Chinese New Year with Thai Friends

If viewing this in email, go to All's Well for better results.

We had a traditional Chinese New Year lunch in Chiang Mai with a Thai family that Jim knows well - Yai, Bpen, Melburne, twin girls (Munich and Munch?) and an aunt - in their lovely home nearby.

In a small room, they have a shrine honoring deceased ancestors and we were given lit incense sticks to pray for them. (We were first asked if we were Christian and if this was okay for us to do, which I thought was a very nice gesture.) Later, we witnessed another tradition, that of burning fake Chinese Paper Money known as Ghost Money, an ancient tradition that is said to be comfort to the dead in the afterlife and to assure they do not trouble the living.

On the eve of Chinese New Year, temples are opened all night and the street is packed with Chinese and Thai-Chinese, as they go to pray for an auspicious start to the New Year.

Mark Visits Us in Chiang Mai

If viewing this in email, go to All's Well for better results.

We met Mark Wichaiphan several years ago when he was an exchange teacher in Cape Elizabeth. Since then we have become good friends and Mark often stays with us - cooking fabulous Thai meals - when he comes to the U.S. for several months every year. Jim visited him in Chiang Saen on the Mekong the year before Mark retired from teaching and he visits us here when our trips to Tland overlap.



This winter, Mark has been working in Bangkok. He visited Chiang Mai this week and we got together several times. One day we went to We's, one of my favorite places to eat here, and had a great lunch.



We had fresh spring rolls, wingbean salad, ginger tea, Dtom Kha Seafood, brown rice (hard to find places here that serve brown) and Penang Curry with chicken and lots of fresh vegetables.

Sukkhothai

If viewing this in email, go to All's Well for better results.


Sukhothai was an early kingdom in north central Thailand that existed from 1238 until 1438. The old capital is in ruins and has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage historical park. For me, this is near the top of my list for places to visit in Thailand.




Anne, my recently retired friend from OR, and I took a 5-hr bus ride from Chiang Mai to Sukhothai with snacks, Thai books and a novel to ward off boredom on long trip. First thing we did was pull our extra shirts and scarves from backpacks to counteract the too cold A/C. When we arrived, we rented bikes for the next 3 days, checked into GH (the front desk guy remembered us from 2 years ago, as we did him) and took a swim. Explored the area and had a few beers on our patio, before dinner at the GH. The next day, we explored the park ruins with lovely trees and breezes from the double moats around the old city, and had lunch at a Thai noodle shop out in the country.




The last day, we stumbled on an orchid fair where I was lucky enough to find some seeds to bring home for several Thai veggies.