A few images of this city, Chiang Mai during preparations for the Loy Krathong festival and some taken from a condo on the 17th floor of a building overlooking the Mae Ping river that runs through town.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
20 Nov. '10
Life goes on it's merry way here in Chiang Mai where it is the big Loy Krathong festival this weekend. For weeks the Thais have been setting off fireworks, crackers and sending the lovely Hot Air Balloons soaring in to the air. It will all reach a climax today and tomorrow with highly decorated floats passing all around the moat. It must take weeks to prepare them and many hours for them to pass. The Krathongs are home made little wreaths made of leaves and flowers with candles and incense inserted - they will be set off on a journey down the Mae Ping River and the moat so everywhere is alight. If it stays afloat ones sins and misdemeanors sail away with it:)
The doorways of temples, hotels and entries to villages are all decorated with palm fronds, lanterns, flowers, branches etc and all are interwoven with lights. Hard to know where to look with so many temptations. Even the monks are climbing up pillars and trees to decorate their wats (temples)
Tonight we'll stroll around admiring all the results. Traffic will be at a standstill with all of it heading towards the river and moat, walking will be the only way and if possible, it will be a good idea to head up to a high roof top to view it all from on high with the spectacular fireworks lighting up the sky.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Winter Travels 2010
November and back again in Thailand. Flew from Dublin to Amsterdam and from there on to Bangkok. The plane was so full. Last time I flew with China Air I was lucky enough to be bumped up in to Business Class but no luck this time.I had hours to spend in the Airport
at Bangkok and found a Thai restaurant while wandering around. What a difference to the western chain places out in the main areas. There are stalls all around the restaurant with pictures of whatever food they are offering and the prices. Most dishes are about 1 Euro, less than a coffee at the western places You buy coupons as you walk in and can get a refund if your eyes were bigger than your tummy. Even at 7 am there were all the Thais tucking in to their soup or rice dishes with gusto.
Arriving in Chiang Mai always feels great, like coming home if home has blue skies, flowers, clear air and mountains fresh from the rainy season that just ended in Oct. Now it is hot and sunny every day but not too hot. I can use a stole early morning or at night. A taxi in to town has a set charge of 120 baht which is about 3 euros but I hopped on a little red Song Thow for 40 baht and off we went to my usual room that they keep for me every year and soon my boxes were brough
t down from the attic and I was all set. Lots of smiles wai's, hugs and greetings from other residents who were already back. I couldn't wait to stroll down the lane to my favourite tiny Thai lady who cooks the best Khow Soi (a north Thai curried noodle soup) in the city and it costs all of 25 baht - there's 40 in a euro.
The EU Film Festival started here the next day. Each EU country submits their best film and they are shown here for free with 3 different films each night for 2 weeks. Wonder why we don't get those films in Ireland. Great acting and directing. It is lovely to sit out under the new moon and stars beside the Ping river and watch good films. I went to the opening and there was lots of vino and canapes. Met so many friends there and was delighted to be back.
I had a birthday this week so my friend Pauline offered to take me off to anywhere I wanted to go. The very good massage woman in Chiang Mai had told me to go to
That night was invited to a great Tapas place called Su Casa. They also have really good Margaritas and Martinis. The owner is from
That's all the catching up 'til now. Off to the Sunday "walking market" where there will be great decorations so may add a few pics to the new album.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Trip to Germany and Italy Sept '10
It has been a long time since I posted a blog. It was a lovely summer spent here at home in Kenmare, Ireland with side trips mostly to traditional music festivals in Milltown Malbay and Feakle in Co.Clare. In between I sell at the local outdoor markets, mainly scarves and jewellery I buy in Thailand. Now it is almost time to start planning to return to Asia.
In September I went to Germany on a guiding job with nice people from Charleston, Sth Carolina. I was mainly back in Augsburg and Munich in Bavaria, an area I love and where I have many very good friends so it was great to see them again.
A hike through the woods to Oberschonenfeld Monastery took place on a lovely sunny day with my old friend s and hiking companions. They have been hiking weekly for some 30 years in the great woods around Augsburg. We stopped around 11 am to enjoy our customary Sekt with huge fresh Prezels before
continuing our hike to an excellent Gasthaus for lunch. My clients enjoyed all of it even though they would not usually have a drink so early in the States.
Another lovely day was spent at Andechs Brewery on the Ammer Lake. We left the
car at Herrshing and walked over. Such fun to raise a large Stein of the excellent beer brewed by the monks, hear the music, enjoy the great food outdoors and the company of
friends.
Of course in Bavaria we raised steins more than once including at the Plarrer in Augsburg - a smaller beer fest than in Munich but all the nicer and the band was great.
We moved on to Munich
and had an excellent visit. The weather was still warm, the flowers still in bloom, enjoyed walks in the Englisher Gardens, visits to the wonderful museums and meals outdoors. The transportation in Germany is just so easy and reasonable. Up to 5 people can go anywhere in Bavaria on a train for just 28 euros so we hopped on and off trains, U Bahns, buses and trams and visited lakes and cities. We also went to the concentration camp at Dachau and afterwards went to the nearby city of Dachau and found it to be a really quaint very nice place.
Munich is a really lovely city with the wonderful Rathaus and Victuallian Market, the many museums including the 3 Pinakoteks, the Lenbach House and the Deutches Museum not to mention the BMW museum for all those who love cars.
Later, after my work was finished, I took a train from Munich down to Vicenza, Italy. a really nice ride past the beautiful scenery of the Alto Adige or South Tirol. Vicenza is between Verona and Venice and very close to Bassano the home of Grappa. I feel so at home in that region and am lucky enough to have many good friends there so it was a wonderful 10 days of fun, renewing old acquaintances, e
ating the excellent Italian food, going to markets, Venice, walking and of course drinking a lot of the local beverages. How lucky I am.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
DARJEELING
DARJEELING
I left the region the next morning for Darjeeling again by shared jeep changing once. The famous hill station is situated on a ridge an
d again the arrival is full of blaring horns, jeeps and traffic. There is, however, no room for traffic on the narrow streets climbing ever upwards and they are given over to Bazaars. There are stalls and shops all along every street selling everything imaginable. It is nice that the people here don’t beg you to buy so it is possible to have a look at the merchandise in peace. I arrived on a hot day and it was not much fun climbing with luggage on the cobblestones but I found an inexpensive hotel with a very kind owner. I had heard about him along my way. Rooms are a bit dingy as is usual with budget places but it does have hot water and electricity sometimes. It goes out about 4 times a day at least for around 2 hours each time although yesterday it was out for the whole evening. I am getting used to trying to read by candlelight, makes one realize how it used to be in our grandmothers time. I think that the power goes mostly when I go in to an internet place. Even when there is power it is not enough to upload pictures.
One is reminded at every corner that this is Gurkha land. They are the main political force here and they are insisting on a separate state. The compromise that was decided upon in 1988 granted them a large amount of autonomy from the state government but they want full secession. There are slogans and their green, white and yellow colours on every wall. There was a huge peaceful march here yesterday.
The c
ity is very vibrant, there are squares, little horses carry children around for a ride, there are a few cafes (western style) and every kind of person and shop like Tibetan, Nepali, Indians from Kashmir flogging Pashminas and all the myriad Indian castes. There are even a few little pubs. Tried one of them and met quite a few other travelers including 3 from Ireland. It seems odd to be in a place where most people are smoking as it has been stopped for quite a while in Ireland and Sikkim does not allow smoking even out on the streets. The Indian beer has a lot of preservatives in it because of the heat in the Summer and it gives quite a headache. We experimented by turning the bottle upside down in a glass of water and it all drained out while none of the beer spilled.
It is now my 3rd day here and unfortunately yesterday I skidded on the tiled, wet floor of the bathroom and had a very HARD fall on my back. It totally squeezed the breath out of me and took me ages to be able to get up. I was afraid that I had really done some damage, it is very painful but did get an x ray at the hospital here and there does not seem to be anything broken. I’m lucky that it was not my headJ It is still hard to get a deep breath and the back is not good but it will probably improve and I am lying a bit low. I did take a trip on the famous Darjeeling Himalayan Railway’s Toy Train, a two hour jaunt up to a high point but it was again misty so no views. It is listed as a World Heritage site It is a steam train and has been running since 1881, the tracks are only 2 ft wide
and they run right through the streets and the traffic. See photo.
The mist continued for the whole week unfortunately as the views here are said to be just splendid. I took nice walks up to the Japanese peace Pagoda, they have erected them in many cities, always on a height like the one I walked to in Pokkara.
Again met many interesting people. There was Anna, a twenty year old German girl who is studying Tibetan here as she is a Tibetan Buddhist and her course for that will take eight years. Really enjoyed our chats. Anna is trying to decide if she will become a Buddhist nun or not and she smokes and drinks to check if she is ready to give them up or not. Like most Buddhists she is cheerful, peaceful and kind. There was also an American Buddhist monk staying at the hotel for 6 months and he is also studying Tibetan, he joined in many of our discussions over coffee. Many of the people that I have met up in Sikkim arrived after a great trek up there. The views they had were amazing. It would be great to be younger and go off trekking in these high mountains. A young NZ girl I met realized that there were no places that baked good cakes here so she saw an opening and had become “the cake lady” after renting an apartment and buying an oven. She supplies her cakes in a Hot Pizza place that is owned by two French men and she takes order for cakes for many different occasions. I also met a nice Irish woman, Tina, who does lighting for stage productions. She is based in London and travels for about 6 months a year mainly in India. That’s the nice thing about travelling, all the different people one meets along the way.
Turquoise seems to be one of the most popular colours here for houses followed by terracotta with dark green trim. There are lovely homes but even very tiny ones have many planks of flowers around the front. There are blossoms everywhere especially Rhodos, Azaleas and all the spring flowers. Again it is most unlike the rest of India. Something that is not different is the awful, heavy, back breaking loads that people carry on their backs assisted by a band around their heads so that they trudge along these steep winding streets and many steps upwards while bent over with eyes on the ground as they cannot look up. What a destiny to have that as a job. Many of these people are elderly. How they can shoulder those loads of cement, gas bottles, bricks etc I just don’t know.
Of course there are many huge tea plantations around Darjeeling and the workers there are mainly women looking so pretty in their saris with their heads bobbing up between the green bushes of tea. It is very not work and it is not yet the heat of Summer, yet they are often singing as are many of the people here as they go about their work.
Tomorrow I am off for the border to cross in to Nepal again and start the long journey home on the 30th so I’ll take an early shared jeep from Darjeeling to Siliguri and from there on to the border town of Kakarbhitta which is close to the small airport of Bhadrapur. I hope to fly from there to Kathmandu on Sunday.
I left the region the next morning for Darjeeling again by shared jeep changing once. The famous hill station is situated on a ridge an
d again the arrival is full of blaring horns, jeeps and traffic. There is, however, no room for traffic on the narrow streets climbing ever upwards and they are given over to Bazaars. There are stalls and shops all along every street selling everything imaginable. It is nice that the people here don’t beg you to buy so it is possible to have a look at the merchandise in peace. I arrived on a hot day and it was not much fun climbing with luggage on the cobblestones but I found an inexpensive hotel with a very kind owner. I had heard about him along my way. Rooms are a bit dingy as is usual with budget places but it does have hot water and electricity sometimes. It goes out about 4 times a day at least for around 2 hours each time although yesterday it was out for the whole evening. I am getting used to trying to read by candlelight, makes one realize how it used to be in our grandmothers time. I think that the power goes mostly when I go in to an internet place. Even when there is power it is not enough to upload pictures.One is reminded at every corner that this is Gurkha land. They are the main political force here and they are insisting on a separate state. The compromise that was decided upon in 1988 granted them a large amount of autonomy from the state government but they want full secession. There are slogans and their green, white and yellow colours on every wall. There was a huge peaceful march here yesterday.
The c
ity is very vibrant, there are squares, little horses carry children around for a ride, there are a few cafes (western style) and every kind of person and shop like Tibetan, Nepali, Indians from Kashmir flogging Pashminas and all the myriad Indian castes. There are even a few little pubs. Tried one of them and met quite a few other travelers including 3 from Ireland. It seems odd to be in a place where most people are smoking as it has been stopped for quite a while in Ireland and Sikkim does not allow smoking even out on the streets. The Indian beer has a lot of preservatives in it because of the heat in the Summer and it gives quite a headache. We experimented by turning the bottle upside down in a glass of water and it all drained out while none of the beer spilled.It is now my 3rd day here and unfortunately yesterday I skidded on the tiled, wet floor of the bathroom and had a very HARD fall on my back. It totally squeezed the breath out of me and took me ages to be able to get up. I was afraid that I had really done some damage, it is very painful but did get an x ray at the hospital here and there does not seem to be anything broken. I’m lucky that it was not my headJ It is still hard to get a deep breath and the back is not good but it will probably improve and I am lying a bit low. I did take a trip on the famous Darjeeling Himalayan Railway’s Toy Train, a two hour jaunt up to a high point but it was again misty so no views. It is listed as a World Heritage site It is a steam train and has been running since 1881, the tracks are only 2 ft wide
and they run right through the streets and the traffic. See photo.The mist continued for the whole week unfortunately as the views here are said to be just splendid. I took nice walks up to the Japanese peace Pagoda, they have erected them in many cities, always on a height like the one I walked to in Pokkara.
Again met many interesting people. There was Anna, a twenty year old German girl who is studying Tibetan here as she is a Tibetan Buddhist and her course for that will take eight years. Really enjoyed our chats. Anna is trying to decide if she will become a Buddhist nun or not and she smokes and drinks to check if she is ready to give them up or not. Like most Buddhists she is cheerful, peaceful and kind. There was also an American Buddhist monk staying at the hotel for 6 months and he is also studying Tibetan, he joined in many of our discussions over coffee. Many of the people that I have met up in Sikkim arrived after a great trek up there. The views they had were amazing. It would be great to be younger and go off trekking in these high mountains. A young NZ girl I met realized that there were no places that baked good cakes here so she saw an opening and had become “the cake lady” after renting an apartment and buying an oven. She supplies her cakes in a Hot Pizza place that is owned by two French men and she takes order for cakes for many different occasions. I also met a nice Irish woman, Tina, who does lighting for stage productions. She is based in London and travels for about 6 months a year mainly in India. That’s the nice thing about travelling, all the different people one meets along the way.
Turquoise seems to be one of the most popular colours here for houses followed by terracotta with dark green trim. There are lovely homes but even very tiny ones have many planks of flowers around the front. There are blossoms everywhere especially Rhodos, Azaleas and all the spring flowers. Again it is most unlike the rest of India. Something that is not different is the awful, heavy, back breaking loads that people carry on their backs assisted by a band around their heads so that they trudge along these steep winding streets and many steps upwards while bent over with eyes on the ground as they cannot look up. What a destiny to have that as a job. Many of these people are elderly. How they can shoulder those loads of cement, gas bottles, bricks etc I just don’t know.
Of course there are many huge tea plantations around Darjeeling and the workers there are mainly women looking so pretty in their saris with their heads bobbing up between the green bushes of tea. It is very not work and it is not yet the heat of Summer, yet they are often singing as are many of the people here as they go about their work.Tomorrow I am off for the border to cross in to Nepal again and start the long journey home on the 30th so I’ll take an early shared jeep from Darjeeling to Siliguri and from there on to the border town of Kakarbhitta which is close to the small airport of Bhadrapur. I hope to fly from there to Kathmandu on Sunday.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
NAMCHI
NAMCHI 
Arrived here around noon in a bus, the first time I have seen one on these narrow roads. It was a lovely drive with the range of snow capped mountains visible most of the time. This is a lovely little place, it has two main squares, fountains and lots of spring flowers. It is mainly known for having two vast statues facing each
other from opposite hillsides. One is a Buddhist Guru Rimpoche standing 45M high in shimmering copper and bronze. It is visible for miles around. The other statue is 33m high and is of Shiva. I walked up there this afternoon and the site is enormous 
with workers toiling away like ants at a surrounding complex of temples and pavilions. The site is expected to become a major pilgrimage site. The statue and surrounding area are in various stages of completion. Gardens are being planted, statues and images are being sculpted and painted, pathways and drains are being laid, a large guest house or hotel is under construction
While wandering around the hotels upon arrival, a very nice man spoke to me and offered his help. He recommended a lovely
guest house named Dungmali up on the hillside under the Shiva statue. It is about 4 kms out of town but I had a look around before I left. I have a really lovely room here and managed to get a good price as the place is empty. The meals are cooked by the family and there are nice balconies with the rooms.
Arrived here around noon in a bus, the first time I have seen one on these narrow roads. It was a lovely drive with the range of snow capped mountains visible most of the time. This is a lovely little place, it has two main squares, fountains and lots of spring flowers. It is mainly known for having two vast statues facing each
other from opposite hillsides. One is a Buddhist Guru Rimpoche standing 45M high in shimmering copper and bronze. It is visible for miles around. The other statue is 33m high and is of Shiva. I walked up there this afternoon and the site is enormous 
with workers toiling away like ants at a surrounding complex of temples and pavilions. The site is expected to become a major pilgrimage site. The statue and surrounding area are in various stages of completion. Gardens are being planted, statues and images are being sculpted and painted, pathways and drains are being laid, a large guest house or hotel is under constructionWhile wandering around the hotels upon arrival, a very nice man spoke to me and offered his help. He recommended a lovely
guest house named Dungmali up on the hillside under the Shiva statue. It is about 4 kms out of town but I had a look around before I left. I have a really lovely room here and managed to get a good price as the place is empty. The meals are cooked by the family and there are nice balconies with the rooms.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
