Friday, October 5, 2007

Tongue Thai-ed

Have had an extremelyl busy couple of days and no time to post until tonight. KL to Bangkok to Chiang Mai yesterday, fair and school visits in Chiang Mai, left hotel at 5:30 am today and flew back to Bangkok. Had school visits at the opposite ends of the city and murderous traffic to get from one to the other, finally checked into the Four Seasons Bangkok about 3pm (more on that later).

Had a very curious experience when I finally got to peteenablog. All of the menus and tabs, all the text that is not actually the blog (including the sign in) are in Thai! This is the only website so far that I've been to that I've seen any Thai on the screen. Here's what is says at the top of the page:
So far have been able to figure out how to navigate without too much trouble.

Anyway, here are some shots from Chiang Mai, which seems to be one endless open-air market:








I'm not the only one who likes to shoot out the window. By now, my colleagues are mostly aware of my ongoing photographic project, "White Woman Travels The World, Fails to Get Out of the Vehicle" (this project had to be re-titled for this trip, for many years it has been called "White Woman Goes on Vacation, Fails to Get Out of the Car").




On the campus of The Prem Tinsulanonda School. Very beautiful and tranquil. Lots of great kids who were interested in the school and in studying the arts in the US. The next picture is one of our students hostesses.
















This is directly across the street from our hotel. Went out with another counselor to a Thai restaurant around the corner (had to cross two streets, taking out lives in our hands) and had a great meal. Strolled through the market stalls on our way back, but have already shopped too much and have no more room in my luggage. Will have to wait until the end when I can jettison the college materials and fill up my third bag with stuff.



Self Portrait in the Chiang Mai Royal Princess Hotel. An older hotel than the others we've stayed in, and a little frayed at the edges, but I rather liked it more for that.

Peteena would have liked to post tonight, but she has been overwhelmed by her welcome here and had to lie down for a little while (I think the parade was a bit too much for her). Stay tuned!

3 comments:

SAS said...

Hope this URL works. Might help if you are missing Morty.

Shel

http://comedyoption.com/pics/monitor_cleaner.swf

Anonymous said...

I have pics of George and Chica to cheer you up but I cannot figure out how to post them here, so you will have to go to your email to see them.

Chica is pretending not to want her photo taken. She does play hard to get.

Gregster said...

Wow, what an amazing trip! Hopefully this is satisfying your cravings for Asian cuisine. You certainly deserve it after suffering through such an extended period of Midwest fare consisting of various combinations of mini-marshmallows, shredded coconut and Jello served up alongside meatloaf sculpted into the shapes of assorted farm animals!

I find myself living the trip vicariously through Peteena! (Hmm...could explain the long periods of darkness when it's difficult to breath.)

Looking forward to many more photos and your continued narrative. Better than those travelogues my family used to go watch when I was a kid. (I'm I the only one around here who remembers travelogues? Ok, ok. So I'm old!)