We have been living in Thailand for 4 months now and from what we’ve learned so far, we are of the strong belief that Thailand would cease to exist without three very important items: staples, padlocks and rubberbands. What are they used for you ask? The easier question would be “What are they NOT used […]
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Desperately in need of some forested scenery, and an escape from the concrete jungle of Chiang Mai, Ligeia and Mindy went for a hike through Doi Pui National Park to visit the Huay Kaew Waterfall. Amazingly enough, the entrance to this National Park is only 1 km away from Chiang Mai University, where Ligeia works. […]
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Mindy and Ligeia decided to take a day trip to Mt. Inthanon National Park. We signed up with a tour (mostly for the transportation but also because they knew where to go). Our first stop was a Karen hill tribe village, where 30 families live: Some homes are raised so that their livestock (pigs, buffalo, […]
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Ligeia went with the English department at Chiang Mai University on a field trip to a village about an hour away called Mae Kam Pong. This village is an eco-tourism village and it’s main sources of money are coffee (seen below), tea and tourism: There were several locations for meditation including Buddhist temples and lots […]
Read More…Considerably later than Ligeia, Mindy heads off on her walk to work at about 8:35am, and heads in the complete opposite direction. She stays in the small streets of their neighborhood, passing by homes, apartment buildings and restaurants (the blue and white tarp covers it up this early in the morning!)… …and small fruit stands […]
Read More…Ligeia begins her walk at 7am and it starts with walking out to the main road Klong Chon Pratan: She then crosses at this small bridge only for pedestrians…although often motorbikes try to make their way through too: Here is the view once on the bridge: Once across, Ligeia continues her walk down a side […]
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We’ve been here for almost 2 months now (Wow, can you believe it?) and we’ve seen many animals. First of all, animals can appear in the least likely places, like this chicken, who we found in the office of the Elephant Nature Park: And continuing with the bird theme, pigeons are here too. This one […]
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Dear Moms, we couldn’t help but think of you when we passed by these two dragon statues outside the Doi Suthep temple. We haven’t yet figured out why they are labeled “MOM” but who are we to question anything that brings us thoughts of you. 🙂 Below is a digital bouquet, and we hope […]
Read More…First of all, not to worry, both Mindy and Ligeia are fine. Ligeia had to go to the hospital to get a Certificate of Good Health as part of her paperwork for her new job as a full-time instructor at Chiang Mai University. Having never been in a Thai hospital before, we had no idea […]
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Mindy and Ligeia began their day trip by walking to the main entrance of Chiang Mai University where you can catch a red bus up the mountain. When we arrived a Thai couple on vacation from Bangkok was already there. We only needed one more couple to make it worth the driver’s trip. After only […]
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A friend tipped us off that there was a magnificent temple with a stupa that had elephants carved in stone somewhere in Chiang Mai. So we set out walking to find it. It turns out that in 1297 AD Wat Chiang Man was built on the spot which had been used by King Mengrai (also […]
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The Watts of Los Angeles (for those of you who don’t about Watts, L.A. click here) are very different than the Wats of Chiang Mai. A “Wat” in Thai means “temple” and in Thailand this means a Buddhist temple. There seem to be countless Wats in Chiang Mai and almost every time we turn a […]
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When traveling you must always ask if the local water is safe to drink. In Thailand this decision was an easy one as we learned very early on that even the Thais don’t drink the water. Yet buying large amounts of water in plastic bottles only produces a large amount of plastic that as we […]
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First, here is some general information about Thailand: The Thais believe that the country is shaped like an elephant’s head. Do you agree? If you’re having trouble, try to imagine the elephant’s head from the side. In this case the elephant is facing left. Can you see the trunk? Can you see the big floppy […]
Read More…So, it took us one day of pavement-pounding to find a place to live that met our four requirements: Wifi internet A western-style, sit-toilet Air-conditioning Kitchen What we found, and immediately moved into, is a small one-bedroom condo unit in Chiang Mai’s newest condo building! It’s so new that construction is ongoing. We’ve been told […]
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