Some Morning visits

Most mornings we try to go for a walk or a bike ride or if we have rented one a motocycle a ride in the case of Doi Suthep.

Here are some pictures / videos of those trips:

Doi Suthep is a special Temple 17 Kms north west of the city.  They say "You have not been to Chiang Mai if you have not visited Doi Suthep" We woke up early and had not visited this year and it was Mahapuja day - the day that Buddhists celebrate the first teaching by the Buddha.  We wanted to see the sunrise and so it was dark when we arrived.  Here is your virtual visit:

Today Feb 18th we decided to ride our bikes to Wat Chedu Jed Yot which is close to where we live but we had never visited. It is not in great shape but unusual and was setting up for a temple market.  The irony was the very loud northern music blaring in the background.  The video below has the music as the sound track and the slideshow.  I have also added the Picasaweb slideshow which has better pictures.  

Here are pictures as a slideshow

We leave in a week!

Tom

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A weekend of festivals Feb 5-6, 2011

It has been a busy season with lots to do and no time for blogging. We finally published the first quarter newsletter for Kids Ark which took a lot more time than I thought it would. We are way behind blogging about our trip to Indonesia Dec 20-Jan 2 and that will follow but not until we are holed up in New Hampshire!  

Click here if you would like to receive the Kids Ark Newsletter

The Chiang Mai Flower Festival is in it's 35th year and have people coming from a long distance to both participate and watch. Of course lots of annoying tourists too!  (like me) 

Here is a video of some photos and some video of the parade and then floats once they were parked at the park in the south west corner of the old city.

In some ways it appears the floats and dancers etc have gotten a little "over produced" for my taste to make the event even better for the visitors (tourists).  Also the sound systems are so big they need to trail a diesel generator to power it!  Still there are the traditional music and drummer groups that are really fun to watch and listen.  We (mainly Tom ) didn't have the patience to watch the 3-4 hr parade so we just waited until the parade ended at the park and went to see the floats there.  That is quite a scene where there is lots of food vendors - a must for any Thai event - and then everything else under the sun too.  Barbie dolls, flash drives, orchids, bike pumps and traditional goods too.  

On Sunday most of the staff and volunteers from Kids Ark went to Mae Chaem west of Doi Intanon mountain for the annual Din Chok weaving festival.  This annual event celebrates that style of weaving as well as other aspects / crafts of that region.  This was a much more traditional and less touristy parade and event and I preferred it to the big city version. Lots of beautiful weaving.  Not cheap (approx $ 50 for a nice skirt size piece)  but when you consider the work that goes into that kind of weaving a bargain for sure.

Resa one of the employees of Kids Ark lives near there so we visited her village on the way back to Chiang Mai.  She is from the Karen ethnic minority and is in charge if the handicraft production and quality control.  Her village also has a trekking lodge for a tour company so we visited the lodge to compare it with the one that was done by the village we help too,

Here are some pictures of the trekking lodge

Finally it was also Chinese New Year and there was another Industrial promotion show going on too but we couldn't do everything!  We leave Feb 26th so just two weeks left!

Tom and Bev Feb 10, 2011