Saturday 15 November 2025 Wat Ratchanatdaram, The Iron Temple After visiting Wat Pho, I negotiated with a tuk-tuk driver to take me to the Iron Temple, wait, then take me to the Marble Temple, wait, and finally take me to the nearest BTS Skytrain stop. Traffic in this part of Bangkok is dense and slow. We finally arrived at Wat Ratchanatdaram, the Iron Temple. Wat Ratchanatdaram The name Ratchanatdaram means Temple of the Royal Niece. […]
Saturday, November 15, 2025 A full day in Bangkok – Wat Pho Breakfast Before I head out to see temples in Bangkok, it’s time for breakfast at the hotel. The hotel in which I am staying used to be the Novotel Phloen Chit (the Novotel Hotel in the Phloen Chit district of Bangkok). I had come to like this hotel because it is very affordable for a 4 or 5-star hotel, and it is right […]
Thursday, November 12, 2025 The Long Journey: Home to Bangkok via Los Angeles and Incheon (Seoul) Travel day is finally here. I am traveling to Thailand for my 13th yoga-focused winter in Chiang Mai. The trip is lengthy: home to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX); LAX to Incheon (Seoul’s airport); Incheon to Suvarnabhumi (Bangkok’s main airport); and finally to my hotel. In many previous years, I walked to a neighborhood Avis location, picked up a […]
Thursday 6 February 2025 Traveling Home and Reflections on My Twelfth Winter in Chiang Mai Traveling Home to the United States Being my last day in Chiang Mai for this winter, I spent a low-key, mellow day on Thursday. First I went to The 3-Sis for my last breakfast because I love the Thai omelet, which is not on the menu at See You Soon. Also, I wanted to bid farewell to the staff at […]
Monday 03 February 2025Afternoon excursion near Mae Rim, Air Diamond Cafe When we were driving north to the Dantewada Waterfall Park, we passed an actual airplane just off the main highway. Mukda said it was a coffee shop but she had never stopped there. On the way back from Dantewada, I suggested that stopping there might be fun. Air Diamond, part of the Black Canyon Coffee chain, is a coffee shop in an actual Airbus […]
Monday 03 February 2025Afternoon excursion near Mae Rim, the waterfall park We left the lake at Huay Teung Thao and headed north, farther from the city of Chiang Mai. We are going to a place with a waterfall or more than one (more photo opportunities), and it is in the district north of Mae Rim called Mae Taeng. The place is the Datewada Waterfall Park, and it was a lot of fun being there and […]
Monday 03 February 2025Afternoon excursion near Mae Rim, lunch on a lake My friend Mukda had told me that on Monday she had to go north of Chiang Mai to pay her business tax and she asked me to come with her. She said there was a nice place where we could have lunch near the provincial tax office. I met at her massage shop and her two massage ladies, Yui and Anna joined us. […]
Saturday 1 February 2025 Returning to Khun Chang Khian to see the Sakura Mukda is a long-time friend of mine who owns a massage shop on Loi Kroh Road here in Chiang Mai. I often sit and chat with her after an evening walk, watching the people walk by. She told me that one of her massage ladies, Yui, wanted to go up the mountain to Khun Chang Khian to see the Sakura. She came […]
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 […]
Wednesday 29 January 2025 Temples I see often and seldom visit On Ratchamanka Road is Wat Pha Khao, a temple I pass often and have seldom felt compelled to enter and explore. Here is the sign on the corner with very sexy-looking angels in the carving. Inside, there is a coffee shop by the entrance, and further in, a viharn and chedi. There are always several people and monks here, so this is a fairly […]
Wednesday 29 January 2025 Temples I see often and seldom visit Writing my blog was easier when I was walking the pilgrimage routes in Spain to Santiago de Compostela. Every day while walking to the next town, I took many photographs. At the end of the day, while resting and waiting for laundry to finish, I would select a representative few, process them (crop and resize), upload them to my blog host site, and then […]
Sunday 26 January 2025 Hiking to Wat Umong via Wat Suan Dok After crossing the hectic canal road, like a divided highway, I found a route to Wat Umong through the smaller and less busy sois instead of the main roads. I arrived at Wat Umong from Wat Suan Dok in a respectable 45 minutes. Wat Umong Wat Umong is located south of Chiang Mai University in deep woodland near the base of Doi Suthep […]
James the Intrepid Pilgrim 