On Friday morning, we started out with a walk in the park.  This wonderful park is only a few blocks from Simon and Vera’s downtown apartment.  It was absolutely full of people walking, running, doing Tai-Chi type exercises etc. 

One of the first things that we saw was this shrine…..

Followed by this exercise class…..

I loved this exercise bike…..

And then there was this outdoor gym…..

And watching all of the proceedings were these Monitor lizards…..

Walking back to their apartment, we went thru this wonderful market…..

Simon bought these delicious fruit called Rambutan…..

  …..which had a pear type taste and texture.

We passed one food vendor and he insisted that we buy a roasted banana and roasted sweet potato……

They were WONDERFUL!!!!! We walked a bit further and Michael wanted to try a fried chicken leg….

…..which came with a small bag of spicy sauce…..YUM!!!!

I enjoyed watching people purchase from the soup vendor.   The buyer would get a plastic bag, add whatever herbs and greens that he wanted…..

The woman would fill another little plastic bag with noodles….. …..and yet another little bag with a spicy broth……

The three bags were packaged together and the purchaser took them to their office, mixed it all together and then sat at their desk and ate breakfast.  What a great way to start the day!!!!!

So, after trying various street foods, Michael found his Mecca…..STARBUCKS……

The laughter in this picture is because Simon (in his dry Aussie humor) had just said that “Michael wasn’t ordering a double espresso, but rather calling himself a “dopio”!!!

In the afternoon, Simon had to go off to work so Vera took us out to visit the Grand Palace.  We walked to the Elevated Train Station and took the train for a few minutes, then hopped onto a water taxi.

We particularly enjoyed seeing the long boats….. We were interested in the incongruence’s seen along the river.  From this gorgeous hotel/apartment…..

……to these hovels at the edge of the river….

As we were walking to the temple, we strolled thru a sidewalk market and the first thing that I saw were……

….false teeth…..pre-made and ready to chew!!!!!

The Grand Palace was gorgeous, but unfortunately there was a torrential downpour (it IS the rainy season here)  just after we entered the compound, so we did not get to see a lot, but sheltered under the main temple so did get to take some photos there.

This is the main compound.  As you can see, they like their “bling”!!  The golden dome really showed up against the darkening sky…..

Looking at the size of the people standing beneath these 2 statues will give you some idea as to their scale.  By the way, most of the shiny stuff are not gems and jewels, but tiny mirrors…..

This is one of the murals painted on a wall.  The artist was able to achieve an amazing sense of depth and three-dimension….I think that the touches of gold paint really helped with this…..

These were the trays that were ready to hold the offerings made to the Buddha. Here we are…..wet and barefoot, but happy!!!!

One funny story (at least to Vera and myself)…..we had to remove our shoes before we could enter this temple complex and dutifully placed them on metal shelves by the stairs.   When it started raining, we didn’t think about the fact that Michael had worn close toed shoes with socks, and that those shoes were rapidly filling up with water as it rained.   When he picked them up, they weighed a TON and he happily squelched his way back home again!!!

I love this photo which was taken on the corner of one of the long hallways….

Being true to my nature, I found wonderful quilting designs.  These concrete etchings were innocently placed at the bottom of the railings all around the building.  I took several photos, but could have easily used up another 100 frames with the different designs…..

This was a vat of holy water and the people would pick up one of the flowers, dip it in the water and then sprinkle themselves with it.   We watched one young couple spend a long time there dipping the water into a plastic bag.  Vera said that they were probably taking it to be sprinkled on a sick relative or something of that sort.  I guess that the luck was better if they had to work hard to retrieve the water as they were using a bottle cap to dip into the vat.

This temple houses a golden Buddha but you were not allowed to take photos inside the temple, so here it is from a LONG distance away……Vera said that there are different sets of clothes that are put on the Buddha depending on the season.  Many people were sitting or kneeling on the floor of the temple and I was interested to see a sign that said not to point your feet toward the god.  Apparently, the bottom of the foot is considered to be bad luck.

When we left the Palace, we tried to catch a taxi to the nearest train station, but they all wanted to charge WAY too much  (200 BAHT) so we ended up walking to the water taxi and then returning home the way that we had come.

On Wednesday, Michael had meetings to attend so after breakfast I headed out to get lost in Green Lake Park.

Since I mentioned breakfast, I will tell you that we have found the most wonderful pastry to eat.  They are, amazingly enough, called “Breakfast Cookies” and remind me of Arrowroot Biscuits (cookies) from Australia.  They have a very mild flavor and are tasty consumed with coffee or tea.   I even added a juicy orange one morning.

OK….back to the trip to Green Lake…….

When I am sight-seeing by myself I enjoy strolling slowly along the streets and observing everything that I can find, and this morning I was not disappointed.

The first thing that caught my eye was a delivery bicycle moving rapidly UP the hill even though the rider was not pedaling.  As it passed I realized the reason for his velocity……another man riding a motor scooter had his foot propped up on the back of the cycle and was giving him a friendly push up the hill.

So, I crossed the street and this is what I encountered…..

This loader was being moved to another site and it was rolling on tires to protect the pavement.  As the machine would clear the tires, the ones at the back would roll the tires to the front where they would be placed in front of the tracks.  This event seemed to be a highlight for many passers as there was quite a crowd of people watching, laughing and taking photos.

As I successfully found and entered Green Lake Park my first sight was a playground….not filled with kids but with adults…..

They were doing chins, stretching and using a pedal type thing to do aerobic (sort-of) exercise.

Then, around another corner came…..

……a dance/exercise class.  

There were about 40+ women participating in an outdoor dance class, lead by the gentleman in yellow.   In this photo they were learning a new section of the dance and he had them practice it MANY times.  He appeared to be a fairly good instructor as he repeated the instruction in each little pocket of women until they had all had a chance to learn it.

I did a video of the entire dance and, since I have really good internet at the moment, I decided to go ahead and download it……enjoy…….

Well, we spent a good portion of the day waiting for the plumber to fix our errant toilet and then another part of the day waiting for someone to come and clean the disgusting bathroom!!! 

Since we couldn’t really leave to go eat lunch, I ran down to Carrefour and bought another French Baguette which we ate.   As Michael said “Bless the (horrible, imperialistic) French!!!!”.

When I first walked into the mall heading to Carrefour I was met with a cacophony of smells and wondered what was going on.  As I walked down the main walkway I realized that it was lunch time and everybody was sitting on each side of the aisle with their particular bowl of rice, noodles or something equally good.   It reminded me of our visits to some of the Dorms at Australian National University.  Some rooms had a common cooking/eating area where several students shared a small kitchen.   When you walked in there you were met with Asian, Indian and Aussie food aromas all at one time.

I was surprised as I entered the store because it had been completely rearranged.  Where there had been tables and tables of Tea Boiled Eggs and Zonzgi, now resided shoes, socks and mosquito rackets (if you haven’t ever seen these they are electrified by 2 batteries and zap the mosquitoes when you hit them with it)….Michael really wants one!!.  And then in the area where there were huge cases of refrigerated Zonzgi  and hundreds of clamoring shoppers, now there were simple rows of drinks including water, juice and soft drinks.

What a difference a day makes!!!!!

Fortunately the cleaners were finished by 5:00 and we strolled to Salvador’s for a quick dinner. 

There was a table of four beautiful young women playing cards at the table next to us.  They reminded us of the Chinese equivalent of Jenny, Betsy, Jamie and Morgann!!!

The “non-English-speaking” waitress  presented us with a different style of menu and we THOUGHT that we were once again ordering the nachos, but what came out was even better!!!!   It was a mixture of rice, beans and chicken, smothered in lettuce, tomatoes and sour cream.  It was served with a side of fresh fried tortilla chips and a bowl of fresh tomato salsa.    EXCELLENT!!!!

We failed to take a photo when it arrived so thought we would instead show a photo of the aftermath……

Salvador’s is located next to Yunan University and is a huge expatriate area.  It is about the only place where you don’t get a double-take when people see your white face and round eyes. 

We love to sit up in a loft area at the front of the shop.  That way we get good air circulation from the front windows AND we can people watch on  the street b below.  We watched this little girl waiting on the motor bike for her father to re-appear.  She made a really cute face but unfortunately I missed it with the camera…..

OK…..while we have this photo, I want to talk about the blue thing on the front of the motor scooter.   It is a poncho that covers the front of your bike and goes over your head and back.   The front of the “moto-cho” (our term, not theirs) is made of clear plastic so that the headlights will show thru.  It had been raining earlier in the afternoon and was threatening to rain again so many people had these draped over the front of their bikes, with their hands thru the arm-holes, fully prepared to slip them on if needed.

I will also say that kids of ALL ages ride on the backs and fronts of these scooters.  The younger ones (such as this cutie) will ride in front of her dad, sometimes even standing up between his legs.  Older ones will perch with great relaxation on the back of the seat.  I have seen a couple who look like they have been asleep in this position.    They do not use car seats and we have seen children standing in the front seat and lolling around in the back seats.  We all recoil against this now, but it reminds me of how we lived as kids!!!

On the way back home, we decided to detour thru Yunan University campus and we were so glad that we did.  The campus was beautiful and was covered in students. 

We could hear popular music all over the campus and realized that it was coming from strategically positioned speakers.   In one area there were 6 or more basketball courts and the young men were practicing their skills.   Basketball is basically a passion here….they LOVE it!!!

If you remember we got lost the first time that we made this trip because we turned one street too early.  To avoid this in the future, we looked for landmarks and came across a billboard for “Haima”….no idea what it is.   BUT, what we thought about was a scene from Fawlty Towers where Basil (John Cleese) says to Manuel (he’s from Barcelona) that he needs a hammer.   Manuel answers, “a ham-a-sandwich??”   A long explanation of why we call this the “Hama-sandwich” corner.   Silly, but we never forget where to turn!!!!

To end this post, we wanted to catch you up on a few things that we have mentioned previously……

We had found it extremely hard to climb the 94 steps up to our apartment and suddenly realized that part of the problem is the altitude…..it is about 6000 feet above sea level so that partially accounts for our lack of breath.  I personally think that being over 50 has something to do with it too. 

When we are climbing  these stairs, we look forward to seeing this decorated door……

…..as it marks the 5th floor and only 18 more steps to go!!!!

When we first walked up at night we were surprised that there were no lights on the stairs, but after we turned the first corner a light came on.  So, we decided that they were motion sensitive.  Unfortunately, although we waved and waved, we could not get any of the other lights to appear.   The next evening we walked out of our door and when it slammed shut, the light came on.  OK….so they are sound sensitive…..so now we climb the stairs and give a sharp clap on each landing.  The light comes on, but I am sure that the resident’s behind the nearest door are jolted out of their reverie.  Now that I know, I have heard other people hooting as they round each corner.

Here is Michael wishing that he was 90 steps closer to home…..

AND….go figure, I have found an idea for a quilt……

……isn’t this bamboo cool!!!!

Finally, I mentioned on Saturday that we were having some stomach issues.  They did not improve so we have both started on a course of antibiotics to clear out the unfriendly bacteria in our stomachs……MUCH better now!!!!

And I leave you with our next installment in the “Study in Bike”……

We have had fun in crossing the streets here so I decided to use my I-Phone to video a typical street crossing.   As you watch the video, you may think that we have safely arrived on the other side, but watch what happens!!!

AND….beware…..objects are closer than they appear……