Wandering...Out & About Near Mae Hong Son

On one of our days here we went wandering. The first stop was up the mountain behind the town to the temple that looks out over the valley. This one mountain ridge sits in the middle of the valley, so on one side you look down over Mae Hong Son and on the other side you look down into an agricultural area with citrus orchards and the only church building I have seen thus far.

It was quite the view down to our little home by the lake! 

And looking the other direction. Don't know why the photo looks like it has a film over it, but that red building is the church and you can see the citrus groves...I've been eating all kinds of tangerines here...little tiny gems and larger murcotts. So yummy.

And of course the temple, the Buddha and the assorted shrines that I'm not sure what they are for.

Remember the black and white bunting is up because of the King's death 6-8 weeks ago.

And the ever present lion guardians. 

A set of three bells with various sized wooden knockers. Some temples have the Chinese gongs, large ones or a series of assorted sizes, and some have bells. The bells are intersting as many of them are not round but flattened. Definitely makes a different sound.

Was interesting to see this Rotary International sign here at this temple mount. I'm not quite sure what the Rotary Club does...I'm thinking good works projects of some sort. Intersting to see it here.

At every temple, there are a variety of "memorial" type flowers/candles.etc that you buy by donation which goes to support the temple. This is kind of a miniature river floating with little boats with flowers and candles in memory of someone who has died. A young man stopped and chatted with me, asking if I was a Christian...he told me he was a Buddhist, but happy to see me. He took a photo of the two of us. A pleasant exchange.

And this little gold leaf tree. You purchase a leaf and write on it and then hang it on the tree. Not sure if anything happens particularly with the hanging "leaves", but would be a really nice prayer tree at home. Again, the purchase supports the temple and the monks who take care of it.

We drove down the mountain and went on our way. Later we drove down to the little valley with the church and the citrus groves. A very large building, but no one around. We could see in the windows that it was decorated for Christmas and I saw the small worship band up on the stage. Disappointed not to run into any one. 

Our next stop was a delightful coffee shop along the road overlooking this beautiful valley. The menu offered all sorts of coffees and teas, hot, iced or shake (which is frappe). I had a mocha shake. : ) And we shared some little cookies. 

There were people out working in the various patches...of course the rice is all harvested. The burning season will be in March/April when the field stubble is all burned in preparation for a new crop.

I've been amazed as we've traveled up here in the mountains how much this area reminds me of traveling the old Route 60 from Clifton Forge, Virginia to Charleston, West Virginia. The vendors right up on the highway. The families struggling to make a living. The winding roads and little valleys. I took this photo because it reminds me of coming around the curve from Clifton Forge toward Iron Gate...the rocky outcropping...and there is a river at the base...smaller than the James River, but the geography is so similar. Makes the mountains here feel very familiar...different vegetation because it doesn't have the winters of Virginia, but lots of woods, which I love.

I've been up early this morning working on this before we leave Mae Hong Son to head to Tee's village, where I don't think I'll have an outside world connection. So I'll post this little glimpse and work on more another time.

Saturday - Thursday in Mae Hong Son

So here in Mae Hong Son, we are staying in a Guest House right on the lake. This lake had the park the Small World Festival was in and is surrounded by streets that fill each evening with food stalls and craft booths.

I have my own little house...

...with everything I need...

...including a western toilet and a gloriously hot shower!

I love these instant hot water shower machines. This one is powered by gas...the one in Chiang Mai by electricity.

 Outside of my little house is a "water feature" with a few noisy frogs.

This is the library/guest lounge...

...with this view out the front sliding glass doors, which are open most of the time. I'm sitting in the library just now writing this and watching the "world go by--lots of motorbikes and folks walking--both obvious tourists and the locals.

 The first evening, we wandered through a few streets...

...I thought Phil would appreciate the pitch of this roof!

There were some paintings on the wall of one street that Martha could conveniently pop into. : )

We stopped into the ever present 7-11 and Indira was quite pleased to see these on the shelf! Go Blue Diamond! Just think, it could have been almonds from the Tyson Hill Farm trees in those packages. 30baht--little less than $1/bag...felt like a couple of ounces.

Christmas morning found this sweet treat (filled with chocolates) on the door knob of each guest house. Very touching. I had seen our hostess and her two teen children working on them...just didn't know what for. 

Coffee, the guest house dog also had a festive touch.

The Christmas tree display in the library had this paper forest underneath. 

We've come here for breakfast most days...just have to be sprayed up with misquote spray...they seem to like to eat there, too.

"Set" breakfast...very much an English full breakfast: bacon, toast, butter, jam, tomatoes on lettuce, fresh squeezed orange juice, eggs and coffee or tea.

And this cheese, tomatoes and basil on toast was really good...too much...had to share with Tee! 

By late afternoon the sellers are setting up their stalls and by evening the streets are full. It's quite enchanting.

 All the lights of the temples across the water...

...the lights of the market stalls... 

...people wandering and buying and eating. Really a nice atmosphere.

Notice the sky lantern at the top edge of this photo?  While there are specific times of Sky-Lantern Festivals where they release thousands of lanterns with a specific purpose or thought in mind, these large paper lanterns (sent aloft by flammable candlestick power) are considered a symbol of hope and a way to symbolically release your worries and burdens, as well as a way of sending your good wishes to those who are in heaven.

You hold the lanterns as someone gets the flame lit...

...And it fills with the warm air and starts to rise...

...and off it goes!

 Here are a couple way up in the sky.

And another bright one in this photo below of the guardian lion...which I have since learned is more historically Chinese, but has extended into Thailand and Buddhist culture. I really like them...thought they were kind of wolf-dragon type creatures, but they definitely have a "cat" tail.

One evening, I had a supper of chocolate milk and a grilled ham/cheese panini from 7-11, plus this spiraled deep fried potato on a bamboo stick from a street stall. A perfect supper!

We have done some exploring around Mae Hong Son which I'll tell about next. 

Saturday-From Pai to Mae Hong Son and The Small World Conference

I was awake early on Saturday morning (sleeping at The Land Split near Pai, Thailand)...partly due to the hard bed and partly due to the lightness of my night's sleep in my little bamboo bungalow. I wasn't afraid or really even nervous. I started to say I was uneasy, but that's too strong and negative a description also. Maybe just restless. So I got up early and wandered with my Chromebook up to the main area of the Land Split where there is WiFi and did some catching up on my blogging project. I sat under this roof and had lots of time to admire it. I've seen lots of them. They are made out of a large heart shaped leaf. Very impressive. Tee says they can last for 3+ years. 

The overlapping leaves would certainly keep out the rain just like wooden shake or shingle roofs in CA.

Here's what it looks like from underneath. Very neat and tidy workmanship. It looks almost like a long side to side length of folded leaves that are then put on just like Phil does shingles...starting at the bottom and overlapping to the top.

We gathered our things and drove the back way into Pai for breakfast. Along the way, we passed by a crematorium. I have only seen one small cemetery here with crosses somewhere in our travels.

The Thai people cremate the remains of folks. See the chimney at the back of this crematorium.

We ended up in Pai, parking on the other side of this river and walking across the bamboo bridge to a beautiful restaurant for breakfast.

 Notice the Christmas tree and Santa (who was holding a saxophone). There were also the typical Christmas cookie tins for sale. 

 Banana pancakes were quite yummy.

Now we're back on the car park side of the river and this shows our restaurant very nicely in the background.

Even Buddha needs to have some fun! : )

We then started on our way to Mae Hong Son.

We traveled north and west and then south to go around the mountain range that stands between Pai and Mae Hong Son. But don't let me saying "around" make you think it is an easy road! Several guides say "Route 1095 is the hardest road in Thailand." To get to Mae Hong Son, you travel 1864 curves! Let me repeat that: 1864 curves!! And lots of them are the horseshoe kind!

Now I want to put in a special "thank you" to Tee for his driving us all this way and around every one of those curves...some uphill and some down. He did great! No car sickness at all and he was so patient with his "ladies on tour." 

"Everybody happy?" he'd ask! So thankful for him!

Just a geographical note: on the map above, the dark country border line you see above the blue driving route is the border between Thailand and Myanmar (or Burma, as it was previously known). The real Korean War story of the movie starring William Holden and Grace Kelly in The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954) happened across the border and a bit north.

 We stopped at one overlook...

These folks dressed in their tribal  regalia wanted me to pay them to take their picture...which I did. The mom told me she had two children and no father.

Finally...

...we arrived at our guest house in Mae Hong Son. This was the view when I got out of the car. Martha say Mae Hong Son is to Chiang Mai like Winters is to Sacramento. It's a nice small town.

Part of our wanting to be here on this day was to participate in the Small World Festival sponsored in part by Toys for Thailand. http://toysforthailand.org/ 

(from the website:) "Toys for Thailand (T4T) will co-host the 7th annual Small World Festival (SWF) a unique cultural event held on December 24, 2016 in Maehongson, Thailand. At the SWF Hill Tribal children from over 50 mountain schools will share their indigenous music, dance, handicrafts and food with Thai’s, tourists and other members of hill tribes. 150 (1000 baht/$30) basic need scholarships will be awarded at the festival."  

The students had all kinds of craft booths and demonstrations. Note the year date at the top of this sign: 2559. That is the year according to the Thai calendar.

 The hill tribes do some wonderful weaving.

 Lots of games for the children.

 Plenty of food stalls as well as the children's crafts.

 As I walked through the park, which is around part of the lake, here is the view across the water.

And just in case we think the world is large, Indira and Martha ran into this woman who is part of the organizing of this event. She is a sister-in-law to our friends Mary Beth and David West, who I know mostly from Peace Camp. It is a small world, after all! The chalk drawings were made by some boys from one of the schools. They had them for sale at their booth and were quite pleased at our choosing to purchase them.

Time to go to bed. Mae Hong Son becomes another world in the late afternoon and after dark. I'll leave it for another post.