REMINDERS OF WILLI - EVERYWHERE

Thailand - as I see it.

REMINDERS Of WILLI - EVERYWHERE - I'M SO SAD, I'M HAPPY

As soon as I wake up in the morning, his painting is on the wall in my suite.  It is a beautiful painting of a beach scene with palm trees and a sailboat.  I look to my left and there is another beautiful painting of a bouquet of flowers.  When I enter the bathroom, the wall has a mural of a naked woman.  Rob and On wanted Willi to feel at home so they had exotic tiles made for the wall.  The living room and dining room also are a stunning reminder of Willi as there is a large mural that he painted in the hall, and other paintings on the wall.  The four of us, dressed in formal attire, are pictured in the living room as a remembrance of our cruise from Sydney to Bangkok when Rob proposed to On.  There are also two frames with five pictures of Rob, On, Tyler, Willi and me when we went to the Hill Tribe exhibition and we wore the tribal finery.

When I look in the kitchen, I am reminded of how much he loved fruit and especially smoothies which he made every day from bananas, pineapple, and any other fruit available. 

Whenever we ride anywhere, there are bananas being sold as well as papaya.  He loved the fat short bananas which were very sweet.  He also wanted to stop for fresh papayas whenever he saw them.

When I walk out in  the yard,  see the wall around the house that he pressure washed and painted in green and white for On, Rob's wife.  I see the metal gate in the front that he painted.  The flower pots with flowers he carefully planted with On.  Speaking of pressure washing, every time we went out for a ride, he would mention that he could work a lifetime pressure cleaning the walls and the buildings.

When I ride on the back of On's motorbike, I remember that Willi rode with her whenever we all went out.  At first, he was skeptical of the motorbikes, but the last year we were here, he got off and on without any qualms.  When I ride in the new car that Rob bought for the family, I think of how Willi wanted them to have a car.

Chiangmai is full of remembrances of Willi that I am so sad, I 'm happy that I have those wonderful memories to be with me the rest of my life.

Marcia Cutler Weis

DINING EXPERIENCES IN CHIANGMAI

Thailand - as I see it.


DINING EXPERIENCES  in Chiangmai,Thailand

MK - a unique dining experience in Chiangmai

There were 5 of us plus William, the baby.  We dined with a large pot of soup in the middle of the table and they bring numerous sauces, a soup bowl and a plate for all the different foods.  Small baskets of eel, octopus, shrimp, steak, pork, chicken, mussels , clams, mushrooms, beef, squid, carrots, shrimp balls, flour balls with filling, noodles, cabbage, different leaves, corn on the cob, baby corn on the cob, raviolis with various fillings and other items I didn't recognize we're brought to the table for us to put in the pot.  Beef and pork which were sliced very thin were brought for us to eat while we were waiting for the food to cook. They refilled the green tea as soon as the glass was half full.  We ate for almost two hours.  

When the bill came and I treated to this feast, it was less than $45 for all of us.  Everything was fresh and prepared beautifully.  

Then we went to the ice cream shop and had ice cream plain or dipped in chocolate for less than $2 for all five.  What a deal.

In the evening, On made smoothies with fresh oranges and pineapple and went out to a street stand and bought us all roti.  Roti is a crepe cooked on a large griddle with sweetened condensed milk on it, powdered sugar, honey and bananas if you wish and then all rolled up and folded in a piece of waxed paper.  They are delicious and cost between 30 and 50 cents each.

The next day we ate at Shabushi, another excellent Japanese Restaurant where the food comes by on a conveyer belt and you take what you want and cook it at your own cook pot.  They also have rice, fried shrimp, sushi, vegetables, fruit, ice crem and desserts.  It is a dining experience.