All good things must come to an end, and it had become our last day in Chang Rai. Pete invited me to his weekly coffee with a few of his friends. The coffee was grown in the mountains by one of the hill tribes. It was delicious. The conversation was all over the place, as […]
Friends
Chang Rai with Lek and Pete
As those of you who followed this blog years ago in Ecuador know, we met Pete in Ecuador in 2015. An amazing thing about “travel buddies,” is that you don’t need to see them all of the time in order to retain a travel friendship. So it is with Pete. In the intervening years, our […]
Orchids and an Elevator
Sunday was a rest day. We took off Monday not know what to expect. First stop La Lalitta for a coffee and some orchids. La Lalitta Not knowing what to expect, imagine our surprise when we walked into garlands of orchids and mist blowing all over the place. The coffee was good too. Bodacious Temple […]
Northern Thailand Magical Mystery Tour – 6 Pai to Chang Mai
Pai Canyon We decided to take a look at the Pai Canyon on our way out of Pai. Though it was a bit of a climb up, we’re glad we did. The Drive Down In a previous post, we mentioned the curves on the road. It was almost a work of art watching a semi […]
Northern Thailand Magical Mystery Tour – 5 – Pai
Day 5 was the vaunted trip to Pai. Vaunted because there are over 762 curves–most of them hairpin and switchback. Apparently it was built by the Japanese during the 2nd World War. However, we needed to start with a stop for morning – Coffee There are tourist traps, and there are tourist traps. I think […]
Northern Thailand Magical Mystery Tour (NTMMT) – 4 & Happy Thanksgiving to Americans
Our Gratitude We are very thankful that we have this opportunity to travel as we are. We couldn’t do it without the support of our home community. We are especially thankful for our children, Blakey and Peter, who continue to manage the affairs of life stateside. In honor of Thanksgiving, we took a Thai cooking […]
Northern Thailand Magical Mystery Tour 3 – Choi Phu Kha
We left the hotel for a day trip up to the Choi Phu Ka National Park. On our way to find coffee, we stopped off at Wat Du Tai. Wat Du Tai I was particularly taken by the roosters. But there was other good stuff, including a great view of Nan. Erabica Coffee We were […]
Northern Thailand Magical Mystery Tour 2 – Nan
After a fairly mediocre breakfast at our hotel, we headed off to Nan, in Eastern Thailand near the border to Laos. It was progressively hillier as we made our way toward mountains. Gone were the rice paddies and now we were surrounded by, I kid you not, corn fields. Sometimes there would be a few […]
Northern Thailand Magical Mystery Tour
It’s Thursday. Day 1 of our Magical Mystery Tour across northern Thailand. today we head from Chang Rai to Phayao, via the home that Lek grew up in. In Phayou, we will relax at the pool, watch a sunset, then visit the night market for some street food. Stop 1 – Hemps on Thailand Although […]
A Party for the New Village Leader
Pete and Lek met us at the airport. The airport was small and welcoming, and the Thai Lion Air flight was tight and quick. There will be more about Pete and Lek and their place in the future. Turns out, the village that their place is in, was having a party to welcome the new […]