Don't Pay the Ransom, We Escaped!

Goodness gracious! It's been almost a year since I last posted. There is no way I could post about everything that we've done since January 2023 but here are just a few things.

We'll start with some construction. Seems like there is always something being constructed or destructed around here.

Our stone mason Ricardo on the mini excavator moving some dirt (mud) around.

Formed

Concrete poured

Blocks for wall going in

Finished patio

With fire pit

And wood fired pizza oven

The patio was finished just in time for a hoedown. I hope this video will play for you. Our friend Felicia put this together for us.




In August we took off for parts north to get out of the heat. I'm embarrassed to say we took very few photographs and none of friends we visited in Virginia and friends and family in Connecticut. From there we went to Maine and then through New Hampshire, Vermont and upstate New York. Sadly when we got back to Texas it was still hot. Three weeks obviously was not enough time.

With guidance from our friend Stan, I tried my hand at grafting again. This time a bud graft on a peach tree.
It looks like it is going to take!

The total solar eclipse passed through Texas in April. Our friends Kent and Heather flew in to enjoy it with us. Kent accepted my request to send his drone up and get some photos of our house.

I'll close this out with a picture of the marshals at turn 18 at Circuit of the Americas in Austin for the MotoGP motorcycle race. Our friend Jay decided to give flag marshalling a try. I think we might see him again next year.

That's it for now. Take care. Brian

Thailand Part IV (The End)

Now to the part that most people go to Thailand for, the beaches. From Chiang Mai we flew to Krabi in the South part of Thailand. This was a bit of an adventure because the day before we were to depart we discovered our flights were messed up. Not only were Susan and I on different flights, we were booked on different days! Fortunately we were able to get it somewhat worked out. We still weren't on the same flight but we did travel on the same day. Notice I didn't say we flew to the same city. Susan had a 15 minute cab ride from the airport to the hotel. Mine was an hour and a half. But, no harm, no foul.

What did we do in Krabi? Not a lot. Spent a fair bit of time walking on Ao Nang beach, swimming in the Andaman sea and chillin' at bars along the beach. One day we rented a scooter to explore a little farther afield and visited the NaTin Spicy Garden. There we met a retired French Pharmist that had lived in Thailand for years. He took us for a walk around his garden and explained what each plant was and what it was used for, whether it be spices or used in the production of medications. It was a fun and interesting visit.

Leaving the garden I made my only mistake on the scooter. In Thailand, one drives on the left side of the road. I left out from the garden and met someone that was in the right, that being left, head on. Fortunately neither one of us was moving very fast and he seemed to find humor in the dumb tourist that wasn't sure what side of the road to be on. No collision, just embarassement on my part.

Now for a few pictures.

Our hotel had an interesting pool. If your room was on the first floor you could walk out of your room to a "canal" where you could swim to the main part of the pool.

Longboats beached at the end of their tourist runs to a selection of islands. We did not do this but would if we go back.

Hat NopparatThara Beach was a short scooter ride from our hotel but we also walked it a time or two. This beach isn't as nice for swimming which is why it isn't near as crowded as Ao Nang.

The view from one of the bars we'd stop at for an afternoon cooldown.

We didn't find as much street food here, its's much more touristy and had lots of restaurants. Amazingly, a lot of Italian restaurants. Just down from our hotel was a cart that sold fruit filled crepes for breakfast. We made that stop every morning.

That pretty much covers our trip to Thailand. We flew back to Bangkok for one night and then home. It's a long flight but it was so worth it.

Now it's back to Texas and what we've been doing around here.

Take care.
Brian

Thailand Part III

Hi All, If only our trip to Thailand had been as long as it has taken me to post about it. Picking up where I left off, we left Sukhothai on January 11. It was another long bus ride, this time to Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is the third largest city in Thailand and was once the capital of the Lanna Thai Kingdom. There is a pretty large ex-pat community in Chiang Mai, both Brits and Americans. We spent three days and four nights at the Vieng Mantra hotel, a pretty much western style hotel.

Our room, as I think all in the hotel did, overlooked the pool.

Our first full day in Chiang Mai was VERY FULL. We started off with a trip to the Chan D Elephant Camp. Elephants have long been a big tourist draw in Thailand. Unlike in the past, the elephants are in elephant preserves where they are better cared for and not used for giving tourists endless rides. Our time with the elephants was spent learning about them, feeding them and giving them a bath before they were sent back out to forage on their own.

Susan feeding an elephant

Now my turn

One should never take vitamins on an empty stomach. Same is true for elephants so after feeding them here I am mashing up the elephant's vitamins with good stuff that makes it like dessert.

After breakfast it's time for their two part bath. Part one is a mud bath.

That look on my face has nothing to do with the elephant. It has everything to do with the handful of mud one of the elephant handlers put down the back of my shirt.

Part two of the bath is a dip in the river to wash off the mud. See that guy on the far left? He's the one that put the mud down my shirt. It may take years, but I'll get even!

After the elephant visit we took a bamboo raft ride down the same river. It only lasted thirty minutes or so but it was a nice quiet ride. After the raft trip we stopped for lunch and then went on a three hour hike to Doi Inthanon Waterfall. Actually there were two waterfalls on that hike. It was a little more difficult than we thought it was going to be, but we made it.

Waterfall 1

Waterfall 2

At the end of the hike we were exhausted. Our transportation for the day was some benches in the bed of a truck. This for four couples. You wouldn't have thought you could sleep with those arrangements. But if you're tired enough...

The next morning we took it easy, did some shopping and walked around eating street food. In the afternoon we had scheduled a Thai cooking class with the Thai Farm Cooking School. They picked us up at the hotel took us to a market where they gave us a tour of all that can be found there. We didn't buy anything as they grow most of what they prepare meals with. Each of us chose what we wanted to cook and eat for our three course meal.

Thai Farm Cooking School

Here I am, ready to go out to the garden and do some harvesting. Not really. We did go out to the garden but they had already harvested our ingredients.

Susan is cooking with gas.

Our favorite dessert, Mango and sticky rice. This one made by our instructor. Ours looked nothing like this.

The third day in Chiang Mai was all about gardens. The Queen's Botanical Garden, an Orchid Garden and a Butterfly Garden.
The Queen's Botanical Garden

The Orchid Garden

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And one picture from the Butterfly Garden. There were lots of butterflies but this post is getting long.

On the way back to the hotel we made several stops at different handicraft villages. Hand painted umbrellas, jewelry and silk. Lots of silk.
And for a lighter look at how things work in other countries. We've seen this exact thing in Vietnam and Cambodia too. At least it's not a metal ladder.

That pretty much takes care of Chiang Mai. By far the highlight was the time spent with the elephants. Not only for our time in Chiang Mai but for the entire trip. Next stop Krabi. I'll try to get that done without quite such a long delay. No promises though.
Take care.
Brian

Thailand Part II

After three days in Bangkok we were in for a bus ride to Sukhothai. The bus ride was uneventful and included a stop along the way for lunch. Our hotel was once again down a side street (using the term loosely, more like a dirt road) from the main drag.

The sign pointing to Sabaidee House.

Here's a look at the door to our room.

And the pool.

This is the outdoor restaurant where our complimentary breakfast was served. It made it hard to leave and start the day's adventure.

The Sukhothai Kingdom was founded in 1238 when it split from Khmer. It is the birthplace of Thailand and the ruins of the city are the real draw to Sukhothai today.

The old city ruins, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I apologized for the lengthy delay in getting this post out.

Take care.

Brian

T is For Thailand

Hi All, I know it has been a while since our last post. Please don't take that to mean we've been doing nothing. I'm going to skip over some of what we've been doing to get to the fun part. After all, we're retired (kinda) and need to take a vacation now and then. Thailand has been on both of our bucket lists so we figured it was time to get back into some travel and check it off the list.

We flew out of Houston on January 4 at 4 PM. About 25 hours later we landed in Bangkok with a couple hours spent in a Tokyo airport. That got us to Bangkok at 6 AM on the 6th. Fortunately we got some sleep on the flight so we were able to stay up all day and get our internal clocks pretty much acclimated to a 13 hour time change.

I could go into a lot of detail on our trip but will spare you and get to some of the pictures. We took quite a few, imagine that, so I'm going to do a separate post for each city we visited. First up Bangkok where we spent three days.

Here is the entrance to the hotel Susan booked us in for our nights in Bangkok, Sala Arun. Ever hear you can't tell a book by its cover?

Here is the view from our room's balcony.

And then at night

To keep us up and moving our first day we walked around some markets close to the hotel and then had a tuk tuk take us around to some of the Buddhist Temples in Bangkok. Your first impression is that there sure are a lot of Buddhist Temples, they seem to be everywhere. Because they are. But if you were compare it to the population of churches in a city here, at least in the south, I'm not sure it would be all that different. Except for the size.

The second day we visited the floating market at Damoen Saduak and the umbrella market at Samut Songhram. The "umbrella" in umbrella market refers to the awnings in front of the small individual stands where vendors are selling their goods. Here you are mostly talking fresh fruit, vegetables and meat.

Here is Susan checking out some of the groceries for sale.

Did you notice the metal rail on the ground? Twice a day the vendors pull in their "umbrellas" to let the train pass.



When you hear (or read) floating market you would think the market was on water and floating, right? Not so. We were the ones floating. I had a video I took from our boat but it didn't really turn out very well so I'm going to skip it.

Our third and final day in Bangkok was spent with a walking tour guide, Mr Tee. He took us around to see the Grand Palace as well as the Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho.

The Grand Palace, the King's residence, has its own temple.

The Reclinig Buddha is 49 feet tall and 150 feet long, covered in gold leaf. It is the largest Reclining Buddha image in Bangkok but only the third largest in Thailand.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day with Mr. Tee so we invited him up to the rooftop bar at our hotel for a beer.

Our last night in Bangkok we went to Khaosan Road which is famous for it's night market and being close to where many young backpackers find rooms. We were told by some to avoid the street food in Thailand. We couldn't disagree more. It was very inexpensive and very good. We were told many Thai don't cook at home, they stop and pick up street food to and from work each day.

Khaosan Road

That's all for now. The next post will be Sukhothai.

Brian