Wednesday 14 January 2026 Visiting an important but very quiet temple Walking back to The 3-Sis through the sois (a soi is a small road, smaller than a road, larger than an alley, perhaps a “lane”) after getting a haircut at Samlaan Barber (my favorite barber), I found myself on Ratchamanka Soi 6. And I came upon a temple that is something of an “old friend.” I have visited Wat Phra Chao Mengrai many times […]
Sunday 4 January 2026 Back to the main part of Chiang Mai after seeing the Railway Station After walking from central Chiang Mai to the Railway Station, then along the railway yards, and finally crossing the railway, I am now headed back towards central Chiang Mai. I am walking west along a local road, Rat Uthit Road, towards an access road to get to Chiang Mai-Lamphun Road, the main highway between (you guessed it) Chiang […]
Sunday 4 January 2026 Walking by the Chiang Mai Railway Station approach yards I left the Chiang Mai Railway Station and east a short distance on Charoen Muang Road to the next intersection. This road is called “Road Along the Railway” on Google Maps, and is indeed a road along the railway. I highly suspect there is a more official name documented somewhere. While I am walking along this road, I can look in through […]
Sunday 4 January 2026 Revisiting the Chiang Mai Railway Station I continued walking along Charoen Muang Road focusing on the uneven and sometimes non-existant sidewalk and suddenly – not really suddenly, but sooner than I expected, I was at the Chiang Mai Railway Station. The original station opened in 1922. In 1943, while the Japanese occupied Thailand, Allied bombings destroyed it. After the war, the current station was built and finished in 1948, so it […]
Sunday 4 January 2026 Returning to the Railway Station Walk It is Sunday and I have no yoga, no strength training, and no hikes on my schedule. I decided to take a long walk to the railway station, revisiting the same walk I made the last two winters. I’ll break this into three or four posts, in an attempt to follow my New Year’s resolution to make more frequent and shorter posts. [And I am […]
Thursday 01 January 2026 Happy New Year! Let’s eat dinner! [This is the second of two food-related blog posts.] As I said, I eat food every day…every day. And while I am here in Thailand, I eat Thai food most days. A question I was often asked after my first few winters in Chiang Mai —when I first spent a month or more here—and is still asked: “what does the food there look like?” The […]
Thursday 01 January 2026 Happy New Year! Let’s eat! [I’m spitting this blog post into two, because there is so much food to show.] I eat food every day…every day. And while I am here in Thailand, I eat Thai food most days. A question I was often asked after my first few winters in Chiang Mai —when I first spent a month or more here—and is still asked frequently: “what does the food there […]
James the Intrepid Pilgrim 