Thursday, January 5, 2023Two temples walking back from Blue Diamond Part 2 Wat Umong Mahathera Chan After visiting Wat Lam Chang, I continued in the direction of The 3-Sis, my accomodation, south along Ratchapakhinai Road. Soon I passed Annie’s and Archer’s, two restaurants next to each other I like, and then I frequently pass Wat Umong Mahathera Chan. Unclear where the spaces should be – in the Thai tradition, since their language uses spaces to […]
Thursday, January 5, 2023Two temples walking back from Blue Diamond Part 1 Wat Lam Chang After a brisk walk to the O2 Gym and a challenging strength training session with Ning, I decided to forego breakfast at The 3-Sis (the restaurant is actually Poppy’s Kitchen) and change my routine a bit. I went to Blue Diamond, a very popular restaurant in the northeast quadrant of the old city (inside the moat, as is typically said […]
Monday, January 2, 2023The temple by the river, Wat Chai Mongkhon My target for today was to visit Wat Chai Mongkhon by the Mae Ping River, or as they would say in Thai, Mae Nam Ping. “Mae Nam” means river. “Mae” is “mother,” “Nam” is “water’ so I think of the term for river as being water from mother nature. In English it is translated to be “Mae Ping River” or just “Ping River.” While […]
Sunday, January 1, 2023Yoga with Annie, Kirtan at Wild Rose The new year started with a yoga session with Annie, always invigorating and inspiring. Much of the rest of the day I spent working on my blog – researching temples and their history, editing photos (cropping and reducing size), and writing the text. At 6 PM at Wild Rose, there was a Kirtan. A kirtan is from a Sanskrit word meaning “narrating, reciting, telling, describing.” […]
Saturday, December 31, 2022Last day of 2022, New Year’s Eve Today is the last day of 2022, New Year’s Eve. The preparations for a celebration are well underway, centered at the plaza outside Tha Phae Gate. This plaza has been the center of previous New Year celebrations, and is used for many community events, marathons, various concerts, the Loy Krathong celebration, and many more. Thailand has not really had a New Year celebration for 5 […]
Sunday, December 25, 2022Christmas Revisit of the West End of the Kamphaengdin Started the day (of course) with breakfast at The 3-Sis, actually Poppy’s Cafe, since the cafe has a different name than the guest house. Poppy is the youngest of the three sisters and the manager of the guest house and cafe. Then a Christmas Day yoga practice with Annie. Annie’s classes are advanced, somewhat vigorous, and focus more on the elegance of the […]
Monday, December 26, 2022Minor drama after Christmas Before the story starts, most importantly I AM FINE. So here’s the story: Christmas was a non-yoga, non-workout day. I made it a low-key day, spending some time catching up on my blog after having coffee with John (husband of Rose, the owner of Wild Rose Yoga). In the early evening, craving the black bean soup from Miguel’s, I went there only to find it closed on Mondays. […]
Saturday, December 24, 2022Christmas Eve Party For those of you following my blog who might be wondering if all I do is visit Buddhist temples, the answer is, no, I do many other things. I do find visiting and learning about the temples interesting. Their artistry is quite elaborate and beautiful. At first the temples may seem to be similar, but they are very different especially in their artistry. And, the temples are intimately intertwined […]
Friday, December 23, 2022What is a Soi? In more than a few of my blog posts, I refer to smaller roads that are called a “soi.” I have described a soi as a small road, larger than what we think of as an alley, but smaller than a street, a lane, perhaps. In the U.S. we do not use “lane” very much to describe small streets. Walking back from The Artisan after my exploration of […]
Friday, December 23, 2022Walking South Exploring Hai Ya Sub-District Continued south on Suriyawong Road and noticed ahead the khao soi place that is very popular with the Thai people, Khao Soi Lung Prakik Kaat Gorm. It was about noon, and there were 25 or more people waiting outside. I tried this place last year, and it was the only of the 7 or 8 khao soi places I did not like at all (broth too […]
Friday, December 23, 2022Walking South Exploring Hai Ya Sub-District Three parts to this blog entry: (1) Two temples, (2) Kamphaengdin wall, (3) Soi clarification and signs The Hai Ya sub-district of Chiang Mai is directly south of the old city. I have walked through on the main Wua Lai Road many times going to Wat Sri Suphan and to the tok sen massage lady, Nun, who works at Wat Sri Suphan. This area is mainly […]
Thursday, December 22, 2022Wat Buppharam When I arrived at Thaphae Road coming from Chang Moi Road, I was close to the old city than I had expected. I had hoped to arrive on Thaphae Road right about where the gate in the Kamphaengdin earthen & clay wall had been to view the temple that is by the road. I was right at Wat Buppharam, so I explored that instead. Wat Buppharam is an old temple, […]
James the Intrepid Pilgrim 