This started out as a serious post, but ....

I was going to blab on about the Green Oolong No 12 Tea we'd bought at Mae Salong - a gorgeous tea growing area in the far northern hills of Thailand .... and also show off my pretty tea mug.....

when, I turn my back for a moment and, look what happens ...

you guessed it... none other than FROGGIE !!

cut out that innocent look Froggie - the evidence is all around you.

... and even more gardens, but first...

I promise this will be my last mention of word verification - lol,  I guess there's no one worse than a reformed user!!!

I was trying to leave a comment on a blog this morning and had to have 3 tries ....  I saved the image of this one as a 'for instance'

there's an e an i or is it an n?   or an e i c  .... aw, you get the picture -  'nuff said, it's a real turn-off.

I thank Theresa  of  The Run *Around* Ranch Report who got the ball rolling about this ages ago, and then more recently, Robyn of 2012 Through a Camera Lens.

From all the comments yesterday, it's unanimous - word verification is soooo yesterday :D)

,.,.,..,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

Last lot of the Gardens pics:

The gardens provide work for many people.
They unobtrusively snip snip their way through the gardens non-stop.
We always like to appreciate the people who do the actual work.

A tree trunk put to good use.
Chiang means elephant, and as the gardens are in the Province
of Chiang Rai, elephants feature in many things.

Drinking water is always available in stone jars throughout the
gardens - it stays surprisingly cool too.

The Royal Villa in the background

Fantastic views of the Doi Ton hills abound

My photos have only touched on a tiny portion of these gardens.  

Thank you for enjoying them with me.

A Bit of Housekeeping, Fogged, In a Pickle, and more of Mae Fah Luang Gardens

"A bit of housekeeping first ..." 

Back in the days when I had to attend various meetings, that statement used to tickle me.  Anyway, I wanted to mention a couple of things:

~I've closed my other blogs temporarily.  I feel there's nothing worse than a neglected blog floating around in cyberspace - it's always kind of sad.  I may do some renovations on them and reinvigorate them, or, perhaps they've just come to their natural end, whatever, but, at the moment, I'm devoid of ideas for them!  I'll make a decision later on down the line.  In the meantime, I'm enjoying having just this one blog on which to concentrate my efforts.

~I've also taken off that double-word "prove you're not a robot" verification option from my comments section. Some (most) of those verification words are impossible to read - I thought it was just me until I read Robyn's "2012 Through a Camera Lens" comments in her blog (see my sidebar), I too unclicked that option.  I shall just use comment moderation from now on - purely to control the spam. 

-----------------------------------

Today when I threw back the curtains, there was even more fog around... just had to pick up the camera and capture our backyard with the backdrop of fog (just love the purple splash of colour our trees are making at the moment too).

Took a copy of the movies I'd edited and visited my parents yesterday.  They loved seeing them and enjoyed the armchair travel. 

Dad is turning 90 soon and loves to make jam, pickles and relishes, so we came home armed with some precious home-mades...

Yummo!!

Now I'm popping back over to Mae Fah Luang Gardens, and what better way to continue on from my previous post, than with another orchid.....

Down the entrance steps

and looking towards the back of the nursery

Some funny little fruits I'd never seen before

Further down into the gardens

Love how salad greens are always grown in gardens and
parks for anyone to take.
Food and the sharing of it is very big in Thailand

A beautiful duck pond

.... more a bit later.  Cheers xx

Mae Fah Luang Gardens

Another beautiful day - the first sight I see, when drawing the curtains back, is a blanket of fog covering the town further down in the valley.  Early morning light causes the shiny leaves on the trees to sparkle, and a gang of kookaburras are finding lots to laugh about.  I love our home.

I've been preoccupied with making movies out of the videos I'd taken while away.  That, unfortunately, required some decisions in regard to editing - I find it hard to decide what to take out.  Anyway, it's all done now, copies of copies taken and we're now set to bore the family senseless!!

Looking out into my garden, which is crying out for attention, my thoughts fly to the Doi Tung hills of far north Thailand - not too far from the Burma border.
We had the pleasure of visiting the Mae Fah Luang Gardens -  in the grounds of the late HRH Princess Mother's Villa where she resided whenever she visited Chiang Rai.

The late Princess Mother
(I'm using a photo of one of the many Royal Family photos
that are alongside Thai roads)

Entrance to the gardens

We had lunch at the cafe in the entrance area.
Wasn't sure what it was that I chose, but it tasted
delicious!
Also, in the cup was my first taste of
Thai iced coffee - really nice.

A well stocked Nursery, selling a wide variety of plants.
The average price for orchids were AU$2 to $4

Some photos of orchids for sale in the nursery.
This one had a kind of Royal look to it I thought.

The variety of orchids was endless!

..... will continue in another post shortly.

Cheerio for now :D)

Huh? Where's Brekky?

I sat at the table, beside MD and waited for our brekky.

We waited..... and waited.

Where's the freshly squeezed orange juice?  The crisp bread roll? The fruit platter?  The banana pancake?

Our Fruit Platters at Hoi An, Vietnam

Huh?

Oh, hang on - we're home again.

No guessing who's been spoilt rotten for 3 months!

( ~  Just doing a bit of 'mind travelling' over to Vietnam - I never said this was going to be a conventional showing of "Our Trip" photos!  Cheers, Susan :D)  ~) 

Up to Chiang Rai

Our flight from Bangkok to Chiang Rai in Northern Thailand was only an hour and a bit. This time on Air Asia... apart from the loud 'clunking' sound their landing gear makes, the flight was good.

Some family were waiting for us and whisked us down to their home in a delightful village situated more or less half way between Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai.  (More about village life later).

There had been some rain, but the weather wasn't so humid as in Bangkok - it was very pleasant in fact!

Our first glimpse of Chiang Rai
The mountain range is looking North West towards Burma

The next day, after a sumptuous breakfast of fresh fruit and treats from the local morning markets (a whole post in itself), we got straight into discovering Thailand. 

Back up to Chiang Rai to Wat (Temple) Rhon Kung (White Temple)

The White Temple, especially on a sunny day, is a glistening sight.
The basket to the right of the gate contains  robes for people
to wear over clothing (singlets, skimpy dresses or shorts) which are
considered disrespectful when worn in a Temple

I was particularly taken with this piece of art within the grounds of Wat Rhon Kung, depicting the hungry and needy people of the world.

In the Wat ponds are these beautiful Koi 

I appreciate some blogfriends' comments about not needing
to blank out my face, however, I don't do it out of coyness or even vanity -
it's because I choose to maintain a certain level of privacy in my blog.

... these white koi held my eye

The adornments and statues etc are all embedded with tiny mirrors - you can imagine the brilliance on a sunny day.

I just love this "No Smoking" Sign Thai style!  

A closer look

Finally, I include a picture of the Women's Toilets at Wat Rhon Kung.  I do this because in our research before we left,  I'd read some shockers of  travel reports about toilets in Asia  - well, I did my own research and will candidly (thanks Dmarie - that's just the word I needed!!) put forward my own views. 

We leave our own shoes in the racks and choose a pair of slip-ons to wear inside.  

There are Western-style toilets with toilet paper, and squat toilets without paper... but, as is the Asian way, plenty of water to both flush the toilet and for personal cleansing.  On this occasion I chose the Western toilet and it was fine.

Cheerio, until next time :D)

Back home !

Hi everyone.  It was beaut reading your comments on my last two posts.  Thank you - each and every one meant a lot to me.

We've been back home for a week now - still catching up on our sleep, plus starting to prune our overgrown garden and generally trying to "come back to earth" so to speak!

The trip was, well, just incredible. It was everything and much, much more than I would ever have expected.

Equally, it's wonderful to be back home too.

I've attached some pics of the start of our trip.
LOL ... bet you can't guess what I'm going to be posting about for the next while!!

Looking out from our brekky table on to busy

Spencer Street, Melbourne

Amongst all the colourful trams bearing advertisements, it was beaut to see 

one as it used to look 'way back when' I worked in Melbourne

as a Junior,  fresh out of Business College. 

Southern Cross Station
Where we caught the Sky Bus to the airport

The Sky Bus

We ended up having a 3 hour departure delay for our plane,
so I amused myself taking random photos around the airport.

I got a bit cheeky with this pilot, but he
just ignored me.

Being a country girl, I wasn't familiar with the new fangled
hand-drying machine in the toilet.
So a friendly lady obliged with a demo.

Still wandering and snapping pics

Loved some of the murals on the walls

That's our plane ... apparently they had to remove all the fuel
before fixing whatever the problem was and, then,
re-fuel it.

Finally, we're up up and away!

Get ready for some obligatory 'photos through the
plane window'
Totally awesome to be above the clouds like that!

A river system somewhere in Australia

Sunset above the clouds somewhere over the centre of
Australia

Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok
Most people use the travelator on the right, however,
after 9 hours in the plane it was beaut to
stretch the legs and walk.

It's a huge airport - we walked for a long time before
reaching Immigration etc... gave us a chance to wake up
properly.

Hmm looks interesting!

Once out of the air-conditioned airport, we wilted a bit at Bangkok's stifling heat (even at midnight), and the humidity was so thick you could slice it!
Because of our flight delay, and by the time we reached our hotel, we had 4 hours in which to grab some sleep before catching a flight to Chiang Rai in Northern Thailand.
No worries though, we're a flexible pair of travellers and knew we were headed for cooler weather.

Cheerio for now, I'm going to be making my way (slowly) to everyone's blogs and enjoy doing a huge catch-up... see you there! :D)