July 26, 2017. Part 2. Getting "templed" out

July 26 continued....   Our taxi driver took us to a few more temples.

 

This one is unique....made of silver instead of the prominent gold...

This is a famous statue of the worshipped elephant with rats bearing fruit underneath...

This lady was bowing and worshipping inside the temple.  

Somewhat "templed out", our driver then took us to a village of handicraft shops.  We had to say "no thank you" to the:

• Jade jewelery
• Silver jewelery
• Lacquerware
• Silk scarves
• Croccodile leather goods
• Stingray leather goods
• Elephant leather goods (how awful!)
• Hand-painted umbrellas
• And more

But, I finally gave in and bought a hand-made silk cushion case.

 

We are pretty sure our driver was getting a kick-back at these shops for bringing us.  He was such a nice fellow.  He said he used to be a Thai boxing champion.  Thai boxing is extremely popular, and tonight is a match so people are going crazy buying tickets.  Our taxi driver offered to drive us outside of the city tomorrow for an all-day tour.  The price he quoted us was a fraction of what the commercial tours cost.  So, we agreed to it.

He dropped us back at our hotel and we had a swim to cool off.  Then, we went in search of a good craft beer.  Kind of hard to find here.  We found a cafe that sells "craft Thai beers" although we learned from the Hungarian owner that it is illegal to brew beer in Thailand as the big breweries have a monopoly on it, so they work with Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam to brew beer for them.

After our beers, we wandered to the night market.  Interesting, but kind of junky stuff.  It started looking cloudy, so we found this very nice restaurant nearby.  The entire structure is made of carved teak wood, hence its name, The Teak.

George had a very spicy squid dish....

And I had a dish that is supposedly Chiang Mai's signature food.  It is a bowl of noodles and chicken chunks in a spicy coconut curry.  Quite good, although I thought I would not like it as I'm not a coconut fan.

Sure enough, as we were eating, the skies opened up and it poured.  The waiter helped us move to an interior table.  We caught a tuk tuk home, even though it was a short distance to avoid the rain and puddles.  

July 26, 2017. Chiang Mai's Temples

LOCATION:  Chiag Mai, Thailand

WEATHER:  Hot and humid. When will I stop saying this?!

 

Included in our room stay at this resort is a beautiful breakfast buffet.  Half of it is Thai food; the other half Western.  We chose mostly Thai items.

We breakfasted outside on the patio.

This is the view from our breafast table.

And here is George drinking his coffee

We walked around the resort and found a second swimming pool.

One gets a tremendous value for luxury here in Chiang Mai.  Our lodging is not very expensive, and we get all of this.     We caught a tuk tuk in front of our hotel and went to the bus station to buy our ticket to go to Chiang Rai in a few days.  It will be a 4-hour trip north.  Round-trip ticket is $10.  

The tuk tuk driver hung around the station waiting for us to complete our transations, then offered to drive us around.  We had him take us to one of the most famous temples.  Here is George taking off his shoes to enter....

Ladies outside of the temple were selling birds in these baskets.  They said if we open up their cages and free them while we are in the temple, that we will have good luck.  We declined.

More photos at this first temple stop..

And here I am taking off my shoes to enter.

We were going to walk around, but this taxi driver approached us and said he would drive us to 3 more of the most famous temples then to lunch and then to a handicraft area all for $3.  It was the air-conditioned taxi that did it.  We said ok, and climbed in.

He told us that Chiang Mai has 637 temples.  They are everywhere!

 

More on next blog....    

July 25, 2017. Goodbye, Singapore; Hello, Chiang Mai

LOCATION:  Chiang Mai, Thailand, in the northwest part of the country

WEATHER:  Not as hot and humid as Singapore.  Highs mid-80s

 

We have really enjoyed our  housesitting assignment in Singapore.  It was a lovely, artsy home....

This papaya tree was growing in front of our house..

And, along the way to the bus stop, we always passed trees full of ferns...

We said goodbye to our super nice homeowners and took a taxi to the airport.  The Singapore airport is the nicest one we've been to in the world.  It has little nooks where people can rest, free internet lounges, sleeping lounges, and just an overall air of sophistication and peacefulness.  This is one of the gardens inside our terminal...

We flew 3 hours north on Scoot Airways to Chiang Mai.  

While landing, we could see that the landscape is quite different from Bangkok or Singapore.  It is more jungly and mountainous.  Chiang Mai is the ancient capital of Thailand.   We found our cute "resort", located not far from downtown.  This is the entrance...

At the entrance, there is a statue honoring an elephant god with milk, water and sugar cane pieces to appease him.

There is also this sign at the registration desk....

And, funny enough....we saw a Thai famiy chowing down on their durian outside the hotel, since they couldn't bring it in.

 We walked around the neighborhood close to our hotel.  Chiang Mai is known for its temples. This one is close to our hotel.

 

This resort is quite nice, with a swimming pool, very comfortable rooms and nice amenities such as complimentary water and fruit.  They even supply cute slippers....

We walked around town and found a place for dinner.  We had Pad Thai and a green curry.  Both were $2.  While we were eating, it started to pour.  It was quite a thunderstorm.  Our restaurant's roof was aluminum and it made so much noise that we couldn't hear each other.  When we were finished eating, George wanted to catch a tuk-tuk back to the hotel as it was still raining a bit and the streets were gigantic mud puddles.  The tuk tuk driver couldn't find our hotel at first, so we drove around quite a bit.  What fun!     Here is a view from the interior --- bouncing along in the rainy dark...

       

July 24, 2017. Finishing up our Singapore stay

LOCATION:  Housesitting in Singapore

WEATHER:  Hot and humid.  It hasn't rained since we've been here.  Unusual.

 

Today is our last full day housesitting in Singapore.  We spent the morning tidying up and doing some laundry.

 

Then, off we went again to another ethnic section of town.   While we were at the bus stop waiting for the bus that would take us to the light rail station, two nice ladies asked us where we were going, then suggested we take a different bus that would allow us to avoid a transfer to the train. 

 

So, we caught another bus, and the kind bus driver made sure we got off at the right stop.  Today's destination was Arab Street, yet another section of town that Colonel Raffles created to separate the various groups of traders way back when.

         

The beautiful mosque anchors the area.  The streets are lined with carpet dealers, fabric shops, tailors and restaurants.        

 We found a Turkish restaurant and shared a dish that was kind of a a kebab wrapped in some bread then sliced up.  Quite tasty.

 

Our next stop was the nearby Atlas Bar.  Wow! Wow - is all I can say.  It has recently been completed with an extremely elegant Art Deco theme.  

 

The bar stocks more than 1100 types of gin, one of the largest selections in the world.  It is really a fantastic place.        

 

This photo is off the internet, but shows the "angels" that fly up to the upper parts of the bottle storage to grab bottles that are not often used.        

 Some of the gins go back to the 1920s

 

We had a very refreshing G&T and sat at the cool bar to absorb the cool luxury.  (Cool as in cool vibes and cool air conditioning!)         

 

Then, the light rail back home.  I saw this sign which exemplifies the fact that 4 official  languages are spoken here.  (Although there are about 100 more).  All young people are at least bilingual.  English is the language used in the public school system.  School children must demonstrate English proficiency before moving to the next grade.  From top to bottom on this sign....

   

     

English

Mandarin Chinese

Malay

Tamil (Indian)

 

The homeowners returned in the evening, and we enjoyed a nice dinner together.  They were happy to see Sita and we were so glad that Sita was here, safe and sound.  

 

 

July 23, 2017. Sailing on the Singapore River

LOCATION:  Housesitting in Singapore

WEATHER:  Same ole,same ole....Hot and humid

 

In the morning, we played with Sita the cat, so happy that she is back home.  She is skittish; something traumatic must have happened to her on her adventure away.    

Today's destination was the Singapore River, which runs through the city.  We took the bus and light rail to Clark Quay.  There is a row of restaurants along the river in restored warehouses.  Our homeowners had recommended Brewerkz brewpub where we had  Singapore's best beer.   We had lunch and enjoyed an IPA.  

 

 

Then we hopped on a replica of a bumboat, the boat that traders used in yesteryear, for a cruise on the river.

The views of the city were beautiful from the boat.

We had a very friendly "captain" on the boat who liked taking pictures of everyone and gave a running commentary of sites we were seeing.

We sailed by the high-rise hotel with the swimming pool on top connecting the 3 towers, where we visited a few evenings ago.  I just can't believe the architecture, and to think it is all built on reclaimed land.  The white building on the left is the Singapore Art Museum, all very modern. 

 

These buildings are theatres.  Locals call them "The Durians" as they look like the famous/infamous stinky durian fruit.  

Speaking of durians, we spotted these signs on the transportation systems outlawing carrying durian.  In the bus today...

And on the light rail...

Singapore is known for its cleanliness.  Garbage is picked up daily, even today Sunday.  The homeowners said that it is because Singaporeans eat a lot of seafood and it gets smelly sitting out in hot garbage cans.  Also, we have seen trucks with bug sprayers spraying periodically.  It is amazing that there aren't mosquitos here.  People keep their windows and doors open most of the time to catch a breeze, all without screens.

 

The government is very strong here.  It has done a tremendous amount of work to modernize the city.  It has built public housing all over the city, high-rise apartments in which about 80% of all 6 million Singaporeans live.  They look like this...

After a period of trying to keep the population under control (like China's one baby rule), they realized that they now need more population, as young couples are not having babies.  There is a baby "campaign" now with signs like this in the light rail stations...

 

They are also trying to green up the city.  There are lots of avenues full of beautiful trees.  This condo has a beautiful decor...

We stopped at the grocery store again for ingredients for our dinner tomorrow night that I'm making for the returning homeowners.  Crowded again.    

Back home, we showered (again) and relaxed.  Then we walked to a neighborhood restaurant, run by some Italians from Tuscany for a delicious pizza.