Just a round-up

29 Dec 2014

So, coming to the end of our month at Malee’s Nature Lovers Bungalows, in Chiang Dao, I thought I’d post a few piccies before we head on out to Pai on Thursday.

First here’s some of the wildlife we see from the terrace at Malee’s. I’ve been getting into photographing the birds, especially when they come to feed on the papayas.

White-eye

Bulbul

Spiderhunter

Bulbuls

I think this is a treeshrew of some sort.

I'm not too good at the selfie

Earlier on today we went for a walk along the local Chiang Dao Nature Trail through the woods. It takes a couple of hours and is well marked so we didn’t think we could get lost.

Trevann on the trial.

Big bamboos!

I wondered who made these holes.

Safely back at Malee's

Greeted by the fearsome guard dog.

Good to spend time with Tony, Fi and Connie during their brief visit over Christmastime.

I liked the way this beetle almost matched the little girl's fingernails.

Romantic dinner for two at Nest 2.

The local chedi - blue and gold. Lovely.

So now we're off on Thursday to visit Pai for a week, then flying to Luang Prabang for the rest of our stay here. Happy New Year everyone!

A tale of two tours

21 Dec 2014 Winter Solstice – a few hours earlier than yours

For people who don’t do very much we’ve certainly had a hectic couple of weeks, with two trips away from home. First we did a day trip up into the mountains with our hosts, Malee and Kurt, then we had a little “city break” with two nights in Chiang Mai.

Malee and Kurt’s 12-year-old son Peter is away at school during the week so they like to have a family day out on a Sunday. Last week they invited us to join them on a visit to the Ang Khang Royal Agricultural Centre up in the mountains near the Burmese border. It’s at about 1700m above sea level and the 2-hour journey to get there goes through some spectacular scenery. Fortunately Kurt is used to the roads and handled the hairpin bends and oncoming trucks with no probs. We felt quite safe.

We stopped for a drink at a roadside cafe.

The Agricultural Centre itself was OK but not inspiring. It’s like a cross between the Eden Centre and B&Q – a huge site with formal gardens and vast shade houses. Apparently they specialise in developing fruit trees and crops that can grow at high altitude – it’s one of the few places in Thailand to experience regular frosts. They seem to have a thing about ornamental cabbages at the moment –annual bedding schemes are still in vogue here!

Kurt and Peter among the formal cabbages.

Malee

Peter

Spectacular lady's slipper orchids

What is it with those cabbages!?

On the way back we stopped off to have a quick trek up a hill. The mist was rising through the valleys. Stunning.

The path up the hill

Kurt is an orchid collector and takes 3D pix of flowers.

Misty mountains

Second trip was to Chiang Mai. Having only glimpsed the city in passing on our way through from the airport we thought it would be a good idea to leave our belongings at Malee’s and spend a couple of sight-seeing days in Chiang Mai. It’s only an hour and a half on the local bus (tickets 40B – about 80p) and lots of people have recommended it to us.

Thirteenth century teak wat.

Curiously they don't seem to worry about tourists taking photos of buddha images. I rather liked the abbot in his spex here.

I love this ancient chedi just round the corner from our B&B.

And this is my favourite buddha image. Standing, right hand raised - fearless, peace, "calming animals".

It is indeed a lovely place. The old city is just a mile square, bounded on all sides by the remains of the ancient city walls, next to a fountain-filled moat, with a highway on both sides. Once you get across the highways into the old city it’s great for walking around. You can’t get lost – within a mile you know you’ll meet the city wall – and it’s filled with little tree-lined paved alleyways, friendly cafes, crafty little shops, markets and, of course, wats galore!

Our B&B, found via the net, proved a good choice, tucked into an alley in the northeastern quarter where all the cool dudes hang out. We had a beer and potato wedges in the ubiquitous Irish Pub, enjoying the warmth of the evening and the cosmopolitan but relaxed ambience.

This Worcestershire girl was deeply offended. "Bold American recipe" my arse!

On Friday we explored the old city, wandered round wats and the park. Then we checked out Saturday, walked back to the bus station and caught the bus back home. On the way down the bus had been fairly empty – just a few passengers. On the way back it was a different matter and we were a bit concerned to notice that the two-person seats we sat on all had three numbers. Sure enough when the bus was full more passengers were ushered on board and the bench seats were pulled out slightly into the aisle so that we could fit three bottoms per seat. Once we had the sacks of rice loaded as well I seriously wondered about the ability of the engine to heave us up the hills. But we made it!

Back home to our bungalow no. 9. Oh, and the great discovery last week was Michelle’s – the little bar down the road – with pool table, relaxed atmosphere and a few friendly regulars. I’ll gloss over the embarrassing incident with the whisky and the smashed glass here. Needless to say it was all someone else’s fault. What do you expect if you hand out free shots and you have a tiled floor!? Fortunately we have not been barred.

Our Malee bungalow last week.

The white flower with leaves and fruit this time (Mark). I wondered whether it was related to rose-apple (which we've jusst discovered for the first time - yum!).

The wat at the top of 500 steps just up the road.

One of our peaceful walking valleys.

You can learn how to build an adobe roundhouse here in Chiang Dao.

Another year another place

12 Dec 2014

I wasn’t going to write a blog this year – I felt it was a bit old hat, I can’t go on drivelling on about sunsets, forests and mountains – but then I remembered that I do have friends and family who don’t use Facebook and who would like to see a few photos of our winter home so here we are again. And you don’t have to read the words ...

We’ve been here in Chiang Dao, northern Thailand, for just over a week now, having set out from St Johns on the bus to Heathrow on Monday 1^st December. We chose Chiang Dao because it ticked the “quiet, peaceful, natural with good climate” checkboxes and because two sets of friends had said it was so beautiful and they thought we’d like it, with the caveat that “there’s nothing much to do there”. Sounds good!

Wat Pha Phrong - at the top of 500 steps.

Temple caves are popular round here

Amazing flowers.

Chiang Dao itself is a small, undistinguished town about 90 minutes north of Chiang Mai. Nothing much to recommend it, but 7 km to the east a small cluster of tourist “resorts” has developed at the foot of Doi Chiang Dao – the second highest mountain in Thailand. The mountain’s vertical limestone cliffs rise dramatically from the flat plains and the steep green tree-covered slopes are a haven for wildlife. This is the main attraction for the foreign visitors – birdwatchers and twitchers come here from all over the world.

A dickie bird.

It is a stunningly beautiful area. I’m sitting here in the garden at Malee’s Nature Lovers’ Bungalows, in the early morning sunlight, surrounded by flowers, fruit and trees with a background of birdsong with the occasional boom of a distant temple gong. No traffic sounds at all!

Malee's garden - view from terrace.

Malee was the first person to build a bungalow resort in this area (there are dozens here now). She came here from Bangkok 20 years ago and has gradually built up her business. There are 11 bungalows in the garden – all different shapes, sizes and construction materials. Malee lives here with her German husband, Kurt, who is a keen orchid collector. He has 800 of the 1000 Thai species so far. Malee and Kurt’s 12-year-old son Peter is away at school in Chiang Mai but comes back at weekends.

Orchids

More orchids

Malee is a wonderful cook and goes down to the local market every morning at 6 o’clock to collect the food for our evening meal. She says I can go with her any time I want – but I haven’t made it yet!

I did, however, manage to get up early yesterday (on my own!) to climb the 500 steps to the local temple to watch the mist rising in the valley below. The view is spectacular with forest as far as the eye can see and distant craggy mountains. The photos don’t do it justice unfortunately.

The only problem is that – as Trevann had anticipated -  the sun disappears behind the mountain at about 4 o’clock every day. In fact it disappears behind a cloud that sits on top of the mountain at about 3 o’clock! No sunsets to enjoy with a beer or two!

We were worried for the first day or two and wondering whether we had made a mistake. What was our Plan B?

However, after a while you learn how to work round these circumstances. There are so many plus factors here we can adapt to a couple of minus ones.

Spirit houses

The answer primarily is to adapt our daily routine. After breakfast we decamp to the “terrace” which is a lovely sun-drenched rooftop area overlooking the garden. Nobody else uses it (they’re all off twitching I suppose) so we have it all to ourselves. Trevann can draw while I read or look at the birds and butterflies. Then when the sun goes behind the cloud at 3 we set off for a walk. A few hundred meters down the valley the land is bathed in sunlight again so we wander along, exploring the villages and pathways between the woods and fields, visiting temples and practising our Thai greetings on the passers-by.

Problem solved – and a week later we’re very content here, settled in and happy to spend the next few weeks just gently living.

The village

OK that’s probably enough for now. There’s a tiny tiny yellow bird with a long curved bill feeding on the flowers just over there. I think it might be a spidereater. I must see if I can get a photo. Oh dear, perhaps this twitching business is contagious ...

That amazing butterfly again.

I'd better learn some flower names I suppose.