Sunday Morning Feb 15th in Chiang Mai

Sometimes we forget to look at the many small things that make living here for a Westerner interesting, fun and sometimes bizarre too! So I thought I would shoot some pictures of what we ran into this morning when we went for a walk and when I went to the local market in search of mangoes.

As we left our apartment we ran into the goats that live next door to us and had decided to go for a walk too. There is a Muslim family that has a relatively large yard where they raise chickens, way too many roosters and recently goats - probably to eat. We then walked 10 minutes to the moat which surrounds the old city of Chiang Mai to do a complete loop which is about 4 miles. We have almost done this twice before, but always seem to get distracted and today was no exception.

Upon arriving at the north-west corner of the moat, about a 10 minute walk from our apartment, we saw a man squatting with a crossbow next to him. He attaches a metal spike to a wooden arrow and then a barb to hold the fish. Then he attaches some fine fishing line to the arrow so he can retrieve the arrow, hopefully with a fish on the tip. We watched him until he completed his repair and bagged a fish, but he was annoyed with us because we kept looking over the edge and scaring the fish, so we left and continued with our walk.

Fixing the crossbow arrow with a fishing line attached:


Fishing with the crossbow:


Then we started off to circumnavigate the old town. We were walking on the outside of the moat to get a little longer walk. Since last year they have repaired the sidewalks on both sides of the moat and it is much easier to navigate. We made it a little less than half way to the south side when we were drawn into a big market near Chiang Mai Gate. We wanted to try to find some mangoes and other delicacies and Bev needed to check out some clothes stalls. At this point my coffee was calling and I was getting ready for breakfast too. This is quite a big market and we spent quite a long time looking at all kinds of food, fruit, and other daily necessities. Bev found a beautiful bag made by the Meo hill tribes and I found a decent bathroom worth the 10 cents admission price. Not only was it clean but it also had western style toilets and toilet paper too!

We started walking home from the market and noticed an interesting looking temple. An older monk who was walking into the temple told us the name and that it was sacked by the Burmese many years ago. He also said there was a pond behind that was fed by the moat spring which we would never had seen had he not told us. Some pictures are in the slide show that follows.

At this point hunger beat good exercise intentions and we caught a ride home on a Rot Daeng or city taxi/bus that pick up passengers along the way. They have no set route so you just yell out your destination and they can choose to take you or not depending on other people who are riding first. We pay 2o baht per person or about 70 cents.



We were dropped off a short distance from our apartment and then went to the 7-11 to get yogurt for our morning cereal. I decided to get fried rice instead, so went to a local shop to get "take away". These food stalls are not fancy but the food is clean and very fresh and tasty. They cook it and put it in a Styrofoam container to take home all for 90 cents. I got chicken fried rice with egg, basil and peppers, carrot and onions with some fresh cucumber on the side and a lemon to squeeze over it when I got home. Are you drooling yet? :-)

Once I was done with breakfast I decided to head for the market about a 10 minute walk to try to find some mangoes. We are only here for another couple of weeks and the mangoes are sooooooo good! Bev not being as serious a Foodhist as I am stayed at home. Tanin market is smaller than the market we visited earlier in the morning but we go there often and know where to go for most things. I found my mangoes for 70 cents a pound which is considered expensive for Thailand but we need to do our market meditation and this is important! :-)

I then decided to see if I could find a new watch band and saw a store near the market selling clocks, watches and other appliances and found a new leather band for $ 4.50 and then on an impulse bought a Thai talking clock for about $6.

Next fun event was walking by a small gold shop near the market and noticing a very small money in a cage. It turned out it is a Marmoset(Click here to learn more) which come from Brazil and are now bred in Thailand. The owner has two of them and they cost almost $ 1000 each! They are very cute and live for about 15 years.

Then I snapped a shot of a dress shop dummy, some yummy insects you can eat, and a second dress shop nearer home....

Well that is our Sunday morning in Chiang Mai.

Australia - Tennis, wild life and wild friends

We had a great time in Melbourne, Australia. We went to the Australian Open for 3 HOT days and saw lots of great tennis. We were also fortunate to be able to attend the 50 day memorial ceremony for our good friend Peter Swan who died of a heart attack about 2 months ago. We rented a car for 2 days and drove along The Great Ocean Road where it was surprisingly cool and VERY windy. The scenery along the way was beautiful - rocky coasts and sandy beaches - while inland it was rolling country, reminding us of England, with some beautiful wooded forests. We took a canopy walk among the very, very tall trees. We spent the rest of our time with our friends, Maeve and John, who drove us north of Melbourne to their country home. It was great to reunite with Saul, Maeve and Peter's son, who was 8-10 when we knew him in Bangkok. Saul is now 38 (he must be lying about his age) and has a son, Aguirre, who is almost the same age as when we first met Saul! We spent 3 fun days with them, reminiscing about "the good old days", but also connecting in new ways.





Australian Open Video snapshots


We had great seats at the Open, in the 1st-3rd rows back from court side, but they were in the sun, so we roasted until 4pm. The temperatures were in the high 90s but it felt like boiling! We became really good at covering ourselves with towels, umbrellas, and even newspapers! In some ways the most fun was wandering around and seeing players warm up and or just walk by. Sometimes we would see a player that we knew we had seen on TV but they looked really different in "real" life.

We are now back in Chiang Mai until March 2nd and are furiously trying to tie up loose ends. One of the projects we wanted to accomplish was to put household Bio Sand Filter in the villagers' homes so they can have access to clean/free drinking water. Most water comes from mountain springs which are polluted. Anyway, this project has taken off, mainly because of funding received from Kids Ark-USA, and I am going to Ban Pong Hi this week-end to train the villagers in the manufacture of the filters. These filters have been used throughout the world but this is the first time in Thailand. We also had a brochure translated by a friend into Thai to explain how it works. Here is the English version:


There were some disappointments during our short time here, and of course still many items on our "to do list". Our friend, Peg Lopata, had volunteered to come and do the first newsletter but due to many factors had to cancel her trip. We were also unable, so far, to only get sponsors for 5 children out of 10. I guess considering the economic situation that is not a bad result. However, if any of you know someone who can spare $1+ per day please let us know. Another project still unfinished is to put the villagers' handicrafts on the website so that people have an opportunity to buy them.

On a positive note, Kids Ark USA has been established. We have applied for 501c3 status and have already received some donations which have been used to fund several modest projects. One of them is the Bio-Sand household water filter which was mentioned earlier. Another one is teaching women in some villages how to sew. Earlier this year Kids Ark was awarded money to buy sewing machines for some villages that we work with, and subsequently the villagers requested more training for the women. KA-USA was able to contribute to that training which is still on-going. Resa, who is in charge of handicrafts, spent 2 weeks in one village training 6-8 women, and will train women in 2 more villages. KA-USA also contributed to buying school uniforms for some under privileged children. The great thing about Kids Ark sewing projects is that our cloth is donated by several large factories and then women in the HIV/Aids cooperative are able to supplement their income by sewing the uniforms. Donations to Kids Ark USA can be sent to PO BOX 291, Peterborough, NH 03458.

We have been quite slack with the blog because we have been so busy at work, but also with travels and visitors, whom we enjoy seeing - so next year we will try harder - maybe?

Tom and Bev