Just shootin' the breeeeeeeze
Blue skies right out my bedroom window
Our crazy steep staircase
A place to lounge. . .on the wooden furniture
Peekin through to the next retiree's patio
Friday, July 24, 2009
Del Boca Vista Baby!
Thought I'd share some pics of the casa. . .what we now like to refer to as our retirement community. There are just too many parallels between us and a group of retired Floridians. We have our identical houses lined up beside eachother. Thin sheets of aluminum and wood divide our patios but we're still able to see over or through them. So we bark like old woman at eachother "anybody home over there?" Our screen doors slam as we come and go. We have our clothes lines hung up, laundry just blowin in the breeze. We sit and talk about going to get some exercise. But don't. Then we complain about the heat, celebrate when cocktail hour finally arrives, complain some more about the heat, and then play gin rummy (5 baht buy-in). The other night we all cheered when Emily brought home a game of Scrabble. I mean I've been called a grandma before. . .but this is getting scary.
Blue skies right out my bedroom window
Our crazy steep staircase
A place to lounge. . .on the wooden furniture
Peekin through to the next retiree's patio
Blue skies right out my bedroom window Our crazy steep staircase A place to lounge. . .on the wooden furniture Peekin through to the next retiree's patio
Monday, July 20, 2009
Swine 'em and Dine 'em
After our 5 day weekend and amazing trip to Pai we drug ourselves to work the following Monday, dreading the fact that we had a full week of school ahead. And what do we find when we get there? About half of our students wearing face masks because of the swine flu. The next day even more students wore them along with most of the teachers. Round about lunch time an announcement is made that they're closing school for three days for swine flu precaution!!! WHOOOHOOO!!! I mean. . .a little scary sure, but who doesn't like a few days off?
We used the time to just relax and enjoy our favorite things in Lampang. . .eating at the Riverside restaurant, having some wine out on the patio, biking around town, hanging at our favorite coffee shops "I Love Coffee" and "Wawee Coffee", getting massages, watching movies. . .
By the time Friday rolled around we were ready for some action. Our friend Alistair decided to throw a bday party for his girlfriend Tuk at our new townhouses. The whole gang of teachers that we hang out with came over along with a bunch of Tuk's friend's and family. We also invited a couple of our buddies from school, Doi and Bom (nicknames). Things started out a little slow. . .imagine awkward party small-talk among a random mix of people and then add in the broken English and broken Thai we were forced to resort to. Sometimes you just get to a point where the conversation has nowhere. else. to go. But once everyone had a few glasses of Sam Sung, Chang, or cheap Thai wine along with delicious Thai food that Tuk's friends made, we all ended up having a great time!
Georgie and her travel buddy George.
Alistair and Tuk (the bday girl!)
How cute is that!
Mmm CAAAAAKE
Doi and Bom. Our buddies from school.
The crew. Finally free from our fishbowl office.
For the rest of the weekend J and I headed back to Chiang Mai to meet up with Pete's friend Cam and his wife Sarah from Seattle. When we caught up with them it felt like being right back at home. . .and that might have been because we met at a Starbucks. We chatted for about an hour then went to this amazing hotel called the Chedi. Nicest place I've seen in that past few months. Cam and Sarah's new friends from Holland met us there and we headed to the night market for some Phad Thai. We spent the rest of the night having a few drinks, sharing travel stories, and cracking eachother up! After J and I waved goodbye to Cam and Sarah zooming off in a tuk tuk we both said how happy we were that we could all meet up! It was another great 5 day weekend. . .once again, a full week of work sounds extremely daunting at this point.
We used the time to just relax and enjoy our favorite things in Lampang. . .eating at the Riverside restaurant, having some wine out on the patio, biking around town, hanging at our favorite coffee shops "I Love Coffee" and "Wawee Coffee", getting massages, watching movies. . .
By the time Friday rolled around we were ready for some action. Our friend Alistair decided to throw a bday party for his girlfriend Tuk at our new townhouses. The whole gang of teachers that we hang out with came over along with a bunch of Tuk's friend's and family. We also invited a couple of our buddies from school, Doi and Bom (nicknames). Things started out a little slow. . .imagine awkward party small-talk among a random mix of people and then add in the broken English and broken Thai we were forced to resort to. Sometimes you just get to a point where the conversation has nowhere. else. to go. But once everyone had a few glasses of Sam Sung, Chang, or cheap Thai wine along with delicious Thai food that Tuk's friends made, we all ended up having a great time!
Dining 'em at the partaaaaaaaaay
Georgie and her travel buddy George.
Alistair and Tuk (the bday girl!)
How cute is that!
Mmm CAAAAAKE
Doi and Bom. Our buddies from school.
The crew. Finally free from our fishbowl office.
For the rest of the weekend J and I headed back to Chiang Mai to meet up with Pete's friend Cam and his wife Sarah from Seattle. When we caught up with them it felt like being right back at home. . .and that might have been because we met at a Starbucks. We chatted for about an hour then went to this amazing hotel called the Chedi. Nicest place I've seen in that past few months. Cam and Sarah's new friends from Holland met us there and we headed to the night market for some Phad Thai. We spent the rest of the night having a few drinks, sharing travel stories, and cracking eachother up! After J and I waved goodbye to Cam and Sarah zooming off in a tuk tuk we both said how happy we were that we could all meet up! It was another great 5 day weekend. . .once again, a full week of work sounds extremely daunting at this point. Sunday, July 12, 2009
Still wanna go to Aspen? Got room for one more. . .
A lot can happen in a week here in the land of Thai. . .(sorry for the long entry)
Thursday the 2nd we moved to our newest humble little abode, which is now a two bedroom, two bath, two story townhouse. J and I are very excited to have the extra space fully equipped with a kitchen, washing machine, and patio. And the best part is we live right next door to our friends Lauren, Emily, Georgie and Alistair. A little more work needed to be done on the place so we basically just dropped our stuff off on Thursday night and all slept at Georgie and Alistairs. . .my cousin Brenda from Seattle included! I was very excited to have her here for our looooong weekend that we had due to the Buddhist lent day. We got Mon, Tues, and Wed off of school!! On top of that Georgie, J and I needed to renew our visas so we took last Friday off as well.
Friday morning we headed north to Chiang Mai and went directly to the immigration offices. We were running a little late and worried about the office closing early so I changed into one of my nun outfits at the bus station by standing on top of the eastern style toilet, juggling my huge backpack and trying to put on my skirt all while plugging my nose from the sewage spilling out under the stalls. Amazing. A couple hours later, an incredibly serious looking man dressed in uniform stamped my passport to clear me for another 90 days in Thailand.
Woke up nice and early Saturday morning, stomachs ready and prepared for our minibus ride farther north to Pai. . .consisting of 762 curves through the mountains. Not advised for those with motion sickness. But well worth the 3 ½ hour drive. The town is incredible . . . imagine the feel of a laid back beach town set in the landscape of a laid back mountain town. The main part of the city consists of about 8 main roads full of food, drinks, bungalow guesthouses, cute little shops and adventure. Within the first hour we signed up for a 12 hour river raft trip for the next day. We wandered around a bit more, headed back to our bungalows to have a couple drinks and headed out in celebration of our country’s bday. Happy 4th of July!!! .
We emerged from under our mosquito nets Sunday morning for our long day on the river. The rafting crew made us breakfast at their shop then we piled in the bed of a truck and went winding through another curvy mountain drive to the head of the river. All Thai’s have nicknames that they are given by their parents. Our guides name was God and he was the most hilarious guy. We were all cracking up most of the trip. But it was an intense 12 hours. . .I forgot how much arm strength rafting requires. The trip included a stop at a waterfall for a swim, some cliff diving, a fried rice lunch, and an all natural mud bath at some hot springs**. It also included spotting a cobra in a tree and jumping spiders about the size of my hand whose webs were strewn from one side of the river straight across to the other. At one point we had about 15 of them in our boat. That part was not featured in the brochure.
**Side note: having been in Thailand for a few months we have become familiar with the feeling of realizing that what is implied and what we imagine, isn’t always what ends up happening. The hot springs was a perfect example. Having been to natural hot springs before, all of us imagined a fairly large pool, maybe some surrounding falls, something we could sit in perhaps and maybe a more obvious site for the mud bath to take place. So when we pulled off to the side of the river near some trees, we all started preparing for a hike, as if the springs were up behind the hill. We started asking God (our guide, not Him) all sorts of questions. “Should we bring our sandals?” “I should probably leave my camera huh?” “Is our stuff going to be safe here?” “How long is the hike?” God seemed very distracted and was ignoring our questions until finally he said “No. Wait. What? What are you talking about? These ARE the hot springs.” We all stopped, looked at each other quizzically, then looked down to where God was pointing. Right next to my feet there was a pool of water about the size of a cereal bowl, boiling out over the sand and into the river. “THIS is the hot spring!?” We nodded, realizing we had been duped again here in Thailand, expecting something a little different. We all started laughing and scooped up the surrounding surface, painting our bodies and face with the hot mud.**
As if that wasn’t enough adventure for the weekend, the next day we rented motorbikes and had the best time cruising through the small mountain roads that wound around outside the town. Having never ridden one myself, I was a little shaky to start out. We took our first trip to the gas station where I screeched and jerked my way up to the pump. Next Brenda and I went in search of some other (better) hot springs and decided to take the highway route. Imagine Harry and Lloyd in the motorbike scene from Dumb and Dumber, replace the Rocky Mountains with jungle mountains and the snow with some sun and you’ve got me cruising up the side of the highway. Warn down city buses, struggling on the last turn of their transmission belt billowed past me as I kept my steady ‘Lloyd and Harry’ pace. But I loved every minute of it! We took a random side road to find a waterfall, checked out the natural hot springs, and then met some of the teaching crew at a hot springs resort. The next morning we took advantage of having the bikes for another few hours and went for a long morning cruise up to a Pagoda and a Wat, got some pics of the farm land and mountains, then reluctantly turned the bikes in before checking out.
We traveled back to Chiang Mai where we stayed the night before heading back Wednesday morning. Brenda stayed up north to explore the city a bit more and I shed a few tears as she gave me a huge hug “sent from everyone back home”. I gave her a big one in return to take back to the US and headed home to our new place in Lampang.
Thursday the 2nd we moved to our newest humble little abode, which is now a two bedroom, two bath, two story townhouse. J and I are very excited to have the extra space fully equipped with a kitchen, washing machine, and patio. And the best part is we live right next door to our friends Lauren, Emily, Georgie and Alistair. A little more work needed to be done on the place so we basically just dropped our stuff off on Thursday night and all slept at Georgie and Alistairs. . .my cousin Brenda from Seattle included! I was very excited to have her here for our looooong weekend that we had due to the Buddhist lent day. We got Mon, Tues, and Wed off of school!! On top of that Georgie, J and I needed to renew our visas so we took last Friday off as well.
Friday morning we headed north to Chiang Mai and went directly to the immigration offices. We were running a little late and worried about the office closing early so I changed into one of my nun outfits at the bus station by standing on top of the eastern style toilet, juggling my huge backpack and trying to put on my skirt all while plugging my nose from the sewage spilling out under the stalls. Amazing. A couple hours later, an incredibly serious looking man dressed in uniform stamped my passport to clear me for another 90 days in Thailand.
Woke up nice and early Saturday morning, stomachs ready and prepared for our minibus ride farther north to Pai. . .consisting of 762 curves through the mountains. Not advised for those with motion sickness. But well worth the 3 ½ hour drive. The town is incredible . . . imagine the feel of a laid back beach town set in the landscape of a laid back mountain town. The main part of the city consists of about 8 main roads full of food, drinks, bungalow guesthouses, cute little shops and adventure. Within the first hour we signed up for a 12 hour river raft trip for the next day. We wandered around a bit more, headed back to our bungalows to have a couple drinks and headed out in celebration of our country’s bday. Happy 4th of July!!! .
We emerged from under our mosquito nets Sunday morning for our long day on the river. The rafting crew made us breakfast at their shop then we piled in the bed of a truck and went winding through another curvy mountain drive to the head of the river. All Thai’s have nicknames that they are given by their parents. Our guides name was God and he was the most hilarious guy. We were all cracking up most of the trip. But it was an intense 12 hours. . .I forgot how much arm strength rafting requires. The trip included a stop at a waterfall for a swim, some cliff diving, a fried rice lunch, and an all natural mud bath at some hot springs**. It also included spotting a cobra in a tree and jumping spiders about the size of my hand whose webs were strewn from one side of the river straight across to the other. At one point we had about 15 of them in our boat. That part was not featured in the brochure.
**Side note: having been in Thailand for a few months we have become familiar with the feeling of realizing that what is implied and what we imagine, isn’t always what ends up happening. The hot springs was a perfect example. Having been to natural hot springs before, all of us imagined a fairly large pool, maybe some surrounding falls, something we could sit in perhaps and maybe a more obvious site for the mud bath to take place. So when we pulled off to the side of the river near some trees, we all started preparing for a hike, as if the springs were up behind the hill. We started asking God (our guide, not Him) all sorts of questions. “Should we bring our sandals?” “I should probably leave my camera huh?” “Is our stuff going to be safe here?” “How long is the hike?” God seemed very distracted and was ignoring our questions until finally he said “No. Wait. What? What are you talking about? These ARE the hot springs.” We all stopped, looked at each other quizzically, then looked down to where God was pointing. Right next to my feet there was a pool of water about the size of a cereal bowl, boiling out over the sand and into the river. “THIS is the hot spring!?” We nodded, realizing we had been duped again here in Thailand, expecting something a little different. We all started laughing and scooped up the surrounding surface, painting our bodies and face with the hot mud.**
As if that wasn’t enough adventure for the weekend, the next day we rented motorbikes and had the best time cruising through the small mountain roads that wound around outside the town. Having never ridden one myself, I was a little shaky to start out. We took our first trip to the gas station where I screeched and jerked my way up to the pump. Next Brenda and I went in search of some other (better) hot springs and decided to take the highway route. Imagine Harry and Lloyd in the motorbike scene from Dumb and Dumber, replace the Rocky Mountains with jungle mountains and the snow with some sun and you’ve got me cruising up the side of the highway. Warn down city buses, struggling on the last turn of their transmission belt billowed past me as I kept my steady ‘Lloyd and Harry’ pace. But I loved every minute of it! We took a random side road to find a waterfall, checked out the natural hot springs, and then met some of the teaching crew at a hot springs resort. The next morning we took advantage of having the bikes for another few hours and went for a long morning cruise up to a Pagoda and a Wat, got some pics of the farm land and mountains, then reluctantly turned the bikes in before checking out.
We traveled back to Chiang Mai where we stayed the night before heading back Wednesday morning. Brenda stayed up north to explore the city a bit more and I shed a few tears as she gave me a huge hug “sent from everyone back home”. I gave her a big one in return to take back to the US and headed home to our new place in Lampang.
It's a long road to Pai. . .
The Baan Pai Resort!
J and Lauren's bungalow.
Prefunking in the lobby!
J, Brenda and I usually get to see Pete's amazing firework show every 4th of July. . .this year we had to use our imaginations.
So happy to have Brenda and Bridgette with us!
The Baan Pai Resort!
J and Lauren's bungalow.
Prefunking in the lobby!
J, Brenda and I usually get to see Pete's amazing firework show every 4th of July. . .this year we had to use our imaginations.So happy to have Brenda and Bridgette with us! Who's your new friend Bren?
River rafting!!
Blood sistaaaas! Swimming at the waterfall!
Drove around these roads for a couple hours. So fun!
This was our view while we cruised along.
Steamy hot springs!
80 degrees celsius=176 degrees fahrenheit!
The whole time I was driving the bike I imagined myself looking cooler than this.
Blood sistaaaas! Swimming at the waterfall!
Drove around these roads for a couple hours. So fun!
This was our view while we cruised along.
Steamy hot springs!80 degrees celsius=176 degrees fahrenheit! 
The whole time I was driving the bike I imagined myself looking cooler than this.
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