Friday, November 21

Early morning everyone checks and sends emails, check news on internet and sometimes watch CNN for a bit.  Tom and Greg check out Baan Bakery while Sue and I pass.

We walk to the Three Kings Monument and Wat Inthakhin Saduemuang, a beautiful black and gold wat with fun baby buddha statues.  They are in the process of replacing much of the gold leaf inside.

Donation boxes are located in all the wats and there are often "money trees" branches or small artificial trees that have little clips to attach money.  These are also seen often in restaurants or other businesses or near shrines.  The money goes to the wats.

We are visiting the Cultural Center today, as yesterday's taxi driver suggested.  It tells the history of the Lanna Kingdom which originally took in Northern Thailand, and traces the origins of the Lanna people and its development.  There are signs of human settlements as much as 7,000 years ago and some archeological  sites,  but the Lanna Kingdom is about 700 years old.  Much of the layout of the city is from the 1200's and was established using Cosmology and belief that the city was the center of the Universe. They believed the city was a living entity. The city was walled and had 5 gates and 4 corners. Our hotel is near the south east ChiangMai Gate.

There are some displays about the Hill Tribes: the Karen, Hmong, Yao, Lahu, Lisaw and Akha.  These tribes are being integrated into Thailand to varying degrees but many are still rather isolated, insular and mostly very poor. They originated in China, in Burma and Thailand and many do not have citizenship in any country, though Thailand is working to make this easier.  They do not have written language but do have dialects, with some now learning Thai.

We walked to the Chinese area of town and did some shopping, looking for small silver bowls, which we found! Many fabric stores!

We walked through the Ton Lam Yai Market, to the river, and had lunch at the Riverside Bar and Restaurant on the other side of the river. This is my fried rice with chicken and vegetables topped by an egg!

We walked and stopped at a few shops including the Elephant Parade Shop which donates part of sales to an Elephant Rescue program.  The limited edition elephants are of varying sizes and some are designed by famous celebrities.

Walked through another part of the flower market and then caught a red taxi back to the hotel. The lotus flowers are sold with sticks of incense and a candle to place at a buddhist shrine.

At 6:00 we asked the desk to get us a taxi to Chap and Mam's dinner celebrating their marriage.
It was about a 25 minute ride and the driver agreed to wait for us for 2 1/2 hours!  All this for less than $20.00.

The restaurant, Ban Rom Mai was a beautiful building and Chap and Mam rented a room for 20+ friends and family.  Dinner was amazing, with dozens of dishes served family style. The table was covered!  We discovered that Karaoke is very popular here and Mam's Dad as well as several other guests sang.  A good time was had by all...

 This is Mam's Dad and Greg.