alley. Cigarette sellers & beggars vied for our attention nearly every step of the way.

There was lots & lots & lots of stuff to buy.

Here's some dried goat meat. Nope, didn't get any.

This market is known for its abundance of black market items & knock-offs. Here's a shelf of current US TV series, we also found '8-in-1' DVDs - 8 feature length movies on 1 disk!

It was a fun experience, but we were happy to go thru the 'Foreigner (Out)' door, give up our travel permits & be reunited once again with our precious passports.

The next step was passing back into Thailand, and getting that all important visa stamp allowing us to stay up to 2 months longer.

Phew - we made it!

Next, Jay drove us up to the 'Golden Triangle', the point where Thailand, Myanmar & Laos meet. This gorgeous archway opened into a wide vista.

The Golden Triangle is at the confluence of the Ruak & the Mekong Rivers.

Once considered the wild west of drug trafficking of opium, it's now slowly being developed as a huge casino area for tourists. The beautiful gold building on the Laos side of the river is a brand new casino.

One of many benches in the area - all with the same message.

Overlooking the river is a gigantic golden Buddha,

guarded by this pair of enormous elephants,

and another pair that you must pass beneath to reach the shrine, one at the front & one at the back.

Here we are in the sweet spot for picture taking with the Golden Buddha.

Beverly, Jay & I are standing in front of a table of cash offerings left by the many visitors.

The giant Golden Buddha overlooks the immense Mekong River that flows out of China, dividing Burma and Thailand from Laos, on it's way east to Vietnam.

It was a very moving experience for us to be there.

~*~ A note from Sada: Driving through northern Thailand on our way to Burma was my first experience seeing rice paddies on a grand scale. Combined with the steep volcanic mountains jutting out of the countryside, this landscape brought to mind my imagined picture of Vietnam. After all my reading about this country and everybody's terrible experience with their American war, it really felt like I was finally seeing what I had previously only imagined.

The next day, after our border crossing experience, Jay offered to take us to the Golden Triangle. What I didn't realize was that we were going to the exact epicenter. When Jay said "OK, We're here" I was stunned to see the Mekong River rolling by in front of us. I got out of the car and walked up to the monument showing the dividing point between Thailand, Laos, and Burma. With the Mekong flowing directly towards me, I was mesmerized and nearly speechless. Almost instantly I saw something bobbing towards us from about a quarter mile off. I froze and practically held my breath as I waited for it to float by. With great relief I was able to identify it as a bloated water buffalo.

We spent a half hour or so walking around admiring the glorious giant Golden Buddha and the other sights. Just before we left, at dusk, I made my way down a long flight of stairs to a small deserted boat dock, slipped my shoes off and bathed my feet in this glorious river. It was as much of a religious experience as I've always imagined doing the same thing in the Ganges would be. As I put my shoes back on, I glanced back up the steps and spotted two Thai DEA agents intently watching every move I made. ~*~

On our last day in Chiang Rai, we went up the mountain on a curvy road to Doi Tung, where we visited the King's mother's beautiful villa, and the fabulous royal gardens. These critters were a funny welcoming committee.

Mae Fah Luang Gardens was a wonderful place - I could have stayed all day! There were lots of lovely plantings in clever, whimsical settings and terrific water elements everywhere,

ending with a wonderful large formal garden with a killer view.

We also ran into a group of cute young Thai girls (& some security guards) who all wanted to have their picture taken with us, here they are with Beverly - totally cute!

Our Visit to Chiang Rai - Part Uno

2011-01-13T05:12:00.014-09:00

Last week we took a trip up north to the town of Chiang Rai.

It was time for our 'visa run', when you leave the country for a few days or hours (or a few minutes!), then come back in & get a new stamp in your passport and more time in the country. Our friend Beverly was ready for her visa run too, and she invited us to go along & to stay with her friend Jay in Chiang Rai. Perfect!

The three of us caught the Green Bus for the 3 hour trip.

We had wonderful, comfortable reclining seats, with leg rests - better than any airline seat I've encountered.

We were given bottles of water & a snack - tasty green colored bean paste on a wheat bun (to match the Green Bus?) and a Thai action movie set in the arctic to watch.

A quick shot of some of the bus station snacks - the orange ones at the bottom are my favorites.

Jay picked us up - the first of many wonderful things she did for us over the next few days! From the bus station we headed to this amazing attraction - the White Temple. It is a labor of love designed & built by one man, Chalermchai Khositpipat, to signify heaven on earth in honor of Lord Buddha.

This is the beautiful entrance to the temple which is free to all visitors.

Here's Jay at the entrance - no photos beyond this point.

Each sculpted edge is lined with tiny mirrors that shine in the sunlight, & make a spectacular spectacle all lit up after dark.

The building continues.

Beverly & I are in front of the Gold Temple which has to be the most glorious restroom on earth, wouldn't you agree?

Nearby is a little museum of more of the artist's work. I snapped this pic of this gorgeous painting & his workbench before I noticed the 'No Photos' sign. Oops.

Here is one of 3 cases of Lost & Found stuff.

Heaps of hats, clothes, scarves, umbrellas, sunglasses & toys all neatly folded & stacked in glass fronted cabinets.

And, the sign reads 'Lost $ Found' - a typo? or is there a deeper meaning?

The artist has also contributed his work in other venues around town -

this stunning Clock Tower,

and these wonderful street lights running down the main drag of Chiang Rai.

Next, Jay took us on a nature hike to the Khunkorn Waterfall Park.

It started out as a lovely walk thru an immense bamboo forest,

And quickly turned into a series of tricky climbs up & down the treacherous rocky trail. Sada had found a couple of walking sticks & they sure came in handy!

Almost there! We were sweat soaked by this point - luckily it wasn't a very hot day!

Here we are at the lovely falls. We rested in the cool breeze, drank our water & prepared for the return journey.

Somehow, going downhill can be so much harder - this spot was Steep!!!

But we made it - no twisted ankles, nobody cried & we all slept well!

Coming soon: Part Two, where we cross the border into Burma ...or Myanmar as it's called by the current military dictatorship, and we hang out with a gigantic golden Buddha on the Meykong River.

See you then.

Merry Christmas from Thailand!

2010-12-25T07:36:00.013-09:00

Holidays Greetings & Felicitations to you & yours!

We're enjoying our second Christmas in Chiang Mai - here's what's been going on:

This is the little Christmas tree in the lobby of our hotel, cute, huh?

This pretty tree made of blue lights is in one of our favorite markets.

More signs of the season: garb for Mrs Clause ...& perhaps some elves?

and, poinsettias all over the place!

On Christmas eve, we had a big party at our hotel! We have wide balconies overlooking the pool/restaurant area & our group of 14 took over the 4th floor for the evening.

Here is Aase, Betty, Chairit, Beverly & Eva posing with the 'Orchid Tree' and gifts underneath.

Our table was beautifully set, everyone contributed delicious food & drink, and the weather was perfect!

One of our contributions was this fruit salad made of scrumptious tropical fruits: papaya, mango, tangerines, pineapple, dragonfruit (white w/ black speckles) and banana, drizzled with lime juice - YUM!

And we had presents! Everyone got at least one -

lots of fun & funny gems.

Here's the group (minus Chairit, who had a quick errand to do). From the top row: Kathleen from Colorado, Lena who is Thai, Adrien from London, and Sada. Middle: Kay from Chiang Mai, Eugene from South Africa, and Jim & Mido from BC Canada. Front: (standing) Eva from Germany - she now lives in Chiang Mai, Betty from everywhere in the US, Beverly from Michigan, Aase from Denmark and me!

The party broke up around 11:30, and after we cleaned up & got home (across the courtyard for us), the sky filled with fireworks - a wonderful way to end the night!

Christmas day, we relaxed (?!) ate great leftovers, sunned & swam, and then went out to a night 'walking street' market.

Here's a bit of the scene:

We loved these beautiful instruments and lantern decorations,

we watched this shopping frenzy over flowery quilted bags,

and had some excellent gelato!

On the way home we passed thru the Tha Pae Gate where the first of seven nights of 'countdown' to New Years had begun with loud music, dancing, games for kids and this high school choir singing Christmas carols in english! Interesting!

The gate area is all decorated for an International Celebration. There are many large steel sculptures covered in moving light strips representing the Sydney Opera House (below), the Coliseum (you can just see the edge, to the far right), the Leaning-ish Tower of Pisa, and the Eiffel Tower (2 of these).

Behind the Opera House you can see some of the food stalls.

But of all the Holiday decorations we've seen around town, I think this is our favorite.

Can you even begin to imagine what's going on here?

As the tree (enclosed in a plastic bubble) twirls, little foam 'snow' beads fall from the cup under the star and bounce merrily down the tree branches to the container at the bottom

... yup, it's 'snowing' in Thailand!

Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night!

Celebration!

2010-12-20T05:55:00.013-09:00

Earlier this month, Thailand celebrated the 83rd birthday of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej. The King has reigned since June 1946, making him the world's longest serving current head of state and the longest reigning monarch in Thai history.

The Thai people love & revere the King, and Chiang Mai held a huge celebration that lasted for several days!

The birthday celebration events centered around this huge stage that was decorated with several tiers of gorgeous flowers - white mums, purple orchids and pink roses, with little white lights laced thru the flowers for a beautiful effect.

Each evening was filled with pomp & circumstance. Everyone turned out in their pink shirts, pink being the King's color choice of late. During this part, the candle lighting ceremony, everyone made their way to the stage area - with their pink candles - to watch the various presentations of devotion to the King.

We were standing by, watching as the candle lighting ceremony unfolded & suddenly, as one woman walked by me to join the inner crowd, she handed me her candle! Then someone else lit it & nudged me into the area, so in I went & stood among the Thais as they sang to their King!

It was a weird and wonderful moment!

Later we watched a beautiful re-enactment of the famous Three Kings story, about the founding of Chiang Mai - lots of dancing, gorgeous costumes & lovely music.

Afterwards, we visited the food stalls & found a new entrant to the 'Food-on-a-Stick' category: the Cake Ball!

First bite! We shared the cake-ball as we wandered down the street.

So, what is it? Three layers of cake batter around a center...

...what is that?

...a piece of ...Hotdog?? ...huh?

Well, the fun didn't end there. While we were trying to figure out what to do with this thing... we noticed a rat skittering along in the gutter. We figured he might as well have it, so I dropped it for him & in about 3 seconds, he had the entire thing pulled into some secret place & was having a happy meal & a celebration of his own!

Parades! Lanterns!

2010-12-15T07:16:00.012-09:00

Loi Krathong and the Festival of Lights lasts several days, and for three nights running we were treated to wonderful parades! Here are some of my pics:

This pink float was stunning! Amazing detail:

12 or so people on it, all gorgeously costumed, some, like these ladies danced.

This giant krathong was wonderful!

The bubbles added a nice touch!

These pics were taken during all 3 parades, so they sort of run together in my mind! But, you can be sure that at all times firecrackers were exploding & that the sky was busy with fireworks and fire lanterns, like the dots in the sky above this lovely lady's head.

Another highly decorated float.

This float was so beautiful.

This 2 foot tall decoration was a corner detail of a float.

Oh yes, and just about each float had it's very own sound system, and yes - they were LOUD!

A good time to have your earplugs handy!

I snapped this elephant float thru a cloud of smoke from some

firecrackers - I like the eerie effect!

This float had a large entourage attached to it, some other were actually pulled, or carried - usually by young men clad in scanty traditional garb! (what - no picture?)

Another lovely huge float!

This chap with the tall pole had a very important job. Some of the wires crossing the street were too low for the taller floats, so it was his job to raise the wires so the floats could glide by. Some floats were built so that their tops could tip back or be lowered if needed!

We thought this peacock was fabulous!

On to the giant lanterns! This elephant lantern display was wonderful!

More animal lanterns.

Here are some fire lanterns being sent into the sky.

Sada posed in front of this guy - a symbol of Thailand. See behind him, the people posing against the brick wall? It was a very popular thing to do!

So I struck a pose in front of this jolly lantern!

Loi Krathong & the Festival of Lights

2010-12-04T06:18:00.014-09:00

Loi Krathong begins with Yi Peng, the Lantern Festival. Beautiful lanterns like these, and many other types, can be seen all over town. This picture was taken at the Tha Pae Gate, a huge plaza near our hotel. It was truely a magical spot - every evening for a week, the gate was full of people strolling beneath the lights, children spinning and twirling & everyone taking pictures - or posing! And posing in the cutest manner possible!

Loi Krathong takes place during the full moon in November, and in Chiang Mai, it's a big deal. There were 3 amazing evening parades, impressive floats built on rafts in the river (like the one above in the early stages of preparation), a beauty contest, live entertainment, a big street fair, fire crackers & fireworks popping & exploding all day & night, and lovely fire lanterns floating up into the sky all evening long!

The main event is when everyone goes to the Ping River to float a little raft (a Krathong) made on a slice of banana tree - see the stack of little rounds on the bench behind the table? There are 3 girls behind this table making beautiful rafts to sell.

Noise, noise NOISE! Fire crackers going off night & day! Sada said these spent softball sized ceramic balls were beautiful flower fountains. We saw all kinds of fireworks for sale in the markets - in all sizes.

In a previous year, someone collected the leftovers & started a little wall - good idea!

The rafts are intricately decorated with natural (or edible) materials and always have sticks of incense and a candle, sometimes money is added.

Floating the Krathong is meant to honor the ancestors, send offerings and apologies to the river Gods, and to float away bad luck and sorrow.

You can see how intricate, different and beautiful they can be!

There were beautiful lanterns displays all over town.

This is just a small part of the spectacle at the 'Three Kings' monument.

And... there are the Three Kings - behind the cute girls posing for a picture.

More Krathongs - a very pretty design, with orchids.

These were awesome, made with - can you guess? Yup, ice cream cones!

I bought my krathong from a couple of young girls who only had a few left - it was a bit scruffy looking, but I didn't mind! We lit the candle & incense, made our way down the steps to the river's edge, and with Sada holding on to me, sent the little raft off into the river! Lots of other rafts were floating by and mine joined the procession. A lovely moment.

The weird & funny-ish thing is that down stream, there are often people/kids looting the krathons for any cash, like in the picture above. But... you send off your raft with blessings, wishes, beautiful flowers and money... and it is received by 'someone' on the other end, right? Does it really matter that that 'someone' is a kid up to his knees in the river checking out the little rafts! As Sada said - you give your offering to the Buddha, and the Buddha passes it along to the children.

No one seemed to mind - the fish can't use the cash, can they?

And, the beauty contest - they were all just lovely!

Back in Thailand!

2010-11-28T05:38:00.002-09:00

~ November 2010 ~

You can see by our smiling faces that we're happy! Happy to be back in Thailand, in Chiang Mai, happy to be reunited with the friends we made last time (visitors like us, and locals).

It's great to be back in the land of smiles!

We had good flights over - it was nearly 30 hours total travel time. Two of our three flights were on Korean Air, which was enhanced by the wonderful staff and their adorable uniforms!

Somehow we timed our departure just right, as Fairbanks turned into a giant ice rink a few days later. We hope it didn't create too much havoc for our friends & family, but we were sure glad to not be a part of that mess!

So, we've been wandering the streets & sois (side alleys), buying fabulous fruit & munchies for lunch, eating terrific dinners, enjoying the pool & friends, playing golf (Sada), beading (Jill), reading & relaxing!

Loi Krathon is the Festival of Lights - more on that in the next blog, but here's one pic of the beautiful Lanna lantern display at the Tha Pae Gate (the big plaza right near our hotel).

These lanterns have a magical quality - everyone under them is filled of delight!

There was much cute posing & snapping of pictures every where you looked!

It's great to be back!

Smile Blog

2010-01-25T00:27:00.012-09:00

Thailand is called the Land of Smiles.
Smiling is just part of the culture - isn't that nice?
We spent a lot of time smiling too: we met many lovely people, saw fabulous things, ate amazing food & got into the mellow way of life - we had a great visit!

The pics that follow are just a random collection of things that made me smile!

~ ~ ~

A calendar, with a picture of the King of course,
hanging on a tree along a busy street.

A buttered, grilled white bread treat for sale at a street market.

Isn't this a cute little car?

More street market fare, need a silly little lamp?

This mini bus took the day off to haul some straw. Reminds me of those of us in Alaska who use our cars like they were pick-up trucks!

Now that's just cute.

Signage is always interesting

Traveling down this sidewalk was fun & a little eerie.

Lots of beverages are sold like this - in a plastic bag with a straw.

Donald Duck hanging out on the grounds of a beautiful Wat.

A plate of bananas drying in the back of a pick-up truck.

Yep, I think those are gumdrop sandwiches.

This girl was adorable & I love that I caught that pigeon in flight!
She had fun with these well-fed birds.

Thai TV - fun to watch! (No we couldn't understand it.)

Another favorite sign - smiles all around!

OK - here's a truck decorated with an Arctic scene - Polar Bears included!
Maybe it helps the owner cool off on a hot day.

Yup, bunnies wearing cute little outfits. :)

A monk and an iPod!

We were eating a Thai breakfast, while these guys were eating an all American breakfast! Eggs, bacon, white toast, OJ & coffee. We had 'Siamese Rice Soup' with mushrooms & tofu.

This sign - another favorite - was at a Pizza Hut.
See that crust? It's made of noodles? :)

This store's sidewalk garden display featured onions!

Any size or style! :)

I think this was my favorite sign!

Keep on smiling, everyone!
:)

Where does the time go?

2010-01-19T00:04:00.020-09:00

Hi! Well, I see it's 10 months since I last posted - funny how time floats away!
So what's been happening? We returned home to Fairbanks in late March, in pretty good shape after a 49 hour journey. But the jet-lag was horrendous and we were lucky to have plenty of time to pull ourselves together. We shoveled snow, warmed up the house & tried to get life as we knew it back on track. After 5 & 1/2 months away, it was hard! We stoked the wood fire, the snow slowly melted & spring eventually arrived.

Our summer was lovely with beautiful days & long sunny evenings. I took a seasonal summer job & one of the perks of my job was inviting Sada on a flying trip to Wiseman, AK.Sada worked at home doing tons of yard work - taking down an old shed & an old greenhouse, revamping the garden & building a new garden shed, and also throughout the summer worked on the wood pile - he cut & split about 10 cords of firewood!

Summer also brought us a bunch of family visitors, including LIZ, who came home for the summer to work & eventually decided to stay thru the winter to save money for Grad school. We're all having a great time together!

Randy Schwartz & grandson Sam (above) and my sister Marcie Schwartz & Sam (below) visited from Napa CA. Here they are hanging out in Denali Park.
Robby Pedersen flew up to Fairbanks in this cute 1947 Taylorcraft & spent the summer flying all over the state. His wife Clare joined us here briefly & then they flew off for more adventure.
We all had a busy summer pursuing our various jobs & interests.
This pretty flower bed is just out our front door.
Our garden provided us with a good amount of fresh veggies & raspberries, and the fall was a long one (for us), allowing us to finish up some outdoor projects before the snow arrived.

Sada & I worked together for the next few months working very hard on an energy upgrade/retrofit program, sponsored by the State of Alaska. From the basement to the attic, we repaired, replaced or enhanced the interior envelope of the house & are now enjoying the benefit of all that work as our home is a much warmer & cozier one.

So, now the holidays are over, the days are short & the weirdness of January is upon us! We're staying up verrry late & then sleeping in as late as we want. We work on inside projects as we feel like it, read, work on beading & jigsaw puzzles, clean out closets slowly & watch too much TV. But, as I said, it's January in Alaska - time to take it slow...

But, we've already gained over an hour of daylight since the dark days of the winter solstice, so things are looking up. My intention is to continue with the Thailand blog & tell more about our trip. It's not like I have a lot of things demanding my time, so keep an eye here & we'll see what happens! Take care all!

Shopping in Thailand - So Much Stuff to Buy!

2009-11-05T15:33:00.038-09:00

Chiang Mai is the shopping mecca for all of northern Thailand, and the amount of stuff for sale was absolutely staggering! Here are some pics of some noteworthy shops & stores.

These jars were full of intriguing stuff. We had to hurry by, tho & didn't stop.

One of the many red & GOLD shops! Wow!

The evening flower market.

Here's the way to buy eggs!

These big guys are called Jackfruit. We ate some cooked into an Indian style dish that was quite delicious. I estimate 15-20 inches as the diameter of these guys.

We spotted these jelly cakes at the mall food court - pretty, huh?

Warorot Market was one of our favorite places to shop. It was a bit of a hike from our hotel, but so much to discover here! It's a 3 story 'mall', here we are looking down on the main floor. At the top of this pic you can just see one amazing vendor...

Here she is 'in her vegetables'. She was completely surrounded -
don't know how she got in & out - a trap door?

At a street market - insect edibles!

This is a great shop selling every kind of spice, and what a fabulous aroma!
We went looking for some Kao Soi curry powder - THE dish of northern Thailand that we just loved, and we were directed to this shop ... and success!

Down at the end of Warorot Market is a long hallway full of vendors -
we always stopped for these little yummy bean filled buns.
Of all the varieties, our favorite was anise flavored - I miss them!!The fabric shops are amazing - so much to discover!
The aisles are about 8-12 inches wide, no room for passing, and watch out for dead ends!

More bugs! No we never tried any!

This was my favorite shop - about 10 feet wide & absolutely crammed from floor to ceiling with craft materials, and spilling out onto the sidewalk, too. I think if you were to pull something out of the lower section, there would be a huge landslide!This shop of rolled stock opened right onto the sidewalk - this is the whole store!

This is one of our favorite fruit stands up the street from our hotel. At the front from the left you can see persimmon, dragon fruit, asian pear, papaya & fresh tamarind in the mesh bag.

These bad boys are called Durian. This is the notorious fruit that is either loved or hated - it's very smelly, but has a sweet creamy taste. We tried it once but didn't like it much. There are lots of stories of durian being forbidden on public transportation and lots of other places because of it's smell (No Smoking, No Eating, No Durian).
When we saw it for sale it was always set off in it's own area with no other vendors around!
Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian for more information.

Bookstores, ahhh! Chiang Mai is a great area for books. One day I counted 15 used bookstores within easy walking distance of our hotel - full of mostly English language titles. Most of them were small stores unlike the large Thai bookstore pictured below (1 of 2 that we found). So, if you go to Chiang Mai, you don't need to pack half a suitcase with books (like I usually do).
They are a bit expensive tho - a just-OK-condition used paperback book can cost much more than a great meal from a street vendor.

All sizes, styles & colors of religious figures are available.

Painting & drawing classes are offered in art galleries. This famous National Geographic photo of a girl from Afghanistan is a popular picture to copy.A beautiful sidewalk stand!

This is part of Sompet Market - another favorite of ours. We often shopped here for fruit & would see groups of students from the many local cooking schools gathering with their chef to learn about the local produce.

Here's a bunch of typical Thai flavors used in many basic dishes - lemon grass, lime leaf, galanga root & ginger. Handy!

These are all sorts of sweets & treats - mostly made from coconut, aren't they pretty?

More interesting fruit - in front is mangosteen & behind is a tall pyramid of hairy rambutan.

One of our favorite fruit sellers - Yoda!

But this was hands-down my favorite store - the cookie warehouse!

Sad MAC

2009-03-12T07:15:00.006-08:00

Sorry about the long blogging delay - my computer crashed & burned last month & we've been visiting a local Internet Cafe to check email, etc. We've decided to wait until we get home to have it fixed as it's still covered by an extended warranty. I may to do a few more posts while we're still in Thailand, but unfortunately, I can't include pictures this way.

We're rapidly coming to the end of our 5 month vacation - amazing! And YES! it does seem like we've been gone for a long time. In fact, I'm actually starting to get excited about going home! Usually on vacation, I'm big-time in NO rush to return, especially when it's winter in Alaska, and, seriously, why go on a vacation when it's summer in Alaska? But this time I'm ready - or i will be soon enough.

It's been great being here! We ended up staying for 3+ months in Chiang Mai. We thought we might be here for 4-6 weeks, but then we didn't want to leave! Living in a city has been lots of fun - something I've always wanted to do.

I have lots of pics & little movies to share when my computer is feeling better. We went to a traditional Thai wedding, visited the King's winter palace, had lunch at a restaurant right on a lovely waterfall, hung out at lot at interesting markets and - oh yeah, I've been spending a lot of time at the dentist & have a bunch of beautiful new teeth! So check back & watch for future blogs on these & other topics of interest. Meanwhile, lots of love from us!

Motorcycles & More

2009-02-05T06:40:00.017-09:00

We are really enjoying living in this city - Chiang Mai is lots of fun. City traffic is very interesting & the vehicles going by are many & varied! It's been fun to collect this group of pictures showing what we see.

There are a lot of bicycles around & a few of these pedicabs. They are fearless in traffic!

We see quite a few of these big buses, always highly decorated & colorful inside & out.

This is the overnight bus to Bangkok.

This one looks pretty jazzy & comfy inside.

Here is a little Tuk-tuk, they're everywhere. Hop in one for a quick trip to wherever you like,

they're cheap & loud & fun to ride in!

We're riding in a Songtao, a little truck with 2 long seats in back, another very popular form of public transportation. Flag one down, tell the driver where you want to go & if he's going that way, negotiate a price, hop in & hold on! (See me in the reflection?)

We see this cute little green truck on the main street near our hotel.

We liked this cute little red one too!

Here's one we spotted in a small collection of antique cars.

And then, there are the motorcycles. They are the way-to-go around here! The streets are full of them & you see tons of them parked all over the place, including on the sidewalks when necessary. Last year there were 1.6 million NEW motorcycles registered in Thailand.

Sometimes they have a sidecar for a passenger or more likely a utility frame like this that gets used for any & everything!

Sometimes they are a complete small business carrying family members as well.

There aren't many stop lights here, but during the time the traffic is stopped, many, many motorcycles will filter thru the other vehicles & make their way up to the head of the line of traffic. Needless to say, people drive in flip-flops, and high heels too!

Motorcycles are an important part of everyday life -

like when you need to apply some new nail polish!

We often see women riding side-saddle as a passenger & usually they're not even holding on! I've seen them holding a big pot of food seated this way. Glad to see this Grannie has a firm grip!

Seeing 3 people on a motorcycle is not at all unusual, and 4 is common too - that usually includes a small child. Some bikes are fitted with a small seat between the driver's knees. Lots of stuff is hauled around on motorcycles & we've seen a couple fitted out for a person in a wheelchair to drive!

Here's one of the cutest Vespas we've seen,

And the stud-covered one we see at a nearby bar.

This one is protected by a 'Singh' or guardian lion.

This one sports a very preppy look,

Not sure what's going on with this one...

A sweet Vespa with sidecar.

I guess this one will be easy to 'spot' in the parking lot.

But this is my favorite - - so far, anyway!

Maybe we should get one.....

Eclipse!

2009-01-27T07:46:00.011-09:00

A few weeks ago we heard that there was going to be an eclipse over Thailand, so we were excited! We planned ahead & managed to come across a funny little store selling hardware & some welding supplies. After some tricky sign language & miscellaneous english words, we were handed 2 lenses for welding hoods. We were all smiles & could see that the three Thai ladies behind the counter were highly amused by our wanting to buy them!

I checked the NASA website & learned that the Annular Eclipse* of Jan 26, 2009, was just going to skim Thailand at 10 am, so the other morning, we got ready. It was a cool morning, so it was nice to sit in the sun at 9:30 after breakfast & wait for it to begin. 10:00 am came & went with no eclipse, so I went back to the NASA site & read the fine print. Ah! convert to UT - Universal time to get the proper viewing schedule - 5 pm as it turns out.

OK, at least we didn't miss it.

At 4:45 we dropped everything & rushed to the roof of the hotel, welder's glass in hand. I took this picture of the view to the west to see how the light would change during the peak.

The glass was great, our eyes were protected.

(That's the Thai flag behind Sada.)

The eclipse was, well, not very dramatic! It covered about one eighth of the sun & made no difference whatsoever in the quality of daylight. It was cool to watch it tho - a good time was had by all.

I, of course took some pictures with my trusty little camera - thru the welder's glass & here's my best pic. See the weird little ghosty sun in the northwest corner? Evidently, that's a mirror reflection of the sun showing the little eclipse bite. No idea why the real sun doesn't show it. Maybe someone can tell me.

For a much better look of what we saw, check online or try this link to someone else's blog:

http://www.thaiphotoblogs.com/index.php?blog=5&title=solar-eclipse-in-thailand&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

*An Annular Eclipse is like a Total Eclipse, except the moon is closer to the earth & altho the moon covers the sun, a fiery ring of the sun still shows at the edge.

AND, on July 22 of this year, there's going to be a Total Eclipse here & in most of Asia. Our welder's glass will stay behind for our hotel friends to use to check it out. We, however will be back in Alaska by then, enjoying another natural phenomenon - the midnight sun!

An Historic Wonderful Day! Obamanos!

2009-01-20T22:43:00.003-09:00

We joined the rest of the world watching the Inauguration of Barack Omaba as the 44th President of the United States last night! We are 12 hour from Washington DC, so we stayed up LATE watching the events & turned on the TV again in the morning to watch Barack & Michelle dancing & celebrating at the Balls.

I'll never get enough of those smiles!

Here are some local Thai papers with coverage of the big event.

What a wonderful day for us, the country & the world!

We Back-Up to Our RAYA ISLAND Visit

2009-01-19T05:47:00.009-09:00

Back in November, when we were staying on Phuket Island in the south of Thailand, we took a little side trip to Raya Island (or as Liz put it, we took a vacation from our vacation). I want to go back & recap that trip.

We were driven to the southeast part of the island in a minivan that picked up several others along the way from other beach towns. Viewing those other places made us realize what a peaceful place our Bang Tao Beach hotel was & how lovely our wide empty beach was!

From the minivan we transfered to a 'fast-boat' that carried us & 20 or so others (mostly day-trippers) first to Coral Island for an hour of snorkeling or para-sailing if you dared, and then to Raya Island where we were dropped off at a busy beautiful beach. We were met by a young man who took us to our bungalow hotel which we reached by hiking across the bright, hot beach, up a very long, steep path to the top of the ridge, and down to the beach on the other side. Our bungalow was up on the hillside, very rustic, but quiet & peaceful.

Our tiny porch was just big enough for 2 deck chairs & a little table.

We slept under a mosquito net at night,

and had a very basic, but adequate bathroom, including a toilet with no plumbing! You pour 2 or 3 scoops of water into the toilet to flush, a very simple efficient system!

These are the steps down to the beach & the little restaurant where we had our meals,

And this is the nice shady restaurant where we would eat overlooking the fantastic beach!

There were a few other people around, but it was incredibly quiet & beautiful. I don't think I've ever seen sand so white!

We stayed for 2 nights & enjoyed the peaceful setting, but then it was time to go. We retraced our steps over the hill & back down the steep path to the beach on the other side.

It was a very hot day and the beach was busy. We had to wait a couple of hours for the boat to pick us up so we rented a couple of beach beds under an umbrella & entertained ourselves by people-watching. This lovely bride was being photographed by her new husband. He encouraged her to splash around a bit & it was fun to watch her pose. But then a wave caught her, she got completely soaked & she nearly lost her dress! She kept her sense of humor tho & I hope they got some good pictures!

We headed into the shade for a little lunch while we waited for our boat. See the floating dock? Walking on it was a new experience - but the only way to get back onto the boat!

From the boat, as we approached Phuket, we could see this huge white Buddha on top of the hill. We enjoyed our little 'get-away' & had a great time!

So What's Sada Been Up To?

2009-01-12T06:16:00.020-09:00

Since I'm the one with the camera, I often take pics of Sada!

Here he is eating breakfast - our hotel offers a 'Siamese Rice Soup' & we order it veggie style with tofu & add lots of hot stuff - yum!

Napping by the pool in the sun is one of his favorite things!

Actually, napping anywhere is his favorite thing,

We often wander thru the street markets - one day we found the mother lode of cashews!

At this market, we finally found the fruit we were looking for - passionfruit, or Lilikoi in Hawaiian. Here in Thailand they call it something like Otuklo.

It's the weirdest, coolest fruit ever!

We often visit the Buddhist Wats on our walks. This one was beautiful & seemed to be dedicated to all sorts of animals - lots of misc animal statues around, including one of Donald Duck!

This visit was around New Year's when offerings of many kinds are made to the monks. The pretty banners contain cash & New Year's messages.

We often have lunch on our balcony overlooking the pool. Looks like we're having papaya, bananas & cashews today.

Massage... Deng works right here at the hotel, she's great!

An hour massage costs 200B - $5.75.

We spend a lovely amount of time reading! Here Sada's about to finish 'Sense & Sensibility' - we both enjoyed it! Did I mention he finished 'War & Peace'? It took about 6 weeks, minus a week for coffee detox.

Now we're working on 'The Raj Quartet'.

Here he is inspecting some old ceramic roof tiles on a house in the Lanna Traditional Homes Museum.

The Ping River is a little east of the center of Chiang Mai.

It's one slow moving river!

We found this amazing vegetarian restaurant after a long hot walk one day. The iced teas were incredible - mine was chrysanthemum & his was lemon grass. The rest of the lunch was superb, we can't wait to go back!

Computer work is a new thing in Sada's life - he's having fun with it! Mostly word processing so far & a little internet.

Sudoku too, can you believe it?

We had some Indian food for dinner at one of the evening walking markets & got a couple of these soft white buns too. It wasn't until we looked at the picture that we saw that they look just like breasts!

So, I guess this has turned out to be a sort of 'day in the life' for us here in Chiang Mai. We're having a wonderful time!

My Haircut & Best Shampoo Everrrrr!

2009-01-11T08:26:00.004-09:00

I had my hair cut the other day - I chose a little storefront shop on the main street near our hotel. As you can see from their signboards, they do a lot of massages here too.

My haircutter, 'Mem', was a tiny little woman & didn't speak much english, but I thought she asked if I wanted a haircut & shampoo, and I said yes, I did. So she sat me down & started by powdering the hair around my ears & neck, I thought, oh well I guess we didn't agree on that shampoo after all, well whatever. I used a lot of sign language trying to describe the kind of short choppy cut I like & pointed to a picture on the wall and she did a great job!

Then she motioned for me to follow her to the little dimly lit back room, pointed to a strange raised bench & said, 'Shampoo'. Ah ha! I climbed up & figured how to get settled. She fitted a kind of rubbery plastic collar with a pillow that was connected to the bench around my neck & I was ready for the shampoo of my life!

Well, it was very sudsy! The foam was flying! Having someone shampoo your hair is always pretty great, but Mem was really working out! My hair got squeaky clean as did my neck, throat & ears - yup she washed in & all around my ears! She rinsed that out & applied something else and then massaged my head for a while ...ahhhhh. Then she rinsed that out, used a towel on my hair to dry it a bit and massaged some more thru the towel. Next came a face massage! Oh, that was lovely. Then she put something else on my hair that made my scalp tingle & smelled a little like cloves. Yup, she massaged that into my hair, scalp, neck & ears for a nice long time.

Wow - my whole head sparkled!!

Somehow, I managed to get back to my feet & back to the haircut chair. Mem used a blow drier & had some fun with a gob of hair goo, making my hair stick up all over the place - which it pretty much does anyway. And then she massaged my neck & shoulders for a while & I was done, I floated home feeling very clean & shiny. The price was 150 Baht, about $4.50.

What a great, wild experience, thanks Mem!

New Year's Eve in Chiang Mai

2009-01-05T07:03:00.061-09:00

SAWADEE PI MAI!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

New Year's Eve in Chiang Mai was an incredible experience for us. After 23 years of hosting NYE celebrations in Fairbanks - with our candle-filled house looking beautiful, bonfire roaring outside, ice lanterns & fireworks, kids in snowsuits & boots jumping on the trampoline, it was an oddly emotional thing for us to be here & not there with our friends & family seeing in the New Year.

We missed you all!

Soon after I finished posting my pre-new year's blog - about 9:15, we went out onto our hotel balcony, 4th floor, & saw the sky dotted with gorgeous floating fire lanterns. We turned & said to each other 'Let's get out there!' Loud music was blasting from the Gate stage, firecrackers of all sizes were popping constantly & the crowd was jazzed as we headed down the lane from our hotel & into the fray - the excitement was intoxicating! People were streaming into the center of the party from all directions, but we headed the other way, down to an area where lots of people were buying & lighting the lanterns, and patiently waiting for them to fill with hot air before releasing them to the night sky.

Couples, friends & family groups were sending off lanterns with their wishes for the New Year.

As some lanterns went up, they got caught in a tree or an electric wire. The crowd would groan, call out encouragement 'C'mon! Keep going!' and then cheer & whoop as it broke free & continued to rise into the sky. Such an enchanting sight!

Some lanterns had the addition of a sparkly firework that was lit at the last moment as it was released, giving the lantern a fiery tale as it headed skyward.

The lanterns are so lovely as they fill with hot air & then float up into the sky! Throughout the evening, we saw literally thousands & thousands of them being sent up into the darkness - what a beautiful sight! I'm having fun taking videos with my little camera - this one came out great! I wish I could have filmed the whole evening - everything was so interesting & beautiful! Sorry this is sideways tho - I'll try to remember not to do that again!

Eventually, we wandered towards the crowd-filled Gate plaza to see what was happening there. Costumed people were spilling out of bars drinking beer on the street, fireworks were for sale to young & old...

Now, here's a scary sight, yikes!

The road on the far side of the Gate plaza was closed off for the night & the whole area was filled with people! Four huge double-sided projection screens made for easy viewing of the entertainment on the big stage.

The 3 story Starbucks overlooks the plaza & is a good spot to watch the action.

We were carried in on a small rivulet of people moving thru the crowd & eventually got to the far side. Along the way we watched some of this beautiful scene - I think they were acting out a Thai folk tale.

So many people & no Porta-potties...

then we noticed these Toilet-trucks!

At 11:30 we decided to head back to our hotel - we'd heard that the roof is the perfect place to be for the countdown & to watch the firework displays. On the way we found this old gal again! Remember her Christmas wheels? Check out this chopper - ever seen so many studs? This thing has lights on it like you wouldn't believe when you see it coming down the street!! Boy, is she a piece of work - we're dying to know her story!

Up on the roof, the sight was just incredible! We were overlooking the stage from behind & altho we couldn't see the show, we could see the strobe lights flashing, clouds billowing from the smoke machines & lots of spotlights illuminating the whole area. Firecrackers were popping & screaming from all over the place, & the fire lanterns were rising & drifting in the air currents. We had a very wide view that couldn't be beat & it was spectacular!

We were joined by a group of friends from the hotel - here's Ellie preparing to let her lantern go...

And then, the fireworks started! Wow - they are as hard to take pictures of as they are to describe! They were rising into the sky & bursting into bloom from areas all around the city - from rooftops of the big hotels, parks along the river, along the moat & really... anywhere & everywhere, and it went on & on!

Our friends pulled us into their circle, we crossed our arms, held hands & sang 'Auld Lang Syne'. It was sweet & lovely & very touching!

Very close to us, some very big fireworks went up, exploded into huge bursts of layers of color & pattern, then the BOOM! the report that you could feel enter the top of your head & zing down to your toes - so wild & exciting - we were all screaming!

Being on the street watching so many people send off their lanterns, getting caught up in the huge crowd & watching all the activity from our rooftop spot overlooking the city was a wonderful, fantastic, overwhelming experience, a New Year's Eve like no other, full of lovely sights, craziness & wild excitement.

We love our parties at home with 50 or 60 friends, but this time we partied with 10 - 15,000 people - and this celebration started on Dec 25, crescendoed New Year's Eve & continued on thru January 4th!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO US ALL!! 2009! WOW!

Pre-New Year's Eve Party in Chiang Mai

2008-12-30T07:17:00.027-09:00

Things are heating up here in Chiang Mai at the Tha Phae Gate - the big plaza area very near our hotel. Originally it was one of the 5 gates that opened into the walled & moated city of Chiang Mai & is now a large area used for all kinds of things - like the New Year's week long festival. There's a large food stall area at one end, big stage in the center & craft vendors at the other.

Here's part of the stage with a kid's game in progress.

And here's part of the audience & milling crowd with the food area in the background.

This area has been a steady week long party! Several days this week we were treated to loud music & announcements from 6-9am! The vendors are there from about noon to midnight, & the entertainment goes on all evening, it's always loud, and sometimes it gets LOUDER! Also, just to make things even jollier, the boxing stadium on the far side of the hotel was in full swing a few nights this week. So, between the boxing announcer, all the shouting & whistling of the audience, AND all the noise from the Gate festival, and of course, the usual traffic noise & a policeman whistling his head off, the level of sound was just freaking unbelievable!!!

Last month at the crescent moon & 2 planets lined up making the sky appear to smile down on Asia, this month only one planet remains in alignment, so - a Big Wink for the New Year!

Sada is eating one of our new favorite fast foods! We call them Rice Sticks - a hollow length of bamboo is stuffed with sweet sticky rice cooked with coconut milk & beans, & the end is plugged with a bit of coconut husk. To eat, you pull the plug & peal it like a banana!

Earlier in the day we noticed this sign-maker finishing this New Year banner. It says: 'Wishing you all happy physically and mentally all new year long 2009'.

Here's the food court area, the food stalls continue up the center aisle. It's usually jammed with people looking, choosing, paying & eating - fun!

Here are some things on offer: dim sum,

Huge pans of noodles,

and Ancient Ice-Cream! this night we tried Panadus flavor! (an asian plant with many uses)

Here is a short video I took with my little camera - click the little arrow & it will take a few seconds to load. The pancake maker is fascinating to watch! I'll try to do more of these.

It's 8pm as I'm finishing up this blog & it's absolutely hopping out there! A loud band is playing & firecrackers big & small are popping constantly. We'll go out to the Gate again in a while, (with earplugs!) & then when we are tired of the swirl of humanity & noise, we'll go up to the roof of the hotel to watch fireworks & continue to enjoy the party from a short distance away!

So, from us to you, the best of everything in the New Year!

Where ever you are & whatever you're doing: ENJOY!

XXXXX,

jill & sada

Merry Christmas from Thailand!

2008-12-24T06:36:00.011-09:00

It's Christmas time in Chiang Mai!

Forecast: high 83°, low 61° - generally lovely!

Suddenly all sorts of holiday decorations have popped up, like these poinsettias we saw on our way home from the fruit market,

Santa hats are the latest rage...

This old gal with the huge grey afro showed up in this snazzy decked-out 3 wheeler tonight - you should see her regular motorcycle -

I'm dying to get a picture of it!

There are lots of trees, too - a weird airport model,

A nice looking one in a fancy hotel lobby,

This one is pretty sweet,

I like this pair of bar trees & a santa.

Have a seat & santa will serenade you!

OK - the last dog in a coat picture, but really - he's wearing a santa suit!

And ta-da! The tree in our hotel lobby,

yeah a bit odd looking - and it flashes - a lot.

Doesn't the moat look pretty all lit-up?

And the biggest tree around - with a Star of David on top!

And so we toast you with a pair of holiday drinks from one of our favorite places, Juicy4U (carrot-beet-ginger & cucumber-celery-wheatgrass, in case you're wondering, it tasted like mowing the lawn. Once was enough.)

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!

Have a wonderful Holiday season & please keep in touch! It's our first Christmas away from home, away from Liz and our Fairbanks Family. We miss you all wherever you are, we wish you health & happiness & the best of everything in the New Year! Enjoy!

Peace & Love,

jill & sada

Night Street Markets

2008-12-22T07:02:00.021-09:00

We love the night markets! They open up after the heat of the day & are an amazing social scene where you can buy almost anything & see things you've never imagined. The Night Bazaar is east of us a few blocks & is set up each afternoon. Here's a guy moving his stall up to the street - by hand, foot & motorcycle - very effective! The Night Bazaar is a very close affair, lining the sidewalks on both sides of the street - it can get very tight & claustrophobic - get there early - lots of good stuff to see!

There are also the regular daily markets, and the Saturday & Sunday Evening Walking Markets - major streets are closed down & vendors line the sidewalks, and the street is open for walkers. They're a lot of fun! They are all in easy walking distance from our hotel - the Sunday one is around the corner! The atmosphere is very happy, friendly & casual, and you hear great music of all sorts as you wander thru.

So what can you buy? Well, RICE - I need a lesson!

All kinds of snacks, roasted this & pickled that - but strangely, I'm having a hard time finding my favorite - regular old rice crackers!

Carved & decorated soap sold in beautiful boxes,

Buy a live fish, have it filleted & take it home to cook.

Wow - the silk is wonderful! Haven't bought any - yet!

Here are some silk scarves & cotton shawls,

Rope animals sculptures are fun & funky,

Young (& old) musicians are lovely to see & hear all along the street.

Don't forget food!

We got brave & tried an assortment of things. These little packets are a soft coconut candy wrapped in banana leaf. We tried some and also another wrapped packet of a very spicy veggie mixture - a good combo.

Sada said "Ahan Jaae?" (Vegetarian?) & she nodded saying "Very spicy!" A sort of juicy pickled veggie appetizer, sold in a plastic bag with a wooden skewer with one very sharp end.

Verrry spicy!

Time for something sweet again. This is called Chow Guai, no idea what it means, but it's a black herbal jello kind of thing, served in a bowl with lots of brown sugar & lots of ice! You sort of chop up the jello & mix it all around. It's good - and one of the weirdest things I've eaten!!

Another Chow Guai stall - couldn't resist a pic of that huge chunk of black jello! She's a master of slicing off a long strip & slinging it up & onto the bowl of ice (add sugar - lots)

How about French Fries? Very popular - big catsup & hot sauce squeeze bottles at easy reach.

Grubs? No thanks.

CASHEWS! The motherlode - raw, roasted, chili-lime & more. I liked those glass jars of colorful fruit, too. We took home a kilo of cashews.

This little girl was a beautiful dancer.

Just off the street, we entered the grounds of one of the many Wats in the area. These Buddhist temples are a big part of everyday life & very welcoming to visitors. The main buildings are exquisitely beautiful & highly decorated. We had peeked into the grounds of this Wat one evening when a solemn event was underway, & altho we didn't stay, did we notice many empty picnic tables on the open grounds & wondered when they were used.

Well, we found out the night of the Walking Market! The grounds of the Wat turn into a big 'food court' - and what could we do!?! Here's what we tried: a small plate of ramen style noodles & veggies, mango with sweet sticky rice - a popular dessert, a very white, very soft pretty bun kind of thing - one filled with a veggie mix & one with a sweet taro mix - good! Then an order of banana rolled in a thin pancake, deep fried & served with sesame seeds & sweetened condensed milk, a plate of phad thai & a cooling Milo drink (sort of like chocolate milk).

The beautiful Chedi (shrine) is a glowing centerpiece of the Wat.I'm not sure why, but i was very surprised to see many busy Tarot Card readers set up right at the foot of the Chedi.

Here are some things we didn't eat: artistically arranged bite-sized sausage,

beautiful sushi - but I will another time!

and quail eggs - they are very popular!

We wandered the magnificent grounds with big grins on our faces, trying things here & there until we were full. We would join a picnic table where there was room, eat our treat & then mosey around some more. The atmosphere was very happy & homey, relaxed & fun!

It was a wonderful experience!

More stuff on the street: very cool shoes made from old blue jeans.

(sorry the pic is a bit blurry - operator error.)

Ahhh - great time for a foot massage. I had one - 60Baht for a half hour. About $1.75.

Hairclips! Aren't these adorable? Too bad Liz isn't 8 years old anymore!

I think this is a platter of sweets, like marzipan, I'll have to look into it.

More quail eggs in the foreground. Looks like 10B for 5 - a good deal!

These are very cute feather & wood spinny things.

Really, really BIG moths & bugs.

...don't think about it too much.

This is called "Ancient Ice Cream" I don't know why.

Sada had coconut, I had chocolate (of course) it tasted fruity - ?

But, hey, it was ice cream!

When we got home, we went up to the roof of the hotel - this is a small bit of the market from a block away! It's a fun, happenin' place!

We were totally worn out when we got home & thought we'd just head to bed - it was 7:45 pm! Hahaha!

Street Food, Cold Dogs & Signs

2008-12-16T05:46:00.026-09:00

Greetings from Chiang Mai! We are enjoying it here so much, we just extended with our hotel for a month. One of our best meals of recent days was at this street vendor - our first street food! 2 carts set up in a small indent in the street with 6 tables & 4 more on the sidewalk. They are very popular & nearly always full - we ran into our hotel friend Don & joined him for a great meal, about 85c each ... and - Yum!

It's winter here in northern Thailand - even tho the temperature usually gets up to 85°F in the heat of the day. Here's our favorite article from a local newspaper article:

"COLD SNAP RESULTS IN GOVERNMENT RELIEF

During last week's cold snap lasting several days, the Governor of Chiang Mai designated all districts in the province as a temporary disaster zone, as mean temperatures had fallen below the recommended level for a period of 3 days. ... high pressure from mainland China had resulted in temperatures being recorded as between 11.5C and 14.6C."

So,

11.5°C = 52.7°F

14.6°C = 58.2°F

...yeah.

Well, disaster zone it may be, but we still find it pretty hysterical that nearly all the dogs we see are wearing coats! In Alaska, you rarely see a dog wear a coat, even in winter ... but apparently Asian dogs are chilly (or, their people think they are!)

This dapper dude was making his rounds:

A happy pair out for an evening stroll.

This old gal is just looking for a sunny place to spend the day!

Feeling a little humiliated, perhaps?

Full body Spiderman coat.

This guy is my favorite - he walked around with us for a while.

This guy was hanging out in his preferred domain.

Sometimes, you just have to give it up, admit it's hot & have a nap on a breezy street corner.

There are lots of intriguing signs around.

The perfect place to park your pretty posterior.

Check out the time-frame for this happy hour. (10am - 4pm, yikes!)

Can you see the Sarah Palin sign inside this optical shop?

The Triple E - I guess it's a language learning center.

Extremely Excellent English!

Ahh, sounds better every day!!

But, this is our hands down favorite - got to check it out when it's open!

By the way did you see this? Check it out - the sky smiles on Asia: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/12/081202-venus-jupiter-photo.html?source=rss

Sorry about the small pics in previous posts, I hope these are better!

Cheers!

Sport, Fruit & Wildlife

2008-12-09T00:40:00.000-09:00

This past weekend was the 15th annual Phuket Triathlon.

http://www.lagunaphukettriathlon.com/

The event takes place at the Laguna Beach Resort which is a ways down the beach from us. It's a huge complex of 5 large hotels built on a series of lagoons that were once tin mines. We went down to check out the place a few days before the triathlon started. We heard that we could just walk in & ride the free ferry all over the complex - so we did!

We got off & walked around the Banyon Tree Inn, a lovely, elegantly simple, serene place.

I thought Sada looked a little wistfully at the fantastic golf course, & we found the spirit house very interesting - I need to find out more about them, you see them all over the place.

Next we stopped at the Canal Village, a small mall of high end shops.

We were happy to find a mini-mart & bought a few things for lunch, including some very expensive cheese & crackers, and Tim-Tams! Hi Natasha!

At the checkout counter we saw this amazing display for cigarettes. Maybe I haven't looked at any of these packs in years, but yuck! can you see those pictures?

OK, back on the ferry tour we saw lots of villa style hotels - all seemed empty, tourist season isn't so good right now. These had their own boat docks.

These have their bathrooms overlooking the lagoon behind a full wall of glass, hmmm...

Here's a bit of a long wandering swimming pool. Man, I wanted to jump in!

And an amazing flower! The middle circle is about 2 inches across. Sorry, no idea what it is!

SPORT

So then on Sunday, we walked down the beach at 6:30 am to watch the start of the triathlon, it was pretty exciting. We were able to mingle with the athletes & that was very cool - there were 500 participants from all over & we heard many different languages. The swim was great - 1.8K in the ocean & the lagoon. 55K bike & 12k run. The mass start was exciting.

The hotel very nicely provided ferries to the spectators, & we jumped on one to cross the lagoon. There we were able to watch the athletes come out of the water, kick their legs into running mode for the dash to the bike area.The transition to bike racing was interesting. They each had their gear set up just so to make the switch as smooth as possible - every second counts!

At this point we felt we had to leave. We hadn't planned to stay so long & didn't have enough of the essentials - water, sunscreen, hat for the bald guy, coffee or breakfast.

FRUIT

So here's the beach right in front of our hotel! This was taken early, before the sun was really shining on it, but you can see how lovely & empty it is!

This is the view from our current bungalow - the water is just beyond the little palapa building up there.

This rainstorm caught us on our porch, about to have lunch. It was a soaker!

This charming beast is called Dragon Fruit!

This adorable thing told us all about it! Na (for Serena) is the tour desk person & very sweet.

She said the best way to eat is is to scoop it & freeze it - I can't wait to try it that way! It tastes a bit like pear, apple & watermelon - very refreshing!

The fruit guy makes his daily stop here, signaling with his little toy horn,

"Toot-toot-toot".

I bought a coconut today, outer husk removed, shell cracked, straw inserted, 20 bhat = 55c. Delicious!

WILDLIFE

We encountered this big guy on our way to dinner tonight. He was going the other direction when we came back.

Life is good! See y'all next time!

Phuket - Ahhh...

2008-12-07T00:53:00.032-09:00

Yahoo Phuket weather report: 88°, 55% humidity, 'feels like' 92° (I'll say), expected low 77°.

Sorry about the blogging delay - our hotel has been having problems with their internet provider & we end up going to an internet cafe to do our necessary stuff (& it's either freezing with a/c, or roasting without in there, so we get finished as soon as we can!) I hope when we get to our next destination, we will have a more reliable connection!

I think you all saw the website link for this place - it's even better than it looks.

http://www.phuket-bangtaolagoon.com/index.html

It's simple, but wonderful. The property is huge & all of the rooms are bungalows, some duplexes, all with comfy porches.

Our bungalow is smallish, but plenty big with a king sized bed & the bathroom is about 4' x 12', with the shower in the middle! (no curtain), so to get to the toilet you have to carefully walk thru the slippery-if-wet shower area! I usually walk it with both hands on the walls!

The spacious grounds are landscaped in a very natural way (not to within an inch of their lives!!) and very well maintained. In the middle of the grounds is a big open air palapa restaurant & along side are 3 sparkling pools - all 'infinity' style (where it looks like there's no edge looking towards the ocean - just goes on to infinity.......) hmmm, which one shall we swim in first?

Beyond the pools is a large, wide area of sand under shady trees, & then the beach - very wide & long, curving around a pretty bay. It's quite long - it would be a big hike to walk it end-to-end & back in a day ...and... there is hardly anyone on this beach! It gets a little busier on the weekend, but no crowds at all!! The water is warm & has gentle waves & a sandy bottom (nice for our tender alaskan feet!) The hotel provides sunbeds that usually fill up, but it's nothing like the row upon row of sunbeds you see in pics of resorts & busy beaches. There are about a dozen on our beach & more around the pools. When the tide is out, the beach is very flat, making for easy (level) walking, and the sand is lovely, soft & fine, nearly white. We saw 2 elephants when we walked down the beach the other day! I stepped up & patted the big one on the trunk - it was very coarse with bristly hairs! I believe they were selling rides - they sure are crowd pleasers! Here is the little one.

There are ladies doing massage right on the beach (well, on low tables!) I had a lovely hour long one last week for 300 bhat, about $9. The strange thing was being nearly naked hanging it all out there for all to see... I wore my swimsuit & when I was on my belly, it was pulled down to my hips. I just closed my eyes & listened to the sounds around me... friends coming to gossip with the ladies, a Russian family chatting nearby, the waves & the gentle wind rustling in the large trees overhead. Ahhh...

The staff here is as sweet as can be & there are lots of them! housekeeping, maintenance, grounds & reception folk, not to mention the restaurant staff & the cute girl who runs the tour desk. This week another crew came in to trim the coconut palms (they can be lethal when full of ripe coconuts up there!) It was interesting to watch the job & later on we found 2 opened coconuts w/ straws waiting for us in our room! The maids are so cute & often leave our towels folded in fancy ways with orchids decorating our bed, so far we've had swans, hearts & elephants.

Many people speak at least a little English, so that's no worry & we've learned a few Thai words. 'sawatee kaa' is like 'aloha' - hello, goodbye, good morning, good evening. and 'kup kuhn kaa' is thank you. So far that's all we need! We also know 'kin jaee' which means 'eat vegetables' or vegetarian (we think). Our next one will be 'toilet'! Most signs & menus are in Thai & English - & some are in German, French & Russian too. I find the mis-spellings charming - my favorite so far is a menu item for 'Fried Dish with Basil' (dish-fish)!

Even with the downturn in the global economy & low numbers of tourists, there is a huge amount of construction going on around here, it's pretty amazing! And it seems to happen fast - A new hotel is going in right next door & we watched a huge concrete pour of the patio area - I did a rough count of 75 blue shirted workers swarming around. We heard they want to be open by Christmas! yikes!

The town area here is small & a little funky, but the restaurants are very clean & the food is great. The road is 2 lanes wide with a tiny sidewalk that usually has cars parked on it, so you walk in the street. The traffic consists of mostly small motorcycles & some cars & tuk-tuks. The odd tour bus goes thru looking HUGE, but mostly the traffic just flows like water, around pedestrians, into whichever side of the road works! (traffic is just the opposite of the US here - right-hand drive vehicles, driving on the left side). This is a small market where we buy water, fruit, yogurt & interesting snacks! Notice the beer bottles & glasses in the foreground - you can buy beer by the glass!

The food has been great! There is a nice indian place down the road (we went there for Thanksgiving) & of course the Thai food everywhere is wonderful! The best place we're found is called the 'Organic Cafe'. The service is incredible & the food is amazing! Last night we each had a fresh fruit smoothie, bowl of soup each & split an entree with a plate of rice each & water bottle - for about $12. And, before the check, they give you a large slice of pineapple prettily cut in to bite-sized pieces as a digestive aid after eating! And bug spray (organic, of course) if you need it. Fresh rolls from the OC, presented on a circle cut from banana leaf:

Another new favorite place is Sala Siam. Here we are about to enjoy a wonderful dinner,

and a sort of coconut pudding for dessert - with pieces of fresh, soft coconut, tapioca & beans! Delicious!

We had booked ahead here at Bangtao Lagoon Bungalows for 1 week, but we liked it so much we decided to extend instead of looking for another place on the island as was our plan. We had hoped to leave here for Chiang Mai in the last week, but with the Bangkok airport trouble, we extended our stay here a bit longer. Everyone said the situation would be straightened up by Dec 5th - the King's birthday, and it was. The people revere their King & Queen, & in this land of face saving, all felt is would be very disrespectful to have the demonstrations continue on into the celebration. We just felt thankful that we were able to be flexible with our plans, & sorry for those folks trying to get home - or trying to get here! There's a triathlon happening on Phuket island this weekend & many people struggled to get here for their race. A lot of people changed their plans & are coming thru Singapore or Kuala Lumpur.

We turned on the TV a few times looking for Bangkok airport news, & it's pretty bizarre! Indian musical dance videos (like MTV), weird looking Thai game shows, soaps & sit-coms & Chinese talk shows. Oh yeah, & Fox “news”, US movies dubbed into Russian, the fashion show channel & rugby games in a language I can't recognize, possibly Irish, and cricket. It's all pretty mesmerizing...... luckily there's also BBC World News, and Aljazeera, which is fantastic -way better that Fox or BBC. I think we're hooked.

So, first thing every morning, we swim the Indian Ocean (actually the Andaman Sea - tho I like saying that we're swimming in the Indian ocean, because, how cool is that?), then a quick beach shower & then a dip in a pool before dressing & brekky. Breakfast is included here, as with many hotels & they seem to be trying overly hard to give us a 'typical western meal' ...Well... here's what we get - mini hot-dogs, ham, bacon, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, white bread, watermelon, pineapple, coffee, tea, milk & OJ... everyday the same! We eat lots of fruit, too much bread & some eggs (me), Sada has coffee & I buy a bottle of water. But we eat it overlooking the beach & Indian ocean, so it's not too tough! We have lunch on our porch or the beach & go out for dinner. Lately we've been eating mangos for lunch - tomorrow we have a papaya ready to eat!

Sada has had a few computer lessons (from me) & is involved in a big word processing project. He's doing great! I'm working on beading & doing pencil puzzles of all sorts. We're both reading a lot & trying to not get sunburned. Our fingernails are growing like crazy - mine were so long, I couldn't type, so today I cut them off - mostly to see how fast they re-grow!

And yes - we have lots of books with us! Are you kidding me? Our house is full of books waiting to be read & I keep a bunch of them saved for vacation purposes. We've got a few sci-fis, some Jane Austin, Kingsolver (I'm looking forward to reading 'Poisonwood Bible' again), 'The Raj Quartet' (one or more of the books was made into 'The Jewel in the Crown' from Masterpiece Theater 25-ish years ago). Sada brought a McMurtry quartet (Lonesome Dove guy) but after reading 2, he dumped the set. And there are a bunch of others... When we were in Portland, we went to Powell's books & each bought 1 (ONE) additional book to bring. I bought a used mass market sci-fi novel, & Sada, the crazy guy, bought a new, hard cover copy of War & Peace! It's so big & heavy, he decided to operate on it & remove the cover (a cover-ectomy?), & he cut it into 5 pieces, bound them with tape & used manila files to cover them like a 'plain-brown wrapper'. Also, if we need more books, we're sure we'll be able to pick them up. Many hotels & other places have a shelf of used books to 'leave-one/take-one'!

The hotel is full this weekend as the big triathlon is happening down the beach at a big hotel complex called Laguna - built on old tin mines that are now lagoons. We've met a few of the competitors, they are very focused, working out & acclimating. Phew - it's been hot & the sun is brutal, good thing the event is starting at 7am. We plan to walk down to watch the swimming event anyway (assuming we can get our lazy asses out of bed by then!) They start swimming in the sea & then they have to run across the beach to the lagoon & swim across that to the bike & run start areas... ha! better them than ME!

As you can see in the above pic, ...we've been busy :)

We sat under that tree for hours after brekky yesterday - read, napped, ate yogurt & mangos for lunch, etc. and got a little sunburned! I guess the dappled sunlight packed a bigger punch that we expected!

ouch - the things we have to put up with!

Again, sorry about the blog drought! I'll try to work harder! in fact I already have another one in mind to get to today. We love to read your comments (click the button just below) and emails, of course.

Sawatee-kaa!

Airport Art & Airline Food

2008-11-19T20:39:00.004-09:00

San Francisco to Phuket, Thailand - it was a loooong yet surprisingly easy trip, about 48 hours in duration! Our first, long flight was to Hong Kong. The plane was maybe half full - lots of elbow room - amazing how that makes it all so much easier!

Our vegetarian Indian food was delicious, we watched a bunch of movies, read & napped. In Hong Kong, we had booked an Overnight Lounge package, including sleeping area, shower & food - it was wonderful, just what we needed to restore sanity before continuing on.

We always love Airport Art. Here are a few faves from SFO & BKK:

After a long layover, the HK to Bangkok flight was also quite roomy & a short 2+ hour trip. We were amazed to find that we were to be fed on such a short flight! Strange looking, I know, but tasty.

And then, on our 1 hour, chock-full flight to Phuket, we were stunned to learn we were to be fed again! When the seatbelt sign went off the large crew leapt up & practically tossed us snack boxes, then served coffee, cleaned up & got themselves belted in for landing. Wow! These 2 meals were our fun faves & amazing to behold. Liz told us to take pictures of food, so I did.

Yes, that's a carrot & peas sandwich on white bread (no crusts). And strangely yummy, too! Vegetarian airplane food is always tricky - when you used to be able to get it anyway. Sometimes it's great, like our Indian food, sometimes... not so much. It did make me wonder, tho, if this was what we were getting on a Thai airline - what did that say about Thai vegetarian food in general? Hmmm...

Not to worry, tho, our first dinner on the ground was perfect - and not a cheeseburger in sight.

Oregon California & Florida

2008-11-13T12:38:00.007-09:00

Here we are in Oregon, in a lovely hazelnut orchard.

Then the rain started... I like rain, more than snow anyway!

Moshers, Pedersens, a couple of Schwartzs & a Newman.

Four sisters in Florida, Marcie, Nan, Cath & me. We should do this more often!

The Fair Report

2008-08-09T10:37:00.003-08:00

Fair = Rain.

That's the way it usually is, & this year only proved the rule in a huge way. The rivers are flooding & everything is soggy. The Fair also is the perfect time to eat questionable food (not that Navajo Tacos are in the least bit questionable!), watch hoardes of roaming teens (where did all these kids come from?), have a chance to chat with everyone you've ever known, say goodbye to summer (in the back-to-school sense, anyway) & mostly to have fun!

I had a great time hanging out with my young friends Sebastian & Talia. Here's our report:

The animals are always great - this goat stack was my personal favorite!

SUSHI in the cake decorating section! Combining 2 of my favorite foods - it doesn't get better than that!

Sebastian won a Big Blue Ribbon for his awesome Lego castle!

Talia won the Blue Mouth Award in Candy Eating - always good value, that one!

There is something special about looking at the Fair thru the eyes of a child. I'm so glad I had my chance this year - thanks for the fun, you two!

Retirement is Hard!

2008-08-06T17:15:00.004-08:00

So, now that we're retired, we're working harder that ever. Well, we're not setting alarm clocks or getting up early, but we get really dirty every day, so that means Hard Work, right? As you can see by my picture, I have a very fetching work outfit. I recently added knee pads - really pulls it all together.

What we're doing is swamping out the crawl space under the house. It's actually more of a basement - no crawling necessary. There were lots of old building supplies mouldering away down there that we've now removed. Remember how much fun fiberglass insulation is to install? Removing it is easily as much fun, especially when it's old & dirty & overhead.

Then there was the digging - Sada, the family digger, did that. He moved a lot of dirt & leveled the floors. I'm having a hard time reconciling the fact that mostly what I've been doing down there is cleaning - the block walls, ceiling overhead & the dirt floor. A lot of my hard-to-come-by cleaning energy is going into that space. (and - "No one" - is the answer to the question "Who is cleaning the house?")

Why all this To Do? you might ask. Well, we are going to have the block walls spray-foamed & that insulation will help make our house warmer. It's been oddly satisfying work - destruction, filling trash cans, seeing clean space emerge. It's also tiring, sweaty dirty work - do not attempt this unless you have a hot shower to get into at the end of the day. So, the work had to be done - I guess it's like chopping firewood - it warms you twice. And I've listened to lots of interesting podcasts on my iPod - I love multi-tasking!

Yikes!

2008-08-01T22:23:00.007-08:00

Oh brother, July is over & I forgot to post a blog!

Well, not really that exactly - see I've been busy. We had a big 4th of July party, we had visitors and oh yeah - I retired!

Retired - isn't that a nice word? It is nice, unfortunately, it's not ~quite~ accurate. Let's say I've retired from Gulliver's Books - there will be more working for money in my future!

I worked for Gulliver's for nearly 11 years - coincidentally, the Harry Potter years - & it was great! But now things are changing for us & it's time to move on. I had a great last day - lots of nice goodbyes with cards, chocolate cake, flowers, chocolates, more flowers, and then the last customer - Natasha - with more chocolate and champagne!

Land of the Midnight Sun

2008-06-23T10:06:00.002-08:00

We had a wonderful Solstice weekend! The weather was superb & there were tons of activities happening around town. Because of the calendar, 2 of our favorite events took place at the same time. The Midnight Sun Run, a 10K run/walk from the university to Alaskaland (known to tourists as Pioneer Park...) starts at 10 pm. Many people run in costume & the route snakes thru several neighborhoods, past many festive parties. The Midnight Sun Baseball Game, in it's 103rd year, is a well known tradition - the game starts at 10:30 pm and is always played without lights. The Goldpanners won a great game to the approval of a packed house. And, we always sing the Alaska Flag Song at midnight!

The Summer Solstice is always a big deal here in the far north where we greatly feel the effects of the pull between the earth & the sun. The Midnight Sun is an amazing & wonderful thing! Do you understand how it works? Here are the basics: Everyone knows the sun rises in the east & sets in the west, and that happens here at the Vernal & Autumnal Equinox, when day & night are of equal length. Then, as winter comes on, the days get shorter & shorter as the sun starts to rise & set farther & farther to the south. At the Winter Solstice, the sun is a blip of light on the horizon to the south that rises in the late morning & sets in the early afternoon, giving us here in Fairbanks about 2 hours & 45 mins of daylight... Then, we start to gain several minutes of light each day (hooray!) & the days begin to get longer. We reach the 12/12 hour mark at the Vernal Equinox & then... keep going! Suddenly, the sun is starting to stay up longer, setting farther & farther to the northwest & rising in the northeast. As we approach the Summer Solstice, the sun sets way to the north & in a couple of hours rises again in the north ready for another long day of rolling all the way around the sky, to the east, south, west & finally back to the north for a quick rest below the horizon before it all starts again! If you've never seen this, you can't imagine how wonderful it is, especially after a long, cold, dark winter.

It's common to see kids out riding bikes, people in their gardens, sports activities underway late into the night - but who cares? It's light now & you can sleep in the winter! We Alaskans tend to go a little crazy because of the Midnight Sun, but whatever -- we tend to be a little crazy anyway!

I miss my Dad - John Newman Jr

2008-06-15T10:38:00.007-08:00

I woke up thinking of my old Dad today. He died 2+ years ago, just short of his 89th birthday. He worked hard & was a good dad! He left college after his father died to help raise his younger sister & brother, served in the Navy in WWII, then he & Mom raised 6 kids. All of us were teens in the 60s & 70s - I can only begin to imagine how difficult that must have been for parents everywhere (even if it was wild & fun for us!).

He enjoyed his long retirement in Florida, living & traveling in his beloved Airstream. He was a quiet, sensitive man who loved baseball & dogs & reading & his girls, but mostly Mom - they celebrated their 63rd anniversary shortly before he died in 2005.

He told me once he wanted to live long enough to see the century change over to 2000! Rest in Peace, Dad & Happy Father's Day!

Wildlife Report #2

2008-06-15T00:22:00.003-08:00

This morning I was outside looking at some of my newly planted flower baskets in the sparkling sunny air, then decided to hang out in the hammock for a few minutes. All of a sudden, I heard loud heavy breathing & looked up to see a HUGE moose cruising by! She was walking by about 10 yards from me & must have just been running, her breathing was so loud. And then - following her was an adorable tiny calf - well, compared to the mama it was tiny!! They didn't see me, or Annie the cat, who was nearby, & just cruised on down the driveway & out of sight! It was just thrilling to see them up so close, they looked very healthy & oh so primal! Annie & I were both a little freaked, but then we caught our breaths & went inside to tell Sada. I'm gonna have to start carrying my camera at all times!!

Wildlife Report #1

2008-06-14T22:58:00.003-08:00

Yesterday, I was on my way down College Rd, a local 4 lane artery & caught a stoplight at the head of the outside lane. There was traffic facing me, waiting for the light, but no one next to me. Then I noticed, crossing the intersection, a mother duck & a huge cluster of ducklings following close behind! The light changed, but we all sat there - mesmerized by the sweet little group about to cross the center line. Suddenly, a truck whooshed by me into the intersection, the driver didn't see what was going on, but the mama duck did! She veered out of the way, and all the ducklings followed her exact movements. The truck streamed away & the intrepid mama veered again & continued with her brood all the way across the intersection to the curb. She jumped right up, but the little ones hesitated for a split second before they figured it out, then POP, POP POP POP, POPPOPPOPPOPPOP!!!, until all TEN ducklings were up & then quickly disappeared into the undergrowth. I think we all breathed a big sigh of relief! A true "Make Way for Ducklings" moment! And, just totally adorable!

FREE!

2008-06-01T00:16:00.003-08:00

It's midnight on Sada's last official working day as a mailman - we had a lovely dinner earlier with friends (& champagne) and just now we toasted at home by ourselves. After nearly 30 years in one form or another of government service, he did it! Good Job! Well Done! And then he punctuated it with "My ass is FREE!"

2008-05-23T22:42:00.000-08:00

We're just back from our Retirement Celebration Day Trip to Chena Hot Springs, about 50 miles north of town. Nice drive out - saw 2 moose along the way. The big outdoor rock pool was great, we got very relaxed & very clean! Had a tasty dinner in the rustic lodge & saw another moose on the way home. We are feeling m-e-l-l-o-w...

Today is the first day of the rest of your life!

2008-05-21T01:35:00.000-08:00

Well, actually May 31 will be that day - the day Sada retires!! It's very exciting & a little scary, but we're ready - ready to ditch the rat-race (such as it is here in the sub-Arctic), ready to do something different, but mostly (for me) ready to get outahere in the winter.

As much as we love Fairbanks & Alaska, I am so frakkin' sick of snow, I just can't tell you. Lately, my motto has been 'Any day without snow on the ground is a good day'. Summers in Fairbanks, celebrating the Midnight Sun, winters as snow-birds, traveling & looking around out there in the world - that's what life looks like for us starting now. I am looking forward to many snow-free days!