Thailand - as I see it.

The King

Everywhere you go in Thailand you see posters, billboards, and huge signs of the King.  He is the supreme leader of the Thai people.

The Queen came to Chiang Mai a week ago to have some clothing made.  The streets were all cleaned, no venders were parked on the main streets.  All the school children in their different uniforms were marching and walking.  The police were on every corner and there was excitement in the air.

We were not able to see her but it was just fun seeing the preparation for her visit.

I am putting a few of the pictures of the King in this blog for all to see.

Thailand - as I see it.

Chiang Mai Night Safari

Our visit started as we drove into the property and saw lots of beautiful flowers and plants, trees and animals all lining the roadway.  There were hundreds of scarlett ibis that looked real. From then on, the deer were grazing alongside the road every few yards.and were very tame. As we entered the main gate, there were huge statues of elephants.  Through out the complex were statues of animals for picture taking.

Elephant statues at entrance to Night Safari

Wild deer and elk at night on tour.

There was a cage with white tigers and a trainer with a baby white tiger only 6 months old who was right by the visitors.  He was very playful and large already.  We were welcomed and invited to one of the trains that took us through the animal areas.  We saw lions, tigers, wild boar, elephants, giraffes, deer, elk, hyenas, buffalo, bison, zebras, vultures, and many other wild birds like emu and ostrich.  Our tour was in English and lasted for one hour on the northern side and one hour on the southern side.

Giraffe Statues.

After the train rides, we saw a Thai Cultural Dance performance.  The dancers had on beautiful costumes in various colors.  Then there was a sound and lazer lights show over the water with beautiful music.

Thailand - as I see it.

The Hill Tribes and their colorful outfits  

You can see the Hill Tribe people in Chiang Mai at the Night Bazaar, the Walking Streets, and at special festivals.  Some of them dress in bright colors, wear lots of jewelry, and even high high heeled shoes for the ladies.



 

We went to a festival and they were selling the clothing.  The band was playing and lots of people were singing and listening to the band.

 

When we go to the Night Bazaar, the hill tribe women are walking around selling their musical instruments and jewelry.

Sometimes their babies sleep in hammocks and the women carry the babies on their backs.

Thailand - as I see it

A Christmas Celebration at the Christian Church in Chiang Mai

We went to church this morning and instead of the service we went to the children’s party.  They had games for the children and each child won a prize for playing each game.  There was a lady dressed in a red and green clown’s outfit who passed out gifts to all the children. Some of the children put on skits and sang.  Each child colored a Christmas tree and put the cut out colored trees on the bare tree.  They all sang happy birthday to Jesus and also a Christmas song.

A missionary family from Texas who had moved to Chiang Mai a year ago told a Christmas story about a cake that was made for Jesus.  The top layer was chocolate for our sins, the next layer was red for Jesus’ blood that was shed for us, and the third layer was green for life and nature that goes well because we believe in Jesus.  The frosting was all white to show that all is pure when we love Jesus and when we go to heaven someday we will be with him because we believe.

As you can see in the group picture, they included me as well as the missionaries and they all sang and thanked God for Jesus and Christmas time when we remember him.

Thailand - as I see it.

Motorcycles, Motor Scooters, and Motorbikes everywhere.

We went to the mall today on motor scooters.  I was on one with my son Rob, Adda, and Tyler.  Willi and On were on another.  We parked in this motorcycle parking lot where there must have been 1000 or more.
Everywhere you go there are motorcycles, motorbikes and motor scooters weaving in and out, in between cars and trucks and more motorcycles.

We bought five big bags of groceries and two of them fit in the basket on Rob's motor scooter.  Two bags fit on hooks on On's scooter by her feet. Willi held one bag with one hand and held onto On with the other hand.

They have a small seat for Tyler with a seat belt right in front of Rob as you can see in the picture.
When Rob says they are going out, Tyler says, "rumrum"  and makes the motion of driving the scooter.
It is so cute.  He loves to go riding.  Much of the time he falls asleep on the scooter as they are traveling.

It is very reasonable to fill up a motor scooter even with the price of gas.

Daddy Rob and Tyler

Marcia ready to go.

Marcia and Rob

A parking lot for motorcycles, scooters, etc.

On and Willi.

Tyler waiting to go for a ride.

Thailand - as I see it

An Extended Family


Speaking of family, Boo is grandpa in the Thai Lisu Hill Tribe language. Yah is grandma in the language.  The Hill Tribe people use our alphabet of A,B,C rather than the Thai character alphabet.

Rob and On have an extended family of ADDA and also Supan. Adda is On's brother's little 4 year old. His name ADDA means first son born to that couple.  So every family has an ADDA if they have a boy.  It is like a nickname. His real name is City Chi.  Chi is with a long i.  

ADDA is living with Rob, On and Tyler because he can go to school in Chiang Mai.  There is not a school where he lives in the hills.  He is a cute, happy, smiley little boy and VERY bright.  I read him The Foot Book by Dr Seuss and he said every sentence after me.  He knows his alphabet and numbers to 10.  I brought 2 placemats with colors, numbers and letters and he has read them three or four times.  He does an alphabet puzzle 4 or 5 times at a sitting.  His attention span is long.

Tyler also sat and listened to the book.  Tyler runs around the house with ADDA and they play ball.  They have a huge plastic chest for the toys and they can move it all over the tile floor.  All the toys are picked up when they are through.  Both Tyler and ADDA go around collecting the toys and putting them back in the box.

On, Yah (Marcia), Rob and Tyler

Adda, Yah (Marcia), and Tyler

I was working on my computer and they wanted to play too.  They know how to turn it on, and even use a touch screen.  When I brought out my I Pad, Tyler touched the button on the bottom to start it.  Then he swept his hand over the front to use it.  I have a program where they can color a picture.  They touch the one they want and it comes up full screen.  They can color the black and white picture.  All they do is touch a crayon and then touch the picture.  They made a purple and yellow Santa with a red background. 

Supan, On's Brother.

Rob, On, Tyler and ADDA also have On's brother, Supan living with them.  He is in 8th grade and he is going to the excellent school also in Chiang Mai. This is nice for On and Rob as he also plays with the boys and he takes care of Tyler and ADDA when we go out.  This is a very happy easy going family.  You should see Rob, Supan and ADDA on one motor scooter and On and Tyler on the other.  When we are here, it is Rob, Yah (Marcia), and Tyler on one motor scooter and On, ADDA and Boo, (Willi)  on the other.  It is a treat for us to be part of this family.

What fun to be around little ones.  Have a wonderful day and keep learning. We are sure learning a lot.   

Marcia and Willi

Boo, (Willi) and Adda

Thailand - as I see it.


Our First Day in Chiang Mai


Our first day in Chiang Mai has been a busy one.  We opened the two bags of clothing for the hill tribe children and On separated them all to give them to different families and groups.  Then she washed about 40 pieces of clothing and hung them on the line to dry.  

Clothing we brought for the Hill Tribe Children.

Christmas tree with packages we brought.

Tyler, 1 year and 5 months old and Adda, 4 years old carried the presents from the suitcases and put them under the Christmas tree.  They had as much fun carrying them as they will opening them at Christmas.

Then Rob and I on Rob’s motor scooter and On and Willi on On’s motor scooter went for a foot massage.  It was an hour massage and the therapists had trained at a reflexology school and were excellent.

Then Rob and Willi went to the barber and Willi got his hair cut for $2 including the tip.  It is a nice cut; shorter than he has ever had it.  On and I went to the local open air market and she bought fresh pineapple, papaya, bananas and mandarin oranges.  She also bought the round dough balls which were very light and tasty as well as fried bananas.  She bought some fresh bacon and cooked spaghetti carbonera for dinner.  

I read a book after dinner to the two children and they played so well together with the cloth balls we brought for them.  We were tired around 8:30 and after a hand of hand and foot, we retired.

Our Flight to Thailand

Thailand - as I see it.


Our flight to Thailand.  It is December 8th.  We are taking three flights.  The first one is from Ft. Myers to Atlanta.  It will be only 1 1/2 hours. We got up at 4:15am. We left home at 5:45am.  Jim and Pat Repp were there to pick us up at 5:30am.  They were a welcomed sight. Thank you, Jim and Pat.


When we got to the airport, a porter helped with our bags and with the check in.  It is self serve now.  Our 4 bags went through just as though they were light and small.  They were each just 50 pounds.  We have 100 pounds in two bags for the hill tribe children.  Our two bags are also half full of gifts for Christmas for Rob, On, and Tyler.  No problem there.  Everything is okay now.  Whew.  That was great.  The flight left at 8 am.  We got to Atlanta at 9:30am.  I went to the Customs area as soon as we arrived and I got a Trusted Travelers Card.  Trish Challen told me about it.  Thank you Trish.  My interview was short.  It should make getting through customs easy as pie.  What a wonderful idea.  


We boarded the Korean Air plane at 11:30am. It is now 5pm and we have been flying around five hours already.  It is a 14 hour flight.  We were fed a good meal.  What a nice plane and stewardesses.  We have eaten, had a snack and drinks, I have read a few chapters of the book my friend Marilyn Polen  gave me for the trip.  A good book.  Barefoot.  It is about three women, three secrets and one long hot summer. Thank you Marilyn.  I have played golf, free sell, and memory on the screen in front of me.  I have read many many emails.  I have played a bit of FarmVille and I started to write some children's books for my grandchildren. The first two books are TYLER and SAWYER.  These will be first reading books with the whole theme of the letters in their names.  Every so often, a stewardess comes by with cold water.  We get up and take a little walk every so often.  We were fed two meals on the 14 hour flight and a snack and drinks in between. 


We arrived in Seoul and had an hour wait and boarded our last flight for Chiang Mai.  It is a 5 hour flight.  We arrived in Chiang Mai around midnight on the 9th of December.  As we were landing, Willi said, "That was fast."  I agreed, the flights were all nice and went by quickly.  I had told people that the flights were longer than they were.  It was 26 hours altogether but only 20 1/2 in the air flying.  We are at Rob's house and all settled in.  We peeked at Tyler, had some homemade crystallized ginger, homemade ginger ale and went to bed in our own beautiful suite. Thank you, God.

Marcia Cutler Weis

Chiang Mai Flower Show

Thailand - as I see it.

The Chiang Mai Flower Show comes once a year and is a big extravaganza.  The floats, flower arrangements, booths selling plants and flowers, and booths selling anything else you could imagine.  We had fresh fruit all ready to eat, fried goodies, meat and roties, as well as many different kinds of smoothies.  People come from all over the world for this wonderful experience.  The streets were only for walking and there were hundreds of viewers walking alongside the moat and enjoying the spectacle.

The floats were all built on top of cars and driven to the show site.  They were covered with thousands of flowers.  Pictures and figures of Buddhas and the King were made out of many different kinds of flowers.  There were seats and areas to take pictures near each float and exhibition.

Pictures tell a lot more than words, so I am going to put in my blog some of the pictures we took.

A picture of the King and his wife above the array of flowers.

On's sister and baby, Samuel, Marcia Weis, On  Rob's wife, Willi Weis and On's brother.

Toilets in Thailand

Thailand - as I see it.

Toilets in Thailand

We have seen some very elegant toilets in hotels and restaurants.  They have basins and toilet bowls with covers.

But most anywhere you go in Thailand, the toilets have no toilet paper.  You can buy it at some public toilets.  The toilet paper is not thrown in the toilet, it is put in the waste basket.  

We went to a typical public toilet and they have no seats.  You stand up and then when you are done, you pour water from a container on the floor with a bucket into the toilet to flush it.  The wash basins are outside the toilet area and usually there is no paper for drying your hands.

Wash Basins Outside

A Park Outside the Toilet

 Show all

Unusual and Tasty Fruits of Thailand

Thailand - as I see it

Pineapples   Tiny pineapples the size of  apricots were cut into spirals so that all the eyes were removed.  They lefton t a little stem so you can hold them.   They are exceptionally sweet and yellow.

Ba Ah    Little nuts the size of cashews but very crispy.  They come in a shiny wooden like shell and when heated the shell opens and they look like lips.  They are delicious.

Top Tim   A fruit the size of a big apple has hundreds of little seeds inside and you eat around the seeds and spit out the seeds..  They are very moist and flavorful.  They are sweet and tangy.

Pusa    This is a fruit like a small apple.  It is crisper than an apple, flavorful, sweet and sour at the same time.

Top Tim

Little Pineapples

Ba Ah

Pusa

 

Unusual Thai food

Thailand - as I see it.

We have visited many outdoor markets which can be set up for a day and then taken down or some of them stay going 24 hours a day. There are fresh fruit markets and stalls where you can buy papayas, strawberries, durian - stinky fruit, huge grapefruit like fruits that are sweet and crisp, bananas of all shapes and sizes.  There are little stalls where you can buy the fruit all packaged in a little clear bag that is closed with a long toothpick.  There are mangoes cut into slices, cups of fresh strawberries already sweetened and stalls with fried bananas.

One can see fresh meat all out and ready to be taken home to cook.  There are all types of organ meats, fish and poultry.  Pigs heads, snouts, knuckles, and head cheese can be purchased by the kilo.  There are  all different sizes of eggs which can be bought fresh or cooked.

Many stalls on many streets have food to buy that is all prepared for a meal.  They have curries, rice and noodle dishes of every kind.  These meals cost from one dollar to two dollars.

Many kinds of bugs are sold to eat.  There were grasshoppers, crickets, beetles and many other insects.

Master Craftsmen at Work in a Wat

Thailand - as I see it..

I took a walk from my son's home to a nearby Wat.  It was so interesting I had to write a third blog on Wats.  The groundskeeper showed me all around the inside of the Wat.  He explained the paintings on the wall were depicting the birth, life and death of Buddha.  Each mural was approximately 8' by 5 ' and they surrounded the entire inside of the Wat. The panels for each of the 12 signs of the calendar were below the murals and had drawings of animals all looking like demons.

He showed me 10 sticks in a case that the monks use to sprinkle water on good Buddhists, a cane for walking, a stick with a flower on the end for chanting, a stick made into a sword for protection, and a stick with an umbrella on the end.

There were three large Buddhas facing east all in gold.  They were very impressive.

But the most interesting part was a serpent dragon that was being made from cement and every part was sculpted by hand.  The craftsmen were molding the scales of the animal about 4'' by 4'' and making hundreds of them.  Others were molding words in Thai, and all of the fancy scroll work by hand.

More Clothing for the Refugees

Thailand - as I see it.

Rob and On's full time housekeeper, Maban, took some of the clothing from the BJPT Thrift Shop to some Hill Tribe refugees from Burma.  There is fierce fighting in Burma so they escaped to Thailand.  They are living in the hills with the Hill Tribe people since they were from the hills in Burma.  They only came with the clothing on their backs so these clothes were very much needed and appreciated.   I am enclosing a picture of the mountain they had to climb to get to Thailand.  I am also enclosing the picture of the group with the clothing from the BJPT Thrift Shop.

What's What in a Wat

Thailand - as I see it.

Yesterday we attended the Expats Monthly meeting and the speaker, Carol Stratton gave a talk on What's What in a Wat.  I learned quite a bit from her talk.


There are 350 Wats inside the moat which is around the city in Chiang Mai. Mosaics and mirrors are very important parts of a Wat's decoration.  Every opening, doors and windows of the Wat has a protector.  There are two kinds of guards.  The demons are holding swords to keep the bad people out.  The other demons are holding roses to welcome the good people.

The monks have 227 rules to live by.  The four main are abstinence, poverty, obediance, and celibacy.  They not only shave their heads, they shave their eyebrows.  They get up at 4am and beg for food from the townspeople and are back by 6am.  They do not eat after 12 noon and fast until the next day.

Massage Pictures

Thailand - as I see it.

A Day of Pampering

Thailand - as I see it.

 

A  Day of Pampering

For many years I have had pains in my lower back and legs which traditional medicine has been unable to heal. Recently the pain has gotten so bad that I can only walk short distances before having to sit and recover. For the first time this has begin to change. Today I went to my massage parlor for another day of pampering.  First I had a full-body oil massage. The therapist mainly concentrated on those areas which have caused me the most distress. In addition to the normal massage oil she used Counterpain to help relieve the knots and tension in my sciatic which has caused so much trouble. Amazingly I have been able to walk further and longer each day with less pain since I started getting these massages. Luckily my son Rob found an amazing massage therapist for me who not only gives a wonderful relaxing massage but can begin to help me get better.

Next, I had a facial.  It was an hour of massaging and cleaning.  First they cleaned my face with a wash cloth and sponges.  Then they put a very cold cream on my face and neck and massage it for 10 minutes.  Next they massaged my face with a grainy cleanser and washed that off.  Then they put on another cream and gently massaged again.  After cleaning that off, they painted on a heavy clay mask and put cold cucumbers over my eyes.  Then while the clay mask dried they gave me a complete head, scalp, neck, and shoulder massage.  To remove the clay mask, they cleaned my face with real warm water followed by cold water and lastly they placed icy towels on my forehead, face and neck.  To finish it all off, they put on a final layer of face cream followed by a light powder. 

I also had a pedicure while the massage was taking place.  There were two therapists working on me at one time.  Wow, it was great.  Oh yeah, when it was all over, they brought me a delicious cup of ginger tea and combed my hair.

Now for the good part, each of these treatments cost $5 for a total of $15 and I gave a $5 tip.  $20 to feel like a princess.