Friday 31 January 2025
Some miscellaneous pictures and descriptions

I am all caught up with this blog, enjoying some mellow days in Chiang Mai as my winter here is eroding away. It is the last day of January and I start the journey home in just six days, next Thursday evening. A couple of posts ago, at the end, I noted that the next post would be miscellaneous photos. So to round out January, here are some miscellaneous photos.

In and around Chiang Mai are some really dramatic large trees. Walking back from Chouquette, a French bakery and bistro, I got a photo of this tree at Chang Phuak Gate, the gate in the wall on the north side. I also took a photo (I’m not very good at taking such photos) of myself under a different tree in the same area in front of some recently planted flower gardens.

I was coming from Chouquette, a French bakery and bistro where I had a brie and apple baguette sandwich, an iced tea, and a small eclair. Here is a photo of my lunch and me looking all too serious as I eat the sandwich.

Here I am having breakfast one morning back in November at The 3-Sis shortly after I arrived in Chiang Mai for my 12th winter here. This is something of an experiment in which I used my Samsung Watch to take the photo. I should be doing that more to get better photos of me in various places. So while I was typing this, I propped up my phone and took a photo of me working on this blog at Story 106, the co-working place I frequent. It is not difficult. The blue glasses are my reading/computer glasses.

Tha Phae Gate is the eastern gate on the Chiang Mai old city wall. It was originally Chiang Ruak Gate, and Tha Phae Gate was the gate on the second, earth and clay Kamphaengdin wall farther to the east and close to the Ping River. Here is a photo of me at the “famous” Tha Phae Gate and also the English part of the monument to the right telling the story.

Early in January, I visited a pizza place named Bella Madre, which my friends John and Rose had suggested I try. It was a bit of a walk, but only a 70 baht (approximately $2) motorbike taxi ride away. The pizza was excellent! The crust had a sourdough flavor, and the sauce was just right. Very different than Street Pizza and La Fontana, and very, very good. I like all three – Street Pizza, La Fontana, and Bella Madre. I had a simple pepperoni & sausage pizza:

Finally, to round out the miscellaneous photo blog post on this last day in January, here are two more selfies. One of me at Wild Rose Yoga and one of me under a large bougainvillea near Tha Phae Gate.

Next: Something new, not sure what yet.