Ligeia’s Walk to Work

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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Forest Crested Lizard in Chiang Mai, Thailand

The Animals of Chiang Mai, Thailand

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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View of Waree Rawee Resort from Tower

Overnight at Waree Rawee Resort

Ligeia was invited as part of the full-time English department staff to attend a work retreat at Waree Rawee Resort (trying saying that 10 times fast!). Since the seminar was all in Thai, except the part where Ligeia got up to introduce herself along with another new teacher, we were told we could “just relax […]

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Dragon Statue at Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Happy Mother’s Day at Doi Suthep

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 […]

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Service at Ram Hospital in Chiang Mai

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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Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Phu Phing Palace and Doi Suthep

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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Plough Sharing Ceremony in Bangkok, Thailand

Royal Ploughing Ceremony

We knew something was up when Ligeia turned on the TV and on 6 of the 15 channels, this is what she saw: Mindy went online to investigate and there was already a big clue on the Google homepage: Here’s what we learned: It is called Phraraj Pithi Jarod Phranangkal Raek Na Kwan or Royal […]

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And so the rains begin…A Photo Story

When you wake up and this is what your front yard looks like,… (Here is a closer view in case you couldn’t see the water in the picture above) …you may ask yourself where all that water is coming from. You may spend some time contemplating it. You may even have the courage to walk […]

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Wat Chiang Man in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Wat Chiang Man

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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Naga Statue at Temple in Chiang Mai

Say Wat?

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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Rose Apples or Chompoo Thailand Fruit

The Fruits of Thailand

One of the things we are discovering about Thailand is the amazing selection of fruit. Markets are filled with both familiar and unfamiliar fruits to try. As a rule, what we’ve learned is that all the familiar fruits like mango and papaya taste a million times better than we are used to, making it seem […]

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Buddha Statue at Wat in Chiang Mai

First Impressions of Chiang Mai

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 […]

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We found an apartment!

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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