As we rounded the corner to step off of Mai-Ham we heard our hosts calling for us…

They met us with umbrellas in hand….just in case we wanted to be shielded from the sun!!! 

We walked down a road to an ethnic conservation area where they have established villages that are intended to represent traditional ways of life.  The people live and work in the villages and sustain themselves off of their agriculture and tourism monies.

The women are beautiful and do wonderful  weaving using a back strap loom.  Just look at these colors…..

This woman was working on another beautiful weaving…… Many of the women were taking care of small children and the fabric cradle in the corner was the norm.  They would use their feet to pull on a cord attached to the cradle and it would swing quietly as they worked.

The Long-Neck Women belong to a tribe that greatly prizes having a long, sleek neck and the women wear metal coils around their neck (from a very young age), causing their necks to stretch.  These coils are HEAVY and the adult women wear up to 25 rings.  I really felt bad for them and especially for the young girls……  This woman invited us into her home, which was comprised of 2 rooms…..a bedroom and a kitchen/living area….

The houses were built from natural materials and I loved the geometry of the ceiling…..

We came upon this woman who was threshing rice using this contraption….

The rice is in the bucket on the left and she would step on the end of the pole and the hammer would thump into the bucket.

Next, she dumped out the rice and shook it to remove the chaff from the rice….

 

Here she was showing the rice that was ready to be cooked…… Now, the interesting thing about this woman is that she is in her late SEVENTIES!!!!  We were told that she had never married.  This was known because she wore a white dress.

We next came upon this contraption that was used for grinding the corn….

Michael gave it a try and found that it was NOT easy to do…..

This gentleman was introduced to us as the tribe doctor……

He kindly invited us into his house which was also made up of 2 room.  Here is his kitchen, complete with yummy peppers…..

He picked up this stick and told us that it was a mousetrap.  He wrapped the cord around the opening and then had Michael stick his finger in…..

…..one dead finger!!!!

As we were leaving he asked what religion we were and told us that he was a Christian.   When we replied that we were as well, the final greeting was “God bless you”!!!  He then ran after us and presented us with bananas for a snack!!!

 

I dont know exactly what this was, but loved the contrast between the fence and the post…….

Here is one of their houses……   ….and this was looking back into the village……

Now, I dont have any photos of the “Big-Ear Men”, but we did see a few at the Elephant camp.  They use earrings to elongate their earlobes.

We left the encampment with lots of new, wonderful memories of the things and people that we had seen.

 

On Tuesday morning, Mark  had arranged for us to take an elephant ride…sounds like fun!!!!

On the way to meet the guide, we passed many of these small yellow trucks with seats in the back.  These are the busses of Chiang Mai!!  If you enlarge the photo, you may be able to see the cute little girl looking out the back….

We also passed a store that Mark dubbed a “Buddhist Supply Shop”.  I loved the huge candles!!

We arrived at the hotel and tourist facility owned by Durian and her husband, whose name we didn’t ever know.  They gave us a quick tour of the Bed and Breakfast which had beautiful rooms for $15 to $28 each!!!!  If we return to Chiang Mai, we will probably stay with them!!!

Normally, we would have had a driver take us to the Elephant Camp, but today we were accompanied by Durian and her husband.  They were wonderful hosts and we received the royal treatment.

When we arrived at the Maesa Elephant Camp, we decided to pay a bit more and, instead of riding the elephant around the camp, to ride over one of the hills and into another village.

But, before the ride, we got to explore the camp.  The first stop was to the elephant nursery where we met this cutie….. …..and it’s Mama…..

Durian provided bananas and sugar cane and we spent the next few minutes enjoyably feeding Mom and Baby..…… When we walked up to feed them, one of the handlers had us move to the far corner of the stall.  We didn’t understand why at the time, but then realized that the Mama elephant couldn’t get all the way over to us there.  She could just barely reach the food with her trunk.

Because we were busy feeding the baby, we missed the elephant bathing program, but we really didn’t care!!

Next was the elephant show.  Our hosts showed us to the “best place” to sit and we enjoyed watching the antics of the elephants….

At one point they all danced for us…..it was fun to watch…..hope you will enjoy it too….

On Monday morning, Mark and Anne drove us out of Chiang Mai and into some of the mountainous regions surrounding the city.  Mark had a basic plan of our route, but mostly we just followed his nose and found that his nose has real leadership potential.

For the first part of the trip, I was basically leaning out of the car and taking photos as we drove.  Some worked…..some didn’t!!!

I loved this shot of a house with the vases….

Because there is not much temperature change during the year, we were able to see rice paddies in all stages of growth, starting with the seed beds (prior to being flooded)….

Then the seedling plot  (the bed  at the front of the photo)……

Don’t you love the scarecrow!!!

Here they are planting the seedlings…..

Here the seedlings have been planted……

Here are the heads showing the grains of rice that are ready for harvest…..

We also saw numerous animals that are used in the fields….. 

I asked Michael if he felt like “Crocodile Dundee” when he took this shot.

 

We passed this old man in his hut and he smiled, so Michael took that as an invitation for a photo….

These hay stacks were fun and reminded us of the “Marsh-wiggle” huts in C.S. Lewis’ “The Silver Chair”.  We especially loved the ladder on this one….   

I don’t think that I have talked about “Spirit Houses”.   Most blocks of land in Thailand have a spirit house which is erected to give the spirits a place to live.  In the city they are put up on a pedestal, are painted white and gold, are covered with flowers, and are VERY fancy, but in the country they are a bit larger and more rustic….. We were interested to see that cats don’t seem too worried about visiting the spirits…..

   We passed a series of signs that touted magic words for us….. Coffee, Internet, and Clean Restrooms.   Now we didn’t need the internet, but the other two called greatly to us.  We had our drinks and then Michael went back toward the restroom.  Mark followed a few minutes later and left Anne and I wondering exactly where they had gone.  As we walked that direction we found a beautiful guest lodge….. We met the owner who told us that he was a Police Forensic Scientist and then he invited us into his private museum. 

It held and amazing collection of artifacts from weapons to fibers…..

to fun art pieces…..

He allowed us to look thru the collection as he commented on the more interesting pieces.  He told us later that he normally doesn’t open it up for people who come thru, so we were flattered that he had allowed us to see it.

We then went into the guest house and he showed us one of the beautiful rooms….

The decor in the common rooms was also fascinating.  I enjoyed seeing this saddle that would have been placed on an elephant, and the baskets and weaving above it were pretty cool too….

By now it was time for lunch, so we stopped at a roadside cafe that ran next to the river that we had been following.

We selected four things from her menu…..grilled chicken, grilled pork, pork steamed in bamboo leaves and fresh papaya salad.  We stayed away from the pork innards….

We watched as she prepared the Papaya salad, placing each ingredient  into this huge wooden mortar and pestle and carefully grinding it before adding the next. It started with tomatoes, onions, snapped long beans and peppers (Mark suggested 2 peppers, but we asked for FIVE)….. The final addition was grated Papaya…..

Sprinkle with a few peanuts and…..voila…..

It was served with a plastic bag full of sticky rice and you used your fingers to grab a bit of rice, a bit of salad and pop it into your mouth for crunchy goodness….

Each table was given a roll of napkins…..   and yes, that is a roll of toilet paper…..

We had a wonderful time sitting by the cool river and enjoying our meal.  There were people on wooden rafts floating down the river as well.

The final stop of the trip was to a handicraft area.  I do not have words to describe this place.  It consisted of several blocks of small shops, each selling a type of furniture or decorative item.   I could have spent DAYS here and shipped an entire container of stuff back home!!!!

I loved these three monks climbing into their truck….guess that they had finished up their shopping…..

We returned to the Osborne’s house and picked up Tim and headed out for more food….Mexican this time!!!!!   We told the family that we wanted to go to their favorite place and they chose “Manuels”.   The food was actually very good, and cooked in a Southwestern style.

Afterwards we went in search of Sticky Rice and Papaya for dessert and ended up in a small market that was in the process of closing for the evening.  We finally found someone with Sticky Rice left and she put down her purse and re-opened her stall to make our desserts.  It was well worth the search!!!!

We got up on Saturday morning and prepared to leave Bangkok.  We would have loved to have lots more time here as there is SO much to see and do.  We are already trying to figure out a way to return to the 18 million people of  Bangkok!!

Simon drove us to the train station that lead straight to the airport and we enjoyed a 15 minute ride OVER the city of Bangkok.  Everyone at the train station and airport were very friendly and helpful and we were soon boarding our flight to Chiang Mai.  We had been placed on “exit rows” in the plane and were invited to board first…..I was actually the first passenger to enter the plane!!!

We flew for about 1-1/2 hours, arriving in the city of Chiang Mai where we were met by Mark and Anne Osborne.  They are another couple that we knew when we lived in Australia  and we haven’t seen Anne in 25 years, although we spent a few days with Mark in 2003.  They are currently in Chiang Mai working with the Summer Institute of Linguistics and partnering with Wycliffe Bible Translators.

We drove to their lovely home on the outskirts of the city…..

….VERY different from Simon and Vera’s 11th floor apartment in downtown Bangkok, but equally as nice.

We relaxed with them during the day and tried to catch up on all of the news from our families and mutual friends.  That evening a group of people came over for a Bible Study and Prayer meeting and it was fun to meet people from Canada, the US and various parts of Asia.

Sunday morning was another relaxing time and then a visit to a local house church.  The congregation was made up mostly of students from a local Bible College.  They were very respectful and gave us chairs to sit on while the rest sat on the floor.  They also turned a fan on and pointed it toward us.  It was much appreciated and MUCH needed!!!!

The service began with wonderful singing.  We were given songbooks that were written in Roman letters and looked like this…..

…while the locals sang from these pages…..

It is a beautiful script!!!

I mostly followed the words by looking at the guitar chord changes that were noted above the words. 

After the singing, two of the students talked about trips that they had just been on.  Mark did a wonderful job of translating for us so that we had some idea of what was happening.

Then the pastor spoke, mixing Thai and English so that we could follow along as well.  The service lasted about 2-1/2 hours and then we spent some time talking with various people afterwards.

We decided to grab a quick meal and headed to a place that the Osborne’s frequent…  Here they are with youngest son, Matthew….

I enjoyed a spicy chicken and rice dish while Michael enjoyed a Curried Noodle bowl which was very spicy.

After dinner, we traveled to the center of old town to the Nighttime Walking Market.  Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate so we didn’t get to spend a lot of time there, but I could have shopped for DAYS and never seen everything.  Doesn’t this look like a fun stall…..

We enjoyed a couple of buskers that we saw.  The first was a musical group comprised of 4 young, blind men….

…..and this guy was truly a traveling musician, complete with motor scooter….. 

On the way back to the car, we stopped at a small Roti (remember that this is fried bread) stand and had a wonderful time interacting with this fascinating couple….

They were from Pakistan and graciously answered our questions!!!  The final product was a super thin pastry stuffed with thin banana slices, fried till crispy and drizzled with sweetened condensed milk……

Can you say YYYYUUUUMMMMMMMMMMYYYY!!!!

After our very wet trip to the Grand Palace, we retired to Simon and Vera’s apartment and waited for the family to return from their pursuits of  the day.  As it was Georgina’s last day of school in Thailand, we wanted to go out to celebrate.  We walked  across the street and entered one of the DeVere’s favorite restaurants which served both English and Thai food.  I cant remember exactly what each person ordered, but I had a wonderful chicken Satay…..

The reddish sauce on the right was peanut sauce and was really tasty and the clear sauce with onions on the left was HOTTTTTT!

Michael had Roti with green curry.  The Roti is deep fried bread and was wonderful!! 

 

We wanted a family photo so they decided to do the first one in their natural pose…..

….with cell phones in hand.  But they finally acquiesced to a normal family picture….

 

After sharing a round of desserts, we left the restaurant and the men headed to a local mall to get a phone taken care of.  Vera looked at me and said… “How about a foot massage?”, to which I happily agreed.   I was expecting to get the type of massage that you get with a pedicure, except maybe a bit longer.   Boy was I mistaken!!!

We were ushered to a darkened room containing 8 chairs and ottomans.  A big difference from the US is that every one was quiet and restful.  There was no gabbing back and forth between the customers or the masseurs.

My masseur brought a pail of warm soapy water and a small brush and proceeded to thoroughly cleaned my feet.  He next wrapped both legs and feet in hot towels and told me to lay back in the chair and relax.

He put his hands together in a prayer-like attitude and then it began……  the foot and leg massage was a mixture between sweet relief and searing pain!!!  I have since learned that tradition Thai massage is quite vigorous……wish I had known that before I said yes!!!

At one point he used a chop-stick looking instrument to push on the pressure points of my feet.  Ah the exquisite pain!!

After about 20 minutes he re-wrapped my feet and legs in towels and disappeared  causing me to assume that we were done.  I murmured something to Vera and she said that there was still more to come!!!!

The masseur came back with a small pillow that he put on the chair handle and used it to cushion my arm and shoulder as he prodded, kneaded and relaxed my muscles.   Then he moved up to the shoulders and top of my head.   Next, out came a small stool for me to sit on and lean over into the big chair so that my back could be massaged.

SO…..my FOOT massage lasted about an hour, covered from head to toe and was completed with the drinking of a cup of green tea.  And all for a price of 250 Baht (about $9.00).

We returned to the apartment and spent a few hours talking and enjoying each other’s company.   We really appreciated Simon and Vera taking the time to host us as their posting is over and they are returning to Australia in about a week.   As a matter of fact, the movers are coming in on Monday to start packing!!  Now, those are good friends!!!!